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23 December 2006
Posted in
Books Training
iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It
The first thing that struck my about iWoz, was the title...not just for it's length (which says something about the detail of the writing in the book) but it was both a clever and curious Apple-related title to use.
A little 'i' at the start of anything that is Mac or Apple related is significant these days. We've had the iMac, iLife, iTunes and the iPod. But that's why I found the title slightly curious....those are things we associate with the once-named iCEO (now just the CEO) of Apple...the inimitable Steve Jobs. Not the author of this book.
| Review | |
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Author/Publisher
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Headline Publishing Group |
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Book details
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ISBN: 0-7553-1407-7
Pages: 320 |
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Value for money
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Price
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$42-60 NZ
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Available from
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Local bookstores and online (e.g. twink)
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So the title of the book really reflects the other Steve. It reflects the state of Apple now and the impact that it is having on computing, on our culture and our language. So why did Steve Wozniak name his book in a way reflective of a period of Apple's life he's not really been a part of?
You could mull over the reasoning for days. I think it may just in fact have been seen as a clever and flippant title for a book. But given the history that the two Steves have (Steve Jobs declined an offer to write the foreward for this book) and the rumour that the two don't get along that well these days, it is curious (or perhaps just a way to get more sales!) to see Steve Wozniak choose such a title.
Perhaps it was to suggest Wozniak's influence continues? Or that the book is very Apple focused? Because if you go into the book expecting the latter, I suspect you may come away disappointed.
This isn't about Apple and what went on. This is about the life and impact on computing that one of its founders has had.
In the final chapter Wozniak states that he wrote the book because he wanted to set the record straight. That he has come to hate books about Apple and its history because of their inaccuracy. However the reason I find this fascinating is that I'm not really convinced the book goes into great detail about the history or politics behind the computer company we all love. There are as many questions about Apple Computer as there were before reading the book.
Woz was
The book starts very much at the beginning of Wozniak's life. His stories of his love of electronics, which grew from the expertise, enthusiasm and support of his father are beautifully (although at times simplistically) written. Stories of pulling the vacuum tubes from the back of TVs to take them down to the local shop for testing, of setting up Ham Radios and working with transistors would make any budding scientist proud (and some young 'uns wonder what he is talking about).
If I say that Wozniak describes in honest terms his own brilliance, you might start to squirm in your seat and think that this would be an uncomfortable read. Far from it. Instead, he comes across as warm and endearing in the way he describes his ability and the skills that he had at such an early age. It's a clever ploy, as it paints an understandable backdrop to the events that would be a part of his life in the future.
He also wants us to understand who he is...what kind of person he is. He details his life before Apple, his membership of the Homebrew Computer Club (where I thought he first met Jobs, but not in fact the case), whilst explaining how his political views changed during the Vietnam wars years and how this made him at odds with a father he had admired.
Meeting Steve Jobs, he devotes an amusing chapter to the start of their friendship and their first true project together....a blue box for phone phreaking. An activity in those days that saw people realise that they could illegally get free distance phone calls by sending the appropriate tones down the telephone to both override the system and dial the number for them. The chapter ends in a car crash after a night of almost being caught by the police, which forces Wozniak to work to get a new car. He comments that if it wasn't for the need to work, Apple may never have happened.
Wozniak also touches briefly on a now infamous event from the Wozniak-Jobs relationship before Apple, when they worked on developing the game Breakout for Atari. Jobs gave Wozniak $700 after successfully completing the project, which he said was half of what they had been paid for the work. But it ended out later that Jobs had in fact been given a few thousand dollars for the work they had done. He had lied to Wozniak.
Woz says discovering this later hurt, but that he has gotten over the event. However, I found one section quite telling. Wozniak comments about the nature of the two by describing two fictional characters, one hard at work on profit and one enjoying life and concludes his story with a rather hitting comment...
"In my head, the guy who'd rather laugh than control things is going to be the one who has the happier life."
