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Meet Guest Author

RC, A Talented Friend to WebTV Users

I was born and raised in Chicago, but I moved to West Central Indiana in 1972. I am in the food service business and have been all of my life. I am the chef at a local steakhouse.

Thanksgiving morning in 1996, I was reading the local newspaper and I noticed an advertisement for something called WebTV. It was on sale for around $400. At the time, personal computers were $2000 so I figured I would give this WebTV thing a try. The next morning I went to town and bought it. I don't think I got more than four hours sleep a night for the next month.

I bought my first personal computer (PC) in April of 1997. The main reason was that I quickly became frustrated with the limitations of WebTV in regards to site building. At that time, WebTV users had very few of the online tools available today. There were no transloaders and very few graphics creation tools. I remain both a WebTV user and a PC user.

I use an Open ISP and it only costs me $10 a month for WebTV. The access to newsgroups alone is worth that to me. There are six newsgroups that I "lurk" in and where I occasionally post. Those newsgroups include:

alt.discuss.computers, alt.discuss.homepage, alt.discuss.configure, alt.discuss.improve.webtv and alt.discuss.webtv.watchtower.

I fear that many of the groups have turned into nothing more than forums to act like idiots. It is really becoming a sad situation.

My tip to newbies would be that unless you are in a flame newsgroup, never post anything in a newsgroup that you would not tell the person face-to-face. Too many times people say things in the newsgroups that they would never say to a real person. It appears they sometimes forget that there is a real person behind every keyboard.

I have built several homepages including a free banner site and what I call Parody pages, which means poking fun at WebTV management. For a lot of reasons, I no longer offer these pages to the public. I did these pages to combine two things I like to do. I like to create graphics and poke fun at WebTV management.

WebTV management has never given me any trouble from these pages. In fact, I had someone email me claiming to be an ex-WebTV employee stating my pages were more truth than fiction. If I find the time, I may put up the Parody pages again for all to view and just for fun.

I started a Web Design business about a year and a half ago. So far, I have done four commercial web sites. Everyone is invited to visit my Web Design site. While I have no immediate plans to do more personal homepages, in addition to my Web Design site, I am thinking about doing a Rock 'n Roll trivia page someday.

I also write and work with Net4TV. My first contact with Net4TV was when Laura Buddine emailed me asking if she could use the first funny graphic I made about WebTV, one from my Parody pages. A few months later, I was interviewed for the Net4TV Community section. Once I heard about Net4TV needing writers, I decided to try it and I have been doing it ever since.

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Editor's Note: RC has been a valuable member of the WebTV community, from day one. His artistic abilities are awesome and he shares those talents with all. You see his work on many WebTV homepages and don't even know it. This web site could not have been put together without his creativity and knowledge. Here's my public thank you, RC. If you see him in a newsgroup, get to know him. He's one of the best! As RC always says "peace" to you, RC. You may view Net4TV's articles about him by clicking on the links below.

"RC: The Man With The Banners"

"RC Reveals The WebTV Ads That Didn't Make The Cut!"

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