David Sobotta on Muck Rack

David Sobotta

North Carolina
Covers:  Technology, Photography, Gardening, Apple, Networks, Broadband, Canadian Maritimes, Current events, Food, HOAs, Fishing, Kayaking, Weather, the natural world, NC's Piedmont and NC's Crystal Coast
Doesn't Cover: Personal relationships, Exercise, Self-help

David Sobotta’s Journalist Portfolio

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The Apple Magic That Few Understand Even Today

The Apple Magic That Few Understand Even Today

typepad.com — I was once a barn builder and cattleman with a degree from Harvard. As unusual as that sounds, it was good preparation for my two decades at Apple. There I was part of a revolutionary rethinking of how to get...

Beam Me Up Scotty, I am ready

Beam Me Up Scotty, I am ready

typepad.com — Back in January 2007, I wrote an article,What Jobs told me on the iPhone, for the Guardian Newspaper. It was three years before the iPhone was introduced. It was also back when you could get a decent check for writing...

It Started With Nova Scotia

It Started With Nova Scotia

ocracokewaves.me — The view from the top of the hay field at the back of my new home in St. Croix Cove, NS Thanksgiving during my junior year in college, three college friends and I decided to take an extra long brea...

The PowerWagon Changed Me

The PowerWagon Changed Me

ocracokewaves.me — The Beast This is part of a series on life and careers that that started with this post, An Unconventional Journey - Life, Learning and Work. It had been a rough semester at Harvard. Getting away from the city seemed like a really good idea.

Connections for the Future

Connections for the Future

ocracokewaves.me — Internet Connectivity, August 1998 Things have changed a lot since the original iMac® introduced "simple" Internet connections. Most of us in 1998 ending up using the modem to get to the Internet and not the Ethernet port. Connecting to the Internet was often not as easy or simple as the marketing brochures promised.

Next Came The Old House And Barn

Next Came The Old House And Barn

ocracokewaves.me — Our St. Croix Cove, Nova Scotia, House After Remodeling, Summer 1973 The glowing ember of that Nova Scotia trip did not die. Maybe it was fanned a little by another trip that my college roommate and I took to Alaska in the summer of 1970 in my PowerWagon.

The Urge to Work the Soil

The Urge to Work the Soil

ocracokewaves.me — Our John Deere Equipment in St. Croix Cove, Nova Scotia, as the morning fog is lifting Growing up in the rolling hills of North Carolina's Piedmont in the 1950s meant that you were not far from the land. Most people had a connection with the land in those days.

Mowing Your Way Through Life

Mowing Your Way Through Life

ocracokewaves.me — Our Backyard In Davie County, North Carolina, March 2022 How did people manage in the first half of the twentieth century before there were yards to connect them to the soil around their homes? I suspect that they were working in their gardens and fields. By the time I was growing up in the fifties...

No Frozen Millponds Today in NC

No Frozen Millponds Today in NC

ocracokewaves.me — North Deep Creek at Site of Styers-Shore Mill January 2022 with its snow and cold temperatures was a shock to Yadkin Valley residents. All the snow had most of us in the area looking for snow shovels or mittens. Depending on where you live it has been two, or three years since your last significant snow.

How To Be A Sensible Streamer

How To Be A Sensible Streamer

ocracokewaves.me — Streaming Channel Portal on Amazon Streaming your choice of video channels is what the future holds. I spend a good chunk of my day job looking at the prices of Internet services across the county. I studied cable, DSL, and fiber services in dozens of counties and communities last year.

Christmas Traditions -The Chris Moose

Christmas Traditions -The Chris Moose

typepad.com — Christmas is a very personal holiday sometimes surrounded with festive communities. In 1973, my wife and I had our first Christmas together on the Nova Scotia coast. Thirty-three years later in 2006, we were back on the coast. This time...

Responsibility for your actions

Responsibility for your actions

typepad.com — My mother taught me to never start a fight, but in the same breath to be ready to stand up for what I believe and accept the consequences of my own actions if I ended up in a fight. That...

The "Dippy Egg"

The "Dippy Egg"

typepad.com — There are lots of things that hold families together, but not surprisingly food is one of the best. I guess the families of today eat far fewers meals together. Somehow I suspect that does not matter in the long run.

Adding Fiber To Your Life

Adding Fiber To Your Life

typepad.com — Fiber connectivity can make a huge difference in your life. When we started planning our move in the fall of 2019, my first requirement was that we find a home with fiber connectivity. It was not a snap decision. My...

Streaming is Like Self-Serve Fuel Pumps

Streaming is Like Self-Serve Fuel Pumps

typepad.com — Technology changes like ATMs and self-serve gas pumps arise not because they were designed to immediately make our lives easier. Technology change almost always puts more pressure initially on the end users than it does on the people deploying the...

Years on the Farm

Years on the Farm

typepad.com — Many people have asked me how I ended up farming in New Brunswick. It is a fair question. I did not grow up on a farm. I went to a military school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and got my undergraduate degree...

Crystal Coast Survives Hurricane Isaias

Crystal Coast Survives Hurricane Isaias

mailchi.mp — It is the rare storm that shows up on the radar and quickly decides where it wants to go. Isaias was typical of the hurricanes that we see. One of the first tracks that I saw had it coming ashore around Cape Lookout, then it was Beaufort Inlet and at one time the Florida coast.

Breakfast My Way

Breakfast My Way

typepad.com — I am not sure why, but breakfast seems more and more important during the current crisis. I cannot remember when I did not cook my own breakfast, but there could have been a period when we lived on our farm,...

Books and Articles by David Sobotta

Books and Articles by David Sobotta

amazon.com — Descriptions of and links to the five books that I have written.

Fall Fishing on the Crystal Coast

Fall Fishing on the Crystal Coast

typepad.com — Enticing Waters Near The Point, EI, NC Depending on where you grew up, you might or might not know about the tradition of fall fishing on the southeast coast. I was lucky to grow up in North Carolina and have...

Tis the Season for HOA Boards

Tis the Season for HOA Boards

Dawg Food — There are posts, that you just do not want to write, but sometimes you know that it is better to speak now before you are to the point of watching people endure a ship wreck. I served on an HOA Board for three years. One of them was very tough.

Coastal Paradise | North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks & Crystal Coast

Coastal Paradise | North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks & Crystal Coast

coastalnc.org — The weather on the Crystal Coast was wet in early June with many areas receiving several inches of rain. Since the rains have stopped, the weather has been great for enjoying the beaches but many of us who live here have been avoiding the beaches since Coronavirus cases in Carteret County have tripled from 35 on Memorial Day to 105 on July 6.

Love and Respect for Print

Love and Respect for Print

typepad.com — I have always loved the news. Television news, articles in the newspaper, weekly magazines, and now of course news on the Internet all continue to have a great pull on me. In spite of all the competition, the daily newspaper...

Fourth of July 2020

Fourth of July 2020

crystalcoastlife.com — This is our fourteenth year living on the North Carolina coast. The Fourth of July is pretty special on the coast but this 2020 one is probably unlike any we have ever seen. Those who couldn't or wouldn't stay away are here by now. You will likely find some restaurants closed and others doing only takeout.
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