I was born an Army brat in 1954, with my family living in Kansas, Texas, Arkansas and New Mexico before landing in Norman, Oklahoma. As a kid, I had many interests, including reading, writing, amateur sleuthing, microbiology, archeology, electronics and music. If I wasn’t looking at pond water through a microscope or developing my musical abilities, I was probably tearing apart an old radio to convert it into a burglar alarm with fifty speakers.

As a lifelong electronics hobbyist, my career with computers began in 1984, when I borrowed $1,200 to buy a complete Commodore 64 system. One of my first computer modifications was to disassemble and drill a hole through the case of the C-64, adding an on/off switch for the expansion port. I then added a homebrew computer clock synchronization port to my Emu Systems Drumulator drum machine (an early digital drum computer) by tapping into the clock circuit, so that I could synchronize the Drumulator, the Commodore 64 and the first Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) keyboard sold in Norman, the mighty (and, extinct) Prophet 600 synthesizer by Sequential Circuits. Those were the early days of popular electronic music.

It’s OK if you don’t know what all of those things mean – the important thing to know is that geeky electronics and computer activities such as these have brought me over the years to my current situation. My career in computers and IT has continued and grown since the Commodore days, and I have been providing consulting, security, networking and repair services since 1984.

In 2003 I invented and hosted the Defcon WiFi Shootout Contest, a contest to see who could achieve the longest WiFi wireless networking connection. I ran the contest for three years at the annual Defcon computer security conference in Las Vegas (www.defcon.org), and the contest and its World Record holders are listed on page 112 of the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

In 2005 began writing my popular weekly computer/Internet newspaper column, “Computer Sense,” for The Norman Transcript. The column has become the longest-running column in the newspaper’s history.

In 2008 I began teaching my Internet safety class, “Fight The Internet Bad Guys & Win!” to overwhelmingly enthusiastic audiences. The class has grown in popularity and scope, and, with the founding of The Internet Safety Group Ltd, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity, the class is poised for nationwide exposure.

I have held numerous industry certifications, and am currently a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). I love my job! I love taking the crazy, flawed computer/Internet-dominated world we live in and turning it into something people can actually enjoy, use, and benefit from.

I have a LinkedIn profile here; you may also visit the Dave Moore Computers website for more information.