I was born on the 13th of November 1958 and spent my first few years of life
living in Dalmally Road, Addiscombe, Croydon, Surrey which is a bugger of an
address to learn as a child.My father was a chippy ( that is a carpenter rather than a purveyor of
french fries ) and my mother was a full-time housewife and mother.
Due to the unpredictable nature of the construction industry the family moved
around the country considerably, chasing employment for my father, stopping at
various places, including Bristol and Shaw ( near Oldham ), before finally
coming to rest at Carrbrook ( near Stalybridge, Manchester ).
The Formative Years
Most of my later school life was spent at Hyde County Grammar School For Boys
where they attempted to teach me Latin - which was somewhat difficult having
missed the first term whilst at another school that wasn't quite so
interested in dead languages.
To date I have never managed to get to grip with foreign languages although
I do seem to have picked up some Welsh as it's quite easy when travelling and
all the road signs carry translations.
How useful it is to know the Welsh for, "Roundabout ahead", is something I
hope I will never need to find out.
I left school with a reasonable number of 'O' Levels with respectable grades
but didn't do quite so well when it came to 'A' levels although, to be fair,
the grades are nothing to be ashamed of.
Whilst at school I was extremely interested in cross-country and other forms
of running and did for a while enjoy playing rugby.
The running came to a stop when it became a choice of sport or computing on a
Wednesday afternoon. An unfair choice I felt at the time and regret not having
kept up the odd 25 mile runs that I was quite capable of at that time.
I got out of rugby as soon as the opposing teams stopped looking like angelic
fifteen year olds, were obviously suffering some sort of hormonal imbalance,
started to look more like gorillas than humans and it was suggested that
I wear some sort of protection to ensure my future ability to have children.
It was at school that I gained an interest in electronics having bought a
'build it yourself electronics test lab' with lots of springs on a
wooden base and a handful of components. This, combined with a growing
interest in computing, was to set me on my career path of the future.
The Academic Years
I left school in 1977 ( the best year ever - apart from the death of
Marc Bolan ) and started on a BSc in Computer Science at
Hatfield Polytechnic ( now The University of Hertfordshire ).
Despite getting some of the highest grades possible in the first few terms, the
death of my mother caused me an amount of emotional distress and, having taken
some time off my studies to be with my family for a few weeks, certain
members of the academic staff refused to take my situation into account
when my course work was not in on time. This caused a rift between myself
and the Information Science Department that was never to heal.
Having taken up an active role in the Student's Union, becoming Communications
Officer, and gaining a position as Student Representative to the Departmental
Board, and later the Board of Governors, these roles and my opinions that I
aired on the Computer Science
course at that time ( too much parrot-fashion teaching, the unreasonableness of
extending deadlines when some students had rushed to complete work and the fact
that, on paper, people with various degree grades shouldn't have received those
grades were among a number of concerns ), forced the already existing rift wide
open.
Although I kept up with the academic course I drifted further towards an
education of life engrossing myself in work for the Student Union running
various aspects of their Entertainments Department.
At the end of the day I completed the course but, unsurprisingly, did not
get awarded a degree. My heart was not in it to even lodge a complaint or
even attempt resits although my relationship with the Student's Union, and
its bar, continued for many years after.
The Long Years Of Employment
Whilst at Hatfield Polytechnic I undertook two industrial training periods
with GEC Traffic Automation in Borehamwood and Babcock Bristal UK in Welwyn
Garden City. At GEC I worked on British Rail Signalling Systems and, at
Babcock Bristol, I worked on Process Control Systems used in both paper mills
and mines.
After I left Hatfield Polytechnic I had a brief liaison with Smith Kline and
French ( as it was then ) in Old Welwyn and then moved on to join
Zero 88 Lighting Limited based in
St. Albans.
I spent 14 years with Zero 88 as a Software Engineer working on a variety of
projects and was involved in the creation and development of products for use
in the entertainment lighting industry.
Zero 88 closed its production facility in St. Albans and opened a new
production facility at Cwmbran in Gwent, South Wales.
After a number of years running as a two site operation, Zero 88 decided
to relocate most of its staff to the site in Cwmbran and, eventually,
for financial reasons, closed the St. Albans office.
