Steve Wozniak wants to become Australian | Hacker News Reader

Steve Wozniak wants to become Australian

news.com.au

60 pointskschua50 comments

My mum got to meet Woz when he came to New Zealand a few months back. He also told her how much he liked NZ/Aussie.

He gave my mum his business card (which is awesome btw, all made of aluminium), and specifically told her if we email her, to include New Zealand in the subject so he would actually open it :p

Another random fact, Woz's son applied to YC in the last Summer term and didn't get in.

the sound of emails with "New Zealand" in the subject flooding Woz's inbox

I'm intrigue with the business card all made of aluminum. Like an iPhone 5!

You buy one of your very own (with your name on it, or even his name I suppose) from a bunch of places.

So is canned spam :P

See http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/76007...

He's gonna need a 110v step-down transformer for that Segway. I'm almost 4 years in on a permanent visa, and going for citizenship this year. It's been an amazing experience so far.

Hopefully Woz comes to Melbourne, we have better coffee and 85% more awesomeness.

Nah, he doesn't strike me as pretentious enough.

;-)

The media has certainly quoted Melbourne as being a potential place: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/apple-co-founder-s...

Yeah Brisbane is still too much of a country town

Apart from the proposed filter, I guess everything else is good.

The proposed filter was ludicrous and I'm happy to report it has essentially lost all political steam. It appeared primarily as a bargaining tool for the Labour party to work with a number of independents but even those independents have removed support for the proposal now. Last it appeared in the media, it was "delayed indefinitely".

I'm hopeful that the proposed filter is history, thanks in part to a number of ISPs supporting the cause and loud community support.

What is worrying for Woz is that the National Broadband Network (NBN) will likely be axed if the current party (Labour) falls in the coming election. Compared to his situation in California however, where he says no political party is interested in broadband internet, at least the opposition have a broadband plan (even if it's substantially less ambitious and possibly ill conceived).

Either way, I'd be happy to buy Woz a beer if he ever comes over to Sydney :)

It'll be interesting to see where the opposition takes their broadband policy. With Turnbull at the helm of opposition telecommunications policy, it is certainly beginning too seem like they are less likely to completely tear down the NBN. Given that it is becoming abundantly clear that something needs to be done, I think it's probably more likely that they will simply change the scale of the project.

At any rate, they seem to have given up on the ridiculous notion that wireless is a suitable replacement in urban areas, and actually seem to be moving towards a more comprehensive plan...

I'm holding out hope that even with an opposition government that in urban areas there will be optical. The question will be how they manage the future of the infrastructure, and whether or not they adequately provide for rural areas.

P.S. If you do invite Woz out for beers, count me in :P

As long as you aren't Julian Assange. Or a boat person. Or a refuge. Or an aboriginal. Or not white. Or like fast good internet from overseas. Or want to raise money.

There are many reasons why Australia is great, but there are still problems.

That's defeatist in the extreme.. get a grip.

Amazing that he still has to stand in queue to buy Apple hardware. Does he enjoy it? What's the story behind it?

To me it seems Apple should deliver it straight to his door day one just for the goodwill.

According to the article, he didn't want to pull any strings to get broadband to his home, so it seems like he enjoys being a citizen like everyone else.

He's discussed it in interviews before, I think (fuzzy memory) he said he enjoys the experience of a launch. Must be nice if you're an Apple nerd to be queuing and see Woz roll up on his Segway.

Did he bring it to Australia though? I didn't see any reference to it in the local media here.

Probably not, most countries prohibit them as they're not quite vehicles and not quite pedestrian transport.

They are legal on private property and (since 2012-06) in our capital city, Canberra, but not on any other roads/pathways.

Side note: in New Zealand they're classified the same as mobility scooters and motorised wheelchairs, and as such are fine, bust stick to walkways when possible.

They're not legal on Auckland central streets any more; my favourite pizza place, Sal's, was recently banned from using them to make deliveries. Side note: if you're ever in orkland, go to sals, they do fantastic pizza.

Canberra's boringness really is evident in its inability to turn into the wild wild west with all these law exceptions.

Of course Apple can deliver him an iPhone if he wants, but he prefers to queue, and IIRC Woz is still an Apple employee

'Wozniak permanently ended his full-time employment with Apple on February 6, 1987... He still remains an employee and receives a token paycheck, est. to be roughly 120k per year'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak#Employment_with_A...

A token paycheck of $120k per year?! Nice to have!

Welcome to the club Woz, or should I say WOz :-)

Woz = Wizard of Oz?

