About

Stephen C. Holtzman

Welcome to h @ GTM. Many of you will wonder what that means, well it’s the first letter of my last name Holtzman. GTM is for GlobeTechMedia, my website that I never used until now.

So where do I begin, first I blame this on my friend Stephane Bismuth who not only talked me into this, but his company Digital Days hosts this blog as well.

Stephane called me last night and said that given my love for everything technology and that I alpha & beta test many items, for many companies, I should have a blog. Well here it is… and I have a lot to learn, so if i make mistakes.. that’s life and hopefully I will learn from it.

I am currently the CTO for D-ZIGN S.A.B. Inc. an Advertisement/Marketing/Design Agency in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

While I studied Commercial Photography and Advertisement/Marketing, my love for technology drove my parents nuts. I purchase my first computer (thanks to Ken Fogel a longtime friend), an Apple ][ in 1977 and had the first Apple based BBS in Montreal where I first learned what a SYSOP (Systems Operator) was and the lack of sleep that was involved.

i was building my own boards, had the latest gadgets, etc. I loved anything electronic or computer related. I just reminded myself of the first garage door opener transmitter I made… attached it to an outdoor CB antenna and let’s say the neighbors were not impressed, so you can see where I am going. I built stuff, had to know how it worked, took things apart, etc.

Then came along the Mac and have had used or purchased every model since they have been around. Do I love the Mac, yes. Do I have a PC yes, do I love it, sorry, NO and we will get into the debate at a later time.

i continued to have my BBS on the Mac for several years and was still employed by Dawson College at the time as the Photography Store Manager.

Then The Online World started, America Online (AOL), CIS (Compuserve), eWorld (Apple), GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange), and Prodigy to name some of them. Well I did not want to join them, I wanted to work for them while maintaining my day job!

I won’t go into detail but here is what I did;

CIS
- Photography Forum – Assistant

GEnie
- Macintosh Forum Assistant
- Photography RoundTable – Assistant
- Canada RoundTable – SYSOP
- CTV RoundTable – SYSOP

eWorld
- Macintosh Product Shootout Administrator

AOL
- Founded and Started AOL Canada with a great friend Bob Perez (He still is with AOL)

During this time Dawson College needed a Mac Technician and while I was working for the GEnie Booth at the MacWorld Toronto Show, my friend and former boss, Jim McGill came to the show and offered me the job! It was a dream come true.

So my life was busy, 24 hours a day, I got married, had a son, Eric (he is now 18) and met two great people in my life, Malcolm Charlton and Evan Berle. Malcolm at the time I met through GEnie, he was the Producer of PULSE NEWS at Montreal’s largest English Language TV Station CFCF12. Malcolm also produced Hockey Night in Canada for many years on CBC TV. Evan (who recently passed away far to young, from cancer and who I think about many times) was my first Apple Technician and Co-Host of the Peter Anthony Holder Overnight Computer Show on CJAD 800am.

Malcolm hired me on several occasion where I was live on air as the eMail Tech person responding to letters from listeners. Then came Evan who asked me to join him as the Mac “Guru” on the radio computer show. We did this together for many years, and although many of the questions were computer related, it applied to both Mac and PC platforms.

While I was with the Online Services, Dawson College, CJAD and now D-ZIGN S.A.B. Inc. I developed relationships that I have kept over the years with many companies in the Tech fields (Computer, Photography and Electronics) from Apple to Xerox and many in between. I have tested products, done both alpha and beta software development / testing and the same for hardware. I have had product shootouts and reviewed many items in many forums. In fact, I have had many case studies published as well.