Headings? Over-rated things I think...

Contact Me

Please use this form to email me. You can't post your email address anywhere these days because of the spammers.

Who He?

Just another IT techie... I'm Australian born and Nationality, UK raised and resident. I went to school at RGS, Guildford, Surrey, UK, and briefly attended Imperial College, London. I work in computers, LANs and Infrastructure being my metier, and out of the office tend to sail, play music or just sit in front of a PC. The surname is French in origin.

Work

Right now I work for Surrey County Council, which is an English Local Authority. Like the whole of the rest of the industry I'm always open to offers. Lots of Novell, lots of Windows, lots of IP, fair bit of Linux probably summarises it. At the moment I spend a lot of time working with Novell's Identity Manager product to integrate user data from different systems, notably eDirectory, Active Directory, Lotus Domino and various SAP modules. Identity Manager is a good product for this sort of thing, and keeps getting better. I'm also quite a fan of the LAMP combination, particularly PHP. With the permission of my employers we've made some of the utilities I've produced available under the University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License, and the collection is available from here.

IMHO right now NetWare and in particular eDirectory is still the best foundation for a manageable large network, Linux/Unix or proprietary OS usually the best choice for serious Enterprise Hosts whilst Windows is fine for miscellaneous odd job boxes and as a desktop OS. I have plenty of time for Linux: it keeps on running, and seems a very good call for standard IP jobs - at SCC I use it for DNS and time sources, and of course AMP for web serving. If that's what you want, and you're serious about wanting it done well, then you may well want me!

A long time ago I used to do what I guess could be called semi-pro Sheep farming, and also worked at Bretts Burgers, Guildford, which seems to have been widely regarded as being the best Burger shop in the UK. I also spent a few years working at bike shops, notably Cranleigh Motorcycles (which has now moved and been renamed as Haslemere Motorcycles). I was an instructor and then examiner for the RAC/ACU Motorcycle training scheme, a long standing voluntary scheme of rider training in the days before compulsory rider training.

Play

Here's some thoughts on ways I've passed the time. I seem to rotate three main pastimes, with emphasis on a different main hobby for four or five years at a time, then switch to the next one in the cycle.

Sailing

Recently its been mainly racing Sailing Dinghies. The latest toy is an International Canoe. The Canoe appeals these days because its quick and interesting but with a relatively modest sail area. The rules have recently been changed to reduce weight and open up hull design, and the class is surely the most interesting design proposition in unballasted racing. I have yet to learn to sail the beast properly! The Spinnaker equipped AC, on the other hand, is not my thing at all. (Much) more about sailing on my domain home page, www.devboats.co.uk

Some years ago I designed and part built a new boat, intended as a single hander for club sailing in my middle age, and I also get involved with training at my home club Island Barn SC, Molesey, Surrey, especially the Tuesday Summer evening sessions for adults.

I've also been involved with the Cherub Class fairly regularly, and a while back was Class President and ran the website.

As a (very) expatriate Aussie - some 3 decades in the UK - I consider the major date in the sporting history of the world to have been the 26th September 1983.

Bikes

I've been known to mess about with motorbicycles, having a particular affection for 60s and 70s Jap light to middleweights. Favourites that I've owned have included the Honda CB72, CB250RSA, Yamaha YDS7 & DT100 and the totally wonderful Honda CB400F. This affection wouldn't prevent me gratefully accepting the gift of (say) a Manx Norton or a 350 Ducati Desmo single however...

I wish I still had the RS - the perfect commuter bike and to my mind the best 250 Honda ever made, but it was vandalised and destroyed a few years ago. My very latest toy/work transport is a Yamaha YBR250. This isn't, unfortunately, quite a replacement for the beloved CB250RSA. What with catalytic converters, oil cooler, noise regulations and goodness knows what, the poor thing is slugged down to around 21bhp, as opposed to the 26/27 claimed for the old RSA. I sound as if I've got a down on the thing don't I? Actually so far (about 400 miles) I like the little beastie a lot. It's just that its a mistake to think of it as a 250(!) In my youth a 250 was the smallest bike that you could realistically mix it up with full speed traffic on motorways and the like, smaller bikes were really happier away from the 70mph limit. Things like 175s or 200s were what I guess I'd call urban/suburban bikes: great in traffic, fine in 50 or 60 limits, but it really wasn't kind to run them for hours at motorway speed limits. So really the YBR250 is a successor to things like a CD175 or CB200 Honda, and put in that context its a damn nice bicycle. And its as a suburban/urban bike I bought it, with my eyes open, so that's just fine. One of these days the YDS7 in the garage needs to be restored too: maybe in faux race configuration: I rather fancy that!

