Ah…the obligatory end of year, start of year post!

This time last year I was writing about how challenging 2010 had been.

I’m pleased to report that on the whole 2011 didn’t throw up as many major problems as the previous year.

We’ve settled quite nicely into our new house, Bryony’s hearing didn’t get any worse and I managed to start playing football again after recovering from my knee operation as well as losing a couple of stone in weight as a by-product of that. (Christmas may have undone a little of that work though!)

On the geek front I purchased an Amazon Kindle, a HP TouchPad and a Windows Phone.

I also expanded my collection of retro games and consoles alongside visits to Replay Expo and the Retro Computer Museum. 

On the gaming side of things Portal 2 was without a doubt the highlight of my gaming year. I’ve not played as many games on my Xbox as in previous years on account of spending so much time on the retro stuff but Portal 2 was so refreshing and entertaining I’m glad it had some of my attention (taking nothing away from Arkham City which I’m thoroughly enjoying at the moment!)

On the personal front I stepped out of my comfort zone and spoke at a Pecha Kucha event in Coventry as well as realising the writers block I had was actually a symptom of not spending enough time resting and thinking about something other than work. I celebrated 10 years of being with my significant other, Bryony and wrote all about how the Internet changed my life!

In sadder news, Tony Sale passed away. I visited Bletchley Park the weekend beforehand and as ever it was great to see the fruits of his labour. He’ll also have been pleased to know that Bletchley Park’s future is safe.

On the business side of things 2011 was also much better than 2010. The second half of the year was one of the busiest I can remember for some time and this in conjunction with my decision to make sure I spend enough free time “not working” meant some things had to be dropped down the priority list – this blog included – but I’m happy that I’ve learnt my lesson from the summer.

One of the things that also dropped off quite badly in the second half of the year was the amount of reading I did for the same reasons outlined above. It didn’t stop altogether but the pace with which I was getting through books at the start of the year was totally different to the end of the year. My reading tracking experiment showed between the start of 2011 and May 3rd, I’d read 18 books – the final total for the year was 26. A much slower pace! I’m happy with my experiment though. It’s been good to look back and see what I’ve actually read this year which also makes recommendations to others easier too. Richard Tubb wrote a great piece recently about why reading is important which is worth a look.

Christmas always reenergises me when it comes to reading though. My family always know that books are a good choice when it comes to gifts and I’ve got some excellent ones again this year!

So 2011 was pretty decent – I’ve met some great people and done some really interesting things – thank you to everyone that contributed to my year whether that was virtually or in person.

Bring on 2012!

The phrase “life changing” is used an awful lot when talking about technology and the Internet in particular seems to get this more than any single item of modern technology.

I for one totally believe technology can change lives.

When using the the phrase “life changing” in this context though it’s usually meant in the collective/global scale.

It’s not something you can dispute. Children growing up now will have no concept of what an encyclopaedia is. If there is something they want to know everyone’s first instinct now is to look it up online.

Media and entertainment as we know it is totally different to where it was ten years ago in that it’s not limited to radio, television or the cinema. We now consume media on a multitude of devices and screen sizes whenever and wherever we want. 

So how did the Internet change my life specifically?

While it may sound a bit extreme everything that’s good in my life at the moment I have the Internet to thank for.

This.

My family.

So how do I have the Internet to thank for this?

I’m writing this post to mark a bit of an anniversary. It’s 10 years since I met my significant other, Bryony.

A big milestone generally, but when we met there was about 200 miles between us.

That’s because we met online.

What’s really interesting about that is that anyone reading this will probably think,  “so what?” as it’s not really that big a deal anymore.

It happens all the time and people get married and have children after meeting on the Internet so often now it’s just one of those things. But remember i said this was 10 years ago. There was no Facebook or Twitter and actually just chatting to someone on the Internet was still quite a big deal for the average computer user back then. There was a real taboo about it and for some time afterwards we didn’t tell the entire truth about where we met when we were asked.

