Walking through computer history with Apple cofounder Woz at the Computer History Museum

In this video we get a first peek at the 25,000-square-foot "Revolutions" exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, and curator Chris Garcia give us a tour around 2,000 years of computing history.
This exhibit opens to the public January 13th. We'll have a longer interview up at building43.com by the end of next week. Thanks to Rackspace, world's largest web hosting company, for making this tour possible.
www.computerhis... is the museum's website.

[@HudsonGTV]

Imagine being a tour guide and Steve Wozniak just walks in asking for a tour.

[@ProBloggerWorld]

That’s not too uncommon. A lot of very high profile people are frequently there. Usually hard to recognize, but known names after introduction. There are a lot of events where veterans show up to meet likeminded people. Pretty normal people, fantastic museum.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Oh yes, I can imagine.

[@MnemonicCarrier]

Wozniak's life experiences, intelligence, and enthusiasm for tech is intoxicating.

[@davidchang5862]

I love Steve Woz. He is simply someone who deserves our respect for his contribution to the Personal Computing space. And oh my, what a massive museum they have

[@skamithi]

Brilliant. Wish we could get other computer legends to share their stories like this.

[@georgesenda1952]

Woz is one of the nicest people ever.

[@howardroth7524]

Wow, thinking about how I used to punch up my Fortran programs on cards, bring them to the admin building, come back later in the day to pick up the printout of the results. No time for trial-and-error programming back in the day. Then I went on to college and had an assembly course in COMPASS, which was for the huge CDC mainframes. The school eventually learned not to let students use assembly on the same machine used to run the school. My minicomputer course had us enter our machine code programs via the toggle switches on the front panel of a PDP-8. What a pain that was with no storage either. After graduating I worked on a number of NCR minicomputers with those huge disk platters for storage. I then went on to a company that developed systems with Data General Nova's. I could go on, but I just love how Woz gets excited when he talks tech. It's a true passion he has which he always seemed to want to share with humanity. I've been to the Computer History Museum in Mountainview a few times and it's a blast to see even if you aren't a nerd. Thanks for posting this wonderful video of the pre-opening of the museum with a Woz walk about.

[@rty1955]

We had an IBM mainframe that was used for school work at night and students had hands on during the day. I coded in Assembly, COBOL, RPG, PL/1 on that machine. We had no problem with students using the schools computet

[@voidshell6273]

Woz' enthusiasm and passion is so cool

[@Pepespizzeria1]

A computer tour from woz, I'm in heaven

[@johnsilver5016]

Steve Wozniak's dad worked at Lockheed...the rest is history.

[@jmd1743]

I would have loved to hear an interview of his father. His father wasn't a rube for sure.

[@charlesashurst997]

We nerds live through workarounds, the Woz explains.

[@arricammarques1955]

Thank Christ, mate! : )

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Great video clip. I always love listening to the "Woz". Thanks for posting this.

[@vshearer]

Great to see this done. So many of his stories bring back memories.

[@CraigMansfield]

Great museum, and just the man to tell you about it.

[@georgesenda1952]

When I went to junior high school we all learned how to do measurements on a slide rule. I have forgotten how to use one. My late friend Delmar P. Maroney who died a few years ago at 80, used to be an electronics tech in the Navy & later a computer scientist, kept his and still knew how to use his. At various times he owned a TI, Apple 2, Atari and various PCs.

[@WJV9]

Slide rules were required for all engineering students in the 1960's, slide rules can multiply, divide, raise a number to a power and calculate log base 10 and log base e. They are limited to about 2 to 3 significant digits accuracy but usually enough to get a design done in mechanical or electrical engineering.

[@CraigMansfield]

That "hand grenade" calculator is amazing. Invented by a guy who was a prisoner of war, and who designed it in his mind. Genius. (Curt Herzstark) Curta calculator.

[@andreasklindt7144]

This was published in 2010 and only suggested to me in 2022. Wow! Thank you! That was very interesting!

[@mgatravel]

Fascinating insight from the Woz. You really feel like you were there. Cool museum too!

[@chap666ish]

Love the CDC 6600. I remember seeing the same type of console display on a CDC Cyber 72 in the 1970s - they were *so* Science Fiction!!! :-)

[@briansmith8967]

And the funky thing was that the CDC computers used 1's complement math instead of 2's complement!

