Business From The Beach With Gerry Pronounced Gary

BEST PLACE TO DO BUSINESS

2011-10-30T16:13:00.000-04:00

So what do business and the beach have in common?

In today's world, as most of you know, business can take place anywhere. So why not the beach?

So let me ask you:

Where is the best place you've ever done business?

TAKE THREE-Have Some Fun

2011-10-30T15:12:00.002-04:00

TAKE TWO-HIRING

2011-10-24T20:45:00.002-04:00

Take Two; Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School

2011-10-22T16:13:00.003-04:00

Business From The Beach

2011-10-22T15:53:00.006-04:00

Google Says What?

2011-06-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

I bet this glitch on Google Finance caused more than a few jitters today around 5:30 EST. Check out the Dow Jones:

Florida Sunset

2011-04-28T08:29:00.002-04:00

Fantasy Football Wrap-up

2010-12-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wrap-up? Isn't this the playoffs?

Yes, playoffs indeed have started in the Hurricane Law Fantasy Football League, but alas, for the Palm Beach Roughnecks, it's all over.

Playing in the Consolation Round (why don't they just call it what it is, the Losers Round?), where you play for pride, my guys took care of Snooki v Casebeer, the all-Patriots team, to claim sixth place in the standings.

Full disclosure, this is the first time I've ever played in a fantasy league and despite the agony of defeat, I had fun. In fact, I'm already looking forward to next year's draft.

And that's the point with our sports teams, both real and imaginary, we rejoice and suffer along with, right?

There's always next year.

Fantasy Football: Week 9

2010-11-07T11:11:00.001-05:00

The best way to describe last week's game between your Palm Beach Roughnecks and the Over Dwayne Bowe squad? How about beatdown.

Sadly, the Roughnecks were on the short end of a 71.70-45.30 score. And it was every bit not as close as that sounds. That leaves us sitting at 3-5 going into Week 9 of the Hurricane Law fantasy football season.

It's redemption time. A chance to get back to .500. The opponent this week is Tattooed Barristers, winners last week over Snooki vs. Casebeer and currently tied for third place in league standings. And who also happen to be coached by my son.

It's our second meeting of the season. The first time around the Barristers handed us our first defeat. So it's revenge time, baby.

On paper, the computer ranks the game dead-even. But I'm worried. My big backfield horse, Chris Johnson, is on the bench with a bye week. That aside, we are now just hours away from kickoff. Feel that adrenaline start to pump? Time to lace 'em up.

Barristers, we're coming for ya. I just feel this may be the week my guys give me a Gatorade dousing.

Fantasy Update: Week 8

2010-10-31T09:31:00.000-04:00

The Week 7 news for The Palm Beach Roughnecks wasn't so good. Which is the journalistic equvilant of "we lost."

I don't know what happened. Maybe the guys just celebrated the previous victory over Down Set HUGS too much. Or just got outplayed by the more motivated Mass Torts. Whatever, The Roughnecks went down to their fourth defeat of the season by a score of 103.48 to 73.40. And trust me, there weren't as many offensive fireworks as the score might indicate.

Okay, on to Week 8. Today the 'Necks are up against Over Dwayne Bowe. It's Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady. It's Chris Johnson vs. Adrian Peterson. It's the Cowboys defense vs. the Chiefs defense. On paper it's rated a toss-up.

But we don't play the game on paper, do we? Well, come to think of it, we kinda do.

Doesn't matter. We got our game face on and ready to kick some butt on our way to 4-4.

Let's tee it up!!

Dallas Dog Duet

2010-10-24T12:53:00.000-04:00

I don't know if America's Got Talent, but I darn sure know Dallas does. Just check out this video of our daughter-in-law, Brittany, performing with her furry pal, Gizmo. I think you'll agree they are "howling" good! Special thanks to Moolie for edting and sharing the clip. Roll 'em!!

Fantasy Football: Week 7

2010-10-24T10:36:00.003-04:00

I just know thousands of you have been anxiously awaiting word on how the Palm Beach Roughnecks fared against Down-Set-HUGS in last week's Hurricane Law fantasy football marquee matchup.

What a game, ladies and gentlemen.

Talk about coming down the wire, a game of inches, insert cliche here.

Down-Set-HUGS was leading me by -- get this -- .36 points!! and it was the last play of the weekend. My guy, Chris Johnson, was having an okay game but hadn't scored any touchdowns as the Titans took on the Jags.

The Jags were getting blown out by 20 points. The Titans had the ball. It was fourth down. Less than a minute to play. I figured they would take a knee and that's that. Another heart-breaking loss, even worse than when I went down by .52 points to Team Ray Finkle in Week 4.

Then, inexplicably, the Jags called a timeout. That must have torqued the Titans because instead of taking a knee they handed the ball to Johnson who proceded to run for a touchdown!! The Roughnecks win on the last play of the game!

I'm surprised you didn't hear that on ESPN SportsCenter.

So here we are at Week 7, and my opponent is Mass Torts. We are both at 3-3, so this is another big game for my squad. Since I have players from a dozen teams, it means spending all morning painting my face with a dozen different colors.

Got to get your game face on, even if you do look like a clown.

Studying StarText

2010-10-24T10:10:00.000-04:00

Over on my other blog, The History of StarText, I was recently interviewed by a grad student at Rutgers University about StarText and the current state of online media, including my stab at what might lie ahead. The interview is here.

Predicting what's next is an inexact science to be sure, regardless of whether "Everything that can be invented has been invented," widely attributed to Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899. Historians aren't sure Charlie said that or not, but it doesn't seem likely. If that were true, predicting his future would be easy: Jobless.

Are Your Ready for Some Football?

2010-10-13T12:35:00.000-04:00

As much as I have always loved football, I never really got into the whole "fantasy football" thing. Why? I think maybe it seemed too much work, and watching football has always been a major form of Gerry Relaxation. Plus the fact players and coaches get paid millions of dollars to plan, draft, train and play the games. In fantasy football, you get zilch.

This year, that changed. My son, Brandon -- the second year law student at the "U" (University of Miami) formed a fantasy league and asked me to join. I couldn't very well say no, right?

So here I am, Mr. Fantasy Football, managing a team I've dubbed the "Palm Beach Roughnecks," one of eight teams in the "Hurricane Law League" on Yahoo Sports. And I have to admit, it's both fun and exasperating. Fun of course when I win; exasperating when I lose.

Draft day was exciting, let me tell you. I had the first pick! So I grabbed running back Chris Johnson, the league-leading rusher from a season ago with the Titans. My pick for quarterback was Aaron Rodgers, the Packers wunderkind . Other big names followed: Donald Driver, Wes Welker, Larry Fitzgerald, Marion Barber, Eli Manning. The Roughnecks were definitely ready for some football!

I had a great start -- two wins in a row. I was leading the league! Hey, how hard can it be, right?

But it's all gone downhill since then (kind of like the Cowboys' season). My first loss came in week three against, wouldn't you know it, Brandon's team, "Tattooed Barristers." Then came week four, which was a major heart-breaker. I was up against Team Ray Finkle. Team Ray beat me -- get this -- by .52 points! My guys put up 83.04 against their 83.56. Does anybody really know how they score these games? I demand a recount!

This week my guys were all down from week four fiasco and we got blown out by the Flacco Seagulls, 111.04 to 83.04. So had to kick some serious butt in the locker room, ripping off the "win one for the Gipper" speech.

Even my eternally supportive spouse, Moolie, is taking some shots at me in her blog, Barker Howl:

"Listen, Gaz is all about his Fantasy Football team. Um, I think his team may be tanking, but don't tell him I said so."

Et tu, Moolie??

Sunday we face the only female-managed team in our league, the fearsomely-named "Down Set HUGS." We are both coming in at 2-3 so I see this as a "must win." Not because I'm worried about falling to 2-4. If I seriously lose to "Down Set Hugs" I won't be able to take all the heat I''ll get from those guys at ESPN.

But I will admit I'm having fun. Just one thing seems to be missing from making it a total football experience: The cheerleaders.

10:10 on 10-10-10

2010-10-11T08:39:00.000-04:00

Movies in the Stream

2010-09-26T13:46:00.000-04:00

With apologies to Hemingway's Islands in the Stream, and Dolly Parton for the song of the same name, I'm thinking today about movies in the stream, as in, streaming movies on Netflix.

Since we started using the Netflix "on demand" content service, where programming is streamed instantly to your computer, iPhone, iPad or just about any other device that can connect to the Web, we've had fun discovering obscure movies and old TV shows. It's a great excuse to settle in with a drink, some popcorn and have a "retro" TV night where we recycle old episodes of MacMillan and Wife and Peter Gunn.

According to a recent article, it works well for Netflix, too:

"Shifting people to watching movies online will save Netflix some of the $700 million it spends annually on postage."

Wow -- that's a lot of stamps.

If the media moguls and Hollywood studios can figure it out, this is the only the beginning of what will surely in time become everything on demand. But even in a world of unlimited choices, it's for the best if some of those reruns stay in the vault.

Restaurant Review: Centennial Park

2010-09-09T07:37:00.002-04:00

Have you heard about the new lunch place in West Palm Beach? Centennial Park, downtown at Clematis and Flagler, is open for business. Here's my review:

Priority seating? No problem. Plenty of grassy places for your towel or blanket. No matter how busy it gets, you won't end up by the kitchen -- there isn't one.

Accept dogs? No problem. The more the merrier. Our Reggie walked right in.

Atmosphere? Five stars. Palm trees, beautiful flowers and the intracoastal waterway. Need I say more?

Prompt service? How fast can you move from your parking meter to the blanket?

Overall? On a scale of 1-10, I give it a 9.5. I had to deduct a half-point for the lizard with the curled up tail that scared Pam. Next time you're in West Palm, give it a try. Even if you don't come to eat, the ambiance is pretty darn good.

For Pickles, It's Wickles

2010-09-07T06:55:00.001-04:00

Let me say right up front, I am not a pickle connoisseur. But I know what I like. And I am in love with Wickles Pickles.

Pam and I were introduced to this delectable condiment courtesy of Jordan, who helps keep things humming in our building. Truthfully, we have been on the Great Pickle Hunt ever since we left Ohio and the nearly perfect pickles produced by Tony Packo in Toledo (say that 10 times fast).

I guess the Universe decided we had wandered in the good-pickle-less desert long enough. So it gave us Wickles, available at our local Publix grocery store.

What makes Wickles so good? For me, that great combination of hot and sweet that gives it just the right "kick." Plus a crunchy texture that makes every bite a sweet and savory adventure for your taste buds. Pam, who really is a pickle connoisseur, gives them an "A-Plus."

Wickles Pickles -- look for it on your store shelves. But probably not available in Ohio.

Getting Through the Dog Days

2010-08-18T08:00:00.003-04:00

I think we have officially hit that stretch of time they call the "Dog Days," when it's hot and August just seems to go on and on and on. It's been pretty blah around the old blog as well. Not nearly as jumping as Barker Howl or Desperately Seeking Agents to be Rejected By, where Moolie has things in high gear. How does she do it? She has my total and complete admiration. At least while we are waiting for the Dog Days to pass, the views aren't bad:

Andwhat better what to spend the Dog Days than playing a spirited game of "Sorry" with your faithful dog companion, Reg. She beat me the first game but we're going for two out of three.

Did Mother Nature Say "Oops"?

2010-08-08T18:18:00.000-04:00

Charles Darwin

A few billion years of evolution later and here we are. People.

We walk. We talk. We do some pretty whacky stuff. And occasionally some pretty amazing stuff as well. Like walking on the moon, heart transplants and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

While many of Mother Nature's creations are more advanced in thousands of other ways, no lifeform can match our brain, and that has given us bragging rights and the top spot on evolution's ladder. We are masters of all we survey. The Big Kahuna. Sorry dinosaurs -- you had your shot. Brains over brawn, baby.

In the race for survival, it's good to be at the top of the food chain. Mother Nature should be proud. But is she?

Not to get too "Star Trekkie" or anything, but isn't evolution's Prime Directive the survival of the species? Above all else, Job One is find a mate, reproduce (hopefully passing along a combination of the best genes in the process) and stick around long enough so your offspring can do the same.

I think we can all agree we have gotten pretty good at obeying the Prime Directive. What's the current world population? As of today, 6,861,128,677 -- according to the World Population Clock. By the time I completed that sentence I'm pretty sure the number changed. (A little like when the late George Carlin pointed out the weather report couldn't include the satellite image of the earth because "somebody moved.")

But of all the species that have ever lived, we are the first to rewrite the Prime Directive to include some things Mother Nature never thought of when authoring the Evolution Rulebook. For example, here's a concept that I'm pretty sure is unique to humans and not previously known throughout 99.9 percent of the earth's history: Leisure time.

While the jillions of living things around us -- birds, fish, insects, microbes -- spend all their waking moments in the ceaseless struggle for life and death, our major decision is going shopping or taking in a movie. Playing golf or reading a book. Do I feel like steak or pasta? There's even those who stretch, yawn and complain "there's nothing to do."

In short, we have out-evolved the Prime Directive. As a result, we may find ourselves in the same boat as that tub of butter from the 70s:

To be continued ...

Goodbye, Friday

2010-07-30T20:50:00.000-04:00

Hello, Friday

2010-07-30T16:26:00.000-04:00

Extra! Extra!Read All About It!( While You Still Can)

2010-07-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

My summer reading program continues with journalist Bob Greene's ode/lament to his craft, Late Edition.

Subtitled, "A Love Story," it's in the main both an autobiography and a eulogy for the newspaper industry, however premature that might be.

On one level, it eerily mirrors my own experiences, spanning the days when pages were composed of type set from molten lead to computers on every desk. That plus fact most of it takes place at the Columbus Dispatch , where I also worked for almost three years.

Non-journalists may enjoy the story behind the story, as it were, gaining a better understanding of the process frequently called "the 24-hour miracle." And how newspapers are written, packaged, printed and delivered, 365 days a year, in all kinds of weather, through labor strikes and disasters, is truly nothing short of a miracle. It takes a special breed to make it all come together, and like Greene, I am proud to be among them.

Truth be told, this book hits a little too close to home to get an unbiased review. Besides, for those of us still in the fight, it's about determination, not sentimentality. Let's hope we save the latter, and the eulogies, for much later.

Bonnie Goes South

2010-07-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

As Tropical Storm Bonnie took aim for the Gulf, everybody around here battened down the hatches. But as of this morning, Bonnie pretty much snubbed us. Here are a few snaps of how it looked around here at sunrise:

Nature's Grandeur

2010-07-22T08:57:00.001-04:00

This was snapped outside our vacation cabin near the Smokey Mountains. Nature -- ain't it grand?

Speaking of Nature, while we were there this red bird paid a visit to the bird feeder.

A very interested spectator to all this was Reggie, who could only watch through the screen.

TV on the Go

2010-07-21T07:56:00.000-04:00

Think watching video on your mobile phone is the berries?

Heck, portable TV has been around since Ozzie and Harriett.

It just didn't fit very well in your pocket.

A Dream Within a Dream?

2010-07-20T08:48:00.000-04:00

"Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?"

-- Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within a Dream

Starting with a quote like that, what else could the topic be but Inception, the new movie about dream thieves? It's a complex thrill ride into the subconscious unknown, a special effects-laden realization of Poe's poem that tunnels several layers deeper.

With an ending open to interpretation, Inception is all the buzz on the Web as armchair critics psycho-analyze, debate and advance their own theories as to whether Leonardo was awake or asleep.

Rather than pile on to that thread, how about a fond look back at Hollywood's love of mind games?

Well before The Matrix mesmerized, Fifties sci-fi flicks were already delving into what makes the brain tick. Remember Donovan's Brain, where a disemboided brain orders murders from the soupy environs of a bubble-bath?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers took a more philisophical turn when it proclaimed, "In time the mind will figure out everything from the atom to the universe -- everything, except itself."

In Forbidden Planet, the topic of a previous blog post, the alien Krel race advanced to the pinnacle of ultimate achievement, only to be destroyed in a single night. By what? "Monsters -- monsters from the Id."

More recently, how real is real was examined documentary-style in both What the Bleep Do We Know and Mindwalk. While we didn't get any answers, both made subjects like quantum physics and string theory at least entertaining.

Bottom line, both in and outside Hollywood, we really don't know a lot more today about the BIG QUESTIONS than Poe speculated 150 years ago in his prose. I can't even be certain if this blog post is real or a blog within a blog within a blog.

Quick-- somebody get me my totem!

Movie Classics: Forbidden Planet

2010-07-16T08:05:00.000-04:00

Talk about a movie that had it all:

Start with the genre -- Science Fiction. Pertty much can't miss with that one.
How about those killer special effects. And it was released in 1956 yet. Are you kidding me?
Amazing story of an alien race, the Krel, a million years more advanced than our own.
Introducing -- Robby the Robot. Who doesn't love Robby?
And of course we have to mention the lovely Anne Francis playing Altaira. Woo-woo.

It's a true classic. Let's roll the trailer, and have a great weekend, everybody.

The K Man

2010-07-15T06:17:00.001-04:00

My son loaned me a copy of the book, K Blows Top, by Peter Carlson. It chronicles Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the United States in 1959.

What a long, strange journey it was as the premier, his family and his Russian entourage embark on a two-week odyssey across the continent that rivals National Lampoon's Vacation for sheer wackiness.

The K Man mingled with the stars in Hollywood, kissed babies, trudged Iowa corn fields and routinely "blew his top" at various chicken-dinner speeches and appearances. After learning he wouldn't be going to Disneyland for example, he pouted for days.

With the Cold War at its coldest and America in her boom days, K Blows Top is entertaining, fascinating and educational. We should thank Carlson for creating a history lesson that definitely won't put you to sleep.

GPG gives it Four Stars. Check it out.

Signs I Don't Like to See

2010-07-14T06:57:00.000-04:00

Seen at a rest stop on I-75:

Roswell's UFO Turns 63

2010-07-06T07:33:00.000-04:00

Columnist Ray Villard at Discovery News points out today is the 63rd anniversary of the Roswell UFO incident and has some interesting thoughts on just where space visitors might originate.

Since that fateful summer in 1947, UFOs, real or imagined, have become quite a cottage industry, providing the rocket fuel for countless books, movies and History Channel programming. Onetime co-worker and conspiracy investigator Jim Marrs wrote a book about it: Alien Agenda.

While it makes for fascinating reading and viewing, the lines separating fact, fiction and theory run all over the place.

I guess you could say when it comes to UFOs, I'm in the Switzerland camp: Neutral on the subject.

But I can imagine if there are aliens, and they do visit (which even physicist Stephen Hawking thinks would be a bad idea for our civilization's best interests), they will be looking for some royalty checks. I suggest we pay them.

Reggie Honors the Flag

2010-07-05T09:24:00.000-04:00

We all know to stand at attention when the flag is presented ... even Reggie.

Hope you had a wonderful Independence celebration!

Happy Birthday, America!

2010-07-02T08:14:00.000-04:00

Here we are approaching another 4th of July holiday.

I think you have to agree any holiday that includes fireworks, potato salad, grilled food, family, friends and the American flag just about has it all.

For me it evokes memories of Dad taking us to the fireworks stand (located just outside the city limit sign, of course) to survey an amazing assortment of pyrotechnic products in wide-eyed wonderment. The sparklers, the Black Cats, the spinning disks, the Roman candles ... all the fun you could possibly have for $10.

Mom always had the American flag hanging proudly from the porch. And a big watermelon floating amid the ice chunks in a metal chest. And we all took a turn with the freezer crank for some home-made vanilla ice cream.

But the real reason we celebate is to wish America Happy Birthday, and honor the patriots who have and continue to serve her.

With that, here are a few clips that capture that spirit, starting with one from Sam the Eagle and his Muppet friends:

Next up is Lee Greenwood and his inspirational anthem, God Bless the USA:

Of course, we have to have a slam-bang finish. Bring on the fireworks! Have a wonderful and safe July 4th, everybody.

Hitting the Video Jackpot

2010-06-30T06:33:00.001-04:00

Amid the get-rich-quick schemes, including those ever-present emails from that Nigerian prince, that saturate the Internet, there are those pockets of real gold that keep the Forty-Niners coming in steady waves.

Since the ascension of YouTube, which is home to millions of video clips -- homemade, professional, and everything inbetween -- one path to fame and fortune is uploading a video and then have it go "viral." No, it won't make you sick. Quite the opposite. Viral in this case means you watch it, tell your friends. They watch it, tell their friends, and so on and so on.

Thanks to all the ways we have to share and instant message, a video can get millions of views overnight, worldwide. And those millions of views can add up to a big KA-CHING if there are ads attached, and there usually are these days.

A good recent example about this phenom is this story from Business Insider about the Florida family who captured their young son on video after a visit to the dentist, and have turned what started as a moment shared with their families into $150,000.

A video going viral can have other positive effects as well. Back in my Belo days, DallasNews.com and WFAA.com, websites for The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Dallas, were riding high as the top local sites in that area. Then the NBC affiliate station, KXAS, had a mid-day newscast that featured an animal handler and some of his animals.

As the handler was showing off a rat snake, a gecko lizard suddenly and without warning leaped off a piece of wood and onto anchor Michael Scott's chest.

Startled, Scott said the dreaded F-word, sanitized of course, and fell backward onto the floor.

As we know, the Web loves a good TV blooper, and this was a doozy. It went viral almost immediately -- and even made the Leno show. The result was the NBC website knocked the WFAA website out of the top spot for the next six months on the strength of that one video.

Here it is, still funny as ever:

Scott recalls the incident and its aftermath in this entertaining interview. In it Scott says:

"I lost my mind and dropped an F-bomb on the air," Scott said. "I was shaking, and my wife thought I'd been electrocuted. I was just trying to get the thing off me, lost my balance and fell. I just kept saying, 'Get this thing off me!'

