The engineer in me wants to use and test a product before judging it. I compared my first iPod to my then-favorite, with no moving parts, the Diamond Rio 500. There's something pure about having no moving parts other than electrons. But the Diamond Rio took about a thousand dollars in memory cards to store the music I wanted for a plane flight. I also compared it to my Sony MiniDisc player, which I carried on every trip. With the MiniDisc, it was cheap to record your own music. Just putting these machines side by side, I couldn't say the iPod was superior. But after using the iPod on one plane flight, something about it felt natural and intuitive. It felt so right, and I knew I'd never go back to the other players. Now I can see that the iPod has changed the world. There's no doubt about it. I think it was the first special thing to happen to music since the Sony Walkman (portable music player) came out. And the iPod had something even bigger going for it. Unlike other MP3 players that were com
ing out at the time, it had its own software that Apple designed (iTunes) and it treated your computer as the center of things. The computer, your main computer, is where all the music can really be stored. The iPod is really a satellite. And that turned out to be the perfect way to do things.
It was exactly the right paradigm. And wow, it makes so much sense that Apple was the one to come up with it. After all, Apple's whole history is making both the hardware and the software, with the result that the two work better together. That's why Apple computers historically worked better than IBM-compatible PCs, where any company could make the hardware and someone else would make the software. So with the iPod, Apple made iTunes the software and iPod the hardware. They work together as one. Amazing! It's only because Apple supplied both sides of the equation—the hardware and the software—that it was able to create a product as great as this.
I'm proud now. I'm especially proud not just because Apple turned around, but because it turned around in a way so in line with our early values. Those values were about excellence in product design—so excellent that people would drool over the idea of having that product. Those values were about an emotional feeling—a feeling of fun. Like the way we decided to have color on the Apple II in the early days, back when nobody thought it would happen. I'm so proud that Apple has gotten back to the important things.
• o •
If you're as lucky as I've been, then you'll get to live in a time when you're young just as a revolution is about to take off. Just like Henry Ford was there for the automotive industry, I was there to see and build the first personal computers.
Back in the mid-1990s when I was teaching school, I thought one time to myself, Wow, I wish I could be twelve now, look at the things I could do with what's out there now.
But then I realized I was lucky. I got to see the before, the during, and the after of some of those changes in life. I got to be one of those few people who could effect some of those changes.
Excellence came to me from not having much money, and also from having good building skills but not having done these products before.
I hope you'll be as lucky as I am. The world needs inventors— great ones. You can be one. If you love what you do and are willing to do what it takes, it's within your reach. And it'll be worth every minute you spend alone at night, thinking and thinking about what it is you want to design or build. It'll be worth it, I promise.
Glossary
adapter
See
expansion card.
American Radio Relay League
The ARRL is the national membership association for amateur radio operators. According to the ARRL's official website,
http://www.arrl.org
, the U.S. started licensing amateur radio operators in 1912.
analog
Before digital technology, electronic transmission was strictly analog—that is, electrical signals were created, stored, and manipulated in terms of waves and their frequency and amplitudes. TV, telephones, and radios traditionally use analog technology. That's beginning to change now. An analog signal can be represented as a series of sine waves. The term originated because the modulation of the carrier wave is analogous to the fluctuations of the human voice or other sound that is being transmitted. See sine wave.
AND gate
See
logic gate.
assembler
A program that converts basic computer instructions into a pattern of Os and Is that a computer processor can understand. The result is often called "assembler" or "assembly" language.
assembler language
In a computer's assembler language, a language statement generally corresponds to a single instruction. In higher-level languages, like C or Pascal, a language statement can result in multiple instructions. See assembler.
atom
The smallest particle that can combine with other atoms to form physical elements.
BASIC
A simple and popular computer programming language. Originally designed by IBM engineers John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz in 1963
,
BASIC
is well known for being easy to learn and widely available for most types of computers.
bit
Short for binary digit, this is the smallest unit of data in a computer. It carries a single value, 0 or 1. Eight bits equals a byte. Thirty-two bits is called a "word." See byte.
board
See motherboard.
Boolean algebra
See also logic gate. The term "Boolean" is used to describe a type of logic pioneered by early nineteenth-century English mathematician George Boole. It is used to describe a common type of searching on websites where the terms "and" or "or" are used to narrow or expand results. For example, you might search for all websites containing the words Steve AND Wozniak, or choose to search for websites that have either the words Steve OR Wozniak, which would broaden your results considerably. In Boolean algebra, AND and OR are called "operators."
Electromagnetically, Boolean algebra can be used to describe whether circuit states or memory locations are 1 (On, Charged, or True) or 0 (Off, Not Charged, or False). Engineers can design computers that use an AND gate and an OR gate operation to obtain a result that can be used for the next step in a computational task. To do this, an engineer would have to understand the following basic Boolean algebraic rules:
0 AND 0 = 0 1 AND 0 = 0 1 AND 1 = 1 0 OR 0 = 0 0 OR 1 = 1 1 OR 1 = 1
bus
The transmission path of signals in a computer or on a network. Every device connected to the computer along this path, or bus, can potentially receive or generate signals. Devices connected to the computer via expansion slots communicate with the computer via a special expansion bus.
