{"id":19777,"date":"2018-09-15T14:32:31","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T18:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/?p=19777"},"modified":"2018-09-15T14:34:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T18:34:46","slug":"behemoth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/archives\/19777","title":{"rendered":"BEHEMOTH*"},"content":{"rendered":"

*\u00a0\u00a0Big Electronic Human Energized Machine, Only Too Heavy<\/p>\n

I was wandering around the yard with the dogs this morning, messing around with my phone: taking some pix, catching a Pok\u00e9mon or 2, texting my d\u00f3ttir, when I had a sudden contrast-and-compare flashback. I’m taking a few devices with me on the big bike ride, primarily for convenience’s sake, but if I wanted to go minimal, I could manage with one gadget – that selfsame phone. It’s got 2 ways to connect to the internet, GPS, 2 cameras that will do stills and video, a bucket of storage, etc., etc. The flash I had in the yard took me back to a bike project from Olden Tymes: Steven K. Roberts’\u00a0Winnebiko, Winnebiko II and BEHEMOTH<\/a>. All three were (successful) attempts to stay connected while pedaling around in the 1980s. My guess is that I first encountered Mr. Roberts’ project in the pages of Whole Earth Review, a publication that bridged what I’ve come to think of as the paper hippie internet, The Whole Earth Catalog, and the the real capital I Internet. The ’80’s were full of transitional critters – the WER in print and Compuserve. GEnie, AOL, and bulletin board systems in the on-line world (for those of us – the vast majority – who did not have access to the Internet). Steven’s technomadic hallucigenia bikes fit perfectly into the Cambrian-explosion 1980’s networking stew.<\/p>\n

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via here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the connected bike idea was catnip to yours truly and I kept an eye on the projects as best I could. It really was a different world – doing a search and pulling up all the info I would need for a post like this, let alone the ability to blog as I’m doing now, were years down the pike.<\/p>\n

So we come to BEHEMOTH<\/a>. a second system effect<\/a> instantiated in a 3rd system.\u00a0 Five hundred and eighty pounds, three laptops, a heads-up display and handlebar mounted keypad. I suddenly feel a lot better about the size and weight of Molly Fin plus Lotte, fishing rods, cameras, kite, and other toys.<\/p>\n

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via here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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It’s now on display at the Computer History Museum.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, BEHEMOTH didn’t cover a ton of miles – just too big and heavy. Then the Internet and cell phone things happened and I can hold all that capability and more in the palm of my hand. For now, anyway *wry grin*.<\/p>\n