User:Meenzal

Meenzal is an online handle for Bob Kirkpatrick, a computer software engineer and systems and networking engineer. Mr. Kirkpatrick's Internet involvement began in 1985 is an engineer contributor within ARPANet. Later, he was an original domain registrar delegate for a number of locality domains withing the .US TLD, assigned the position by Internet father figure Jon Postel. A so called "Internet pioneer," Mr. Kirkpatrick opened one of the very first Internet Service Provider (ISP) companies in Washington State, literally on the same day that the NSF withdrew its support from ARPANet of which he was an active user. Up until the commercialization of the Internet, Mr. Kirkpatrick had linked groups from the fledgling UseNet News system into his FidoNet node which he operated as a hobby. He operated the .US locality domain registries of spokane.wa.us, airway-heights.wa.us, kootenai.id.us, benewah.id.us, bonner.id.us, and benewah.id.us until the .US TLD was assumed by NeuStar. Operating the registry at no const to those registering domains within his assigned domains, his services and registrations remained free throughout his tenue, assuming all costs personally. His domain, dogear.com was a reflection of his sole proprietorship Dog Ear'd Systems of Spokane, under which he operated his registry activities and his ISP business. His original primary DNS namesever, pointer.dogear.com is still in use today. Mr. Kirkpatrick's Dog Ear'd Systems merged in 1998 with ARIAS, another Spokane ISP and became Wind Wireless Inc. The company offers Internet connectivity with a primary focus on wireless connectivity to rural Eastern Washington and North Idaho communities underserved by telephone and cable based services. He retired as a working member of the company in 2008 after being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow plasma, but still serves in an at large advisory capacity. Mr. Kirkpatrick was 64 at the time of this writing, living in Spokane, Washington with his wife.