But we finally met in person and found out neither of us was a crazy lunatic (well she wasn’t anyway )  and the rest is history! We got married, bought a house and had a couple of children just like any other couple who may have met through more conventional means.

I’m very thankful to the Internet for that!

I’ve also met lots of other great people virtually and in person via the Internet. Considering there is a stereotype of people who spend a lot of time behind a computer not being all that sociable I’ve met a lot of people entirely because of the Internet.

My involvement with AMITPRO and the SBSC community came through this blog. This still has a massive influence on my professional life and I’ve met some amazing people who I’m lucky enough to call friends as well as business acquaintances.

It’s hard to believe that this picture – the very first time I met anyone from the SBSC community – was taken in August 2007!

I’ve also had some really great times all in the cause one of my favourite pastimes – gaming!

I was in Cambridge for the first ever UGVM meet. I was pleased to get an invite even though I’m more of a UGVM lurker!

I was in Blackpool again recently for Replay Expo.

and at the Retro Computer Museum

All this as well as trips to Bletchley Park which in turn led to my recent involvement in Pecha Kucha.

Every single one of these things came about because of contacts and communities I’ve been involved with online and it’s difficult to picture what my life would look like if it wasn’t for Tim Berners Lee!

So I have the Internet to thank for having a huge impact on my family, friends and career.

Life changing enough?

I wouldn’t change a thing!

It was my birthday on Saturday and in true geek style I decided the perfect way to spend my day would be to pay a visit to Bletchley Park.

This blog post was intended to be all about my visit but unfortunately I heard some bad news this morning so that’s on hold.

Tony Sale passed away on 30th August 2011 at 80 years of age.

He was the responsible for the rebuild of Colossus, the first modern computer and if it had not been for his efforts details of Colossus would have been long forgotten as it disappeared after the second world war. The rebuild project was a huge accomplishment and is even more impressive when you consider how little documentation was left behind. He was also a major driving force behind the work in getting Bletchley Park to where it is today and held roles such as Secretary of the Bletchley Park Trust and Museums Director.

I was fortunate enough to meet Tony on my first visit to Bletchley Park and he was a perfect gentlemen and happy to spend time chatting about Colossus and Bletchley Park.

Tony had his own website www.codesandciphers.org.uk which is a mine of information about everything Tony was involved in and it’s worth taking the time to have a look as it covers a variety of topics including details of how Colossus was used to break the Lorenz cipher, the Colossus rebuild and videos of some the talks Tony gave at the National Museum of Computing.

Details of Tony’s life are well documented elsewhere on the Internet so I’ll just finish by saying

Thank you Tony.

Every visit I make to Bletchley Park is better than the last and I’m grateful of the contribution you’ve made to the history of computing in this country.

Challenges

Right from the beginning of the year there has been a lot to deal with.

My wife Bryony had her operation over the Christmas of 2009 with the recovery and switch on happening in the January of 2010.

Unfortunately the operation didn’t work out as expected. While from a clinical perspective the operation went fine, practically it didn’t make any improvements. Bryony persisted with it as long as she could but the implant was actually unbearable to use.(she explains it here)

The specialists at the hospital were great but there was very little they could do other than tweak settings. The implant manufacturer even flew one of their specialists in from America as they were all very puzzled as to why it hadn’t worked.

To make matters worse shortly after Bryony also lost a considerable amount of hearing in the other ear, to the extent that her hearing aid was doing nothing at all. At the beginning of the year we hoped we were hoping that there would be a life changing shift in her hearing and here we were in the middle of the year and it looked like the life changing shift was happening – just in the complete opposite direction we wanted!

Bryony wrote three great posts at the time talking about what happened and how she was feeling about it all.

Scared is not the word

A life of complete silence

A life of complete Silence #2 – Working at work, working at home

As the months have gone on she has had some improvement, the hearing aid is of use again and while it’s not the same she has adapted to the new level.

While all this has been going on we were trying to move house. We’d lived in the same house for six and a half years but now we have two children there just physically wasn’t the space for us all to live there. This coupled with the fact our oldest, Alice would be going to school the other side of town meant we had make a change. Selling the house wasn’t quite straightforward though, with a recession and depressed housing market our house wasn’t that different from all the other homes for sale. We finally managed it and a house we’d made an offer on some time looked like it’d be a our new home.

