Who knows what’s real anymore on the Internet, but over at MetaFilter someone posed a question about Steve Wozniak this morning and Wozniak, or someone posing as Wozniak, responded. (I’m guessing it’s the real deal, but won’t vouch.)
Here’s how it begins: “I am very happy to read these posts. It’s not easy to have notoriety and pretty much have accurate conceptions in the public mind. Virtually everything said here about me is accurate.
“I never wanted a spotlight or fame. I built computers and handed out schematics. I at first said ‘no’ to starting Apple because I loved my work at HP (Calculators) and could always design on the side.”
Sound like Woz?
Of course, one reason to be suspicious here — even if you’re not a journalist and even if this is post is genuine Woz — is that the real Wozniak is out flogging a book as we speak: “iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.”
If he was on a book tour, JD Salinger might post comments on blogs these days.
Co-written with journalist Gina Smith, “iWoz” is garnering mixed reviews, as evidenced by this one in the Washington Post.
More from that MetaFilter post this morning: “I don’t think you make $ with books, or I don’t think that I’m in that category,” Woz says. “I don’t look at how much I got for the book. I couldn’t even tell you closely how much I got as advances. I never looked at the checks.”
Now that sounds like Woz.
And, finally, whether it’s genuine or genuinely calculated, Woz’s story about “softening up” Stephen Colbert before his appearance on “The Colbert Report” is worth the click in and of itself.
