{"id":118,"date":"2026-02-24T12:02:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/?page_id=118"},"modified":"2026-09-10T17:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T17:51:30","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">About me<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\" style=\"border-top-color:var(--wp--preset--color--accent-2);border-right-color:var(--wp--preset--color--accent-2);border-bottom-color:var(--wp--preset--color--accent-2);border-left-color:var(--wp--preset--color--accent-2);border-left-width:10px\">\n<p class=\"has-custom-quote-color has-text-color has-link-color has-large-font-size wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph\">I live in Birmingham and am a computer nerd: I love helping other people use their computers more effectively and have fun coding on them myself.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ex-Cambridge resident<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I lived in Cambridge  (UK) for nearly 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I was very involved with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cam.net.uk\">CamNet: The Cambridge Freenet<\/a> for several years. However, the arrival of free ISPs in the UK saw an end to CamNet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I was a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.camcycle.org.uk\">Cambridge Cycling Campaign<\/a> which is still trying to improve facilities for local cyclists. I edited their newsletter for a time in the mid-90\u2019s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And I cycled a lot of the time. Mostly over the years my employer&#8217;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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Brum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I moved to Birmingham (UK) around <!-- [years] -->\n years ago. I am currently probably retired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cycling in Birmingham is a daunting and somewhat dangerous endeavour which I undertake on my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brompton.com\/\">Brompton<\/a> folding bike (which I guess counts as my <em>fourth<\/em> bike). I retain a normal bike in a friend&#8217;s garage in Cambridge for use on my visits there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Computer nerd<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I own a couple of Macs. And I work with people and their computers (almost all of which are Macs too). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I used to work for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ytko.com\">YTKO<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before then I worked for a friend\u2019s startup. We were writing computer-based training (CBT) software and I headed up a small development team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even earlier was a great 3\u2009\u00bd 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 a programmer on their MEDUSA Plant Design System (MPDS), adding its HVAC\/ducting support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And my first job \u2013 after graduating from an engineering degree at Lancaster in 1986 \u2013 was as the User Liaison Officer in the Computer Centre of the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT), now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aru.ac.uk\">Anglia Ruskin University<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-794e3cfa wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"mailto:jonathan@whiteland.net\">jonathan@whiteland.net<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blgbt.org\"><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/chailey.whiteland.net\">@chailey.whiteland.net<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/tech.lgbt\/@chailey\">@chailey@tech.lgbt<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blgbt.org\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/birmingham-lgbt-legend-badge.png\" alt=\"Representation of a badge with the words &quot;LEGEND - BIRMINGHAM LGBT&quot; on it.\" class=\"wp-image-203\" style=\"object-fit:cover;width:100px;height:100px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/birmingham-lgbt-legend-badge.png 300w, https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/birmingham-lgbt-legend-badge-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-6d4d5eec wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-accent-2-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-accent-2-background-color has-background eoc-line\"\/>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About me I live in Birmingham and am a computer nerd: I love helping other people use their computers more effectively and have fun coding on them myself. Ex-Cambridge resident I lived in Cambridge (UK) for nearly 40 years. Brum I moved to Birmingham (UK) around years ago. I am currently probably retired. Cycling in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-no-title","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-118","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715,"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/118\/revisions\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteland.net\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}