I Woz On Dancing With The Stars
One of my heroes, the adorable inventor and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, shows his lust for life:
I just want to hug the guy. For, this, and for so many reasons.
By the way, this message was typed on the wireless keyboard of my 20-inch iMac. I can't remember how many Apple computers I've had, but I got my first on the student discount at the University of Michigan in 1985. Never had an instruction book, never needed one.
Oh yeah -- I even found my boyfriend Gregg at the Apple store, at the iPod display, a little over six years ago.
Steve clearly enjoys life, and projects it in his public appearances. He's a good sport, just watch episodes of Kathy Griffin's show when she was "dating" him.
BTW, I'm not a Mac fan but recognize his contributions to the personal computing industry are enormous.
Craig6z at March 15, 2009 8:06 AM
He also does a lot for kids, and was and/or is teaching. I tried to get him to come talk to the kids at University High, but he was too busy.
Amy Alkon at March 15, 2009 9:12 AM
As a longtime windows guy I used to roll my eyes at the "Macintoy's". Then I bought an Ipod. It was one of the first models and it was pretty good but that wasn't what opened my eyes to Apple. It was Itunes. I installed it on my windows machine and I immediately noticed the better workmanship. As someone who used to earn a living writing software it was obvious to me that this was a cut above all the windows crap I was used to dealing with.
I bought the Iphone 3g when it came out and one of the new Macbooks when they came out about 6 months ago. I'm now a full fledged Mac Fanboy. It's true that you can use a Mac with little or no instruction but I'd suggest investing in a "manual". I have David Pogue's "The Missing Manual" for Mac OS X. It was only after going though that book chapter by chapter that I was able to fully appreciate and take advantage of the features of the far superior Mac OS.
Not that you have to go into detail of every feature but you should at least take a look at what's available. The manual then becomes a reference book if you later decide you can use one of the features.
There isn't one big thing that I could point to but many many little things that just make much more sense than the way the bloated and kluged windows OS does things. Jobs had the balls to stop and start over with the OS from the ground up and it really shows.
As an AAPL shareholder there are 2 things I'm hoping for in June at the World Wide Apple Developers Conference where the latest version of the Mac OS will be unveiled. 1. The Mac OS has been configured to better operate in a corporate enterprise environment.
2. Steve Jobs is the one who announces that.
As far as that Dancing with the Stars clip goes. I agree with the Teletubby at the Gay Pride parade comment. It was a little disturbing to me.
sean at March 15, 2009 9:33 AM
I have a Mac. I love my Mac. I also agree about having a manual on hand. They do come in handy.
Truth at March 15, 2009 1:31 PM
I hate Macs, Macs hare me. I loved watching Steve dance. I love watching people step out of their comfort zones and thoroughly enjoy themselves. (Stop worrying about your hands so much Steve! And for gods sake next time do some choreography that looks masculine!)
Elle at March 15, 2009 3:01 PM
Heh. I have a Mac 128K that is now 25 years old. It has a $700 memory upgrade, to 2 megabytes. Not gig, meg.
It runs Word 3.0 and Excel 0.0b at the same time, with a program called Switcher.
It is one of the best examples of how the industry builds what will employ them, not what you actually need to work. It's not color, it doesn't stream video and complicated Web pages are out of the question. But since when are complicated Web pages a great, let alone good, idea?
Radwaste at March 15, 2009 4:00 PM
PS - how can this guy NOT enjoy life with Karina at arm's length (duhhhh....) and the undying respect of millions? The guy is the anti-Gates.
Radwaste at March 15, 2009 4:07 PM
> since when are complicated
> Web pages a great, let
> alone good, idea?
Since they allow us to see video of Woz on Dancing with the Stars on the page of an advice columnist, you Luddite you!
Seriously... You can load that YouTube clip as a highrez (or download it, if you're fussy enough) and enjoy a prime-time TV show at a video quality nearly identical to what you'd have had on network television when that Mac of yours hit the market.
Now, I wish my career as a network tv editor was going better. But progress like this is A Good Thing.