[@henrymach]

Amazing thing to find out that Woz was a punch card hacker!

[@rwdplz1]

I loved this place when I lived out there, wish I had gone a few more times, there's so much to see.

[@justinl9077]

This is like if Henry Ford came through a time warp and appeared at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit and gave a tour.

[@PitoVH]

Woz is the man i need to download his knowledge to my brain!

[@lbmclean]

Woz is such a great man

[@borispolonski]

Woz is my lifetime inspiration!!!A true hero!!!

[@liminal27]

17:03 you're right, Steve - it is amazing when pioneers LIKE YOU build things with their own hands. 💙

[@miladirani4313]

He is my hero , i m from iran and have much respect for usa people and i love two apple's steve

[@MrSunDevil23]

The Great and Powerful Woz!!

[@pratiknaik8923]

Wow!!!..Must visit this museum. Thanks for sharing this!

[@mnlvill]

thanx for the tour @Scobleizer.

[@GH-oi2jf]

Woz just breezed through the Cray-1 without saying much about it. Here’s a good story: When Seymour Cray heard that Apple bought a Cray computer to use to design their next computer, he said “that’s interesting - I’m using an Apple to design my next computer.” I spent a lot of time sitting at CDC consoles like the one at 13:50.

[@Californiansurfer]

I visited museum which was great, so many memories which I made ibm clone computers and the cost of memory and google is down the street. It’s all based on logic either or One or zero. Binary. Downey California

[@patto2k358]

All those cameras, but where's their footage? Thanks for uploading this Mr. Scoble.

[@rty1955]

Footage? I didn't see any film cameras there

[@jwdewdney6757]

great tour! i was just there last week and wish we got such a tour

[@alphabeets]

This was superb! Thank you.

[@PaulCallanan1]

Great Histology of Computing.

[@rty1955]

There is a hands on computer museum in Rhode Island, where there is the only fully operational PDP-9 in the country. They have toms of machines that are all operational. Instead of just looking thru glass cases, you cam actually sit and use all of the computers

[@johngreen4610]

I bought my first computer in 1962 from Edmund Scientific Co. It was an analog computer, really an electrical slide rule, three potentiometers, a meter. and a switch. In 1969 I got some exposure to programming while working at Square Dog when one of my responsibilities was to enter some test data into an online system called IBM 360 Basic. While working for Doer Electric Co. their engineering dept. bought a 4 bit microcomputer intending to use it to develop a DC motor controller. When they got it they looked around for someone to assemble and test it so they had me take it home whence I got it set up & learned how to program it with toggle switches, the only output was a bank of LEDs. That was my introduction to machine language. In 1979 I went to work for IBM and happened to purchase an Apple II computer that same week because I just had to have one to calculate the orbit of Haley's comet arriving in just a few years but the first thing I did with it was to measure the speed of a .22 cal. bullet. I spent the next 20 years working as a Large Systems Customer Engineer. Computers have played a big role in my life. Woz has always been someone I admired very much and I would like very much to thank him for designing that gadget. That computer which was a store demonstrator I got for $1065 which I sold for $5000 two years ago. Did I make a killing? Introductory price $1,298 (equivalent to $5,800 in 2021). You decide, but I am happy.

[@me-cq7wv]

I worked at DEC Corp Scotland and has always had a place in my heart. Hail DEC

[@ObiTrev]

Do not pay attention to the Altair 8800 behind the plastic!

[@AbhijeetDesai]

awesome video !! was gr8 to get a tour though computer history by non other than the gr8 Woz !!!!

[@HaroldSchranz]

Enjoyed visiting the museum in 2010 as part of my WWDC2010 tour. The DEC machines (PDP-8, ...) were easily the most influential in the building. DEC was responsible for expanding the Internet, better RISC chips, first great search engine, C, Unix, ... best command line OS.

[@Ailsworth]

Old Buggs Bunny sometimes has a UNIVAC in it. I don't recall ever seeing an IBM. Didn't Wyle E. Coyote, Super Genius use a UNIVAC? Oh yeah he did. Definitely the most important antique in that building.

[@ace942]

Thanks so much for the video. Is there a second part to this video?

[@suprsonic]

Great video! Thanks for sharing. Love Woz.

[@pixelstrikegames6380]

I gotta check this place out!

