My name is Morgan Aldridge and I’m an addict.
I’m addicted to technology and information. Unfortunately, it’s tearing me apart as there’s this luddite voice in the back of my mind that says that everything that is wrong with our society and the current state of the planet which we co-inhabit with other species (flora and fauna) is due to our technology and our ravenous hunger for it.
Because of this inner turmoil, I have always been a proponent of reusing existing technology a opposed to blindly creating new devices which don’t offer a significant benefit. I used to run the Classic Mac Workshop, a site designed to help support those still using quite elderly Macintosh computers. I still have a Macintosh Color Classic which I use regularly and an Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 which goes everywhere with me.
In the past few years I’ve become somewhat of an efficiency geek as well. I struggle with my personal efficiency as I’m quite disorganized and easily distracted; mainly due to my constant quest for information as well as my numerous and broad areas of interest.
I’ve pursued both software development and Web design/development professionally over the years:
- I was a summer Intern at NewsBank, Inc. for a number of years as a software engineer working on the back-end for their dynamic news search sites.
- I ported applications to the Mac (including NeHe’s OpenGL Tutorials and the initial work on Egoboo) and wrote a few OpenGL demos.
- I got into Mac game development scene and ended up as a staff member for iDevGames.com.
I attended WPI as a Computer Science major, but dropped out after two years for medical reasons and disappointment with the guidance I was getting. While attending classes at WPI I worked in the Computing & Communications Center Helpdesk, played too much Counter-Strike and Quake III Arena, played pool in the Campus Center, listened to punk & ska music, and started makkintosshu.
Originally I was going to produce Mac OS X software, do web design & development, and provide web hosting under the “makkintosshu” name, but it quickly became my blog. My server was a PowerMac 7500 running Darwin 1.4.1 (thanks to XPostFacto) hosted out of my dorm room. Once I dropped out, it was hosted temporarily at USAExpress.net, an ISP started by a friend.
After I dropped out of WPI, I joined the work force as a Macintosh repair technician and consultant at Brown Computer Solutions. When I moved, I picked up a job at Small Dog Electronics, Inc., first in Telephone & Web Sales, then moving on to Retail Sales, and eventually getting offered the “Data Plumber” position (i.e. IT staff, web developer, and in-house help desk) when the former IT Manager left to pursue other interests.
And that’s where I currently stand: Data Plumber for Small Dog. You can see what I’m up to there by reading Barkings!, the Small Dog blog.
