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Revision as of 20:01, 7 April 2011 by 74.231.185.3 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Stephen Gary Wozniak | |
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| Born | (1950-08-11) August 11, 1950 (age 74) San Jose, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation(s) | Computer scientist Electrical engineer |
| Spouse(s) |
Alice Robertson
(m. 1976–1980) Candice Clark (m. 1981–1987) Suzanne Mulkern (m. 1990–2004) Janet Hill (m. 2008) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | http://www.woz.org |
Stephen Gary "Woz" Wozniak (born August 11, 1950) is an American computer engineer who co-founded Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. His inventions and machines are credited with contributing significantly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s.
Wozniak has several nicknames, including "The Woz", "Wonderful Wizard of Woz" and "iWoz" (a reference to the ubiquitous naming scheme for Apple products). "WoZ" (short for "Wheels of Zeus") is also the name of a company Wozniak founded. He is sometimes known as the "Other Steve" of Apple Computer, the better known Steve being co-founder Steve Jobs. He has Polish ancestry.
Post-Apple career
Wozniak founded a new venture called CL 9, which developed and brought the first universal remote control to market in 1987. Wozniak also taught fifth-grade students.
In 2001, Wozniak co-founded Wheels of Zeus (WoZ), to create wireless GPS technology to "help everyday people find everyday things." In 2002, he joined the Board of Directors of Ripcord Networks, Inc., joining Ellen Hancock, Gil Amelio, Mike Connor, and Wheels of Zeus co-founder Alex Fielding, all Apple alumni, in a new telecommunications venture. Later the same year he joined the Board of Directors of Danger, Inc., the maker of the Hip Top (a.k.a. Side Kick from T-Mobile).
In 2006, Wheels of Zeus was closed, and Wozniak founded Acquicor Technology, a holding company for acquiring technology companies and developing them, with Apple alumni Ellen Hancock and Gil Amelio.
In September 2006, Wozniak published his autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It. It was co-authored by writer Gina Smith.
In March 2006, Wozniak attended the FIRST National Competition in Atlanta to show off Lego robots. In 2010, he attended another FIRST event, a regional event in downtown Phoenix Arizona at the Arizona State Fairgrounds.
In February 2009 Steve Wozniak joined Fusion-io, a data storage and server company, in Salt Lake City, Utah as their chief scientist.
On November 18, 2010 Steve Wozniak gave a speech at the Science & Technology Summit at the World Forum Convention Center in The Hague in which he predicted that Android would be dominant over the iPhone market-wise but the iPhone would retain the quality edge.
Philanthropy
Since leaving Apple, Wozniak has provided all the money, as well as a good amount of on-site technical support, for the technology program in his local school district. Un.U.Son. (Unite Us In Song), an organization Wozniak formed to organize the two US Festivals, is now primarily tasked with supporting his educational and philanthropic projects. In 1986, Wozniak lent his name to the Stephen G. Wozniak Achievement Awards (referred to as Wozzie Awards), which he presented to six Bay Area high school and college students for their innovative use of computers in the fields of business, art and music.
Honors and awards
Wozniak received the National Medal of Technology in 1985 (with Steve Jobs) from Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States at that time. In December 1989, he received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied in the late sixties. Later he donated funds to create the "Woz Lab" at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1997, he was named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum. Wozniak was a key contributor and benefactor to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose (the street in front of the museum has been renamed Woz Way in his honor).
In September 2000, Wozniak was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and in 2001 he was awarded the 7th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment.
In December 2005, Wozniak was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Kettering University, in Flint, Michigan. He also received an honorary degree from North Carolina State University, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology.
Patents
Wozniak is listed as the sole inventor on the following patents:
- 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"
Youtube Appearance
Steve Wozniak serves as the intro for Youtuber "the App Geek".
Television appearances
After seeing her stand-up performance in Saratoga, California, Wozniak began dating comedian Kathy Griffin. Together, they attended the 2007 Emmy Awards, and he subsequently made many appearances on the fourth season of her show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Woz is on the show as her date for the Producers Guild of America award show. However, on a June 19, 2008 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Griffin confirmed that they were no longer dating and decided to remain friends.
Wozniak portrays a parody of himself in the first episode of the television series Code Monkeys; he plays the owner of Gameavision before selling it to help fund Apple. He later appears again in the twelfth episode when he is in Las Vegas at the annual Video Game Convention and sees Dave and Jerry. He also appears in a parody of the "Get a Mac" ads featured in the final episode of Code Monkeys' second season. Wozniak is also interviewed and featured in the documentary Hackers Wanted and on BBC.
