Steve, Author at Nomadic Research Labs

This was an intense moment… only 7/100 of a mile after leaving the home of our delightful hostess in Whiteville, North Carolina, an old man opened his pickup door in front of me. The resulting injury had lifelong implications, although I didn’t realize it at the time… now, over 30 years later, I am dealing…

The accident described in this story had lifelong implications; it is funny how often something occurs that we don’t recognize at the time as significant. Three decades later, as I add this to the archives, I squirm in pain that is directly traceable to this grisly tale. There was some coverage in the local paper…

I have often mused about this article, and how it addressed a critical (but rarely discussed) issue at the time. I mean, think about it… in the mid-1980s, we suddenly had new tools that could render our physical location irrelevant, reducing borders to mere formalities. Yet at the same time, we were all flocking to…

by Steven K. Roberts Cary, North Carolina 14,475 miles November 8, 1987 How’d I get into this, anyway? The movie’s over, and still I sit dully switching the cable between the decadence of music video, the two-dimensional world of late-night soap opera, and the hypnotic criminality of religious broadcasting. I miss Max Headroom. Our host family…

by Steven K. Roberts Computer Currents Cary, North Carolina November 1, 1987 It was a hard day at the office — eight grueling hours of hard work. Not only were the usual deadlines looming, but I had to write a proposal and debug a strange temperature-sensitive hardware problem before a media demo. It was a…

by Steven K. Roberts Richmond, Virginia 14,241 miles October 28, 1987 At last we have fled the madness of metropolitan DC. Looking back, it seems a marathon — a sort of delirium like those tangled memories of fevers past. For a month we cruised the confusion, working, doing the media dance, visiting new friends and old……

I have fond memories of this time… visiting the interesting fellow discussed in my Technology Update story, adding more ham radio capabilities to the bike, and very much in the groove while heading down the east coast. Here is the article in the Richmond newspaper… by Symea A. Price Richmond News-Leader October 26, 1987 Steven K.…

by Steven K. Roberts Computer Currents October 18, 1987 Arlington, VA — 14,137 miles At first glance this subject appears irrational, inappropriate, perhaps even sniffing of illegality. Ham radio in a series of articles about doing business on the road??? Hmm. FCC regulations clearly state that amateur radio may not be used to conduct business in…

GEnie was my network connection through the entire second epoch of the adventure, and as we made our trek across the northeast and turned south toward Florida it was exciting to visit the company facilities in Rockville, Maryland. It yielded some excellent Winnebiko II photos, the short ESPN video embedded below, and the article in…

This is quaint now, 30 years later, discussing areas in which paper is still better than a computer… yet it still has a grain of truth even though “hypertext is a step in the right direction.” by Steven K. Roberts Computer Currents October 5, 1987 written in Reston, VA This is typical. Here I am in…

Posts by Steve

Doored in Whiteville

Blood in the Spokes

Layers of Dataspace – Computer Currents

Rocking into the Bible Belt

The Illusion of Stability

Technology Update

High-tech nomad visits Richmond

Ham Radio in Your Briefcase

Visiting GEnie in 1987 – Rockville

Paper Databases