Here is the beginning of my new blog. I've had a few people say I should start one, so here it begins.

My first step towards it isn't actually this post, it was expanding the my already existing website and writing the code to display entries from a database, link them to labels and code a basic administration area for me to add formatted entries.

The blog code is written in ASP.NET classic forms. It's an old language now having been surparsed by .NET core which I'll perhaps learn and migrate this entire website to at some point in the future, but since I wanted to start quickly I used what I'm very much used to having coded ASP.NET and VB.NET since 2006. The whole blog software took me only three evenings to write, including URL rewritting, database, and some javascript that allows me to do basic HTML tags when writing posts!

So what is this about?

As it's a blog - anything! I'll be keeping to my passions though which is computing and electronics.

I'm expanding the knowledge to include snippets of information I come across in the day job too, be that batch, shell, Java, SQL or the more specialised Oracle Hyperion Essbase / Enterprise Management which I've done professionally since 2006 (from Hyperion Essbase version 7).

Outside the day job, I use my time on personal computing and electronics projects. Something I do even more now that Covid-19 has kept me indoors!

Other than that - to know about me is that I'm British born and resident since the early 80's, so technically a millennial. In primary school my early ambitions were the typical Pilot or Astronaut, but even in primary school I later developed an interest in computers with the Amiga 500, and later my first Windows PC in 1995. I also had the electronics interest from project kits, and by my first year of secondary school I was already soldering up amplifier kits and adding them to old speakers and playing music on the bus from a portable cassette player (a cheap Walkman clone).

Though secondary school it became clear that IT was both interesting to me and I was good at it, and had good friends who were also interested in it, and I followed that through sixth form, and then to Computer Science at university.

Initially I took a Robotics customised course, but the first year was the same for all Computer Science students and as I learnt how to code software properly (in Java 1.4), I focussed on that.

Job hunting was a challenge, but by chance I got an interview at Qubix International as a consultant, and I've remained there since. Consulting I found interesting because the job changes as you work with different customer in different places and I'm extremely lucky to have had the opportunities to work for quite a while in Switzerland (on and off for two years) and Japan (5 months).

I found love and married a Malaysian, who is an absolutely fantastic wife and my best friend. We've enjoyed travelling together and have been many places around the world.

Anyway, as I build up content, I hope that it becomes interesting or useful for you readers. For now there's no comments, but if you've any thoughts or info to give I have a contact form linked above.

Song of the day: Dry Cleaning - Scratchcard Lanyard

Video Link. Because that song is an earworm right now, and it deserves some praise for the completely random spoken lyrics that somehow become artistic, plus some brilliant guitar