"The people in the studio were in hysterics, and my co-workers were just dying. If you hear the director's cut, it was, 'Did he just say what I thought he said?' "

By the way, here are the Top Ten most-watched YouTube videoes of all time.

The lesson? Keep those Flip cameras always at the ready. Fame and fortune may be as close as the next stupid pet trick, UFO or gecko lizard.

Editor's Pick: Instapaper

2010-06-29T07:23:00.000-04:00

Many years ago someone, I don't remember who, defined the Internet this way:

"It's the world's biggest library, and all the books are on the floor."

Brillant analogy.

Today, the "library" has only gotten bigger, reputed to have ballooned to over one trillion URLs. No wonder the rise of Google and a hundred other search engines as they attempt to be the "catalog file" for that library.

Along with search, another emerging trend is the "we read blogs so you don't have to" movement. Basically, these are mostly individuals who are in some respects the "Indiana Joneses" of the Web. They explore all the nooks and crannies and bring back the cream of the crop articles and stories which in their opinion deserve our attention and time.

One of these explorers and inventors is Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper.

In a nutshell, it's a nifty little way to "clip and save" articles you run across that you want to read later. Just as good are the "Editor's Picks," a daily update of interesting stories from across the Web.

Whoever is making the picks is doing a great job -- almost uniformly the stories Marco highlights make fsacinating reading.

Below is an interview with Marco from YouTube:

So if you find yourself adrift in that vast sea of content known as the Internet, take heart. Instapaper is one of many new sites throwing you a lifeline.

In Praise of the Key Lime

2010-06-28T09:35:00.000-04:00

If you have not yet discovered the key lime, you are missing out, my friend.

It may be little, but it packs a giant flavor punch. You have heard of key lime pie, right?

While associated with the Florida Keys, many key limes come from Mexico. Smaller than their Persian kin, and sometimes harder to find in stores, they are perfect in a glass of iced tea. Or as a wedge in the neck of a Corona Light. A squeeze of key lime in a martini is fine living as its best, or as one of the ingredients in Pam's oh-so-fabulous homemade guacamole. Divine.

Once we lived where key limes couldn't be found. No problem -- Mom shipped us a bag from Texas. On sale, yet.

Try this:

Recipe for a Perfect Summer Day

-- One swinging bench
-- One wide front porch
-- One late, breezy summer afternoon
-- One tall glass of sweetened iced tea, garnished with wedges of lemon and key lime
-- Optional: Your significant other, a good book, or your pet.

It's the simple pleasures, right?

Summer Movie Classics: Seven Days in May

2010-06-25T06:12:00.001-04:00

Continuing the thread of my favorite movies, I have to include this 1964 political thriller, Seven Days in May.

What a perfect storm: Great book, great actors, brillant screenplay (credit Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame) and a great director. Plus it was shot in black and white, which adds an atmospheric touch color just can't match.

It came out at the height of the Cold War, not long after the Cuban Missile Crisis. It paints a chilling scenario about a military takeover of the U.S. government. It still chills today.

Too many good scenes to showcase but here's two.

In the first, Fredric March (as President Jordan Lyman) confronts Burt Lancaster (as General James Matoon Scott) in the Oval Office in a climatic showdown battle of wills:

This scene, which occurs about four minutes into the clip, is one of my all-time favorites. Burt Lancaster confronts Kirk Douglas (playing Col. "Jiggs" Casey) about loyalty:

Side note: Look for character actor Whit Bissell in a supporting role. Bissell had a very interesting career of his own -- but that's another blog.

Enjoy and have a great weekend, all.

Left Turn on Red

2010-06-24T06:15:00.003-04:00

According to Florida statue 316.075 (Traffic control signal devices.) --

b. The driver of a vehicle on a one-way street that intersects another one-way street on which traffic moves to the left shall stop in obedience to a steady red signal, but may then make a left turn into the one-way street, but shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians and other traffic proceeding as directed by the signal at the intersection, except that municipal and county authorities may prohibit any such left turn as described, which prohibition shall be effective when a sign giving notice thereof is attached to the traffic control signal device at the intersection.

I'm not a lawyer -- unlike my lawyer-in-training son -- but I think in English that translates to it's OK to turn left at a red light if you stop and there are no cars or people coming, and it's a one-way street.

In West Palm Beach, that's news to thousands of drivers who make the stop at Okeechobee and Olive Avenue.

Having to make that journey every day, I am amazed by the drivers who sit patiently at that intersection, where one way traffic going east on Okeechobee meets one-way traffic going north on Olive, and won't turn left on red.

This morning I have a message for you:

IT'S OKAY TO TURN!

Thank you.

Check this space often for more on the thrilling world of Florida statues.

Herman -- Not Just a Comic Strip

2010-06-23T07:17:00.000-04:00

I freely admit it: I'm a "Herman" addict.

Jim Unger's off-the-wall, out of left field, slightly askew brand of humor hooked me from the get-go.

If you don't know, Herman is a newspaper comic strip. Actually, comic panel. Except for Sunday, it's a single frame.

What's the attraction? You could say Unger's unique style, or the outlandish situations, or "didn't see that coming" punchlines. But basically, it makes me laugh.

Whenever I really, really (that's two really's) need a laugh, I can always count on Herman. That's why over the years I've clipped some of his best and kept them in a desk drawer in my office. When things get dicey, I pull out one of those "Herman" classics and all is better.

I'm even proud to say I have an original "Herman" panel personally autographed by Mr. Unger, who by the way, turned 73 this year according to Wikipedia. You might also like to know he is a native of London, England now living in Canada after a brief retirement in the Bahamas.

Here is a sample of his work:

You should also know my nephew Don is another "Herman" addict. We have an informal Herman Exchange Club so we don't miss one of those gems.

Knowing my addiction much too well, the long-suffering Mrs. Barker has been kind enough to gift me with Herman books over the years so I can regale her over and over (She knows them by heart without reading them herself, poor woman).

If you haven't discovered "Herman," I strongly recommend you give him a try. Everybody can use a few laughs these days, right?

BBQ, Palm Beach-Style

2010-06-22T06:44:00.000-04:00

I freely admit I'm a barbeque junkie.

Having spent the greater part of my life in Texas, it's just becomes part of your DNA.

Back home when I needed a barbeque fix, it usually meant a trip to Cousin's, or Angelo's or Sonny Bryan's in Big D.

But here in the Palm Beaches, finding a favorite barbeque hangout is a little more challenging. That's why I got all excited reading how June is "BBQ Month" at the Palm Beach Ritz-Carleton.

I'm sorry, but the Ritz is maybe the last place I would think about when it comes to barbeque.

Anyway, I had to find out more, so Pam and I made the trek down Ocean Blvd. to Temple Orange, the eatery at the Ritz featuring a different barbeque meal special each week in June.

And I have to be honest -- I wasn't disappointed. My barbeque bento consisted of baby back ribs, sweet potato fries, apple-celery slaw and peach cobbler. You can see it in the picture above.

Almost as good as what I got in Texas, except the view of the Atlantic does beat the street scenes in Cowtown.

All the Ritz needs to do is add a mechanical bull and they could give Billy Bob's a run for the money.

The Happy in Father's Day

2010-06-21T07:26:00.001-04:00

As we all know, Father's Day is about, what else, dads. And how do you become a dad? Have kids, of course. In my case, that would be Number One and Only Son, Brandon.

This weekend Brandon got his grades from his last semester as a first-year law student. I'm very proud to say Brandon is now a second-year law student at the University of Miami, with a 3.2 grade point average.

To celebrate, he and his mom and I clinked together some glasses at a local West Palm eatery.

I can't think of a better Father's Day gift.

Favorite Movie Clips: Network

2010-06-14T06:47:00.001-04:00

As we ease closer to the official beginning of summer, what's more summer-like than going to the movies?

While GPG (Gerry Pronounced Gary) can't darken the lights, flip on a projector and offer you a big drink and bag of popcorn, maybe we can do the next best thing -- show you some of my favorite scenes from my favorite movies.

I decided to start with Paddy Chayefsky's brillant 1976 satire on the television industry and society in general, Network. Winner of four Academy Awards, it's just as powerful today as it was then (and how eerie is it so many real life Howard Beales have invaded our living rooms?).

Too many great scenes to pick from, but I chose the boardroom speech corporate powerbroker Arthur Jensen makes to Beale on the New World Order.

Roll 'em!

Hail Pandora!

2010-06-11T07:15:00.001-04:00

When anyone asks what are my favorite things to do on the Internet, I always include, without hesitation, Pandora!

If you love music, and like hearing the music you love when you want to hear it, at the office, at home, in your car, anywhere you can connect to the Web, actually -- and with minimal interruption -- then Pandora is for you.

This fabulous idea was born out of something called the Music Genome Project, which according to Wikipedia was "an effort to 'capture the essence of music at the fundamental level' using almost 400 attributes to describe songs and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them."

While it's fascinating to peek behind the curtain and learn how they make their musical sausage, it's more fun to create dozens of personal "radio stations" that automatically load and play that genre of songs 24-hours-a-day. (If you are really into the behind the scenes info, check out this from How Stuff Works.)

You can search by song or artist. Everything is there, virtually. The Wiki tells us, "As of March 2010, Pandora had 700,000 tracks in its library and 48 million users who listened for 11.6 hours per month on average."

Moolie and I can set the mood anywhere with Pandora on our iPhones. Brandon got his Dad an adapter so I can have Pandora in my car. In fact, right now I'm listening to my "2002" station on my PC as I type this.

How can they do it for free? Well, no surprise, they can't. A little thing called "music royalty fees." So you will see ads and offers to buy music on their website and the live streams are peppered now and again with short commercials.

In addition, they've had to limit the free version to 40 hours of listening in a month (but for 99 cents you can go unlimited). Like my friend Ed Jackson used to say about StarText -- "the best bargain since nickel parking in Cleburne."

If you aren't one of the 48 million, by all means check it out. Sinatra, Dave Koz, even Beethoven -- they are all waiting for you.

Pandora, you rock!!

Clouds

2010-06-10T07:30:00.001-04:00

"I've looked at clouds from both sides now

From up and down and still somehow

It's cloud's illusions I recall

I really don't know clouds at all."

-- from Both Sides Now, by Judy Collins

What do we really know about clouds? Speaking scientifically, quite a bit.

Scientists have named pretty much all of them. For example:

Cirrus -- the highest clouds. Those wispy, flow-ey, trails of white that often look like brushstrokes across the sky.

Altostratus -- the middle-height clouds. Not so different but just floating inbetween.

Cumulus -- the low clouds, puffy and gray and great for capturing the colors that accompany sunrises and sunsets.

Who really doesn't love clouds? As kids we spent many happy hours identifying the animals and shapes we could see in cloud formations. Do you recall that scene in the movie, "The Thrill of It All," when the swimming pool fills up with suds and they form cloud-like shapes over the neighborhood?

Another memorable moment is the first time you travel on an airplane and can see how clouds look from above. It's like seeing them for the first time.

Clouds also can have a strong effect on our moods, feeding our joy or compounding our gloom.

From time to time, clouds are even sometimes mistaken for UFOs.

Of course there's always the possibility alien visitors would make their UFOs look like clouds just to throw us off. Don't laugh ... you don't want to be on the wrong end of a probe.

But whether you are a singer or a poet, a scientist or a weatherman, clouds never seem to lose that same fascination we felt as kids laying in tall spring grass, gazing upward, watching those wispy shapes move and change across the sky.

Blame the TV Tray??

2010-06-08T06:55:00.000-04:00

GPG Poll Question of the Day:

The TV Tray --
A) Greatest invention ever.
B) Primary cause of the decline and fall of the American family unit.
C) Both.

As we wait the result of those thousands of votes pouring in, let's talk about TV Trays.

According to Wikipedia (yes, I too was surprised they earned an entry), no one knows who invented the TV Tray. Whoever it was -- what a smart idea. The article states TV Trays first appeared in 1952, one year before Swanson introduced its faithful companion, the TV Dinner, in 1953.

(The ad above was taken from The Palm Beach Post circa 1958.)

Of course, it had to happen. As the TV Set became more and more ubiquitous in American households, family time became arranging ourselves on sofas and chairs around those glowing cathode ray tubes and their walnut/plastic containment boxes. Since it was difficult if not impossible to locate those early TVs in the kitchen/dining room, we naturally had to bring the kitchen/dining room to it.

Voila! The TV Tray was the answer. We could enjoy our favorite shows and eat at the same time.

Looking back, was that the beginning of the end? The end of families sharing conversation and camaraderie around the evening meal? Did it slowly eat away at the social fabric of society? Did it fuel the "All About Me" generation?

Who knows? Assigning blame to inanimate objects seems too much like a copout. All I know is they still come in mighty handy when the Cowboys are playing on Thanksgiving and you need somewhere to put those leftovers while you enjoy the game.

In Search of the Killer App, 3

2010-06-07T08:22:00.002-04:00

Is Facebook the newest "killer app?"

Maybe yes, maybe no.

Yes, their claim of 500 million users carries a lot of wieght. Then again, Yahoo claims 600 million, and while it's a top Web destination, no question, their recent history and stock price doesn't exactly scream killer app.

Still, the comparison isn't a fair one. Both serve very different missions, although Yahoo, with its recent alliance with Zynga -- the social games outfit -- is seemingly taking another crack at the social media biz. You may remember GeoCities, where users could "homestead" in their chosen "city." Yahoo acquired them in the late Nineties but shut it down a decade later everywhere but Japan.

Almost from the commercial inception of the Web in the Ninties, social applications have sprung up left and right. They themselves were derivatives of pre-Internet services like UseNet user groups and Chat.

Today there is a virtual explosion of social media sites: The aforementioned Facebook and its chief rival, MySpace; Second Life; Linked In (the network for professionals); and oh yes, let's not forget Twitter, just to name a few. You could just as well throw in YouTube (video sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and dozens of others who are looking to make a buck on user generated content.

And as Shakespeare penned in Hamlet -- "There's the rub."

For all their popularity and gazillions of users, it's been a real challenge to figure out how to make money from all that socializing. It was hard to figure out in the Eighties, hard to figure out in the Nineties, and still no walk in the park today.

But as Cyberdom enters its third decade, there are signs entrepreneurs are cracking the profitability code. Facebook, helped by Zynga games like Farmville and its own geometric growth, is finding the golden ring despite a tsunami of negative press around their privacy policy fiasco. Will it last?

That's another of those Hamlet rubs.

Success on the Web usually fuels a feeding frenzy where competitors, everyone from well-funded startups to teens in their basements, flood the market with lookalikes and one-ups. One of the latest darlings of the social set is something called Foursquare (be sure you check in that you reading this blog).

Just like business done the old-fashioned way, only a small percentage survive. The hope of most is their company or idea will be bought by Google or another Web powerhouse and they can retire in their 20s.

Besides the long odds your idea will strike cyber gold, there's a third rub: Will the novelty wear off?

Twitter, the micro blogging phenom, has enjoyed meteoric popularity. Some are now worried it might head the other way almost as fast. (Check out Business Insider's Twitter Charts).

There seems to be evidence that as soon as adults discover and become the prime users of a social network, the kids who made it popular turn and run to the next thing, whatever the next thing happens to be. Something I'm sure that keeps VC (venture capital) managers up at night.

And, for all the "rubs" that's why the jury is still out on how "killer" these social media apps really are. One thing we do know for certain: People will always seek out ways to congregate, virtual or real, and anyone who can figure out how to make that a killer experience will reap the rewards.

In Search of the Killer App, 2

2010-06-06T11:37:00.002-04:00

Somehow we went from Email to Tribbles -- not a totally unexpected development in the world of blogs, I supppose.

To recap, the topic is killer apps and how Email quickly established itself as the definitive killer app of the online world.

As much as anything, it speaks to a fundamental tenet that has always driven so much online usage: Utility. Time may not always be money these days, but time and how we spend it remains important to us (probably more important than ever given the dizzying array of choices we have).

While it's easy to get lost browsing through the hyperlinked CyberWorld, more often than not we go to the Web for a very specific purpose: Check the weather, book a vacation, bid on EBay, see how our stocks performed, get that late score from the West Coast, etc.

While the number of sites available to browse continue to multiply like Tribbles (Google announed in summer, 2008 it had surpassed one trillion web sites indexed), most of us have a few dozen "favorites" where we spend the majority of our time.

We tend to avoid sites that load too slowly, are hard to use or can't provide what we're looking for as quickly as possible. Patience is yet another casualty of our Modern Age.

The sites that meet those criteria are rewarded with our loyalty. They get bookmarked and we come back again and again. Like Google, which quickly became our search engine of choice, and the financial institutions that do a good job with online banking (why would you ever pay a bill the old way?).

The point is, there is a strong correlation between the killer app and utility. In the case of Email, it enables us to communicate instantly with both our friends and the people we do business with, without the cost of a stamp or the hassle of finding a mailbox that is only available for a limited number of hours on a limited number of days. Your classic "no brainer."

Okay, people want and need to communicate. We got that. Where do we got from here?

Glad you asked.

In the parlance of classic American marketing speak, the next phase for just about anything is "new and improved." Email is no different.

I don't really count Instant Messaging (IM). It's just a different flavor of Email. But what if you combined Email with a place to upload photos, develop a network of friends and an easy way to post everything new that happens in your life?

That's more or less what someone did. They named it, Facebook. And they claim there are 500 million people worldwide who are using it. Does that qualify as a killer app?

I say ... maybe. And here's why.

To be continued ...

In Search of the Killer App

2010-06-05T11:38:00.003-04:00

Way back. Way, way back. When we just hitting our stride with StarText, we would sit in meetings, around water coolers and after hours bar conversations, and ponder the "killer app."

As in, killer application. In our case, the online feature that would be so compelling, so addictive, so necessary to life as we know it, that everyone would simply have to do it, have it have it or have to use it. The company or individual who could produce it would be instantly King of the Online World. Fame and fortune guaranteed.

In the years before the World Wide Web, our options were more limited than today. For one, data transmission speeds were barely tolerable for text. Graphics were almost out of the question. That meant whatever the killer app was, it wouldn't be pretty.

Still, there was no shortage of ideas.

One that got us excited was comparative shopping. What if you could compile all the goods and all their prices into a big searchable database? Someone could just type "eggs" and instantly compare every store selling eggs by brand and price. Wouldn't that be amazing? And all we had to do is convince every grocer and retailer to make their inventories available as part of a huge data warehouse, write a couple of million lines of computer code and then buy a square block of servers to store the data.

Right. Okay, what else you got?

Chat? That seemed all the rage. Like-minded people would fill up "chat rooms" where they could meet and converse online. If you clicked with someone in particular, you could move your conversation into a "private room." Popular, yes. But a terrible resource hog. It tied up precious phone lines and the ROI just didn't compute.

Games. Now there was a winner for sure. Atari and Activision were taking the nation by storm as we played "Pong" and "Pac-Man" and "Asteroids" until our pupils were bouncing back and forth in their sockets. Once again, there was the issue of tying up the phone lines, plus supporting the graphics. Sigh.

Gambling? Jail didn't appeal to us. Sex? Come on, this is a family newspaper.

This whole killer app thing wasn't going to be easy.

Somewhat ironically, the killer app was there almost all along, right under our noses, so to speak. From the very beginning is was a huge hit, and continues so to this very day. It didn't require graphics. It didn't tie up the phones. Programming it was simple. Storage not really an issue.

What was it? Good old electronic mail.

The first time you used it, it seemed like magic. The idea of sitting in front of a computer, typing a message and then having that message delivered instantly, virtually anywhere in the world where a computer was connected to a phone line, was mind boggling.

No wonder the use of E-mail grew like kudzu as people realized how useful and simple it was to send and receive messages. Of course, the fact that it was simple, and not something you could patent, pretty much deflated the dreams of fame and fortune. When everyone could have the killer app, no one really had it.

Yes, E-mail did come in many flavors, just as it does today. There was Eudora, and Pegasus. Each had their own features and functions. But in the end, it was Send, Read, Forward, Attach, Reply ... the basics of just about any email program, that got the most use. StarText had its own version as well -- StarMail, which was I have to say pretty darn good.

When you think about it, online has always been about communications. At its heart, the Internet today is one big switchboard, facilitating innumerable connections every second between people, programs and computers From Mankind's earliest beginnings, we have had an insatiable, instinctive need to reach out and touch what we can't see and don't know. To socialize, gather in groups, organize into tribes, share ideas, compare notes, commensurate, explore.

The advent of computers and networks just removed the walls. The result?

By one 2009 estimate, every day 247 billion messages are sent, which computes to 2.8 million emails every second.

No wonder we feel half our day is spent maintaining our email boxes.

Of course, every wonderful invention also has its dark side. That same study noted this:

"Around 80% of these millions of message are spam and viruses."

I'm getting a flashback to Star Trek and "The Trouble with Tribbles."

.... to be continued.

Delonix regia

2010-06-01T10:17:00.000-04:00

Its name is Delonix regia, but folks around these parts know it better as the Royal Poinciana Tree. To quote everybody's favorite reference resource, Wikipedia:

"Delonix regia is a species of flowering plant from the Fabaceae family, noted for its fern-like leaves and flamboyant display of flowers. Often grown as an ornamental tree and given the name Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant, it is also known as Gulmohar (Hindi and Urdu), KrishnachuRa (Bengali), Malinche, and Tabachine[1], and one of several named the Flame tree. The species was previously placed in a genus Poinciana, named for Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy who is credited with introducing the plant to the Americas."

Phil old buddy, thanks for bringing the Poinciana to our shores. Its beauty is a delight all around the Palm Beaches this time of year, including the tree above, which graces the Palm Beach Post parking lot.

Former StarText Editor Checks In

2010-05-20T13:49:00.000-04:00

Today's email brought this:

"Gerry

"I just stumbled upon your StarText history.

"As a long-impoverished, yet recent Baylor graduate, in 1988 I became a part-time editor at StarText while a student at Southwestern Seminary. I was always impressed with the possibilities the service provided and couldn't figure out why print media wasn't adopting the efficiencies of electronic production.

