Computing
Currently working at Tao Group Ltd. Before joining Tao I worked as an Information Designer for Oracle Corporation based in their UK HQ in Reading.I started working in IT during the dotcom boom, working for a (now defunct) startup in Newbury.
I learnt about computers whilst at Oxford and Cambridge. I spent much of my time troubleshooting computing problems, and by the time I got to Newcastle I was an old hand at dealing with the blue screen of death. It never ceases to amaze me how some of the most intelligent people on the planet can find it so difficult to use computers, but it always meant that my computing skills were in demand.
Science fiction
Babylon 5 - OK, its old hat now, but I still like it (apart from the 5th season). There are few clear cut good & bad guys here, and there's been some good complex character development along the way.The Worlds of CJ Cherryh - An American author, who produces wonderfully vivid tales, with character development (a rareity in science fiction) across numerous Universes. The Foreigner series is a 'must' for anyone who enjoys rich plots tinged with the complexity of machiaevellian politics. The latest - Precursor was published in 2000, and is a good read, promissing at leat a further 2 volumes to come in the series.
Cherryh maintains her own web pages
Her books increasingly fascinate me..
Dr Who and Blake's 7 are probably my oldest obsessions - I spent too much time as a teenager as a member of DWAS, and now my days of attending (and organising) Panopticons, drinking vast amounts of gin and running around hotel corridors with voice ring modulators are over (well, mostly, if you exclude the gin).
And as for B7, it was never the same after Star One, and the invasion of all those terrible aliens from the Andromeda galaxy (one of them really was a plastic spinning top).
Terry Pratchett Any resemblence between myself and Gytha Ogg is purely.... (oh, yes, alright then, you got me bang to rights guv'nor).
Oh, the wizard's staff has a knob on the end,
knob on the end, knob on the end...
Science fact
SETI@home - The search for extra-terrestrial life can run from
your computer viaa screen saver.
Travel
The best perk of my old job as an archaeologist- if you've ever sat in the Australian Central Desert watching the sun set on Ayres Rock, you'll know what I mean. Work has taken me around the world a few times, although I am happiest in Australia and Southern Africa.Open University
I'm doing a Diploma in Computing as CPD. So far I've successfully completed courses on Object Oriented Programming (M206) and Relational Databases (M358). In 2003 I'll be learning C++.