Robert Osband's Computer Resume

PO Box 6841
Titusville   FL
USA   32782-6841

+1 321 794-0215
http://SpaceyIdeas.Com
Ozzie@SpaceyIdeas.Com

1967 September

Irondequoit High School got an IBM-1130. When told it was "for the higher level math students" I said, "Hey, those kids already know how to count. I'm the one who needs access to the computer!"

1967 December

Started hanging around the computer room anyway. The lady who ran it took pity on me, and let me borrow "programmed instruction" books on Fortran.

1998 June

Graduated High school. Visited the IBM Trailer at the Oak Hill Country Club, where scorekeeping for the 1968 US Open Golf Tournement was being kept on an IBM-1130.

1970 - 1974

Bought time on an HP-2000 C at the State University of New York at Brockport. They were selling computer time to any schmuck off the street for $1 per hour. That was cheaper than pinball, and I qualified. I was a schmuck off the street!

1974 September

Assisted in putting on a Computer Games exhibit at the World Science Fiction Convention in Washington DC using borrowed computer terminals connected to accoustic couplers. We dialled up local TIPs (Terminal Interface Processors) of the ARPAnet (precursor to the Internet) and brought up games on computers from Massachusets to California.

1975 June

Moved to Boston MA area to work programming PDP-11 computers for a Value Added Retailer. Company folded 6 months later.

1976 February

Put on a Computer Games Exhibit at local Science Fiction Convention using new-fangled Altair 8800 micro-computer.

1976 June

I had so impressed the company that sold the Altairs, that they offerred me work at their store in New York City. "Altair Basic" sure looked alot like "Basic Plus under RSTS/E" (Resource Sharing Timesharing System, version E) on the PDP-11's I'd been working on. I came to find out that the "bright, young, college kid" that wrote Altair Basic also used PDP-11's. It was later marketed as "Microsoft Basic". The kid was Bill Gates.

1977 June

Was briefly "Communications Editor" for the ill-fated ROM magzine (Read Only Magazine), but it got me a tour of Comsat General's satellite earth station in Santa Paula CA. I had been communicating with ships at sea via the telex circuits of Comsat General's "Marisat" satellite from my computer terminal and accoustic coupler.

1978 January

Hired by Stan Veit to work at The Computer Mart in Manhattan. Stan had people fluent in the Apple ][, and Southwest Technical 6502, so I became the Comodore Pet and Ohio Scientific maven.

1980 - 1987

Miriad jobs in computing and programming. Enjoyed my one good drinking night of the month when I went to DECUS (Digital Equipment Computer Users Group) meetings at The Netherlands Club above Charly O's in Rockefeller Center. Going home by subway meant no DUI worries.

1984 - 1987

"Ozzie, they won't let me take a job offer out of town unless I can find someone to teach my course". That's how I began teaching in the night program of Baruch College in the course "Introduction to Teleprocessing".

1987 May

Worked with the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) Representative of the International Business Womens' Professional Organization, to set up a BBS (Bulletin Board System) called UNITEX (United Nations Information Transfer & Exchange). Wrote to Computer Shopper Magazine to get listed in their BBS list.

1987 June

OK, so I didn't just "write to Computer Shopper". I wrote directly to their Editor In Chief, Stan Veit (see "Computer Mart" above). Stan left me e-mail to call him about a day or two of consulting work in Titusville FL.

1987 June - 1990 May

Helped run a database of airplanes for sale on a Computer Utility called "Delphi" in Cambridge MA from offices in Titusville FL. The company was owned by the fellow that owned Comuter Shopper.

1988 March

Got my Ham Radio License (N4SCY). I got it primarily to play with "Packet Radio", which is computer data sent via radio.

1991 December 14, 04:30 EST (09:30 UTC)

Placed electronic mail directly in the Packet Radio Mailbox of the Mir Space Station. (Ham radio is one of the hobbies you can take with you into space)

1996 March

Got my Internet account at Florida Online (http://digital.net/~ozzie). I bought a book at Books A Million, took it home for the weekend, and by the follwing Monday morning had my first web page written & online using WordStar in non-document mode.

1996 September

Became webmaster of http://SpaceLaunchNews.Com, the web site of SpaceLaunch News, a tourist information magazine handed out to the tourists that line the Indian River on Launch Day to watch Space Shuttles launch from the Kennedy Space Center. On launch days, I can usually be found at Space View Park in Titusville.

1997 August

Made a presentation at Beyond HOPE (the second "Hackers On Planet Earth" conference) on "Low Bandwidth Access to the Internet using Public Library Terminals" which was very well recieved.

1998 September

Presented my testimony to the Florida Public Service Commission suggesting that the "Countdown Capitol of the World" (what's a little hyperbole between friends?) should have the Area Code 3-2-1. They were going to give us a new Area Code anyway, I just "nudged" this lumbering frieght train down a side-track of my own! Let's see. I asked for it, they approved it, so I guess it's my Area Code, right?   :-)>

1999 February

The PSC Approves the 321 Area Code. Service to The Space Coast of Florida will begin in November. Interviewed by The Wall Street Journal on my "vanity area code", I formed "Spacey Ideas, A Consulting Firm with Out Of This World Ideas". (I'm starting to get good at this "hyperbole" stuff)

1999 March

Recieve E-mail back from Governor Jeb Bush that he'd be interested in placing the First Official Call to the Kennedy Space Center on November 1. I also got the President of BellSouth Mobility to grant me the telephone number 543-8633. It was in the middle of a bloc of numbers in a "Corporate Account", and was otherwise not available. For two years I was able to be reached at the phone number 321-Liftoff!

2002 October

Began selling Palm handheld organizers at http://store.palm.com.