Uncle Mikey's Propeller Head Page

Last updated: 10 Jun 1998

(this page best viewed with...well, just about anything, really. Although composed with Netscape in mind, it should work just fine with MSIE or Lynx, as well)

Mikey Rants about life as a propeller head

[A man stands up at the front of a room. Behind him is a poster which says 'Internet Anonymous'...]

My name is Michael Scott Shappe, and I've been a network junkie for eleven years.

I've been involved in computer conferencing, at some level or other, since about the ninth grade. Back then, most of my digital activity focused on local Bulletin Board Systems; isolated messaging services, with little or no networking between then, but with overlapping communities of users.

When I got to Cornell in August, 1987, obtaining a mainframe account was one of my first priorities. By November, I was already hip deep in electronic mail, having quickly discovered several mailing lists which fit my interests, including the now defunct <STARTREK@MAINE.BITNET> conference.

Half-way through my freshman year, I got a job with Cornell Information Technologies (then Cornell Computer Services) as an operator in the Upson lab. At the time, the main 'perk' this gave me was more disk space so I could get more mail :-). Over time, however, the position gave me opportunities to explore the UNIX operating system (upon which so much of the current Net is based) via the NeXT workstations that were installed at Upson, and begin seriously net-surfing.

I was surprised, and pleased, when I was able to obtain my first programming job based on my net-surfing strengths. Roger Jagoda, then in charge of the NeXT labs, needed someone to grab the popular, publically available software packages and 'port' them (that is, modify the source, when necessary, to make them work) to the NeXT's somewhat bizarre flavor of UNIX. Part of this involved setting up a Network News server, and I became quite permanently hooked on the phenomenon of Usenet.

In May 1991, I landed a full-time programming job with CIT, which I held through March 1995. Steve Worona needed someone who was familiar with both UNIX and the Net to work on an experiment. The experiment was to see if client-server based communication technologies could successfully and, more to the point, cheaply replace mainframe-based computing. My first task was to get a POP (Post Office Protocol) server running. This 'postoffice' would be used by the 300-odd students in the Dorm Network Pilot Project (now the Cornell ResNet). Shortly thereafter, we added a Network News server and a Chat (IRC) server. These services became the core of what Cornell now calls Bear Access. In April 1992, Barbara Skoblick took over Steve's position, and our department began to move away from experimentation and into production.

In March 1995, I left Cornell to work at NYSERnet, now known as Applied Theory, Inc., in Liverpool, NY, where I worked on various World Wide Web-focused projects designed to infiltrate the Internet into everybody's drab, boring lives :-).

Six months later, I returned to Cornell, albeit very briefly, to work for the Cornell Digital Library project. Don't let the fact that I left it so quickly fool you -- this is a Seriously Way Cool concept. The idea is to take old and rare books that are decaying and scan them while they're still readable. The scans can then be viewed or printed in a variety of ways at the requestor's leisure. This is a vital effort in the fight to preserve older books!

My tenure there was cut short not by a lack of enthusiasm for the project but by one of those proverbial Offers I Couldn't Refuse(tm) -- to become a Software Engineer for a startup called AetherWorks. The one hitch was that the new company was in Minnesota. And that's how I, a Nice Jewish Boy from the Northeast, wound up on the prairie. We're doing all kinds of exciting things out here in the Mild Midwest, but, alas, I can't tell you about any of them just yet, beyond what the AetherWorks Web already divulges. Suffice it to say that we're planning to stand the whole world of telecommunications on its head...

So, you see, I'm not just a network addict. I'm a network pusher :-)

My net.bugaboo is responsible communication via the Net. My greatest dissappointment in using the Net has been seeing how many people use the relative anonymity and freedom of the net to insult, harass, and obstruct others; people who abuse the right of freedom of speech and the privilege of network access. The problem is not a simple one to solve.

Needless to say, I do not think that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a good way way to solve the problem. See the Blue Ribbon on my main page for more of my rantings on that score...

Links to Propeller Headed Things

Tired of watching Bill Gates and his ilk get richer at the expense of your sanity? Try Linux, a free computer operating environment that works on just about every machine currently out there, including SPARCs, DEC Alphae, PowerPCs, Intel x86s, and even, believe it or not, PalmPilots! I don't think anyone's managed to make it run on a Commodore 64 yet, but I'll bet you someone's tried!

Open Source Software

A lot of the software people use in their day to day lives is "closed". Some company writes it for a single platform (usually Windows. Ick.), swears its programmers to secrecy on the details, hides the source code away, and releases only the binaries. You, the consumer, are left to trust that you paid an exorbitant amount of money for a program that will fill your needs; if it doesn't, you have no recourse. Even if you have the know-how, you can't fix it, can't add to it, can't make it work on another platform or with hardware They didn't think of. All you can do is call Their lousy tech support (and let's face it, 90% of all tech support is crap), pour out your sad, sad story to them, hope that they at least listen sympathetically, and then grind your teeth when they tell you, "Oh, well, that's a feature." or, worse, "Oh, well, that'll be fixed in the next version. The upgrade'll be $100 bucks."

Open Source turns it all around. An Open Source program has all of its source code available on the network. Anyone can grab it, build it, port it, change it, and release the changes. Everyone who uses the program is also invited to participate actively in its development. Follow the link to find out more about this concept, and why it's so important.

The Games Domain

I admit it -- half of the reason I like computers is to play games on them. I'm not very GOOD at any of them, but I love playing them all the same...

The Jargon File , Version 4.0 

The definitive reference work on the Computer Hacker culture, as edited by Eric S. Raymond. 

The Bastard Operator From Hell

What, you ask, is a Bastard Operator from Hell? The BOFH is the kind of computer operator/system administrator/network engineer/programmer every competent practitioner of those arts secretly wishes they could be and every luser and/or pointy-haired manager dreads ever meeting, let alone having to deal with. The BOFH will read your e-mail, tap your telephone, sniff your network, delete your files, and possibly even rig the elevator to have a nasty accident to keep the users from messing up his perfect system. Hardware is perfect. Software is perfect. Networks are perfect. Users are the problem!

These two sites represent the collected adventures of The Bastard Operator from Hell, as chronicled by Simon Travaglia. He flatly insists they're fiction, but I wouldn't press the issue too closely if I were you...

The Datamation BOFH

These are the "classic" BOFH stories, written irregularly in the early 90s by Simon.

TheNetwork Week BOFH

These are the "current" BOFH stories, written weekly by Simon and occasionally by others at Network Week.

InReference, Inc. 

DejaNews.

These little toys will help you sort through the vast morass that is Usenet. 

CPU Information. 

A seriously geeky page about the latest and greatest CPU chips. 

IETF Home Page 

Home page of the Internet Engineering Task Force. Important Stuff(tm). 

Go back to my home page

DISCLAIMER: This web page is not in any way an official service offering of Public Communiations, Inc. Similarly, the author is not an official representative of the management of AetherWorks Corporation. I am the Mikey. I speak for myself.

This page is a production of Michael Scott Shappe, who is solely responsible for its content.