Chapter 10 Section 3 Shuangxiong meeting

When Jobs was about to start his final year at Homestead High School, the two Steves, who had passed each other at the high school, finally had the chance to meet for the first time in their lives.In the near future, the two young people who became famous because of the computer, the chance to meet for the first time turned out to be the computer.Like the Apple Computer, the computer that brought the two Steves together has a delicious name: the Cream Soda Computer. At that time, Woz had only studied at the University of Colorado Boulder for one year, and returned to the De Anza (De Anza) community college recommended by his father, which was cheaper and closer to home, for his sophomore year.At that time, Woz's interest in engineering technology had focused on computer design and manufacturing.During his study and summer job, he had the opportunity to observe and study the Nova minicomputer of General Data (Data General).He tried to assemble his own Nova clone out of electrical components.For this reason, he even wrote to General Data Corporation and asked for hundreds of pages of internal documents.Woz avidly learned about computer design and manufacturing, dreaming of one day building a computer that was far better than all computers at the time.

Woz's neighbor, Bill Fernandez, was also a computer nerd.Before long, the two boys were designing and assembling computers in the Fernandez family's garage.For weeks on end, the two stayed up all night while the cat sweated in the garage.The final finished computer is much more primitive than the later Apple I, because of limited memory and computing power, it can neither play games nor do complex mathematical calculations.But it was a working, real computer.During the weeks they were building the computer, the drink the boys drank most was Claremont cream soda.So, the two simply named this hand-built computer "Cream Soda Computer".

In order to show off his computer design skills, Woz invited a reporter from a nearby newspaper to visit the cream soda computer through his mother's relationship.When the reporter came to the garage, Woz and Fernandez were completely immersed in fantasy, dreaming that they could be on the front page of the newspaper.Unexpectedly, just after the reporter finished asking questions and taking photos, he stepped on the power cord, and a puff of smoke came out of the computer. Fernandez was at Homestead High School at the time, the same school as Jobs.Fernandez and Jobs have a common characteristic, they are not very gregarious, they belong to the type of standing alone outside the crowd and watching with cold eyes.Because of this, the two became rare confidants to each other.Fernandez knew that Jobs was also interested in electronics, circuits, and computers, so he invited Jobs to his garage to visit the cream soda computer and meet the main designer of the computer, Woz.

The first meeting between the two heroes of Apple did not have the legendary meeting scene.According to Woz's recollection, Fernandez said to him one day: "Hey, there's a guy you have to meet. He likes to play pranks as much as you do, and he likes to tinker with electronic components as much as you do." On an ordinary day, Fernandez called Woz and Jobs to his home, and the two Steves sat on the sidewalk in front of Fernandez's house, chatting for a long time.The main content of the chat was how the two of them were mischievous and mischievous.Of course, I also talked about how to design electronic circuits.

Woz felt at the time that Jobs and himself had a lot in common, at least, they were exactly the same kind of people in terms of tricks.But it's clear that Jobs also had special abilities that Woz didn't.For example, Woz can build complex circuits with his own hands, but he is clumsy in words, and it is difficult to explain his design to others clearly, and it is also difficult to tell others what benefits this thing has.Jobs seems to be born with the ability to display and sell a certain object. As long as Jobs understands any design, he can use the most simple and clear words to explain the principle, purpose, and advantages of the design. Moreover, he always It is being the first to discover how a certain technology can be useful to ordinary people.

Jobs felt that Woz was a typical otaku.Although he is withdrawn and arrogant, he is definitely not a geek.And Woz is like a crawler living on a circuit board, who doesn't care about anything other than circuit design and pranks.Of course, nerds usually have superpowers. Needless to say, Woz's superpower is to design and assemble electronic components.Even as proud as Jobs, he has to admit this.Before that, although Jobs also tinkered with circuit design, compared with Woz assembling computers by himself, all the technical work that Jobs played became child's play. Later, when Jobs talked about the story of the two meeting, there was a saying that was widely circulated."Woz is the first person I've ever met who knows more about electronics than I do," he said.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with this sentence itself, but it has been spread so widely by the media that everyone has somewhat misunderstood its meaning.Jobs said that Woz was the first person he had ever met who knew more about electronics than him. The implication was that his level of electronics was not far away from a genius who could build computers by himself.But in fact, this is mostly due to Jobs' conceited and aloof nature. Many years later, on the other side of the duo, Woz commented on Jobs' electronics level in this way. He said: "Jobs doesn't know much about electronics."

Jobs, who didn't know much about electronics, and Woz, who was proficient in electronics, rarely had a common hobby in their youth - pranks.The first project the two collaborated on was an out-and-out prank - Blue Box (Blue Box). Not long after the two Steves met, Woz had earned enough tuition money from summer jobs to attend his junior year at UC Berkeley.It is estimated that careful readers have discovered that Woz changed to three different schools in the first three years of college because of tuition fees.In Chinese universities, even today, this is something that is hard to imagine.The flexible education system in the United States provides enough tolerance and room for growth for those geniuses whose families are not well-off.What's more interesting is that Woz went to work for Hewlett-Packard before he was in the fourth year of college. He didn't return to Berkeley until 1981, long after he founded Apple, and continued to read it under the pseudonym Rocky Raccoon Clark. final year of university.We can't help but sigh that the geniuses in Silicon Valley really have the best and most humane educational environment in the world.

