I guess I'll join the self-introductions... I live in Silly, er, Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, to be exact) with my wife and a small white dog, with frequent visits from our adult daughter and four grandchildren. I'll turn 50 next month. I grew up just outside Pittsburgh, Pa., where I met a fellow named Dave Land almost 30 years ago, who you may have noticed around here also. Dave and I formed a company about three years ago, which was acquired by Liveworld Inc., where we both work now. I'm the director of business intelligence services, doing something called "advanced conversation analysis," which involves an awful lot of databases, statistics, linguistics and other headaches.
Prior to doing this, I had been a stockboy at a shoe store, paramedic, radio news writer, radio and occasional tv news reporter, newspaper reporter, magazine writer... well, lots of journalism and publishing. I've started or helped started at least a half-dozen companies, been on the boards of some non-profits... These days my volunteer activities include board membership of a Christian retreat organization, member of the Bay Area Critical Incident Stress Management Team (we debrief medics, cops, firefighters, dispatchers, etc., after difficult incidents) and digital storytelling with families of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan (our niece's husband, Wes Canning, was KIA in Fallujah 11/10/04). I've been a science fiction reader since I was very young -- it was Tom Swift that got me started, too, but Heinlein who really grabbed me. A venture capitalist suggested that I read "Earth" many years ago, which got me started on DB's writings. I met David Brin about 12 years ago in a weird, ego-inflating twist -- he wrote to me to say how much he appreciated my writing, specifically, "The Internet and the Anti-net." And then I told him that his writing had inspired me and we formed a small mutual admiration society. Feel free to join. And, as a final note... I have hosted the list for the last, ummm, five or six years?. Dave Land is the backup on-site sysadmin, so to speak, but Julia is the uber-list manager because it is nigh unto impossible to respond to list admin stuff faster than she does. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
