I had a fantastic conversation with Steven Roberts, the original Technomad a few days ago. We chatted about the new projects on his boat and I got to thank him for creating the original kayak GPS logger article that sparked a lot of interest in our logging products.
Who is Steven Roberts? He's the guy that built the BEHEMOTH bicycle and cycled across the US documenting his experiences.
Checkout the new projects on his 44-foot steel cutter.
Steven is working on new maritime applications for Arduino and other open-source type projects to replace what is currently very expensive boat electronics.
I'm pround to say he has one of my RTrak APRS trackers installed on that boat! Steve is a great guy!
Very nice looking boat! Roberts made several stops at Information Appliance in Palo Alto in the 80's to make repairs and improvements and meet Jef Raskin. I recall his wire wrapped boards were the most robust. Not too surprising since a good wrap has 20 or more gas tight tin to gold connections and the whole board is flexible. No intermittents from cracked traces! The bike was more of a prototype compared to the picture. I wonder what he has been doing since 1990?
I met Steve Roberts on a cruise ship nearly 9 years ago in Alaska. He's a very interesting character. I created more than a few pile ups during that cruise while working a ham satellite off the Alaskan coast which is something Steve was able to relate to ;-). My exploits on that cruise became part of a Wired Magazine Article
What a blast from the past ... if I remember correctly, I met him once. Sort of. I chatted with him on Compuserv's CB Simulator. I was on at 1200 baud from my parents' TRS-80 Model III in Schenectady, NY ... I think it was something like $9/hour at that rate or about $20/megabyte in today's parlance. It was pretty exciting to download weather maps with sixel-graphics, even if it was monochrome!