Reborn America, this is my time

Chapter 44 i Woz
Ethan Jones has actually figured out that Steven Levy and his group may not really want to trouble Jobs and the others. The biggest appeal of these people is nothing more than to find someone to take the blame for the failure of the Altair 8800. , in an attempt to prove their innocence in this way, after all, problems with this expensive machine occurred in their hands.

Therefore, when Ethan Jones slapped the table and said 'I have money', Steven Levy and the others immediately fell silent. They discussed together for a while, and then Ethan Jones and the others Brought to Menlo Park, the owner's house.

When we arrived, the owner was not at home. After some inquiries, we found him at a nearby post office.

After a brief negotiation, the owner also understood their intentions and readily accepted the repair proposal.

And before taking everyone home, the guy with the round cheeks said to Steve Jobs and his friends apologetically, "Oh Steve, I'm so sorry, if it wasn't for my few The day is too busy, and I need to sort out my personal files and mail them to SSA, then I will definitely disassemble Altair for inspection."

"I've always thought it was going to be a minor issue that could be fixed with a bit of time."

"It may be that the items are more expensive. Their emotions are a bit extreme. Please forgive me."

Hearing these words made Jobs and the others feel much more at ease.

The other group of people pursed their lips and did not speak.

Such a situation also made the owner smile and turn his eyes. When he looked at Ethan, a smile appeared on his face.

He took the initiative to reach out and said, "Ethan Jones? The inventor of "Snake Game"? Oh~ I read the report in the "Los Angeles Times"~ I even played your game~ It's very good! I like it very much! It's you Designing a game that is too difficult, and I spent more than a dozen dollars without success, it really makes me sad..."

"Really? That's really regrettable."

Ethan smiled back and said, "Of course, thank you for liking, thank you for liking my game."

Now that the owners are so friendly, the next steps are very simple.

Back at the owner's house, led by the other party, a group of people saw Altair 8800 in his study.

It was an iron box about the size of a modern computer mainframe, but it was placed horizontally. There were many joysticks on the front panel, and there were one or two red indicator lights on each joystick.

After plugging in the power, under the operation of Steven Levy and his group, everyone quickly discovered where the machine was malfunctioning.

That is the third rocker from left to right, no matter how it is fiddled, the indicator light above it will not light up.

"We don't know if it's a joystick problem or a light problem." Steven Levy said, "Because we haven't touched this before, and it's expensive, we have no way to troubleshoot it based on experience." Fault."

This fact made the owner, Gordon, nod slightly, his eyes cleared, and he looked at Jobs' friend.

After feeling the other party's gaze, the little fat man asked directly: "Is there a teletypewriter?"

"Yes, in the next room," said Gordon.

"Then let's move Altair there." The fat man made a decision.

Following his actions, a group of people moved to the next room. Under their gaze, the little fat man used a black wire to connect the Altair and a teletypewriter. After completing this step, he He just connected the two machines to the power supply, and as he fiddled with them, the indicator light on the Altair's panel was also flickering, but unfortunately...

No matter what he did, there was no response from the teletype.

"That's not a problem with the display of the indicator light." The little fat man said.

This result made him disassemble the phone directly.

When the screwdriver kept flying on his chubby hands, Ethan also had a clear look inside the microcomputer of this era.

Inside the steel box, five circuit boards were neatly placed.

Although Ethan didn't know what the function of each board was, the fat guy was using a multimeter to check the current and at the same time muttered about the function of each board, "Parallel interface board, normal, serial interface board, normal, Teletype interface board, normal, 8080 processor board, normal, memory version... OhFxxk, why is the current of this thing abnormal?"

Although there were doubts in his words, his movements were faster than his mouth.

Turn off the power, pull out the circuit board, and then motioned to everyone to find a desk lamp for himself, and use it to shine on the circuit board. After searching for a while, he yelled and said, "Oh, it turned out that the solder pads fell off. Oh, what kind of rubbish craftsmanship is this!"

"You still want to make money with this technology? Learn a few more years!"

The confident words provoked the owner to ask: "The solder pads have fallen off? Is the problem serious? Can it be repaired?"

"Of course!"

The little fat man shrugged his shoulders and said, "Only a few solder pads have come off, just re-solder them, and it will be done very quickly..."

"This is the memory version of 4096, which is almost three hundred dollars!" Someone expressed his concern.

The owner smiled at the man, thanking him for his reminder.

Then he said to the little fat man, "Stephen, I'm sorry to trouble you."

Now that the original owner of Altair has spoken, the others will naturally not say anything.

Fatty didn't waste time either.

Take out the material and remove the original solder.

Then reapply solder and solder the pads to the board.

A puff of green smoke drifted past, and the little fat man also reinstalled the circuit board.

After tightening the screws and connecting the teletypewriter, under the orderly fiddle with the little fat man, the typewriter suddenly made a creaking sound, and when the long roll of paper, like an earthworm, came out of the typewriter, the scene also rang. There was a burst of cheers.

"OhFxxk, is it really fixed?"

