The sense of grief in the newsroom is palpable. But I'm one of the lucky ones. With a decent buyout offer on the table and 38 wonderful years as a reporter, editor and columnist under my belt, I decided it was time.
The young children who prompted my adventure into computing have somehow morphed into adults.
The 3-year-old is a telecommunications lawyer in Washington who will be married in a few days. His little brother just finished three years as an eighth-grade teacher in New York, where he developed an online curriculum that uses blogs to teach writing to urban middle-schoolers.
I'm insanely proud of both of them, and I like to think their vocations had a just a little bit to do with being in the very first group of American kids who can't remember life without a computer.
I'm also eternally grateful for the patience of my wife, a charter member of the Computer Widows Association who has recently found sweet revenge by watching costume dramas on TV while she answers e-mail on her iPod Touch.
Although my column departs these pages today, I'm not disappearing from the Earth. My wife insists that after four decades in newspapers, it's time for me to find a real job. No telling where that will lead.
Meanwhile, I still have plenty to say about tech issues - including the impending digital TV transition/rip-off. Stop by my Web site at himowitz.com and read all about it.