Wozniak competed on Season 8 of Dancing with the Stars in 2009 where he danced with Karina Smirnoff. Despite Wozniak and Smirnoff receiving 10 combined points from the three judges out of 30, the lowest score of the evening, he remained in the competition. He later posted on a social networking site that he felt that the vote count was not legitimate and suggested that the Dancing with the Stars judges had lied about the vote count to keep him on the show. After being briefed on the method of judging and vote counting, he retracted and apologized for his statements. Despite suffering a pulled hamstring and a fracture in his foot, Wozniak continued to compete, but was eliminated from the competition on March 31, with a score of 12 out of 30 for an Argentine Tango.
On September 30, 2010 he appeared as himself on The Big Bang Theory dining in The Cheesecake Factory where Penny works and is approached by a robot Sheldon. Leonard tries to explain to Penny who Steve is, but she says she knows him from Dancing with the Stars.
Personal life
Wozniak lives in Los Gatos, California. He is a member of a Segway Polo team, the Silicon Valley Aftershocks. In 2006, they were challenged to a game by the newly formed New Zealand Pole Blacks (the Woz Challenge Cup); the match ended in a 2-2 tie, with the Woz Challenge Cup staying in Auckland. In 2007, the Silicon Valley Aftershocks avenged the tie by defeating the Pole Blacks 5-0 in the Woz Challenge Cup finals. The 2008 Woz Challenge Cup was held at the SegwayFesT 2008 in Indianapolis, Indiana from 8–10 August 2008 (polo events ran 7–9 August 2008).
His favorite video game is Tetris. In the 1990s he submitted so many high scores for the game to Nintendo Power that they would no longer print his scores, so he started sending them in under the alphabetically reversed "Evets Kainzow".
He is also a sworn member of the Freemasons. Wozniak describes his impetus for joining the Freemasons as being able to spend more time with his wife at the time, Alice. Alice belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, associated with the Masons. He says that although he took the necessary oaths and is a lifetime Freemason, he doesn't actually put a whole lot of stock in the mystical and religious overtones of the oath or the order. He says that he joined the Freemasons for one specific purpose, but he is very unlike the other members of the order. He says he quickly rose to a third degree Freemason because, whatever he does, he tries to do well. He was initiated in 1980 at Charity Lodge No. 362 in Campbell, California.
He is married to Janet Hill. According to his ex-girlfriend Kathy Griffin, “He met someone very quickly and then they engaged. I have had dinner with them, and she’s a thousand times more appropriate!”
In popular culture
 | This article may contain irrelevant references to popular culture. Please help Misplaced Pages to improve this article by removing the content or adding citations to reliable and independent sources. (March 2010) |
- In 1979, Wozniak starred in a Nissan commercial for the then-new 280ZX sports car, quoting Nissan's motto of the time, "It is awesome." The other "impressive sports car" the narrator claimed he owned at the time was never revealed.
- Steve Wozniak stars in several episodes of Code Monkeys as "The Woz".
- A likeness of Steve Wozniak working on a computer in a garage in the late 1970s can be seen in the EPCOT ride Spaceship Earth.
- Episode nine, Season six of Futurama titled "A Clockwork Origin" pays homage to Wozniak with the orbiting "Wozniak Nerd Academy".
- Two of the main characters in the Japanese anime Eureka Seven are named Jobs and Woz, paying homage to Wozniak and fellow Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs.
- Mentioned in Hot Shot by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
- Made an appearance as himself in The Big Bang Theory episode, "The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification".
- In Kathy Griffin's memoir, "Official Book Club Selection', she writes of their relationship in 2007 and publishes many of their e-mail correspondences from that period.
See also
- Blue box
- iWoz - an autobiography
- Pirates of Silicon Valley - A movie based on the rise of Apple and Microsoft; Wozniak is portrayed by actor Joey Slotnick.
- Triumph of the Nerds - A documentary about the rise of the PC industry by Robert X. Cringely.
- Nixie tube
References
- "Nolan Bushnell Appointed to Atari Board - AtariAge Forums - Page 30". Atariage.com. 2010-04-29. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- "Welcome to". Woz.org. 2000-02-09. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
iWozwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - Weisman, Robert (2006-03-25). A star who aims to spark innovation by students., The Boston Globe.
- Wozniak Accepts Post at a Storage Start-Up New York Times February 4, 2009
- iPhone vs. Android: Steve Wozniak Says Android Will Be Dominant One Day, Nexus404.com, November 18th 2010
- Seibold, Chris. "This Day in Apple History December 28, 1989: Woz Gets Honorary Doctorate, Dish Incident Forgotten". Retrieved 2007-07-31.
