First, let me explain that vi-a-tor is Latin for traveler or messenger.
I was born in the 1970s, and my early memories are full of the promise of technology. My first computer was a hand-me-down Osborne One, but I moved on to an XT clone, then a cobbled-together 386. In college, I discovered the Macintosh. As a student, I worked as a tech helping professors keep their computers in line. The school was an early Mac campus. When I arrived, networking was in its infancy, and we connected a few hundred Macs through an elaborate LocalTalk network.
The LAN was strung together using PhoneNet adapters connected to Farralon Star Controllers, falling back to a Cayman Gatorbox or two. Our connection off-campus was through a 56K digital link to MichNet, which was then part of NSFNet. We had a Mac IIfx running CE Software's QuickMail SMTP gateway to link faculty and staff's email to the outside world. I also ran the campus' Apple computer store during the confusing '90s. I sold many beige Macs to students, faculty, and staff. I was blessed to work in a young IT department, transitioning the systems and network along the way. I supported Mac-based email, DNS, FTP, Gopher, Web, and other services on a steady progression of WorkGroup Servers until finally migrating the backend systems to Windows NT--and sadly moving much of the campus from Apple to Dell. I left this job (and IT in general) in the late '90s right as Apple was rebooting itself.
Around 2018, I got the retro computing bug. It started by stumbling across restorations on YouTube, and before I knew it, I was on eBay bidding on a lovely SE/30. I created a blog (https://retroviator.com) to give me a sense of progress as I restore systems and build up a respectable collection.
My hobby is far removed from my day job, and I appreciate that. Classic computers have been a great source of fun and diversion.
I was born in the 1970s, and my early memories are full of the promise of technology. My first computer was a hand-me-down Osborne One, but I moved on to an XT clone, then a cobbled-together 386. In college, I discovered the Macintosh. As a student, I worked as a tech helping professors keep their computers in line. The school was an early Mac campus. When I arrived, networking was in its infancy, and we connected a few hundred Macs through an elaborate LocalTalk network.
The LAN was strung together using PhoneNet adapters connected to Farralon Star Controllers, falling back to a Cayman Gatorbox or two. Our connection off-campus was through a 56K digital link to MichNet, which was then part of NSFNet. We had a Mac IIfx running CE Software's QuickMail SMTP gateway to link faculty and staff's email to the outside world. I also ran the campus' Apple computer store during the confusing '90s. I sold many beige Macs to students, faculty, and staff. I was blessed to work in a young IT department, transitioning the systems and network along the way. I supported Mac-based email, DNS, FTP, Gopher, Web, and other services on a steady progression of WorkGroup Servers until finally migrating the backend systems to Windows NT--and sadly moving much of the campus from Apple to Dell. I left this job (and IT in general) in the late '90s right as Apple was rebooting itself.
Around 2018, I got the retro computing bug. It started by stumbling across restorations on YouTube, and before I knew it, I was on eBay bidding on a lovely SE/30. I created a blog (https://retroviator.com) to give me a sense of progress as I restore systems and build up a respectable collection.
My hobby is far removed from my day job, and I appreciate that. Classic computers have been a great source of fun and diversion.