As a bearded Australian, I gotta say that that's an old joke. That keeps getting used ^_^

As a bearded Australian, I'm sure you will enjoy this song by The Beards.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmFnarFSj_U

Dammit. Here I was thinking I'm funny.

Old jokes return to circulation when told to the young :-)

Awesome, I hope he can do something to improve the startup scene while he's there.

Every Australian startup scene suffers from Australia's heavy cyclical nature.

Look at movies. I bet it works like this - there's a single hit, then everyone goes nuts for the segment. Lots of funding gets poured in, and more hits come out (because they are well funded). But the returns aren't so good (because of the higher investment) and the funding dries up. And then all the talent goes overseas.

Hollywood can churn out lots of films, and some of them will be hits. This gives the studios more predicable returns. More importantly, they don't have crazy irrational expectations of massive returns, or nothing but flops.

A patient investor could arbitrage this. Fund lots of stuff over a number of years, and simply accept that they'll only get a big hit every now and then. But investors aren't that rational, no-one is.

I think the base of the problem you're describing is the small population base and (less so) tyranny of distance.

If you're in the US and come up with a product there are lots of options for accessing new markets fast. If you're in Japan then you have a much larger audience, captive, most of it in close proximity. Australia has low population. It's heavily concentrated in the cities, but they're a significant distance apart.

I became aware of this when I read "Barbarians at the Gate". Early on, it describes the rise of RJR Reynolds. I found it amazing that you could just get on your horse and ride on to the next city with your capital and ideas and make acquisitions and expand.

Australia could chase edge by becoming a low-tax or low-red-tape capital. But never does :)

>Australia could chase edge by becoming a low-tax or low-red-tape capital.

Although our country was founded and grew up with a "low red-tape" mentality, the last 30 years of global-scale mining boom has forever removed that possibility from our environment. Combining socialised welfare, healthcare and (finally!) decent network infrastructure with the Western selfish love of toys, there's not a chance we are ever going to return to a low-tax, low-red-tape society.

Is there a startup 'scene' here? I set up a couple of sub-reddit if any Aussies/Sydneysiders want to post local info/questions.

http://www.reddit.com/r/StartupAustralia/ http://www.reddit.com/r/startupsydney/

We tend to hang out on Silicon Beach, http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia

There is but I don't think it has the glamour of its US brethren. Make sure to post to /r/newreddits and/or /r/australia, /r/sydney etc

There's a growing Facebook community for Sydney startups @ sydneystartups.com - will checkout Reddit, cheers.

"It turns out that I get to keep my American citizenship"

I'm not sure if it works the other way, e.g. if an Aussie tries to become a US citizen I always thought he had to give up his Aussie Citizenship.

Australia doesn't care which other country you are a citizen of, as long as that country doesn't care you are a citizen of another country.

Therefore, the only time Australia makes you give up your citizenship is when the other country tells them they should.

Thanks. I just found out my misguided opinion was from when Rupert Murdoch was forced to get rid of his Aussie citizenship - that was due to him wanting to own a US TV station.

Prior to 2002, Australians who took up a foreign citizenship automatically lost their Australian citizenship. Murdoch was required to be a US citizen to own the TV station, which forced him to give up the Aust citizenship. I have heard the law was changed partly because of his high profile situation.

[http://www.citizenship.gov.au/current/dual_citizenship]

It's hard to actually "give up citizenship". A British friend (who travels lots), said that if you are ever required to renounce British citizenship, you go down the local embassy/consulate, tell the offical that you are renouncing British citizenship, and hand over your passport. They do some writing, give you back your passport and a letter saying "$NAME has renounced their British citizenship at $DATE..." and wish you well.

You now have the proper paperwork, and your passport!

Some countries essentially don't let you give up your citizenship. If you were a citizen of Iran and fled and got citizenship of another country, the Iranian government still views you as an Iranian citizen, and go back to Iran, then they might feel free to arrest you.

You can easily apply to get your British citizenship back. I suspect they'd automatically reissue it, unless you've committed a crime or something perhaps. Of course it'd never be guaranteed. Reading between the lines though, I think its more a formality to appease other countries. In any case I'm not tempted to try it and IANAL. :)

It used to be, but they changed it quite some time ago, a decade or two if I remember right.

Surprised he didn't pick Europe.

China is also rolling out a NBN (to be completed by 2016!). At least he didn't try to become Chinese. :P

Since China does not permit dual citizenship this wold be tough for Woz. Not to mention that even if one were to move to China full time Chinese people would never consider you Chinese. You would always be the foreigner. China just doesn't work like the immigrant friendly countries in this regard.

Little does he know here in Australia is Babylon.

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