[@activelow9297]

What a brilliant man he was... RIP Steve Wozniak.

[@idosounds]

He’s still alive. You’re probably thinking of Steve Jobs

[@substance1]

The Woz is one unbelievable engineer!

[@tobiapaterno8707]

Oh pity, it is missing the "Programma 101" by Olivetti.

[@cthoadmin7458]

Wonder if Woz does audiences like the pope? It would be an honour just to be in the same room as him and hear him speak on something.

[@haljohnson6947]

HP could've been the leader of the trillion dollar personal computing revolution - but instead they said 'no' five times.

[@Pepespizzeria1]

I always think jobs was at the right place right time but when you hear about xerox, IBM, HP who dropped the ball, I think again, personal computing wasn't a foregone conclusion

[@ufoengines]

Cool! I ran across this old digital computer patent 3190554 that used air to compute instead electricity. Think a tech high school could make one using 3D printing and make it an exhibit in your Museum? Bet if Babbage had gone this way he could have had his Difference Engine made by the folks who made pipe organs.

[@oak_meadow9533]

Consider the player piano

[@stephanevermette145]

Love that "Your cheatsheets are on paper!" ;-)

[@alphabeets]

This is why KZbin is so cool (when it is not censoring speech).

[@johnmadison3472]

Who doesn't love "Woz"?

[@monetize_this8330]

and... over here we have a machine that can play tic-tac-toe. it's called W.O.P.R which predates SkyNet by 26 years.

[@CoachCala]

You know what I like more than materialistic things? Knaaahledge!

[@kevinkawchak]

Great tour

[@mochymn2208]

this was awesome

[@senseisuarez]

I really enjoy it, thanks Robert for sharing !

[@tomservo5007]

wow, thanks for the upload! Woz FTW!

[@CoconutPete]

would like to meet woz one day

[@nicolek4076]

This is an interesting museum, but it should be more accurately called "US Computer History Museum". There are no few examples shown here of European developments that were no less important.

[@GH-oi2jf]

Good point, but it would be better to go to the UK National Museum of Computing to see the British contributions to computing than to bring them to this museum. There is just too much for one museum, and the people who know the British computers are mostly in the UK.

[@BonJody]

I'd just like to thank whomever invited the scantron machine for allowing me to finally spell out how I felt about my science teacher. And whomever created Oregon Trail for giving me a reason to pair up with Danny V. In 4th grade

[@Nothuman76]

6:03 explains it all...

[@NEIL-CURCIO]

Woz is an icon

[@devasissarangi]

This is really nice

[@Stefan9k]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! Really enjoyed it.

[@haljohnson6947]

"i saw pong at a bowling alley". He builds a pong computer from chips and codes it to run on his tv.

[@asdw1983]

Im sad I did not see this video in 2010

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

Wow for Wozniak!

[@WestFirstBooks]

Anyone know what kind of watch Steve was wearing in this video... Time stamp 11:07

[@aris95]

Everything that Woz does is cool.

[@Sielok16]

**Constantly looking for the IBM 7094**

[@-roejogan-]

Woz's Terminator story - @27:13

[@RobertGroves]

At 11:15: "... so you could have 5MB of data floating in a small space." LOL @ "small space"

[@gnimensky]

what a goat!! shoutouts scobleizer

[@nz9636]

Gotta love the WoZ.

[@turboslag]

Did I spy Fran Blanche in that tour group?!

[@2right4words]

shopkeepers still use abacus in the Midd1e East and in Ru$$ia.

[@turboslag]

Not surprising, difficult to hack an abacus!

[@urlton]

Is Woz's accent typical Californian?

[@ArizonaHarry]

Muscle,Body building ,

[@Matahalii]

Where is Zuse Z1 and Z3? ;-)

[@fredfarnackle5455]

The Woz=Genius!

[@i124qx]

precious simply awesome

[@stevebez2767]

Searching on eBay for round screened cdc that came through my 1980s(!) Dell Latitude while trying to install Linux it divided its disk into CMS SGI Aix UNIX cray Vax that I'd no idea why except had rigged a wireless dongle(before there was wi fi) used IBM sys/390 in Linux apps fir cuda parallels and openMP fortran boost pp! Kept thinking where I knew this stuff from until I saw this purple museum assembly which is alike the Dells passage thru Linux to become cluster running supercomputer Zos developments!

