My desire to live life as a technomad isn’t new – the idea of combining technology and travel has been an active dream of mine for as long as I can remember.
Those dreams solidified one night in the early 90’s when I stumbled across the website and writings of Steve Roberts – the original “technomad” and coiner of the term. When I first found Steve’s site I was literally up until dawn reading of his adventures and imagining a tech-filled life on the road. Steve’s book Computing Across America chronicling his first 10,000 miles on his geeked-out solar/pizza-powered computerized recumbent bicycle fired my imagination.
Later that year I arranged for Washington University in St. Louis (where I was a Computer Science / Computer Engineering major) to host a stop on Steve’s speaking tour, and we’ve been friends ever since.
My First Silicon Valley Tech Job
But before I could pursue the nomadism, I knew I needed to spend some time building up some career experience on the tech side. And like most Computer Science graduates, that meant heading west towards Silicon Valley. Mecca for geeks.
The job that brought me west to California after I graduated in 1996 was to become the first Technical Editor of Imagine Publishing’s newly-launched boot magazine. It was an incredible job, and other than the ever present panic of print deadlines, it was heaven for a tech junkie like myself.
I was only at boot for a year and a half before I moved on to a series of other tech-industry jobs, but I am hugely proud of the work that went into creating that magazine. I still get a thrill every time I see boot’s successor Maximum PC 
on the newstands, and recently I spotted a new spin-off Maximum Tech that is broadening the PC-focus into all sorts of consumer technology. The first issue was absolutely fabulous – reviewing everything from Web Tablets to Vibram FiveFinger shoes.
I love knowing that something that I helped start continues to thrive, and remains one of the most respected and influential magazines in the industry.
Lately on the Maximum PC website, they have been running a series called “Old School Monday” featuring reruns of articles from the early days. And one article in particular just brought a huge grin to my face.
For the 1996 “Lust List” feature, every editor had to briefly write about the 10 products that most fired up their imagination that past year. Here was one of my picks:
Ricochet Wireless Modem: Taking the Net with you on the road helps blur the boundaries between cyberspace and reality. A Ricochet and a notebook are the first step to being the technomad I’ve always dreamed of becoming. Next, I need a HUD headband and a palm keyboard. I wonder if the Borg have any job openings…
This was a time years before WiFi, and the Ricochet modem was the size of a small brick. But it allowed me to get online wirelessly all over the SF area, and it was actually faster than the then common 56kbps dialup modems. I actually wrote my Ricochet review while enjoying the “office view” from the top of SF’s Twin Peaks. It was incredible technology, way ahead of its time.
The Ricochet was reliable enough that I even “cut the cord” and ditched the phone line at my apartment, and even back then was relying on just my cell phone and my wireless modem to live my digital life.
Another fun Ricochet memory – I once created a VAN (Van Area Network) that combined a rental mini-van, a 12volt-to-AC inverter, the Ricochet, a wired router and hub, and a lot of ethernet cable… All so that my team could have four laptops sharing the wireless connection while underway playing in an epic weekend-long puzzle hunt (The Game).
Dreams Do Come True
Those were the days… It is amazing how far wireless and mobile technology has advanced since then.
But I am thrilled to realize that 14 years later, I’ve been the “technomad I’ve always dreamed of becoming” for nearly five years now.
Dreams tend to come true, eventually. *grin*
This is a great blast from the past. I remember those years quite clearly, as this was the period I got my first job and blew it all on a new P2 tower, only my second pc, and my first home build. I was 16 in ’96.
I remember not yet knowing of unix/linux (I grew up in a backwater burg), but learning about “RISC” machines, running much faster than the dos-tel boxes of the time. I was fighting off the Windows conversion with all my energy. Not lusting after a SB AWE, but a SB 16 paired with a Roland MT-32 sound module. Filling up my case with 4 videocards, three made by Canopus and running pass through cables on the back of my case like crazy. I too was a big ultima fan, but it never really translated into the online world for me. Funny enough, I was just playing arguably the best in the series, 7, on exult just yesterday.
I was also big into emulation, refusing to buy hardware, waiting for the next big Bleem (yes, I paid for it) update to play that next game, and sending in all my registration cards with the word “Bleem” written across them with a red highlighter.