Steve Wozniak's floating point routines for the 6502

Post by dhosek » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 3:30 AM UTC

naikrovek wrote: post #50

redis_mlc wrote: post #10

Woz was scary good at both hw and sw (author of Apple BASIC.) If you have time, go through his various Apple documents online. I believe he was never the same after his small plane crashed. (Back then, wealthy people used small planes like ATVs, and had about the same safety record.) I worked with another hw engineer of similar ability back in the 80s. Mind-blowing watching him just pick up a pen and draw out a compl…

Lots of people were scary good at these things early on. Not everyone was as good as Woz, of course. When you can fit the entire architecture into your head, all the way down to the chips and board layout, you'll find that you're capable of quite a lot on that platform. A human with a skillet that has scaled up as much as computing hardware has scaled up is going to be virtually impossible to find, if not actually im…

Post by jcl » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:01 AM UTC

constmu wrote: post #73

There are a couple of famous books for reading Steve Jobs' biography. Are there similarly good books to read about Steve Wozniak's biography?

Post by pg_is_a_butt » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:17 AM UTC

justinjlynn wrote: post #75

While I think Woz sets a good example, they're human - and I'm sure they've done and/or said things that are less than one might expect and which one probably wouldn't approve of or condone - or perhaps which one might even condemn. I'd caution against canonising people - it sets too high a standard; which no one real can meet.

Post by blueberry_47 » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:33 AM UTC

canada_dry wrote: post #63

justinjlynn wrote: post #45

Steve Wozniak is one of the few people of note in the tech industry who, the more I learn about them, seems more and more worthy of my respect. When I hear others speak of their sense of humour, how they stuck by their friends even when those friends clearly took advantage of them, the work and exemplary engineering skill they so clearly poured into their projects, their financial success and, then after having enjoy…

Maybe not in the same category (i.e. electronic design), but the other guy that I admire the hell outof is Adam Savage. The guy is just bloody brilliant at D-I-Y and, like Woz, a down-to-earth-nice-guy. I've had the great pleasure of meeting both men and they dispelled the myth about meeting your heroes.

Post by Gibbon1 » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:42 AM UTC

redis_mlc wrote: post #47

Gibbon1 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a description why aircraft like the Bonanza A36TC are more unforgiving. I think he said because because of higher power, higher speeds, and airfoils to match these aircraft can rapidly leave the stable flight envelop. It takes fast reflexes and knowing what you are doing to get them back. And because they are fast they'll fall out of the sky very quickly in a stall. Fast reflexes comes from being young or bein…

> It takes fast reflexes ... No, most Bonanza owners are mid-career doctors, dentists and lawyers. Never seen a teen fly one. Also, you generally have a second or two at least to deal with issues. Hence the old saw about "winding your watch before reacting to an airliner emergency." > There is a reason the air force trains 20 year old's to fly jet fighters. I talked to an ex-Air Force, now civilian flight school owne…