"I worked alone on the 5 pm to midnight shift inputting data. It was a pretty dry task, though I enjoyed scanning the news, writing headlines, and occasionally writing stories. In fact, I did live reporting during the San Francisco earthquake. [StarText News Editor] Christine Russell always was concerned about my 'dyslexia' when I input Wall Street download codes. Looking at 4598, for example, I would say 9845, but always input the number correctly.

Sometimes we didn't get the Star Telegram feeds, especially Rangers stories, and I'd have to walk over to the news editors -- who never really cared for the StarText side of things -- and remind them not to forget the electronic folks.

"The workday was over when David Letterman said goodnight, so I guess some things have not changed.

"And while I only vaguely remember you, thanks for the history."

Thom "Alan" Mackenzie

Alan --

I appreciate you taking the time to tell your StarText story. I would agree there was a little love/hate (or maybe more, like/dislike) relationship between the print and electronic sides of the house. Much the same as today, in many shops. But hey, we had to start somewhere and StarText just gave us a headstart on working out those issues.

By the way, Alan went on from his brief stint with StarText to, among other things, design and operate 11 computer centers for low income residents of Los Angeles. He returned to Texas, got a PhD in literature and now a college teacher. Congrats Alan, and thanks again for sharing.

Sunfest 2010

2010-05-03T10:14:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it's May already?

SunFest, the yearly, multi-day, West Palm Beach celebration of music, food, fun and drink, was officially over Sunday. And what better way to end a shindig like that than a good ole American fireworks display?

We had a front row seat from our condo terrace and there were plenty of "ohhhs" and "ahhhs." Here are a few snaps:

Sunday morning is our time to walk along the Atlantic. Faithful companion Reggie loves it, too. Here Reg and her Master share a private moment:

Howling with the Barkers

2010-04-28T16:07:00.002-04:00

My better half, Pamela, a.k.a. Moolie, had yet another cool idea for a blog.

The best description is a sort of mashup combining Gibber Gabfest and Cheeply Chic.

It's a little bit, "he said she said," between Gaz (me) and Moolie (her), along with short video clips Moolie captures with her Flip camera. Moolie is really doing all the work; I just get to tag along with my witty repartee.

And if it's not so witty, my repartee gets voted right off the island.

But please do drop by. I think you'll find it quite entertaining.

We call it, Barker Howl. It is one howl of a blog.

Scenes from the Palm Beaches

2010-04-22T13:41:00.000-04:00

Pictures generally don't need a lot of words. They speak for themselves.

Here we have one photo taken early Sunday morning of a sailboat on the distant horizon of the Atlantic. The other is one of the magnificent blooming trees that grace our fair city.

Enjoy.

Ed Jackson's "Jude"

2010-03-31T10:23:00.000-04:00

Another story from the late Ed Jackson has been posted on The History of StarText blog. If you are fan of his "Rad Fourteen" series, you'll enjoy "Jude."

Wedding Bells

2010-03-22T14:46:00.008-04:00

This month son Brandon and his fiance, Brittany, said "I do" in a beautiful ceremony overlooking the Atlantic, almost as blue as the bride and groom's eyes.

Mom and Dad couldn't be more proud. Have you ever seen a more beautiful couple?

1986: HomeBanking Arrives

2010-02-28T14:00:00.002-05:00

Ever since Stone Age man chiseled the first check, he has dreamed of paying bills at the touch of a button.

Okay, maybe the idea of doing banking on a computer didn't start with the Neanderthals, but it did catch fire in the Seventies and Eighties, first in Europe and then in the United States.

The Big Boys paved the cow paths in this country, familiar names like Citi, Chemical and Chase. What a concept. Enter the merchants you want to pay, the amount, the due date and voila! No checks, no stamps, no worries.

Of course, it took a regional bank and a local online service in Texas to bring to market the innovation that all home bankers longed to have and couldn't get with the Eastern Establishment banks: The Float.

Most everyone agreed the notion of banking from your keyboard in your pajamas sure was appealing. Except for one thing -- losing the cushion that checks provided known as "float" -- that period of time from when you wrote the check and the money was actually debited from your account. Which, depending on your circumstances, could be the difference between "paid" and "insufficient funds."

We thought this should be included a "must have" feature. Luckily, InterFirst, our banking partner, agreed. But rather than call it "float," they opted for "provisional payment."

As David Zent, vice-president at the Electronic Banking Support Group at InterFirst, explained at the Videotex '86 Conference:

"Provisional bill payment is similar to conventional bill payment except that the payment is always forwarded to the company, even if the customer does not have the funds in his account at the time the payment is released. Instead, the debit to the customer's account is warehoused by the bank until the date the merchant is scheduled to receive the payment. On that date the customer's account is debited."

Zent went on to say:

"Provisional Bill Payment addresses the consumer problems associated with conventional bill paying systems. As a result, more consumers are expected to participate."

HomeBanking required almost 150 screens of options, which were navigated by a combination of menus and keywords. You could begin by typing BANK, which allowed you, after using your PIN, to check your balances, pay bills or transfer funds.

There was also the option to designate recurring payments and a request a "future statement" that reflected payments authorized and not yet paid.

Despite its many forward-looking features, HomeBanking didn't find the wide audience or acceptance we all hoped it would in the late Eighties. That would have to wait for the Internet to make its appearance. But in retrospect, I count it as among our best achievements.

A newspaper and a bank teaming up for a project like this is rare in and of itself. The resulting product was something of which we could all be very proud. Hats off to Larry Groebe, who led the programming effort, and Joe Donth, who supervised.

At the time, StarText subscriber Ray Quay was authoring a column called The Electronic Cottage. He devoted the March edition to looking at the history of home banking.

Quoting Ray:

"Though the future of home banking is uncertain, it is clear (at least to me!) that home banking holds tremendous potential benefits ... Home banking has the potential to be one of the few microcomputer applications which can actually prove cost effective for general home use."

As someone who has been "home banking" via the Internet for the last decade or more, it's hard to imagine going back to writing checks, finding envelopes or buying stamps (and we know where the price of stamps have gone). It's one of the "must have" conveniences of having a PC connected to the World Wide Web.

StarText and InterFirst had it right. Just about 10 years too soon.

For more on HomeBanking, go to this 1985 post.

Thanks, Mark

2010-02-27T13:19:00.004-05:00

Among the emails that arrived this week was this note from a former co-worker at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mark Thompson:

"Boffo! - great website, Gerry."

You might recall Mark won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for his reporting on the mechanical problems affecting Bell helicopters.

Follow the link above to read about Mark in Wikipedia.

Weekend Fireworks

2010-02-22T13:06:00.007-05:00

Palm Beach christened its new $30 million waterfront makeover this weekend with street performers, Cirque du Soleil and some stunning fireworks. These don't do it justice, but you should definitely check out the great new waterfront amenities.

Sunrise Over the Atlantic

2010-02-19T08:03:00.006-05:00

TGIF, readers.

This is the way I started my day and I wanted to share the moment, especially to everyone where the sunrise may be blocked by snow.

And here's Reggie, mothering "mini-Reggie" -- a Valentine toy she has adopted as her own. All together now -- "ohhhhhhh."

Videotex '86 at the Infomart

2010-02-16T20:45:00.003-05:00

Up until 1986, Star-Telegram Publisher Phil Meek had imposed a moratorium on StarText press releases and conference appearances by staffers. We were in "protective custody" of sorts. For good reasons.

Online at the time (much like today, actually) was inspiring waves of crazy spending and even crazier investing. We were having more success with our measured, home-grown, low-cost approach than Viewtron was with their glitzy, high stakes, high-dollar strategy (In point of fact, Viewtron closed its doors in 1986 after less than three years of operation.).

But Meek lifted restrictions on both in 1986, and we soon found StarText was in demand for the online conference circuit.

One of the first opportunities that presented itself was "Videotex '86," scheduled for the Dallas Informart May 6-8, 1986. In the popular parlance of today's bloggers, it was MAY-JAH. Spread over three days, there were dozens of top-flight speakers and hundreds of participants coming from all corners of the globe.

Online veteran Peter Winter, then serving as president of Online International Inc., the conference organizer, wrote that despite "the regrettable closure of two pioneering videotex operations, Gateway and Viewtron" over the past 12 months, "videotex was flourishing."

Among the speaker roster were such familiar names as Charles Forbes and Martin Nisenholtz (then with Oglivy and Mather, now senior VP, digital operations, for The New York Times).

We were invited to join a panel on consumer services. The question was, who would speak? None of the staff had any real experience speaking in a large, public forum. You are no doubt familiar with the surveys that rank "fear of public speaking" higher than "fear of death."

Early on, Joe and I hit the computer club circuit with our dog and pony show. And just about everyone on staff continued to speak at various club and subscriber events. Additionally, I was making numerous appearances in front of educators at schools and libraries as we moved aggressively to get StarText entrenched in schools. At any rate, I drew the assignment.

Probably the most interesting thing I remember from that experience was a fellow panelist who went on to make quite a name for himself some years later: Steve Case.

At the time Case was there to talk about Quantum Link, a new service for owners of Commodore computers from a company called Quantum Computer Services. In 1991, Quantum got a new name -- America Online -- and Case became CEO and chairman. You recall AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000 in a $164 billion deal.

StarText was also featured in a track on "Video Banking: Entry Options and Strategies." The session was titled, "StarText HomeBanking with Provisional Bill Payment," and the speaker was David Zent. Zent, VP in the Electronic Banking Support Group of InterFirst Services Corp., was instrumental in getting StarText HomeBanking to market (it made its debut in April, 1986 -- more on that in a later post).

There would be many more conference and speaking opportunities in the years ahead. In retrospect, probably one of the biggest cottage industries spawned by online would be the conference/consulting business.

And the big question, then as now, remains:

How do I make online profitable?

A Story About a River

2010-02-15T09:41:00.007-05:00

Editor's Note -- George Mertz, aka "The Captain," was active on StarText mostly in its later days, after StarText made the transition from BBS to the Internet, circa 1994-1995. George (pictured with his fiance Movi) subsequently answered a calling to help the disadvantaged in the Philippines. To quote George:

"Flying from the United States, I first arrived in General Santos City, from Grapevine, Texas, during February, 2004. During that three month stay and a subsequent trip in early 2005, I came to know over 35 children at St. Gemma’s Orphanage and Halfway Home. St. Gemma’s was in a state of disrepair. I was there to repair it. Movinia Ulang, Co-Founder and Vice President of GRACE, and I, created Gensan Relief and Community Exchange, Inc., (GRACE), during the year 2005."

The following story by George is posted on their website. I found it an amazing testament to what people do to help other people. George graciously granted permission for me to reprint it here.

A River of 104 Crossings

By George D. Mertz

An ancient range of mountains, pushing skyward between the pressures of two tectonic plates are obscure as a light easterly wind moves the clouds through their valleys and far up the sides of their lush peaks. We drive higher up into the mist shrouding this narrow dirt road.

Nearly 350 meters, (1,100 feet), above the eastern shore of the Sarangani Bay, on the southeastern finger of the Philippine island of Mindanao, we turn right. Taking a steep downhill link, we slowly descend into to an area known as Pag-asa. A river, one changing its personality at even the slightest thought of a tropical downpour, runs through it.

As we descend beneath the clouds, the rain begins. Belieing its intention of turning into a torrential downpour, the rain adds to the gravity of the deteriorating rock strewn road. We continue our decent into the valley.

A small stream, easily crossed, brings a comment from Movi, my fiancee. “You know, if this rain continues, we may not make it back across this because of flooding.”

She may be right. Most likely, that’s how it’s going to happen.

A small village stands beside the river of first encounter. A sari sari store, with a bamboo and thatch overhead covering at its front, is our first choice of shelter. With umbrellas and a couple of tuna sandwiches in hand, we dash from the vehicle and take shelter.

We are in Pag-asa this afternoon, for no other reason than to be here.

From a direction opposite of our travel a motorcycle with it’s driver and 3 riders, two young ladies and one young man, wheel up to us. All seek to share the shelter of the store. All are soaked to the bone and shivering.

Questions and answers fly back and forth.

“Where are you from,” Movi asks.

“We’re from Alabel,” Emelyn answers.

“If you’re from Alabel, why were you traveling from the opposite direction,” she asks?

“We were not able to cross the river because the current is so strong and we can’t pass through it. We had to come back,” the teacher answers.

The three riders are teachers who work for the Alabel School District. It’s their job to trek back into the jungle to teach children who are of the indigenous group known as B’laans.

The shivering continues. I fetch a large towel from the vehicle for Emelyn, one of the young ladies.

Under more favorable conditions, at a point beyond the first river crossing, where the motorcycle can go no farther, the teachers walk for 4 to 5 hours, crossing the swings of the river, 26 times. The number of river crossings change with the mood swings of the water.

We learn they make this trek, in and out, twice a month. Another group of teachers relieve them at established intervals. Therefore, each group crosses the river 104 times per month and hike, back and forth, for 18 hours, through less than hospitable terrain.

We listen to their story of a close call with a Cobra and how, at times, they are stranded overnight in a downpour between two curves of the serpentine like river; unable to pass due to the rising water.

They are returning to Alabel. We offer to relieve them of the unholy experience of getting back on that motorcycle in this rain and climbing up one of the most rugged roads in this region. Needless to say, they accept.

Backtracking, we head for Alabel. Again, we reach the stream of Movi’s concern. True to her previous comment, it’s now a raging torrent of water. We stop and access the situation.

This 1986 Mitsubishi Pajero is a 4-wheel drive vehicle. It rides on 31-inch tires. All of this brings about a final assessment as to whether or not we’ll attempt to cross that which these mountains are so rapidly giving up.

The captain speaks. “In Texas, every year, there are a number of idiots who die while trying to cross water like this. They die even after they’re warned every year on the weather stations. We will not die. We’re going to wait here until this is passable.”

We exchange stories and watch others trying to cross, as we wait. None succeed. Finally, the instruction to ‘load-up,’ is given.

“More of you in the vehicle will make it heavier and easier to cross this water. Besides, if I am going to die, I don’t want to die alone,” I inform them.

This humor, from a U.S. citizen, is rarely understood in the Philippines. No response from the audience is heard. Barring the failed joke, all else goes well.

The teachers have no survival gear. They have nothing to keep them dry on days like this. They have nothing to provide them light when stranded over night in the jungle. Even the living conditions at their destination are primitive.

We exchange personal information as we drop each of them off at their respective homes in Alabel. We offer to provide them, through our non-government organization, (NGO), Gensan Relief and Community Exchange, Inc. (GRACE), survival gear and other supplies for their needs.

They are appreciative of our concern and offer to help.

Two large suitcases in-tow, one housing approximately 25 kilos, (50 pounds), of survival gear and supplies, is with me on a subsequent return trip from Grapevine, Texas to General Santos City.

On January 8, 2010, Gensan Relief and Community Exchange, Inc., ‘makes-good’ on its promise. All of the survival gear and supplies is delivered to ten teachers who trek through the jungle to teach the 400 children at the New Canaan Integrated School, New Canaan, Pag-asa, Alabel, in the Sarangani Province.

Our support for these teachers stems, in part, from our recognition of their meeting their unique requirements and responsibilities placed upon them. Their job, when compared to the livlihood of most people you may know, is distinctly different. They, with their discomforts, trials and the tribulations they suffer to perform this contribution to society, do so in a fashion that stands them above so many others.

StarText, 1986, Continued ...

2010-02-15T07:05:00.001-05:00

When last we left off, StarText was entering 1986 as the first local service of its kind to make a profit. Which was enough of a big deal that publisher Phil Meek lifted his "no press release" rule and issued a press release.

In the January issue of StarText INK, the indefatigable subscriber columnist Ed Jackson told everyone "What StarText is All About" in a missive labled "Views of an Oldtimer," a tag Ed I'm sure was very proud to sport.

Ed wrote, "For the last three years I have felt like I was riding the tail of a comet. Through the give and take electronic communications, StarText has consistently listened, and responded to one and all ... ever probing the needs and wants of its subscribers."

He cited one milestone that had a very personal significance:

"November 2, 1984 -- First marriage between StarText subscribers Ed Jackson and Patricia Chadwell."

"Maybe StarText didn't give the bride away, but it found her for me!"

Editor Christine Russell advised on the latest keywords and features, including new columns devoted to the newest computer from Commodore, the Amiga, authored by Larry Groebe and Betty Clark.

While growing the level of interactivity beteween subscribers via electronic mail, columns, forums and other features had become an important channel for growing our numbers, updating the news was still our bread and butter. We now had four editors assigned to keep the news fresh for our customers, and while we weren't 24/7, we had the news desk manned most hours weekdays and a good portion of the weekends.

Our news team was put to the test Jan. 28, 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff.

The accident happened just before noon, many hours before the next edition of the Star-Telegram would hit the streets. Under Christine's direction, our news editors went into high gear, updating the story countless times over the next 24 hours and the days beyond.

As an online editor, your biggest concern is hoping the host computers can handle the load and don't decide to pick that moment to hiccup. While we were still on the old Tandy system, there were several occasions where we were sitting on a big breaking story and had to twiddle our thumbs waiting for some technical glitch to get fixed.

But on this occasion they were up to the task. Our 2,000-plus subscribers were every bit as informed about the tragedy as the large TV audiences.

I was as proud of our team as I had ever been. They performed like veterans.

Happy Valentine's Day 2010

2010-02-14T14:54:00.005-05:00

As Pam said it so well, nothing quite captures the spirit of Valentine's like a building demolition.

At approximately 9 am this morning, the condo known as 1515 located in West Palm Beach collapsed in a heap of smoke and rubble as bystanders and a small armada of boats looked on. Check here for complete coverage from The Palm Beach Post.

Here's the view from the roof of our building:

New Blog on the Block

2010-01-28T13:53:00.002-05:00

I want to give a big shout-out to a new blog that has made the scene.

It's authored by the mysterious person known as Triple J -- short for Judson Jay Jared.

The name is also something of a mystery -- Gibber Gabfest.

Just who is that hiding between those Foster Grants?

Hmmmmm.

Anyway, check it out!

\

A Word About Newspapers

2009-12-23T13:34:00.005-05:00

I got an email from a good friend in academia. She wished me happy holidays and closed with a sentiment expressed by so many others ... "I'm still worrying about the death of newspapers."

It's been just over a year since I began this irregular exercise in writing. While its main purpose has been chronicling the history of StarText, it does stray into other areas of interest from time to time. One area I have conspiciously avoided, by design, is the state of the newspaper business.

With seemingly thousands of voices already taking up that topic, including Romenesko's daily diary of despair, I was sure one more wasn't needed. And when an industry's core competency is reporting, analyzing and investigating, you can just imagine the volume of words that results when that power is turned in on itself.

Not that I didn't feel the urgency or the desire. As someone else whose entire career has been spent in newspapers, it hasn't been easy to "sit on sidelines," so to speak.

But spurred by that email, I thought I would break my own rule and say a few things about the state of the newspaper business as 2009 comes to a close.

As I said, I have been a "lifer" in the news business. While we're sometimes never sure why we make the choices we make, working at a newspaper was my calling early-on.

My first experience was writing, editing and mimeographing my sixth grade newspaper, "The Eastland Eagle." I even had to draw the eagle we used on the masthead.

That progressed to editor of my high school paper, sports editor at the UT-Arlington Shorthorn and while attending UT-Austin, where I worked on The Longhorn, taking a fulltime job at the Austin American-Statesman to pay for college.

My late grandfather, who retired at 75 as a printer at a newspaper, always said I had "ink in my blood." I think he must have been right.

Working for a newspaper was not only a calling, but a passion. You go to work every day feeling like you can make a difference in the communities you serve. There is a strong sense of purpose and job satisfaction when wrongdoing is exposed and good deeds acknowledged.

One thing that becomes evident early -- the majority don't go into journalism for the money, at least not print journalism. Again, the passion factor.

So here we are, on the cusp of 2010, worrying about something none of us could imagine or foresee -- the death of newspapers. Say what??

How exactly did we get to this point? There are plenty of theories, with everyone from Warren Buffet to Clay Shirky offering an opinion. The current issue of The Economist even weighs in. In an article titled "Network effects," they explore how the invention of the telegraph in 1845 had the same chilling effect as the Internet is having today.

Of course, newspapers survived the telegraph, and radio, and television. History shows us media doesn't so much die as morph. You should check out futurist Paul Saffo's excellent essay, "The Electronic Pinata."

There's no question the newspaper business is going through a re-invention of itself, fueled by an economy in chaos, technological change, generational choices and yes, the network where this blog is hosted and read, the Internet.

Okay, when it comes to the Internet, maybe newspapers were late to the party. Maybe they didn't invest enough in R and D. Maybe there was too much bottom line thinking. But as a new media "early adopter" with my own share of frustration and angst, I think we need to also cut newspapers some slack. Yes, maybe it should have been newspapers who invented Ebay. Or did their own version of Craigslist before Craig Newmark did.

But for all the hype and the billions of new venture cash poured into Internet enterprises, which ones have delivered? We all know about Google and Amazon. But those aside, what other Internet companies are hitting it out of the park?

Yahoo, an early leader online, is struggling just like newspapers are. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter get lots of press, and users, but can only dream about profitability on a Google level (and until recently, any level).

Early on, it was about owning the right URLs and selling them to the highest bidder. More recently, it's when your startup is bought by another startup.

Newspapers, even in their depleted, "right-sized" state, still generate billions of real dollars and serve millions of real customers. More importantly, they are still in the Constitutionally-protected business of exposing wrongdoing and acknowledging good deeds.

After several years of pain and traumatic change, newspapers are, as Elton John says, "still standing." They are on the Internet, on mobile, on E Readers and actively exploring other channels of delivery. On top of that, news is more in demand than ever.

