Stephen Gary “Woz” Wozniak was born 64 years ago today, on August 11, 1950 in San Jose, California.
Woz co-founded Apple Computer, Inc., which is now named Apple Inc., with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne.
Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s and received the National Medal of Technology in 1985, along with Steve Jobs, from U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
While he’s best remembered for the Apple II, the Disk II was actually one of Wozniak’s crowning achievements at Apple, being the company’s first 5 ½-inch floppy disk,” Luke Dormehl reports for Cult of Mac. “Created with then-17 year old Randy Wigginton over Christmas 1977 
(Wigginton took December 25 off; Wozniak didn’t) the peripheral not only added a whole lot of functionality to Apple’s desktop, it was an early example of the company’s present high margin business model: costing just $140 in components, and selling for upwards of $495.”
Woz is also a member of a Segway Polo team, the Silicon Valley Aftershocks.
MacDailyNews Take: Happy Birthday, Woz!
Happy Birthday to the great and powerful Woz!!!!
Damn, and his Mother passed away yesterday.
I did not know that.
Condolences for that.
Sadly, the great comedian mind – Robin Williams – also passed today…
WooHoo!!!!
Would like to see him have some input at Apple.
Where would Apple be if he did not make the Apple I?
ENTER INPUT:
I, for one, am glad he does not.
Have you been reading the moronic things he’s been saying lately? I’m glad he has no input there.
Nine responses for the great WOZ?
Oh yeah, that left-wing Apple fanboy thingie, again. Let’s not mention the greatest President since WWII because the clueless callous crowd does not approve … whatever.
WOZ has some alternative viewpoints I and others here disagree with. Still, he earned mucho respect and where would Steve/Apple be without him?
Happy Birthday Apple birther.
Birther ?
Anonymous NeoCrap again, politicizing a topic that no one else had sullied.
Reagan was OK. Given that our Presidential parade since WWII has not been all that illustrious, Reagan is near the top. I actually liked George H. W. Bush better as a statesman. Satisfied?
This thread is about Woz. I have long been a supported of Woz and continue to be a supporter. He has publicly said a few strange things, but I suspect that the media goes after Woz for sound bites and skew his statements to make him look foolish. I believe that most of the hate comes from people who do not fully understand his contributions to computing history and who envy his wealth.
Woz is friendly and open and has fun. He had the balls to participate in Dancing with the Stars despite the likelihood that he would look a bit foolish, and he surprised everyone with his efforts. He is still engaged with technology development and his contributions are valued. I wish him the best and I challenge the Woz haters to do half as well in their lives.
If I were in Apple management, I would offer to create “Woz Lab” where he and a small team could work on stuff separate from the corporate grind. Even if nothing ever came of it, it would be a small risk for such a big-hearted person who was critical in getting us to where we are today.
Such harsh words? Don’t tell me what and how to comment, got it?
Bush was not in Reagan’s lead as a statesman. Remember the Berlin Wall falling, the great economy and on and on. We can agree to disagree on this one.
I agree 100% with everything you wrote about WOZ. Well done.
Reagan had about as much to do with the Berlin Wall falling as EVERY President since Harry Truman- including Jimmy Carter. The policy of the United States toward the Soviets and the Warsaw Pact was set long before Reagan set foot in the White House.
Any person awake that lived in Europe and paid attention knew that the Cold War had run out of steam everywhere in the minds of the warmongers of the Military -Industrial-Congressional Complex in DC. I was stationed in Europe in the years just before the Cold War ended and it was obvious to anyone paying attention- just not the “experts” on American TV.
Reagan was a mediocre President at best.
Mixed emotions today. Happy for woz. Sad for robin. We will remember this day forever.
At the very least, Mr. Wozniak was one of the greatest muses of all time.
Happy birthday Woz !!!
Apple was created by Woz and Steve. Their collective genius started the world we see today.
We would all be stuck at the DOS prompt without these guys.
It is interesting that the article mentions the Disk II (which read 5 1/4 inch disks NOT 5 1/2 inch disks!), but does not really mention the real heart of the interface that Woz created: the chip in the Apple ][ that could talk to it — often referred to within Apple as the Wozniac Integrated Machine. That chip later was expanded by Woz to include the ability to drive 3 1/2 in floppy disks as well as the 5 1/4 inch disks.
Later it was expanded again to include the IBM formats including the 1.44 MB version of the disk giving the Mac the ability to read almost all 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch disks of the day. They called that chip the Super Wozniak Integrated Machine. The “SWIM chip”. This chip was still used in Macs until Apple dropped floppies all together — up through the late 90s. Long, long after Woz had left Apple. The general concept was that it was an extremely elegant design that did 100% of what it needed to do. You don’t mess with such designs.
Happy birthday Woz!
WOZ is still on the Apple payroll & insurance plans as the cofounder of Apple.