I got to meet one of my all time heros of the geekosphere over the weekend. While at the Maker Faire, it was pointed out that Woz (Steve Wozniak for the geek newbies) was one of the Segway riders playing polo on Saturday. He’s number 64, as in 8-bit, like the Apple computer he invented in 1976. Funny aside: Number 13 was Victor Miller, the guy who wrote the first Friday the 13th movie. Also a very nice guy. Yes, Jason is all Miller’s fault.

During a break between rounds, Irina and I introduced ourselves to the jolly and amiable Woz. We did a quick GETV interview with him and let him get back to the game at hand. On Sunday, he offered himself up as bait in a dunk tank fundraiser gimmick for the EFF. With the paparazzi furiously snapping away all around him, he smiled and taunted the little kids that repeatedly brought warm rain down upon him. Here’s a shaky video I grabbed of the action.

I checked out MAKE Magazine’s Maker Faire today and wow. It’s like a county fair but with all the creative freaks and geeks that grew up ripping the voicebox out of their talking GI Joes, deconstructed dad’s Trash-80, scammed free long distance with blue boxes and set fire to anything just to see how cool it looked. No stinky farm animals here but lots of reconstructed and recycled bits of machinery that give birth to something new. Some highlghts: a wooden bicycle with a Razor scooter handlebar and front wheel, throwable LED graffiti, a jolly Woz tooling around on a Segway while playing polo (GETV interview to come), instruction and kits to build your own radio station (fuck the FCC!), tilty table navigation for digital maps, steam powered mechanical computer, robots of all sizes shapes and destructive potential, rude bears, pinball machine utopia!, real time constellations, lots of happy kids building something. Yes, the geeks have taken over the county fair.

Update: This CNET article sums up the atmosphere quite nicely.