Welcome aboard, blogger
The first time I used the Internets in any capacity (other than email) was in 1994.
During a trip to Chicago over spring break, my interest in virtual reality (VR) was peaked. I tried a helmet-based VR simulator in which I could “walk” around. When I turned my head, the virtual environment turned to show me what I saw. It was hands down one of the coolest things I had ever seen: crappy graphics, slow refresh rates and all.
When it came time to choose a topic for a speech and report in a technology class, I had my topic. Immediately after class I headed for the library and checked out every book they had on VR. This left the other girl doing VR as a topic without much to go on, but it wasn’t enough for my report either — I didn’t quite have enough information.
A friend in one of my computer science classes pointed my to an FTP site at Berkeley that had quite a few articles on VR. I downloaded everything I could find. It made a great report, but my only complaint was the amount of time I spent searching through directories, downloading compressed files, opening them and seeing what was there.
Most likely, it was the same friend who later showed me the OmniWeb (?) browser and some of the first web pages on the net. He pointed me to his own home page, hosted on his university account.
Suddenly, my interest in VR vanished.
The idea of publishing my own information filled my head with thoughts of world domination. I had a photocopied zine, of course, and being able to publish it for millions to see was a thrilling thought. I saw the power of the www and it was amazing. I built my own university hosted website, complete with .TIFFs that didn’t work on any other browser; but I learned what made a website work… one tag of HTML at a time.
My first job after college was based on my knowledge of web technologies; and I’ve since followed the standards and leading edges of web. I’ve studied HTML and built tableless webpages before it was done by any corporate pages. I’ve built B2B websites and crafted CSS-based sites for clients. I’ve used my abilities to created software products that generate income for customers and reduced their costs.
I read endlessly.
And did nothing.
My goal is to make 2006 different. I’ve watched the Internets grow by leaps and bounds since those first days of wrangling HTML 1.0. Now I want to give back. I’ve learned a lot but want to help others learn too. Hopefully, I can generate some income at the same time. It’d be nice to become a full-time blogger, but that’s not my goal this year.
My posts won’t all be about technology. I’m not just a programmer, after all. Expect to see some about my faith, my role as a husband and father. There will also be posts about whatever else happens to strike my fancy that day.
Update: [20006-01-27] I originally posted this when I started my blog over on blogger. I’ve kept it here, even with the Spectacularity archives so it might seem out of place 200 posts in ;-) Also, just for the record, I did take most of 2005 off from writing Spectacularities as I wasn’t doing them justice and had much more on which I wanted to write.
2 Comments
- Dan said:
- Dan said: