Welcome

You might have been directed here from a variety of places.  One of them, Helium Neon, refers to a mix of gasses that are used in a laser and cuts through the fog.  It’s also the mixture of gas that was used in the plasma panel invented by Donald Bitzer at the University of Illinois as the display for the PLATO IV and PLATO V Terminals.  To that end, I have also incorporated the work of Bruce Arne Sherwood (with his permission) into this site in his honor and in honor of all of those who worked on, with and for the PLATO project.

Simple Rules

• Contribute freely but always respectfully.
• Only use Images, Language, and Representations which are appropriate and respectful for all, including children.
• Commercial posts for products or services are permissible solely at my discretion.
• Regarding anonymity and privacy: Make no mistake here; nothing is truly anonymous on the web.  Just ask Edward Snowden.  He’ll tell you all about it.

Other sites of interest:

• Cyber1.org is a great site to get acquainted with an important part of my past. PLATO was the seed of my career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• ControlFreaks Archive -This site was a private site for the use of Syntegra (now, BT Consulting/Global Services) concession holders, for research into historic systems and software made by Control Data Corporation.  The site no longer exists but its contents are now being made public since the concession is no longer relevant.
• FriendlyOrangeGlow.com by Brian DearA book in the works for more than two decades. Based on extensive research, including interviews with hundreds of key individuals who designed, built, managed, sold, and used the PLATO system