Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 45 Low-key life, high-profile background

When Ethan heard the name Steve Wozniak, the smile on his face grew even wider.

To be honest, a few hours ago, when Jobs called the little fat boy Stephen beside him in front of everyone, Ethan had already recognized his identity. He was the real creator of Apple, the real boss who created Apple I with his hands.

It's just that the two parties didn't know each other, so Ethan didn't call out his name directly, but now——

"Oh~Stephen~Nice to meet you~"

"I'm glad too."

After shaking hands with Ethan, Wozniak shook his arm and emphasized with a smile: "Yo~ You don't believe it? I'm serious."

"Steve may not have told you that after I saw Snake Game, I played it for several days in a row! The little snake you designed is really fascinating! It made me not want to go to work at all!"

"Really? I thought you thought I was terrible." Ethan smiled back, and half-jokingly said, "After all, when Steve introduced me to you just now, you didn't react at all."

"Oh! That's because I was so angry!" Wozniak waved his hands and puffed his cheeks to perform. "When I'm as angry as a salmon and want to show my teeth, no matter how friendly you are, I can't smile, right?"

"Hahaha~ You're very humorous Stephen." Wozniak's funny look made Ethan laugh repeatedly. At the same time, he pressed his hands down and said loudly: "I can understand, I can understand how you feel."

Ethan originally thought that Wozniak was a very arrogant guy, because he would rather pay money than waste time on the damage to Altair.

But now, the joy that can be seen with the naked eye makes him more human.

Because it was time for dinner, after getting to know each other, Ethan suggested finding a place to eat.

Both Steves thought there was no problem, and after some searching, they walked into a small restaurant in Menlo Park.

Ethan ordered a salad and a glass of lemonade.

Jobs ordered an apple pie and a glass of apple juice.

Wozniak chose a hamburger and a Coke.

After placing the order, the three of them sat down at the window seat.

It was only then that Ethan asked them about the true circumstances of today's events.

Because he felt that today's incident was a little strange. According to common sense, even if Wozniak and his team broke other people's machines, those who were not the original owners of the items should not be so radical.

As he asked, Jobs said helplessly: "That's all because of Stephen!"

"At the party that day, he took apart the Altair and introduced the production method to me, while at the same time he was complaining about the designer's design problems. He said the designer of the Altair was really wasteful, because he had to use five circuit boards to achieve something that could be solved with just one circuit board. If he were to do it, he would definitely do a better job than that guy!"

"Although I believe what he said is true, I also believe that his words will cause dissatisfaction among others present. Ethan, you know, the people you met today all have great respect for Edward Roberts, the inventor of Altair. So, when they heard Stephen's derogatory words, they were unhappy and started arguing with us on the spot."

"Then that day, we parted on bad terms."

"And then……"

“That’s why what happened today happened.”

Jobs sighed and was speechless about this inexplicable trouble.

"Is that so?" Ethan laughed.

In his view, Jobs' troubles today can be described in two ways.

To put it in a more literary way, how can the glow of a firefly on rotten grass compare to the bright moon in the sky?
To put it simply, you are clearly stating the facts, but people think you are bragging.

"I'm not wrong, am I? Altair's craftsmanship is rubbish!"

As Ethan nodded with a smile, Wozniak also perked up and said, "A microcomputer worth several hundred dollars has had its solder pads fall off after only a few months of use? This is simply a disaster!"

"If I had to describe it, it would be like a million-dollar plane flying for a month and then falling apart!"

"This is a complete accident! An accident! A production accident!"

"Okay, okay."

Jobs was convinced. "We all know what you said is true, so let's not emphasize this matter anymore, okay?"

As if coaxing a child, Jobs continued, "Stephen, we all know you're amazing. The Altair microcomputer is not even as good as your work in high school. The reason you lag behind them is simply because when you designed the microcomputer, there was no such thing as a central microprocessor on the market!"

"Correct!"

Jobs' words made the little fat boy even more excited. "When I was in high school, Intel hadn't been established yet! If Intel had existed at that time, no! If Motorola had a central microprocessor at that time, I would have made a personal computer long ago!"

"There is no such thing as Altair!"

“…” Jobs closed his eyes. He really didn’t want to pay any more attention to Wozniak.

His original intention in praising Wozniak was to hope that this guy would quiet down a bit.

But I didn't expect...

It's even more noisy.

Ethan saw the performance of both of them. Looking at Jobs' helpless look, Ethan felt a little emotional.

This is really a case of one thing conquering another!

In front of others, Jobs was extremely confident.

But when facing Wozniak, this guy was like Tom meeting Jerry and was easily controlled.

"Interesting!" Ethan said to himself.

At the same time, a question popped up in his mind.

Although he knew that Wozniak was a real boss, he was also curious about how this guy could design microcomputers in middle school.
After all, things like talent trees can only go astray, not be fast!

After he asked this question, Jobs, who no longer wanted to talk about Altair, quickly took over the topic and said, "This question is very simple, because his father taught him this knowledge since he was a child."

