So who is Michael Netherton?

A self procalimed computer geek, railfan, model railroading enthusiast, former volunteer firefighter, custom truck builder and all around nice guy.

I've been working with computers since 1987 when I purchased my first PC, a Wyse 286, 12mhz computer with 640k soldered on the motherboard. It came with a 20 megabyte (yes you read that correctly, hard drive.

I learned the in's and out's of DOS, became proficient with computer hardware and learned, on many occasions early on, how to recover from fatal errors such as accidentally formatting the hard drive. It was several years later when I finally upgraded to a 386 pc that I was able to experience Windows, i.e.: Windows 3.1. The Windows that most of us have forgotten ever existed.

As time progressed, I ended up working in the IT industry as a hardware and software tech for a local manufacturing firm, supporting just over 200 users in the St. Louis sales office. It wasn't glamorous, and back then a tie was an expected part of one's attire. I sure was glad when "business casual" came into being.

Since then, thanks to headhunters and recruiters, I've had a significant number of experiences in the computer support field including working at Monsanto and the Union Pacific Railroad.

In 1995, I got my first taste of the internet and decided I liked the net much more than troubleshooting computer hardware and, by now, Windows 95. So I took a few courses in Visual Basic as well as self studied HTML and moved into web design. Keep in mind, this is long before WYSIWYG web design was even a thought.

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