Career

When I started work, computers were located in air-conditioned rooms with secure access. A display monitor was just a dream, so too was data storage on anything smaller than a washing machine.

Passion for Technology

I discovered my passion for technology while studying at Polytechnic in Nottingham. I was fascinated that a simple, relatively silent, box could perform equations, store data, sort, evaluate information, make decisions and return responses. In the 1970s, this was remarkable. But, today it's just taken for granted.

1980's Computing

5-hole punched tape, 80-column punched cards, magnetic tape, programming with pencil and paper. This is where I started my career.

On my desk (above) you see me writing a COBOL program with pencil and 80-column paper block. Note the blue pencil eraser on my desk. On the right, a brand new ICL ME-29 80-column CRT-display.

In those days it took two people to lift and mount a 98MB disk drive. When I think about my Smartphone, today I have over 1,000 times more data capacity in my pocket.

Back in those days, you were regarded somewhat as a genius that could tame those electronic beasts. Flashing lights, a multitude of switches on the front panel, water-cooling for the larger beasts, soldering my own cables, learning to count in binary, octal and hexadecimal.

I focused my career on programming, rather than electronics, and spent my early years developing financial accounting, payroll and stock control software.

Software Consultant

As computing became more mainstream, I took the decision to market my own skills as a software consultant.

I took on engagements for numerous organisation, on very diverse and complex projects. In doing so, it also presenting the opportunity to travel the world and deliver meaningful software solutions.

Having lived for much of my life in England (Nottingham & London) and in Germany (Munich), I've been fortunate to also live and work in Netherlands (Utrecht), Jamaica (Kingston), California (San Diego), Denmark (Copenhagen), India (Bangalore, Hydrabad, Gurgaon), Ukraine (Kyiv), Poland (Wrocław).

After spending 40 wonderful, but also stressful, years in my chosen profession, I've now retired from commercial life.

Computing Hobbies

The passion for technology still excites me today. However, I spend my time tinkering with miniature computers such as the Raspberry Pi.

I lived through the age where computers would take up a huge room and were protected against the outbreak of fire. The Raspberry Pi and Pi Zero are one of the smallest consumer computers available today. With these devices I've been building portable servers, motion detection with miniature cameras, bluetooth communication devices, etc.

In addition I recycle old and somewhat obsolete computers/laptops with new operating systems. Why should we throw out perfectly a serviceable computer, just because it won't run the latest version of Windows.