[dorkbotsea-blabber] March 7 DORKBOT: Retro-Dork

[Toby Paddock]

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WHAT: March DORKBOT: Retro-Dork 
WHEN: Wednesday, Mar. 7, 2007, 7:30 PM (7:00 for a bit of socializing!)
WHERE: 911 Media Arts Center, 402 9th Ave N, Seattle
ADMISSION: Free, all ages and species, donation encouraged.

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Greetings, Dorks! On Wednesday, March 7th at 7:30 PM at the 911 Media Arts
Center, we will have two fabulous presentations about dorkish history and
alternate dorkish history: Things that were and things that could have been.

Mark you calendar! (but not your PDA, they haven't been invented yet)

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Donald Martin Ph.D. will present COMPUTER HISTORY: A Personal Look at a Few
Early Computers.  Massive computing machines with sonic mercury delay line 
memory, vacuum tubes, punched paper tape,  hundreds of words of memory,
analog/digital hybrids, and on up to Large Scale Integration. Computing was
not for the squeamish.

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Phil Foglio, artist and co-creator of Girl Genius, will present the 
"gaslamp fantasy" Girl Genius.

Girl Genius is an ongoing "gaslamp fantasy" story by Phil and Kaja Foglio.
It started out in 2000 as a periodical comic book, which is collected into
three (and counting) larger volumes. Girl Genius follows the career of 
Agatha Heterodyne --- a hapless student at Transylvania Polygnostic
University who discovers that she has more going for her than she thought.

Influences include Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard. The genre is also 
called "steampunk." Expect big, clanking Victorian-style tech, old-fashioned
clothes, Frankenstein monsters and airships. Lots and lots of airships. Is
it magic? Is it science? A little of both, I suppose---it's Mad Science. 

Girl Genius has won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Award for Best Science
Fiction 2007 (http://ryanestrada.com/wcca07/) and was on the SF Site's
Editor's Choice list for 2006 ( http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best07.htm)

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Doors will be open at 7:00 if you want to show up early and schmooze with
your fellow dorks!   If you would like to take the mic for a few moments at 
"open dork" after the presentations let me know.
Dust off that retro gadget for show 'n tell!

http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsea will also have full information about the
talks shortly. Please send any questions or comments to Shelly, your Dork
Overlord, at shellyhivemind at gmail.com. Or specific to this retro meeting, 
you can contact Toby at toby at paddfam.com  or Jeremy at trochee at gmail.com.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the 7th! Special thanks to 911 Media 
Arts Center (http://www.911media.org) for
providing a venue!

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More about the presenters:

Donald C Martin Ph.D.

As a teenager, I attempted to build a small computer from salvaged pinball
machine relays. This was one of my more instructive failures and the best 
five dollars that I ever spent.  A pinball machine is probably a good
metaphor for my career.

My academic career had a fine sense of indecision. My initial majors were
electrical, mechanical and industrial engineering. I then switched to 
physics and then to psychology. When financial problems forced me to drop
out of college, I took a low level job with RCA Service Co. at Cape
Canaveral in Missile Range Data reduction. This was my first exposure to a 
computer. I studied mathematics and was promoted to mathematician at RCA but
I had not completed any degree. I went back to Florida State University. By
the time I was forced to graduate I happened to be majoring in mathematics 
with a minor in physics (note 1).

A chance question caused me to start graduate studies in statistics although
I had never had a statistics course. I was soon working in the Academic
Computing Center. My initial academic appointments were in Biomathematics 
and Engineering Research (note 2) at North Carolina State University. I
promptly became entangled with more computers. Burnout from 60-hour weeks of
research and teaching became a problem. We started breeding and showing 
(conformation and obedience) Old English Sheepdogs. We then moved to the
University of Washington where my appointment was in Biostatistics with an
Adjoint appointment in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (note 3). 

One way or another, I kept getting involved with computers. At one time I
was Director of Computing Activities for the UW Health Sciences.  I also
developed a successful specialized programming language. I have 
approximately 100 scientific publications. Unlike most statisticians, I have
a great deal of experience in actually doing experiments. At one time I was
teaching dog-training using operant conditioning. Perhaps a step up from the

business statistics class I had taught at FSU. I retired from UW in 1996 and
moved to part time in Health Services Research at the Veterans
Administration Hospital. Much to my surprise I then became a surrealist 
photographer (note 4) and Dorkbotter. I had never previously heard of ether
calling.
(1) Remember: I dropped out of Physics.
(2) Remember: I dropped out of Engineering.
(3) Remember: I dropped out of Psychology. 
(4) Sorry but I never tried majoring in photography or art.

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Phil Foglio, is an artist and co-creator of "Girl Genius"
(GirlGeniusOnline.com) and other SF and fantasy comics. Other works (not so
retro) include "Buck Godot" (http://zapgunforhire.com/) and the 1980s
"What's New with Phil and Dixie" (http://www.studiofoglio.com/growf.html).

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