Post by Steve Deckert on 02/11/24 at 04:00:15
Thanks for the encouragement : )
This all began in 1994 when I decided I wanted a web site so I went to Best Buy and purchased a book on HTML. From there I used a text editor and hand coded the first Decware web site. The technology of the day was just transitioning from 640 x 480 pixel displays to 800 x 600 pixel displays. If you wanted to be compatible with the world you had to make the site 640 x 480 pixels.
It was a maddening time because the graphics were so limiting and as we know now continuously changing. If you could go back in time to 1997 when the first digital cameras started you would see why everyone had scanners to get pictures and photographs into the computer. I would have shit my pants if you could have back in 1997 shown me what Decware would become and what the web site would look like in 27 years! Seriously, the idea of digital HD and 4K cameras would have been enough to blow a fuse in my head but then memory and bandwidth to make that work, it would have made my head implode. I worked on the original Fidonet that predated the Internet in the 1980's, so I can grasp the magnitude of the technology from then to now. This new site is basically in 4K and when you look at it on a Imac 4096 × 2304 Retina display it is in fact pretty crisp.
So just for contrast I found a screenshot of the the site in 1997.
It was state of the art in 1997, despite the low resolution but compared to the site today, it's hard for me to look at both. God bless all of you early Decheads for being here. (Lon) I don't know what's wrong with you, but it did all turn out well in the end : )
I have to say, that when I met my wife DeVon it was a divine encounter where one spirit was shitting its pants because a business actually grew out of a passion and now we need help! She answered a help wanted ad in the newspaper I ran in desperation and saved us all all and frankly continues to do so every day. Anyway, that was when Decware really got serious and this is one of those rare moments when I have taken the time to look back at how it all started and realize that if not for the Audio Gods I would still be a general contractor working for broke people and trying to get paid and likely have been stuck in that level of life. ; )
She is why I believe in the Audio Gods. She has shouldered the burden to allow me to create and make no mistake she is actually the reason why you have the Decware amplifier in your house that you have and why after 27 years we are still an ever growing happy family.
And around that time, Sarah was still a child and worked for us filling glue bottles for speaker repair kits. Now look at her. She is a clone of her mother and with two of them Decware has continued to grow and thrive without losing its focus.
Sorry didn't realize the picture was that big. Today Sarah actually runs the business. I do the website, supervise QC and handle product development. DeVon is HR now in charge of 16 people and does all the bookkeeping and finances and they both have their things that they like or maybe hate to do on a hands on level like Sarah makes all the Zen battery powered headphone amplifiers. DeVon has made every pair of ZSTYX speaker wire ever sold which is more than we can count. They both can build amplifiers with flawless precision because of their attention to detail and have.
Anyway for me seeing the site in 4K is something I fantasied about more than once on the journey, and the fact that this is now almost a standard even on phones, leaves me breathless. Shit I lived long enough to see this happen, what's next ?
God Bless you all, we love you for sharing this hobby and supporting us.