Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Famous Computer Cafe 1984-12-07 Steve Roberts. Aired on KFOX.
Steven K. Roberts (born September 25, 1952) is an American journalist, writer, cyclist, archivist, and explorer. He first gained public attention as a pioneering digital nomad, before the term became widely used, when from 1983 to 1991 he rode his computerized bicycle, a modified Avatar 2000, pulling a trailer with solar panels and a laptop across the United States of America. His book, Computing Across America, documents his journey.
The first year and a half of his bike tour covered over 10,000 miles. He wrote articles in his tent and filed the pieces via pay phone submitting them to publications like Time and Newsweek. The bike, also known as the BEHEMOTH, had an estimated $300,000 of equipment on it, mostly donated, including satellite email retrieval, a mobile amateur radio station (callsign N4RVE), and a paging system that would page him if an urgent email arrived while he was away from the bike.
Digitized from reel-to-reel tape by Harbor Digitizing of Friday Harbor, Washington.
The Famous Computer Cafe recovery and digitization project was done by Kay Savetz in 2024. If you have access to other episodes of Famous Computer Cafe on tape, please contact Kay Savetz.
The Famous Computer Cafe 1984-12-07 Steve Roberts. Aired on KFOX.
Steven K. Roberts (born September 25, 1952) is an American journalist, writer, cyclist, archivist, and explorer. He first gained public attention as a pioneering digital nomad, before the term became widely used, when from 1983 to 1991 he rode his computerized bicycle, a modified Avatar 2000, pulling a trailer with solar panels and a laptop across the United States of America. His book, Computing Across America, documents his journey.
The first year and a half of his bike tour covered over 10,000 miles. He wrote articles in his tent and filed the pieces via pay phone submitting them to publications like Time and Newsweek. The bike, also known as the BEHEMOTH, had an estimated $300,000 of equipment on it, mostly donated, including satellite email retrieval, a mobile amateur radio station (callsign N4RVE), and a paging system that would page him if an urgent email arrived while he was away from the bike.
Digitized from reel-to-reel tape by Harbor Digitizing of Friday Harbor, Washington.
The Famous Computer Cafe recovery and digitization project was done by Kay Savetz in 2024. If you have access to other episodes of Famous Computer Cafe on tape, please contact Kay Savetz.