Noise

Musically I mainly play Bass guitar (an exceptionally nice Tokai Jazz) with maybe the odd texture on mandolin and anglo concertina, but not as much as I ought to. It's probably about time I went looking for a new band. I've play mainly around the sort of general borders of rock/folk/blues/country, so if you need a bass player... I like playing in Barn Dance bands, and used to play with Cup Hill when that was running. I've also played contemporary Church Music quite a lot, notably at St. Johns Church, Woking, Surrey.
"What that awful happy-clappy stuff?"
Some people might call it that, I don't. I like good recent music, and I like good older music. I dislike poor music, and will pontificate at length on the subject!

I also play about with Cubase and so on on the PC, but nothing I'd be prepared to make public, although there's a bit of my programming, bassplaying and [shudder] even singing on Simon Barden's "The Men they Couldn't Wash" CD which is a friends only release for folk who did Spinnakers cruises on the Norfolk Broads. If that means nothing to you don't worry!

Old Musical Friends

Salt Solution

They were by far the most organised and regular gigging of our local bands, playing mostly a Christian Music circuit, but a fair few pubs and things as well. I never played in the band, but was involved with them a bit, especially in their earlier days :- I "produced" and "engineered" their first demo tape when they were still (wonderfully) named "Mervyn Sprocket and the Crankshaft Assembly". Folks who remember them with affection might like to know their music is available for download from Singer Martin Day's pages on the band. Standout track IMHO is "The Day In Between" a *wonderful* duet featuring Helen Jayne which I think stands up in any company. The downloads even include that first demo. The cassete Martin copied it from has, I hope, suffered over the years: I don't remember recording that much distortion! I should have the master tape up in the loft: if I can persuade the old tape player to work I may try and run off a new master... Simon the SS Bass player has a Blog here.

Cup Hill Morris

I've never danced a single step of Morris, but for a while back in the 80s there was an associated Barn Dance Band, which I played electric bass in. Without doubt the most fun band I've ever been in because the "audience" is there to dance and have fun, not look cool to their mates, which is the curse of rock audiences... More of that elsewhere!

Helen Jayne

Doug, now Helen's manager and husband was another old mate. As well as Salt Solution "Decibels" McKellar also played drums in at least one band I guested in. But from the first time I heard Helen sing it was quite obvious she was in a different league to the rest of us. You can buy Helen's recordings off the site. Give a demo track a listen and if you like the style then get them.Top stuff.

The Witchdoktors

Lead Holler Andy is a mate at the office. Its got to be said their brand of balls-forward punk flavoured rock'n'roll isn't normally my style, but they make a bloody good noise, and for whatever my opinion is worth Andy is an exceptional vocalist. Well worth getting out to see, but if your ears are suffering with the years and drummers like mine are then you might want to bring a bit of ear protection because they ain't quiet!

Better Known Stuff

Top rated in my iTunes playlist...

John Tams - American Dream (Girl in Texas)
All About Eve - Are You Lonely?
Fotheringay - Banks Of The Nile
John Tams - Bound East for Cardiff
The Byrds - Chestnut Mare
Dave Swarbrick & Simon Nicol - Close To The Wind
Sonja Kristina - Colder Than A Rose
Richard Thompson - From Galway to Graceland
Mary Chapin Carpenter - Goodbye Again
The Albion Band - Gresford Disaster
Mary Chapin Carpenter - He Thinks He'll Keep Her
Ashley Hutchings - I Dreamed a Dream
Linda Thompson - I Live Not Where I Love
Bruce Springsteen - Jersey Girl
Jay Turner - My Grandfather's Eyes
Kate Rusby - Old Man Time
Fairport Convention - One More Chance
Gregson & Collister - One Step Up
Mary Chapin Carpenter - Passionate Kisses
Dave Swarbrick & Simon Nicol - Si Bheag Si Mhor
John Tams - Somewhere the Sun Is Shining/Hold Back the Tide
Dire Straits - Telegraph Road
Ashley Hutchings - To Ireland I Made My Way
John Kongos - Tomorrow I'll Go
All About Eve - Wishing the Hours Away
John Tams - Yonder (Down the Winding Road).

Etcetera

Perhaps I spend too much time playing with a PC at home, but any suggestions of "get a life" will be greeted with abuse should I discover that the accuser spends as much time in front of the television - something I almost never do - as I do in front of a computer. I'm rarely noted for a lack of self confidence - especially at work, and those who know me or are interested in any of the above can reach me with the link above. Spam, needless to say, is most unwelcome, and I may as well say that the use of these pages for harvesting email addresses is forbidden (Not that it will do any good).