A Look Back on 40 Years of Publishing

Growing up with illegible handwriting and marginal typing skills, I welcomed the age of personal computing in which I took an active part.

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As a geeky baby boomer, open to and excited about new possibilities, it has been great fun.

In 1981, as a software engineer at Hewlett-Packard, I helped write builtin apps for HP's first personal computer, the HP150 Touchscreen. I loved having the power of a computer on my desk and was thrilled to learn that the HP calculator division was developing the first PC-compatible (9 pound) laptop. I resonated with the possibility of taking a powerful computer anywhere and soon became one of the first people using laptops at airports.

In late 1984, I brought that HP laptop with me to small-town Fairfield, lowa, to live and participate in an ongoing world peace project having to do with the Transcendental Meditation program. In Fairfield, I started our company, supporting users of mobile computing platforms. The company still resides in Fairfield today.

Forty years ago this month, I wrote the following for our new publication: