About

Updated: Summer 2020

Greetings. My name is Pete Prodoehl. I am the publisher behind RasterWeb! which started in August of 1997.

RasterWeb! is one of the longest running continually updated weblogs. I give some credit to Dave Winer for getting me involved in all of this. His work in web publishing in the mid-1990s, as well as his software, was instrumental in getting me involved in blogging. (Before that I was involved in the publishing world, first with zines, then magazines, then the web.)

On a good day I like to consider myself a serial enthusiast, in that I get involved in a lot of different things. Some I tend to stick with, some I move on from, but I’m usually interested in exploring and learning new things.

I like to think that RasterWeb! is about art, life, and technology, though not necessarily in that order.

I’ve built robots, telescopes, electronic devices, speaker cabinets, furniture, and communities. I’ve printed zines, shirts, stickers, patches, recorded music, made videos, gone on tour, baked various items, wrote BASIC, Perl, PHP, Beanshell, UserTalk, AppleScript, created LORES and HIRES graphics, taken many photographs, shot and edited video, recorded music, configured and managed servers, created various forms of audio and visual art, developed exhibits, and on and on. And still, we go on…

As far as this Internet stuff, I helped start the thing we now know as blogs/weblogs back in 1997, got involved in RSS and later Atom, helped kick-start podcasting in 2004, and then got involved in videoblogging in 2005… In more recent years I’ve been exploring open source hardware, Arduino & Raspberry Pi hacking, 3D printing, laser cutting, digital fabrication, and just generally making things. Check out the Project pages for some of the things I’ve made (and yes, it is woefully out of date). I’m also a former Board Member of Milwaukee Makerspace, and was one of the organizers of Maker Faire Milwaukee from 2015 to 2019.

I’ve been involved in personal publishing since the mid-1980s and don’t plan on stopping any time soon. I prefer free, open, and cheap technologies and I am not a fan of vendor lock-in.

I like macOS, Linux, and most *nix-based operating systems. I’m really not a huge fan of Windows, though I’ll admit Windows 10 is the least terrible version of Windows I’ve used. I’ve been using Apple computers since 1980. Despite that I try really hard not to be a “fanboy” of Apple, and I tend to criticize much of what they do, especially in the last 10 years. I don’t run the “latest and greatest” because I care more about getting things done than being “wowed” by new technology.

I’ve served as a technology manager, and I’ll be the first to admit that technology often sucks, and creates more problems than it solves.

I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I (mostly) like it here. The winters are cold and unbearable and the summers are hot and unbearable. I don’t travel as much as I’d like to, though that’s been improving in recent years with trips to England, Scotland, and Wales. (Iceland was put on hold by COVID-19.) I also spend time in Maryland.

If you think you once knew me, or met me, or do know me, or have a question or comment, or whatever, contact me. (If you’d like me to come to your event, or party, or rummage sale, just ask.)

That’s it for now!

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