I guess my lurking days and  (or, as my daughter calls it), "Giraffe-necking" my wife's computer are now officially over, as I just created  a new id for my ROAD-days.

OK:

about me:

GEEK ALERT.

I was a Nerd, back when being a Geek meant you bit the head off of a chicken.  Think, "Revenge of the Nerds"  as how old my nerdiness/Geekiness goes. (see the GEEK section below, and carefully read my warning before reading!!!)

Found a girl in College, decided to keep her*, now a WHOLE bunch of decades later, we're going ON THE ROAD!

* (or more accurately, she decided to KEEP ME)

SO, we've been planning for around 3-4 years, and now it looks like we'll be on the road full timing, later this summer.  I figured it was time to start to introduce myself and all.

I expect that at some point I will be doing both technical/non-technical presentations and help for folks. ##

*After a whole bunch of years at AT&T, I made the bad decision of taking a retirement package and opening my own business.

Sigh.  Had I listened to my wife's input, I would still be in business today, but instead of opening an internet center with snacks, I opened a full featured Internet Cafe. Sigh Sigh.  The food part of the business put me under, the  internet business was great, and would have still been great..

Since closing up my business (I refused to go bankrupt, I paid up ALL my bills, because I am crazy), I have been a full time Field Engineer.

I (Currently) travel up to 125-150 miles from my house, to various clients ranging from small businesses to Big box stores like Lowes, Home Depot, Burlington Coat Factory, Best Buy, etc.

I  have done everything from build data centers for the stores, to doing all the low-voltage (everything but AC power) wiring, and sometimes even programming the routers and servers.

Yes, I've programmed routers, firewalls, and everything in between (including servers)

I've lived through several iterations of the "OS-Wars" (and mastered them all...)

•  UNIX (System V vs. Berkley)
• Next DOS vs. MAC
• Android vs. IOS

In an interesting side note, if you think about it, the more things change, the more things remain the same!

At any rate, that's about it for me here.  I expect to be asking (and answering) all sorts of tech questions from all types.

## Technical:  I currently do individualized training and seminars on various topics.

I expect to put together a beginner's guide to security, including passwords, and how to keep secure on the road.  Hopefully, this will be something other people will also be interested in.

Mitch B.

(Cheryl's other half!)

 ..Looking forward to the road in 3-5 weeks...

------------------------------------

WARNING:  DO NOT read beyond this line unless you too are a GEEK (with caps!)

Otherwsie you may regret it... YOU have been WARNED.

Example A: It's Genetic: (my geekiness)

Grew up in a 1 parent household, never met my father until I was 15.

BUT

• Disassembled my first (Bell System) phone at age 9, installed a neon light onto the ringer...
• worshiped (?)[or at least kept] my father's leftover screwdriver, until at least 18.
• 3rd generation high tech.

• Grandfather (died in 1918, was chief electrician on the Steeple-chase horse ride in Coney Island)-- He died when he was troubleshooting the ride, and it accidentally went on (before they had "lock-out boxes). Yes, that was the bottom of the "Parachute Jump"
• Father, High tech.  Was in Army Radio Corps during WWII. 

• Remember, never met father until 1972!
• Turned down his offer of a "Timex Sinclair" PC in 1982?

Older Brother, Worked in the basement of the Pentagon as a computer operator during Vietnam War.

• First Computer Apple II in 1978.
• First Mainframe Job: 1980: (mainframe computer operator?!!)
• First Programming Language (shows my age...) COBOL
• First modern Language: UNIX (System V, and SUNos [Berkley]
• First LAN designed:  1991, a 1MB ethernet (I DID work at AT&T, which invented it after all...[10base1 Ethernet, not ethernet (coax..)]

• Design included closets in 7 buildings linked by fiber (another first at the time), and also included a wireless bridge to an 8th building (which at the time required a FCC License and took over 9 months to get approved!)

• Interesting factoid.  When the surveyors came to do our site survey, the GPS equipment was the size of a HUGE suitcase!!!!

• Amazing how much things have changed.

Yes, I've had UNIX/LINUX servers for ages and ages.

 And I once taught a course on how to succeed in DOS. (starting at DOS 1.3  and ending at DOS 6!)

Oh, and most interesting job:  I deployed a mobile sales force with laptops in 1988!.. Laptops, and modems, and 2400bps speeds.  I look back at that now, and CRINGE!