With this being the year of challenges though it was never going to be that straightforward. We couldn’t get a mortgage on the new property. With lenders being more cautious we had a hard time getting approved. We had to admit defeat and look at something lower priced which meant we spent a frantic couple of days looking at house while I was on crutches (I’ll come to that in a bit!)

We managed to find something and had our offer accepted. After several weeks of hassle with solicitors, etc we were finally able to move into our new place (I’ve glossed over that – getting the paperwork sorted and physically moving was a pain in the rear)

We’re actually really happy with the house got instead. It’s located perfectly for the school run, is in a quiet street and there is a park at the end of the road for the children to play on. Maybe these things happen for a reason!

So why was I looking at houses on crutches?

After a very long wait I finally had my knee operation.

This wasn’t fun at all and it’s not experience I want to go through again and frustratingly it all happened just as everything was going on with the house move meaning I was looking at potential new houses on crutches. I got some strange looks from the various estate agents we saw.

The operation was in June and since then I’ve had varying levels of physio to get the knee back on track. I’ve even had to join a gym to help with recovery. I’ve never been a fan of the gym and in the past I’ve never needed one as I’ve played enough sport to keep me healthy and fit.

It’s been a long hard slog and consumed a lot of free time and thoughts. Hopefully I’m on the home stretch now. I’ve been discharged from the physio sessions and have to finish the rest of the strengthening work on my own. A couple of weeks ago I played a game of badminton and was able to get around the court normally and had no side effects afterwards. I really don’t want to go through this again. My original goal was to be back playing football in 6-9 months. I will probably change this to be 9-12 months to be on the safe side so currently I’m aiming for the start of the next football season to be fully recovered.

Coupled with plenty of challenges on the business front 2010 has been a year I’d rather not repeat anytime soon.

That said it’s not all entirely doom and gloom.

I’ve also had some really great experiences this year.

In August I turned 30 and Bryony organised a surprise gathering of friends. I was really pleased to see so many of my friends from AMITPRO there. Anyone that thinks a peer group is just all about business is missing a trick. Many friendships and relationships are made there and I’m really proud to be a part of AMITPRO.

As well as my birthday it’s been great spending time with AMITPRO friends at Pecha Kucha, the Replay event in Blackpool, the Retro Computer Museum, and the Vintage Computer Festival

Speaking at three different user groups (AMITPRO, Manchester and Reading) has also been a great experience. Standing up in front of a group of people and talking is not something I thought I’d ever be able to do yet here I am at the point where I actually enjoy it though enjoying it and being any good at it are two different things! I’ve got lots to improve on.

I was even fortunate to be named on the SMB Nation Top 150 list for 2010. I was very surprised by this, especially when I look down the list and see some of the other names on there.

I’ve sucked at blogging an awful lot this year for various reasons. I’m annoyed that it’s the last day of 2010 and this is my first post in December.

Thanks to everyone who has made the effort to read the blog and leave comments this year. As bad as I’ve been at it this year I still love doing it so hopefully I’ll pull my finger out more next year.

Also thanks to everyone I’ve interacted with this year. Whether it’s been virtually through Facebook, Twitter, Xbox Live, etc or in person I appreciate your thoughts, company and input. 

Finally, one thing that makes any hardship during any particular day go away is coming home to my kids. They have both grown so much during 2010 and I’ll leave it to them to wish you a happy new year!

If you’ve made it this far through such a lengthy post thank you!

Catch you in 2011

Last Saturday fellow geek Richard Tubb and I travelled down to Bletchley Park for the first ever Vintage Computer Festival here in the UK.

I’ve been to the National Computer Museum before but this was a far more interactive experience.

The mansion and various marquees around the site were filled with tons of retro systems that were all powered on and ready for use.

It was geek heaven!

