He's been a Superman of Silicon Valley for years, but lately Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is proving his worth nearly every day. Or at least finding his way to the spotlight.
Next stop for the Dancing with the Stars reject is the Roller Derby at Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco. He will start the engines -- or the skates, in this case -- of the Bay City Bombers show this Saturday at 8 p.m. sharp.
It's not clear if he can't get enough attention or simply can't say no.
By all accounts, from those who know him or just bump into him on the street, he's a truly nice guy. For a while, after his geek-superstar stint designing the Apple I and II computers, he became a relatively anonymous public-school teacher.
But now, Woz seems to be sliding back into Silicon Valley celebrity status, where any simple comment is suddenly newsworthy, with a guaranteed writeup in blogs like Gizmodo.
Just a couple weeks ago, he accidentally put himself in the middle of Toyota's recall mess. He told a group of teachers in San Jose about a problem he was having with his cruise control, and the next day ended up on CNN.
NBC Bay Area certainly got its own attention when Woz mentioned during an interview on a weekly education show that he owned a Google's Nexus One phone. That nine-second sound bite turned into a 10 paragraph article followed by a comment and a follow up call by Woz himself.
Yes, a perfect example of the new phenomenon: the Woz celebrity cycle.
