Back in my salad days, when I had enough naturally-kinky hair to sustain a 'fro, I worked for Penton Corp., a Cleveland-based business magazine publisher. The portrait to the left is from a promotional piece when I was an assistant editor. Before I left I was promoted to associate editor. That change of title was splitting a fine hair.

       Modern Office Technology was a controlled-circulation monthly magazine that specialized in – you guessed it – new office technology.

      I was responsible for one or two feature stories per issue as well as contributing news items and editing the "Horizons" section that focused on how cutting-edge office technology worked. I won an award for that department.

       Alas, MOT is no more.

       Here are some samples of my work while I was there.

Useful artificial intelligence holds vast promise if it can be harnessed to business processes. This cover story examines the issue of the potential of giving the Scarecrow his "brains."

       By the way, HAL 9000 was born in 1997. Don't expect to see such a computer in our lifetimes.

Compucorp of California set up a LAN and e-mail at the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, in 1984 for Dutch Reagan's second nomination for president. It was a year in which Eric Blair would have been proud.

The Library of Congress was scanning and transferring their photo collections to laser optical disks – you remember those LP-sized platters. The disks would go into a "jukebox" and people could view the photos from terminals. It saved wear and tear on the original media and allowed greater access. Who'd have thought the Internet would add to the mix?

For years, car phones were restricted to the likes of Amos Burke and Linus Larrabee, then the cell concept put a portable phone on the ear of every bad driver in the Americas. Whether for good or ill, here's an explanation of the magic that makes it all happen.

The only thing faster than a T-4 communications line is the rumor mill. Here's my article on how it works, what it does, and how to control it.

This department was a combination of Mr. Wizard and product promotion. The aim was to give readers an idea of how cutting-edge office technology work by giving them "X-Ray eyes" without the horrific results that befell Ray Milland.

At the 8th American Society of Business Press Editor Annual Award Competition in 1988 I won Third Place for Editorial Excellence in a Regular Column or Department for my "Horizons" department.

       Want a laugh? I had to come back to the magazine two weeks after I was laid off to get my plaque. But, as I said above, MOT went bust, so I guess I had the last laugh.