Steve Wozniak Honors Innovative Inventors 82
DigitalDame2 writes "Steve Wozniak, co-inventor of the Apple personal computer (along with Steve Jobs), hosted the first annual Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge. Wozniak's favorite invention is one that shows where to clip your dog's claws without injuring the dog. The Strawjet, a creation that weaves straw left over from a harvest into building materials, won the grand prize."
Inventions (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Inventions (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it's related to that phenomenon where the more smart someone thinks they are the less smart they actually are.
Re:Inventions (Score:1)
I think you mean more smarter.
Re:Inventions (Score:1)
Re:Inventions (Score:2)
Re:Inventions (Score:1)
My dog has some light toenails and some dark ones. With the light ones it's easy to see where the quick is, but with the dark ones it's just an educated guess, one I don't know I've gotten wrong until she yelps.
The real hero (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The real hero (Score:5, Funny)
Bill's true innovations are many-fold, and remain largely uncredited. These include sending high-level windowing information to remote graphical clients, a practical use for LDAP, and my all-time favourite, and a powerful command-line interface.
I believe he also invented FTP shortly after Gore invented the Internet.
Re:The real hero (Score:1, Insightful)
And Lisa got inseminated by Steve, who stole it from Xerox. [imdb.com] Since Lisa was Steve's daughter, does all of this make Steve a sick perv?
-- Please mod me down since I'm not nice to Steve, everyone's hero --
Re:The real hero (Score:1)
The Internet (Score:2)
Thanks Al!
Re:The real hero (Score:1)
Re:The real hero (Score:2)
The truth of the matter is that Al Gore created the first Artificial Intelligence, the A.I. Gore-bot.
The AI Gore-bot created the internet (actually, "took initiative in the creation of the internet) when it was a senator. Later the AI Gore-bot ran for the office of President of the United States, but lost despite its uncanny resemblance to a human being. (Somewhere in there, the AI Gorebot was elected Vice President, but spent most of the time unplugged and hid
Re:The real hero (Score:2)
"Steve Wozniak, co-inventor of the Apple personal computer (along with Steve Jobs)..."
Steve Wozniak is the sole inventor of the Apple personal computer.
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
The firm of Rumpelstiltskin & Co. has filed a lawsuit against David R. Ward, claiming patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Re:In other news... (Score:1)
Microsoft bought out Strawjet? (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft bought out Strawjet? (Score:2)
That's a bleeding giveaway that we're not talking about a Microsoft product here.
Co-inventor??? (Score:5, Informative)
Err, as far as I know Woz made the computer, and Jobs decided he would market it. I'm having a very hard time imagining Jobs getting down and dirty with a soldering iron, since he's more of a talker and Woz is the guy who invented a computer just for the hell of it.
Co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. would've been more like it.
Re:Co-inventor??? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Co-inventor??? (Score:2)
Re:Co-inventor??? (Score:1)
Re:Co-inventor??? (Score:1)
Minor correction (Score:1)
And that would be the Apple II computer.
Woz, in fact, invented it while he was working at HP. He went to HP to see if they wanted to market the new invention, and they said no. But they had the good grace of letting Woz to do it on his own if he wanted. So he quitted his job and teamed up with Jobs to found Apple Computer
Re:Minor correction (Score:2)
You might not have known this, but Apple often numbers their computers in this fashion. For example, there was not just the Apple I, and II, but also the III. The LC, LC II, and LC III. The Classic and Classic II. The Color Classic and Color Classic II. And several other examples. More if you allow for bigger jumps in numbering (e.g. Power
Re:Co-inventor??? (Score:2)
Jobs' first job (hmm) was with Hewlett Packard, where he met Wozniak. Later he became a technician for Atari. He never worked a day in a marketing department, although as CEO of Apple, NeXT and Pixar he did a good number of presentations.
I don't think he did a lot of the design for the original Apple computer, but I know he did a lot of assembly work to fulfil their first order. I suspect some of the design came from him, but that may be more in the requirements than the technical.
Re:Co-inventor??? (Score:3, Informative)
Jobs and Woz were introduced by Bill Fernandez, a mutual friend. Jobs was still in high school at the time. Jobs never worked at HP. He went to college, had some odd jobs, went to India, worked at Atari for a little while (and would bring in Woz to give him a hand), and eventually they started Apple.
Jobs didn't design a thing about the Apple I. He certainly got to hear all about it -- the
Re:Co-inventor??? (Score:2)
Skip the spam (Score:4, Informative)
here is the real link without any of the middlemen leeching pageviews off a 100 word summary and 100 adverts per page (and they wonder why people block adverts)
http://www.historychannel.com/invent/?page=winner
Re:Skip the spam (Score:1)
Holy crap, that was a lot of links. I mean, how many links can you have from a single page?
Anybody want to guess an over/under on the number of links of that page? 500? 400? A thousand?
Re:Skip the spam (Score:2)
Re:Bah, mine's better (Score:2)
Re:Bah, mine's better (Score:5, Informative)
I spent a full 3 hours talking with all 25 semifinalists in depth. It meant a lot to them. There were some very good inventions there and some that may revolutionize industries. A robot that builds a house in a day may offer homebuilding at 1/5 the cost, for example. Only about 2 of the devices really used electronics. Most of the inductees in the Invertors Hall of Fame have invented things outside of what we computer types consider. Still, the members of this Hall and the inventors of this contest share a similar personality and similar stories. It was one of the best times of my life to talk to such inventors before they have money or greed, and to hear their stories.
One finalist was a simple laser and light addition to a nutdriver. The inventor came up with a desire to achieve this solution when she was 9 years old and her father needed for her to hold a flashlight. One man invented a remote control on the reins of a horse to steer and stop it remotely. He's a real strong cowboy type, fun to talk to. He may not be a technical genious, but like many of us worked hard to achieve a device that was his passion to create. I spoke with the neice of the winning inventor and she told how for 9 years, back to when she was 14 years old, he talked about wanting to develop this building material made of wasted straw.
