I’ve always loved technology and gadgets. From a very early age my toys had to have some gadget factor. That’s common now, but not so common in the 70s! I had one of the millions of Evil Knievel stunt cycles, that could supposedly travel over 100 feet off its hand driven fly wheel. I’m not sure it ever reached those sorts of distances but it certainly made it across a pile of books in the middle of my bedroom on more than one occasion!
And then there was the BBC B Micro computer with a whopping 16KB of RAM! I still have it and will try and see if it still works at some stage (expect a blog post)!
Jumping forward a few years I decided to study Physics at the University of Birmingham to try and really understand the fundamentals of how things work. And followed that with a Master degree in Management Science (Operational Research) the following year – because I realised I also needed to earn money!
I started off working for Azlan (part of the huge TechData Group) as a business analyst using my masters degree, but technology beckoned and I moved to British Telecom’s (BT’s) research and development labs in Suffolk in 1996. I worked on the first deployment of what is now broadband (ADSL). Before that is was dial-up which many people will remember as very painful.
I then moved into more blue sky research looking at next generation wireless technologies. I represented BT at IEEE conferences around the world standardising these new technologies. It was interesting work and a great chance to see a lot of places I’ll probably never get to go to again. And also to make the most of one of the best exchange rates of all time on the US trips (read – lots of new toys!).
In 2009 I decided to open my own retail shop called The Technology Company selling technology and gadgets and offering IT supports services to residential and business customers.
But what I love, is trying out and reviewing new kit and helping people make the most of their tech, so I decided to start this website in 2015 to do just that, and in 2017 I closed my retail store to work on this site as well as working as a technology consultant.