I grew up in Devon, and lived in Norristown and West Chester before settling here in Malvern. I attended Villanova University, planning on a degree in electrical engineering. One year later, I had a job at GE in King of Prussia as a technician in the Communications lab. We worked with RF, analog, and digital communication methods. I continued taking classes at Villanova until being promoted and temporarily relocated to Fredrick MD. Finding the commute a bit difficult, I never did get the B.S.E.E.

I worked at GE, Martin Marietta, and Lockheed Martin - keeping the same desk, phone number, and employee number all the while. It was a great place to work for several years. I can remember anticipating going back to work after a weekend thinking, "What are we going to build this week that's never been built before?" So, aerospace became my life. I started fabricating bread board circuits, then flight boxes, then spacecraft and groundstation integration and testing. I worked on launches at Cape Kennedy and at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The last couple of years were spent on Landsat 7 which was launched April 1999. After leaving Lockheed Martin, I attained a B.A. in Information Technology from Immaculata College. I was quickly picked up by a local Internet company in Berwyn called bigchalk.com. (No capital "b" in bigchalk.) We provided content to the K-12 administration, teachers, and students. I was eventually appointed manager of the Network and Database department. It was a great place to work; I was learning so much. Then, that dot com did what most dot coms did back then, and I was laid off in a Reduction in Force.

I currently do computer service. Although most of my customers are home users, I support a couple of local small businesses. The machines I see are typically Windows units which usually only need to be ridded of nasty viruses and spyware. So far, I've been pretty lucky and had to reformat only two machines. I also provide networking and application support (Office, Photoshop. Acrobat, FileMaker) along with various supplies like ink and toner.

While at GE, I was writing test procedures on DOS machines running MultiMate. Then someone brought in a Mac Plus. That was it. I made the switch immediately. Since then, I've been through an SE, IIci, 180, and 5300ce. I think the Mac IIci was Apple's best machine and the 5300ce possibly their worse. But that's my experience.

I believe it was Mal Gable who first told me about MLMUG. He invited me to come to a meeting when we met at Paoli Hospital. I attended a couple of meetings there and at SCT. Finally in September after moving to OS X, I became a member. I really needed the support. You see, I thought I knew the Mac pretty well. Then OS X came along. I needed to learn this system and do some unlearning along the way.

At home I have 2 Macs - a 15" TiBook for the business and a Pismo for personal use. There's a Quadra 610 and an SE tucked away in boxes upstairs. I also keep Windows 95, 98SE, and 2000 machines around for when I need to hash out a problem. I'm looking to pick up an XP machine soon. In my desk is a Newton Message Pad 120, which I bring out every now and then for the special formulas it has. I like its date and metric conversion calculators.

Being single, my dog Gretchen keeps me company. She's a great dog I found at the SPCA in February 2000. She seems to be a mix of Rhodesian Ridgeback, greyhound, and a few other breeds. However, she's not a big dog, weighing only 60 pounds. No one knows what components she has, but with her great disposition, everyone loves her.

My two hobbies are photography and motorcycling, neither of which I seem to have much time for these days. The Nikon F is my favorite camera. When I was doing photography as a professional side line, it served me very well. I can't tell you how much we've been through. The Minolta SRT-101 is my second favorite. I remember covering a protest at Villanova in a rain storm. The camera got pretty wet, but it never stopped.

I did stringer work for the Suburban newspaper in Wayne, getting paid for each photo that was published. Back then, you had to shoot the film, develop it and do the printing in a dark room. It was an effort to get something to press within a few hours. Thanks to digital cameras, I sold most of my darkroom equipment.

A company down south hired me to shoot historic Philadelphia, which I really enjoyed. Just shoot the film and mail it to them. My photos were combined with works from other photographers and presented on a 5-screen, 15-projector computerized slide presentation with audio. The company flew me to Hartford, CT to see the final product in their Civic Center. It was awesome!

I've been motorcycling since the late seventies. A couple of places I've visited are Niagara Falls and the Skyline Drive. They may be destinations, but there's a lot of fun in getting there too. One year I took a Honda 750 on a coast to coast trip: LA to Bend, Oregon to Martha's Vineyard, 9,000 miles in 6 weeks. A few years later, down to Key West. At one point, a Harley Sportster, and Honda Gold Wing could be found in the garage when I wasn't riding them. My current bike is a Harley Davidson Electra Glide which I still haven't even been on this year. Maybe it's time to gap the sparkplugs, grab a helmet, and see where the road leads.

— Tony DiPiano