Posts by Steve
Database Downloading
by Steven K. Roberts Online Today August, 1983 It was only, I suppose, a matter of time. The writing craft has always had to deal with plagiarism, the software business is grappling with piracy, and now the on-line industry has suddenly found itself face-to-face with database downloading. Yes, downloading. Is there about to be a major…
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Words’worth 1983 press release
It is strange, building this archive 35 years later, to see that this press release was put out just as I was also getting the wild idea to sell my house and move to a computerized bicycle. Clearly I was covering all bases, or was at least unwilling to burn bridges with a crazy technomadic…
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Computing Across America Audiobook, chapter 1: The Idea is Born
by Steven K. Roberts Computing Across America is the story of my technomadic adventures around the US, beginning in 1983 with the Winnebiko, continuing through the next 7 years with the Winnebiko II and BEHEMOTH… a total of 17,000 miles on the road as well as some epic geek layovers to upgrade the technology. An…
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The Idea is Born
Computing Across America, Chapter 1 by Steven K. Roberts Dublin, Ohio March 15, 1983 What’s the matter Steve? You going to be a bum all your life?— Phyllis Roberts (my mother) Suburbia is not a place; it is a state of mind. It has little to do with the section of town you happen to live in;…
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Computing Across America
Computing Across America, Chapter 0 by Steven K. Roberts 1952 to 1983 From 1983 to 1991, I pedaled around the US on a computerized recumbent bicycle while living in the emerging online networks… in the process becoming the first “digital nomad” and sparking fascination with mobile connectivity. This is the backgrounder and introduction to Computing…
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Industrial Design with Microcomputers book
This is here as a sort of “historical date stamp,” since things weren’t obsessively blogged back in the early ’80s. Shortly before I took off on the bicycle adventure, I spent most of a year writing a Prentice-Hall textbook on microprocessor system design for industrial control applications. The photo above, by my old friend Steve…
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Crossed Signals logic puzzle – Computers and Electronics
This was just a little quickie that challenged readers to make a logic diagram with an unusual constraint… no lines could cross! by Steven K. Roberts Computers & Electronics March, 1983 One of the basic elements of computer circuitry and digital logic is the gate. There are three fundamental types of gates: AND gate, whose…
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Words’worth Assistant Wanted
Freelancing alone in my Dublin house was becoming overwhelming, with debt, overload, frustration, and a sense of dread. I was desperate to find a solution, but the real one did not occur to me until a month and a half later, when a bike ride changed everything. I often speak of my time in Columbus as inspiring long-distance…
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CRISP Brochure for ANATEC
Ghost-written by Steven K. Roberts Words’Worth – Dublin, Ohio late 1982, published 1983 My best consulting client during the year or so before taking off on the Computing Across America adventure was near my home in Dublin, Ohio — ANATEC, or Anaconda Advanced Technology (a division of Atlantic Richfield). They produced an industrial process automation…
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Future Technology Presentation at COMDEX Europe 1982
Standing on stage at COMDEX Europe in Amsterdam, dizzy with the sheer awesomeness of being there, I had no idea that less than a year after this speaking gig I would be pedaling down the East Coast of the US in a completely new technomadic life. So much for my crystal ball! I don’t really…
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