Techniguy: The Sky is Not the Limit

Front Page
News
Features
Op 'n Ed
VoxPop
Community
Archive

A special message
for PC users...

What's Going On Here?

You've come to the news magazine for users of Internet TV -- optimized for the platform, and written by the users themselves!

Want to know more about why we do this, and the company behind it? Just click here!

Community Feature

Techniguy: The Sky is Not the Limit
Datatyme
(August 15, 1999)

[So you think you are addicted to WebTV? You are not alone! Techniguy is also! And his poor cat can testify to her inattentive master due to WebTV! Tsk, tsk, poor kitty! Even his family can only reach him at work! Yep, Techniguy is hooked like the rest of us! He has authored a terrific homepage help site! It includes HTML for signatures and webpages, and instructions for uploading photos, transloading, how to get started, tool sites, image, music and reference sites, and more!--ck]

"Techniguy," or Jerry (as he is known by his friends) chose his online name because he has always been a very technical guy. He lives in west Los Angeles where he was born and has spent most of his life. He's had his share of girlfriends, but at 55, he is still unmarried and lives with his best girlfriend of all, his cat Tenz (who is featured on my Variety site).

He was once an IBM computer tech, long before PCs were ever thought of. During that time, he had the rare opportunity to see a computer in operation which used vacuum tubes. It used enough power to light a city block. The computers he worked with used a new invention (at the time) called microchips. He has a page on his site devoted to microchips, complete with microscopic photos.

He also owned a small business for 20 years repairing unusual devices that were not commonly serviced by other repair companies. He eventually burned out on the pressures of running a business, and converted his one-ton van into a camper, closed his business, and spent the next four years doing different types of technical work independently to earn a living.

He then found a good job, but the company closed down two years later. He now works for West Coast Research Corporation, a small engineering company specializing in transducer technology. He builds the custom transducers practically from scratch and installs them himself.

He had become bored with cable television, and was looking into satellite TV. About the same time, he received an advertisement mailing about the WebTV Plus. He had seen the WebTV Classic infomercials a couple of years prior. He didn't know it had a keyboard, so he didn't think it'd be of much use on the Internet other than for viewing pages. He bought his WebTV Plus at Best Buy in May of 1998. He uses his old Commodore 64 monitor for his WebTV and has a 19" TV (driven by a cable box) right next to it.

He says it was the best $250 investment he ever made. It opened up a whole new world to him, but he found himself not getting anything else done. He didn't cook anything that took longer than 10 minutes because he didn't want to get disconnected. His parents complained that his phone line was always busy so he told them to call him at work. He hasn't watched an entire TV show in six months, and his cat, Tenz, was coughing up hairballs because he couldn't seem to get around to vacuuming the floor. On the plus side, his typing and spelling have improved tremendously.

It wasn't until this year that Jerry became interested in building a webpage. An online friend had just put up a page and Jerry figured if this guy can do it, then so can he. After a few days of searching, he settled in at Tripod. (His webpage is located here.)

He has programmed in BASIC, C, and machine language on a wide variety of computers, so HTML was no problem for him. He learned a lot from bouncing e-mails and viewing source codes of web pages. He also learned a lot at discuss.HTML.

He is also a member of the ADH-HH Homepage Helpers group. He loves helping people who write him with questions or need information about WebTV or about their webpage.

[Community Editor's Notes: Ok Jerry...you just have to let your cat in on the fun. Let her fingers run across the keyboard just once...to assure her she is not forgotten! LOL Your homepage is wonderful. So much to read and learn. Your Net Dummy Awards is hilarious...ah, gee, I think I see myself in there somewhere! LOL--ck]

E-mail

Welcome to Net4TV Voice
Meet your fellow users who create Net4TV Voice in the Masthead.

Your Two Cents!
We want to hear what you think! Write to us at Voice@iacta.com.