A Greeting From the editor...

Hello! I hope you've enjoyed browsing the Newcomers pages, answering a majority of likely questions. However, whether you have or haven't, one question yet remains: "What, or who, is Techtite?" Good question; I hope this All-About-Me-type page provides a good enough answer.

Techtite: the person...

Techtite, at first, was a mere username of mine (now this site's editor), chosen at the dawn of choose - your - own - username status on the Internet. Why did I choose that nickname? Well, at the time there was a cool little software company called Trilobyte. They made games like 7th Guest, which is still one of the most engaging "haunted house" games I ever played. I thought the "byte" in the company name was really cool; sort of how the word beetle was turned around to name The Beatles. After some thought (not too long, actually), I came up with a similar play-on-words for myself; Techtite. After visiting the planetarium so many times in my youth, I thought it was only fitting.

As for reviewing so much multimedia...what can I say? My first real computer was an Apple ][e in 1985 (my family also owned, earlier, two Atari computers and even the Coleco ADAM!). Since then, I've had numerous IBM PC "compatibles," at least 3 Macintoshes, a Powerbook (which helped me update this web site while away those first years), and now, a Pentium 3 laptop. Along the way, I've also received two college degrees in the field. Although such degrees were given to me a while back (one of my professors particularly loved COBOL), I have always kept up to date.

I have long admired the newest technology at its starting point; my family was the first to own an Atari 2600, a VCR, a projection TV, and so on. I was also one of the first in my town to buy a CD player in the mid-80's, and even bought a DVD-ROM drive ASAP (ca. 1997). I've always wanted to do my part in promoting such cutting-edge technology, and perhaps even discuss such high tech entertainment with others. Now, with luck, I'll have my chance...

Techtite.com : the web site ...

As it so turns out, I soon needed a web site, for the long-term purpose of promoting personal programs I have and will be making, or help to make --or hope to make!-- in my spare time (what little I get of it!). However, the typical software program takes at least three years to complete, from start to finish, and I wanted to get used to web site design ASAP. Until that time, I've created an entertainment web site I always wanted to help put online (or even put online myself)...

Simply put, while I often agree with "professional" reviews of movies, DVDs, and multimedia, I more often...don't. To be blunt, I'm sick and tired of two things. On the one hand, there's the reviews of movies that, in some cases, you wonder if the critic truly saw the film at all (most such reviews wax poetic --like an attempt at a critic's Pulitzer Prize-- and forget to review the product!). On the other hand, there's the reviews of multimedia products, often praising the same products that paid for the largest ads. Coincidence? I'm beginning to wonder.

I am also distressed at another flaw of other online review sites; your opinion is never given its share of deserved respect. How annoying is it when your review is merely thrown into a disorganized "forum," or worse...? Meanwhile, the web site's staff reviews get prettied up and placed on their own pages; the message seeming to be that their opinion is more important than your own. On the blue-moon chance that they need a new recruit, the requirements are often of the pipe-dream level; X years of experience online, journalism experience, blah blah blah. This web site will attempt to be different, posting tastefully-done reviews by viewers of this site, right alongside other reviews here! In short, opinions, agreed with or not, will be treated here with as much respect as anyone else's. I may not have enough Web Site space to post reviews forever, though I'll do my best!

FYI : This was also the subject of my premiere editorial, in the "My Two Bits" section of this web site. Click the link to go to that editorial, or click on this link to read the latest editorial.

So begins this website. May it last for as long as the Internet can handle it!