Most of the staff in the Cwmbran office, apart from the directors and managers
that relocated from St. Albans, have been drawn in from the local indigenous
population which, as well as helping the company by way of various regional
grants and generally lower than national average salaries, has provided
employment in an area of the country that has suffered considerably from
unemployment in the past.
With the closure of the St. Albans office, and my unwillingness to relocate
to South Wales, I, along with others, became redundant and embarked upon the
search for alternative employment.
I subsequently joined the staff at
Origin UK Limited ( the Business Solution
Provider and not the Games company ) and became based on The Science Park at
Cambridge.
I joined Origin when, to say the least, certain division's futures were a
little uncertain; having heard one of the best plans for the future ever,
from divisional, senior management, it was a little disconcerting that the very
same were given their marching orders within two weeks of my joining.
Despite a period of existence with little or no directionality, Origin finally
managed to achieve a degree of focus and finally nailed its flag to the tree of
the Information Technology ( ERP, Baan and SAP ) bandwagon.
With there becoming little, obvious need for an in-product software
division within the UK; my future was a little uncertain, however, redundancy
was circumvented with the transfer of the whole division to
Symbian ( formerly
Psion Software Limited ).
I am now, by accident rather than design, a fully fledged member of Symbian and
will be working towards making their Epoc 32 operating system the one of
choice in the Wireless Telephony industry; battling the mighty Microsoft and
their Windows CE offering.
Being thrust into a C++ environment ( upon which Epoc 32 is built ) is a bit of
a culture shock for a Software Engineer who loves 8-bit microprocessors,
assembly language and building hardware, however, it is leading edge technology
and not many forty year olds get the chance to make such a career change.
I am still based on the Science Park in Cambridge, actually in the same
office ( with the previous office temperature problems ), but I'm willing to
give it a try, however, if the perfect job were to come
along, offering me exactly what I want to be doing, at the right salary, I
would not hesitate to take it at a moments notice.
Having said that; the future looks bright, perhaps not bright enough to start
wearing shades yet, but, with the sudden downturn in the global SAP market, a
change of employer may well have been imminent anyway.
I am still working on in-product software, to a degree, and am sure that I
shall continue to be able to put my software skills to good use; whether my
electronic and hardware skills become relegated to being used only in my
hobbies remains to be seen.
The Rest Of The Family
My father eventually retired, more through a lack of work than age, and
moved to Duckinfield, Cheshire, selling up and buying a smaller house so he
was able to support himself during the following years.
He continued to live a fairly solitary and independent life until he passed
away at Christmas, 1996.
I have a younger brother, Charlie, who got himself into
The Army
as soon as he could, drove tanks for the Tank Regiment until he realised it was
actually a pretty dangerous thing to do on a battlefield and changed course
to become a fully qualified paramedic.
Having spent most of his time in Germany, with a few exercises in Canada, and
having undertaken a number of tours of duty in Northern Ireland he decided to
leave The Army, just before the Gulf War started ( planned well before
and not as an act of cowardice or conscientious objection I must add - he has
been trained to kill people you know ).
Unable to get a job in the UK as a paramedic he is now living near Manchester
and is currently working as a security guard at a location that will remain
nameless.
A complete waste of a talent, through no fault of his own, which is why Great
Britain may not be so great after all.
Various Bits Of Miscellaneous Information And Trivia
I am currently living in North Hertfordshire and, apart from watching the money
disappear to the Building Society each month, am quite happy there, however,
during my later years at Hatfield Polytechnic and well in to my time working
with Zero 88 I lived in rented accommodation near Hatfield which was a somewhat
different story.Despite what could be considered a very low rent, the property fell in to
total decay due to neglect by the landlord and myself, neighbours and
Environmental Health Officers became embroiled in a battle to rectify the
situation.
The confrontations that raged over the years, which resulted in a serious
physical attack on a fellow resident and led to the imprisonment of a
number of relatives of the landlord's agent, brought me into close contact
with the civil justice system.
To say this was an interesting experience would be an understatement given
that I was representing myself and, in another related case, the barrister
acting on behalf of the landlord had asked the judge to be relieved from
representing his client.
