Me in 2008.
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Me in 2008. |
Me in 2006. | Me in 1995. | Me in 1987. |
Who are you? |
I'm fine thanks. Who are you? |
What do you want? |
What have you got? |
Why are you here? |
You have to be somewhere. Here is just as good as there. |
Where are you going? |
To the future! |
Who do you serve? |
My cats. |
Who do you trust? |
Not the cats nor the Government. |
What is the airspeed of an unlaiden swallow? |
Oh no you don't. You can't fool me with that one. |
I was born in Peoria, Illinois (USA) in 1952. My family moved to Chicago when I was about one or two years old. My grandfather tells a story that during the trip, I reached over and shut off the ignition.
I attended F.W. Peck school in Chicago for first through eighth grades. While growing up in this time, I became interested in things electrical and electronic. At the time I decided I'd become an electronic technician when I grew up.
Then I attended Hubbard High School. In my senior year, I took a programming class in FORTRAN and fell in love with computers. It was then I decided I would have one if I had to build it myself. I graduated in 1970.
I got a job at Kraft Foods in downtown Chicago where I worked for about two years. I started as a mail clerk but then got a promotion to a data clerk and worked in the computer department.
In 1972, I started working at the Sears headquarters on the west side. After about a year, we moved downtown to the Sears Tower. After about another year, I was invited to enroll in the programmer training class. I graduated in 1975 and was assigned to the system software group.
Between high school graduation and 1974, I had been reading about computer design and had begun designing a TTL-based computer. Later in 1974, Popular Electronics magazine published an article on building a computer based upon an Intel 8008 microprocessor. I bought the circuit boards and ordered the parts from various suppliers. The Intel 8008 cost me $120 at the time. This computer had a whole 1024 bytes of memory, eight input switches and eight output LEDs. I was able to write primitive programs that made the LEDs blink. I still have that 8008 chip stashed somewhere.
Then in late 1974 or early 1975, Popular Electronics published the article about the Altair 8800 computer kit. I bought one in the summer of 1975. I've had at least one computer in the house since then (usually multiple).
Over the years I've had the following computers: Altair; TRS-80 Mod I; TRS-80 Mod III; TRS-80 Model 4; TRS-80 Coco; Uniquad; Amiga; PC clones from 8088 through Pentium 4s; IBM ThinkPad; Dell desktops & laptops and a Mac mini.
Operating systems include: switches and LEDs; CP/M; TRSDOS; OS-9 (6809); OS-9 (68000); AmigaDOS; MS-DOS; Windows 3.x; Mark Williams Coherent; OS/2 Warp; Linux; NT 4.0; Windows 2000; Windows XP (Pro and Home); Windows Server 2003 and Mac OS X. Professionally add: OS/VS; MVS; IBM Series/1 RPS; OS/2 EE; UNIX (AIX and Solaris); Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 (server and workstation).
Starting around May, 1979, I began playing with the CompuServe MicroNET service as a beta-tester. The official starting date of the service was July 1st. CompuServe and local BBSes were my introduction to the online world. The Science Fiction and Fantasy forum on CompuServe has been my major hangout since 1985.
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# Last updated: July 21, 2008. |
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