I'm going to announce the industry legends we've confirmed attendance for at this year's Classic Gaming Expo at the Classic Gaming Expo site, but in this forum I'm going to detail them so you can take note of which games and items that you might want to bring along for signatures!
Steve Wozniak
Biography from The Inventor Hall of Fame www.invent.org
All his life, Steve Wozniak has loved projects that require him to think. In sixth grade, he built his own amateur radio station and earned a ham-radio license. At age 13, he built his first computer, and in high school, he was president of the electronics club.
After graduating from Homestead (Calif.) High School in 1968, Wozniak attended the University of California-Berkeley. In the mid-1970's, he designed calculator chips for Hewlett Packard. Then, in 1976, Wozniak and Steve Jobs, also a Homestead grad, founded Apple Computer, Inc. with the Apple I computer. The company, begun as a two-man operation in Jobs' garage, grew to a $500-million-a-year company in six years. Wozniak left Apple in 1981, went back to Berkeley and finished his degree in electrical engineering/computer science. Since then, he has been involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools, including an initiative in 1990 to place computers in schools in the former Soviet Union.
Wozniak's strong belief in education has prompted him to donate computers and even entire computer labs to schools; servers and Internet access to students; laptops for students and computer training for teachers and students. Wozniak's time now is devoted mostly to his own interests. His belief in hands-on learning and in encouraging freethinking and creativity in youngsters continues to be his driving force.
Biography from Wozniak's own www.woz.org
A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for the past three decades, Steve Wozniak, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Wheels of Zeus (wOz), helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple's first line of products the Apple I and II and influenced the popular Macintosh. For his achievements at Apple Computer, Steve was awarded the National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States in 1985, the highest honor bestowed America's leading innovators.
In 2000 Steve was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment for “single-handedly designing the first personal computer and for then redirecting his lifelong passion for mathematics and electronics toward lighting the fires of excitement for education in grade school students and their teachers.”
Making significant investments of both his time and resources in education, Wozniak “adopted” the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment. Wozniak founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was the founding sponsor of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet and Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.
Steve is currently a member of the board of directors for Jacent, a developer of cost-effective telephony solutions, and Danger, Inc., developer of a end-to-end wireless Internet platform.
Other Info
Born Aug. 11, 1950
* 1972 U. Colorado, DeAnza, U. C. Berkeley (EECS program)
* 1976 Hewlett Packard, designing calculator chips
* 1979 designed early Apple Computer products
* 1984 heavy computer group speaking schedule
* 1983 US Festivals, San Bernardino CA
* 1983 sponsor, first 3 USSR space bridges
* 1990 San Jose CPA additions, San Jose Cleveland Ballet, Tech Museum (first major sponsor), Children's Discovery Museum, other local projects
* 1984 Democratic convention delegate (Hart)
* 1987 BS EECS U.C. Berkeley
* 1987 sponsor, first joint US/USSR stadium rock concert (Moscow)
* 1990 sponsor, computers for schools in USSR (through U.S./U.S.S.R. Iniative, Sharon Tenneson)
Major donor to needy goups and students
Uncountable awards from technology and community groups
* 1996 computer support for Los Gatos Unified School District, 11 modern labs, technology planning, computer lab plannings and wirings, school LAN planning and wirings, district WAN planning and providing and supporting (for now), classes for teachers on basic computer usage, classes for teachers on network topics, classes for 5th graders each year covering homework preparation, computer understanding, computer maintenance, networks, etc (200 hours for the year), classes for advanced students (5th through 8th grade) covering advanced graphics, photography, video, sound, networks, programming.
Provided hundreds of laptops for local students, I've never taken one back
Provided hundreds of America Online accounts for students and ex-students.
Provided servers and Internet access for students and teachers locally