Steve, Author at Nomadic Research Labs

Way back in the early days of my adventuring, I came across a provocative book by Marcus Endicott entitled Vagabond Globetrotting. At some point, he and I connected as fellow paleo-technomads, and a decade later, when he published a book on information sources for wanderers, he invited me to write the foreword. This is that…

This local newspaper article was published in the La Jolla Light during the early days of the Microship project being hosted at UCSD, with a team of engineering students assisting. by Kate Deely La Jolla Light February 3, 1994 UCSD is Steve Roberts’ idea of intellectual excitement and perfect atmosphere wrapped in one, so he…

This article was the first substantial published description of Microship design, kicking off a decade of development. The wide-ranging text describes the trimaran hull and mechanical structures, operating modes, embedded controls, data collection, productivity systems, audio/video tools including crosspoint switching, radio communications, networking, power generation and management, harsh-environment packaging, and life support. This was the…

Once I was committed to the Microship project, the big challenge was finding lab space. After much exploration, I landed at the San Diego campus of the University of California… with an “adjunct faculty” gig to teach a projects class in exchange for lab space and student help. This little article in the faculty/staff newspaper…

By now we were well-established at UCSD, with student teams cranking away on projects and serious work happening in the marine architecture department. We’re about to switch to each Microship Status Report having its own post in these archives, but this is all of the ones posted to interested parties in January ’94. Microship Status…

I landed at UCSD to build the Microship in the fall quarter of 1993, and by early ’94 there was a little flurry of media coverage. This is from the campus newspaper. A 15-minute video of engineering student discussion from about this time is embedded in the story. by Dan Krauss UCSD Guardian January 13, 1994 INVENTION:…

The BEHEMOTH project was supported by a wonderful group of sponsors, providing all sorts of gizmology. The types of relationships varied widely, and I discuss this quite a bit in my Reaching Escape Velocity book. Some companies included my adventure in their publications, and one was MiLAN… which provided a Micro•Mau AUI Ethernet transceiver that…

This article appeared near the beginning of the Microship project, a few months after setting up the initial lab at UCSD. I had my first few students, working on the project for credit, and was at the time convinced that we would build a custom center hull with deployable double kayaks as outriggers. That concept…

I am very fond of this article, which was written in 1993 during the heady days of the Internet’s “takeover” from the mess of competing centralized services. Inspired by my own experiences with technomadics, it anticipates the emergence of online-centered lifestyles… with physical location less and less relevant. The editor of this magazine was Daniel…

The project was seriously in gear at UCSD, and this page carries the posts during the last month of 1993. They were growing, taking on a life of their own, and finding more and more subscribers… and after March each will be its own post. Microship Status 12/12/93 In This Issue: Still Alive! General Updates…

Posts by Steve

Electronic Traveler – Foreword

Roving Computer to Sailing Microship

Sea Moss Microship – IEEE Potentials

Microship project arrives on campus – UCSD Times

Microship Updates – January 1994

Professor Floats Idea for New Workstation

MiLAN Ethernet Transceiver Sponsorship

Mobile Computer Guru Continues Work on High-Tech Sailboat

Technomadness and the Internet – Internet World

Microship Updates – December 1993