About Chuq

Image of Chuq
Not To Scale

This is the blog of Chuq Von Rospach. I’m currently the technical community manager for Infoblox, an amateur photographer, author and blogger. Those are not the same thing. I’ve worked in the high tech industry since 1979 and lived and worked in Silicon Valley since 1982, spending time at a number of companies you’ve probably heard of including National Semiconductor, Sun Microsystems, Palm and HP, and Apple Computer (17 years!), plus some you’ve never heard of and never will. In my pre-Silicon Valley days I spent four years working for Disneyland driving a forklift, two summers working for vets and assisting in surgery, and worked for a private detective that ran a repo shop. I guess I like a little variety in my life.

Community has always been a part of what I’ve done online, building and running things to connect people through technology. I was a community manager long before anyone thought to call it that, having managed mailing lists since the 1980′s, been a Sysop on CompuServe, AOL and Delphi, and an early adopter and administrator of USENET. At one point my wife and I (almost 30 years and counting! Woo!) ran the largest collection of sports-related mailing lists on the internet and we were managers of the original mailing list for both the San Francisco Giants and minor league baseball as well. My background is in programming and systems architecture, and I’ve done most of my work in MySQL, Perl, and PHP.

I started writing in HTML and CSS and doing web work around 1995. I’ve been known to beat Javascript into submission at times as well. My wife and I spent a year as the webmasters for the IHL San Francisco Spiders, designing, building, hosting and operating their web site and managing all of their internet operations. The Spiders only lasted one season; the IHL no longer exists as a league. These are not our fault. Honest.

I’m a published fiction writer and a former member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I ran SFWA’s Nebula Awards for a decade, and was the first recipient of their Distinguished Service Award. I’m currently retired from fiction writing but I keep threatening to start again. So far I’ve resisted the temptation. Wander over to my fiction page to find out more about my writing and read some of my stories.

I am also a published non-fiction writer, a former Contributing Editor for Macintosh Horizons Magazine and MacTech, and I’ve written on many topics. I wrote a monthly book review column on science fiction and fantasy for TSR’s Amazing Stories in the early 90′s. You can wander over to my non-fiction page to find out more and see some of my publication credits.

In the 1980′s I published a magazine about science fiction and fantasy called OtherRealms, and the archives are online. It lasted 32 issues and was nominated for two Hugos (the World Science Fiction Achievement Awards) in 1989 for Best Fanzine and Best Fan Writer. I lost, but I’m proud to have finished ahead of No Award.

Today my primary love is my photography, especially of birds and wildlife, and that is the focus of this site.

If for some reason I disappear and you can’t find me, you should look on the Oregon Coast, Victoria British Columbia, Vancouver and Portland, in that order. See which shop has recently hired a barista wearing a wig and sunglasses.

I do not believe in regrets, grudges or hidden agendas. They create negativity and hold you back from your goals. Learn, let go, move forward. I believe in embracing the positive. You do not want to be the exception to this. It’s hard to get on my list. It’s a lot harder to get off.

Our house includes computers, cameras, cats and cockatoos. I have been known to watch curling and enjoy it. Also cricket. We have road-tripped extensively to see minor league baseball and hockey around the western US and Canada.

Chuq in the News

Occasionally, I end up being talked about online, sometimes voluntarily. Here are some of the places where I’ve been written about or interviewed:

Things I’ve done that you haven’t

Just for fun, here are a few things I’ve done in my life that you probably haven’t…


  • Assisted as an anesthesiologist to a vet while spaying dogs and cats.
  • Bodysurfed storm waves big enough the surfers stayed on the beach.
  • Seen the planet Pluto through a telescope.
  • Played a talking deer on television.
  • Rode a bicycle 100 miles non-stop. In the rain. voluntarily.
  • Got paid to write Science Fiction. (but not a lot)
  • Was once the fourth largest USENET site on the net (by volume)
  • Finished ahead of No Award for the best fan writer Hugo.
  • Ate lunch on the deck of the pirate ship in Pirates of the Caribbean which is firing on the fort (the pirates aren’t wearing any pants)
  • refereed a high school basketball game — with broken glasses.

Photos in Use

My photos are used around the net. Here are some of the places I’ve found them. If you’re using one of my images under the creative commons license, let me know, so I can link to it here.

Some of my favorite articles on this site

Here are some of my favorite pieces of writing. Hope you enjoy them.