Second acts: Seven tech titans today

Steve Wozniak
One of the most popular icons of the early days of personal computing, Steve Wozniak (affectionately known as "The Woz") is famous for developing the Apple I and Apple II systems and for co-founding Apple Computer Inc. with Steve Jobs in 1976.

Shunning the fame that his more flamboyant partner seemed to court, Wozniak focused on hardware and software development for Apple. After being involved in a 1981 plane crash that caused him some memory loss, Wozniak left Apple temporarily and returned to the University of California, Berkeley, to complete his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science.

Steve Wozniak, photo by Alan Luckow

Woz went on to start CL 9, a universal remote control company, in 1985, and co-found the GPS company Wheels of Zeus (known as wOz) in 2001. He also spent time teaching fifth-graders in Los Gatos, Calif., and continues to donate computing equipment and technical support to the district.

These days, Wozniak serves as the chief technology officer and chief visionary officer at Jazz Technologies (formerly named Acquicor). It's the parent company of Jazz Semiconductor, a Newport Beach, Calif., foundry that, according to the Jazz Web site, is targeted at applications including wireless, optical, networking, power management, storage, aerospace/defense and other high-performance uses.

In his personal life, Wozniak lives in Silicon Valley, where he is a member of the Silicon Valley Aftershocks Segway Polo team. He is also touring in support of his just-released autobiography, iWoz. According to recent Hollywood scuttlebutt, he is currently dating comedienne Kathy Griffin.

Wozniak has always been a fan of robotics. In a recent interview with IDG Now, he discusses, among other things, why a single robot will never be able to make a cup of coffee and how he is currently focusing on making his home entirely energy-efficient.

For more info on The Woz, see his Web site.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article included the misleading statement that Philippe Kahn "spent a great deal of [Borland]'s money distributing copies of jazz albums on which he played saxophone." In fact, he spent his own money producing the albums, and Borland spent about $5,000 distributing them. Also, he played flute, not saxophone, on the albums.

George Jones is the senior vice president/creative director of IDG Entertainment.

	Unsung Innovators Jean Bartik, ENIAC computer programmer David Bradley, inventor of the 'three-fingered salute' Lynn Conway and Carver Mead, VLSI chip pioneers Marty Goetz, holder of the first software patent Andy Hertzfeld, original Macintosh OS designer Robert Kahn, the 'stepfather' of the Internet Ted Nelson, hypertext creator Brad Templeton, funny man on a 'dot-com' mission Gary Thuerk, father of spam Ray Tomlinson, who put the @ in e-mail addresses Second acts: Seven tech titans today

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