About me

I live in Birmingham (UK), previously of Cambridge. I’m a computer nerd, having initially trained as an engineer. I’m in it for how I can help people use their computers more effectively (while also having fun coding on them myself).

Ex-Cambridge resident

I lived in Cambridge for nearly 40 years.

• I was very involved with “CamNet: The Cambridge Freenet” for several years. However, the arrival of free ISPs in the UK saw an end to CamNet.
• I was a member of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign which is still trying to improve facilities for local cyclists. I edited their newsletter for a time in the mid-90’s.
• And I cycled a lot of the time. Mostly over the years my employer’s place of work was cycle-commutable. And, of course, for just getting around the city. Amazingly, I am only on my third adult bike.

Brum

I moved to Birmingham in 2024. I am currently pretending to be retired.

Cycling in Birmingham seems a daunting – and dangerous – prospect, so I’m yet to attempt it (the bike remains in a friend’s garage in Cambridge).

Computer nerd

I own a couple of Macs. And I work with people and their computers (almost all of which are Macs too).

I used to work for an international marketing/business training company as their IT Director. That meant I engineered websites (the coding and user-interface aspects) and did technical support for everyone. They had offices in several places across the UK.

In the job prior to that (27 years prior!) I worked for the electronic publisher doing technical support and looking after their web site. While there I also designed several websites for subscription-based services (in the early days of the web).

Before then I worked for a friend’s startup. We were writing computer-based training (CBT) software and I headed up a small development team.

Even earlier was a great 3½ years working for a computer-aided design (CAD) company. Initially I worked in their documentation department writing several of the more technical manuals, then I transferred to work as the programmer on their HVAC (ducting) application.

And my first job (after graduating from an engineering degree at Lancaster), in 1986, was as the User Liaison Officer in the Computer Centre of the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT), now Anglia Ruskin University.

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