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Computer centre

I have been fascinated by computers since the 1980's, initially as an extension of my ongoing interest in electronics generally. My first computer I built from a kit around a 6502 processor (as used in the Apple and BBC computers). I used this kit with triac switches of my own design to replace the faulty timer/programmer switch on our washing machine, to the amazement of the neighbours (We were living in a block of flats with a communal washroom at the time). Since then, I have gone through Apple ][ and BBC Master computers before settling on IBM type PC's, most of which I have assembled myself.

As far as programming goes, my first language was machine language on the 6502. Others since include Basic (Apple and BBC), Pascal (on the Apple), plus forays into Lisp and Forth on the BBC. Once settled on the PC, I ditched Basic in favour of C, later C++, and have never regretted it. I currently use the Borland C++ Builder package.

My first big project, apart from the washing machine, was a database program in Apple Basic, which ran my anaesthetic department statistics for several years, even after my departure from that hospital. As an index of economy, a year's worth of data fitted happily onto a single 143 kB Apple disc. You could scarcely open a Word document that small these days. My current special-purpose database runs the anaesthetic department rota of a big district general hospital, with input facilities no commercial database can supply.

Programming in Windows is not so much fun for a hobby programmer such as myself, who finds process control as much an interest and application for computers as databases and spreadsheets, but I occasionally still do a few things for my own amusement which others might find of interest.

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Photography

See my pictures on the photo album pages. I hope to produce a more extensive set in due course.

My grandfather had one of the earliest Leicas till a Russian soldier took it off him. My earliest photographic memories are of my father letting off a magnesium flare to illuminate the family under the Christmas tree, and, later, of watching him produce pictures from a horizontal enlarger with the paper pinned to the wall.

My first camera was a 6x6 cm Dacora Digna, my first 35mm a Paxette. My first SLR was a Pentax, but the first with interchangeable lenses was an Olympus OM2n, for which I acquired all manner of lenses. That was a wonderful camera which I would still be using if my wife could have coped with the manual focussing. I now run a Canon EOS 50.

I have photographed, developed and printed in black and white since my teenage years. More recently I went to evening classes in colour printing (I actually went to sign up for keyboard classes, but they were full and the darkroom course sounded interesting). Latterly, of course, the inkjet printer has mostly replaced the enlarger.