Redwood City

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Note to readers: This article is part of "Robin's Personal Memories Project"
 
The information on this page is from my personal history and memories
and should NOT be used for any reason other than reading enjoyment
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We were in two buildings in Redwood City, the first was on Spring Street and then we moved to Price Street.

We leased the Spring Street property from Diamond Shamrock for a year. It was an Architects Office, about 1,500 square feet. It was an 'L-shaped' building with small offices on one leg, and one large office in the other. Where the two met, there was a 12'X12' fire proof vault, complete with a bank-vault style door. It was completely fireproof, as well as sound proof.

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When the lease was up we moved about a mile away to a 7,000 square foot building on Price Street. One room that was 3,000 feet by itself we used as an auditorium/dining room. The Bank of America in downtown Redwood City was being demolished. It had HUGE 6'x10' tempered glass window that were 7/8" thick. I asked the demo team if I could have one. They said yes, but that I would have to move it. I assembled a team of guys and put it on top of my station wagon, moved it to our building. I got the local welding shop to build a base. We picked a dozen large chairs from the local office recycling company and, voile' as they say, we had a table that was set for Kings or Masters and Mistresses.

The building also had three session rooms (a BDSM room, a TV room and a hospital play space) with living space for Monique and I. It had a very large bathroom with showers. I built a "field kitchen" in the back.


I installed a security system that was, well, it was spectacular. It was monitored by a Z-80 based computer that knew when each and every door and window was opened or closed. There was a break-in and the police were called. The RCPD was rather taken aback when we produced a printed "itinerary" of the bad guys.

The MP/M computer also had a large bank of modems. It was one of the very first privately-owned, multi-user computer systems. One of our users, Frank, was on line and apparently having problems. Being Sysop I could see he was having problems trying to print a page he was editing. I sent a message telling him that it wasn't possible to do what he was trying to do, and he logged off. Several weeks later, I was talking about the program he was using, and made a comment that he hadn't paid this month. "I have decided that I'm not going to use your service anymore!"

"Why?" "That damn computer of yours knows my name!" I really didn't have the heart to tell him that it was me and not the computer. It was funny and fun.

Incidents that come to mind and bring smiles
  • Redwood City is where I met Monique, Barbara and a lot of really great people.
  • I designed a computer system to be installed aboard a factory ship in the Alaskan Ocean. Pam and I spent a week aboard the MV Northland in the Arctic Ocean near Naknek, Alaska. After a week of cramped quarters and no toilet paper, I finally get everything running and we decide to leave Northland. We flew to Anchorage and checked into the local hotel. "We only have one room left, but it ..." - "What's the price?" - "I can't rent it out because ..." - "I'll take it!" We get to the hotel and this place is a suite that sleeps, I'm not kidding, twenty to twenty-five people, and included three bathrooms. Pam takes one bathroom, I take another. When she comes out, looking like "Queen of the May". She is dancing and running around the room, nearly nude, doing the dance of the seven veils unrolling toilet paper rolls.
  • I designed a sensor that monitors the AC power line. If it sensed that you were about to lose power, it would reset the computer to avoid the loss of data. IBM bought several hundred of the little devices, so we had several of the BackDrop Staff ladies doing sessions and making sensors for IBM.

Notes

  1. 10 February 1980
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