 Banks (born 21 March 1951 in Princeton, Indiana) is a writer and editor of science fiction and non-fiction.A former columnist for "Windows Magazine" and "Computer Shopper", Banks documented the growth of online services and the Internet and Web from the early 1980s onward.His book "The Modem Reference" was a guide to the online world during the 1980s and into the 1990s, selling more than 200,000 copies.