Nickname: Leprechaun

Review: Woz was brilliant in designing the disk controller, for example. That is what brought Jef Raskin to Apple and later he started the all-graphics Macintosh project there. The Apple II was a wonderful advance, the appliance computer. The Macintosh made computers accessible to everyone so I consider it the greatest advance in computing to date. We all use it, even if we call it Windows. Raskin wrote The Humane Interface, which shows how to make computers so that they work with people instead of so often against them. But Woz and Jobs had to start the company before Raskin could head them in the right direction. Bless them.

Date reviewed: Jun 7, 2006 4:51 PM

Nickname: Stephen C.

Review: I'm a high school student who loves computers. Im glad to see that he thinks our government-owned schools stop creativity. Lucky for me I've known this and have always just done research in and outside of school about what I'm interested in. For instance, evolution, artificial intelligence, cryptology, robotics, psychology, philosophy, and right now Zen Buddhism. Also I have a great computer science teacher who has inspired me and helped me to learn everything I can about programming. It just sucks that he has to teach the whole class (who are only in there for the credit). We go to programming competitions every two weeks or so. My team may not win every time but at least we have fun and work hard. That's all that really counts. I'll defintely buy a copy of this book--it sounds interesting.

Date reviewed: Jun 1, 2006 8:01 PM

Nickname: button

Review: Very revealing interview. It demonstrates that Jobs wasn't the only Steve at Apple to possess a planet-sized ego: " ... the Apple II computer, the greatest product of our time." Oh yeah, 1959: Scientist Jack Kilby of TI patents the Integrated Circuit. 1963: Douglas Engelbart invents the mouse. 1965: Ted Nelson publishes his first article about hypertext. 1968: Intel formed by Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, & Andy Grove. 1969: Unix (the core of OS X) written at AT&T's Bell Labs by Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie. 1972: C programming language created by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson. 1973: Gary Kildall writes the CP/M operating system, and Chuck Thacker creates the Alto (networked personal computer with GUI) at Xerox PARC. 1975: Ed Roberts creates the MITS Altair 8800 kit, the first microcomputer. 1977: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak form Apple. Sigh

Date reviewed: May 30, 2006 10:05 PM

Nickname: tonyw

Review: My first computer was an Apple {+ with 48K of RAM) but my favorite is the //C+. Its elegance & minimalist design was way ahead of its time. My first IBM PC CGA card had more chips than the entire //C+! Visicalc showed you can do serious business analysis on it. Did Woz write "The Spreadsheet?" The Laserwriter and metafont gave birth to desktop publishing. The open slots allowed clever people to add their creative touch and there were many who did. Gutenberg was a document processor that displayed Hebrew on a screen from right to left and allowed you to design your own fonts and do complex formatting. It ran on an 64K Apple. I did a Vietnamese alphabet and math symbols and formulae on it. Hats off to Woz!

Date reviewed: May 30, 2006 8:56 PM

Nickname: Michesf

Review: I have had the fortune of meeting both Gina Smith and Woz: two brilliant, energetic and quirky geniuses. I can't wait to get my hands on this book!

Date reviewed: May 30, 2006 3:46 AM

Nickname: dogen

Review: "Woz is a one trick pony." That's one more trick than you.

Date reviewed: May 26, 2006 4:18 PM

Nickname: Joseph

Review: Woz is a one-trick pony, a very rich, one-trick pony. 'Nuff said.

Date reviewed: May 25, 2006 2:32 AM

Nickname: Eric

Review: Without Woz there would have been no Apple computer. Without Jobs there would have been no Apple Computer, Inc.

Date reviewed: May 25, 2006 1:34 AM

Nickname: TJC

Review: Steve's contributions have been great, but some of the history is being forgotten. Perhaps the story is skewed since it can't represent the whole book. Apple had the first successful mass produced personal computer. However, the general idea that every computer before Apple had a control panel like a cockpit is misplaced if you go back and look at Xerox's Alto and one or more of HP's earlier scientific offerings. In fact, at least one of HP's earler machines kind of looks like a square Apple I or II. Could Steve have been influenced from his HP days? Again, Steve has contributed a tremendous amount to the industry. However, remember the old quote, "Standing on the shoulders of giants," often attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. Xerox, HP, and possibly others may have invented the personal computer, Steve and Apple Computer succesfully engineered and marketed a winning product. Perhaps this is what Steve alludes to regarding being lucky and having things fall into place.

Date reviewed: May 24, 2006 3:41 PM

Nickname: Joe Wheel

Review: Every modern Mac, and every copy of Mac OS X comes with Xcode, it's just not installed by default. With Xcode you can make GUI programs for Mac OS X with Objective C and the Interface Builder. If you install all of the Xcode tools and accessories on a Mac you have instant access to PHP, Perl, Ruby, C, C++, ObjC, Java, and Python. Some people say Python is the new BASIC.

Date reviewed: May 24, 2006 12:05 PM