Chronology of moleski.net
Prologue: The Catholic University of America (1982-1988)
My life with computers began while I was theoretically studying systematic theology at The Catholic University of America. I knew that I wanted to do my dissertation on a computer, so I signed up to learn how to use the DEC PDP-10 minicomputer. I learned how to get help, print out pages, and work with "sed," i.e., "son of ed."
Frank Gignac, SJ, borrowed a Timex Sinclair 1000 computer from a parishioner in Laurel, Maryland. I hooked it up to our TV in the dining room and spent several days playing with BASIC. It didn't take much to distract me from my studies!
In the summer of 1983, I wrote a couple of programs in BASIC on a Tandy Radio Shack Model 1 (TRS-80) at Murray-Weigel Hall on the Bronx campus of Fordham University. I started with BYTE articles, then expanded the programs by adding my own ideas and code.
The house purchased a Victor 9000 in 1983. I got my own Victor 9000 in 1984. I was active in the Capital Area Victor Users Group from 1983-1986 and produced the "Capital Area Victor Information eXchange" (CAVIX) for them for a couple of years.
I did a bookkeeping program in BASIC for house accounts, expanded from the mileage calculator that I had played with on the TRS-80. Later, when Turbo Pascal was released for the Victor, I translated the thousand lines of BASIC into procedures and functions — what a joy to be set free from line numbering and GOTOs!
We had a 1200-baud modem, and I was active on a number of bulletin boards, most notably The Victorian Connection and a small, local support group for Turbo Pascal.
Waiting for the internet (1988-1996)
I moved to LeMoyne College in 1988 as an adjunct, then got a tenure-track position at Canisius in 1990. I finished my dissertation and defended it in 1991 using WordPerfect on DOS. The first web page I ever published for the world to see via the internet was on February 18, 1996, using the demo version of Hot Dog Pro.
I was active in rec.models.rc.air from 1995 until at least 2009. Oh, my! A lot of things have happened in the eight years since this post! The Renegade is still undone. I haven't flown RC models since 2008, I believe. I gave away the pieces of Mad Dog II. Haven't brought myself to packaging the Renegade to give it away. Oh, my!
RC Wizard photo album
By December, 2000, I had a photo album hosted on rcwizard.com.
2 November 2002
The first capture by the Wayback Machine shows 2 November 2002 as the date of my first page.
I bought the domain "moleski.net" and found an internet service provider to host it. I've moved from one service provider to another. The last two moves were to Slicehost in 2009, which got swallowed up by Rackspace some time later. I have been root administrator on my virtual server since 2009. "It is good to be root<" — except when there is an emergency.
2023-08-14
After Rackspace started raising my rent, I moved to Godaddy in 2020.
Although I have a few months left on my GoDaddy account, they, too, will want a lot more from me than the initial three-year plan did. I am midway through the move. Dokuwiki and Mediawiki are more or less configured. Joomla next. Then I need to tweak my .htaccess, I imagine. Four years on Hostinger will cost me about what the next one year of GoDaddy would.
"The poor have more time than money."
I certainly have spent a lot of time to save a little bit of money!
<insert many expressions of frustration>
All is well again, for the moment.