Robert Scoble's Visit
[ Robert at SJSU! more pictures here! ]
Last week my old friend Robert Scoble came to visit at SJSU. I have known Robert since he was a student at SJSU and he was one of the select few students who worked for me whom I still have a lot of affection for. He was, and is, a really smart guy.
I will never forget how he got the name Scobelizer. He was a Mac Evangelist at the time and he was not afraid to install all kinds of buggy Beta software and weird hacks on the old Apple computers other people used to get real work done. I assigned him to work on a computer used by a staff member named Kathy Gay. When he installed Mac OS 7 on the computer she was angry after it crashed and she called me up and said, "help, I have been Scobelized!" The name stuck. Robert was always doing stuff like that. He also always drank my diet Cokes and never replaced them, but that is another story.
People were always yelling at Robert, and at me for hiring him. He went off to a journalism convention for students called "CIPA." At the meeting he said, "next year let's have this at SJSU!" So they took him up on the idea. When he returned and told the faculty that he committed them to a state-wide conference the next year they wanted to hang him!
Also, again they were mad at me too! As I remember, when they got mad at him he never seemed to get mad back. He would just laugh and shrug it off. As I remember the convention was a big success.
Now the faculty are as happy as clams. Robert Scoble made a huge impact, both then and now, on The School of Journalism and Mass Communications and also on me.
Kenneth and Sue came to the Geek Dinner after the SJSU visit at Gordon Biersch. Robert was shocked when he saw Kenneth. Now 18, Ken was a little tyke last time Robert had seen him.
With Bob was Buzz Bruggeman, Buzz was a great guy who had a lot of funny stories. He spent a lot of time talking with Sue and helped her feel a real part of the event. Robert is doing great now. He works with Microsoft and has a lot of fame and visibility. He is a very much in-demand speaker and his coming to SJSU was a real treat and is something we greatly appreciate. He even has his own fan club! Who knows? Perhaps my tombstone will someday say, here lay Steve Sloan, Scoble's former boss. What a hoot!
12:22:37 AM 
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