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| |  | Kingston | Home » » » » iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon | | | | | | | Description: | | “‘The Woz’ built the first [personal computer]—by hand, by himself.”—USA Today Before slim laptops that fit into briefcases, computers looked like strange vending machines, with cryptic switches and pages of encoded output. But in 1977 Steve Wozniak revolutionized the computer industry with his invention of the first personal computer. As the sole inventor of the Apple I and II computers, Wozniak has enjoyed wealth, fame, and the most coveted awards an engineer can receive, and he tells his story here for the first time. | | | Product Details: | | | Average Customer Rating:
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Average Customer Review:
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226 of 243 found the following review helpful:
 Limited audience; Interesting StorySep 15, 2006
By David H. Peterzell
"Ph.D., Ph.D."
Yesterday, I took a long look at the new book by Steve Wozniak, iWoz. Personally, I'm intrigued by the science-based creativity that led to early Apple products, and also the psychologically-savvy thinking that went into making computers user-friendly.
The book will be interesting to a specialized audience. You need to be interested in the early history of personal computers (e.g., the legendary Homebrew Computer Club). You need to get a kick out of the amusing but sometimes unflattering lore that defined Apple's history and culture. You need to want to know about Wozniak's remarkably innovative engineering as well as Apple's entrepreneurship. You have to dig the views and personality of a successful but unusual and reclusive countercultural person. It probably helps if you resonate with Wozniak's personal style, and dream about making innovative contributions somewhere, somehow.
Some observations:
1) When he claims to have "invented" the personal computer, he's not being too grandiose. He created some really beautiful early computers. The lore is that these contraptions were the first to have typewriter based keyboards; the first to be useable right out of the box; the first low-cost computers to have color, sound, hi-res graphics, and floppy disks. He developed software that changed industry standards. And to believe Wozniak is to believe that he was the origin of these ideas, surrounded by other creative geniuses like Jobs, Osborn, Marsh and others. Perhaps others shared in these innovations. But there's no doubt that Wozniak was one of the great "out of the box" thinkers of the Silicon Valley "revolution." In the book, Wozniak describes developing all of these things.
2) If you haven't looked at an Apple II in awhile, it might be worth doing so while you read the book. The electronic circuits and boards of these early Apple machines were works of art and genius. The components were arranged in ways that defied conventional wisdom. I found the motherboards in the Apple IIs to be simple, elegant and striking. Today, the technology is obsolete but the beauty endures. Wozniak's story is more interesting when you realize that he's primarily responsible for this great stuff.
3) The book helps elucidate Wozniak's personality and thinking style. He's the math-science-electrical guy who works privately in the back while he implements his (and others') visions of what a product can be. (If you've examined the electronics and layout of those old machines, then you have no problem believing that Wozniak was the science-math-electrical guy who was part scientist, part artist). In the book, Wozniak shares influences, anecdotes and pranks. This is not the guy who habitually seeks power, or the limelight. He's the guy who normally would toil in obscurity, surrounded by friends and thinkers who let him do his thing and appreciate his skillful vision (and nutty sense of humor). He was able to work among the corporate power brokers for a number of years, on his terms, but he's not the sort of person who will immerse himself in corporate culture for long. It may be that his `81 plane crash and brain injury signaled the end of his cutting-edge work at Apple. But it is hard to imagine someone like Wozniak shifting gears and living forever amongst the suits... even at Apple. I can believe that Steve Wozniak is a brilliant guy with a big heart and a wicked sense of humor. I can imagine how his sense of generosity, justice and creative thinking might make it hard to endure the growing pains of a company like Apple.
4) Wozniak offers his advice on what it takes to be a great engineer: Don't waver; see things in grayscale; work alone; follow your instincts. His thoughts on these matters are worth a look. Keep in mind that he's telling you about his way, which jibes with his personal style. There's no one right way.
5) Guy Kawasaki (former Apple employee) has written a review of this book. It can be found online. His take is different than mine, though he, too, offers a positive review.
6) There are plenty of other books, and even a movie, on Wozniak, Jobs and the PC revolution. There are other books that focus on Wozniak (e.g., Kendall, Lemke, Capps). Wozniak has a website that contains lots of autobiographical info. Then there's "Pirates of Silicon Valley", the movie. Personally, I'm not particularly interested in getting caught up in all the Apple/PC drama that has made its way to the media. But maybe you are...
75 of 82 found the following review helpful:
You say you want a Revolution??Sep 19, 2006
By Shawn S. Sullivan
Steve Wozniak (with the obvious and very able assistance of Gina Smith) has written a gem of a book in iWoz. This book is literally for everyone, techies and non techies alike, as the Revolution created by Mr. Wozniak and Steve Jobs truly changed our world. I have often thought of the two as highly different individuals brought together in a common cause with radically different skill sets. Cast The Woz as John Lennon and Steve Jobs as Paul McCartney. Lennon wanted to CREATE something special, something beautiful and something new. Wozniak clearly did this at Apple. McCartney wanted to become huge, well known and wealthy. Jobs did this for all at Apple, very much including the author as Wozniak had other motivations that occupied his very busy mind. Mr. Wozniak does write, very interestingly, about the engineer as an artist. He really thinks of it that way. Any who have heard him speak or met him, as I have been fortunate enough to do on a few occasions, know that what he wrote was, and is, the real Steve Wozniak. Ms. Smith did a marvelous job at making the book almost entirely understandable to those of us whose minds are not wired as an engineer. Yet it is the voice of Mr. Wozniak that comes through. Truly a remarkable accomplishment as Wozniak can ramble yet, in this wonderful autobiography, his thoughts are cogent and clear. Even concise.
