ABOUT THE COMPUTER GURU
ABOUT THE COMPUTER GURU
Steven Salemi (“The Computer Guru”) grew up in a middle-class suburban family of Italian descent, surrounded by 35mm film cameras and light meters and darkroom gadgetry, 8mm and Super 8mm movie cameras, spirit duplicating machines, IBM electric typewriters and reel-to-reel tape recorders, telephone “black boxes,” and other early harbingers of the technological revolution. After securing a liberal arts degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, he immediately embarked on a career in the technology field.
At Polaroid Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he helped explain, promote, and praise Polaroid products -- including the groundbreaking SX-70 instant camera and the ill-fated Polavision instant movie system -- to company management, employees, financial analysts, the media, and members of the technical and business communities. He did the same for NEN-DuPont’s biotechnology and medical diagnostic products. His work during this period was recognized three times for editorial excellence by the Boston chapter of The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
Later, he founded Bottom Line Communications, a Boxborough and Concord, Massachusetts-based company which provided professional and technical writing, editorial, marketing communications, and public relations services to Fortune 500 clients such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Honeywell/Bull, Prime Computer, and Agfa/Compugraphic, as well as smaller companies such as Brooktrout Technology, Samsung Software America, Datamedia Corporation, and others.
His work encompassed extensive interviews with computer hardware and software engineers, and hands-on evaluation of computer products in both the prototype and production stages of development. He also researched, wrote, designed, and edited a wide variety of computer-related publications, including award-winning technical handbooks, user’s guides, newsletters, press kits, speeches, public relations backgrounders and white papers, and videotape scripts; and authored articles and copy for publications such as The DEC Professional, Digital Review, Barron’s, and HardCopy.
Relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the early 1990s, he established “The Computer Guru,” a full-service, hands-on computer sales and service establishment designed to educate and assist clients in selecting, installing, configuring, and using a variety of personal computing products for personal and business purposes. He also published humorous yet informative computer advice/commentary columns in Albuquerque’s Crosswinds magazine and The Los Alamos Independent newspaper; created and hosted “The Computer Guru Radio Show” for The University of New Mexico’s NPR affiliate, KUNM-FM; tackled publicity and communications tasks for Librasoft Corporation, a Santa Fe-based software company; and published articles and essays in The Santa Fe New Mexican, the Santa Fe Reporter, San Diego Computer Currents, and Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader. His screenplay "Accidental Heaven" was a finalist in The Third Annual American Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola's production company) Screenplay Contest; his screenplay "Sedona" was a finalist in the WriteMovies writing competition. In his spare time, he writes articles and essays, collects vintage Italian "Benelli" motorcycles ( www.mybenellis.com ), and enjoys frequent, "deliciously unambitious" visits to Taos, New Mexico.
He currently owns and operates his successful Santa Fe business, The Computer Guru, building custom computer systems by hand for clients and performing repairs, updates, upgrades, and maintenance. He also maintains several websites -- including the entertaining and controversial www.computer-guru.com -- and publishes a computer weblog (“blog”) at www.the-computer-guru.blogspot.com . His computer book, “Make Peace With Your PC,” is available now. The Guru can be reached at ssalemi@earthlink.net .
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