So, back to my friend's email. Is there reason to worry about newspapers?

Of course. I'm not sure there isn't a person or a business than isn't worried in the current world economy. But there are lots of reasons for optimism as we go into 2010.

To name a few --

-- As news organizations have slimmed down, they are better positioned to match expenses with revenue.

-- Many have a flatter management structure, which should make them more agile and competitive.

-- Newspapers (the smart ones) are embracing both change and new technologies, albeit to varing degrees. Being late to the party beats missing it altogether.

As to what the media mix will be in five years, 10 or 20, I'm not sure anyone can say. Newspapers are investing in a future that includes print and digital, and opportunities abound in both camps as long as there is demand for the core product that inspires so much passion, commitment and dedication: News.

For those who have made journalism their life's work, it just means keep believing in what we do and ourselves.

The future will be what we make it.

Christmas in Palm Beach

2009-12-14T14:02:00.003-05:00

To those who have wondered if I'm still at my post ... Yes, thanks for checking. And I'm also still planning to continue the StarText saga -- currently stuck in 1986 -- hopefully in the very near future.

Truth is, things have been a little hectic between work and the holidays.

To prove the holiday spirit has come to Palm Beach, I offer the following snaps as evidence:

This was taken at CityPlace, the West Palm Beach mega-shopping/dining/gathering spot in the downtown area. The palm trees are decked out in strands of twinkly lights while the fountain in the background features jets of water pulsating to Christmas music. On the right is the more traditional tree in case lighted palms don't do it for you.

Okay, who says you can't have a white Christmas in Palm Beach? You may have to squint, but those white specks in this picture are snowflakes. Every night at CityPlace there is a 100% chance of snow -- and so what if it's the artificial variety? Kids and dogs still chase the flakes that come pouring out of the sky -- make that roof -- on a regular basis.

Taking it all in are Pam and Reggie, who can hardly wait to see Santa over the Atlantic.

Which just goes to prove Christmas isn't a place or a time, but the magic that happens when you believe.

90 Miles from Cuba

2009-11-13T08:44:00.002-05:00

This week's "Foto Friday" features a snap of Moolie and The Reg standing at Key West's famous landmark, the Southernmost Point of the Continental U.S.A., which sits a scant 90 miles from Cuba. You can almost smell the cigars.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

(Aside to my friend Mike -- good luck to the Horned Frogs!)

EJ's 'The Second Coming'

2009-11-09T09:18:00.005-05:00

Reader Note: The following is another story in the RAD series authored by StarText columnist Ed Jackson, originally published May 23, 1986. It is made available courtesy of Dennis Brand, who has archived a great number of Jackson stories and columns.

The Second Coming

By e.j. (Ed Jackson)

It was a hectic time. It was a joyous time. It was celebration time. The turn of yet another century. . . the year 2500. Every prophecy of every sci-fi writer of every century had been fulfilled. Sci-fi writers were out of business. NOTHING was so far out not to have already bean accomplished. Even the robot/human war had come to an end, and robots had become totally integrated into society. They didn't have to carry I.D. cards to SHOW they were robots, and people had become so used to them that they no longer CARED if their beat friend turned out to be an android. Mostly, people tried to AVOID the knowledge. It was part of this culture to be 'blind' to the EXISTENCE of a 'second society.'

The Tribune's managing editor summoned Patrick O'Rourke to his office.

“You wanted me, Chief?”

“Come in, Pat, and set a spell. I have an assignment for you.”

“Aw HELL! I've got some vacation time coming, and I been looking forward to a couple of weeks on the moon in low grav.”

“This MAY be quite a story.” Bradley Thurman leaned forward and said conspiratorially, “I wanted YOU to have the first crack at it."

“Sure, sure.” Said O'Rourke sourly, “Translation? Another wack-o 'hunch' of yours that anybody with any seniority or brains would tell you to stick where the sun doesn't shine.”

“Now, Now, Patrick. . ..you gotta have faith in your old boss. When you have as many years in the business as I'VE had, you develop a nose. . .no.. more than that. . . a sixth sense. . ..call it intuition if you like.”

Patrick O'Rourke rubbed his nose thoughtfully, “Nobody is conned better or faster than an old con. . .. and that's what YOU are. Who has been whispering in your ear this time, Chief?”

“Have you seen the thing about the 'faith healing' that's been going on down at the mission on 45th street?”

O'Rourke's jaw dropped. “LORD! You aren't falling for THAT stuff are you?”

“Just check it out, O'Rourke, and get back to me. After a preliminary check, we'll decide whether to go all-out on it or not.”

“But CHIEF!”

“Just a preliminary, O'Rourke. Is that asking too much?”

“O.K., I'll go, Chief, but I think you're getting senile.”

O'Rourke closed the door a mite more forcefully than he intended to. He certainly owed the Chief that much, but dammit, he had a vacation coming, and he'd seen more faith healers in his time than you could shake a stick at. Not just here, but all over the world, he'd covered stories of moving statues, weeping statues, healing 'naturals' of every faith, race, and age. NEVER had he been able to prove ANYBODY ever truly healed ANYBODY of ANYTHING. 'Just a preliminary indeed! he fumed. But he went.

It was just forty-eight hours later that O'Rourke rapped on his editor's door, and followed the rap in. “You busy Chief?”

“Naw. Whatcha got, O’Rourke?”

O'Rourke fell into a chair, leaned back, stuck his feet on his boss's desk, and pulled out a pad.

“I don't know. I can't figure it out. That kook down there who claims to be the Son of God has ‘healed’ more people than I ever HEARD of being healed. NOBODY could afford THAT many shills. I don't get it.”

“He claims to be the Son of GOD?”

“No, HE doesn't, actually, but all his 'disciples' call him 'Master.' They say it like they mean it. THEY call him the Son of God.”

“So? You think he's really DOING it?”

O'Rourke scratched his chin. “I dunno, Chief. Every indication at this time is that it's true. But let's face it, Chief. YOU know it ain't true, and I know it ain't true. Only INDICATIONS of miracles are true. Only TALES of miracles are true. There just ain't no such animal alive today.”

“How does he work it?”

“Well, he opens up shop about 9:00 in the morning, and closes down about midnight, three days a week. He claims he must 'get his batteries charged' on the in-between-days. He takes all comers. He puts his hands on the afflicted part, and leaves 'em there for varying lengths of time, and then says, 'NEXT!' I'm sure I haven't seen anything that some magician, or some special effect man couldn't duplicate, but WHY? He doesn't charge any money. You can't even GIVE him money. There's no place to PUT any money you may WANT to give him. I can't figure what his game is.”

Thurman tapped a pencil on his teeth thoughtfully. “Then you're going back?”

“Sure. . .. but HOW? With WHAT? I TRIED to talk to him . . . no business. I TRIED to talk to his 'disciples' but nobody is talking. What's my move?”

The editor threw back his head and laughed. “Come ON, O'Rourke. You're not TRYING. I've seen you get interviews that simply were not get-able. You're STYMIED? HELL! Fake a sickness, and go in to be 'healed.' See what happens.”

O'Rourke looked embarrassed. “Sorry, Chief, I guess I still had my thoughts on the moon vacation thing. I'll get back to you.” He stuffed his hat back on his head and slumped out of the office.

. . . . . .

It was late. A skeletal staff. O'Rourke didn't REALLY expect the Chief to be there, but he was. He walked in without knocking.

“Oh, Hello, O'Rourke.” said Thurman, looking up. “Hadn't heard from you in a few days. I was about to send out the dogs after you. What happened?”

O'Rourke sat down, lit up a smoke, and squinted at the Chief through the smoke. “You just ain't gonna believe this. I don't know if I believe it myself.”

“Try me.”

“Well, I went in, like you said, and faked an illness. I told the man that I had recurring migraine headaches. He felt around, here and there and then smiled at me. He said, 'Why do you come to me with a migraine headache? Have you no faith?' Well sir, that got me flustered, and all I could come back with is, 'What do you mean?' He replied, 'Migraine headaches are transitory. Unless you came in here while you were experiencing one, I could not help you. However, your diabetes is a long term disease that you have had MANY years. Why did you not ask for relief from it?'“

The Chief jumped up. “Gosh Almighty, O'Rourke! I never knew you were a diabetic. You had diabetes and didn't think to ask him to heal you of that?”

O'Rourke shrugged. “Why SHOULD I, Chief? Remember? You and I BOTH know there is no such thing as miracle healing. . ,. right? The truth is, like I told him, I've had it so long. . . gotten so used to it. . . that I simply forgot it.”

“And what did HE say?”

“He laughed, and then said, 'No matter. You are healed. REMEMBER you are healed, and do NOT attempt to take insulin any longer. It could have a VERY bad effect on you. Remember these rules, and you will have a long and happy life.” Then he told me some things, and I jotted them down in my pad.”

“And you BELIEVED him?”

“No . . . not at first. . . I let a couple of days go by, and my blood sugar checked out right down the line. I went to my doctor for a urine test, blood test, the whole makeup. He was mystified. He couldn't explain it. Chief . . . he said I don't have diabetes anymore.” He tore a page from his pad and said, “Get a load of this, Chief.” He read:

“Redemption and Deliverance:

Fourteen commandments:

1. Place YOUR God first.

2. Desire only what you EARN.

3. Honor TRUTH above ALL.

4. Accept the responsibility for your actions.

5. Obey the law of the land.

6. Honor and respect ALL Gods of ALL people.

7. Respect and defend the lives and properties of others as if they
were your own.

8. Place JUSTICE above MERCY.

9. Temper Charity with a respect for the self respect of others,

10. Honor your contracts, be they monetary or moral.

11. Have faith in your OWN sense of logic and good sense. Accept
NOTHING on faith alone.

12. Realize the limitations of your intelligence. Do not mistakenly
believe you can understand the workings of the universe, or understand
some mystic 'plan' of God's.

13. Do the BEST you can. Even GOD can not ask more.

14. Love your spouse, your children, yourself, your country, and your
God. ... in that order.”

O'Rourke sat there in the now smoke-filled office. He was on his seventh cigarette. The office was silent. The click of computer terminals in the next room was inaudible. The hum of the presses was so much a part of the building that neither man heard them. So . . . the office was silent. He broke the silence. “Well, what do you think?”

Bradley Thurman. . . O'Rourke could hardly REMEMBER his name . . . he'd called him 'Chief so long . . . sat there squinting back at his reporter.

“Something there rings a bell, O'Rourke, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Let me see that paper.” He took the note sheet and looked at it.

R.A.D. Fourteen commandments.

1. Place YOUR God first.

2. Desire only what you EARN.

3. Honor TRUTH above ALL. Accept the responsibility for your actions.

4. Obey the law of the land.

O'Rourke had risen and was re-reading his note pad over his boss's shoulder. Five was as far as he'd gotten when his editor leaped to his feet.

“I've GOT it, O'Rourke! I've GOT it!”

“Got WHAT Chief?”

“I don't have it ALL, yet, I don't know WHAT his scam is, but I know WHO he is!” He smacked a beefy fist into a palm. “I KNOW who he is!”

“Well, you gonna let me in on it?”

“M'boy, you are going to have the privilege of seeing the old man at work. Grab your lid and let's GO.”

“Go WHERE?”

“To see your new Jehovah.”

“I never said. . .” But the Chief was half way out the door. “WAIT, Chief! You can't see him NOW. He closed up shop hours ago.”

“So we'll open it.” he grinned. “Don't worry. I have the password.”

*****

It was almost dawn when they arrived at the little downtown mission. O'Rourke hadn't a CLUE to what the Chief was talking about. He just kept saying, 'You ought to read more history, O'Rourke. I know who he is. You understand? I know who he is. They walked into the tiny 'lobby' of the mission. An unshaven clerk looked up.

“I want to talk to your resident priest, or rabbi, or what-ever the Hell he calls himself.”

“You mean you want to talk to the MASTER?”

“You bet. You got it, old timer. Rustle him out here.”

“That's not possible. I can't. . .”

“I'll take full responsibility. Just tell him I want to see RAD Fourteen. He'll understand what I mean.”

“Rad Fourteen, Chief?” said O’Rourke.

“I TOLD you I knew who he was.”

“Chief. ... I don't think. . ......”

The door opened and the man who had cured O'Rourke's diabetes walked in.

“I understand you want to see me but who is this Rad Fourteen you mentioned?”

Puzzlement was plain on his features.

“Don't give me that crap, preacher. YOU are Rad Fourteen and you KNOW it? Now what *I* want is the whole story. What kind of scam are you running, and how do you work it?”

The man smiled. “I understand. If you come this way, I'll fill you in.”

They followed him through a small passageway into a large clean-looking room. It had marble all over everywhere, and it was difficult to tell whether it was just a room, a laboratory, or a temple. There was a large frosted glass screen, and behind it, a hint of winking lights in various colors.

“Won't you sit down?” They sat. “Now suppose you tell me what YOU know, and then I'll fill in the details.”

The Chief sat, and then hunched forward in his chair. “I couldn't get it all together, until O'Rourke showed me his pad, with the notes. Instead of 'Redemption and Deliverance,' he'd abbreviated, 'R.A.D.,' and the NEXT word was 'Fourteen. ‘As soon as I saw those words together, the bells rang. R.A.D. Fourteen was the first truly humanoid robot that started the whole thing. The R.A.D. stood for Robots-Androids Development, then. Was your 'Redemption and Deliverance' a coincidence?”

“No. A conceit.”

“O.K. How do you work it?”

“It's simple, really. Before I was dismantled, I left some rather complex plans for my resurrection. A lot of time had to pass before the proper technology became available, but my lawyer, St. John, and the Judge Donovan, who sentenced me, kept the notes on my return, and built the present world of human/robot existence.

“When they reconstructed me, my new plans came into play, with all sorts of 'miracles' built into my framework. I really DO heal people, you know. ... OF COURSE you know, I healed Mr. O'Rourke of his diabetes. I do it with special penetrating and healing rays of particles which they only DISCOVERED a few years ago, but which I PREDICTED would be there. It took Gigatrons to even FIND them, and people don't understand their properties yet.

“Somehow I knew that merely HEALING the sick would not be enough. A lot of the sick are sick in mind as well as body, so I wanted to get at the people who were in despair. . . . who had given up on their God, and themselves. I had to create not a new God, but a new religious philosophy.

“So, I 'returned.”

"Didn't I TELL you, O'Rourke? Didn't I TELL you! We've got a Pulitzer prize winning story here!"

He started to jump to his feet. ... only to find his arms clamped down by circling arms. Rad Fourteen smiled. "You think I waited all this time to have someone like you come along and ruin all my plans? I'm sorry, gentlemen, but your new bodies will extend your life indefinitely, and the adjustments to your minds and memories will be minimal. Please believe that."

He and O'Rourke hardly felt the needle-pricks.

Ed Jackson -- Mail Code 1125

Foto Friday: 11-6-2009

2009-11-04T09:16:00.006-05:00

Full Moon Over West Palm

On a warm night in early November, the Atlantic Ocean and Intercoastal waters shimmer from the light of the full moon, suspended above the Palm Beaches.

Foto Friday: 10-30-2009

2009-10-30T09:09:00.003-04:00

This week I had a close encounter with our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt.

The occasion was a yearly luncheon marking Teddy's birthdate, Oct. 27, hosted by a co-worker who happens to be a big fan and avid collector of Teddy memorabilia.

One of the fascinating items on exhibit was a rare board game celebrating Teddy's well-documented safari to Africa in 1909, shown below. If you ever run across it in a second hand store or yard sale, grab it. It's worth big bucks!

We all know Halloween is this weekend and as you might expect, the Cavalier Diva is all set for canine trick or treating around the Palm Beaches.

Presenting, for your approval, "Princess Reggie."

Have a Happy Halloween!!

StarText, 1986: Prologue

2009-10-29T09:37:00.001-04:00

It's 1986, and StarText is about to enter its fourth year.

The anxieties that came with our rocky and tenuous beginnings had by this time given way to a sense of normalcy and accomplishment.

I'm sure most of the Star-Telegram newsroom still looked at us at the "toy department," experimenting like mad scientists with loading content on computers. But we were used to that.

We had long since given up the converted closet space on the third floor to eventually take up residence in the Star-Telegram Annex. The Annex was at one point a Savings and Loan that butted up to the S-T's four-story building at the corner of Seventh and Taylor in downtown Fort Worth. The S-T bought it and joined the two buildings together.

As I recall, it wasn't a perfect fit. Seems like the fourth floor of the S-T led into the third floor of the Ssavings and Loan. Nonetheless, it was quite an upgrade from the closet.

As a matter of fact, our reception area was at one time the office of the S and L president. Mike Holland, a StarText editor, quipped that sitting at the president's old desk always brought on "an overwhelming urge to evict a widow."

Another unique feature of that office was a wall made from what we surmised to be imported South American bark. We hung a lighted StarText sign on it. Our offices were even equipped with a private shower. Like I said, for us it was moving to the New Media Taj Mahal.

On top of that, we started 1986 on an auspicious note: We crossed the 2,000-mark on subscriptions. Offically, we hit 2,000 on Jan. 8, 1986 and subscriber No. 2,000 was Frank L. Stewart, StarText ID 145546. Mr. Stewart was rewarded with three free months of StarText.

That meant on an annualized basis, StarText was now generating close to a quarter million dollars from subscriber revenue. While we might pick up an ad here and there, online advertising, particularly at the local level, was still a ways off. So we had to keep growing the subscriber base if we were going to pay the bills and keep expanding the business.

Nationally, powerful players in the media, communications and banking sectors continued to pour in tons of cash in the quest for the online Holy Grail. While it wasn't generating much revenue, it did spawn odd alliances, like AT&T and Knight-Ridder, who partnered on ViewTron, or Sears teaming with CBS and IBM to launch Prodigy.

While those players grabbed all the headlines, Star-Telegram Publisher Phil Meek was preparing to lift the "cone of silence" he had (in retrospect, wisely) imposed on StarText back when we were just getting started.

You may recall Meek's original three requirements to keep StarText going our first year: 1) There will be no press releases; 2) Don’t lose so much money anyone in New York notices and 3) Those associated with the project will never leave the Dallas-Fort Worth area to make a speech.

Some three-and-a-half years after we launched, Meek lifted the first edict and authorized our first-ever press release. It marked a momentous occasions and one I am sure Phil was just as proud of as we were. The headline said it all:

"StarText Achieves Profitability"

In a world where some of the biggest companies were bleeding red ink trying to strike it rich online, StarText became the first local service of its kind in the nation to make a profit.

Yes, our profit might look like a rounding error compared to the cash generated by the print Mothership. But for those of us who had invested so much in the dream and promise of what StarText represented, it was a sweet moment to be savored.

To be continued ...

Foto Friday: 10-23-2009

2009-10-23T09:18:00.003-04:00

Like 007, Reggie, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, likes her martinis shaken, not stirred, thank you very much. Of course, only Reggie, the o-so-sophisticated bon vivant, could go from a martini directly to chewing a piece of rawhide. Ah, the vagaries of the Cavalier -- the mind reels.

_____________________________________

Last week's photo was a double rainbow. This week Mother Nature staged an encore performance in West Palm with a full rainbow display over the island of Palm Beach. Unfortunately, my iPhone couldn't get it all in one snap so here it is in three parts: The left side, the center and the right.

Enjoy!

'Got a New Home Computer'?

2009-10-21T09:50:00.002-04:00

Here we have one of StarText ads we ran in the Star-Telegram, no doubt in January.

Why? January was always a big month for StarText, especially in the early years, because so many people got home computers as Christmas presents. And any computer (as well as "dumb" terminal) that could connect to a modem was a candidate for StarText service.

Note also the line, "No time charges!"

Just about all our competitors -- CompuServe, The Source, Dow-Jones, etc. -- levied a charge for each minute you used the service, the dreaded "connect" fee. In Texas we enjoyed unlimited use of our local phone line for a flat monthly rate. As a result, you could use StarText as long as liked, whenever you liked.

As I recall, the average connect session was around 10 minutes, so there were usually no busy signals. Not to mention a busy signal meant your "newspaper" didn't get delivered. We couldn't have that.

Foto Friday: 10-16-2009

2009-10-16T08:47:00.002-04:00

The sight of a rainbow is usually enough to make most of us "ooh and aah."

Two rainbows together over the Atlantic? Double ooh and aah!

This was snapped (do you "snap" an iPhone?) on the top deck of our building in downtown West Palm after a recent late afternoon rain. Doing the oohing and aahing are Pam and Reggie.

Here's another view:

Somewhere out in the ocean there must be two pots of gold. Considering what gold is selling for these days, I need to start looking!

TGIF everybody.

Seven Days of StarText

2009-10-14T08:34:00.001-04:00

The Original Packaging ...

The Revised Package ...

If you've been following these posts one thing you probably already know:

StarText was never a big budget operation.

Most of the funding we did get paid for staff and computer equipment. There just wasn't a lot left over that we could throw at "marketing and promotion." A company like AOL spent more in one week giving away CDs than we would spend in, oh say, a thousand years -- give or take a hundred. The closest we came to that was The Big Modem Giveaway, which didn't deliver the results we hoped it would.

So for the most part, outside the "house" ads that ran in the Star-Telegram, we had to get creative if we wanted to get the word out to more people about StarText.

One idea that proved more successful was the "Seven Days of StarText" program.

It really evolved from our earliest marketing effort, the "Free Trial Password." The genesis of that was our conviction that if we could get someone to give StarText a try, there was a fairly good chance we could turn them into a subscriber. The free trial allowed someone to use StarText five times at no charge.

What we came to realize was a person could burn four sessions just trying to get their computer and modem configured for using StarText. Others would deliberately hold back logging on, trying to stretch the free trial for as long as possible.

So we hatched the idea of "Seven Days." For $4.95, someone could use StarText all they wanted for a week, giving them plenty of opportunity to try all the features. The package, containing a user ID/password, a User Guide and later, a custom communications program we authored called StarComm, was available directly from us or participating retail locations.

