Aging Netizen

It occurred to me today that I’ve been using e-mail for almost a quarter century. That’s more than half my life.
I first e-mailed at Rose-Hulman in 1985 on a VAX, using a VT100 terminal. My first e-mail was probably a request to an operator (what we now call a system administrator), but soon my friends [...]

When geeks play with fire

I’ve been talking to my sons about college lately in hopes that planting the seed early will help them see college as just the next logical step after public school. They’ve known for some time that I went to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a very tough engineering school in Terre Haute. I’ve never worked as [...]

Roadside relics

My trip along US 40 and the National Road in western Indiana finally brought me to Vigo County, where I lived for nine years. Sadly, those were years before my full roadgeek had been awakened, and I was blind to much of what the road offered there.
Of course, since then my eyes have opened. I’ve [...]

Legs of steel

I’m in the worst shape of my life. It’s not that I’m heavy; I’m at a healthy weight for my height. The problem is that I have little stamina and poor energy. Walking up a few flights of stairs leaves my heart pounding.
But I just hate to exercise. Really, I hate doing physical things when [...]

Playing by radio’s rules

I was once a part-time DJ at Terre Haute’s only rock radio station, the number two station in town. There I learned the two rules of radio – don’t date your listeners, and part-timers are in the lowest caste – in the most humiliating way.