For someone with a truly utilitarian approach to business technology for himself and his company, Mike Connly, CIO of The St. Paul Companies, has some interesting, perhaps even unexpected, recreational gadgets.
Connly is a licensed ham radio operator, and like other operators, he builds a lot of his own equipment. He says doing things like that helps him understand the electronics underpinnings of technology at a much deeper level. I havent gone to the extreme of putting in my own tower, he says, but admits he does have a smaller antenna discreetly set up in his yard. He also built a hi-fi pre-amplifier out of old computer vacuum tubes.
In addition, Connly is into astronomy and has a Meade LX 90 computer-controlled telescope. It takes about 10 minutes to align it to two stars, and then it will take you through a guided tour of the entire sky. Connly says the advancements in CCD (charged coupled device) technology are amazing, allowing even an amateur astronomer to detect faint light coming from distant stars.
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