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

I read this book from a somewhat different perspective (although it is shared by millions). I wound up in Sunnyvale in 1978, in the heart of the Silicon Valley at the beginning of the Personal Computer Revolution. I hung out at Computerland of Los Altos and played with the early Cromemcos etc. It was an extremely exciting time and, in retrospect, I was extremely lucky to have lived through it all.In those days, Jobs and Wozniak were household names. Everyone was amazed at what they had done. I took an early Apple II running UCSD Pascal into work at Control Data (fast dinosaurs), and the editor impressed people so much that CDC introduced its own "full-screen editor" very quickly. When I was assigned to explain the internal workings of our Sort / Merge product, it was extremely easy to look up the relevant algorithms in Knuth and translate them to Pascal --- and print out traces which enabled everyone to grasp the inner details of a tournament sort. It is no exaggeration to say that an Apple II was, in many respects, quicker and easier to use than a CDC computer which cost millions of dollars.Clearly, the world of computing was in for a total tranformation.Steve Wozniak's book explains just how he did it. I was surprised to learn that his IQ measured over 200, and then I sort of kicked myself: "Well, what did you expect?" This is the man who designed the Apple I singlehandedly, and then surpassed himself by designing the completely different Apple II a few months later. He had the vision of a computer with a keyboard and a screen --- very new concepts when the hobbyist world was still dealing with punched cards and "blinken lights." Wozniak, acting alone, defined the new world of the personal computer simply by inventing it. He was a true American genius who is simply stating the truth about his amazing accomplishments --- including writing the original Integer Basic interpreter for the Apple machines.A lot of people may wonder what Woz has to say about Steve Jobs, and I will report that Woz admired Jobs terrifically, especially when Jobs played the comeback kid and returned to an Apple that seemed to be losing direction.There may be an underlying story in this book, which Woz does not clearly bring out, and it has to do with what may have been a classic case of burnout. This occurred after his stunning successes, and after he was worth $100 million, when he went to Hawaii and simply stopped working on engineering. He decided that there were plenty of engineers in the world, but his kids had just the one father, and he decided to devote much more time to his family. In fact, he became a teacher and really devoted the rest of his life to educating the next generation.In fact, leaving aside his very short life of crime (selling illegal Blue Boxes) this seems to be the tale of a model citizen, and someone you might have enjoyed knowing --- if you could follow his thoughts.A very enjoyable read, and a definite contribution to history.

I was looking to find out how much was true of Pirates of Silicon Valley when I came across this book. I'm not a fan of Apple, but I am a person who enjoys history of many sorts, and I am close to getting a degree in Engineering Technology.It's just a great read. There are many interesting things in here about history, such as his thoughts on Vietnam. He talks about his design decisions in simple terms. He describes in detail the most hilarious pranks that had me laughing aloud. I even learned a few things that might help me as an engineer. If I wasn't so busy, this book would be done in 2-3 days tops. It's just that difficult to put down. I always want to know what happens next and am disappointed when I have to put it down.There are a few minor downsides. He is often repeats himself. He can be pompous at times. Some sentences don't communicate well. Even after reading the sentences multiple times, I couldn't understand what it was saying.I'm just over halfway done with the book and I had to write the review because I am so excited about this book. I don't think you have to know any technical knowledge to enjoy it for what it is.Update:I finished the book. My opinion is unchanged. It rocked!

This was a much better book than I expected - but then again I am an engineer of the same age as Steve Jobs, went to the same elementary school as Steve Wozniak (four years later) and grew up in the same Cherry Hill West subdivision of Sunnyvale, CA. that both of them lived in. So I was perhaps better able to relate to some of the things that the book talked about - I even had the same chemistry teacher, Dr. Hubbs, at De Anza College who is mentioned in the book. It brought back a lot of memories of that time and place in 1960's Silicon Valley life.I found it appropriately technical but not too geeky. Also very honest and straight forward. In my opinion, an even better book than the biography of Steve Jobs by Walther Isaacson - which is also worth reading but a more definitive work.Steve Wozniak focuses most of the book on his childhood, youth and early adult life & relationship with Steve Jobs up to the time when Apple Computers gets up and rolling. That story alone would have made the book worth reading.After that he skips a lot of detail and talks more about his person life, marriages and things he did after his full time involvement with Apple. When you are all done you come away feeling like you know the person Steve Wozniak.You also realize that without Steve Jobs, he would have just spent his life being a super-geek company man making a mid-six figure salary working for Hewlett Packard. And without Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs would have probably become a B-list, new age cult leader living somewhere in Santa Cruz.

What a lovely read: I like those stories of the early Californian hackers and the mischief and fun they were sometimes up to, especially when they are as smart as Steven Wozniak (and, unsurprisingly, turned out "just fine")...The fact that Woz co-authored the book and made it an autobiography instead of having some employee-style or for-money writer do the legwork, obviously makes the book what it is. I don't mean to belittle Steve Jobs, but without Woz there would be no Personal Computers today! Highly recommended if you want to find out about the real genius behind the inventions that became "Apple Computers".

Ottimo libro da leggere e collezionare che parla di uno dei più grandi geni informatici! WOZ

Excelente livro para quem curte programação e tecnologia.

It's Sad that people don't know about Woz as much as Steve jobs. But Woz is a genius, he designed first Apple pc. But more than that he is adventurous and fun loving, a little introvert. If you have read and liked Feynman's "surely you're joking Mr Feynman"you will definately like this too.

Steve Jobs strong personality has always overshadowed the creativity and talents of Steve Wozniak, one of the greatests engineers of our time.Interesting reading about his life.