As a judge I had read descriptions of the various inventions. I had also seen the 25 semifinalist exhibits on display in Los Angelas, the first city a tour of those exhibits hit. But you get a more complete picture of an invention being a combination of a device and a person. This is true of such inventions that come out of want and passion and lack of money, instead of out of well funded company projects.
These are not the sort of people to criticize or challenge. They were all so incredibly wonderful. Did anyone at all who is contributing to this Slashdot item even attend the day-long exhibition or awards ceremony in Grand Central Station on Tuesday? The winners werr culled from 3400 invertion submissions. Even the ones that got passed over may have been greater ones. Any of them could have been given the grand award. We will see many of these devices in our own lives.
When this project started I had 2 choices. I could take a [presumably] high paid job to judge on American Inventor, or whatever that reality TV show was named. The producers said I'd have to be like a Simon Cowell type and criticize the inventors. Or I could do this voluntary judging for the National Inventors Hall of Fame (non-profit) and the History Channel. I took the high integrity one.
Also, when it comes to the start of Apple, I did not just get dirty with a soldering iron. I conceived and created every bit of the hardware and software of the early Apple products. I wasn't asked to go into the lab and design it. The design came first and the company was an afterthought and not something that I even pursued myself.
Re:Bah, mine's better (Score:2)
Re:Bah, mine's better (Score:3, Insightful)
I loved the Inventors Hall of Fame (History Channel?) exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. Do you think that Quad Zipper will be a hit? Jacket = Parachute 4 Sky Dive.
As crazy as American Inventor made inventive people look, it also showed the classic examples of the traps inventors can fall into, and that an idea takes good execution to become a reality. Doug Hall did that in sometimes startling (some might say rude) fashion,
Re:Bah, mine's better (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, wait...
Re:Bah, mine's better (Score:2)
Thank you for the Apple II. I'll never forget those wonky graphics modes, created that way just to save a few chips. Or the sound of that beep. Or writing 6502 in the mini-assembler because I couldn't afford commercial assemblers. Or writing silly games in INTBASIC.
You're my hero, and I don't have many of those. Thank you.
-Z
OSX86 the Hackintosh (Score:2)
I am glad to see you still read slashdot and feel honoured that I get the chance to write something that you might actually read.
I am wondering what your viewpoint is on the subject of nonapple computers running osx86.
I don't know if you have seen it running on non Apple hardware but given the right hardware it works very well indeed.
I'd really like to buy OSX86 and run it legally on non-Apple hardware and I think there is quite a large number of people doing so already. One specialist site has aro
Re:Bah, mine's better (Score:2)
You don't seem like the Simon Cowell type, nor do most people I know for that matter though. And the History Channel is about all I watch, so I look forward to seeing this.
Thanks for everything, I wouldn't be where I'm at today without you.
~S
Strawjet website. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Strawjet website. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Strawjet website. (Score:1, Troll)
Obviously these could never be sold in here in the US, because everyone would eat themselves out of house and home.. literally.
Re:Strawjet website. (Score:1)
Interesting that they say wheat straw performs the poorest but they use it because it's so abundant. They say flax is better.
Now hemp would probably be really excellent. They should try it in canada, where it's legal to grow (unlike here in the US).
Hemp for oilseeds and then building materials from the straw, fantastic! Add lime and you get hempcrete anyway due to the high silica content of the inner stalk.
Re:Strawjet website. (Score:1)
Steve Jobs honors innovative inventors... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Houses of straw (Score:1)
Re:Houses of straw (Score:1)
I'm familiar with Photoshop, but what does this mean?
Re:Houses of straw (Score:2)
Re:Houses of straw (Score:2)
Re:Jobs is a salesman (Score:2, Interesting)
Woz makes it clear in his writings that Woz was THE engineer behind the Apple I and II. Woz also made it clear that Jobs loved technology, could get down and dirty with a soldering iron, and had the ability to bring a successful product together.
Woz was in his mid twenties at the time, and Jobs was in his late teens.
To call Jobs a tag-a-long is not only demeaning; it is untrue according to the key people who
Re:Jobs is a salesman (Score:1, Funny)
You tell 'em, Steve.
1998 called, they want their bubble back (Score:1)
Nice title. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Nice title. (Score:2)
Then you get dogs and cats living together, human sacrifice - mass hysteria. Hysterical hysteria.
Re:Nice title. (Score:1)
Pfft.. (Score:2)
Re:Pfft.. (Score:1)
But it only takes a few beers to render that lid filter useless.
*ponders new Guiness commercial*
A restroom that is a toilet, BRILLIANT !
Re:Grand Prize: Straw... House??? (Score:2)
Where in the Woz? (Score:2)
More about the dog-thingie (Score:1)
Re:More about the dog-thingie (Score:1)
Air exchange in biuldings (Score:2)
"Yes straw burns, but StrawCore panels do not. There two reasons why they will not burn;
* The plasters that are used throughout the panels have a high mineral content which render them nonflammable.
* Unlike conventional construction there are no wall cavities, which would otherwise facilitate combustion inside the wall."
This panels seem to be pretty
Re:how would he know an inventor when he saw one? (Score:1)
First, TFA does contain an inaccuracy: Steve Jobs did NOT co-invent the Apple; he only cofounded Apple Computer. He does deserve credit as being a driving force behind Apple's business plans and strategies.
However, the true inventor of the Apple was Wozniak, aka "The Woz," without whom Apple would never exist. We're talking about a guy who as a kid grew up *dreaming* about designs for computers, the sort of youngster who probably would've gotten into amateur radio in an earlier age.