GeekSpeak Host
Felton, California

Lyle Troxell has hosted GeekSpeak since September, 2000 and does it for the love of knowledge. Lyle grew up in an artistic family who was very involved in theater and at a young age Lyle started working on the technology side of the performing arts. Being sick of school Lyle took a year off in junior high to take electronics classes with a Nick Herbert, a family friend and quantum physicist. Lyle has a thirst for knowledge of all forms and an interest in how technology and art can shape the world. He holds an Associat of Science in Electrical Technologies from Cabrillo College and currently works for the University of California at Santa Cruz in the Digital Arts and New Media MFA program where he helps people create and conceptualize high-tech art.

Email me if you would like; simply prove that you are a human.

GeekSpeak Host
Ben Lomond, California

Probably one of the most educated geeks out there without a degree of any kind, I am perpetually in a state of flux between taking college courses and working. So far it's working out, but doesn't pay too well. It's a good thing I've got Geek Speak or else I'd likely never socialize properly. Currently a degree in English Literature is on the menu for an appetizer. The main course will include teaching at the middle school or high school levels. Luckily, I get to be a geek for dessert, but I never could wait for dessert.

Geek Co-Host
Santa Cruz, California

It's a mystery!

Geek Co-Host
Berkeley, California

Ben has a bachelor's degree in Theater Arts from UCSC, and has worked for years as an theatre electrician and sound designer. Ben also is a musician, and plays clarinet and piano (learning sax and flute). He is particularly interested in media (video editing, compositing, animation, audio, graphics, and audio/video engineering). One of his favorite books is the Yamaha Guide to Sound Reinforcement. Favorite topic? Maybe differential signaling, or video compression (it's all so cool!). Recursion is another incredible topic that can always entertain (in programming of course, but also in video, music, graphics (Escher), and mathematics). A perpetual pack-rat of firefox tabs (thank you Mozilla team for reliable tab restoration), Ben never stops reading. But the result is that Firefox is always taking up over 400 MB of my RAM. It could be worse -- he could be using IE... °shudder° Seemingly contradictory to his internet-pack-rat nature, Ben is obsessed with efficiency in everything he does, and memorizes keyboard shortcuts whenever possible. He smiles a lot too!

Geek Co-Host
Ben Lomond, California

A veteran of the dot com era, Al has held every conceivable job in the creative chain required for the birth of a new company. However ridiculous the company may have been. Currently, Al owns a design firm focused primarily on startups. His first personal computer was a TI-99 (if you don't count the tinkering he did on his big brother's KayPro II). The next one was his Mac IIcx he paid $5000 for in college. After that investment in 1989, Al stayed heavily Mac-based although he works on many platforms (plus the IIcx is almost paid off). He is also a design consultant to numerous firms primarily located in the San Francisco Bay area in California.
Al feels the most important time is now. Since it is right now, now, what he is doing at this moment is the most important thing he has ever done. Whatever that is.

Southern California Correspondent Geek
Lake Forest, California

Alex's first experiences with a computer was with his Commodore 64, where he taught himself BASIC programming. In the years following, even if the computer wasn't the most used in his toy chest, Alex was still fascinated with geeky things, like ripping out resistors from a broken Nintendo and attempting to decode the meaning of the color coded bands. In college, it was back to the computer world, building his first 386 system. Here he probably spent more time addicted to his computer, and all the things his 2400 baud modem could connect him to, than he did in class. Commands like write, talk, ytalk, ntalk, irc, ftp, gopher, archie (Google before the web)... the list never seemed to end with tools to discover more information on the Internet. Later came the Web, OS/2, Windows 95, Doom, and an endless supply of software and hardware toys to dedicate even more time to. Since then, Alex has continued a career with computers as a sys admin turned application developer turned application security analyst.

Phone Master
Santa Cruz, California

Greeter Geek Rick started doing database programming around 1984, long before there was Windoze (remember DOS?) and a bit before the term "geek" lost its pejorative. A former employee of Ashton-Tate (remember dBASE?), Rick came to the Santa Cruz area to work for Borland, when Borland acquired Ashton-Tate in 1991. He’s worked in Tech throughout the GUI and then the internet/web revolutions. Currently he can be found applying geek skills to working with real-world institutional data flows, as Institutional Research Analyst at Cabrillo College. On the side, he enjoys creating data-driven websites, or getting his hands dirty in his veggie patch.

Geek Co-Host
Felton, California

John Tracy is one of the Geek alumni at large. Well, he's trying not to get too large, but that's a different topic. John's an old-school Mac Geek (back when Multi-Finder meant innovation!), a bit of a space nut, and dabbles in shiny things as they become affordable. He's also a jock-geek, using tech toys to keep him on track and monitor progress on long distance runs and meet training goals. He dearly misses being part of Geekspeak and the wonderful people involved, and as soon as his lottery numbers work out he'll be back!

Santa Cruz Geek
Santa Cruz, California

Master of the TRS-80. Don't laugh, I built a text-based adventure game called Scuba Diver in the 5th grade using BASIC and an audio cassette.

Mid-West Corespondent Geek
Columbus, Ohio

Dedi is a geek's geek; computer geek, web geek, gamer geek, band geek, film geek, film theory geek, cartoon geek, Geekspeak geek, and a now roller derby geek. Dedi likes tinkering with stuff and learning things inside and out (code to circuits to home improvement). She will challenge you any day at Wii Boxing and then sing a duet with you on Karaoke Revolution. She is a lifetime tv addict, and unsure that she will ever get over the cancellation of Veronica Mars. She is a web developer and #42 Deadeye Knight for the Ohio Roller Girls.

Mobile Geek
Nomad, Mind

Chris has been roaming the country in a solar-powered geeked-out RV for over two years now, looking for adventure, enlightenment, and high speed wireless connectivity. Before hitting the road, Chris spent many years working in the mobile industry at Palm and PalmSource. He's was also the first Technical Editor of 'boot' Magazine - now known as Maximum PC. Chris used to be an Amiga and Unix geek, but lately he's gone Mac. He's also given up on Palm for an iPhone.