This book is a great read for all. It shows what passion can create. Buy it, read it and give it to all your family and friends to read.
60 of 71 found the following review helpful:
 interesting but repetitive and braggingJan 28, 2007
By Nadyne Richmond
I really wanted to like this book. Woz is a geek icon, after all, and the early stories of his life and inventions are the stuff of legend. They had to be better coming straight from the horse's mouth, right?
The stories themselves are interesting: redesigning commercial devices on paper to reduce the number of chips, why colour was so important to him, knocking together Breakout in a few sleepless days, making the Apple I. And there's all of Woz's pranks over the years.
But the problem is, Woz just doesn't have the gift of storytelling. All through the book, I felt like I was simply reading a transcription of stories that he's been telling in person every time he speaks for the past 20 years. (Reading the afterword, I'm pretty sure that I'm right on this regard.) Okay, so they were scrubbed for um and ah, but that's about it. It gives the book a conversational tone that makes me feel like he's skipping over all the really interesting stuff.
With the loving touch of a good editor, this could have been a much better book. It was immensely repetitive, with Woz re-telling stories multiple times. There wasn't nearly enough about the early days of Apple, nor about Woz's departure from the company. The tone of the book was entirely too self-congratulatory, with hardly a page going by where Woz didn't say how clever he is. It trails off post-Apple.
If you're interested in the history of computing, and specifically Woz's contribution to it, there are many other places to start that will give you a much better picture. Read this book only after you've read those.
18 of 20 found the following review helpful:
A Book for Everyone!Sep 30, 2006
By Christine M. Cardace
This is a wonderful story, extremely well told. The history of how Apple became Apple is a fairly familiar one by now but this book chronicles Steve Wozniak's personal journey from childhood up to the creation of the first PC, the founding of Apple, and beyond. In the first few chapters, you get a glimpse into Steve Wozniak's childhood fascination with technology and the people who taught him early on. Unlike many other biographies that list the dad as a primary influence, this book chronicles many humorous (and charming) stories of how Steve's father encouraged him in technology and more broadly, to think creatively and develop his own opinions. Later, you get a clear sense of how his thinking evolved as he continually pushed the edges of the technological envelope to see what was possible, all juxtaposed against the technology that was available at the time, until he and Mr. Jobs quit their day jobs to found Apple.
I worried that this book would be too tech-y for me but it absolutely wasn't. I definitely learned some things about technology along the way - there are clever sidebars throughout the book which explain the technology that is being discussed. More than a technology book, this is a personal story - it is a warm and engaging narrative about one of the great geniuses of our time who invented something that we have trouble imagining life without! What's really great about the way the book is written is that you get a clear sense of what Steve was thinking throughout his childhood - what struck him as interesting and fun and strange and beautiful - and that's what makes this book such a pleasure to read.
I would recommend this book to everyone: people interested in Apple or technology more broadly will find it interesting to fill in the holes of what they've heard about Apple so far, people who want to know where this iPod phenomenon came from will learn something, and parents who want to inspire creativity and innovation in their children will definitely benefit too!
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Early Apple: The real storyFeb 05, 2007
By Jon Sweet
It is so nice to see the real story. It sounded just like Steve, the engineer, telling it.
I respect Steve Jobs and his achievements enormously. He has the pulse of the market, and insists on style. But his forté is getting people to do the things he wants, not doing the engineering himself. I was well aware that Steve (Woz) had designed the Apple I & II, and was irked when so many people said that Steve Jobs had designed them. Of course, as an engineer, I tend to think of designing the guts of the thing, but packaging, presentation and marketting do have an important role to play.
Steve and I worked on calculators at the same time, for HP, and shared circuits. It was interesting to hear some of the names of people I have not thought about in years.
I liked a paragraph near the end of the book where Steve expresses that the best engineers are artists. If you look at architecture, the engineering is very obviously art (except for some horribly utilitarian buildings, like the Russian apartment blocks). But it is true in electronics too, although not so readily apparent to the non-techie.
I totally agree that it is much better to do everything oneself. At Apple I would work at home in the mornings, because there were too many interruptions at Apple. Then I would work at Apple in the evening when most of the interrupters had gone home. Apple unfortunately became "big company", and huge amounts of time were wasted on project team meetings and staff meetings. Often more time was lost by many people being in a conference room for half a day than was gained but the supposedly improved communication. A loner only has to communicate with himself, and is responsible for everything.
I would have liked a little less repetition in the book, and a little more detail, but it came out as exactly what it was: a conversational series of reminiscences from the man who designed the electronics of the first mass market computer to use a domestic TV display.
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