Writing WritingI love to write, and have several novels bouncing around in various states of development. But I also write short pieces. I especially enjoy writing humor.
Ok, here are links to some things I've written:
Drum CorpsDrum & Bugle Corps is a big influence in my life. If you would like to find out more about Drum Corps (as it is called) visit one of the sites we (Seattle Web Factory) have done or one of the many other sites on the Web:
The above sites have links to many other Drum Corps related cyberspaces.
My Computers (Macintosh!)I've been a Macintosh user since 1989. Before that I wanted a Mac but didn't have enough money to buy one. I had a Tandy Model 200, a couple of printers (daisy-wheel and dot-matrix), a 200k 3.5 inch floppy drive, 24K of RAM, and a ROM upgrade which made the system usable. It had a 300 bps internal modem and I had a Compuserve account. The screen was 16 lines tall and 40 characters wide. I did spreadsheets, legal papers, word processing. Even a game or two. Sprite graphics were so cool. Life was good. Or so I thought.
In 1989 a friend, Cathy, loaned me a Mac Plus that she wasn't using as she had just bought a Mac IIcx. In 1991 my boyfriend, at the time, gave me my very own Mac SE!
I joined dBUG (a Seattle Macintosh User Group) in early 1990. Cathy is no my roommate and we now have many Macs and even four Wintel Clones (two unused), and another Tandy, a Model 100.
We have an ethernet LAN here at home. A Farallon 12 port 10-Base-T hub, and a Farallon 5 port 100/10-Base-T hub provide the main part of the LAN. An AirPort Base Station provides connectivity for our G3 Powerbooks. We are on attbi (at&t broadband internet, cable modem - very fast) with a Linksys BEFRS11 switch/router providing internet sharing (NAT) for our LAN.
Our desktop Mac is an Indigo iMac 400, named Defiant, with Epson StylusColor C-80 & 750 Printers connected by USB to the Defiant and shared to all Macs on our LAN using Apple's USB printer share, and parallel (750) to our dual-Pentium Pro Linux server machine and (C-80) to the E-Machines T4155 (BorgSphere). Defiant is successfully running MacOS 9.2.2, and OS 10.1.3 in 576MB Ram and has an internal 40 GB drive and an external 10 GB firewire drive. I have installed iTunes and DiskBurn, Toast Titanium, an EZQUEST (Teac) FireWire CD-RW (an external 12x-10x-32x Firewire CD-RW burner), and a MicroTek ScanMaker 3700 USB flatbed scanner with Slide/Filmstrip adapter. Defiant shares with the Powerbooks and the other iMac, an external (USB) Imation SuperDISK (standard 3.5 inch floppies and 120 MB 3.5 inch MO floppies), an external (USB) IOMEGA ZIP 100, a 10 GB external LaCie USB hard drive (I got a good deal - $125 brand new in 1999), a WACOM Tangerine Graphire Tablet USB with cordless mouse and pen, a Cyborg 3D USB Stick, an Alaris WeeCam, and an iMic USB audio input/output device. All of those USB thingies go easily whereever they are needed, even the Intel boxes.
Our second and 3rd Macs are Powerbook G3s, a Lombard, Voyager (wireless to the Airport Base Station with a Farallon SkyLine 11Mb 802.11b card, Mac OS 9.2.2, Mac OS 10.1.3, 320MB RAM, 40 GB Disc), and a Pismo, DeltaFlyer (which has an Airport card, Mac OS 9.2.2, Mac OS 10.1.3, 630MB RAM, 40 GB Disc).
Our fourth Mac is a Beige G3/300, Enterprise-D, 256MBram, 6 GB internal HD, 2 GB external SCSI, desktop, a TEAC Tape Backup, a CTX 17-inch monitor (R), a second MAGInnovision 15-inch monitor hooked to an iX3D UltimateRezPro card (L), a Supra Express v.90/56K-FLEX modem, a 12"x12" CalComp DrawingSlate, an ALPS Glide-Point, a Keyspan USB card, running MacOS 9.0.4 (with HFS+).
Our fifth Mac, a PowerMac 7200/75, Enterprise-A, has 96MB ram (Doubled to ~240), 2.5 gigs of hard drive, a built-in Apple 600i CD-ROM Drive, and an 14" Apple Monitor, running MacOS 8.5.1, and has gone to a friend, Mari, who had no computer.
We have used IPNetRouter to provide internet services to all computers on our network. ($80 very well spent!) We are using the AirPort now to provide wireless connectivity and have added a LinkSys Router when we got broadband.
I also use Timbuktu Pro to control or work on the different machines from whatever other machine I happen to be in front of. I even use Timbuktu Pro to provide support services to friends and family over the internet. Another well spent bit of cash.
Cathy's sister, KK, has a Grape iMac (233). Cathy's niece,a junior at the UWa, has a 6100, that we gave her for Christmas 1999 replacing her IIvx that we gave her for high school graduation. She also has a Powerbook 190cs that she got free from her workplace when they upgraded.
Cathy's father Larry, a cool 82 year young guy, has a brand new Indigo iMac, B-17, and Epson 740 StylusColorPrinter (we gave it to him for Christmas 2000). He uses it to play some games, do his spreadsheet stuff for utilities costs, read the entire National Geographic collection, surf the web and other cool stuff.
We also have an 8100, a 6100, 2 IIvxs, an SI, a IIfx, a IIx, a CI, an SE, and a PLUS. The 8100 is a source of spare parts. The others are being used for a dust collection experiment.
I also have eMachines T4155, named BorgSphere with a 17 inch monitor, a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 processor, running Windows XP Home Edition in 256 MB ram, 60 GB hard drive space, CD-RW, DVD-ROM. I am using it to learn all about Windows.
My old SE and Cathy's PLUS (an original 128 upgraded!) are now in wait for their next assignment. It's cool, that even a 18+ year old Macintosh can still be very useful. We may turn the SE into an internal web and mail server for our network.
I am on permanent disability from the Boeing Aircraft Company (I have Friedreich's Ataxia - a type of Muscular Dystrophy) and am on medical retirement from Boeing.
I beta test software. If you have testing needs, let me know.
When not using my iMac to do Web sites, write stories, explore the electronic world, or program I enjoy using it to play flight simulator games. My favorites are Hellcats Over the Pacific, Dogfight City, F/A-18 Hornet, and A-10 Attack!
Star TrekI am interested in all things dealing with Star Trek. I have attended many conventions, and have met:
PicturesI was at a party, and had this picture taken...
I also have some famous friends I've met. (Well, to me they're famous anyway!)
Caryn Roberts
email cathy
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updated: Mon, Mar 25, 2002