
Steve Wozniak Was My Computer Teacher in 1995 - curtis
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/steve-wozniak-was-my-computer-teacher-in-1995
======
theologic
I'm roughly 14 years younger than Woz, and I grew up in Seattle reading about
the exploits of the Steves. While I started at a startup in Seattle at 17
years of age, I've never reached any real fame. But I was always a fanboy of
the men that built high tech, with Woz being one of them.

8 weeks ago, I returned to the Silicon Valley for a job, and I bought a house
in the hills of Los Gatos. After being here for a week, I was told that Woz
lives up the hill a few house from mine.

I wake up every morning hoping to see him riding his Segway down the street,
but I have yet to spot him.

Everbody wishes they could hang out with the Woz, and even though I'm 54 years
old, I still have my heroes in the industry.

Woz is one of them.

~~~
sumedh
> but I have yet to spot him.

Probably because he lives in Tasmania, Australia now.

~~~
caminante
Latest tweet says Los Gatos is home.

[https://twitter.com/stevewoz/status/808839085842370564](https://twitter.com/stevewoz/status/808839085842370564)

~~~
sumedh
for few more days. Obviously a guy like Woz will have houses all over the
world.

------
johnpowell
[http://ask.metafilter.com/47835/Woz-More-like-Was-am-I-
rite](http://ask.metafilter.com/47835/Woz-More-like-Was-am-I-rite)

A not so nice question was asked about Woz. He responded.

[http://ask.metafilter.com/47835/Woz-More-like-Was-am-I-
rite#...](http://ask.metafilter.com/47835/Woz-More-like-Was-am-I-rite#728258)

~~~
jstoiko
Woz also clarified, on HN, some of the things that were said about his
relationship with Jobs.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8701997](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8701997)

~~~
piker
Hacker News: where even Steve Wozniak only has 17 karma.

------
marclave
Steve Wozniak is whom I strive to be as a Computer Engineer. He is so
thoughtful, creative, passionate and genuine. He has inspired me like no one
else.

------
latchkey
Around that time there was a Macintosh web server called WebSTAR. I hacked
together a shareware plugin in C that used the newish (at the time) browser
'Host:' header to allow for multi-homed domains without the need for separate
IP addresses. He bought an entire site license for $1500 when he could have
just spent $35. I had created the $1500 option as a joke thinking nobody would
spend that amount. Made my day and that really encouraged me to become a
professional software engineer. Thanks Steve!

------
rodgerd
Wozniak would have gotten along well with C E Beeby: "The upheaval of the
depression years and the rise of fascism forced him to think not only about
differences in human abilities but also about the right all individuals should
have to education in a democracy. In his view the education system suffered
from undue centralisation and conformity and should open itself to variation,
experiment and change. The abolition of the proficiency examination in 1937
held out hope for primary schooling responsive to the range of children’s
abilities."

Alas, these tenets of New Zealand's public education system are being
systemically demolished.

~~~
soperj
Gates foundation, hard at work.

~~~
mistermann
How so?

~~~
jacobolus
The Gates Foundation is one of the big funders of a movement which is trying
to dismantle US public education. No idea whether that has anything to do with
New Zealand per se.

Read e.g. this book if you’re curious
[https://amzn.com/0345806352/](https://amzn.com/0345806352/)

------
WalterBright
I'm glad there are people like Steve in the world.

~~~
echelon
I'm also thankful for people like you, Walter. But I know what you mean.

------
sonabinu
It's so important that you have a good inspiring CS teacher when you start
learning the ropes. The first person who taught me computing was the reason I
stayed away from going into CS for 15 years before taking it up a second time.
This time round my community college math teacher taught us how to program a
TI-84 and encouraged us to do so. I went on to download R because I read that
it was best for statistics and learnt more stuff later. An inspiring teacher
who goes out of their way to ensure that your learning roadblocks are removed
is the best!

~~~
misingnoglic
What did that first teacher do so wrong?

~~~
sonabinu
Starting writing BASIC without telling us what we were doing. Kept using
technical terms that sounded like a foreign language. Told me it's ok if I did
not understand - girls don't always get it fast! Well, I later learned that
the guys who got it had PCs at home (huge luxury when I was in high school )
and went for private lessons in Programming.

------
eltoozero
Met Woz at Bob'a Big Boy in Toluca Lake and he's a super friendly guy.

We compared notes on the Sony DSC-T7 and I gawked at his Nixie tube watch.

Good times.

------
pmoriarty
_" I admitted that generally, school was hard for me, but I loved art..."_

Logo. He should have taught them Logo.

~~~
spaceandshit
Agreed. I was taught Logo in the 4th grade and it was a great introduction
into programming and computers, which ultimately led to a stronger foundation
in the field.

~~~
voltagex_
I probably picked Logo up around that time too. I still dip into it from time
to time. I just wish there was a good JS implementation that I could run in
the browser - you never know when the urge to draw spirographs will hit.

~~~
dyarosla
Is that a /s? There are literally hundreds of good JS implementations. See for
example [https://turtleacademy.com](https://turtleacademy.com)

~~~
voltagex_
No - thanks heaps for that.

~~~
dyarosla
Yea no worries :)

------
kumarski
I think* every technocrat has a teacher or mentor who enables them to level up
on a subject matter.

Am I alone in this feeling?

Zuck had a world class programmer teaching giving him coding lessons when he
was young.

~~~
Quarrelsome
that's not true, some of us are autodidacts. We get help sure, I was helped a
lot on newsgroups when learning but we haven't all had mentors.

~~~
sh_tinh_hair
As an autodidact I will only note that you can learn at pace (given
intelligence and aptitude) only so long as you give it 110%. That extra 10%
wears on you. Eventually you will not be able to keep up. The old saying is
'learn from others mistakes'; being self taught leaves you open to not
understanding others mistakes and learning a lot from your own. Time++.

------
ntaylor
I was lucky enough to meet Steve at Xamarin Evolve, this year. He is
incredibly friendly, and one of the most fascinating people I've ever had the
chance to hear speak.

~~~
kutkloon7
I wonder if people still found it fascinating to speak to him if he were not
succesful...

~~~
Qwertystop
If he wasn't successful he'd probably be quite a different person in practice
- he wouldn't have had the money to do most of what he currently does. And
that's quite apart from the question of whether he'd have been in the plane-
crash that gave him brain-damage, and how that would have affected his
personality.

Based on what he does, though? If there was somehow a person who's involved in
all the different stuff he is but somehow without getting major recognition or
money for him (and that was not in and of itself a notable trait)? Yeah, I get
the feeling he'd probably still be interesting.

------
mvkaxon
World needs more Wozes than Jobses.

~~~
coldcode
No you need both, either one by themselves would have made nothing, together
they changed the world. Then Steve J did it a second time. But I admit I am
closer to being a Woz.

------
poisonarena
I follow him on twitter, He is always tweeting from Outback Steakhouse with
his wife..

~~~
Gorbzel
He does love him some chain restaurants.

------
johnnydoe9
Woz seems like a cool guy, very few people in his position would act in ways
he does.

------
hkmurakami
Look at the kid rockin' the America Online T-shirt in the splash image. ;)

------
MaxLeiter

      "I remember feeling like I had the keys to some magical kingdom."

This post, and this quote in particular, strongly reminded me of this song by
a former teacher on the current educational system:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD2o6soOe1I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD2o6soOe1I)

------
eMumbaBlog
Good to know, that. Feels good to have someone to follow and know that they're
out there still doing good.

------
foxhedgehog
his son was my cofounder 20 years later

