Ronnie Banks:  

After graduating high school and working odd jobs to put me through a seemingly endless college career, I've worked in academe, done some performing in the early music and renaissance faire scenes in Texas and Louisiana, and have had my own luthiery business. Realizing that luthiery and/or academe would make just enough income for me to become an "ace" pizza delivery guy until old age, I jumped ship from academe in 1996 while working on the my thesis for a 2nd Master's degree. I've been working in IT since then, and have been a professional fearmonger and corporate BS detector (IT Security professional) since 2002. About the best lesson I've learned from all the years I spent as a history geek, is that the most important survival skill a person can have is the willingness to adapt and learn new skills. It seems to be the one trait that stands out among our ancestors other qualities, and coming across that concept was like a light switch had been turned on for me. While I've never really wanted to live in the past, learning old technologies has been a lot of fun, and opened many doors of inquiry for me that I otherwise would probably have been too lazy to explore. Whe...Expand for more