iWoz

Just finished Steve Wozniak's memoir: iWoz. Wozniak was the co-founder with Steve Jobs of Apple in the late 1970s. In this book he seeks to set the record straight that he alone did the technical work for the Apple I&II, the first practical personal PCs. Jobs did most of the deal making, but never contributed to the wizardry that made the computer work and made them millionaires. The Apple II was not the first personal computer, but it was practical and dependable and the first to be usable at home and at work. In 1978 we brought in several (purchased as calculators) to do engineering analysis at Hillcrest technical center. Shortly afterward, with new spreadsheet software, finance started to use them.

I have followed Wozniak's post-Apple career (though he remains an Apple employee to this day) for some time, see previous posts on his work. He discusses probably his best known technical effort after Apple, a novel programmable remote that did not succeed. No mention of his low-power tracking system, last seen in 04. Besides some other mild digs at Jobs he is at his best writing about the power of engineering and how creativity comes from individuals not committees. The example of the latter being the Apple III. I did some contract development for that beast. Some of his work makes me think about the current push for creative design. What are engineers but scientifically grounded designers? Simplistic, very personal, sometimes too self indulgent style, readable, only descending into skimmable chip-speak a few times. Recommended if you have interest in the history of accessible computing and the power of engineering.