Woz

This weekend while you are locked away wrapping last minute holiday gifts and frantically searching for the television remote, pause one moment and give thanks for Steve Wozniak, even if you do not Apple. 

Shortly after the dinosaurs moved away, Walt Disney invented television with 3 or 4 channels and something called UHF and said it was good.  And so it was until Ted Turner invented cable television with 30 channels, called it the next best thing and gave his blessing.  Ted's thumb in the eye to Walt came packaged with a remote television channel changer. A man could could sit back in his favorite recliner and change channels to his heart's content without getting up.  The remote changer was so cool no one except Woz noticed it was wired to the cable box. 

When Woz was through designing Apple I, II and Macintosh computers he left Apple and hung his own shingle on a company called CL 9.  CL 9's claim to fame was that they developed and in 1987 brought to market the world's first programmable, wireless, universal television remote.  While never taking credit, the brains behind their precious gift to the world was former blue box builder Steve Wozniak.  Hardly a grandmother since has tripped over a TV remote cable.

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