IWoz
Books | Biography & Autobiography / General
4.1
Steve Wozniak
Gina Smith
"In 1975, young engineer Steve Wozniak had an idea: What if you combined computer circuitry with a regular typewriter keyboard and a video screen? The result was the first true personal computer, a widely affordable machine that anyone could figure out how to use." "Wozniak teamed up with another young friend, Steve Jobs, and Apple Computer was born. The Apple I and Apple II computers were the first to use a modern paradigm - a keyboard to enter text and data and a video screen to view it. Apple and Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple I and II, ignited the computer revolution and have been transforming our world ever since." "Now, thirty years later, in iWoz, the mischievous genius with a low profile tells his story for the first time. Wozniak looks back at more, though, than his brilliant inventions. With his own typical, inimitable humor and style, he relates his countless pranks, his early days with the Electronics Kids and the Homebrew Computer Club, his stint as a concert promoter with the US Festivals, his near-death experience in a flight crash, his philanthropic activities, the decade he spent teaching fifth graders, and what it is like to be the Woz, a humanist inventor who considers engineering an art but never puts it before people and their needs."--BOOK JACKET.
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More Details:
Author
Steve Wozniak
Pages
313
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Published Date
2006
ISBN
0393061434 9780393061437
Ratings
Google: 3
Community ReviewsSee all
"It is one of the oddest feelings to read a book-- by a complete genius, nerd, geek, mastermind, who is experienced and aged in life, and who changed the face of technology forever and always-- written in seemingly a 6th Grade reading level. I had a lot of trouble reading this for the content, and history, and occasionally even science, when in every other sentence Woz used a filler word, or finished a sentence with "You know?" or started a sentence with "Anyways", "So", "I always believed", "I remember thinking/feeling/seeing". It was incredibly annoying. The vocabulary in the entire book seemed to be limited to the top 2000 English words. Woz didn't write much about other people, what was happening in the world, or really anything other than what he "felt" or "believed". He is all about his convictions and moral high-ground. That said, if he is who he portrays himself to be, he is a genuinely good person. A loving person. A teddy bear really. <br/>For this reason, the portrayal felt insincere. Fake. I can't see this guy at a cocktail party. I can hardly see him in his room being a mastermind. All I can see is him on the Kids Table- talking about the months and months of his life that he spent thousands of dollars on ridiculous pranks. Talking about living life for the moment, and never lying, and being a good, a happy person. Talking about rigging phones, his obsession with numbers, not doing drugs, and he'll talk your ear off about his dad who he introduces in the first page, saying he didn't even know what his dad did, and then continued to talk about all his dad did for the rest of the book. <br/><br/>Alas it seems that Wozniak was the worst person to write about Wozniak. He said he wanted to set the record straight about some things that weren't well documented in the media, but he could have done that in an op-ed or interview. The memoir filled in few gaps. Woz shouldn't have had to write about himself. He deserves a well-sourced biography by a credible author. <br/><br/>Thanks for all you did Steve. Sorry your book sucks."
J A
Josh A