Welcome...
It does seem strange to be using the Internet, which is accessible on a global level, for a locally based service however it's truly the best way for me to reach out to the people who matter to my business most; local people who may need my help.

Beginnings...
My first interest in computers came about when my grandmother left me a small sum of money when she passed away in 1984. It was just enough to buy a BBC Model B Micro. I was soon running a "Bulletin Board System" from my bedroom on one telephone line. It meant that like minded "geeks" could call from anywhere in the world to share information about computers. In those days one had to be a "hacker" to get anything working. It was originally a term referring to someone who could get a system working with a bit of wit and by fiddling about enough - it certainly didn't have any of the serious criminal connotations that it does today.

Remote coursework...
Having run the Bulletin Board for a year, I started a Systems Software Degree course at what was then called The Polytechnic of Central London; now known as The University of Westminster. One day, I managed to get hold of the telephone number that the engineers used to dial into the DEC 10 and VAX mainframe computers and before long I and my fellow students were able do our coursework from the comfort of our own homes. In those days there was absolutely no security at all; a simple phone number got you in. I guess that the guys running the mainframes just never figured that anyone would want to get in and never changed the default login of "SYSOP" and "SYSOP" for username and password. None of us ever thought of ourselves as "hackers". We just wanted to get our coursework done in comfort.

Career Moves...
Upon closing the Bulletin Board a few years later, I entered the shiny new world of "Desktop Publishing". Starting off at a small print pre-production works in Streatham, I helped take delivery of two of the first Apple II computers to come into the country I spent the next few years using them to design brochures and layouts.

A Stranger in a Strange Land...
Having had a head start in the desktop publishing business, I'd learnt enough about system administration to step into a well paid job for a national newspaper when I moved with my German girlfriend to the city of her birth, Heidelberg, in Germany. I hardly spoke a word of the language but after a year, had learnt enough about the large Novell file servers that serviced a network of Macintosh computers, to be running the computer department. I had also learned to speak German fluently.