Well hello Steemit, it's great to be here and to be a part of this. Let me introduce myself, my name is Matt Graham, I am 45 years old, happily married to my best friend and I am a tech Geek. I am also the proud father of 4 boys and grandfather to one awesome little girl.
A brief history —I first started in computers back in the mid 80's when I got my first CoCo3 from Radio Shack. From that point on I was hooked. I built my first PC/XT in the late 80's. I remember Dos 3.1 - 6.22 as well, as I have used every Windows version from 286 - 3.11 - win10. And yes, I was a hold out when Win 95 came around, I just didn’t trust an operating system that had an uninstall feature back then. Also, it made SoftICE kind of tough to use at first. I also remember spending days downloading some of the first versions of Red Hat and Slack. Also, let's not forget about all those wonderful things we used back before the web like telnet, FTP, Archie, Gopher, Usenet News Groups and the IRC. Those were the original Social Networks. I even ran several BBS's back in the day. In the late 90's I was part of a Cracking Group called MexElite and we created the IRC channel on EFNET #Cracking4Newbies. My handle back then was _CbD_ and even still today if you search for "_CbD_ ME/C4N'97" you can find some of my cracking tutorials —just keep in mind I was a young fella back then and software was a whole lot different. I also helped on a little project called AOHELL back in the day that exploited AOL, for those who remember that one.
Around that same time, the late 90's, my father and I started a website for his interests, which at the time were "Hunting, Shooting, Fishing and Boating" —we called it "Graybeard Outdoors" or GbO for short. It started out as a simple blog type site with articles he had written. My father also had created one of the most extensive links list around those interests, so we added it for content and the site began to see lots of traffic due to his links. We then added forums and the site exploded and quickly grew to 1 + million page views a month. At the time we were not monetizing it in any real way, but quickly saw the benefits once we did. At the sites peak, around 2008, we were seeing 1+ million page views per week. We had servers Colo'ed in Dallas, Tx and in Atlanta, Ga. We also offered Hosting services for many of the outdoor forums sites in those days. During that same peak the GBO Network consisted of over 30 sites offering services such as email, picture hosting, short URL, forums hosting, site design and most anything that went along with it. I was the sys admin for all 8 of our servers and the countless number of VPS's on them. Around 2012 I had grown tired of the constant attention that was required to maintain the network we had created. In 2013 we sold to one of our advertisers. My father stayed on as the face of the company as he had always been, for a salary of course, and is still there today. I took my share of the money and opened a print shop doing large format printing, vinyl, and screen printing. I did this in a little Alabama town that could not support the business, so after about a year I shut it down. I then went back to installing CCTV and Network camera systems which I had done off and on part time for several years.
I later gave the printing equipment to a close friend to see if she would have better luck than I did with it, she did. She managed to create a successful ECO friendly Screen Printing business. Fast forward a few years and in August of 2016 I loaded up my truck and left Alabama with no real destination in mind. I stopped for the night in east Tx at a small motel. When I entered the lobby the owner of the motel was fighting with his DVR trying to get logged in to no avail. I offered to help and he gladly accepted. It was a cheap ebay DVR, and if you have ever bought one of those you know the default password will most likely be 1234, 12345, or 123456. Well, I tried 12345 first and that was it. The owner was so happy he gave me a free room for the night and told me to come see him in the morning. I did, and he had much more work that he needed done. I spent about a week there fixing all the things that he came up with. He then called another motel owner who came down and met with me.
The other owner, Dilip Patel, has proved to be one of the greatest men that I have met in a long time. I stayed with him for a year working on anything at his motel that needed it. When I didn’t have anything to do he would call other hotel/motel owners and find me work. From converting signs to LED or any other LED conversions —I have done it for a hotel at some point. I have converted many hotels over to tank less water heaters from old boilers. I even spent a weekend in Dallas at a Hampton Inn just fixing TVs.
Then, in July of 2017 I talked that close friend I gave the printing equipment to into coming to visit me in Texas. She did, and I managed to talk her into marrying me on that same visit. So I am once again in the printing business, but this time with my best friend.
Before I forget to mention…I have owned several Retail PC Shops over the years and built thousands of PC's, although these days it is just not as fun as it once was for me. Today my tech interests are geared more towards automation systems with PLC's or even better MCU's. Most of my recent projects have been built using the ESP8266 and ESP32 MCU, and are targeted towards information gathering & sensor monitoring for hotels/motels.
How did I first hear about Steemit? That’s easy @adamkokesh in one of his Youtube videos back in September or October of 2017.
Why did I join? Because my wife @rebeccagraham told me to… nah just kidding, but she is the reason I joined. Now we share yet another aspect of our lives.
I could go on, hell I could write a few books I guess, but I think that should be enough of an introduction.