byte
A unit of data equal to eight bits. Usually represented in multiples rounded off from the powers of two. For instance, a megabyte (a million bytes) is actually worth 2 to the twentieth power—1,048,576. According to most accounts, IBM engineer Dr. Werner Buchholz invented the term in 1956. See bit.
character
A printable on-screen symbol that typically depicts text, a numeral, or a punctuation mark. In computers, there are a limited number of symbols you can use as a character. The reigning standard is called the "ASCII set" (pronounced ASK-KEE), from the American Standards Committee.
chip
Short for microchip, this term refers to the amazingly complex and tiny modules that contain logic circuitry that perform functions or act as memory for a computer. Most typically, a chip is manufactured from a silicon wafer and then etched with circuits and other devices in a clean, controlled environment. Chips are sometimes also referred to as "ICs," or integrated circuits.
chip set
A group of integrated circuits (microchips) that can be combined to perform a single function. They are usually sold in a unit— that is, a set.
compiler
A special program that takes statements written in a certain computer language and translates them into machine language that a computer processor can understand.
CPU
Short for central processing unit, this is the chip or, previously, the set of chips that contained all the logic circuitry in a computer responsible for running computer program instructions. These days, it is more common to call a CPU a "processor" or a "microprocessor."
current
Measured in amperes (amps, or A), current is the flow of electrons or other electrical charge carriers. It can either be direct (DC), flowing in the same direction at all points in time, or alternating (AC). The number of AC signals, in which the flow of electrons changes frequency periodically, is measured in cycles per second (hertz) and is called its frequency. See frequency.
debug
The process of locating and fixing (or bypassing) bugs and other errors in computer program code or on a computer hardware device. The term "debugging" refers to a procedure that begins with naming a problem, isolating its source, and fixing the problem at its source. This is a necessary procedure in the building and design of any computer software or hardware program.
digital
A term describing electronics that creates, stores, and manipulates data as defined in only one of two possible states—1 or 0 (On or OfQ. Each one of these state digits is called a "bit," and a string of eight bits together is called a "byte." See bit; byte.
diode
An electronic device that restricts current flow to one direction only.
diskette
A removable storage medium for personal computers. Until the early 1990s, most personal computers used
a
"floppy" format, 5.25- inch flexible magnetic disks set inside plastic envelopes. Most personal computers these days use a smaller, rigid 3.5-inch diskette format.
DRAM
Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is today the most common kind of memory chip available for computers. The term "random access" refers to a CPU's ability to rapidly find data (in the form of Is and Os) stored on computer memory chips—and do so directly. Before DRAM, CPUs had to access the data in memory sequentially, by starting at the beginning of the stored data and proceeding forward. The term "dynamic" means the memory chip has to be continually refreshed electrically to retain its information.
dynamic random-access memory
See
DRAM
.
EEPROM
Short for electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, this is a type of read-only memory that can be erased and repro-grammed with new data for a limited number of uses, typically by applying high electrical voltage to the chip. See
EPROM; PROM.
electron
A negatively charged subatomic particle. In electrical conductors, electronic current is the result of moving electrons from atom to atom—that is, from negative to positive poles. In semiconductor materials, current also results from moving electrons.
electronic gate
See logic gate.
ENIAC
The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer was one of the first true computers in the world. The U.S. Army completed it in 1946—its purpose was to calculate ballistic firing tables for the Ballistics Research Laboratory. The ENIAC (pronounced EENIE-ACK) was built at the University of Pennsylvania by researchers J. Presper Eck- ert and John William Mauchly.
EPROM
Short for erasable programmable read-only memory, this is a type of programmable read-only memory chip with contents that can be erased and reused. Old data is erased if it is exposed to an especially intense ultraviolet light. See
EEPROM; PROM.
expansion card
Also simply called a "card," "board," or "adapter," these circuit boards typically bring increased functionality to a computer. A user plugs an expansion card into one of the computer's expansion slots, effectively adding circuitry to the computer. See motherboard; slot.
expansion slot
Also called a "slot," this is a connector that allows the addition of expansion boards (or cards), circuit boards that bring more capability to a computer. For instance, a user might plug in an expansion card to add a high-end data plotter or scanner to a computer. These days, all desktop computers come with expansion slots that allow you to increase functionality in this way.
floppy
See diskette.
FORTRAN
Short for FORmula TRANslation, this computer language was designed especially for use by mathematicians, engineers, and scientists. These days, such scientific users typically instead use the C programming language.
frequency
Measured in hertz (Hz), frequency is the number of complete cycles per second. For instance, a current measured at 60 cycles per second would be rendered 60 Hz. Megahertz (MHz) and gigahertz (GHz) represent millions and billions of cycles per second, respectively.
gigabyte
A gigabyte is an amount of computer data roughly equal to a billion bytes—that is, 2 to the thirtieth power, or 1,073,741,824. See bit; byte; kilobyte.
hard disk drive
Also referred to as "hard drive," "disk drive," and "hard disk," this refers to a permanent storage device used by computers. These days, computers can store billions of bytes (gigabytes) of data on their built-in hard disks. If you could see one inside, a hard disk is actually like a mini stack of disks, not unlike the music albums that preceded CDs. They have concentric tracks on their disks, with stored data located throughout the track. The drive typically has two heads, one on each side of each disk, reading data from or writing data to a disk. If you are saving a letter you wrote on a word processor, you are saving it to a hard disk.