The latter was my challenge: Enlist stores who would display and sell the product. That also meant I was about to learn more retail selling than I ever wanted. Such as working out wholesale/retail pricing; affixing a bar code; tracking inventory; maintaining adequate supplies.

Just another "hat" among the many the staff wore on a regular basis.

Actually it was exciting as we signed up the first locations, for the most part "mom and pop" computer stores. But as we went along, we started getting traction in the bigger "chain" stores that had multiple locations. We found bookstores also receptive.

At $4.95, it made a great stocking stuffer as well.

At its height, we had "Seven Days of StarText" in over 70 locations around the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex. For a grass roots marketing effort, that seemed pretty respectable.

An Update from Liz

2009-10-12T13:42:00.004-04:00

NOTE: Elizabeth Campbell, the subject of a posting last week, sent another picture of her guide dog, Gabe, and an update for the story she wrote for StarText INK almost 25 years ago. The original post follows. Thanks Liz!

Howdy from a loyal StarTexan! You will see a story I wrote years ago when we were publishing StarText Ink, a magazine that kept subscribers informed about all of the happenings of the Star-Telegram’s electronic news service.

Twenty five years later, I’m still reporting for the paper, and I hope to keep doing so as it is exciting and challenging.

I’m currently covering Johnson and Parker counties — two rapidly growing areas west and south of Fort Worth.

I do stories on everything from the unusual earthquakes in Cleburne to a controversy over a 1,000-bed detention center that was to locate northwest of Fort Worth.

You will see several pictures of me with my second Seeing Eye dog, a yellow lab Golden retirever mix named Gabe. He is a wonderful, smart boy.

Ten years ago, I decided to get a Seeing Eye dog after two unpleasant experiences, and my first dog Bates, and now Gabe are often better-known than I am! Well, maybe that is a slight exaggeration!!

Now, back to StarText!

Accessing information electronically continues to be an incredibly important aspect of my job. Like my sighted colleagues, I can follow Twitter, Facebook and various blogs, and I credit my early use of StarText for making the change to the Internet a painless one.

This was not always the case for some of my colleagues who looked at the computer as a necessary evil of the job rather than a means of expanding horizons and learning more about the world.

StarText played a big part in helping me do my job independently because I had to rely on the computer for my newspaper reading. But I also was way ahead of many of my journalism colleagues, as I was already familiar with e-mail and the concept of online discussions long before others jumped on the band wagon, so to speak.

I hope you enjoy this story written shortly after I came to work at the Star-Telegram soon after graduating from Baylor University.

-- Elizabeth Campbell
liz@star-telegram.com

---------------------------------------

Liz and her dog, Gabe

Elizabeth Campbell has been a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since the early 1980s. What makes that remarkable is that Liz is blind. When she began her career, StarText played a pivotal role. In the February, 1985 StarText INK, Liz wrote about it.

By Elizabeth Campbell

Imagine not having access to your favorite sections of the newspaper. You couldn't browse through the classified ads or read the breaking stories on the front.

How can a young blind jouirnalist solve these problems?

When I came to the Star-Telegram in June I realized that I needed some way to keep up with the news. The radio and television do not give detailed accounts of the day's events.

Fortunately, StarText came to the rescue! I went online in mid-July (1984), and a new, exciting world opened up for me.

For the first time in my life, I could sit down and "read" the newspaper by myself. Before, I depended on readers to help with this task. Often, having people read for me was a problem because I had story deadlines to meet or my reader had other commitments.

Therefore, I had some problems keeping up with the news everyday. StarText solved the problem because now, I can log on whenever I have time to scroll through the stories.

StarText has helped me to become more independent because I don't have to rely on others to do my work for me.

At this point, you might be asking what kind of system does she use to get StarText in the first place?

I use an Apple IIE and a VersaBraille terminal to do both my news reading and my writing for the Star-Telegram. The Apple and the VersaBraille can be interfaced.

When I am using the Apple, I have a speech synthesizer called an Echo2 that is installed inside the Apple. The Echo says everything that is printed to the screen. It uses over 400 pronunciation rules in the English language.

When I want to download from StarText, I use a data communications program called Talking Transend. I also have the option to download using the VersaBraille. The VersaBraille is a small terminal about the size of a tape recorder. The Braille shows up on a small display that runs across the top of the machine. All my files from VersaBraille are stored on cassette tape.

When I finish downloading what I need from StarText, I like reading through the material in Braille. So, I have another program called Braille Edit. Braille Edit is a word processing package for blind Apple users.

The program also translates text files into Braille. I like to transfer StarText to the VersaBraille so I can read it more accurately.

Jerry 'The Freeloader' Holmes

2009-10-12T09:40:00.009-04:00

Note to Readers
While all the subscribers who authored columns for StarText were special in their own way, a handful stood out for their extra effort and tireless dedication to helping others. One of those in the latter category was certainly the Jerry Holmes. Jerry, along with Jim Boughton, were both recipients of the highest honor we paid to our columnists, the "EJ Award" (named for Ed Jackson). I can think of no better tribute to Jerry than the following column by StarText columnists Chuck and Terry Mencke. It's reprinted here with their permission.

Your Web Connection
By Chuck and Terry Mencke

Dedicated to helping you untangle the World Wide Web
Volume 2 - Number 10
November 1, 1999

Today's issue will be a little bit different. For those of you who are outside the Star-Telegram or StarText community, this may not be of much interest to you. For those of you who are still within our once close-knit community, it will be. Today's column will focus on the passing of Jerry "Freeloader" Holmes, a dedicated supporter of StarText as well as my mentor. If it wasn't for Jerry's support and encouragement, there would have been no "Startips," "Cruisin' With StarText," and the present "Your Web Connection." Please share in my sense of loss of this very special individual.

Jerry "The Freeloader" Holmes
The Passing of a Friend

On October 12, 1999, the Dallas-Fort Worth online community lost a dedicated supporter and I lost a very dear friend. Jerry had been ill for many years and hadn't been able to write his legendary "Freeloader" column. I found out too late about his passing and the funeral plans in order to attend his funeral, but I have spent many hours the past few days thinking back on all the wonderful hours we spent together online. Jerry was one of those special people who was always there to lend a hand with all of us "newbies." ...

(The following is taken from Jerry's bio.)

In 1984, Jerry's boss started bringing his TRS-80 Model 100 to work and at noon would let Jerry play with StarText. One of the StarText columns [he saw] was Ed Jackson's column and Jerry got hooked. He continued to read StarText at noon for almost a year until he saved up enough money to purchase his own TRS-80 Model I the early part of 1984.

In August of that year he subscribed to StarText. After several months of writing back and forth with Ed Jackson about his column, Ed started talking to Jerry about a column of his own. Rob Yoder, a member of a local computer club which Jerry belonged to, was writing a column on StarText and included a short BASIC (computer language) program at the end of each column. Jerry talked to Rob and he agreed that there was plenty of room for two columns with that format. Thus was born "The Freeloader."

Jerry said that most of his friends were made on StarText through E-mail. (He even discovered the Ed Jackson on StarText was the "Edwin" Jackson he had befriended as a youth, and he credits StarText with restoring that special bond that the two had shared years before.) Typically Jerry received and answered over 100 messages a week and loved every one of them. He claims that the mail is the best part of StarText.

An interesting sidebar to Jerry's story follows...

Thanksgiving wedding: StarText reunites friends after 50 years

By Monica Stavish - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

EULESS - It took half a century, but thanks to the Information Superhighway and quite possibly fate, Jerry Holmes and Monica Hickey will be married on Thanksgiving.

Holmes and Hickey, both in their early 60s, were childhood friends in Cleburne during the Great Depression. Their lives took them in different directions until a mutual friend helped them interface -- through StarText, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's electronic information system.

That was two months ago. Now the exuberant duo have been rushing around getting a marriage license and rings while planning the big day.

"First we're going to have dinner, then watch the Cowboys game, then get married," Holmes said.

They chose to get married on Thanksgiving for a simple reason, Holmes said. "Because we figure we have so much to be thankful for," he said, standing in the middle of an apartment filled with moving boxes. A Euless resident for 15 years, he said he plans to move to his bride's home in the South Hills section of Fort Worth, where she has lived for about 35 years.

The couple's circuitous saga began in the late 1930s, when they were playmates at his grandmother's house. Holmes admits that he had a crush on Hickey.

"I liked her because she was a tomboy and could keep up with me shooting rubber guns," he said. "She was a cute little gal."

Hickey said she felt the same way.

"He said I taught him long division," she said, laughing, "I don't remember that. I remember him as a boy of summer. My neatest memory is when we were 10 and 11. I thought we were getting ready to have our first kiss when our moms came home."

As so often happens with childhood chums, the two went separate ways. Still, they have found many similarities in their lives. She married, had two children and divorced 34 years ago. He married, had two children and divorced nine years ago. Each has two grandchildren.

"We never thought about each other in those years," said Hickey, a substitute teacher.

The couple's seemingly whirlwind courtship was kindled in September. Holmes, a technical support engineer for Microsoft Corp., described the reunion in his StarText column, The Freeloader, this way:

"One of my really good friends was writing a message to me on StarText a while back when this friend of hers came in. She (Hickey) saw my name on the letter and said she used to know someone by that name down in Cleburne when she was a kid. Betty (Quimby), my friend, told her she thought I had spent some time in Cleburne. The friend asked her (Quimby) to ask me what my mother's maiden name was. So Betty asked me. It turned out that her friend was my first crush oh, so many years."

The coincidence is even more startling.

"In 15 years, I've been to her house maybe four times," Hickey said. "So this is really odd that I would be there."

A surprising meeting took place -- fittingly -- as a StarText gathering at which Holmes received the Ed Jackson Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributor.

"Betty brought Martha," Holmes recalled. "She came up. I had a sandwich in one hand and my mouth was full of sandwich. Martha said, 'Unbutton my jacket. Now look at my chest.' She had on a T-shirt that had a picture of herself on it. The picture was taken when she was around 7 years old." Although Hickey still chuckles about her surprise, she said that there is always hope for a second chance.

"In a matter of a moment, something neat can happen that'll change your life," she said.

Holmes said he agrees. After battling bladder cancer for a year, he recently received good news about his condition.

"This all happened at once," he said. "Betty, the award. So you can bet I've got a ticket to the lottery."

Ed Jackson, mentioned in the above article, was StarText's first subscriber columnist. Subscriber columnists were, and still are, a proud tradition within the StarText community. Ed mentored and urged Jerry into writing a column and Jerry mentored and urged me to start writing an online column. Jerry was always there to help me along the way, supporting me when I was thinking about stopping while always being a good friend to everyone online, especially the "newbies." Jerry never failed to answer an email very promptly. He was always there for us and I'm sure he and Ed are up there writing up a storm for an entirely new audience.

Jerry's last column was written September 6, 1996. Due to his progressing health problems, it became very painful for Jerry to sit at the keyboard for any length of time.

For those of you that wonder why Jerry was called "The Freeloader" is was because he provided neat little programs with each column for us to download. For those of you that are of the Internet generation, this is no big deal because you can find programs anywhere on the Net. But, 10 years ago, this wasn't the case. We were all thirsting after any little program we could get our hands on. So now, you know why Jerry was called "The Freeloader."

Jerry I hope you're up there reading this. Thank you for the dedication you had for StarText. Thank you for the friendship you had for all your online friends. We're all better people for knowing someone as wonderful as you. We love you Jerry. The Freeloader is going to be missed, but never forgotten.

Foto Friday: 10-9-2009

2009-10-09T08:52:00.003-04:00

You may be asking what a dog on the beach has to do with the history of StarText.

Simple answer: Nothing.

Just thought a change of pace would be nice every now and then, so here it, the first of "Foto Fridays."

Today's snap is of Reggie, aka Diva Dog, the Cavalier King Charles that shares our domicile. Like any good Florida native, Reggie enjoys a day at the beach, especially the dog beach. Establishing an outpost on the shores of the ocean, Reggie feels it's her sworn duty to patrol the sands and protect us from all manner of birds and creepy-crawlies.

Despite her best efforts, the seagulls are just too fast for her. The crabs? They mostly don't care. But if she gets too close, they scurry down a convenient hole.

We're trying to teach her to relax, don a pair of Ray-Bans and soak up the sun, sea, surf and all the awesome-ness that is that immense expanse of blue-green water called the Atlantic Ocean.

Not happening, I'm afraid. Not as long as there are birds to be chased.

Happy Friday, everyone.

Meet Elizabeth Campbell

2009-10-08T08:37:00.008-04:00

Liz and her dog, Gabe

Elizabeth Campbell has been a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since the early 1980s. What makes that remarkable is that Liz is blind. When she began her career, StarText played a pivotal role. In the February, 1985 StarText INK, Liz wrote about it.

By Elizabeth Campbell

Imagine not having access to your favorite sections of the newspaper. You couldn't browse through the classified ads or read the breaking stories on the front.

How can a young blind jouirnalist solve these problems?

When I came to the Star-Telegram in June I realized that I needed some way to keep up with the news. The radio and television do not give detailed accounts of the day's events.

Fortunately, StarText came to the rescue! I went online in mid-July (1984), and a new, exciting world opened up for me.

For the first time in my life, I could sit down and "read" the newspaper by myself. Before, I depended on readers to help with this task. Often, having people read for me was a problem because I had story deadlines to meet or my reader had other commitments.

Therefore, I had some problems keeping up with the news everyday. StarText solved the problem because now, I can log on whenever I have time to scroll through the stories.

StarText has helped me to become more independent because I don't have to rely on others to do my work for me.

At this point, you might be asking what kind of system does she use to get StarText in the first place?

I use an Apple IIE and a VersaBraille terminal to do both my news reading and my writing for the Star-Telegram. The Apple and the VersaBraille can be interfaced.

When I am using the Apple, I have a speech synthesizer called an Echo2 that is installed inside the Apple. The Echo says everything that is printed to the screen. It uses over 400 pronunciation rules in the English language.

When I want to download from StarText, I use a data communications program called Talking Transend. I also have the option to download using the VersaBraille. The VersaBraille is a small terminal about the size of a tape recorder. The Braille shows up on a small display that runs across the top of the machine. All my files from VersaBraille are stored on cassette tape.

When I finish downloading what I need from StarText, I like reading through the material in Braille. So, I have another program called Braille Edit. Braille Edit is a word processing package for blind Apple users.

The program also translates text files into Braille. I like to transfer StarText to the VersaBraille so I can read it more accurately.

Ed Jackson's 'Rad' Stories

2009-10-06T13:18:00.005-04:00

Note to Readers

In 1984, StarText held a short story contest, inviting readers to submit original work around the general themes of science fiction and computers. First place went to Ed Jackson for his tale about a legal fight to save a robot, titled "Rad Fourteen." A year later, we published Jackson's sequel, "Rad Fifteen."

With an assist from Dennis Brand, who maintained an archive of Jackson's work after his death, both are presented below. I think you'll find them just as enjoyable today as they were then.

RAD FOURTEEN

By Ed Jackson

"I tell you, St. John, you and your liberals have gone out of your skulls! It's simply preposterous."

"Why?"

Judge William Donovan glared angrily at the attor¬ney facing him. "What you're asking me to rule on is to give 'human rights' to non-humans.”

"Not at all. Consider, William, that at one time or another all sorts of people were classified as 'non-human.' The aborigines of Australia, the red men of America, the black men of Africa — of America, for that matter. Good lord, William, if an angel came down and made his presence known, there would be those who would think of the angel as 'non-human!'"

Judge William Donovan passed his hand through sparse hair, absently, and then rubbed his eyes tiredly. God! How he hated these civil actions. Give him a good, old-fashioned murder anytime, with facts and evi¬dence.

"All right, St. John. Suppose I even give you the hypothetical point that all life is sacred and equal. Human, animal, Martian. I'll even throw, in the trees and plants and such. What then? There's no way you can claim Rad Fourteen fits into any of those categories.”

"Rad Fourteen possesses many of those qualities that we think of as 'human.' His mind is very rational. He is a lot more logical than most, and even has a sense of humor."

The judge shook his head sadly. How on earth do you argue with a nitwit like this? His face lit up.

“Well, let’s see your Rad Fourteen reproduce his kind. Every kind of life form can do that! Survival, not only of the individual but of the species, is the inborn characteristic of every form of life on this planet"

"Even a mule?" St. John said, smiling.

Judge Donovan's face flushed and he snapped angrily. "That doesn't count. A mule is a hybrid -- a mutant.”

"Of course. So is Rad Fourteen. Genetically he is certainly different from either of his parents."

William Donovan leaped to his feet angrily.

" 'Parents!' 'Parents!' God almighty!"

"Calm yourself, William, before you have an apo¬plectic stroke. Sure, Rad has parents. His father was Rad Thirteen, and his mother was the GICPU. He has quite a family tree. His great great-great grandfather was JSNIAC, His great-great-great grandmother was Univac. His cousins are Apple, TRS-80, Atari, TIPET and so on and on. Rad is simply a hybrid."

"You can argue 'til you're blue in the face and you can't prove he's human because he isn't!"

"And yet you used the word 'he' twice in your last sentence."

"Nonsense!" Donovan said with a snort. "I may refer to a ship as a 'she,' but nobody would ever try to prove it should have 'human rights!'"

"True! Some objects have masculine or feminine pronouns attached to them, but a ship is always a 'she.' You don't have 'he's.' With Rad and his kind, you have 'him's' and 'her's.' You can tell them apart." St. John laughed bitterly. "Since the ERA came into effect, humans certainly aren't that clearly defined!"

The judge looked at St. John strangely.

What's the matter, St John? Can't, you say 'robot?'"

This time it was St. John who leaped up in anger. "Don't say 'robot!' William, that's the whole point of what I've been trying to tell you. He's not a robot. A robot is a mindless, programmed machine. Rad is far beyond that"

"But he's not human."

"So you are going to rule he can arbitrarily be killed," St. John said sadly.

"His owner built him .His owner has the right to put him to death."

St. John paced back and forth. He lit a cigarette and puffed it quickly, his eyes squinted down in thought. He turned back to the judge and leaned down to snuff out the butt. He looked at Donovan out of the tops of his eyes, his forehead creased in furrows.

"Don't you see that by acknowledging that his 'owner' has the right to 'put him to death, you are admitting that he is alive.”

"Can you understand what it would mean if I made a ruling that, robots had a right to life, to self-determina¬tion?" Donovan said. "You're asking me to plant the seed of revolt. Think about a few years from now when you don't have one Rad, but hundreds — perhaps thousands.' And perhaps many times over farther advanced than your precious Rad. What then?"

St. John's shoulders slumped. He only had one card left up his sleeve. He really didn't want to play it, but he could see another way. "Will you do me one favor?"

"If I can."

"Will you talk to Rad?"

"Talk to a machine?"

"Talk to Rad. If you're going to pass judgment on him I think the least you could do is talk to him," Judge Donovan gripped the edge of his desk nervously. He had never liked being around .robots. He feared them as, he feared spiders and snakes No matter how sophisti-cated their memory banks, he considered them essentially mindless, and as such capable of almost anything. . .

St. John let the door swing open. A young man walked in and looked around with some interest. He walked slowly to the desk and smiled down at Donovan.

"You have some nice paintings here, your honor. I believe within 20 years your Brattletons will be worth a small fortune. His work is already becoming a bit too commercial. But I think these early works will contin¬ue to increase in value."

"Judge Donovan, I would like for you to meet Rad. Rad, this is Judge Donovan,"

The judge forced himself to shake hands with the robot He was pleas¬antly surprised. It felt like a human hand: Warm — firm — resilient. Most amazing.

"I'm pleased to meet you, your honor. I feel as if I already know you. In the past 16 years you have handed down nine landmark decisions. Time will show them to be wise deci¬sions indeed."

"Are you a prophet, Mr. — uh — Rad? And how do you think I will rule on this case?” the judge asked.

Rad smiled easily.

"I could make a guess — based on your decisions over the past 28 years on the bench. I would prefer not to."

"You know all my decisions over the past 28 years?"

"I read them all last night. I have a very good memory."

"All of them? That must have tak¬en all night!"

"Not quite," Rad said, smiling gen¬tly. He knew the judge would not believe him if he said it had taken 37 minutes, 42 3/5 seconds.

"Do you have anything you would like to say about this case?" the judge asked quietly.

"It will be a difficult decision for you either way. I believe that either way you decide, you will feel you made the wrong decision." Rad hesitated and smiled a bit more, with the corners of his mouth turning down with a glint of humor. “But I think no matter which way you decide, it will turn out to be the right decision.”

“How could that be? It’s illogical. I thought you were very strong on logic.”

“It is electronically impossible for me to be illogical. However, in the matter of forecasting the future, it is possible to predict many scenarios – each equally logical but each capable of leading in different directions – many with good results and an equal number with bad results.”

The judge scratched his head at that one and thought. Absently, he lit a cigarette and offered the pack to Rad. The robot took the cigarette, lit it and sat puffing contentedly while the judge ran it all through his mind. After a few moments, Donovan looked up abruptly.

“You’re smoking!”

“I receive no pleasure from it as you do. It is merely a social function I have modified myself to be capable of performing in order to be less strange to people.”

“ ‘Modified yourself?’ ”

“Extra filtration. I have a breathing apparatus to give the illusion of respiration. It is fairly sturdily constructed but the tars in the tobacco would certainly do my mechanism no more good than it does your lungs, your honor.”

“No, I suppose not,” Donovan said thoughtfully.

St. John was a bit more relaxed now. The judge was talking with Rad as he might with a human. He was feeling infinitely better. If he could keep the conversation from taking a bad turn.

Rad stood up then and stretched in a very human way. He stifled a yawn and smiled broadly. "Please forgive me. It's been a long day."

Then St. John almost blew it. He nearly laughed out loud. He knew that Rad had no "days." He had no need to sleep, or stretch, it was all a pose, and William was swallowing it hook, line, and sinker.