What am I going to do now that I am here? No Clue! But, if you want to know follow me and find out —I'm sure it'll be interesting.
Nice story welcome to steemit!
Welcome to steemit @myperspective 🙋
Thank You.
You are welcome 🙋
Welc9me to steemit. The number one blockchain application in the world.
Welcome to the community
Welcome to steemit, Matt!
Welcome to Steemit
Thank You.
Sounds like you have a knack for picking up whatever comes your way! It'll be interesting to see what you end up doing with Steemit :)
My husband convinced me to join but about a week afterward, we ended up adopting twin girls. I took a couple months away but decided to come back in January. The community has changed positively and negatively ... but there are lots of opportunities for growth!
I just read about steemgigs.org (https://steemit.com/steemit/@surpassinggoogle/the-grand-picture-the-detailed-faq-s-for-https-steemgigs-org-and-all-the-answers-please-bookmark-this). With your tech skills, you might be able to offer your services!
Thank you, and yes I am a fast learner with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Congrats on the twins , parenthood can be very rewarding and eye opening. Also thanks for the link, I checked it out and it looks like something I can see myself playing with.
Great story, and feel like I know you, so now following you and looking for more in the future, also upvoted you as well
Thanks Johnny, I will do my best to oblige.
You have a nice talent.
welcome to steemit, join the steemit school on discord https://discord.gg/pqWrzBn
Me email won't send back to you, so sending here:
So great to reconnect brother! Thank you so much for the support over the years. I gave you an upvote and resteem, welcome to Steemit, glad to have you on board! And I really appreciate the offer to help the campaign! If you don't mind, email [email protected] and he can plug you in where you can help the team. Again, I really appreciate it and look forward to working with you!
I know it seems like forever ago, Thanks for the upvote and resteem, I will contact Ben in the next day or so to see what I can do to help out. Stay Free Brother!
myP... what state are you living in now? Still TX? If so, what do you think of Patrick Smith's idea of copying Adam's platform while running for Governor?
Yes, I am still in Texas. Well to be honest, until you called my attention to it I had no Idea who he was. That being said, I have a strong distrust of any form of government. I follow the Anarchist/Voluntaryist ideology so I want complete self governance.
OK, so now being the realist that I am, how do we deal with winning over those who will be directly affected by such a revolutionary concept. It is easy to convince someone who only pays the government to stop, its not as easy to convenience those who get paid by the government.
Anyway, Thanks again for calling my attention to Patrick, I will be doing some more research.
By showing them. It will take winning over a small city... within a small county to PROVE our vision according to our PoliSci 101 actually works according to prescription. Words alone don't cut it... even as well put together as Adam's "Freedom!" book. This is why it's so important to find Kokesh Klones NOW... So we have two years to construct one of these prototypes in each state. Make sense?
Yes it does, Thank You. Lets Make it happen!
[email protected] ...and I'll bring you up to speed about the progress. Anyone. Anytime.
From Venezuela, I support you and welcome you to this great steem world, @myperspective. You have talent, if as you speak, you defend yourself, they will never catch you. Here you have a variety of opportunities to swim and grow. Congratulations! I am writing poetry in steemitschool, I invite you to read me.
Thanks for the kind words. I will be sure to keep an eye on your blog.
Wow, what a great intro! I envy your computer / tech experience, living through all those changes and developments, so cool! Sounds like you do have a lot to share with the steemit community :) I'm new here too, just did my first post too, so I'm still learning the website. So far I'm totally diggin' it :) I look forward to reading more from you. Thanks for sharing yourself! See you around!
Thank You, yes it has been very cool to see the progression of technology over the years. It is nice to meet you and I will keep an eye out for your posts.
It’s nice to meet you Matt and welcome to Steemit. If you are still interested in hunting and fishing there is a group of use that hang out on here at #myhuntingfishing , you are more than welcome here. Great intro post and looking forward to hearing more from you.
Thanks Todd, I will check it out. I still love the outdoors and live on a lake, though my boys get to do more fishing than I do these days I will share the next trip down to the lake.
welcome to steemit. i remember the old AOL days, programming in VB, cracking passwords, and Warez piracy. I think it was the beginning of a revolution of some sort.
Now it's weird to see AOL is still around!.
Thanks for the welcome. It is hard to believe that AOL is still around, I even know people that still on it. Most people I talk to who still use AOL only do so because they think AOL is the internet. You have to give it to them, their marketing really worked.
Hello! Excellent article, you're done! Welcome to Steemit, I'm glad to new friends and have followed you, I hope you will follow me as well, wish you successful development of your blog! 😃
Upvoted your post! 😉
Thank you for commenting, I will keep my eye on your blog
Very interesting introduction. Brought me back to the days when life was simple and irc was the thing! AOL! Hah! Those were the days.
