Members

About Our Members

Meryll Larkin

The current leader of the Local Chapter, took over the project when Betsy Aoki's life became too busy.  Always looking for help because there are so many parts to this job, we need someone to plan meetings, facilitate meetings, host and/or supervise our mailing list....  Meryll started on an IBM 1130 main frame without monitors, coding Fortran IV on punch cards.  Her first four PCs were Macintosh.  Now she is the entire IT Department for a shipping company, with SCO Unix and RedHat Linux servers and Windows desktops.

Her website is alwanza.com

Patt Cranage

Our artist in residence.  She is responsible for the logo on this page, and our Website design.  Patt is multi-platform.  She works mostly on Macintosh, next Linux, and next Windows. 

Patt started on an APPLE IIe and discovered cut and paste didn't take scissors anymore.

Mariette Knoblauch

Our official "O'Reilly" contact.  She brings the swag, discount coupons, and informs us about contests. 

Mariette has a husband and three geek-in-training boys.  Ask her about any detail of the Spiderman movies, popular video games, or Hero Clix:  they keep her informed about these issues.

She is working in the bookkeeping, payroll, and tax fields, currently with Accountemps and taking classes toward a degree in accounting at North Seattle Community College.  Her plans are to transfer to Central Washington's Lynnwood campus to complete her degree.

Her first exposure to computers was an old Trash80's that ran on cassette tapes.  It had a D&D type adventure game.  Her first real computer was an Amiga:  surprisingly powerful for having no hard drive and a massive one mg of memory.  It contained Deluxe Paint, Deluxe Music, and of course Zork (you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike...).  Her next computers were a series of Apples and Macs, and finally a PC when it become necessary.

Her first exposure to Linux was hearing about it online.  Mariette was intrigued by the idea of a free and adaptable OS, and "it sounded cool."  She has experimented with dual booting her PC, with mixed results, and now finds Knoppix a handy substitute.  She still considers herself a beginner who needs to sit at the feet of the LinuxChix masters to absorb wisdom.

At home she prefers her Mac, which now "comes with Unix-y goodness", and at work, she is invariably confronted with Windows whereever she's temping.

Her hobbies include letterboxing (the hide-and-seek game, not the movie format), reading fantasy and science fiction, and sleep.  Her family's letterboxing site is at speakeasy.org/~dbltall