Before going to Berkeley for his junior year, Woz stumbled upon an Esquire magazine in the kitchen.He flipped through the magazine and saw an article entitled "The Secret of the Little Blue Box".From the first paragraph of the article, Woz was immediately attracted.In fact, that article introduced a group of hackers in the United States who stole phone calls in a curious tone.According to the article, these elusive hackers can take control of the phone simply by picking up the phone in a public phone booth, dialing a series of 800 or 555 toll-free numbers, and using a whistle or whistle to simulate a specific phone dial tone exchange system.Using this magical method, hackers scattered all over the United States can make free domestic or international long-distance calls at any time.The article mentioned that a hacker named Captain Crunch used a device called a blue box, which can accurately emit whistles of different frequencies, and can be used on telephones across the United States.

Woz, who enjoys both pranks and engineering, was instantly hooked.His intuition told him that the method of stealing phone calls introduced in this article might be true.The blue box mentioned in the article should be an electronic device that can stably emit sounds of different frequencies.From the description in the article, it is even possible to deduce the frequency and period of each sound that needs to be used when pirating.Woz was moved. To be able to make such a cool electronic product and then use it to steal phone calls is simply the best prank project tailored for himself and Jobs!

Woz called Jobs immediately, and the two hit it off and started working together.They studied articles together, went to the library to check information, and learned the principles of telephone switching and audio circuits.The two built basic audio circuits and tried to find correspondences between phone numbers and sounds of different frequencies.Finally, Woz and Jobs discovered that the sound frequency data mentioned in the "Esquire" magazine article were all accurate: the number "1" was modulated into a combination of two tones of 700 Hz and 900 Hz, and the number "2" " is a combination of 700 Hz and 1100 Hz, the number "3" is a combination of 700 Hz and 1300 Hz, and so on. "Oh my! This stuff is real!" The two were inexplicably excited and kept repeating this sentence.Together, they completed the final assembly of the blue box, dialed a 555 toll-free number with apprehension, and then used the blue box to play the pre-set audio.Unfortunately, the first test was fruitless, as their blue box failed to fool the telephone switching system.The start time has come, Woz had to rush to Berkeley to attend class.But he never gave up, thinking about how to improve the blue box while attending class.A few weeks later, Woz proudly brought back the first working blue box to show Jobs. The first call the two made with the blue box was a randomly chosen number, area code 714.It was actually the phone number of a stranger in Orange Country, California.But Jobs thought the call was in another state.As soon as the call was connected, the young Jobs was extremely happy. He shouted into the receiver: "We are calling from California! We are calling from California! We are calling in a blue box!" If the stranger in Orange County knew , The harassing calls were made by the two Steves who later invented the Apple computer. I don't know how they would feel. In fact, Woz doesn't want to use the blue box to do illegal things, he just wants to prove that he is as good as the hacker in that article by designing the blue box.But Jobs was clearly interested in stealing free calls, and he was keenly aware that he could make money selling blue boxes.Jobs even got in touch with the famous hacker Captain Kacha mentioned in the "Esquire" magazine after several twists and turns, and demonstrated their blue box to Captain Kacha. One day, after parting from Captain Kacha, Jobs drove Woz back to his home because Woz parked the car at Jobs' house.On the highway, Jobs' car broke down and the engine lost power.With his superb driving skills, Jobs deftly parked the car in a safe area on the side of the road before the car came to a complete stop.The two walked into a gas station on the side of the road and wanted to use the pay phone inside the gas station to ask a friend for help.At this time, Jobs thought of the blue box again.He tried to call a friend's house with the blue box, but failed twice in a row.Suddenly, a policeman jumped out of nowhere.It happened so quickly that Jobs didn't even have time to hide the blue box in his hand. The policeman pointed to the blue box and asked the two of them, "What is this?" "This is a music synthesizer." The two said while pressing the button on the blue box to play several sounds of different frequencies. "Then... what is this orange button for?" The policeman looked at the two men vigilantly. The orange button is used to emit a 2600 Hertz sound, which is the key to hijacking the phone line.Woz didn't know how to answer, Jobs said first, "This is for sound proofing." At this time, a second policeman appeared.He took the blue box from the first policeman, looked at it carefully for a long time, and after asking the same question as the first policeman, he asked Jobs further: "How does this box work?" "Computer controlled," Jobs replied. "Computer? Where is the computer?" "Inside, the computer is attached to the box," Jobs replied, trembling all over. The two Steves who escaped in the end broke out in cold sweat.But the mischievous nature doesn't scare off the cops.Before long, the two of them were selling blue boxes among Berkeley students.Jobs procured $40 worth of components, Woz assembled them, and sold them for $150.Every time in front of the student "customer", Jobs always introduced the advantages of the blue box passionately like a professional salesman.Woz's technology, coupled with Jobs' marketing talent, the sales of the blue box are actually good. Still, the blue box was illegal, and Jobs and Woz had been nervous about the consequences. In 1972, Captain Kacha, a hacker who met two Steves, was arrested by the police for wire fraud.The two Steves had to give up the blue box business that lasted nearly a year.After that, Jobs went to study at Reed University (Reed College), and Woz went to work at Hewlett-Packard after graduating from his junior year.The two were temporarily separated for a while.When the two heroes of Steve meet again, Apple Computer is ready to be released.