Following you and looking forward to reading about your adventures!
Thanks for following. Those were the days, if I could've had the speed of today back then, wow who knows what we could have done.
welcome to steemit brother- you will find this is an amazing digital space with no negativity! mostly....;) i only joined a few days ago and the feedback has been amazing from like - minded souls
Thanks brother, I like finding like minded folks to converse with... and looking forward to lots of it.
post it and it will come ;)
Welcome Matt!!! You have a nice family !!
Enjoy your time
welcome.... :)
Greetings From Mr. Crypto!
I enjoyed your post and I'm pleased to meet you!
Please help us grow @rehab22 Follow/UpVote/Resteem
Original Content.Thank You.
Welcome to Steemit @myperspective!
I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.
Here are some links you might find useful.
Your stats on SteemNow
Your stats on SteemWorld
Your stats on SteemD
How to use Minnow Booster
How does Steemit actually work?
Introbot is hosted and managed with donations from @byColeman to help make your journey on Steemit be truly rewarding. Your feedback is always welcome so that we may improve this welcome message.
Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings from @introbot & @bycoleman
Welcome to Steemit! Glad to see some new faces!
Thank You.
Welcome to steemit,a community for positive people just like you,trust me you'll enjoy every bit of it,It takes patience,commitment,perseverance and dedication to succeed on steemit.you can follow me @donkelly Join Steemit School at Discord to make new friends and learn more about steemit https://discord.gg/VYpxF8
Thank you for the warm welcome, I believe it takes those things to succeed in life not just on Steemit, and am up for the challenge.
Thanks for the Welcome, I will be sure to check out Steemit School.
Thanks
Nice to meet you sir.... Nice to know that you are getting good upvotes too... welcome to steemit
Thank You and it is nice to make your acquaintance.
Welcome on steemit .
Thank You.
You are welcome sir .
Great support @adamkokesh .
Hello welcome to steemit :D
Thank You.
Nice to meet you, mate!
Indeed, Thank You.
welcome to steemit =)
Thank You, Great to be here.
welcome a steemit
Thank You. Glad to be here.
Welcome to steemit. It is good to have someone that is interested in helping the libratarian efforts in this country. You seem like an extreamly inteligent person and will be a great addition to the steemit ecosystem.
Thank You, Freedom is a message I can get behind, I have been screaming it for years. I look forward
to sharing my perspective with the steemit community.
"Knowledge is Power, Share it"
I think you will find the people of this platform very accepting of that message. I kinda get a feeling that people here are very different from people on other social media.
Indeed, my first post has been trending for a few hours now. I don't think I have ever been trending or trendy for that matter until now. :-)
lol. Well you are now. Enjoy it and keep on contributing.
Welcome to Steemit. I look forward to reading your content. Just joined last week, and trying to find interesting people to follow.
Thank You, I will do my best to make posts that inspire engagement and encourage growth through the sharing of perspectives.
welcome to steemit :)
Thank You
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Good article, great start. Welcome @myperspective to the Steemit family. I love to meet everyone around the world. Good luck!
Thanks and it's a pleasure to meet you.
Welcome Matt
Your #introduceyourself is very nice.
Its All about blogging on this platform and this blockchain. Blogging is it,blog on and you Will be succesfull! 🤛
You Will earn money. 💴💸💰
I blog every day and love it!❤️
Helpfull is the Steemify App its Free in the Appstore go cheque it out. And good luck🍀
Greetings from Brittandjosie - Holland 🇱🇺
Thank you for the welcome & tips, I will keep them in mind.
Have a nice earning time 🙋🏾♂️🤞🏾📈🚀♻️
awesome
Welcome to steemit dear friend
Thank You, friend.
Nice intro
Welcome to steemit. hopefully be able to share information
Thank You.
Welcome to steemit. Hope you will enjoy here
Welcome! Best luck to you. Those printer pics bring back memories... and not good ones lol.
Thank You, and those printers were a serious pain. I sold them all several years back, now I just do screen printing. Although I would not mind having a large format Latex printer for signs and things.
Hello! Cool story!
Thanks, it was quite fun living it =)
Well, welcome to the steemit community, I hope you have many successes and growth here
Thank You, Success is a matter of perspective and well, growth, that will be wonderful and always welcome.
Good to see an old school techie around here! Great introduction, keep it going.
Great to be here, Thanks.
Hi. Welcome to Steemit. Glad to have you onboard. You have made a brilliant impression over here. Keep it up.
Thank You, and I will do my best.
Welcome to Steemit. It's a great place to be. Enjoy.
Welcome to stemit
Thank You.
You are welcome.
Welcome to Steemit,
Your Post is osm.
Thank You.