Steve Wozniak: a Satisfied True Reader
(Updated! See below.)
Date: 18 Aug 99 11:07:03 -0700
Subject: This is True testimonial
From: Steve Wozniak
To: Randy CassinghamFor as long as I can remember I've been attracted to unusual news items that are a bit weird and unbelievable. One of the biggest kicks for me is telling others these unbelievable stories and keep them guessing whether I'm making it up or not. So I don't collect stories from the front page. Everyone has seen those. I look for good stories on the inner pages of newspapers.
"This is True" was meant for someone with my interests. When I was first presented with a gift subscription to "This is True" I didn't expect much. I figured that it would be a rehash of news articles that I was already familiar with. But, lo and behold, I've rarely encountered the articles that I receive every few days from "This is True". They are culled from news sources around the world and are often the great, unusual, articles that didn't get picked up by the local newspapers.
I've almost never received "This is True" without laughing out loud at something within it. Each article has an brief appended comment that is dry enough to add a little humor. I think so highly of "This is True" that I even purchased many subscriptions for good friends. My friends generally like humorous stories also.
I'm in no way compensated by "This is True". I never give testimonials for products that I don't like or don't use.
Steve Wozniak, http://woz.org
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Steve Wozniak is the co-founder, with Steve Jobs, of Apple Computer Corp. He was the design genius behind the Apple I and the Apple II, while Jobs concentrated on business development and marketing. He has been a Premium subscriber since 1998, and in 1999 bought Premium subscriptions for dozens of his friends.
It took a few years, but Woz was finally featured in True -- in the 1 August 2004 issue:
Who's Calling?
Law enforcement officials need to learn to differentiate between criminal hackers who cause damage to computer systems and benign hackers just trying to learn how things work, says industry pioneer Steve Wozniak. Addressing a conference of presumably the latter type of hackers in New York, Wozniak described how he learned to hack the long distance telephone network from another early hacker, John "Captain Crunch" Draper, named for using a whistle packed in Cap'n Crunch cereal in the early 1970s to control the phone network. As a teenage prank, Wozniak, now 53, says he used the techniques Draper taught him to call the pope. (New York Times) ...In response to his questions the pope replied yes, a pope could be Polish and no, never in the woods.
And yes, Woz is still a Premium subscriber -- as is his long-time friend John "Captain Crunch" Draper.