The fun and profits came to an end at a Sunnyvale pizza parlor¹. 这样的快乐和利润在森尼韦尔的一家比萨店里结束了。

Jobs and Wozniak were about to drive to Berkeley with a Blue Box they had just finished making. 乔布斯和沃兹尼亚克正准备带着刚做完的一台蓝盒子开车去伯克利。

Jobs needed money and was eager to sell, so he pitched the device to some guys at the next table. 乔布斯需要用钱，急需出售这台机器，所以他就向邻桌的几个人推销。

They were interested, so Jobs went to a phone booth and demonstrated it with a call to Chicago. The prospects² said they had to go to their car for money. 那帮人很感兴趣，乔布斯就走到电话亭，往芝加哥打了一个电话作演示。他们说要到车里去拿钱。

"So we walk over to the car, Woz and me, and I've got the Blue Box in my hand, and the guy gets in, reaches under the seat, and he pulls out a gun," Jobs recounted. “于是沃兹和我就走向那辆车，我手上拿着蓝盒子，那家伙走进车里，手伸到座位底下，拔出了一把枪。”

He had never been that close to a gun, and he was terrified. 乔布斯回忆道。他从没有如此靠近过一把枪，被吓坏了。

"So he's pointing the gun right at my stomach, and he says, 'Hand it over, brother.' My mind raced. “他拿枪指着我的肚子说：'把它拿 过来，兄弟。’我的神经一下子绷紧了。

There was the car door here, and I thought maybe I could slam it on his legs and we could run, but there was this high probability that he would shoot me. 车门就在那儿，我想是不是可以猛关上车门砸他的腿，然后我们趁机逃跑，但很有可能他会朝我们开枪。

So I slowly handed it to him, very carefully." It was a weird³ sort of robbery. 所以我慢慢地、非常小心地把蓝盒子递给了他。”这种抢劫真的太奇怪了。

The guy who took the Blue Box actually gave Jobs a phone number and said he would try to pay for it if it worked. 抢走蓝盒子的家伙给了乔布斯一个电话号码，说如果蓝盒子有用的话，以后会想办法把钱付给他。

When Jobs later called the number, the guy said he couldn't figure out how to use it. 当乔布斯照着号码打过去的时候，还真的找到了那个家伙，他不会用蓝盒子。

So Jobs, in his felicitous⁴ way, convinced the guy to meet him and Wozniak at a public place. 乔布斯巧妙地说服此人在一个公共场合跟他和沃兹见面。

But they ended up deciding not to have another encounter with the gunman, even on the off chance they could get their $150. 但最终他们还是胆怯了，决定再也不跟那个持枪的男人打交道，即便那样做有可能拿回那150美元。

The partnership⁵ paved the way for what would be a bigger adventure together. 这次恶作剧为他们日后更精彩的创举铺平了道路。

"If it hadn't been for the Blue Boxes, there wouldn't have been an Apple," Jobs later reflected. “如果不是因为蓝盒子，就不会有苹果公司”，乔布斯后来回想说 ，

"I'm 100% sure of that. Woz and I learned how to work together, and we gained the confidence that we could solve technical problems and actually put something into production." "这一点我百分百确定。沃兹和我学会了怎样合作，我们也获得了信心，相信自己可以解决技术问题并且真的把一些发明投入生产。”

They had created a device with a little circuit board that could control billions of dollars' worth of infrastructure⁶. 他们创造的仅用一小块电路板的装置,竟可以控制价值数十亿美元的基础设施。

"You cannot believe how much confidence that gave us." Woz came to the same conclusion: “你无法想象那给了我们多少信心。”沃兹也有同样的感触。

"It was probably a bad idea selling them, but it gave us a taste of what we could do with my engineering skills and his vision." “出售它们也许不是个好主意，但这让我们看到，我的工程技术和他的远见卓识结合起来，我们可以做出怎样的一番事业。”他说。

The Blue Box adventure established a template for a partnership that would soon be born. 蓝盒子的这段奇妙经历为两人之间即将诞生的合作关系建立了一个模板：

Wozniak would be the gentle wizard coming up with a neat invention that he would have been happy just to give away, 沃兹尼亚克就是个文雅的天才，创造出一项很酷的发明，然后就算送给别人他也很高兴；

and Jobs would figure out how to make it user-friendly, put it together in a package, market it, and make a few bucks⁷. 而乔布斯会想出怎样让这个发明方便易用的方法，然后把 它包装起来，推向市场，赚上一笔。