Perhaps my crowning glory in this long and sorry affair was when I managed
to gain a judgement that the landlord was in contempt of court ( requiring
the matter to be proven to the standard required in a criminal court and
being beyond reasonable doubt ) and a
committal was only avoided, as I see it, because the defendants were required
to be in court that afternoon to answer in another case.
If nothing else; this whole saga gave me an insight into the workings of
the civil courts that few others get to see and showed, that at least some
of the time, the system does indeed work. Although I also accept that in
other instances it certainly does not or appears not to.
Given the experience that I went through; I am extremely concerned that
everyone should be able to have recourse to the law and shouldn't be
prevented from receiving justice on grounds of cost.
I am an avid believer in free access to the courts and am greatly concerned
over the effects that reforms on Legal Aid may have.
Politically, as you should be able to tell by now; Socialist.
And I'll have none of this namby-pamby, third-way, centre of
left, New Labour bollocks.
For the horoscopically minded of you; I am a Scorpio
and, in Chinese terms, an Earth Dog. I fit the
standard profiles almost to a tee. You may therefore be both relieved and
warned.
Musically, the highlights of my life have been ...
-
Being at Granada TV Studios in Manchester to watch the recording of So It
Goes presented by Tony Wilson ( when he was just plain old Tony Wilson )
as The Sex Pistols made their first television appearance. I saw the female
dancers taking clothes off but the viewers at home never did.
-
Being at Oakland's Agricultural College, St. Albans, when Chrissie Hind
and the Pretenders, "We don't do drugs. We don't drink", appeared before they
made it big time. The most memorable thing about the night was certain
members of the band unable to stand up and falling off stage having not done
drugs and having not had a drink.
-
As stage manager, trying to get members of The American Blues Legends tour on
stage and being thwarted with retorts along the lines of, "I'll just finish
me ganjah. Relax man".
-
Appearing on the BBC's live, Q-Tips' Rock Goes To College broadcast looking
like the most bored member of the audience. Which I think truly was the case.
-
Meeting Billy Idol of Generation X whilst setting up for a gig in their early
days, convincing him that, despite what his tour manager had said, stage
lighting was necessary and we weren't going to just leave the house lights on
as had been done at their previous gigs. And, organising him a lift to the
local launderette because the band had just been dumped and left to fend for
themselves and hadn't done any washing for a number of days.
-
I also personally know the man who introduced The Smurf Song into the UK but
I'll be generous and not be too public with his name.
As for hobbies ...
-
I have maintained an interest in electronics and programming in the areas
that I'm not involved in at work. This is generally a case of self-learning
and discovery rather than a complete obsession with work related business; as
can be seen below ...
-
I made the mistake of airing my views on how software based robots
could be designed and
presented ( The Euphoria Pixel Bot Project )
in public and have had to commit a lot of time and effort to supporting and
implementing what I suggested in response to the interest that I generated.
This has however been quite enjoyable, if not a little distracting at times.
-
I am attempting to implement an
Ambient Music System
that will automatically deliver music to my bathroom whenever it becomes
occupied at various times of the day. Strange but true.
This project has been ongoing for a considerable period of time but I will
let you all know when, if, it is finished.
-
I have an interest in the study of Bioryhthmns but I have not yet made a
decision on whether or not I believe in them as a useful tool.
-
I have also developed an interest in
Personality Profiling and
Psychometric Testing brought on by the
experiences of these tools being used in job interviews that I have attended ( I
am a confirmed Melancholic ). As with
Bioryhthmns; I am not entirely convinced of the results returned, although
there are some very promising indications in their favour, and I am continuing
my research into this field.
-
I am interested in DIY but not very good at it. And there isn't much by
way of electronics or software involved except when wiring up a local
area network infra-structure ( one day it will be complete ). There is
of course the excitement of having an excuse to go to all the local DIY
superstores to browse.
-
Due to the failure of the local public houses, near where I live, to provide
decent beer on a regular basis I have changed my
social habits somewhat and have regained an interest in the cinema.
This has provided me with the opportunity to push even more
film reviews on to the net; the writing of
which have been quite enjoyable - the search for stills less so.
-
There are also many pylons in the universe that need
to be categorised and classified.
-
And, I've got these web pages to keep up to date.
