These two short articles appeared in sister publications, Information Today and Link-Up… both announcing my upcoming deal with GEnie to publish an ongoing series during my second computerized bicycle trip around the US. This was a significant move (from CompuServe, which was my network home for the first trip), and there were other changes as…

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In May of 1986 I flew to New York and gave a talk at the National Online Meeting about the bicycle adventures… both the 9,760 miles I had completed and the new one about to begin with vastly expanded technology.  I had a long-standing relationship with this publisher, having been on the “Online Information Retrieval”…

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by Steven K. Roberts Information Today December, 1985 This industry has a serious problem. It’s called “marketing.” Selling information is not at all like selling widgets—this business offers intangible services that mean something different to every potential customer. Vaporous goods are hard to price and still harder to sell. The traditional marketing strategy among widget manufacturers…

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by Steven K. Roberts Information Today November, 1985 Powerful portables. Hi-res graphics. Macs. Microdisks. Much has happened since the prehistoric personal computer era of a decade ago, and more wonders lie ahead. What will the next ten years bring? Any exploration of future computer technology is subject to considerable uncertainty, especially now that we are on…

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My on-the-road column about dealing with personal computers continues with a piece on reality. Photo above is the author at the Multibus base-office machine back in Ohio. by Steven K. Roberts Information Today January, 1984 In this, the second part of our series on microcomputers, I think it would be appropriate to spend some time…

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This article in the premiere issue of Information Today was written while I was near the beginning of my bicycle adventure… I remember it feeling almost abstract as I held forth on matters of machine selection while my own life was focused on ultra-portability. It deals with some of the philosophical issues, and is amusing…

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