iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon

Book excerpt: Wozniak describes prankster days, harrowing adventures

The following is an edited chapter from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's book, ``iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon,'' ($25.95), to be released Monday by W.W. Norton and Co. In it, Wozniak describes his prankster side, playing with a device called a ``Blue Box,'' that allowed a person to make free telephone calls.

Losing my Pinto changed my life completely. One of the major parts of my life at Berkeley was taking groups of people down to Southern California or even as far south as Tijuana, Mexico, on weekends. Actually, my first thought after the crash wasn't, ``Oh, thank God I'm alive,'' but ``Man, now I'm not going to be able to take my friends on wild adventures anymore.''

The car crash was the main reason that, after this school year, my third year at Berkeley, I went back to work instead of coming back to school. I needed to earn money, not just for the fourth year of college but also for a new car.

If I hadn't gotten in the car accident that year, I wouldn't have quit school and I might never have started Apple. It's weird how things happen.

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But for the rest of the year at Berkeley, I kept playing with my Blue Box. Captain Crunch's design had given me an idea: to add a single little button where I could preprogram a ten-digit number.

The number I chose to dial was this weird .. Read more..