About me...

Relaxing

Now a resident in a rather splendid part of East Sussex in the UK, my background lies in both digital hardware and software development... linking to a real personal love for engineering elegance. As I type this, I can't help smiling as I think back to the first time I held an iPod in my hand... and the only time I've ever dropped the clutch and floored a Hemi Challenger in 1st. Good examples of Jinba ittai in action.

Relaxing

I've worked on a range of embedded hardware platforms - building the hardware and firmware to drive them... with a particular emphasis on testing to make systems real world reliable. Over the last 5 years, I've worked on my own systems using Microchip PIC chips in completely stand alone configurations coded in assembler or C. I started down that road by playing with the 18F4620, a big 40 pin DIL monster (but easy to prototype) and ended up designing and building a telemetry system for my fuel injected Land Rover V8 engine so I could figure out what was happening if a fault occurred. PIC chips are so remarkably functional and yet cheap that I now tend to use the larger 32 bit 32MX340 chips regardless of the project - a number of which I'm working on now.

Whenever I work on these chips I find myself thinking that if you have any kind of tech problem... these chips may well be able to solve it.

For the last few years I've been working closely with corporate clients to build portals and company web sites, generally with traditional three tier designs using ASPX and AJAX but taking full advantage of frameworks such as bootstrap, JQuery and CSS3 to make the client-side responsive, fast and slick. I like being able to act as an effective intermediary with a client who may need some level of help to figure out their path through the minefield of choices that sometimes have to be made. Building web sites means I also built and managed back office SQL databases (multiple constrained tables, stored procedures coded in TSQL, timed events) and with a very close eye on security; protecting the data from all those pesky little prying black-hats.

...I'm a graduate in computer science and mathematics and I don't think I'll ever lose my passion for this area of work. When relaxing - I work on my old 1962 fuel injected Land Rover and shoot metal plate targets in the company of a great bunch of folks at a nearby air rifle club (I shoot full bore in the States whenever possible). My wife and I enjoy music, reading, dining and travelling.

Very occasionally I pop up on the air waves as a licensed radio ham (G8ZSN)... so if you're ever on 40 meters keep your ears on... you never know we might QSO.

I live with my wife in East Sussex.