About Me

Writing about yourself always feels a little egotistical. However websites are a bit of self-indulgence and you dont say something online in your own space there are very few other places you are allowed to write freely. The following is a potted history of me from the perspective of what interests me. As a result I liberally jump about with the chronology.

I am a sixties child and one of those people that is supposedly confused by this modern era of technology. The problem for me is that I was brought up on a self-imposed diet of Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars and a dozen other TV shows and films that brought the future into peoples homes. The idea of a world wide communication device in Star Trek has come true with the cell phone.

Does anyone remember the world of the Tomorrow People, a kids TV show in the 1970s, or Space 1999, the Gerry Anderson world of the millenium and the moon blasted out of earth orbit. If you did watch these shows then your childhood vision of the world in 21st Century would have been an optimistic future without poverty and the people of the world exploring the galaxy rather that the mundane problems of day to day living.

Perhaps it is that reason that the children of the sixties, a sci-fi generation, are so disappointed with the reality of 21st century living and also believe things should be progressing faster and want
to end everything from global warming to world poverty.

I have been to university and gained an honours degree in History and Politics at the University of Keele in Staffordshire. I went to university almost by accident. My school, Monkseaton High School, in recent years has been linked to high achievers. In my case I ended up not knowing what I wanted to do aged 16 and not having a maths O level. So I stayed into sixth form where a culture of applying to university was already growing.

I enjoyed studying at university although I always felt that maybe I shouldn't have been there. Not posh enough! I got interested in practical politics as well as the theory. So I joined the Labour Party in 1980 and left the Labour Party in 2001. (In government Labour had moved too far to the right for me). However, being a good trade union member, I was persuaded to rejoin in 2005.

My university course had obliged me to take a subsidiary subject in order to complete my degree. It also had to be in a science based subject. I had a go at Computer Science and found I liked it. From this humble beginning I learned more about computers and programming. Right now I earn my living looking after PCs and network servers for a northern council.

The G7SPN comes from my amateur radio callsign. Just another part of my "geek" credentials. When I was a kid I had an old shortwave radio set. The kind of set that if I had stored it away I would sell for a small fortune today. Anyway I used to do silly things like try to improve reception with long wire aerials and I would see how far I could hear. At the edge of some bands I heard the voices of what I now know were radio amateurs. Years later I had some spare time to take the amateur exams and get a licence. If you are interested in amateur radio and haven't yet considered joining this most anorak of pastimes then have a look at the RSGB website.

Technical Topics

This website was originally thrown together with little more than a text editor and a book from Amazon. Subsequently I bought a Apple Mac Mini, the first time I moved from Windows, and in trying to discover it I am developing pages using Mac web design tools. Recommendations to come!