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Jeff Gerhardt's Broadcasting Bio Way back in the mid 1990's Jeff was an almost weekly guest of "Ken Rutkowski's Week Ender TTalk Show" and also a regualr on the "Al and/or Ed Show" (Alan Lerner and Ed Curran) both on WLS radio "The Big 89" in Chicago. Jeff Gerhardt had been in the background as a technical information resource on such issues as UNIX/Linux(r), Y2K, Internet Telephony and Video, and Broadband applications. During a period (late 1997) when Jeff was not allowed to be involved in the ISP business (after one of the ISPs he was involved with was sold); Kevin Hill and Gerhardt created the idea behind The Linux Show and were soon testing the concept as a daughter program to Rutkowski's TTalk. By mid 1998 the show was running a regular schedule. Jeff Gerhardt describes himself as an inventor and entrepreneur. Jeff is known for his entreprenurial creativity having worked on the development of a major CAD system and one of the first PC based point of purchase systems. As a technologist he is probably best known for his work with The Tandy Color Computer and later the development of the award wining "KidCam(tm)" Internet Video Security System, Jeff is no stranger to the Internet community. Gerhardt is a regular speaker at Internet related conferences. The internet and online computing is Gerhardt's first passion when it comes to technology. While a student at Illinois State University getting paid $1.90 and hour to haul boxes and rolls of cable for "some computer thing", Gerhardt was bitten by the on-line bug by being exposed to Arpa and the Plato Network. It was a life changing experience for the person who was at college studying to be a biologist. Gerhardt has never retreated from that passion. Gerhardt worked as an assistant Sysop to one of the Compuserve SIGS for Tandy, The COCO SIG. Later Gerhardt was an operator of two differnet BBS systems. And as the Internet era rolled along, Gerhardt has been involved with the creation of, or managment of three different ISPs. Jeff was on the board of directors of the legendary ISP WorldWide Access (now Verio), one of the very first ISPs in the US to open. Jeff was executive VP in an ill fated DSL ISP/CLEC, Pinnacle Communications. And Jeff is still in in love with the ISP business and operates a small ISP, IbssNet.Com Gerhardt first became exposed to "Linux on Intel" in 1995 as an alternative to Sun Solaris for web hosting technology for the ISP business. As a user and proponent for the development of Linux(r) ever since, Jeff has fallen into the role of one of the cadre of "advocate/cheerleader" of the greater world wide Linux(r) community. That role has fit well and Gerhardt as he now considers himself too old (and eye sight to bad) to sit at a consol and hack code. Gerhardt lives in Naperville Illinois with his wife (and well known banking executive), Carol Gerhardt. They have a daughter, Liz (age 13) and two Siberian Huskies. In his spare time Gerhardt teaches college level technology classes at Northwestern Business College and is re-learning to play the guitar after putting it down 30 years ago.
Kevin Hill While previously working at WorldWide Access (WWA is now Verio) as a system programmer, developing web based unix administration tools, Hill met up with Gerhardt and the course of histroy was changed for both men. Hill joined a development team to work with Gerhardt on the creation of a ground breaking "on demand video server". This project manifest itself in the form of a product then called "KidCam" which was a internet video based security system. The system was the first of its kind, and allowed parents to select live camera feeds on demand placed in strategic locations around a school or day care. The product was very well received and won awards at major internet expos. The PR generated by the product gained international attention for the ISP (it was bought six months later) as well as made Hill and Gerhardt "semi-famous" in geek circles. Hill worked side by side with Gerhardt on the creation of The Linux Show and has been with Gerhardt since day one of the show. Hill is also the partner with Gerhardt in the small ISP Ibssnet.Com. "Ibss may be small," says Hill, "but do not underestimate our little company as we do specialty hosting for a couple very large corporations, one being an ecommerce back office application for one of the largest retailers in the world." Hill is also a Network Engineer at one of the most important research facilities in the world, The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia Illinois. But he can not talk about that.
Hill has been working with linux since 1995, and before that was developing software on Amigas,
NeXTs, as well as earlier free unices such as freebsd and minix.
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