Author - Wozniak, Steve

Birth: August 11, 1950.

Death: Still alive and having fun.

Comments: Steve Wozniak is probably the famous person that I would most want as a friend. Although he is listed here due to his status as an author having written his autobiography iWoz,Wozniak is most famous as one of the cofounders of Apple Computers and the chief architect of the modern personal computer. Prior to Wozniak getting a keyboard and monitor to interface with a CPU arrangement simple enough to fit in a personal computer at a reasonable cost was problematic. His designs for the Apple I and Apple II computers enabled Apple to become a viable business, and even though he ceased active involvement with Apple in 1987, he has always maintained his status as an employee and shareholder.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
building the future

But creating the personal computer, helping to found one of the dominant technology companies of our time,  becoming a billionaire, and garnering a pile of awards and honorary degrees are not the accomplishments that make Wozniak my favorite famous person. No, what makes him my favorite famous person is his humor and humanity. He loves jokes, and for years maintained a joke of the day phone line that people could call into to hear that day's really bad joke. When he left Apple, he taught fifth grade and provided technical assistance to his local school district. He started his tinkering by creating the "Blue Box", a device that allowed him to make cheap long-distance phone calls, building it mostly just because he saw doing so to be a challenge. While a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder he used up enormous amounts of computer time creating Fibonacci number sequences, simply because he finds number arrangements to be fascinating. He appeared as himself on The Big Bang Theory, and when he dated Kathy Griffin, he appeared on My Life on the D-List. Despite having no dancing ability whatsoever, and nothing at all to gain from doing so, Wozniak appeared on Dancing with the Stars and by all appearances had a great time. The guy who loves jokes and numbers, wants to teach kids, and is willing to be goofy in the name of fun, that's the guy I want as a friend.

Wozniak maintains a website called woz.org. He also has a Facebook page and you can follow him on twitter.



My reviews of Steve Wozniak's books:

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It (with Gina Smith)

Other books by Steve Wozniak that I have read but not reviewed:
None

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