The Man That Changed the World|改变世界的男人

The Man That Changed the World

by Brian Foden

Steve Jobs was a visionary that was always ahead of his time.

　　Steve Jobs grew up in the area south of San Francisco known as Silicon Valley. He lived in a neighborhood of engineers whose weekend activities consisted of working on electronics and other gizmos in their garages. This shaped Jobs' interest in the field as he grew up. When he was 14, Jobs met one of the most important people in his life—19-year-old electronic whiz kid Stephen Wozniak. Five years later, Jobs enrolled at Reed College, an expensive liberal college in Oregon which his parents couldn't really afford. Jobs turned out to be more interested in Eastern philosophy and fruitarian diets than academic studies and dropped out after just one semester. He then lived in a commune where his main activity was growing apples. After a few months, Jobs went back to San Francisco and found a job at Atari, a popular video game company. He used his salary to take a trip to India in order to search for enlightenment. Eventually, he returned to California and began to take an interest in what his friend Wozniak was up to.

　　Wozniak was attending regular meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club, which was a group of computer hobbyists. These guys were the real pioneers of the personal computer. Wozniak wanted to build his own motherboard so he could build his own computer. With the knowledge he gained from these meetings and his own exceptional talent, Wozniak accomplished his goal. Jobs quickly saw the business potential. There were lots of software hobbyists and soon they would be able to write software without having to assemble a computer kit first because Jobs convinced Wozniak to start a company just for this purpose. On April 1, 1976, Apple Computer was born.

 

改变世界的男人

史帝夫‧贾伯斯是永远走在时代前端的先驱。

　　史帝夫‧贾伯斯生长于旧金山南部一处以硅谷之名而为人所知的地区。他住在一个住满工程师的社区，这些工程师周末的活动就是在车库里研究电子设备和其他小玩意。这让贾伯斯在成长过程中对这个领域产生了兴趣。十四岁那一年，贾伯斯遇见了他人生中最重要的人之一──十九岁的电子奇才史帝芬‧渥兹尼克。五年后，贾伯斯进入理德学院就读，这是一所位于奥勒冈州、学费相当昂贵的通识学院，而事实上他父母根本负担不起学费。结果贾伯斯对东方哲学和水果饮食的兴趣远比学校功课来得高，而且他只读了一个学期就休学了。他后来住在另一个社区，在那里他主要的活动就是种苹果。几个月后，贾伯斯回到了旧金山，并在雅达利这家很受欢迎的电动玩具公司找到了工作。他为了寻求启发，便用他的薪水到印度旅游。最后，他回到了加州，并开始对他的朋友渥兹尼克在做的事情产生了兴趣。

　　渥兹尼克会定期参加私人计算机社团所举办的集会，这个社团是由一群计算机爱好者所组成的团体。这些人是个人计算机真正的先驱。渥兹尼克想要打造自己的主机板，好让他可以组装自己的计算机。藉着由这些会议中得到的知识，以及本身过人的天份，渥兹尼克达成了他的目标。贾伯斯很快地便看见了商机。有许多软件的爱好者，而且不久他们就可以不用先组装整台计算机而可以撰写软件，这是因为贾伯斯说服了渥兹尼克为了这个目的而开了一家公司。1976 年四月一日，苹果计算机诞生了。