Apple II Bits

Steve Wozniak has achieved a fame that doesn’t seem to be fading. Although it was already eight months ago that he unveiled an expansion to the Computer History Museum, he was recently there conducting an interview on his early aspirations. At only eight minutes, it’s a quick and fun watch:

No matter how often I encounter Woz in various media, there always seems to be something new to learn. For example, I didn’t know that he and Steve Jobs had met in high school instead of college. Nor did I know that he pronounces that Hewlett-Packard device as “cackle-ator”. (His estimate that $400 at the time of the HP-35’s introduction (1972) would be $2000 is correct — $2060.98 in 2010 dollars, according to this inflation calculator.)

But my favorite is his closing ideology: “Don’t get attached to things have to turn out a certain way. The world just kinda flows, and whichever way it goes is right — it’s just how it went.” It reminds me of a similar philosophy against having expectations, suggesting instead that one have preferences. Is that a pessimistic detachment from results? Given Woz’s track record, I’d have to say no.

(Hat tips to Thomas Compter and Nicholas Griffin)