
Woz’s take on the Apple 1’s noisy -5 volt supply - fogus
http://www.willegal.net/blog/?p=6023
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jaysonelliot
My favorite quote from Woz's reply is this:

"I awoke one night in Quito, Ecuador, this year and came up with a way to save
a chip or two from the Apple II, and a trivial way to have the 2 grays of the
Apple II be different (light gray and dark gray) but it’s 38 years too late."

This is how you know you love your work. When you're still thinking of new
things you can optimize, even four decades later.

~~~
melling
Why is that cool? There's no doubt that Woz brilliant. However, I wish he had
a second act. That he would come out with some sort of cool wearable or
something else.

Steve Jobs kept trying to invent the next big thing. Apple II, Macintosh,
NeXT, iPod, iPhone. For some reason, engineers often don't think like this

~~~
twic
One of the things i admire about Woz is that he had the self-awareness not to
lust after a second act. He has neither the insecurity to need to do it, nor
the arrogance to think that he could do it.

He gave the world a superb, decisive work of engineering, then left the stage
to other performers while he went to teach future generations.

~~~
melling
I wouldn't call wanting a second act ego. It's about contributing and working
on interesting problems. Elon, for example, made some money on PayPal but
that's not what he really wanted to do. Once you become successful it opens
doors. The guys at Google didn't want to be an advertising company, they
probably want to just work on Google X all day. Anyway, the Woz already made a
dent in the universe. He's certainly entitled to relax if that's what he so
chooses.

------
EvanAnderson
I'm consistently impressed by the sincerity and humility that comes through in
what Woz says and writes. Not only is he a great engineer, but he just seems
like a really great guy.

~~~
LeonM
Woz sure seems like a humble guy.

You should read his biography 'iWoz' [0], it's a really nice read.

[0] [http://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-
Fou...](http://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-
Founded/dp/0393330435)

~~~
ics
Though it might be attributable to bad writing/editing on the part his co-
author, iWoz is by far the worst, most disappointing book I've read this year.
It is essentially a 300-page 'humblebrag' about how smart he knows he was as a
kid, how he's still kind of a kid, and what qualifies as _bad things other
people do_ versus _pranks I pull_. Read it for the interesting facts (in
between reminiscences of the middle school science fair) and historical
perspective, not for the writing or, as far as I can tell, to glimpse Woz's
real character.

~~~
gareim
I just want to add that I couldn't get past the first third of the book for
the same reason. It felt like every chapter was another "humblebrag" event and
the pranks weren't really that funny to me either.

I'm sure Woz is an amazing guy though. I would love to learn more about one of
the giants from just before my time if anyone has another book they could
recommend.

~~~
CamperBob2
You've got to read iWoz in the context of the times it refers to. Jobs and Woz
started out as a couple of naive, idealistic young hippies. Only one of them
really changed.

A biography of Woz is never going to read like a glossy, romanticized
biography of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Andrew Viterbi, Elon Musk or
whoever. That's not who he is. He's... well, he's Woz. It takes all kinds,
especially his.

------
alexose
)

Don't worry-- I closed the unclosed parenthesis.

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BigTuna
When you read responses like this it's impossible not to be in awe of the guy.
He's a great role model for newer generations both in his passion for his work
and his top-notch personality.

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Danieru
I want to hear how he'd do the gray thing, it sounds interesting.

~~~
Siecje
There is a comment on the page that touches on it.

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nagarjun
Fantastic to see how humble he is with his response. He could have easily said
"that's how it was done back then and it was really the best thing out there"
but, he didn't. The stuff of legend.

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boxcardavin
Woz is such a cool guy, he reminds a lot of startup guys of how much pure fun
tech was when you were 8-15yrs old and not thinking about money.

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jamesaguilar
Hi, I've been trying to figure this out for a while, and it's a hell of a
thing to get Google to understand. Can someone explain why the rail is
referred to as "-5v" instead of its opposite simply being called "5v"?

~~~
pjc50
Because it's 5V below the "ground"/0V rail which most things are referenced
to. It's very inconvenient to keep referring to the 17V rail and the 10V rail
above the 5V return rail, so you call those 12V, 5V and 0V. The majority
return current is in the 0V rail. The -5V rail supplies (conventional) current
which also returns to the 0V rail.

(In fact there is usually very little current in the -5V rail, just leakage
through transistors; it's used as a bias voltage for the DRAM substrate.
[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TgW3LTubREQC&pg=PA158&lpg...](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TgW3LTubREQC&pg=PA158&lpg=PA158&dq=use+of+negative+voltage+in+dram&source=bl&ots=l0IvmAMlsi&sig=0Elvj-h3RBqOJ0JAKP43d2xA8YY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=u_JZVO3JA8rY7Aa8joCIDg&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=use%20of%20negative%20voltage%20in%20dram&f=false)
)

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raverbashing
Yes, there's always something to optimize, but also shipping is needed.

I'm not sure what the -5v was used on, but apparently it wasn't a huge issue.

It doesn't matter anymore. It matters what you can learn with it.

~~~
cnvogel
It's the DRAM.

Mostek MK4027 (1 Chip, 4096x1 bits each), needs +5V, -5V and +12V.

[https://www.google.de/search?q=Mostek+MK4027](https://www.google.de/search?q=Mostek+MK4027)

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RankingMember
There's a guy who genuinely lives/breathes electronics.