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at March 15, 2009 7:03 PM
Wozniak's in pretty good shape for an old wheezer.
What ever happened to John Sculley?
Norman L. at March 16, 2009 1:40 AM
Actually, Crid, streaming video isn't the kind of page clutter I abhor. A short look at the alphabet soup used merely to describe the code routines found in a modern Web page shows the complexity; you can also download and view far higher resolution movies than a Web page can show you, caching and high-speed connection aside. Of course, a lot of that page complexity is to find out who you are and advertise to you. I'm sure you enjoy that...
Radwaste at March 16, 2009 2:29 AM
Adblock plus, thanks for asking. Are we really surprised that people want to advertise through the internet?
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at March 16, 2009 6:43 AM
My daily internet newsletter comes from here. Email delivery highly recommended.
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at March 16, 2009 6:50 AM
Woz' life is one hell of a story, and I always get a kick out of thinking about it. And as a ballroom dancer who started out in middle age myself, I can appreciate what he's going through. Unfortunately, on DWTS, he was awful. But every well-lived life needs adventure.
Cousin Dave at March 16, 2009 8:19 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/03/15/i_woz_on_dancin.html#comment-1638629">comment from Cousin DaveYou know, I don't think he was awful. He wasn't some smooth dude, but his dancing reminded me of Snoopy from the old Peanuts cartoons. It was joy on steroids.
Amy Alkon at March 16, 2009 8:36 AM
Well, technique-wise, it made me cringe. But your point is taken. And I'm sure I didn't look any better when I was starting out.
Cousin Dave at March 16, 2009 9:20 AM
What an insult to Snoopy, Amy!
I caught this (because it's one show that can be watched with a kindergartner and that's the only reason why) and I just flat out thought he was gross, gross, gross!
I can't agree with your assessment that women are not as visual as men. Though I guess I can only speak for myself, I am an avid man watcher and like them pretty. Wish to hell men would take care of themselves the way they expect women to. Compare this blob to John O'Hurley, for instance. He may be smarter but O'Hurley is hands down sexier. And I'm not even sure he's the bigger brain. O'Hurley's weird humor is way smarter than this camp.
T's Grammy at March 16, 2009 10:34 AM
"Adblock plus, thanks for asking. Are we really surprised that people want to advertise through the internet?"
Got it, and no - that's not even my point.
You just installed another chunk of software and called it good? Not quite.
Radwaste at March 16, 2009 3:47 PM
> You just installed another chunk
> of software and called it good?
> Not quite.
How dare you. How dare you mock me as being technologically naive. How dare you. I am the prince of portable apps. Adblock is just an XPI, anyway. Chunks don't get much smaller. It reduces the clutter a little bit, which is all that's asked of it.
Besides, you seem like you're in that clucking mood like when you were talking about Hawaii a few months ago....
People on the internet want to be paid for the stuff they do. Why shouldn't they?
PS-- You're right that the alphabet soup can be annoying. Opera has always been my favorite browser because it scales both text and images so flexibly... I can read things without having to go find the eyeglasses. But it comes from a smallish company in Norway, and they can't keep up with all the emerging standards.
But this is the future... It's never going to be like it was for our parents, when you just bought a Sony Trinitron and you could handle any signal they could send. Things are going to continue to splinter.
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at March 16, 2009 8:25 PM
Hey, I'm not mocking you for being naive - I'm mocking you for buying the idea that "new" = "good". Even though you didn't say it out loud.
At work, we the taxpayers are going to pay $500K+ to "upgrade" a Digital VAX distributed control system to DeltaV, running on XP (this stuff monitors tank temperatures, valve positions, pump speeds, etc., and lets you control them). The "reason" is that the 8086 consoles are old, and that's right -- but dVAX runs on any PC. Hello, Celeron boxes, surplus.
Radwaste at March 18, 2009 3:15 PM
Addendum: Woz has been "saved" from elimination from DWTS by his fans - despite having earned two threes and a four.
I hope he has the sense to resign shortly. He's just not Cloris Leachman.
Radwaste at March 27, 2009 6:59 PM
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