"This is also incredible!"

"As expected of Stephen!"

The sudden compliment made the little fat man smile complacently.

But Steve Jobs raised his head and emphasized again: "I said, this is not our problem!"

"You were slandering just now!"

The words of accountability made everyone present a little embarrassed, and Ethan, who had witnessed all this, patted Jobs on the shoulder.

"Steve, I don't think they did it on purpose. No matter who it is, after discovering that a valuable thing is broken, they will try their best to find the responsible person. This kind of behavior has nothing to do with right or wrong, it's just a person's instinct. Instinct that cannot be changed."

The faces of the guys who accused Jobs earlier froze.

They opened their mouths and wanted to speak, but no one succeeded.

This appearance made Jobs snort, and glanced at his friend. After seeing the little fat man shaking his head, he said: "Since Ethan is helping you and Stephen doesn't want to pursue this matter, then this time Let you go!"

"Let me tell you, if you talk nonsense next time, I'll just smash your car!"

"If you don't believe me, you can try it!"

"Let me see if my fist is hard, or your brains are hard!"

Ethan couldn't laugh or cry when he heard the threats like street tricksters.

After waving his hand and saying goodbye to everyone, he took Jobs and the others away from the owner's house.

And just when Ethan was wondering why Steve Jobs had such a temper.

The guy who regained his innocence laughed, opened his arms, and hugged Ethan.

"Oh Ethan~ Thank you~ Actually I don't want to fight with them, it's just that their words are too much. If you didn't appear suddenly, I think we might not be able to solve this problem for a while."

'so? '

Ethan heaved a sigh of relief, he thought he was the nice guy he hated the most.

However, before Jobs' words fell, the little fat man on the side said, "It can actually be solved."

This statement attracted the attention of both of them.

"As Ethan said, as long as you lose money, I can afford it."

'? '

The simple answer made Ethan Jones' eyes twitch.

And Steve Jobs rolled his eyes and punched him angrily, "Oh! Fxxk! Are you sick? You can't lose money for this kind of thing! Losing money means we admit our mistakes! But We made no mistakes!"

"But who cares?"

The little fat man spread his hands and said, "It's not that I have never lost money before. If losing money can solve the problem, then I will gladly accept it, because then we won't waste so much time."

'...'

An attitude of indifference, which choked Steve Jobs half to death.

After staring at his friend for a while, he waved his hand and admitted defeat.

"Ethan, I'm sorry, this guy has this personality, don't take it to heart."

At the same time, he danced and explained: "Don't look at me like a hooligan, but what he did is actually worse than me. When I met him, he showed me his achievements. What do you say? When I was in middle school, I made a bomb to try to blow up the school. Of course, it was a fake bomb that used an electronic metronome to simulate the sound of the bomb!"

"When I was in college, what kind of signal jammer was made to block all the public signals in the school! Then I hid next to the signal tower. As soon as someone came to repair it, he turned off the jammer and the repairer left. After that, he turned on the shield again, and directly staged a real movie of ghosts coming to the teachers and students in the school!"

Speaking of this, Steve Jobs shook his head directly.

And Ethan looked at the little fat man in surprise, "Wow~ brother, are you so good?"

Ethan's astonishment made the little fat man look proud, "That's right! I did all of these!"

"Then can I have the honor to know your name?" Ethan asked with a smile.

"Of course!" The little fat man raised his eyebrows, and then added, "If you really think I'm great."

"Hahaha~"

The narcissistic behavior of the little fat man made Ethan laugh and nodded, "Oh~ I think, after hearing your deeds, no one will give you a thumbs up for your excellence. After all, the idea of ​​bombing the school should be all Everyone has had it, but only you really blow up, when the sound of Boom~ sounds, that feeling should be very good!"

"Oh~Oh~Oh~Ethan~~I like your description~"

The little fat man's round face was full of creases when he smiled.

Not only that, he also happily showed three layers of chins.

The corners of his eyes curled up, and he stretched out his right hand.

The little fat man said happily: "Since you think I'm doing a great job, then we will definitely become friends."

"Like Steve, my name is Steve, but his surname is Jobs and mine is Wozniak, so you can call me Stephen ), or Woz, but none of that matters, right? It doesn't matter what you call me, as long as I know you're calling me, that's enough."

　Thanks to [book friend 20221023233116964] for the reward of 100 starting coins.

　　Note: ① Steve Wozniak's name is very interesting, because there are three names, on his birth certificate is 'Stephan Gary Wozniak', but his mother said, at that time wanted to give him 'Stephen' Yes, later this name became the name of people close to him, but after playing with Jobs, because the two names sound similar, so people who knew them later called them 'Steve', that is, Steve. Steve Jobs' Steve, and calling them both 'Steves'.As soon as Wozniak heard that the name was okay, he kept spelling it like this, even in formal occasions. When he published books, his official website, and Wikipedia were established,

　　Take Steve Wozniak as the most correct name, and in his own words, this is his friendship with Jobs, and the name on his birth certificate has never been used.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)