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There are computers in most homes in the United
States. Who started this home computer craze? His name is Stephen Gary
Wozniak, but he prefers to be called Woz. Woz was born in 1950 and raised
in Sunnyvale, California.
His father, Jerry, was an engineer at Lockheed
and was a guiding hand for him. Influenced by the character Tom Swift,
from the series of books, Woz was not inhibited to play with electronics.
He never took a computer building course or read a 'How-to' book. He tinkered
and learned on his own.
Supported by his teachers in fourth and fifth grades, and his natural
science and math skills, Woz flourished. By the time he was 11 he had
built his first computer - it played Tic-Tac-Toe! Although this was quite
an accomplishment, Woz always sought improvement. He would take his computer
apart and try to rebuild it, smaller and with fewer chips. Throughout
his High School years at Homestead
High in Silicon Valley, Woz designed more than 50 computers - on paper.
After three years at the University
of California at Berkeley, he took some time off to earn money to
go back to school. He got a job as an engineer at Hewlitt
Packard and loved it! He had a steady paycheck and got to design calculators.
Woz soon realized that the tiny microprocessors used in calculators were
cheap and could be used in his computer designs. He was now able to trim
his schematic diagram down to a single page! In 1975, he joined the Homebrew
Computer Club at the Stanford
Linear Accelerator Center. He brought his designs and schematics to
their meetings. He was a hit! People gathered around him and asked questions.
His presence added a new feeling to the club. There was talk of a computer
revolution - that computers would become cheap enough to be owned by everyone.
This is where he met Steven Jobs, and together they formed the Apple Computer
company.
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