I'm a 41 yr old that was born and raised in Chicago, IL with a great wife and 3 late teens sons and a first grade daughter (and a mother in law for a while). I've been getting zapped by electronic stuff since I was around 10-11 yrs old before the onset of transistors and semiconductors. I graduated J.F. Kennedy HS in 1975 and went into the USAF in 1976. I worked tactical air-to-air and air-to-ground missile systems and the associated equipment at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas until 1980 when I went to Keflavik Iceland until 1982. I then went into strategic (nukes) air-to-ground missiles working on the Short Range Attack Missile, Air Launched Cruise Missile and Advanced Cruise Missile and test equipment as well as equipment from the systems in the FB-111A, B-52 and B-1 aircraft at Plattsburgh New York until I became an instructor at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, IL. I taught basic electronics, missile systems maintenance and computer operations until they closed the base in 1993 when I went back to being a missile grunt at McConnell AFB in Wichita. I stayed there until I retired from the USAF in 1995 when I got a life again. I started my own business repairing a number of electrical and electronic equipment but mostly older cast-off computers. My first computer was a Commodore 64 and have had Sanyo MBC-55x machines, Apples of various varieties including Macs, varied clones and IBM original machines, TRS-80's and CoCo's, and the list goes on. I've run numerous BBS systems and networks. I've worked micros, terminals, minis and mainframes. I have a degree in Electronic Systems Technology and Technical Instruction and many home based courses from NRI. I've programmed in BASIC (many varieties), Pascal, C, C++, Cobol, and others I forgot about a long time ago. I love digging into older stuff from 1930's radios to 1998 Pentiums. My collection is nill - I don't have space for anything I can hold onto but I do get hold of older machines to tinker with and then find new homes for, such as the newest addition - a Vector 3 made by Vector Graphics Inc of California (I'm guessing by the 213 area code on the label). I also have older Tektronix oscilloscopes that I am holding onto as they are also workhorses for what I do here. You might say that I do the same thing that an adoption agency does -seeks out orphans, clean them up and find a home for them rather than raise them by myself. I moved to Kentucky after the military to an area where people know each other by first name and they leave their keys (and purses) wide open in their cars and no one messes with them. People don' generally ask for written estimates, just honesty. I look out of the window of my workshop in the morning and see wild turkeys rather than turkeys acting wild. My water comes from a tap but the tap is connected to a hole in the ground where water has been running out by itself for a dang long time, a natural spring. I ramble a lot too.... -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 / Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------