[oneogeo]

Long story short

Going back to the early 90s, I was a pioneer in 3D visuals and animation on Autodesk 3D Studio and also bothered with VRML.

Don't remember how in particular, but I was made aware of the capabilities and performance of SGIs - probably through TV and around the Hollywood block busters back in those days. One other encounter, not necessarily with regards to SGI but my area of interest going forward with SGI, was the appearance and the virtual musical performance in 3D space of Jaron Lanier at the Ars Electronica. This punk had and still has a major influence on me.

Visiting the local IT fair Orbit in Basle, Switzerland, 94, 95, I got to see, feel and touch the latest SGI workstations and the RealityEngine (I think, the Infinite only came out in 96). I was petrified, so impressed of speed, capabilities and ease of use compared to the what and how I was doing it with 3D studio... I immediately got myself a new Indy from SGI Switzerland directly (SGIs were also manufactured in Switzerland) while my friends got themselves nice cars for the same amount I spent, and had a jump start with their love live :-D

I used my first Indy for lots of "serious fun" and to mention one use case on the side... converting analog videos captured during the Street Parade in Zurich to upload them to the Internet (using 9.6 and eventually 14.4 modems) in addition to the live streams of 3 PTZ cameras that were controlled by the site visitors from home - the ones that had Internet :-D.

This was my first encounter and certainly not my last. Ever since I provide a "safe house" for SGIs. As of today I have a significant collection of numerous Indy, O2, Indigo2, VWS320, Octane, Tezro, Origin 2000, 1600sw in all shapes and colors, and I have them shipped to Switzerland from all over Europe. In addition, I also have a large collection of historic Apple units, Commodore, Sun, HP, NeXT and many more.

Every now and then I do exhibitions and participate in the Vintage Computer Festival in Zurich. My SGI collection is a sort of nerd magnet… sometimes I feel like I should have been collecting stilettos and boots :-D to attract the other audience.

It may leave the impression, but I don't consider myself a nerd... well, just like every psycho doesn't see a psycho in himself. Instead I am very sociable and down to earth with quite some other interests apart from tech. Yet SGI is serious fun for me.