How I Got Into Computers
When I was around 7 years old, my dad brought home a ZX81 that he borrowed from someone at work. Made by Sinclair, the ZX81 was the first home computer available in the UK for less than £100. It had a whopping 1k of RAM with an 8k ROM containing the BASIC language, and there was no method of getting software into the machine without having to type long program listings in by hand on the awful membrane-style keyboard.
Needless to say, it held my attention for little more than afternoon.
A year later, for Christmas, I was given a ZX Spectrum 48k from my parents. The Spectrum, with it’s rubber keys, was a whole different ball game from the ZX81. It had a huge catalogue of colour games that were loaded using audio tapes and and a cassette recorder.
Thus began my love affair with the computer.
At age 11 I got my first PC. It was an Amstrad 1640 (640k ram, 20mb HD, CGA graphics (emulated EGA), 8086 processor, Gem Desktop). All my friends were getting Amiga’s and Atari’s, and I got this lunking great PC. However, it proved to be one of the best things that happened to me. Learning MS-DOS gave me a founding that would hold me in good stead years later (even to this day in fact). I used to play loads of Sierra & LucasArts adventure games on that machine, which is one of my fondest gaming memories.
A few years later, I finally got an Atari STE 520, later moving up to 1040 STE (my brother got the 520). To be honest, it was a games machine. I traded hundreds of copied games with my friends and loved every minute of it. It was less powerful than the Amiga 500, but it didn’t matter. We even linked the two machines via an RS-232 cable running through the wall so we could play multiplayer games against each other (my first introduction to networking).
When they finally got PC’s in our school, years later, me and a friend ruled the network. I’d just moved on up to a 386 PC that I built myself, and I knew the system inside out. After learning Borland Turbo Pascal in Computer Science lessons, we wrote a program that emulated the Novell login process. Just before logging you in though, it would write your password out to a text file. We installed it on a few machines in the computer room, and soon got the passwords of all our classmates, and more importantly the teacher.
The teacher had supervisor rights on the network, so we created another fake student user, gave them admin rights also, and used that account to run the network for about 3 months. We never did any harm, it was about learning the system and helping other people out from time to time. However, somehow I managed to delete the root of the server hard drive and got into a lot of trouble over it.
Next was a 486, then a Pentium Laptop, then a P2 Dual Processor, a PIII, and then a K6-AMD.
By this point, I was running my own web-design business. I’d done Uni for a year and realised it wasn’t for me, and was busy servicing local business with my newly found eye for design.
Whilst working on a contract for Serco Docklands Ltd (we did the website for Docklands Light Railway for about 4 years), we kept being supplied artwork on Mac CD’s. I made the decision to purchase an iMac DV. It proved to be another life-changing moment. I used OS8, OS9 and eventually OSX (grudgingly at first, mind you).
The Quicksilver G4 followed a couple of years later, and my love affair with Apple was cemented in place. Just after this, I closed up my web design company and began working for a large multinational telecoms & manufacturing company as a multimedia developer. 18 months later, for financial reasons, they decided to cull our whole department along with about 1500 other employees, and I was out of a job.
Having no degree, and no recent work to showcase, I found myself low on money and unable to find a decent job. I needed a new computer, and I wanted a powerful laptop, but I just couldn’t afford a Powerbook, so I opted for the next best thing, a Sony Vaio.
Apart from getting hot enough to cook bacon on, that machine was awesome (except for having to run XP). I had it for about a year before finally convincing wife that we really really needed a Mac again. 1 week later, we had juggled the finances, sold the Vaio and purchased an Apple iMac (Intel 2.0ghz Dual core).
It’s funny. As I look back, I wonder what my life would be like if I had been born 10 years earlier. Would computers have captured my imagination and attention in the same way at age 18 instead of 8? Or if I’d been born into today’s world with the Internet and high powered games consoles like the XBox. I feel thankful and priviliged to have been born in the right time and place to have experienced the growth of 2 distinct industries (computers and gaming) first hand.
Top 5 Albums
I like making lists. Particularly top-ten style lists. I like the challenge of trying to focus everything down. With that in mind, here’s the list of my top 5 albums of all time.
5. Metallica – The Black Album
Metallica at their peak (before they turned into assholes). This was the stage in their career when the passion shone through into their music. A great cross-section of powerful vocals and balls-out rocking. Every song on this album is a keeper.
4. Nirvana – Nevermind
Instantly transports me back to my younger days. Seattle grunge at it’s finest. Cobain’s anguish is clear in his voice which always sounds on the edge of collapsing, and Grohl is just a fucking machine on drums. Listen to ‘Territorial Pissings’ and tell me they didn’t rock out.
3. Smashing Pumpkins : Siamese Dreams
Again another band that I love. I love the mix of quiet accoustic sections, leading into heavier, grungier guitar sections, and then into flights of orchestra behind Billy Corgan’s distinctive vocal style.
2. Rage Against The Machine : Rage Against The Machine
The self-titled album that was the soundtrack to my teens. This album is angry, political and powerful. There’s a certain state of mind where nothing will else do. Best played at a very loud volume.
1. Nine Inch Nails : The Downward Spiral (Deluxe Edition)
Even before the remastered deluxe edition (in 5.1 surround), this was my favourite album of all time. I have pretty much everything NIN have ever released, but this album is the best they’ve ever released. NIN are almost a genre unto themselves, but their closest genre would be industrial/electronica.
Looking at my music collection spanning over 10000 songs and a wide variety of genres, it’s strange to see the my top 5 albums all coming from the same genre and a similar era. There are so many albums that almost made the cut, but the selection was based on a mix of how much enjoyment I got from that album and what percentage of the songs on the album album were worth listening to.
As a curious aside, I’ve listed below the ones that were shortlisted for the top 5.
The Also Rans
Red Hot Chili Peppers : Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Pantera : Vulgar Display of Power
Faith No More : Angel Dust
Leftfield : Rhythm and Stealth
Helicopter Girl : How To Steal The World
Orbital : The Middle Of Nowhere
Ministry : Psalm 69
Kid Koala : Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Daft Punk : Homework
Portishead : Dummy
Mandalay : Empathy
Evanescence : Fallen
Jamiroquai : Dynamite
Soundgarden : Superunknown
Squarepusher : Big Loada
Front Line Assembly : Millennium
Annihilator : Set The World On Fire