Return to A "Short" Bio - Millisecond of Fame? ;-))

A Founder of Apple
Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

Table of Contents




My first (and only) meeting with Steve Jobs in 1976



I just got a copy of a biography of Steve Jobs,
  "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson,
  I highly recommend it   !!
 

---------- beginning of little story -------------------

Greg Oros ?Orros? was a meek, mild young techie at
  Measurex who wanted me to go with him
  to an interview at a "start up".

The young man would be married soon,
  and figured these  choices:
     - Measurex - little likely future
     - a little company -
     - go back to Benton Harbor, Michigan
           to work for/with his fiance's father.

So we went to a white house, ( must have been in the fall of 1976 )
    ( evidently it was 2066 Crist Drive, Los Altos - from page 14 above book )
    and were met at the door by another very young man,
      -  not meek and mild
      - just the exact opposite - a VERY self-assured presence.

We were taken to the attached garage, where there were maybe
     25 Apple boards in a wooden rack -
  and the presence (Steve Jobs) explained that 50 boards
     had just been assembled and soldered (at some company)
       and these 25 needed fixing   -

    Was Greg Oros interested in this kind of job?

I don't think Steve Jobs wasted one word - VERY direct !!!

  And I remember the garage was painted white inside -
     Ever since,  I have painted my garages white inside !!

AH -- back to my meek and mild friend -- Greg Oros --

Being a frequenter of the "Home Brew Club"
      my millisecond of fame.  ;-) 
I was VERY aware of many bubbling and failing computer company efforts.
   Also aware of the trials and turbulence and long hours
      of a start up.

   I didn't think that meek, mild Greg Orros would like to
      start married life in that environment. ---

If Greg Orros disagrees, I hope he has forgiven me.

Hmmm - according to page 104 above, 
   Steve Jobs did not give hourly employees any stock options
        only the salaried engineers, administrators and investors.
   Woz gave some of his options to the hourly employees,
        feeling they got screwed by Jobs.
   Probably Greg Orros would not have gotten so rich after all --

----------------- end of little story ----------------------------

Ed Thelen



----------------- oh -  continuing to babble on ---------------

   The First Computer for our Family.

I had considered buying an Apple I for the family -
   even bought the recommended transformer -
   but decided this hack was unsuitable !!

Lots of turbulence in the computer world - in 1977 !!

Friends had Apple ][ machines,
   but there was a complexity -
    to save or retrieve your files, 
      you needed to hook up a tape recorder,
      make sure the volume was correct,
      and play/record rather manually.
   (Steve Wozniak did his beautiful floppy disk
        interface a year or so later.)

The Commodore PET was announced with a built in tape recorder,
    and no complication of setting a correct volume
    wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET
so I bought the first Commodore PET delivered into 
    a local Cupertino store 
      - which was fortunately the 8 K RAM model.

So - 3 kids and daddy wanted to play with the 
    Commodore PET  !!!
So, I set up a computer schedule sheet,
   just like those at work  ;-))
Soon we had to have other rules,
   such as no access to the computer after say 10 PM
    (except for Daddy of course  ;-))

Soon 15 year old Randy was getting
   special perks ( cash under the table? )
   for lurking at a local computer store,
   showing and selling computers.
Soon I had added a little circuitry to drive
      a little printer to the HPIB port.
      (I could print out the programs we were writing.)
   Then got some Japanese DRAMs and
       made an additional 16 K memory.
       (So I could port/run FORTH to/on it.)


And I still like the PET :-))


My youngest son at Apple Soon 17 year old Randy was working at Apple as a contractor. I guess the contractor was not fussy about age, and Apple didn't know. (Randy was big and bold for his age ;-)) ( On Randy's 21st birthday, I served Randy his first legal drink. He had introduced me to "Long Island Iced Tea", at local bars, several years earlier ;-)) After a few years, Randy, and his boss, quit to go to college to avoid the "glass ceiling" of no degree. There was also something about working on a rather poor operating system, Copland. After college (business to broaden his horizons) he had adventures at other computer oriented companies. Randy went back to Apple in 2007. He says its the best job he's ever had !!! Unfortunately, he might as well work for the CIA, "I can neither confirm nor deny" ... anything. He does actually work at Apple 'cause he gets the employee's discount. And I have an Apple MacBook AIR - and love its light weight and style ;-)) My three "kids" are Apple bigots, this was my first Apple purchase - a beauty ;-))
About the book As stated above I just got a copy of the authorized biography "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, I highly recommend it !! ** I have had no desire to work for that obnoxious S.O.B. even though my favorite customer was a calm, very demanding fellow ** Tales of Steve Jobs have abounded in "Silicon Valley" for years. The book documented some more "quirks" - Steve's automobiles did not have license plates - Steve parked in the "handicapped" zones at Apple and elsewhere The book did not clarify how Steve got away with the above. The book depressed me for a few days. Few people call me a "nice guy", I don't give money to beggars who look as though they are on drugs. However, I was appalled by Steve Jobs - Does it really take an a@@hole to torment/drive people to make "insanely great" products? I'm almost embarrassed to have purchased an Apple product. My reasons for not purchasing Apple ( after the Apple ][ ) were that I like to do unusual Input/Output but Steve's boxes were largely sealed. ( a loud complaint about his Next computer, no floppy disk ) I was into amateur seismology at the time the original Mac came out. Being in lust with the Motorola 68000, I REALLY wanted to connect a Mac to my seismograph and clock for recording and signal processing. I spent a whole day calling into Apple for how to add non-standard Inputs/Outputs to the original Mac, and got nowhere - so interfaced the seismograph to my PC. Heck, Steve would not even let you open the box to add a hard drive, a complete contrast to Wos's Apple ][ The book did not include the story that while John Scully and Steve Jobs were still at Apple together, John had a hard drive and fan added to his Mac ( by an outside firm ).
Interesting Links > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Steve Jobs -- Charlie Rose conversations > From: dave < dnl1962@gmail.com > ... > A conversation in 1996 with Steve & director John Lasseter > about Pixar's "Toy Story" > http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11932 > And, here's the hour-long set of conversations which I saw > on TV early Monday (and later tried twice to record it but, > that was not the same show). > http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11934 > A Tribute to Steve Jobs with... > Eric Schmidt, Google > Marc Andreessen, Netscape (Mozilla) > Steve Wozniak, H-P, Apple, Cloud9 ... Your pair of URLs (above) are outstanding !!! I highly recommend your suggestions to folks who are Steve Jobs and/or Apple watchers