Pete's Log: random reminiscing

Entry #1623, (Life in General)
(posted when I was 30 years old.)

So an email I got from Rebecca today led me to think about certain business aspirations of my childhood for the first time in forever.

I got my first Mac when I was 12 or so. It was a wonderful gift from my parents, and it pushed me farther down the path first started when my Dad brought home an Apple IIc.

So yes. I built various ventures upon the software I now had. There was "Pete's News", published on a semi-regular basis with contributions from friends, which was basically the middle school equivalent of the Onion. Back then I thought it was hilarious. I don't know if any exemplars still exist.

Then there were Ducky Cards, which I made by cleverly orienting the text on the page such that if you folded it after printing, you had a greeting card. On the back, where more mainstream models might say Hallmark, mine said Ducky Cards.

I also "programmed" some silly games using HyperCard. I'm sure they were ridiculous, but I enjoyed them back then. My sisters might have as well. I forget if I had a company name for the software creations of this time period, but I sort of think I did. Again, I sadly don't think any of that is still in existence.

Sidenote: the earliest software I wrote that I positively still have source code for dates to 1994. It's a C program that helps you write love/hate letters. I'd really love to get back those old HyperCard programs. Or even the BASIC programs of my Apple IIc days.

But alas. So these various ventures described above were all subsidiaries of my company Pete & Co.

When I registered the domain esgeroth.org, I set the registrant organization to esgeroth BIT, which is short for esgeroth Biosystems and Information Technologies. I had grand plans to roll my old ventures into subsidiaries of esgeroth BIT, but I don't think that ever happened either. But if you do a whois on esgeroth.org, you'll still see esgeroth BIT.

So huh.