Apple’s Wozniak takes new career steps

Put this in the “Wait, really?” category: Steve Wozniak, the computer programmer who co-founded Apple Inc., Monday was named a contestant on the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars.”

The man known as the Woz created the original circuit board used for the Apple computer and teamed up with Steve Jobs in 1976 to sell it. He quit working full time at Apple two decades ago and, after years working on various projects, reemerged last week as chief scientist at FusionIO, a data storage start-up.

Not only must his computer chops be pretty sharp still, but he must feel good about his dancing skills.

ABC announced late Sunday that Wozniak would face off against 12 other contestants -- singers, actors and athletes -- in the show’s eighth season, which starts March 9.

Perhaps Wozniak, who’s 59, has programmed an algorithm to calculate his odds of winning.

This won’t be his first appearance on reality television. He was a regular on “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” because he was dating the comedian.

-- Chris Gaither