While we were busy working the domestic channels for this exciting device, one of my sales team walked up to me one afternoon to tell me that the first ever PC Trade show was being held in Moscow that summer. This was our chance. We were going to demonstrate the very first 486 laptop in the USSR at their very first PC Trade show. I don’t think we bothered to think that one through.

Mind you, this was before perestroika. This was back in the days when the cold war was only thawing a smidgen below arctic temperatures. But we were the brave. The few. The proud. While others like Gateway and HP were touting their systems all over the free world, we thought being the first to demo in the USSR would put us in the media spotlight.

Making arrangements to present at a trade show behind the iron curtain took a little more than a passport stamp and a smile. The Feds showed up at our facility in droves. I was interviewed by the FBI, the NSC, the CIA, and guys wearing suits who only flashed their badges long enough for you not to be able to see them. It took months to gain the necessary approval, but we were in.

I toted 2 desktops and the magic 486 laptop 3/4 of the way across the globe. The hardware never left my site. Everything locked and secured in Pelican cases and examined at every stop. It took 5 hours just to get out of the airport in Moscow. But the day finally arrived.

I left the hotel Ukrainia early on a charter bus for the arena, passing by statues of Stalin and driving through Red square. I passed the incredible blocks long lines waiting to get into the first McDonalds which just happened to be opening on the very same day. Like a pack animal I pushed and grunted my load of computers on dollies into the arena and setup my display. It sparkled. It dazzled. It was a beautiful thing to behold.

The desktop systems had booted up on the pedestal I had rented, and at the center of my booth was the fabled leather covered 486. The show was moments away from opening and I confidently pressed the power button on the mystery machine. I waited. I started sweating. I smoked a pack and a half of American cigarettes. And then……

Nothing. DOA. I spent 2 days apologizing through my translator that this leading edge machine was for display only.

When I returned to the US of A, management didn’t find the story as amusing as I did.

My geekyness goes all the way back to pocket protectors and slide rules (seriously, in HS we learned to use slide rules, and I used a pocket protector). Not only does this give you a general decade for my secondary school education, but will also speak to you about my general tech orientation.

When the first IBM personal computers hit the market my father in law was working for a IBM in Westlake. Through him, I was able to obtain my first shiny personal computer. This was even before the sending in of the clones. No hard drive. No graphical user interface. Monochrome monitor. Not even so much as a modem. There were no games, no ups, no downs, and no extras. The operating system was an early version of DOS and even IBM basic had to be loaded from a 5.25 in. floppy.

It wasn’t long before the technical revolution was in full swing and the geek armies were starting to choose up sides. On the far hill stood the army of the PC users. On the opposite side of the meadow there appeared a new and different user. They had a thing called an Apple. The two armies pushed to the center of the grassy meadow and the face-off began.

I was invested in my blinking green cursor. I had written silly little programs in basic, I had even discovered DBII and wasn’t about to give ground. Then they got closer and I saw what they were looking at. They had GUI. I was secretly jealous but would never jump ship. Not so much as a whisper of approval escaped my lips.

Ever since that day long ago in that meadow far away I have swaddled my PC close and maintained my position that my platform was the truth, and the way.

For many, once bitten you are smitten by the tech bug and here I am 40 years later just to realize that the other army was hurling eggs and I have them on my face.

Tomorrow I will be teaching an ITS 30 minute class on the OS Catalina operating system. I have my trusty iPhone, my iPad, my Apple watch, my Macbook Pro, and while I will never ever concede defeat all that really serves to prove is that old habits die hard.

For years Sandy dreamt of the red carpet. He craved the recognition of his peers. He longed to be a part of the rich heritage of the cinematic community. But lo, each season he waited for the announcement of the 30 second category and lo, it never came.

But Sandy remained undaunted until he found his opening. A place on the ITSblog. We present here for the first and possibly last time the complete Sandy unabridged.

Every month we send a monthly newsletter called the Techbyte to our on-campus subscribers. The Techbyte is short and sweet (like Sandy) and provides you with the latest information on technology that effects our campus. But there are creatives among us.

Yes, this may come as a surprise since the universe thinks of IT personnel as people born wearing virtual reality headsets. We confess, we have them but we do take them off regularly and low and behold, it turns out our department is filled with regular folk.

We are mothers, fathers, grandparents and students. Poets, musicians, writers readers and barley connoisseurs. We are tinkerers and thinkers, mechanics and builders, we just happen to have been born with that pesky tech gene at 17q12-q21.

We have personal Facebook pages and consume mass quantities of Netflix and Google Prime. . We even sleep and eat regular food. And thus is born the ITS Tech blog.

To love us is to subscribe to us. To subscribe to us is to get to know us. Welcome to the very first posting of the ITS Techblog.