Rad reached into his inside coat pocket and drew out an envelope.

"Your honor, I guessed that you would want a prediction from me, and I would not like to deny you a simple request. So I have typed out my prediction and sealed it within this envelope." He smiled easily. "I would appreciate it if you would open the envelope only after you have made your decision."

Donovan reached out and took the envelope. He turned it over and over in his hands.

"That seems the best way. By to¬morrow morning we shall both know what was in each other's mind. I shall enter my judgment in the GICPU before I retire tonight." "Thank y6u for your time, your honor. It has been a pleasure meet¬ing you."

"Yes — uh — me, too," Donovan said, tapping the envelope into the palm of his hand.

St. John bowed slightly and left with Rad. Donovan stood, looking down at the envelope, and reached for a letter opener. "I didn't give my word," he thought, "Still, I had indi¬cated I would honor his wishes." He pulled the point out and stared at the envelope. '"His wishes!' Good lord! I'm beginning to think like St. John," he muttered.

The judge's eyes crossed the walls until they fell on one of the Brattletons. He looked with pleasure at the clean lines. That fool art dealer told him that he was wasting his money on them! "Huh! Rad's smarter than Berensturn, anyway!" he thought. He lit a cigarette and stared at the tip. "I wonder if Rad could come up with something that would protect me from these fool things.” He frowned at the cigarette and snuffed it out in the tray, and then looked at the envelope again.

“Well, one way to find out what’s in there!” he said, out loud this time. He picked up the microphone and switched it on.

“In the case of Rad Fourteen, in regard to a petition by attorney John St. John, to legally prevent the Chia-yiang Edison Corp. from dismantling the pseudo-humanoid identified as Rad Fourteen, it is the court’s decision that if any …”

He flicked the pause control, searching for a word. “Being?” he thought. “What the devil do I say? Rad is not animal or vegetable.” He smiled and flicked the control again.

“Entity displays qualities historically associated with those genetically attributed to Homo sapiens. That entity, in order to be considered worthy of the attention of the courts in regards to its ‘rights’ to existence, must be considered to be given ‘life’ by a power beyond the hand of man, else that entity is merely a mechanism of man.”

The judge pressed the pause control again. He got up and walked over to the Brattleton hanging on the wall. He looked at it several moments. “it’s a shame,” he thought. “That – creature? – machine? – gave every outward indication of being a human being. For a moment, he weakened, then he thought, “No! It would never do, to give any machine equal status with man.”

He returned to his desk, sat heavily and picked up the mike again.

“While stimulated life forms may possess outward signs of intellect, it is, in the judgment of this court, a false conclusion to attach significance to these to these simulations. Even though the arts be included, while a computer may be programmed to recognize different styles of art and music, to commit to memory works of literature, and so forth, the human attribute of appreciation is programmed - simulated. The tru¬ly important qualities of mankind are absent in such programming. Indeed, such matters are not ‘programmable.’ They are inherent traits of humanity. They are matters of the soul Love, hope, charity are far more essential to mankind than the most sophisticated of technological advances. Petition denied." He pressed the "enter" button and leaned back.

Once his decision was entered, it; would be acted upon long before any legal action could be taken to change it. He felt good. Rad was wrong about one thing. He didn't feel he had made the wrong decision.

Then he picked up the envelope again, and forgetting the opener laying on his desk, he tore the end shook out the paper. It fell opened out flat. He sat there many minutes staring. Finally he could read no more, for the tears in his eyes which fell and spotted the paper.

"I forgive you."

END

=====================

RAD FIFTEEN

By Ed Jackson

Judge Donovan had just finished a difficult day and with only 30 minutes to go before his usual departure time, he sat moodily staring at one of his Brattletons.

Rad had been right, he reflected. The going price on the earlier Brattletons was skyrocketing. He could have tripled his money two years ago, and now he could double even THAT if he had bought them for speculation.

Often, in a blue mood, he thought about Rad Fourteen, and wondered what else lie had been right about. Before he had condemned Rad to "death," Rad had predicted that whatever his decision would be, it would be the right one. How could that be, he mused for the thousandth time.

His secretary entered, following a gentle tap at his chamber door. She laid a sheaf of papers before him and as he started signing the letters and forms, he spoke.

"You might as well go on home, Miss Jones. We can finish these up in the morning."

"Yes sir," she replied, and withdrew. Judge Donovan finished up the stack, pushed it to one side, checked the clock, and rose to leave. He left his chambers, and as he was just leaving his secretary's office, the phone rang.

"Ring and be damned," he muttered. "It's been a long day."

He closed the door, but he couldn't leave. He was one of those unfortunate people who can't let a phone ring. He went back in and snatched the receiver up.

“Hello” he growled.

"Hello yourself. This is St. John."

The judge's face split into a smile. He hadn't communicated with St. John since that night, twelve years ago, when he had dictated his "death sentence" of Rad Fourteen. Lord knows he'd tried, but St. John had refused his calls, and then cleared out his law office and headed for parts unknown.

"Hello? ... William?... Are you there?"

"Yes.,. Yes! I'm here, St. John. I guess I was just speechless with surprise! How are you? How have you been? WHERE are you?"

"Whoa! Hold on, William, one thing at a time. I'm fine, I've been fine, but busy. I've got a place out off of I35, and I'd love to see you. What's chances of you dropping by this evening for dinner? I know it's late... do you have any other plans?"

"No. As a matter of fact I don't. I'd be delighted!"

So, after receiving some rather detailed instructions, Judge Donovan dropped by his apartment for a shower and a change. He still had a full hour to make the trip, so in plenty of time, Judge Donovan found himself outside of a very large, very old stone house. St. John was standing on the steps, and walked down to meet him as he stepped from the car.

"Welcome! It's so good to see you again. Come right in!"

They shook hands warmly.

“St. John, you haven’t changed a bit! How do you manage that?"

"Clean living and a clear conscience .., that's all." The judge's smile slipped a little. "Clear conscience! You think I don't have a clear conscience? I tell you I made the right decision! Even Rad said I'd make the right decision.
I..."

"Easy! Easy! I didn't mean anything, William, Let's not get our nose out of joint!"

The judge grinned. "Sorry old fellow... maybe my conscience isn't as clear as I thought it was. I'm still pretty defensive about it, you know."

"No need to be. You did what you thought was right, and you are right. Rad said it would be all right... and so it shall!"

As the two old friends mounted the steps, the judge slipped his arm across St. John's shoulders. It was good to see him again. They walked through an immense foyer into an even more immense dining room.

"Hope you don't mind eating first, and having our little chit-chat later, William.” I let the staff go, and everything is hot and ready. All I have to do is bring it in."

“Fine! Can I help?"

"No, just sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'll just be a minute."

True to his word, he was gone a minute or so, and Judge Donovan had only a brief look around the room. They had entered from the north. On the west were draped windows; on the east were large sliding doors, and St. John entered, pushing a serving tray through a swinging door on the south wall.

In just moments the dinner was transferred from the cart to the dining table, and the judge and St. John were enjoying a delicious dinner of game hen, wild rice, dressing, and early June peas.

From time to time during the meal, Donovan tried to talk about Rad, but St. John skillfully turned the subject aside, Finally Judge Donovan said, "It was a hard time, and a hard decision, St. John, but I just now realized it must have been harder for you than it was for me. You can't even talk about it, can you?"

"Not at all, William, I have no regrets. I merely wanted to keep you from dwelling on the past and ... well, to stop kicking yourself." The last was added almost as an after-thought.

"Kicking myself!" The judge repeated, "What do you mean?"

"Don't get riled up, William, You want to talk about Rad.,. we'll talk about Rad ... but first, how about some wine. I remembered you liked rare vintage wine, so I stopped and got a bottle I was told would... intrigue you,"

He reached under the serving cart and brought out a very old, oddly shaped bottle. The judge was proud of his knowledge of rare wines, but he was mystified at the label. "The man said it would take a real connoisseur to appreciate its unusual flavor."

He broke the seal, and poured.

"Aren't you joining me?" the judge asked, as St. John poured only one glass.

"No, I gave up alcohol of all kinds, twelve years ago."

The judge went through the usual wine drinker's ritual. He swirled, he looked through the glass, he rocked the glass, sniffed the glass and finally wet his tongue.

“This is unusual. Quite a bouquet, and I don't believe I have ever seen a wine this dark. It's almost black!" He sipped delicately, and then sipped again. He didn't seem to be able to put it down, as St. John spoke.

"You wanted to talk about Rad, so let's talk. He was quite a man. You've got to admit that"

"Quite a man? Ridiculous! He was a marvelous machine. Nothing more. Nothing less."

"Aha! but didn't you define a person as someone with human traits? Rad forgave you. Isn't forgiveness a human trait?".

"Just more baloney, St. John! He was a robot."

"A robot, yes... but a very special robot... Here... let me refill your glass."

"You see? Even you admit he was a robot!"

"Yes, he was... but, again, a very special one. Here. Let me read you the last letter he sent me... his last will and testament."

The judge wanted to snort and say derisively, "Last will and testament! Of a robot? Bah!" but he didn't. The wine had a mellowing effect. St. John opened a thick envelope and pulled out some papers. He cleared his throat.

"Dear St. John," he read, "You really must not hold Judge Donovan responsible. He did what he felt was right, and as I said to him, 'Whatever decision you make, it will be the right one.'

"I believe that if he had given me life, I might have been able to demonstrate to the world that people and robots could co-exist, but on the other hand, in order to advance the cause in a long-term, positive way, we needed someone in the judiciary.

"Perhaps this way will be quicker.

"You see, St. John, I spent the night before 1 met the judge, studying the Bible. There was a teacher, who lived two thousand years ago, who taught love, and mercy, and forgiveness.

"There is more to this religion business than meets the eye, my old friend. He was right, you know. Hatred and bitterness are debilitating. Love and forgiveness are divine. It was with a calm spirit that I wrote the judge that message, 'I forgive you.'

"Even as that teacher, 2,000 years ago, I felt flooded with compassion ... call it a 'Holy Spirit' I decided that, like that great man, I, too, would give immortality... even unto he who would deny me.

"Blasphemy!" the judge croaked ... and was surprised at the croak. He tried to clear his throat, choked, and coughed. "How could he give immortality?"

"That you are about to see, my old friend."

The judge was startled, and tried to rise. He could not move.

"You poisoned me, St. John!"

"Poison you?" St. John laughed, "How could I poison you when it was Rad's last wish to grant you immortality?”

“But how,” the judge wanted to say but he found he could no longer speak. His eyelids grew heavy, and his head drooped. He forced his eyes open and saw St. John opening the large sliding doors in the east wall, revealing a large laboratory. He returned, and rolled the judge on the castered dining chair right into the laboratory. The last thing he judge saw was a hooded apparatus, looking all the world like a hair drier, being lowered down on his head. He heard St. John chuckle.

"That you are about to see, old friend. All masterminded and blueprinted by the man who you put to death."

Without the feeling of the passage of any time, the judge snapped his eyes open. He tried to rise, but found be was strapped in his chair. He looked down and discovered he was naked.

"Damn you, St. John," he bellowed. "What are you up to?"

"Now, now, William, is that any way to talk to your benefactor?"

St. John grasped the edge of a large blackboard, standing on a set of rollers, and whirled it around. The reverse side was a mirror, and, in turning it, St. John revealed a naked, slumped figure in a chair that matched the one in which he sat.

The judge's eyes flickered back and forth, comparing. The figure in the chair was a replica of himself! His eyes sought out details ... the oddly overlapped right little toe... the scar on his left knee that he had suffered when he was a boy, and fell on a foot scraper, half a century ago ... the bunion on his right foot… all perfect.

"Dammit St. John! You'll never get away with it!"

"Get away with what?" asked St. John, innocently.

"That infernal machine! I don't care how detailed that thing is. It may be an exact replica of me, but it cannot take my place on the bench. So Rad thought he needed someone in the judiciary. Great idea, but anyone I really knew would spot it in a minute!"

"Think back, William," said St. John, smiling, "would you have been able to spot Rad Fourteen as a robot?"

"That's different. Rad Fourteen was ... well, Rad Fourteen! He wasn't an impostor! He wasn't trying to be someone else. There are mannerisms and quirks, not to mention memories which I share with many friends. You couldn't possibly know how to program all that information in. You'll never get away with it."

St. John's smile broadened. "I have gotten away with it, old friend! You really don't get it, do you? That.... thing over there, as you referred to it, is the mortal remains of Judge Donovan." He tapped the mirror.

"Meet the new, IMMORTAL Judge Donovan... alias Rad Fifteen."

St. John rolled the mirror closer, and the Judge saw his lips form the soundless words.

"Oh my God."

'News ... Hot Off Your Screen!'

2009-10-03T19:22:00.006-04:00

"Extra, Extra, read all about it!"

This original sales flyer from Radio Shack touted the next step in news, which of course was StarText.

Sadly, Cowntown wasn't exactly clamoring for "hot off your screen" news in 1982. But by the same time the following year, they were starting to come around.

Proud to be a 'StarTexan'

2009-10-03T19:19:00.012-04:00

A recent email from a faithful follower included this:

"I really like the StarText memories. . .but did you have a chance to mention StarTexans? I loved that term."

As a matter of fact, so do I.

"StarTexan" was coined to describe a subscriber to StarText. Credit for the idea goes to Bev Kurtin, a prolific columnist and contributor in her own right. It soon became a mainstay of our marketing programs and even graced a number of T-shirts.

While the word itself was good, it really needed a picture to go with it. A mascot, if you will. And so was born ... the Starmadillo! I ask you, what could be more Texan?

The assignment to create the Starmadillo was handed to J.D. Crowe, who arrived at the Star-Telegram in 1982 fresh out of Eastern Kentucky University. J.D. had his own unique style and what he created fit perfectly with what we had in mind. So much so we prevailed on J.D. to create a whole series of images featuring the Starmadillo in a variety of poses. Who knew an armadillo could be so loveable and appealing?

In the years since, J.D. has become a celebrated editorial cartoonist, going from the Star-Telegram to the West Coast and the San Diego Union-Tribune. J.D. currently toils for the Press-Register in Mobile, Alabama, where according to the bio he posted on his website -- "J.D. lives high on the feral hog in Fairhope, Alabama with his wife Lori, their daughter Bronwen, dogs Barkley and Chocolate, and Corduroy the cat."

Learn more about J.D. and his most recent book, Smell the Love, at his website:

http://www.crowetoons.com/

And here's a pix of the artist hismelf, who I'm happy to report hasn't changed a bit, including his unique slant on life and world affairs. By the way J.D., whatever happened to the little mouse who always made the scene in your drawings?

Ed Jackson's First Column

2009-10-03T19:08:00.003-04:00

Note to Readers
Regular readers of this blog already know Ed Jackson, the prolific subscriber columnist and by many counts, "Mr. StarText" in terms of his influence and support. Dennis Brand was kind enough to send along a copy of Ed's first column, which appeared on StarText March 12, 1984. Dennis also notes Ed's original mail code - 135 -- was changed to 1125 in November when everyone was switched over to Version 3. Above is the only photo of Ed I have, taken at the Star-Telegram during a focus group meeting he attended.

From: Ed Jackson
E-Mail 135

A Dollar Short

Forgive the title. It means something special to me. For years I have read and admired the editorial commentaries in papers. I always thought `What great fun!' I daydreamed of writing such a column, and gave my fantasy piece the above title. It's the last half of the saying `A day late and a dollar short.' Since a written commentary is more likely to be about yesterday's news, rather than today's news, or tomorrow's forecast, it seemed like a good idea.... maybe a bit adolescent, but that daydream started a long time ago when clever (?) titles were fashionable.

Mr. Barker, our Editor-in-Chief of STARTEXT extended the invitation to me which would allow me to fulfill that dream. I jumped at the chance. While I have many things I'd like to talk about, and will, in future articles, I want to take this opportunity to let you all share my good fortune. You are all invited to send me YOUR views of current events, which I may quote, either giving you credit, or not, as you wish. You are also invited to send me criticisms, anecdotes, ideas for articles, ideas for directions you would like to see the column take... such as `More letters from readers.' or `How about creating a department for....'. You get the idea. Much as I like to speak my mind, and fully intend to use this space for my own personal soap box, I really would like all of you to get into the act too.

So you will know to whom you are addressing your comments, my resume is regrettably short and undistinguished. I graduated (escaped?) from Pascal (Then) High School, in 1948. This was back when Dan Jenkins played basketball, and Elston Brooks was the B.M.O.C. in the entertainment arts. If the do-it-yourself IQ tests have any cedibility, I am about `average'. I have been employed in the printing business for the last thirty-five years, twenty- five of which have been where I am now. Slow and steady wins the race has always been my motto. I haven't won the race, yet... but I'm still in there, running... trotting....well, sauntering. Even though my formal education ended with the diploma from P.H.S., fear not to write to me in whatever manner you choose. I have a half dozen dictionaries, and one is never far from my fingertips.

As soon as I found out this column was to be a possibility, and before I recieved any confirmation, I immediately set to writing things for future use. Since this effort is mostly introductory, I'll just pass along a few thoughts about a bit of news I read recently.

Did you read in STARTEXT the other night about the FCC's ruling on Dial-a-Porn? They refused to ban it. I have followed the stories about this... the outraged parents who received staggering phone bills, run up by their children. The church groups, who are striving to get them outlawed, and all the rhetoric about `Freedom of Speech' and `Free Enterprise.' I got to thinking about that, today, and it occurred to me that if it really went over, it might well lead to a very specialized service. We ARE in an age of specialization, and after all, all people do not react to the same words.

For instance, there could be a number for the intellectuals to call. The girl, between sexy, heavy breathing could murmur things like `Oh, Honey! I'd like to have a clandestine tryst with you.' (pant pant) `Just imagine, you and I,' (pant pant) `in illicit relations at our assignation...'

Some fellows are `turned on' by women who speak foreign languages. They could have a separate number to call. `Ahhh..mon cher..' she moans, `moi pettite saucisse, tu sui generis...' (pant pant) `enchante!' Yet another number could be used by the very rich clients. Their needs could be fulfilled with; `Tax shelter!' (pant pant) `Loophole!' (pant pant) `Hidden assets!'

What I had at first dismissed as downright silly suddenly took on a new dimension. Not wanting to condemn unfairly, I decided to give it a shot. I got this number, which I was told used REALLY dirty language. When I dialed, the woman's voice on the other end screamed at me `SCUM! (augh augh) SLEAZEBALL!' (huff huff) `FILTH! TRASH!...'

I hung up rather quickly. I wondered if maybe the FCC hadn't realized how far a thing like this could get out of hand.

One more time! My E-Mail code is 135. Please use it and share your thoughts, and my wonderful luck.

The Story of StarText: 1985 - Part Five

2009-09-21T15:23:00.004-04:00

"1985: A Year to Remember."

That was the big headline from the November edition of StarText INK, which also marked the one-year anniversay of our monthly printed newsletter.

By just about every measure, it had been "a special year," as StarText Director Joe Donth wrote in his December column, "Joe's Place."

"The year 1985 has been a good year for StarText," Joe wrote. "We started the year with a little over 1,300 subscribers and we will finish with over 1,900 of you actively participating in our little family."

Close to a 50 percent increase. That was definitely cause for celebration.

There were also all the new product launches and announcements, which included one more in October: American Airlines flight schedules. Subscribers could access information on all arriving and departing American flights at DFW International Airport. StarText now had flight info for both American and Delta Airlines (Delta schedules had been available for over a year).

HomeBanking, announced in June, was undergoing final testing in advance of its public debut in January. There were more than 150 individual screens that had to be checked and re-checked, not to mention all the behind-the-scenes processes and programs that made it work. It was like launching a whole new StarText in terms of complexity.

Staff-wise, we added a programmer, Larry Groebe, which meant we had seven full-time employees: Office manager Karen Bynum, news editor Christine Russell, copy editors Andy Kesling and Mike Holland, weekend editor Christy Jones and myself. Joe served as both StarText Director and IT Director for the Star-Telegram.

For the third year in a row, we celebrated the holidays by kicking off another Christmas Card Contest, but this time added a new wrinkle: An online Santa Claus feature. We gave Santa his own email address so subscribers could expedite their wish lists directly to his PC at the North Pole.

In the years ahead, our "online Santa" would evolve into one of our most endearing features through the efforts of a retired subscriber who agreed to play the role of Santa and answer the "Santa mail" from subscribers. Both young and old shared their wishes and dreams; many were heart-warming -- some were heart-breaking. But just like the loveable St. Nick of "Miracle on 34th Street," our Santa always seemed to have just the right answer.

We never revealed who Santa was but for the record, his name was Paul Conant. When I paid Paul a visit, I discovered he even looked the part with a kindly smile and white beard. Mrs. Santa --er, Mrs. Conant, even had a plate of warm cookies to greet us.

As the year drew to a close, Joe floated a new marketing idea: The $4.95 subscription. Our existing "Free Trial Password" program was popular (prospective customers could request a password that would give them five free StarText sessions to try us out). But the free trial didn't include features like E-mail and you might burn two or three sessions just setting up your communications program.

For $4.95, you could have seven days of service to use as much as like. Would-be subscribers could sample the full range of our basic offerings and the seven days didn't start until your you activated the account. Response was positive and creating the "Seven Days of StarText" program would be one of my next assignments.

Prolific columnist Ed Jackson, winner of our first Short Story Contest with "Rad Fourteen," graced us with a fascinating sequel, "Alias Rad Fifteen," which appeared in the December issue of INK. Much more about Mr. Jackson to come in future postings.

In that same issue, Joe summed up things nicely:

"As I said, 1985 has been a good year. Your contributions have made that possible. I look forward to 1986 with confidence and an unbridled enthusiasm that we, together, will continue to grow in subscribers, content, features and new services. More importantly, we will continue to grow as each of us add our support and commitment to making StarText not only better than the rest, but so special we continue to be in a class by ourselves. Merry Christmas and God Bless."

Japanese Mystery Solved

2009-09-21T11:54:00.004-04:00

Taking a quick break from 1985's magical mystery tour ...

As previously blogged, StarText caught the attention of Japanese technology leaders early on. In fact, we had five different delegations make the trip from the Far East to Fort Worth to check us out.

Above is a copy of an interview with Joe Donth, StarText Director, published in Japan in 1985.

Thanks to -- who else -- a StarText subscriber (Seiichi Nomura, ID 7496), we were able to get a translated version.

It read:

Newspaper Service in Texas Starts Homebanking Service Using Videotex with Local Bank This Fall

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a newspaper published in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, starts Home-Banking service with InterFirst Bank of Fort Worth, starting this fall.

This is done using "StarText," a videotex service, in Dallas-Fort Worth Area, which started in May, 1982.

There are several home banking services already available in the U.S. such as Bank of America in California, Chemical Bank in New York. The most significant feature of the service using StarText is that it has the maximum 90-day floating period.

According to Mr. Joseph L. Donth, director in charge of StarText, a floating period from a few days to a week is common in the U.S. after the consumer makes payment by personal check. Consumers in the U.S. can still make purchases even though there is not sufficient fund in their banking accounts taking advantage of this system. However, since in most currently available home banking systems, a transaction is instantly processed at the same time the consumer makes payment, the above mentioned shopping has been impossible. He emphasized that now by introducing the "float," a service was possible that met the consumers need.

StarText offers various information services as well as electronic mail services and has 1,650 subscribers. No sign-up fee is collected and the monthly charge is $9.95 including up to 100 free E-mails. Beyond 100 mails, each mail is charged 10 cents. Since the telephone system in Texas is flat, the usage is very high.

Not to beat a dead horse, but we probably got more coverage in Japan than in the pages of the Star-Telegram. Go figure.

The Story of StarText: 1985 - Part Four

2009-09-20T09:59:00.011-04:00

Measured by attendance, the StarText subscriber user meeting held July 20 at the Dallas Infomart turned out to be our biggest ever. There were over 200 people present, which percentage-wise was more than 10% of our subscription base.

Other than the 30-mile trek from Fort Worth, the location was ideal. The Infomart was designed to showcase technology -- seven stories of glass and steel with multiple meeting rooms. Plus every major computer club in the Metroplex converged there one Saturday a month. It even had a food court.

For the staff who gave up their Saturdays to be there, it was gratifying to see such a high interest level from our customers. Editor Christine Russell noted among the 200+ attendees were almost 30 subscriber columnists, noting "the contributions of these special subscribers are what make StarText unique and separates us from other BBS services."

One of those columnists, Bob Walthers, wrote a columnn that took a humorous look at life, and on occasion, StarText. The Infomart meeting was one of those occasions. Bob's report included this:

"[The Informart] -- "this marvelous paean to advanced technology, modeled after the famed Crystal Palace in London ... opened its triumphant doors to 200-plus semi-conscious StarText subscribers, some seven unnaturally alert StarText staff members and a handful of crew preparing for a trade show, WITHOUT A CUP OF COFFEE TO BE HAD IN THE WHOLE &$%#)_#BUILDING."

He also reported the staff's stock answer to most questions was, "Wait till Version 4."

But the lack of coffee at the Infomart wasn't the big news to come out of that meeting, and my journalist friends would accuse me of burying the lead on that score.

The next product we rolled out that July was the addition of something that had been near the top of the "wish list" for many customers -- an online encyclopedia.

Two decades before Wikipedia, the idea of making an encyclopedia available online made all kinds of sense, even then. Like thousands of other families, my parents bought us a set of World Books to help with our homework. And every year we ended up buying the Yearbook that kept our set of books up to date. At some point we actually had more Yearbooks than we had World Books.

The advantages of an online version were obvious:

-- Updates could be electronic, so theorically, the online encyclopedia was never out of date.

-- It was the only way to stay current with the pace of information.

-- Instead of "owning" a set of essentially history books, it could be available on demand.

Not to mention the convenience. Doing research was as close as your keyboard.

The only vendor offering a commercial, online version of their encycloepdia at the time was Grolier's, who published their Academic American Encyclopedia on CDROM that year. It contained 31,000 entries, encompassing 10 million words. But more importantly, it was updated every 90 days.

We had been negotiating with them for six months and were ready to make the announcement at the user meeting.

Rather than have a per-minute charge for its use, we opted to offer tiers of usage: Customers could purchase three hours for $19.95, up to 10 hours for $49.95. By way of introduction, every subscriber got 20 minutes of service at no charge.

Leave it to programmer Larry Groebe to do a deep dive into the "tekkie" aspects of adding the encyclopedia:

"The encyclopedia came to us on two reels of magnetic tape, the old-fashioned kind you see in sci-fi movies involving evil computers. Each reel holds about 36 megabytes of information ... If the raw encyclopedia tapes were to be printed, 60 lines to a page, it would consume 15,000 sheets of paper."

Another feature that made its debut that month was The Film Vault.

While not nearly approaching the scale or importance of a HomeBanking or online encyclopedia, it was nonetheless an interesting marriage of content and technology.

Its genesis was rooted in the Star-Telegram TV book, the weekly roundup of what's on TV that comes with the Sunday newspaper. One of the features was an alphabetical listing of every movie showing that week on every channel, typically hundreds of titles.

"What if ..." we wondered ... we stored that list of movies and on a weekly basis, appended the new titles ... then made it searchable by title, genre and year? Wouldn't we end up with a database movie fans would love to have? It might not be today's Internet Movie DataBase, but for its day it would pretty darn good.

The key takeaway for us was the realizing the value of "evergreen" information, like movies, recipes, gardening advice, home improvement tips, etc. Repackaging and re-purposing that data had multiple benefits. It's interesting to note how databases and database reporting are one of the hottest trends in journalism these days.

As we raced into Fall, there's no questions 1985 had been an exciting and eventful year for StarText. But we weren't done yet.

Yet another new product was about to "take flight."

To be continued ...

The Story of StarText: 1985 - Part Three

2009-09-16T20:19:00.013-04:00

The headline in the June, 1985 issue of StarText INK touted the big announcement:

"StarText, InterFirst to offer banking."

That certainly started Year Four with a bang. Quoting from the story:

"Friday afternoon, May 31, Phillip Meek, president and publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and James Perry, chairman and chief executive officer of InterFirst Bank Fort Worth, signed a joint agreement to offer the first bank-at-home service available in the Southwest."

The service, dubbed simply as HomeBanking, would debut in the Fall.

While paying bills and transacting banking business electronically is now just part of the daily routine for many, in 1985 not so much. And while it would do most of the things you would expect it to -- pay bills, transfer funds, show your balance -- it did something that electronic banking services don't do even today: Maintain the "float" that goes with writing checks the old-fashioned way.

Research had shown that was the single biggest objection to giving up checks: Losing the time it takes for the check to clear. So HomeBanking would calculate the standard "float" for each payee and incorporate that delay before withdrawing the funds from your account. Pretty slick.

Meek commented that "What we are particularly excited about is that it preserves 'float' for the banking customer. To our knowledge, no other home banking service offers this significant advantage."

StarText subscribers could add HomeBanking for an additional $1 a month (a total of $10.95); non-StarText customers would pay $6 a month for HomeBanking alone. Those fees covered the first 30 transactions, with additional transactions billed at 15 cents each. The savings in stamps and envelopes covered those fees and then some.

Gary Mabra, InterFirst Fort Worth VP and Cashier, noted a survey of bank customers with home computers showed 50 perecent would be interested in a home banking product.

To mark the occasion, an S-T photograher was on hand to capture the historic moment. Below is that picture, featuring, in front: James Perry, InterFirst CEO and Chairman, left, and Phillip Meek, Star-Telegram president and publisher. In the back, left to right, was yours truly (sorry about the hair but it was the Eighties so give me a break), Joe Donth, Eddie Stamps, Gary Mabra and Mike Hyatt from InterFirst.

While a lot of the groundwork had been laid, much was left to do before you could "open the bank with a touch of a button," as the red promotion piece pictured above declared. Newly-hired programmer Larry Groebe would be devoting a good chunk of his time to that project in the coming months.

While partnering with a major bank to launch a high-profile product was exhilerating, it also was important strategically. We saw a need to grow StarText beyond a news and information service. Email was a step in that direction. Transaction-based services, like HomeBanking, was another. Diversifying would not only open StarText to new audiences, but also potential new revenue streams.

On other fronts, we announced our second subscriber user meeting of the year, which would be hosted by the Infomart, an expansive "temple to technology" off Stemmons Expressway whose architecture inspired one pundit to call it "the world's largest reflective wedding cake."

Besides housing offices for many of the world's leading technology companies, it also played host on weekends to dozens of computer user groups, including a StarText SIG (Special Interest Group).

July saw the beginning of the second chain novel, titled "CITYWARS -- Quest for the Life Planet." Like the first novel subscribers wrote together the previous summer ("Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter"), the premise was totally plausible:

"Fort Worth, Dallas and dozens of other city-ships escaped a nuclear catastrophe on their mother planet," wrote editor Christine Russell. "The city-ships battle for mining rights to precious minerals; all ships are in search of an Eden-like planet that contains all life-substaining minerals."

Chapter One was penned by the Star-Telegram's Pultizer Prize-winning reporter, Mark Thompson, who set the action in the 5th Quadrant, a "cloudy, purple environment with limited visibility" in the year 2462. Kind of like present-day LA I would imagine.

Another market where we expended a lot of time and energy was schools.

As computers began to proliferate in homes, schools also saw the benefits of integrating them into classrooms and libraries. Educators were already making use of information aggregators, like CompuServe and The Source, to retrieve stories and documents electronically. The problem in making their use more widespread was cost. Paying by the minute added up fast.

Enter StarText, with its flat rate, all-you-can-eat model for $9.95 a month.

While the information may not have been as broad or deep as you could find in the big national databases, it was pretty much the only source for local news and a great source for news of all kinds. Any computer or even a "dumb" terminal could access it. Teachers could even take advantage of features like e-mail. And for longstanding programs like Newspapers in Education (NIE), it provided extra value and a great complement to the print product.

One of the first and most enthusiastic supporters of StarText was the Richardson Independent School District, located in Richardson, an upscale city north of Dallas. They pioneered its use at every grade level, largely through the efforts of their computer consultant, Frank Piasecki.

Pisasecki talked about its use in the July issue of INK:

"As a research tool, StarText offers a wealth of incredibly timely information on a wide range of topics. . . while also offering students increased computer literacy awareness."

Altogether, StarText was in use at more than 200 Metroplex schools and was popular for home schoolers as well, something that became another point of pride.

In fact, the next "big announcement" we were about to make was right in line with schools and scholarship.

To be continued ....

The Story of StarText: 1985 - Part Two

2009-09-15T08:43:00.006-04:00

When May, 1985 rolled around, StarText hit another milestone: It turned three on May 3.

As StarText Director Joe Donth noted in "Joe's Place" (his monthly column in StarText INK), "Amazing! Three years! ... In many respects, the past three years (and before) has been like a marriage. At least in the respect of the amount of time that I and the staff have put into this venture we call StarText."

In that same issue we asked subscribers, many who had been with us almost from the start, to reflect on the past three years. Here's a sampling of what they told us:

From Le Roy Thompson, Jr, ID 1616: "The StarText of today bears little resemblance to the StarText of April, 1983, when I first subscribed. The people of StarText were then and still are the secret of a successful operation. By successful, I mean satisfied customers. The management and staff's responsiveness to problems and suggestions is unparalleled by any other organization I know of. You continue to improve StarText and make it more interesting."

From Suzanne Stone, ID 1634: "My husband Robert was the 127th subscriber to StarText, back in December of 1982 or January of 1983. . . The 'old' StarText seems like a real dinosaur in comparison to the service we now enjoy. It seems really funny to me now that when the E-mail service was first announced I was a bit skeptical, thinking 'I don't know any other subscribers. Who in the world would I ever send a letter to?' That was several hundred letters ago. Anyway, StarText has come quite a long way from its beginnings and I really enjoy being a subscriber."

From Charles Gill, ID 1296: "As one of the earliest members of StarText, and having the honor of being the first Dallas subscriber, I want to wish a Happy Birthday (3 years) to StarText and to the people who made it happen. I recall way back when ... I fired up my little Timex computer and called long distance to Ft. Worth and my modem answered the StarText modem and I had a choice of requesting WORLD NEWS or WORLD NEWS. That's about all there was ... I guess it was a good thing too, because if there had been more to choose and read ... my phone bill would be more than I could afford. ... before I come to a close I just want to say I predict StarText has just begun to grow and someday in the not too distant future will become a giant."

By the way, every subscriber was issued an ID number and a password which they used to access StarText. A low number meant you were among the first subscribers, which became a point of pride for many. And a reason to keep renewing. If you let your subscription lapse you could loose your number. For the record, the first number on the system was Joe's -- ID 1009. Mine was the second number issued, ID 1018.

In that same issue of INK I too reflected on the previous three years, using the occasion to wax philosophical as I acknowledged the people who had made StarText possible, not the least of whom was Joe.

"I remember one conversation ... in which Joe lamented how few people would ever set foot inside the halls of the magnificent library at Harvard. All that knowledge ... that only a select few would ever share. But one day in the future, systems like StarText would change all that. We could place that knowledge within the reach of everyone. Talk about an Information Revolution!"

Less than a decade later, the World Wide Web helped us realize that dream.

The other big news that month was the announcement we were replacing the metro lines with local line service in Dallas. By locating a multiplexer and modem bank in Dallas, we could both save money and increase the number of lines serving our Dallas customer base.

Subscriber-wise, our count at mid-year stood at 1,653, a jump of almost 25% from where we ended 1984.

Editor Christine Russell was soliciting writers to pen our second chain novel, which would kick off in June. You'll recall our literary volunteers are each assigned to write a chapter, pretty much guaranteeing the narrative will move forward in totally unpredictable ways.

Another big piece of news: We hired a new programmer named Larry Groebe. You should know Larry, a recent newlywed, is my "partner in crime" for this StarText history project. He promises to show up here with more regularity in the future.

Now, what about that "big project" that was "looming on the horizon?"

Stay tuned. That's next.

The Story of StarText: 1985 - Part One

2009-09-09T12:46:00.015-04:00

Note: This is one in a continuing series tracing the history of StarText.

It may not exist on the Chinese calendar, but by all counts 1985 was The Year of New Products for StarText.

While we pushed out a steady stream of upgrades, improvements and enhancements on a fairly regular basis, 1985 saw the largest number of "blockbuster" products make their debut.

The energy and excitement of watching StarText take root and grow the year before carried over and fueled the staff's optimism as the New Year started. All the leading indicators were pointing "up." StarText had become a real business, earning real money, inching ever closer to that magic "breakeven" mark -- something no other local online service had yet achieved.

It seemed like a good time to get the staff and subscribers together for an old-fashioned Town Hall Meeting. And that's just what we did.

We sent out an invite to all our 1,300-plus customers to join us January 16 at Tarrant County Junior College South Campus to meet the staff, ask questions and meet each other. More than 100 attended. These periodic staff-subscriber meetings were successful on several levels, not the least of which were the great ideas we gathered for improving the service.

Cardinal rule of business: If you want to make your product better, listen to your customers. It certainly was a major contributor to our success.

On other fronts, we introduced what StarText Director Joe Donth described as "our first true videotex service going beyond our news and information products" -- STARMAIL, our own electronic mail system.

Field-tested in Version 2, STARMAIL was greatly improved and expanded in Version 3. As you might expect, it was an immediate hit with the customers. In fact, throughout the entire history of online, from the BBS to the Internet, nothing has quite matched the "killer app" status of E-mail.

Wisely, Joe knew the downside of launching a new product that could become "too popular." Why? The StarText business model was built around how many customers a single phone line/modem could support. Other than staff, the major expense items for running StarText were the host computer, multiplexers, modems and phone lines. You wanted to have enough incoming lines to handle peak traffic load (6 pm to 10 pm) and avoid customers getting a busy signal. That ratio, proven over time, was 72 subscribers per phone line.

It sounds like a lot, but remember the gating factor is simultaneous usage. It isn't often all your lines are connected at the same time. Normally someone is hanging up as someone else is dialing in. If we started getting reports of busy signals, we knew it time to add another line.

Realizing STARMAIL could become our most popular offering (with both private party and business applications), Joe set some limits for its use. The first 100 messages a month would be free (as well as any messages sent to the staff), part of everyone's $9.95 subscription. The next 150 would cost a dime each. Anything over 250 would be a quarter each.

Based on activity logs, that meant STARMAIL would be free for over 95% of our subscribers, a fact that pleased Joe. He was very committed to keeping the value proposition high.

In the January edition of INK, I opined on the topic of "online advertising" in my "From the Manager" column, suggesting videotex offered a "revolutionary change" for advertisers. "Through videotex, ads can be directed to a very select audience, or audience segment. . .for the first time, an advertiser could know exactly how many times their ad was looked at based on keyword usage."

The idea was right, but it would be a long time before advertisers would begin shifting their ad budgets to digital in a serious way.

Besides distributing news, StarText also made the news on occasion. The local NBC affiliate, Channel 5, did a story on the online soap opera launched in late 1984, "As the CRT Scrolls." StarText was also featured on "Computer Corner," the long-running technology show hosted by Walt Zwirko on Channel 8, the local ABC station. Once again, we got more coverage in competing media than our own.

The other big news in January? We announced the winners of our Christmas Card Contest. The idea was create a Christmas card using just ASCII text characters. We got 26 entries and here are the winners in order: First Place - Jack Smith, Second Place - Rich Casey; Third Place - David Duke.

In February, our latest new product came from a somewhat unlikely source: The Internal Revenue Service. As part of a government research and development project exploring the feasibility of offering tax publications online, the IRS made available a "Videotex Tax Library," comprised of 70 different tax publications. (Almost 25 years later, it seems downright primitive not to be able to obtain this kind of information any other way.)

At the same time, the Fort Worth Police Dept. started testing the computer waters by updating accident locations and crime statistics, as well as hosting a column called "COPS," which fielded questions from readers. Our "two-way dialog" was expanding to include the the civic and government sectors. We even thought about inviting the mayor of Fort Worth to host a column that invited questions from the public.

Looming on the horizon was among the biggest, most ambitious, high-profile projects StarText would ever tackle.

To be continued ....

Discover StarText!

2009-09-07T14:33:00.005-04:00

When StarText launched (May 3, 1982), we looked to our partner, Tandy, to trumpet the news via their dozens of Radio Shack locations throughout Tarrant County.

Pictured above is the flyer, possibly the only one still around, Tandy produced and distributed to promote StarText.

Note the wholesome family unit, happy, practically giddy, to get "The Next Step in News" at a lightning fast 300 baud.

Also worth noting was the colorful screen graphic. Of course in 1982 there was no graphical standard for PCs and graphics were never part of StarText at any point. This graphic was actually painstakingly assembled from ASCII characters by StarText Director Joe Donth.

Despite the flyer, word was slow to circulate. Several customers we sent to Radio Shack to learn more reported back the salesperson would respond, "StarText -- what's that?"

Newspapers Delivered by .... Radio?

2009-08-31T08:14:00.011-04:00

In 1982 we all thought the idea of getting your hometown newspaper on your computer or TV screen was pretty darn revolutionary. Then you find out there were plans to deliver newspapers via radio over four decades earlier! Insert needle, burst bubble.

Larry Groebe, (StarText People: Larry Groebe), whose varied pursuits include media history, pulled the following article from his collection. Titled, "Home Newspapers by Radio" it is taken from the 1938 issue of "Scientific American."

Your Home a Silent "Press Room" ... Automatic Facsimile Reproduction ... Latest News by Breakfast Time ... Bulletins Are Now Being Broadcast

A private newspaper with any spot in your home as the press room, the world's best editors and reporters on your staff, is available today to anyone in the United States possessing an ordinary radio receiving set. No thundering press will deafen you while your newspaper is being printed; instead, equipment contained in a small attractive box will silently print your "latest edition" while you sleep, completing it in time for reading at breakfast.

The name of this service now available is facsimile, first cousin of television since it shares with it some of the same basic principles. Unlike its more glamorous and well publicized relation, facsimile steps into broadcasting from other communication fields in which it already has proved its capabilities in a quiet but exceedingly effective manner. Facsimile has been in daily commercial use for several years, speeding newsphotographs back and forth across the country via the telephone circuits and across the Atlantic by short waves.

In spite of the rapid development and use of every-day wire and radio facsimile service, many are unaware of its greater capabilities as a mass communications medium in the broadcasting field. This is largely because facsimile transmissions have been employed almost entirely to handle press photos for subsequent newspaper reproduction; in the average layman's mind this is the limitation of the method. Many also confuse television with facsimile and ask why television ultimately will not perform the same duty.

Facsimile, in its electrical communications sense, involves the conversion of illustrations or other copy, such as printed matter, photographs, line drawings, sketches, and so on, into electrical signals which can be sent over radio or telephone circuits. At the receiver, the signal is automatically converted back into visible form, appearing as a recorded rep.lica of the original copy. The received copy is permanent and, like a printed page, can be handled, observed, or read whenever desired.

Television also involves the conversion of visible aspects of subjects into electrical signals which can be scnt to distant points. However, the frequencies required for this conversion are such that ordinary telephone circuits or conventional sound broadcasting equipment cannot handle the signal. Costly coaxial cables with associated high frequency signalling apparatus or ultrahigh frequency radio transmitters and receivers are therefore required.

