About me
I have a bushy beard, a parrot on my shoulder and a wooden leg...oh,
no, that’s the other guy.
Actually, I’m a fairly ordinary English bloke, living in London, and
working with computers. (Do you still call it work when you do it for
fun even without being paid?) Sometimes I do have a beard, as you can
see in the pictures, and sometimes I don’t. And I definitely don’t
have a wooden leg. Not anytime. I’m not married yet, so I have plenty
of time to indulge in my favourite hobbies. Among these are computing,
travelling, photography, walking, camping, sailing, cycling, swimming,
reading, and music. And did I mention computing? A lot of my time is
also taken up organising youth clubs and other activities related to
my Christian faith. When I can find time in between all these things I
sometimes do paid computing work, too.
Computers
I’ve been hooked on computers since 1979 when I was about 14 years’
old and dad brought a Commodore PET home for us. The arrival of this
pet was the death-knell of piano lessons and railway modelling. I
honed my computing skills writing text adventure games in BASIC, and I
even wrote an assembler in hex code and entered it using a hex
editor. Fortunately, I’m not old enough to have written programs by
plugging in cables or punching cards, but even my early experiences
seem very primitive compared with today.
After a brief flirtation with Natural Sciences at Cambridge University
I returned to my computing roots working at Liverpool University and
doing a PhD in parallel
computer algorithms. The rot really set in in 1991 when I bought
myself my first home PC; to finish my thesis, I claimed. This PC has
since been joined by another desktop system and a laptop, and they all
still chat away quite happily, if noisily, over the network at home.
Over the years I have played with a huge range of software. From the
BASIC environment on the Commodore, through MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows,
finally arriving at Linux. I like to pretend I don’t do Microsoft
these days, but I must admit my laptop dual-boots between Linux and
Windows 2000, and I still write my diary using Word, keep my accounts
using Excel, and use Access for address lists and the like.
I’ve written programs in a number of languages, ranging from that hex
code on the old Commodore, through 6502, 68000, SPARC and x86
assembler, to scripting languages such as Perl, Python, and Unix shell
scripts, to languages such as C, C++, Java, Fortran, and obscure
parallel programming languages such as OCCAM. And I’m sure there are
others I’ve now completely forgotten such as Pascal, BCPL, and Cobol.
I’ve usually got several computer projects on the go. My days of
writing text adventure games and Mandelbrot drawing programs are long
over, and my recent projects have mainly revolved around the
redevelopment of this web site.
Some people like to go and see football matches. Sometimes, I like
nothing better than to open up a PC and add new disks or cards, or to
experiment with a new bit of software. Sometimes I’ll even reinstall a
system completely. All for fun!
Work
To get paid for doing something you enjoy may be some people’s idea of
heaven. I have the privilege of being paid to play with computer
systems all day long. The work environment also gives me access to
more and bigger toys than I have at home.
For information about the sort of things I get up to at work have a
look at some of the projects I’ve been involved
in. There’s also my CV.
Travel
One of my dreams is one day to sit on the top of a ruined temple
poking out above the jungle, as the sun rises and clears the mists
away, the shadows race across the tree tops and the air is full of the
sound of howler monkeys...and make a phone call home on a satellite
phone!
While the cost of satellite phones is still so high I must content
myself with the former conditions only. I love to organise trips to
unusual places, and I’m always on the lookout for novel ways of
getting to them. I enjoy the challenge of not knowing where I’ll be
spending the night, or even where I’m going! Many of my most memorable
experiences were never planned, but resulted from taking advantage of
opportunities as they arose.
I’ve travelled round Europe and Scandinavia by train; cycled up and
down England, round Scotland and across Spain; sailed across the
Channel, round the southern coast of Ireland, and down the Baltic Sea
in the Tall Ships’ Race; driven a car round parts of the US; and
travelled by bus and boat around Central America. Finally, I also
spent a year travelling overland from the Middle East through the
Indian subcontinent to South East Asia. This last trip involved train,
bus, boat, tractor, foot, and unfortunately the occasional
airplane.
My most recent trip was a nine-week drive from London to Istanbul and
back along a route which looped through Western and Eastern Europe.
To see photographs from some of these trips have a look at my photo diaries.
Hobbies
When I can’t escape to the ends of the earth, I still like to be out
and about. I enjoy sailing yachts and dinghies, cycling, and
walking. I like to pack my tent and go cycling round the country or
camp in the Lake District and sail on the lakes and walk in the
mountains.
I spend far too much time at my gym. My friends seem to think I just
prop up the bar there, but really I’m swimming in the pool, honest.
I’m also an inveterate tourist. I love visiting stately homes and
castles in the countryside. And London has almost endless
possibilities: from its famous landmarks, architecture and history to
its theatres and museums and art galleries.
When I can’t even escape from the house I like listening to music and
reading. And perhaps just a quick play with the computer!
Christianity
Last, but not least, my Christian faith is very important to me and
influences every area of my life.
One of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects for me is the
opportunity to work with young people. I’ve spent many years
organising and leading camps, youth clubs and Sunday Schools; and
spent many hours covered in paint, clay, cooking ingredients and
children. I must be a kid at heart! I’ve also been a skipper for many
years on an annual sailing holiday for young people on the Norfolk
Broads. It’s the sort of holiday where you return home exhausted and
need another holiday just to recover!
In a more sedate vein I also enjoy leading adult bible study groups:
no mess, no noise...
Getting in touch
If you have any comments about this site or you just want to get in
touch with me then please do contact me.
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