[@GeigerCounterVirtualMuseum]

Cool place

[@GospodinJean]

The Wizard Woz

[@LawrenceHobbs]

So no reference to Bletchley Park's Bombes or Colossus. Not American I guess.

[@GH-oi2jf]

This museum is for US computer history. There is a museum in the UK with Colossus and other British contributions to computing.

[@LawrenceHobbs]

@@GH-oi2jf I don't believe that it is just for US history. They show the German Enigma and mention that ENIAC was the world's first computer, which it wasn't, Colossus was but it was so secret that it wasn't acknowledged for many years especially by the Americans who liked being seen as first. ENIAC was built partly by people that were well aware of Colossus' design and workings. ENIAC was America's first computer if you don't count the several Colossus machines that were shipped over at the end of the war.

[@MuhammadAjmal-rg6fy]

omg only 674 likes. seriously !!!! people are really not interested in history.

[@arricammarques1955]

Digital masters & servants. However, Who is in control? Discuss.

[@kd1s]

Interesting that Wozniak say intro to Computer Science was a graduate level course. This is why in high schools teachers still think programming a computer is a black art - and that you need to have advance mathematics skill. I disabused that teacher in my report for the class. Wasn't very charitable in what I wrote - but come on, you're teaching kids Excel and not showing them that you can do cell based formulas? Damnation." And my experience on keypunch was on an IBM 029. Hated that machine.

[@GH-oi2jf]

It was a long time ago when Computer Science was only for graduate students. I was in one of the first undergraduate Computer Science programs in the 1960s.

[@xyrejamesyoui]

Steve plugging the iPhone there :P

[@madrix5667]

+Xyre - Jamesyoui He isn't remotely related to the iphone, you know? He didn't design or program anything for the iphone, he quit apple way before it was even imagined

[@xyrejamesyoui]

I didn't say he was? He still has stocks in Apple thougn, so I was making the joke that he was promoting it for monetary gain

[@madrix5667]

Xyre - Jamesyoui promoting it for what monetary gain? I guess you dont get that he's gicing this as an example because that's what pretty much everybody knows what an iphone is, not because of whatever monetary gains you are talking about...

[@xyrejamesyoui]

It was a joke.

[@madrix5667]

Xyre - Jamesyoui hum i dont get what you're saying, but w/e

[@Strange_Armour]

His nostrils are scary huge 😮

[@allanegleston4931]

i punched cards when i started , hated it.

[@mysiliconvalleyseries]

Woz: We keep asking, "Are we going to start building robots that are all of a sudden smarter than us and they take over?" Well, today's biggest robot - the biggest example of intelligence we have - is the internet. You used to ask a smart person a question. Now who do you ask? It starts with GO and it's not God.

[@mrrobertwolfiii1079]

Historical time science data collected transmission transfer. Museum of midern day marvel's

[@ELECTR0HERMIT]

Horrible experience for mister beard, explaining computers to visitors with Steve Wozniak right behind you..... has a slight dusting of cringe

[@proseinc123]

this guy makes me nervous

[@oak_meadow9533]

Hahaha there are 1000's of men smarter than Woz, soon they will be gone😢😢😢.

[@saganandroid4175]

Wozniak could not even get his first Apple to start up, which shows how weak his skills were. Sadly, Chuck Peddle came to Wozniak's home to help him fix his problems. Wozniak is a head-injured amnesiac (literally) who believes and repeats the myths that sprung up in his little cult of personality.

[@mgladders]

What are you talking about? He got his Apple I booted up himself. Peddle came to see his *Apple II* prototype, Jobs tried to sell it to him, Peddle declined - and made the far inferior Commodore PET. Woz had a plane crash and lost the ability to form memories for a period, but he recovered after about five weeks and is fine and healthy again. Where are you getting your information?

[@levicassidy9312]

he must be a MicroSOFT fanboy ;)

[@nz9636]

Please don't spread such misinformation. The WoZ is such a genuine kind human being; society has benefited tremendously from him & continues to.

[@howardroth7524]

Why wouldn't you get assistance from Peddle for 6502 issues? No one knew the processor more than him and Mensch - they designed it. You truly see Woz's brilliance when you see how he redesigned the floppy drive for the Apple II. There would be no Apple today without Woz.

[@saganandroid4175]

@@levicassidy9312 Nope, try again.