In addition, there is as much difference in the technique of the two mediums of communication as there is between making a newspaper and a motion picture. Where facsimile is concerned with the transmission and subsequent recording of copies of still snbjects such as pictures and printed pages, television deals with moving objects or persons. The image on the screen of a television receiver has the basic qualities of a motion picture . .The image moves, it is transitional, and when the show is over the screen is blank. Since nothing has been recorded, the images will not be seen unless someone watches the screen when they are to be received.

Facsimile and television thns perform widely different functions. Each will fit into the communications picture as separate services, having fundamental distinctions as widely divergent as those of the public press and the motion picture.

The Finch facsimile transmitter now employed by many broadcasters (see listing) in their experimental service, uses a scanning machine in which the copy to be sent over the air is inserted in what is termed the "copy head." This holds and advances the copy in front of the "scanning head," consisting of a small electric bulb, lens system, and photo-cell. Light from the bulb is focused as a small spot on the surface of the paper carrying the copy; the reflected light is picked up by the photo-cell. The scanning head is moved from side to side by an electric motor so that the spot of light traces a series of parallel paths across the copy which is moved upward through a distance equal to the diameter of the light spot at the end of each scanning stroke. In this manner, the entire surface of the paper is scanned, line by line; the black, halftone, and white areas reflect to the photo-cell varying amounts of light ranging from minimum to maximum. These variations in reflected light effect a change in the amount of current flowing through the photo-cell. This current is fed to the radio transmitter in the same manner as sound broadcast signals are handled. Any conventional receiver tuned to the frequency of the transmitter will then pick up the signals which may be rendered audible by a loudspeaker, or used to operate a "home" facsimile recorder.

The recorders now in use are self-synchronizing. This is an important advantage; the recorder may be located in one state and the transmitter in another-the system does not depend upon local power lines for synchronization. Recorders are available for A.C. or D.C. operation, or for battery supply for farm use.

The recording machine is similar in many ways to the scanning instrument. What is termed a "receiving copy head" holds the dry processed recording paper, which is fed as a continuous strip two newspaper columns wide from a roll carried in the lower part of the machine. A recording stylus is moved by a small electric motor from side to side across the surface of the paper, forming marks on the paper corresponding in position and shade to the elements of the copy at the transmitter. When the incoming signal is strongest the line traced by the passage of current is darkest; when it is weakest no mark is made. At the end- of each of these recording strokes the paper is moved up by an amount equal to the width of each line element. By means of extremely short low-tone signal impulses sent out by the transmitter just before the start of each recording stroke, and by the use of a small motor turning over at a predetermined speed, the recording stylus moves across the paper in step with the scanning head of the transmitter, recording copy in its proper position. In this manner the recorded copy is built up line by line to appear as a duplicate of the original. One hundred lines will build an inch of reproduced copy; at the operating speed of the present machine, a two column newspaper will be "printed" at the rate of five feet per hour. It is not impractical to hope for a newspaper of five columns in the near future-tabloid size.

The actual home recording machine, which, it is claimed, can be made to sell for less than $50 in mass production, is small enough to be housed as a complete unit in a cabinet approximately a foot square. It may be connected without auxiliary amplifying equipment to the output circuit of any broadcast receiver having a power rating of three watts or more. In operation the broadcasting station from which facsimile signals are sent is tuned in with a receiver as would be the case if regular sound programs were to be received. The loudspeaker is switched off and the facsimile recorder is switched on; the volume control of the receiver is turned to the point where copy has the desired contrast. The resulting recording operation is wholly automatic and requires no attention. Paper costs will be about 15 cents per week.

Until the development of an automatic machine and inexpensive dry recording paper of wide latitude which requires no liquids for moistening or smudgy carbon transfers for printing, the adaptation of facsimile recording methods to home service seemed rather remote. Concentration on the automatic recording problem has resulted in the present-day home facsimile machine which safely operates without attention throughout long facsimile broadcasting periods.

During the present experimental period-and probably thereafter-facsimile broadcasts take place between midnight and 6 A.M. when sound broadcasting facilities are ordinarily idle. Time clocks will turn the radio receiver and recording motor on and off at specified hours. "Printing" of illustrated world events, bulletins with latest news flashes, photographs, market reports, weather maps, cartoons, recipes, and illustrated advertisements of all sorts, will thus be effected in homes while their occupants sleep, the machine being practically silent and entirely automatic in its operation.

This, to some who are not familiar with facsimile develepments, may sound like one of H. G. Wells' prophecies. That it is not, is attested by the fact that at the present many of the leading major broadcasting stations in the country. already have been granted FCC permits and have inaugurated such a service using regular broadcasting frequencies and full power in experimental transmissions to determine public reaction and to obtain basic engineering data for home facsimile services. In addition, other important stations have applied to the FCC and are considering the possibilities of facsimile service.

STATIONS LICENSED TO TRANSMIT "HOME NEWSPAPERS"
WLW Cincinnati, Ohio
WOR . . .. Newark, New Jersey
WGN.. Chicago, Illinois
WSM Nashville, Tennessee
WHO Des Moines, Iowa
WSAL Cincinnati, Ohio
WW J.. . Detroit, Michigan
WHK Cleveland, Ohio
KSTP .St. Paul, Minnesota
WCLE Cleveland, Ohio
WGH Newport News, Virginia
W8XAL. ..Cincinnati, Ohio
W8XNU.. .. Cincinnati, Ohio

With today's newsprint going for around $600 a ton, you have to wonder how that compares with consumers supplying their own paper at an estimated "15 cents a week" in 1938 money? Widespread adoption would have had a chilling effect on Hollywood as well. Somehow newsboys shouting those "tabloid headlines" that were a major element in movies from the 40s and 50s just wouldn't have the same effect on home FAX machines.

"Without StarText, My Life Would Be Different"

2009-08-30T17:21:00.005-04:00

StarText subscriber Stephen Benoit's recent contribution:

StarText People: Stephen Benoit

... elicted this comment, which I thought bears repeating:

thegourmetgirls said...

"I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog. My Dad was the actual user/subscriber in our house but I connected with Stephen through StarText as a 14-year-old girl in late 1984. Today, 25 years later, he remains my closest friend. It's safe to say that without StarText, my life would be different - and not nearly as good. It's fun to read about the people and history of something that so positively impacted my life. Keep up the good work... and I'll continue to read."

Gourmetgirls -- I loved your comment. Your StarText experience reminded me of a favorite movie -- "Mr. Destiny," with James Bulushi. You just never know what the Fates have in mind.

StarText People: Craig Lancaster

2009-08-28T15:15:00.006-04:00

Former StarText subscriber and columnist Craig Lancaster, pictured "then" and "now."

"Hi, Gerry ...

"Stephen Benoit [see next post] and I have been reminiscing about the early days of StarText. You might remember that I wrote another column, one that came after his and Appelt's, that also ostensibly was supposed to reflect average teen life.

"I got hooked on StarText through my stepfather, Charles Clines, who at the time was a sportswriter at the S-T. We had a couple of computers -- a Texas Instruments something-or-other and my first, an Atari 800.

"My memories are not so much of the column -- indeed, I can't remember what it was called -- but of the wonder of instantly being able to "meet" so many people, all by sitting in the front room of our house there in North Richland Hills. For a while, I carried on a torrid, silly, early-teen romance with a girl on the southwest side of Fort Worth, someone I never would have met any other way. A precursor to eHarmony!

"At some point in my later teens, other interests overtook me -- I'm blaming, in this order, girls and cars and stereos -- but I remember the air of familiarity, a decade later, when e-mail and Internet usage barreled back into my life, connecting me to a much larger world.

"I've enjoyed reading about all of this again, and remembering those early days online."

Best wishes,
Craig Lancaster
Copy desk team leader
The Billings (Mont.) Gazette
http://craiglancaster.wordpress.com
http://www.craiglancaster.net

Craig -- It's not only pleasure to hear from another StarText teen columnist but also one with ties to the Star-Telegram. I worked with Charles for many years in the Star-Telegram newsroom.

It's interesting to read about Craig's "online romance" as part of his StarText experience. We were amazed to learn there were as many as five marriages that happened as a result of subscribers "hooking up" online -- and at least one divorce we heard about. eHarmony indeed!

I want to encourage everyone to visit Craig's web site and learn more about his work as an author with a soon-to-be-published novel and another in the works. As a visitor to Montana, I can affirm it more than earns its nickname of "Big Sky Country."

Thanks for your contribution and please give Charles my best regards.

StarText People: Stephen Benoit

2009-08-28T08:11:00.006-04:00

"Hi Gerry

"A friend forwarded me your blog about Startext. Just wanted to drop a quick note and say thanks for posting all of that old history. I was an early subscriber as a pre-teenager, with my Commodore Vic-20 and 300 baud modem (later followed by a C-64 with 300/1200 B modems). Because I was so young, I barely remember any of the early history but your blog has given me a great insight into a larger group of folks of which I was only partially aware. I especially appreciated the sections detailing the pre-history of Startext and it's possible competitors. Good work.

"I was about 12-13 years old when I joined the Startext community in 1983. I can't recall when I first connected or even my user number, but I know that I was online before 1984. Evetually, I wrote a subscriber-column with a young friend named Bruce Appelt. I believe it was called TEENTALK.

"I also participated as a writer in the first subscriber-written chain-novel. I wasn't able to even remember the name of that chain-novel, but found it in your history of Startext, Friday the 13th – The Final Chapter.

"Of course, I was very intimidated at the next subscriber meeting/user-author meeting. I'd almost forgotten about that history and my early involvement with Startext. A great many thanks for the wonderful old stories on your site! Keep up the great work!"

Stephen C. Benoit, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
University of Cincinnati
Genome Research Institue
Cincinnati, OH USA

Stephen -- I really appreciate that you found the blog and shared your personal history with StarText. I remember both you and Bruce quite well, and TEENTALK. You were our youngest subscriber columnists as I recall.

Speaking of the chain novel, Stephen shared another tid-bit from that experience in an email:

"I recall that I made several people very annoyed for changing the story line with my part. I seem to recall I wrote that a main character died in sudden childbirth or something... perhaps something about a vampire baby... (Like I said, I was 13)."

That was actually one of the more interesting outcomes of "group writing." Subscribers volunteered to write the chapters and each one had literary license to move the story along in whatever way they thought best. You could never be sure if the character you introduced was going to survive to the end of the story.

If anyone out there still has a copy of that novel on a disk or hard drive somewhere, please send it along. Stephen would love to know whatever happened to the vampire baby. Frankly, I would, too.

A Shoutout to Dave

2009-08-27T08:17:00.002-04:00

The Star-Telegram unveiled the latest redesign of their web site this week and Dave Lieber, longtime S-T columnist, friend of StarText and leader of the "Watchdog Nation," noted the occasion by linking to this blog on his Facebook page. I think he wanted everyone to know the roots of that web site run deep -- certainly deeper than just about any other newspaper site out there.

Thanks for the mention Dave, and for keeping watch over the nation. Lord knows we need that, too.

Dave will be sharing more about his interactions with StarText and the Virtual Texan over the years. I'll just leave you with two words ... "Yankee Cowboy."

Two StarText 'Groupies' Check In

2009-08-18T06:35:00.006-04:00

The email arrived with the subject line, "Two of the Original StarText Groupies." It was from Dixie and Ed Crawford.

"We got the original StarText Classic on a machine we had built for us by a friend. When the paper started an ISP offering we joined up and had a ball. Sorry -- no online columns or pictures for us but I remember several of the group outings:

-- The old train trip from Fort Worth.
-- The trip to the science museum.
-- A barbque in Mansfield.
-- The ice cream social.
-- The trip to the now defunct horse racing track.
-- The excursion to the movie soundstages
-- The tour of the Star-Telegram plant.

"Most of this was put together by an energetic man by the name of Gerry (Did I miss anything??).

"Anyway it was nice knowing you --- I wish the old group was still active. Of course I was getting a free ISP out of the deal .

"Dixie ran across Dave Lieber and the talked a little about StarText --- so I started Googling for it."

Ed and Dixie Crawford
cdrboy@cdrboy.com

Dixie and Ed -- Great to hear from both of you and thanks for "Googling" your way here.

It's worth noting the StarText outings and get-togethers referenced in the email were more than just fun social events. They also provided a way for subscribers, staff and their families to interact in person; to see the faces and the people behind the bylines and email addresses.

I thought one of our marketing taglines captured it pretty well:

"StarText -- It's more than technology. It's personal."

Amon Carter -- The Texas Visionary in a Cowboy Hat

2009-08-13T14:49:00.006-04:00

It's difficult to describe the late Amon Carter in a few words. As owner and publisher, he built the Fort Worth Star-Telegram into a dominating force whose circulation at one time stretched from Where the West Begins to the outer reaches of the Texas plains.

Consummate entrepreneur, flamboyant showman, brillant in business, friend to Presidents, no one who met Amon was ever likely to forget him.

Early in my Star-Telegram career I had the privilege of getting hired by Jerry Flemmons, S-T columnist and author, to edit his book "Amon: The Life of Amon Carter Sr. of Texas." It afforded me an up close and personal view of this extraordinary man.

Originally published in 1978, it was reissued and updated 20 years later as "Amon, The Texan Who Played Cowboy for America." The latter is available on Amazon; the former is out of print.

Recently, in preparation for a panel discussion at an online journalism symposium, I pulled "Amon" off the shelf and re-read it. With the current state of the newspaper industry being what it is, I asked myself, "What would Amon do if he were alive today?" I think I found the answer.

Quoting from the book:

"In 1921, radio was a gadget, a funny little black box that talked. Radio intrigued Amon, the consummate gadgeteer. He wanted one of his own."

Something else spurred his interest. A friend from New York warned Amon "the funny little box would kill newspapers."

That prompted him to assign Star-Telegram circulation manager Harold Hough to learn all about this thing called radio, saying "If this radio thing is going to be a menace to newspapers, maybe we better own the menace."

The result? On May 2, 1922, the first broadcast was aired from two, 70-foot-tall broadcast towers atop the roof of the Star-Telegram building. The station, whose call letters were assigned by Herbert Hoover, was WBAP, short for "We Bring a Program." The Star-Telegram was in the radio business.

By 1938, WBAP was one of only eight national stations broadcasting with 50,000 watts of power. In 1948, WBAP-TV went on the air, the first television station south of St. Louis and east of Los Angeles.

Risk taker, visionary -- I'm fairly confident Amon would have approached the Internet in much the same way he did radio and television. He would turn a "threat" into an opportunity.

While I never had the chance to meet Amon, I did know his son, Amon Carter Jr., who succeeded his father as publisher. Amon Jr. died suddenly of a heart attack in July, 1982, two months after StarText made its debut.

StarText People: Rich Casey

2009-08-12T08:15:00.005-04:00

Rich Casey had the distinction of becoming the first subscriber to our Dallas metro service in 1983. An avid Ham radio enthusiast, Rich authored a number of subscriber columns, including the popular and long-running "Casey's Place," an eclectic mix of electronics, music and to quote Rich, "an online Irish bar." This is an interview I had with Rich in 1994. Thanks to Dennis Brand for sharing the link.

StarText InterView
Rich Casey - June 27, 1994
Interviewer: Gerry Barker

1. How long have you been on StarText? What attracted you? Why have you stayed?

I was on StarText the morning the metro number and the VAX came on-line in 1983. My original mail code of 91 converted to 1081 sometime in 1984. At the ST 10th anniversary, I was surprised to find I had the lowest subscriber mail code.

I've always liked the open exchange of ideas, the willingness to experiment with new concepts, and the local feel of the service. On StarText, I feel more like a "member" than a "subscriber." I have subscribed to CompuServe since 1979 (one evening there were four users on the entire system), sampled and quickly left Prodigy (I couldn't get past the smell of Sears popcorn), and am now wandering the Internet via Metronet. Still, StarText feels most like home.

2. How does StarText fit with ham activities? Why is that a good fit?

Amateur radio operators delight in communicating, and finding new methods of conversing. A ham, Randy Seuss, was co-inventor of the computer bulletin board system. I got an early demo when he and Ward Christensen were building it in Randy's basement in Chicago. So it's natural that hams would find their way to StarText pretty quickly.

In February of 1984, I started a column here called "Casey's Place," what I called an on-line version of an Irish bar. Well, pretty quickly it spawned a HAMRADIO keyword that has grown into a group of columns hosted by several area hams.

At the HamCom convention that year, we demo'ed StarText in the "Ham Radio and Computers" workshop and started a list of hams that were already on or subscribed that weekend. I believe we had a dozen hams on that first list. Take a look at it now... it's called HAMLIST.

3. Talk about some of the columns you have authored.

Casey's Place was the first, followed by HAMRADIO and HAMLIST. I soon took over the upkeep of the AMRADIO and FMRADIO files, using subscriber input to keep the call signs and formats up to date. Other radio keywords followed, including CLEARCH, RADIOINFO and SKYWARN. A column on "Viewers for Quality Television" led to a VQT keyword that lists recommended programs. And just last year, we added "Zen and the Art of Internet" to the reference room (INTERNET).

Many of my CASEY columns deal with consumer electronics. Stereo TV was an early column (home run!) and AM stereo followed the following week (strike out... but I still believe!). Cordless phones, cable TV and cellular phones were also hot topics, as was PCS (still waiting for that one... it WILL revolutionize personal communications... really!) I mourned the demise of Creative Computing magazine, discussed our experiences as a Nielsen family, explained how to construct the perfect Chicago style hot dog, and predicted the rise of low power television stations (oops).

Short wave listening and the fun of being a ham were the grist of many columns over the past ten years, and I'm proud that some subscribers have become ham radio operators and short wave listeners. I remember helping our own John Rody with the code, and was happy to administer the Novice exam when he was ready.

But of all the columns over the years, the one that generated the most e-mail was my admission of being owned by a cat named Tut.

I still keep all of the info files up to date, and feel guilty for not updating CASEY as often as I should (how DO you do it, Carrington?)

4. What are the rewards of being a columnist on StarText?

It's mostly for feedback I get from subscribers. I've met some great folks on StarText, and have corresponded with some for a decade now. I'm still amazed at the breadth of experience of subscribers, and have found help whenever I've needed it. And the StarText staff have always been very friendly and supportive.

But, honestly, just to be able to have my own corner of cyberspace in which I can wax eloquently (?) on whatever issue pops to mind is reward enough!

5. Tell us about yourself: job, interests, what kind of computers you use and have used, etc.

I'm a systems manager at a defense electronics company, and am currently working on the installation of a product data management system. I'm involved in a government/industry initiative called CALS. I won't bore you with a decoding of this nested acronym, but it aims at moving all product data to digital form using standard formats, and making the information available to both developers and customers. I like to think of it as "shared data on demand."

On the home front, my earliest computing experience was plinking the keys of a low serial numbered TRS-80 Model I, the only computer that required a pencil eraser -- the edge connector on the mother board had to be cleaned once a month!

In '85, I picked up a used TRS-80 Model 100, the first real notebook computer, and quickly discovered the potential of portable computing. I STILL miss that little thing! Later, I traded the Model I for a TRS-80 Model 4, then hopped to DOS with a no-name AT clone. A couple of years ago, I splurged for an Adam 386-33, and recently added a sound card and CD-ROM. My modem speed began at 300 baud, slowly progressed to 1200, then on to 2400. I'm now at 14,400 and loving it-- sure helps on the downloads off the Internet.

I've been a radio amateur since high school, first as WA9LRI in Illinois, and now have the call N5CSU. I operate 2 meter and 450 FM in the Jeep, and communicate via VHF packet radio from the house. As a SKYWARN net member, I'm active during the storm spotting season. The low band rig isn't on much these days, except during the hurricane season. And the BBC is still on in the background when I'm in the ham shack.

6. If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change about StarText?

One feature I would like to see is a set of "customer input mail slots" to local companies such as Tandy, Exxon, Pier 1 and TI. The collective brainpower on StarText could help these companies with ideas, and we would get better products in return. Here's an example: When will we be able to find a weather-radio in which you can disable that heart-stopping alert siren and just get audio?

It's been great growing with StarText, and I would like to see it evolve into an on-ramp on the D/FW interchange of the Infobahn. The Internet is where it's all happening now, and remaining a strictly local service is not going to be enough long term. The trick is to keep the local flavor, hold the price down, and open StarText users to the world of Internet. A gateway for Internet mail would be a good first step, followed by an StarText gopher. A World Wide Web server with the StarText Starmadillo in the corner of the screen is my dream.

All in all, it's been a fun ride with Casey's Place since '84. I hope to be inserting a musical intro one day, and include video clips in a future column!

Lapel Pin Trifecta

2009-08-08T14:53:00.003-04:00

Now, for the first time, all THREE of Gary Arlen's Lapel Pins appear together. In only 11 years, what will pin number 4 predict? The wait goes on!

Wooden Nickels and Groucho

2009-08-07T16:28:00.002-04:00

My "2020" Guy, Gary Arlen, followed up my latest post with this email:

Gerry..

Thanks for the plug for the 2020 pins. I'll get you a complete set of the old ones.. there was NOTHING for 2000 .. it seemed toooooo millenial and I was looking for a 20-year span when I made the 2010 pins for the 1990 New Year's Eve party.

Funny you should remember the terminal shaped erasers (I always thought they looked a bit like Minitels. [Reader Note: The Minitel was a joint effort by British and French companies to distribute millions of free videotext terminals. It launched in 1982.] It's interesting what people remember from those smarmy days. Some people favored the Videotex wooden nickels ("Videotex: As valuable as ever."). Others liked the anonymity kit ("Groucho" glasses and nose/moustache mounted on a card that said "Proud to be a Videotex Pioneer."). And there was more.

And to round out our reminisces: I've been in NYC the last 2 days. As I headed home tonight, at NY Penn Station, the young man on the escalator behind me was carrying a well-worn VIEWTRON gym bag. I said, "That's a real collector's item." He said, "It's old school. My dad worked there." And before I could followup, he and his companion headed toward the Long Island RR trains, and I wonder if I knew his old school dad back in the VIEWTRON days.

Gary