iWoz hits UW
Steve Wozniak hit Seattle like a whirlwind, gracing the Chamber of Commerce, RealNetworks, and more for a total of an alleged 8 speaking appearances on Friday. The last of those was at the University of Washington, where Woz dazzled a full house of eager acolytes.
Woz is an 'engineer's engineer'. He co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and invented the Apple I and Apple II, which revolutionized computing (among other things - he casually mentioned that he invented cassette drive tape storage while working on the Apple I in order to store the programming language he was writing for it). Wozniak is a legendary prankster and we wouldn't believe half of the things he said if they weren't so well attested. How many guys can claim to play Segway Polo and hold records in Tetris?
He spoke at length and extremely quickly, blowing his reputation for being an introvert. Interviewer Robert Scoble couldn't hold him back and the event ended up going over time. That didn't stop the swarms of geeks from lining up to get everything from copies of the new book iWoz to old Apple II manuals to computer cases themselves.
In addition to being a god among geeks for his technical achievements, Wozniak is admired as an all-around nice guy and is famous for is philanthropic and educational work The man founds museums, ballets, the EFF, and helps out his local school district with time and money.
Steve Wozniak: the good Steve.
