Who is ADMIN here ?
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2026 6:47 pm
Michael Maardt, danish, living most of the time in Denmark
My main website A33.dk - Win user: hold Ctrl, while clicking to open in new window
In 1993 I had been unemployed for a few years and had helped some friends with their PCs. At that time, the operating system was called DOS and very few, if any, understood a damn thing about the two startup files config.sys and autoexec.bat. I set out to find out and got help.
Excerpt from TV-Avisen, 1994
Excerpt from national news TV 1994
I got help from the 'other side
The most important parts of this text were "given to me". On Tuesday and Thursday for 3 weeks I was woken up at 2 am sharp and asked to sit down at the keyboard. I received and wrote until exactly 4 am, when it was 'closed' and I went to bed and slept on. Some call this phenomenon 'channeling'.
My 'colleague' in the USA John Goodman, who annually wrote a 1,000-page book 'Memory Management for all of us' (he had several assistants) was sent the most important part by fax (translated into English) and he did not know which leg to stand on when he read it. I called him (it cost a little at the time). He asked me: "Michael! Where did you get that from?" I couldn't tell him the truth.
The Danish publisher sold 10-15 titles in 1,000,000 copies. I started in 1995 in Germany with KnowWare.de and published over 100 titles, which sold over 7,000,000.
I sold the German publisher in 2004.
"Brug din PC optimalt" is Denmark's best-selling computer publication of all time (175,000). Other publishers in Europe were forced to copy the idea. I guess that many millions of IT booklets have been sold in Europe.
My main website A33.dk - Win user: hold Ctrl, while clicking to open in new window
- 1952 born in Copenhagen
- 1970-1980 I studied sociology at the University of Copenhagen
- In 1973 I became interested in critical theories within sociology and psychology. At the Department of Sociology we read a lot of German books (mainly Marxism), which took me a long time because I was not good at German. That's why I moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1975 to learn German. I found a flatshare where two sweet women taught me German so well at the age of 6 months that only a few people asked if I was a foreigner. I studied for a few years at the universities of Frankfurt am Main and Bremen. In 1977 I moved back to Denmark. I had read critical theories in sociology, psychology and took my Master's degree in sociology at KBH Univ. 1980
- 1981-1993: Small short jobs and unemployment.
- I wrote and published with great success the world's first computer booklet for 28kr, which was the price of a pack of cigarettes at the time. I did this to be able to control the price, distribution, etc. and for the next 10 years I ran the publishing house KnowWare with IT booklets. I provoked the publishing industry with the cheap booklets. Other publishers that published computer literature were forced to copy the idea. The Danish publisher sold 10-15 titles in many copies. I started in 1995 in Germany with KnowWare.de and sold over 100 titles in many copies.
In 1993 I had been unemployed for a few years and had helped some friends with their PCs. At that time, the operating system was called DOS and very few, if any, understood a damn thing about the two startup files config.sys and autoexec.bat. I set out to find out and got help.
Excerpt from TV-Avisen, 1994
Excerpt from national news TV 1994
I got help from the 'other side
The most important parts of this text were "given to me". On Tuesday and Thursday for 3 weeks I was woken up at 2 am sharp and asked to sit down at the keyboard. I received and wrote until exactly 4 am, when it was 'closed' and I went to bed and slept on. Some call this phenomenon 'channeling'.
My 'colleague' in the USA John Goodman, who annually wrote a 1,000-page book 'Memory Management for all of us' (he had several assistants) was sent the most important part by fax (translated into English) and he did not know which leg to stand on when he read it. I called him (it cost a little at the time). He asked me: "Michael! Where did you get that from?" I couldn't tell him the truth.
The Danish publisher sold 10-15 titles in 1,000,000 copies. I started in 1995 in Germany with KnowWare.de and published over 100 titles, which sold over 7,000,000.
I sold the German publisher in 2004.
"Brug din PC optimalt" is Denmark's best-selling computer publication of all time (175,000). Other publishers in Europe were forced to copy the idea. I guess that many millions of IT booklets have been sold in Europe.