It seems then, like you've finally found where I hide in cyberspace.
Not that it should be too much of a surprise, but never mind your here now, so lets begin the show.
I'm "Shawty" in case the title of this page didn't give you that impression, and I do strange things with technology.
If you want to find out more about me, you've come to the right place, if you want to hire me however, you've come to the wrong place, for that you need to go here:
I do lots of things, but primarily I'm a "technologist", at least that's what I prefer to call myself anyway.
I've been developing software for 40 years or more (at the time I write this text), I've built electronc gadgets, maintained mobile phone networks, radar and radio instalations, built fleet tracking systems, and even participated on the R&D for quite a lot of things you use in your day to day life.
Aside from technology, I cycle, I draw maps, study local history, write music and am also a fur-parent to Atticus the cat and husband to my long suffering tech-widow Samantha.
I don't just do software when it comes to technology however, I build things using Arduinos, Raspberry PI's and PIC Microcontrollers. I tear old circuits apart and make new things from them, I build strange circuits virtually using software such as "Digital" and physically on breadboards, and if it's any good, maybe even put a video of it on my You-Tube page :-)
I started in 1979 at the age of 7, with one of what was at the time a "state of the art" home computer, which you can see in the image to the left.
The ZX80 seems laughable now in 2021, with it's 1k of memory, membrane keyboard and 40x20 text display, but back then it was a magic box of wonder to a 7yr old UK school child like myself.
By the next year I'd upgraded to the latest and the greatest, the successor to this marvelous beast the "ZX81", not much difference the clock speed was faster, I think it was 1 mhz rather than 0.5 mhz, to be honest it was that long ago I really don't remember, but I spent hours exploring the Z80 CPU that was in it.
Within a year I'd taught myself sinclair basic and Z80 machine code, and I was writing some pretty interesting stuff. I'd also saved my pocket money and bought myself some "Type Your Own Adventure Games" books, and a tape recorder so I could save my programs.
Over the next few years, I bought a number of other machines. Some second hand, some I saved pocket money for, or got as gifts for birthdays, christmas etc. Among them, the ones I most remember where:
The ONE that really changed things though, you can see to the right, this machine I more or less owe my entire career to.
The day the courier delivered this square beige monster (and to be fair it was a monster, compared to the size of most systems at the time) to my house, is a day I will remember for ever.
I think after a few months my parents began to wonder if I was still alive or not, I'd come in from school, grab some food then disappear up into my bedroom. I sought out every technical publication I could get my hands on, every BBS file I could download, every magazine, tape (and later disk) I could copy from like minded friends.
I was impressed by my Acorn Electron the year erlier, but this.... this was like digital drugs running through my viens. The graphics, the sound & music it could produce, it's massive 32k memory, I was a kid on a mission, I wanted to learn every intimate detail I could about the BBC Model B, and I did.
Eventually, as I grew, I saved, I asked for money for cristmas and birthday presents, I got myself a paper round, and by the time I hit 16, my BBC became a BBC Master 512 with a 186 PC Co-Processor.
Exams happened, studying ensued, I went to collage, studied for my BTEC's and generally life got in the way, my next upgrade was something however that I had dreamed about for a very long time.
Ok, I've skipped forward a little, I had an Acorn A3010, and an Olivetti Prodest PC1 before this machine, but this was my next memorable upgrade. The Acorn Archimedies A5000 was where I wrote my first ever piece of professional software that I sold and made money from.
I realised at this time in my life that writing software was where I'd wanted to be, I'd done some other things for about 4 years prior, but then I realised it was time to come back to doing what I loved, so I went back to college and university, got a job working with a local computer shop repairing computers and early IBM PC's and on the side cranking out all manner of software for shareware, PD and private clients.
When I think back at some of the crazy software I've been asked to write over the years, I realize back then how real it was, compared to how it is now. In todays software environment, everything is standard, it's windows and some form of GUI, the semantics are all very similar, and programming the hardware in most cases is a no no.
Back then we where digital explorers, every computer was different, and every platform had a character that was as different as the folks who chose to use them. THe games players and writers flocked to the Comodore 64's and the Amiga 500s, the home brew experimenters to the BBCb's and other Acorn machines, the Arcade junkines and later console affictionados where mostly Atari based systems, and then later on Nintendo, Sega and Playstation orientated.
The 80's & 90's Shaped the geeks, then the windows and the year 2000 onwards turned those geeks into valuable company assets and highly trained I.T. professionals.