Happy 59th Birthday, Woz!

“Steve Wozniak, born Friday, August 11, 1950 in San Jose, California, is 59 years old today. Woz is an American computer engineer of Polish descent who founded Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) alongside Steve Jobs,” Filip Truta reports for Softpedia. “He is one of America’s favorite geeks.”

“Steve Wozniak, also known as the ‘Woz’ among members of the Apple community, has several key inventions and machines credited to him,” Truta reports. “He has contributed significantly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s with the creation of the Apple I and Apple II computers. The Apple II became a winner and was later declared one of the best-selling personal computers of the 1970s and early 1980s.”

Wozniak is listed as the sole inventor on a number of patents, which include:
• US Patent No. 4,136,359 – “Microcomputer for use with video display” – for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
• US Patent No. 4,210,959 – “Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like”
• US Patent No. 4,217,604 – “Apparatus for digitally controlling pal color display”
• US Patent No. 4,278,972 – “Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display”

Truta reports, “Woz is also a philanthropist and knows his way around with a Segway. His favorite video game is Tetris. It is said that during the 90s, he submitted so many high scores for the game to Nintendo Power that they would no longer print his scores. The clever Woz didn’t give up, and so he started sending the scores using his alphabetically reversed name (Evets Kainzow).”

More in the full article here.

14 Comments

  1. When you hold the patent for displaying Tetris squares, you can submit as many high scores as you like! ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”cool smile” style=”border:0;” />

  2. Just about anyone with a last name of “Woznaik” is known as “Woz”. I’ve known several, and that is what they all went by. Sort of like “Murphy” shortened to “Murph” or “Cooper” to “Coop”

    That said, Happy Birthday, Woz!

  3. @freddy like you’re worthy of note…I guess having the patent for being a buttwipe, like you do, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be?

    wow, 59 already. Time certainly doesn’t stand still does it…amazing how much changed during the 70’s and 80’s but then stood relatively still for the microsh*t years. Looks like with that era starting to wane (praise be) with, innovation is back on the agenda. I would like to think that as the Original apple engineer, Woz left that as a legacy, amongst other things.

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