Steve Wozniak

Early Life


Steve Wozniak was born on August 11, 1950, in San Jose, California. Being true to his engineer father, he developed a fascination for electronics from an early age, and had an aptitude for building working electronics from scratch. In his childhood years he was obsessed with how things work, for his sixth grade science fair project he created a machine that played Tic-Tac-Toe. Wozniak always tried to better his own designs as well as the designs of others.

Steve Wozniak is completely self-taught in electronics. "I didn't ever take a course, didn't ever buy a book on how to do it. I just pieced it together in my own head and I loved doing it" (Wolfson). He only spent a year in college at University of California at Berkeley, before moving on to work with Steve Jobs in creating the Apple I computer. -- Amanda Case -- acc10c 09/23/2012 09:39PM



Career
Steve Wozniak helped design the Apple I, Apple II, Apple IIe, Apple IIc, Lisa, and Macintosh computers. After leaving the University of California at Berkeley, Wozniak took a job at Hewlett-Packard (HP) with engineering calculators. He spent most of his free time designing graphics for computers and computer games. He then teamed up with Steve Jobs, who worked for Atari at the time, to design a game called “Breakout”. This began the partnership with Jobs. On April 1, 1976, they started The Apple Computer Company.

Wozniak continued working at HP, but he began working on designing a circuit board in his free time, which gave the ability to connect a keyboard and monitor. This led to the design of Apple I. After Apple I was released, Wozniak worked on trying to make it a product for the average user. He added sound, more gaming capability, and high-resolution images. This led to the Apple II. Wozniak decided to resign from HP in 1976. He then spent time connecting the computer to a printer and developed the floppy disk. By 1979, Apple employed about a thousand people. A year later, Apple stock went public, selling out within a few minutes. Wozniak's worth became around fifty million dollars.

After a tragic plane crash in 1981, Wozniak took a leave of absence and returned to college. After receiving a Computer Science degree from the University of California at Berkeley, Wozniak returned briefly to Apple. This is when he designed the Macintosh computer that featured a mouse, folders, pictures, and pull-down menus. After a series of disagreements with Jobs, Wozniak left Apple in 1985.

Steve Wozniak helped start a new company, CL9, which developed the first programmable universal remote control. He then sold CL9 in 1989. He also helped establish the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is an organization that helps computer hackers facing criminal prosecution with providing legal aid. In 2001, Wozniak founded Wheels of Zeus (WoZ) that tried developing a wireless GPS system. Finally, in 2009, Wozniak became a chief scientist at Fusion-io.

Ame09c (Talk) 22:17, September 23, 2012

Personal Life
Wozniack married Candice Clark in 1981. On February 7, 1981, Steve Wozniak was involved in a plane crash soon after takeoff from the Sky Park Airport in Scotts Valley, California in which he was piloting. The plane stalled while climbing, then bounced down the runway, went through two fences, and crashed into an embankment. Wozniak sustanined severe face and head injuries, including losing a tooth, and also suffered for five weeks after the crash from anterograde amnesia, the inability to create new memories. He had no memory of the crash, and did not remember his time in hospital or the things he did after he was released from the hospital.

Wozniack remarried Janet Hill in 2008. He has 3 children.

Contributions
When you think of computers, you most likely think of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, but they would not be who they are without the help of Steve Wozniak. His many contributions to the world of technology helped bring computers to the household and schools all over the world. He is best known for being the co-founder of Apple computer. Wozniak first thought of how computers could be improved which led him to developing the computer language of BASIC. This language helped programmers start to write programs for computers in a more “basic” way. After developing BASIC, Wozniak then developed a way to introduce a keyboard and a monitor to the computer game. Steve Jobs and him then developed the Apple I which was the first computer of its kind to be interactive with people that are not technologically advance. The Apple I was just the beginning though, for after their short-lived accomplishment, they began work on the Apple II which would be the first computer that resembles the computers that we have in our homes now. The Apple II would have a keyboard, power supply, BASIC, and color graphics that would display on a monitor. Apple and Jobs would not have been where they are today without the initial innovations of Wozniak. (This part was done by Chris Giddings, by 10:48 on 9/23, i could not figure out how to add a time stamp though.)

Publications, patents, and other intellectual property
Most well known for his collaboration with Steve Jobs on the creation of Apple Computer, Wozniak has contributed to many other companies and ventures. Before completely recovering from a plane crash, Wozniak did not immediately return to work at Apple. He sponsored two US Festivals to celebrate evolving technologies. Wozniak also founded a venture named CL 9, which worked to bring about the first programmable universal remote control to the market in 1987. Later in 2001, he founded Wheels of Zeus which worked on wireless GPS technology. Wozniak later went on to publish his autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

Wozniak is listed as the sole inventor on the following patents: Brix Gomez (talk) 03:39, September 24, 2012 (UTC)
 * US Patent No. 4,136,359 - "Microcomputer for use with video display" - for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
 * US Patent No. 4,210,959 - "Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like"
 * US Patent No. 4,217,604 - "Apparatus for digitally controlling PAL color display"
 * US Patent No. 4,278,972 - "Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display"

Awards and recognitions
Steve Wozniak was awarded theNational Medal of Technology by the President of the United States in 1985, the highest honor bestowed on America’s leading innovators. In 2000, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment. He was recognized for “single-handedly designing the first personal computer and for then redirecting his lifelong passion for mathematics and electronics toward lighting the fires of excitement for education in grade school students and their teachers." The medal is honor to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contribution to the development of new and important technology.

In 1979, Wozniak was awarded theACM Grace Murray Hopper Award. The Grace Murray Hopper Award is an award that goes to a computer professional of age 35 or less who makes a single, significant technical or service contribution.

In September 2000, Wozniak was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

In 2011, The American Humanist Association awarded Wozniak the Issac Asimov Science Award.

Wozniak was awarded the Global Award of the President of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity Through IT in 2011.

Critical analysis and intrepretation
Steve Wozniak has always been outspoken in wide variety of current topics in technology. He often provides insights on current technology trends, ranging from mobile devices to cloud computing. As the main player in creating the impact on the "microcomputer revolution.", his opinions are highly regarded among the tech news community.

In recent Q&A session, dating back in August 2012, he expressed his concern for the current growth and quick adaption of cloud computing. He stated, "I really worry about everything going to the cloud," he said, per AFP. "I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years."

-- Jae Han Kim -- jk10x 09/24/2012 13:56PM

Application to IT or ITC professionals
Steve Wozniak is one of the founding fathers of the technology industry, it is important to IT professionals to learn about because as one of the founders of Apple and the Apple I computer, he had a huge impact on the “microcomputer revolution.” Not only did he create the first programmable universal remote and wireless GPS, but it was his design on the Apple I’s circuit board, hardware and operating system that has set him apart. IT and ICT professionals should be familiar with his work as Apple products are becoming the most popular in the world and even though the computer has become more advanced since the Apple I, it is still his same basic design and to be able to use and learn a product, it wouldn't hurt to know where it came from. Steve Wozniak changed humanity and society through IT for the better, and people in the IT profession should know who created the products they are working on. He is “the man behind the machine.”

-- Jae Han Kim -- jk10x 09/24/2012 13:32PM (Section Reviewed)