It's an uncomfortable ploy. The analogy isn't needed to mask what he is trying to say. He's commenting on the differences between himself and Steve Jobs and it's blatantly obvious.
Wozniak first and foremost is an engineer....and exceptionally proud of this. We might see him as a computer buff, but at the heart of his existence lies his passion for engineering. Those that know what he went on to in later life will also know he has a passion for teaching. What I find intriguing about this book is that you almost feel his passion come out of the book in the way that he wants us to understand what he was achieving at the time, although I'd suggest on a couple of occasions I just wanted to say "OK, I get it....next story".
He also embeds the explanations with some statements that show you just how impressive he was...
"I didn't realize it at the time, but that day, Sunday, June 29, 1975, was pivotal. It was the first time in history that anyone had typed a character on a keyboard and seen it show up on the screen right in front of them."
...or how proud he is of his abilities...
"I know all this got really technical, but I had to explain it because to this day, engineers are always walking up to me and saying how great that floppy controller I did was. And in just two weeks. Now you know how I did it."
It ain't about the Mac
You really appreciate the true nature of Woz when you read the chapter "The Woz Plan", a scheme that he created in which he decided to sell off a large portion of his shares to co-workers before Apple went public. And it is noticeable that he comments that Steve Jobs probably thought he was weak in doing such a thing, even though it benefited a large number of staff who wouldn't have had the opportunity to benefit from Apple going public. Balance this with the approach Steve Jobs took in 1997 when he sold off a large portion of his shares for what many believe was a ploy to undermine the then current boss of Apple and perhaps we can see the true nature of each of them.
Those expecting this book to be about the Apple Macintosh will be very disappointed. Whilst it covers the failure of the Apple III in some detail (I'm amazed by how distant Wozniak sounds when discussing it...he was still a major part of the company at that time) the Mac isn't mentioned at all until page 239 of a 313 page read. His U.S. Festival concert receives a whole chapter in comparison.
I had long assumed that Wozniak had some role in the development of the Mac, but it clear from what he says, that he didn't. His decision to leave Apple is also one that has been painted incorrectly. Wozniak admits being interviewed on the day of his departure by the Wall Street Journal and saying he was unhappy with how things were at Apple, but he categorically states that he said "That is not why I am leaving" (strangely this story is repeated twice in the book to convince us) . In fact, it was far less dramatic than that....he was leaving because he had come up with the idea for the first universal remote and he wanted to set up a business making and selling them (interestingly Steve Jobs intervened and stopped one company designing cases for the remotes!).
The disappointing aspect of this isn't that the Mac isn't discussed, but that by the third-to-last chapter of the book, the year is only 1985. By then we have received too much detailed understanding of Woz's life. With two chapters remaining, it seems wrong to be reading details on the type of LCDs screens used in the remote and what chip was used next to it. Whilst that might be of interest to some, I find myself wishing someone would say "OK, let's shorten that bit and get in some detail on your later years".
In the final chapter he gives some explanation as to why he wrote his memories at this time. Mostly because he had time now and also to set the record straight. But the leap from the late 80s until now is a noticeable one. I would have liked to have learned more about what Woz has been up to in the past couple of decades, but he justifies this in his last chapter explanation also. He says the book is for kids out there that are like he was....he wants to show just what you can achieve as a youngster (curiously he encourages the very talented to always work alone).
He concludes by touching briefly on Steve Job's return after Gil Amelio bought NeXT (and makes sure we are aware that both the iPod and iMac were in design phase well before Jobs came back) and interestingly states that the iMac never really appealed to him.
Still, I can't help feeling that we've been left short-changed in a strange way. Why focus on the years around Apple, but then not really give us an Apple story? He has been careful to call the book his memoirs and in that respect, he is justified to do so. I just wish he had done more to tell us about the period of his life well beyond Apple and now.
Perhaps his reason for doing so leads us back to the naming of the book? iWoz...past tense. With time for many more chapters in his very successful life, perhaps we'll see more memoirs at a later date.
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