- "maps.google.com". maps.google.com. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- Inventor Profile - National Inventors Hall of Fame
- "The Heinz Awards, Steve Wozniak profile". Heinzawards.net. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- Honorary Doctorate - Kettering University List of Honorary Degrees
- US Patent No. 4,136,359, US Patent & Trademark Office, Patent Full Text and Image Database
- Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like US Patent 4210959
- Apparatus for digitally controlling PAL color display US Patent 4217604
- Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display US Patent 4278972
- Collins, Michelle. "VH1 Best Week Ever - Off The Market: Kathy Griffin Finds a New Man!". Archived from the original on 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
- "Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Escorted Comedian Kathy Griffin & Her Potty Mouth To The Emmy's". Retrieved 2007-09-18.(Wayback Archive)
- Who’s so vain? June 19, 2008 - The Howard Stern Show
- "Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to compete on 'Dancing With the Stars'" from Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2009-02-8.
- "Why Apple founders got 'fired up.'". BBC News. 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2009-02-05.
- Matyszczyk, Chris (2009-03-17). "Woz in ABC 'outright lie' accusation". CNET.
- Fashingbauer Cooper, Gael (2009-03-19). "Wozniak sorry he called 'Dancing' show 'fake'". MSNBC.
- Injured Woz Will Perform People.com, March 23, 2009
- Woz Gets Hipchecked Off the Dance Floor, by Kara Swisher, April 1, 2009, All Things Digital
- "International Segway Polo Association". Retrieved 2008-03-03.
- "Woz and I agree: 'Tetris' for the Gameboy is the best game ever, by Daniel Terdiman, December 11, 2007, Geek Gestalt on CNET News
- "Tetris: The pieces fall into place, By Brad Cook, Apple Inc.
- from "A Few Famous Masons"
- "Meet Janet Hill, the woman secretly married to Steve Wozniak" from ValleyWag.com
- "Steve Wozniak Engaged", By Jamie on Aug 7, 2008, Spreadit.org
External links
- woz.org Wozniak's official site
- Steve Wozniak at IMDb
- "Apple Computer The Early Days A Personal Perspective" by Paul Laughton
- Pictures of Steve Wozniak at the Axiotron booth during Macworld 2009
Interviews
- Interview in Knowledge@Wharton published February 20, 2008
- Steve Wozniak's Youbentmywookie Geek of the Month Interview - 2008
- Collection of more than 20 Interviews with Steve Wozniak
- The San Jose Tech Museum interview with Wozniak
- Colbert Interviews The Woz TV interview on Sept 28th, 2006
- Wozniak giving history of himself at GnomeDex 2004
- "Interview with Steve Wozniak" (from Failure Magazine, July 2000)
- 2005 Interview with Wozniak at the Stanford Cardinal Inquirer
- TWIT with Woz, a podcast Wozniak participated in
- TWIT with Woz - Wozniak and Kevin Mitnick on This Week In Tech podcast
- TWIT with Woz - Wozniak on This Week in Tech, episode 44
- TWIT with Woz - Wozniak on This Week in Tech, episode 48
- Founders At work - Chapter 3 is a lengthy and somewhat technical interview of his early days at Apple conducted by Jessica Livingston
- Interviewed by R.U. Sirius on 10 Zen Monkeys
- Wozniak's New Goal is Efficient Housing (ECNmag.com, Aug. 2007)
- Wozniak on the iPhone, Apple's OS Leopard, and the future of personal computing (by Joanna Stern of LAPTOPmag.com, Oct. 2007)
- Steve Wozniak on Inventing as Art, Philanthropy and the Spirit of Creativity Part 1 of 2
- Social Networking Watch Interview with Steve Wozniak, August 8
- Interview on The BusinessMakers Show.
Videos
- Interview with Steve Wozniak at Digital Village Audio Archives
- One night with The Woz, video - A video from the Computer history museum, with a long speech from Woz
- Series of Comments at the thirtieth anniversary celebration for home computer pioneers (Video, below the ENIAC videos)
- In Search of the Valley A 2006 documentary on Silicon Valley featuring Steve Wozniak
- iWoz: From Computer Geek to Culture Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It
- M.I.T. World Steve Wozniak on speaking to
- M.I.T. students (includes Q&A session)
- Steve Wozniak interview on iWoz Book An hour long video interview by Guy Kawasaki, November, 2006
- Steve Wozniak interviewed by Charlie Rose January 29, 2007
- Steve Wozniak interview on Forbes.com November 30, 2006
- Steve Wozniak Speaks at UC Berkeley April 22, 2008
Biographical
- Bio. Stephen Wozniak
- Stephen Wozniak Bio.
- Dot Eaters page featuring an article on Wozniak and Atari's Breakout
- Steve Wozniak describes how he created the Apple I and II
- The World According to Woz - Profile of Wozniak in Wired magazine
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- Articles with trivia sections from March 2010
- 1950 births
- Amateur radio people
- American computer businesspeople
- American computer programmers
- American computer scientists
- American engineers
- American inventors
- American people of Polish descent
- Apple II family
- Apple Inc. employees
- Computer designers
- Computer pioneers
- Grace Murray Hopper Award laureates
- Living people
- National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees
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- Participants in American reality television series
- People from San Jose, California
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- University of Colorado alumni