"Knowledge about electronics, knowledge about computers."

"What?" This fact surprised Ethan. He turned to look at Wozniak, "Your father?"

"Yeah! My father!"

I don’t know if Wozniak was too careless or just being very outgoing, but in any case, he nodded very quickly.

"When I was young, my father told me that in the future, computers would definitely develop in the direction of miniaturization."

"According to the current iteration speed of human technology, personal computers will be developed in ten to twenty years at most."

"If I remember correctly, when he told me these things...I was still in elementary school?"

'? ? ? '

Wozniak's words made Ethan have countless question marks on his head.

At this moment, he even suspected that he had heard it wrongly.

Because Wozniak and Jobs are of the same age, there is not much age difference between them!

And in this case, Wozniak's father introduced computers to Wozniak when he was a child?
When was that?
Ten years ago?

Fifteen years ago?
Late fifties, early sixties?

"What the hell! How could I come across computers in that era?"

'What kind of family is this!'

Ethan suddenly felt something was wrong.

Because in his memory, didn’t countless media in his previous life claim that Apple was the real American dream?
Because in the entire technology circle, only Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started from scratch!

But now?
Thinking of this, Ethan could no longer control his mouth, "Excuse me, Stephen, your father is..."

It seemed that he had answered countless similar questions before, so Wozniak had no intention of hiding anything and said directly: "Oh, my father used to be an engineer, but he doesn't do much research work now."

This answer made Ethan a little dissatisfied. When he was about to continue asking, Jobs gave the truth in the next second, "Oh, Stephen, why are you being so modest at this time? Isn't your father the head of R&D at Lockheed? You also said that it was your father who connected the Polaris and Hercules."

"Shh!" Wozniak touched his lips with his index finger, winked, and said, "We can just talk about this at home."

‘! ’

Ethan raised his eyebrows and nodded in understanding.

Well, this is the result he wanted.

After all, a truly ordinary family cannot just have a bigger house.

At the same time, he cursed in his heart -

'Shit, no one is self-made!'

'Norman Fucking Rockwell!'

It was not until then that Ethan understood why Steve Wozniak was different from other big names in the technology circle and did not have any weird gossip about him.

This is America!

If the media is the uncrowned king, then the military-industrial complex is its father!
While they were chatting, the waiter brought the food they ordered.

While tasting, looking at Wozniak who was eating slowly, Ethan thought of another question.

"Stephen, do you have any urgent business today?"

"If I remember correctly, you mentioned several times today that they are wasting your time?"

"Yeah~" Ethan's words were like a stimulant, making the little fat boy happy again.

"They just wasted my time." He emphasized this first, and then said, "Because after seeing Altair, I picked up the idea of ​​making a personal computer again. I have been redesigning it in the past few days. Probably at the beginning of this month, I have finished drawing all the circuit board drawings!"

"And, let me tell you, after my optimization, the personal computer I designed only needs one circuit board! Instead of five boards like Altair! It's much cheaper to make!"

"More importantly, I found a CPU that's cheaper than the Motorola 6800 and Intel 8080!"

Having said this, he looked around.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he lowered his voice and whispered, "You know, the CPU I found only costs forty-two dollars! Forty-two dollars! Not one hundred and forty-two dollars!"

'? ? ? '

The price made Steve Jobs' eyes widen.

"How much?" Jobs was a little incredulous. "Forty-two dollars for a CPU? Are you sure? Will that thing work?"

And Ethan's eyes instinctively curled up.

Because his treasure-filled memory told him that what he heard should be Apple.

Note: ① In Wozniacki's autobiography "iWoz", Wozniacki talked about his childhood experience. When he was six years old, his father took him to play transistor radio. When he was in the fifth grade of elementary school, when he was eleven years old, he was flipping through his father's corporate magazine and saw the introduction to ENIAC (the world's first computer). He was very curious, and then his father told him what a computer was and how a computer calculated the trajectory of a missile. In the book "The Innovators" written by Walker Isaacson, the editor of "Time" magazine and former CEO of CNN, Wozniacki's father was actually mentioned. In 71, Wozniacki and Jobs sold a device called a blue box, which was a device that could bypass the operator's charges to make long-distance calls. In order to prove that his stuff was useful, he called the Pope of the Vatican in the name of JXG. First of all, selling the blue box was an infringement of AT and T's rights. Secondly, calling the Pope of the Vatican in the name of JXG was a diplomatic incident, but in the end, Wozniacki was not held accountable by anyone. The reason why all parties did not pursue this matter was that after the incident, Wozniak immediately called his father and said that he was just playing a prank.

PS, there is another rumor that when Apple failed continuously in the 1980s, the board of directors wanted to kick Jobs out, but Wozniacki supported Jobs, and the capitalists did not dare to do anything. It was not until Wozniacki felt that Jobs and his philosophy were not in line and he took the initiative to withdraw that the capitalists dared to kick Jobs out. And within three months, Jobs was kicked out.

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(End of this chapter)