Every possible system from my childhood from Acorn, Commodore, Amstrad and Sinclair was there and it’s amazing the things people are still doing with them!

For example, this is a compact flash card plugging into the back of a Spectrum!

I even found my first love

While the Spectrum +3 wasn’t the first computer that came into the Parkes household (there were lots!) it was the first that was actually mine.

This is the power supply from said computer.

It’s difficult to explain WHY I took this picture but if you’re a bit of a geek you’ll get it

As well as the equipment on show there were various speakers and we sat in on Christine Finn’s presentation which talked about how “organised” computer collecting came about. She’s an archaeologist by trade which gives her a different insight into how and why we should keep old technology other than the reasons someone like me would have! She gave a really good presentation about her experiences in Silicon Valley during the dot-boom in the 90’s and it’s subsequent bust.

She wrote a piece in the Guardian a few years ago which is worth checking out.

She also has a book on the subject called Artifacts: An Archaeologist’s Year in Silicon Valley which Richard purchased and had signed!

In addition to the computers on display a large chunk of the mansion was taken over by the Retro Computer Museum.

This organisation keep old computer systems alive for the purposes of gaming! This was also one of the other lectures we took in. They were raising awareness of what they do and it was interesting to see the difference in body language when moving from the actual presentation to the Q&A session. Their enthusiasm really jumped out and they very much of the attitude that the old systems should continue to be used for their purpose and not locked away in a box.

Due to funding they don’t have a permanent site so hold an open day twice a year. The next one is at that the end of October so I’ll be certainly be visiting! There is also a much larger event going on later in the year but there is a full post to follow on that

So the games itself.

Every possible system you could think of was there to play with

From the Atari 2600 to Commodore Plus 4 to Amiga 1200 to Neo Geo, to Playstation 3. If you can think of it, it was there.

Richard and I played Battle Chess on an Amiga 1200 and Sensible Soccer on an Amiga CD32!

Also, one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen .

Guitar Hero on the Commodore 64.

Picture courtesy of Richard Tubbs Flickr Account

Someone created an adapter to plug a Playstation guitar into the machine and coded a game for it! The 8-bit beeps were amazing though we both sucked at the game itself.

 Picture courtesy of Richard Tubbs Flickr Account

As mentioned above there were a couple of marquee tents on site. One of them was entirely dedicated to the Amiga and were were there when they announced the launch of a new Amiga – the X100.

I can’t really tell you anything about it though as they didn’t bother to give the speakers microphones so didn’t hear a word they said! I think this site may have some more information over the coming months.

We ended our day at the Spectrum tent.

While the coolest thing I saw was Guitar Hero the geekiest think I did has to be this,

Picture courtesy of Richard Tubbs Flickr Account

Tweeting from a Spectrum!

I came across a video of this on YouTube recently (and shared it via Facebook and Twitter of course) so it was great to actually see it in action.

As I’ve already mentioned there is still an awful lot of things going on with some of these “old” systems. We even saw a recently developed game, complete with modern packaging. It looked amazing.

Richard couldn’t resist much more and came away with a couple of purchases. Just as he was making his mind up he realised he didn’t have a tape deck to load programs from. A gentleman stood next to us said that an MP3 would work just find and proceeded to pull out his iPhone and played the sound Galaxians would make during loading.

It’s common sense when you think of it but all the same ingenious!

I picked up a book called Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age and even managed to get it signed by the author Mike Hally

We had a really great time and the event was actually run on Saturday and Sunday. Next time I’ll definitely be there for both days!

I’ve blogged a couple of times about Bletchley Park

It’s no secret in the UK that funding for the site is hard to come by

For some reason it’s not eligible for lottery funding or any of the government funding that goes into museums and galleries so relies on admissions fees and donations(IBM and PGP were some of the big names who recently donated)

So a while back I saw a petition on the governments e-petitions site 

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to save Bletchley Park.”

Details of Petition:

“As has been reported elsewhere, Bletchley Park “have two to three more years of survival”. The Bletchley Park Trust receives no external funding. It has been deemed ineligible for funding by the National Lottery, and turned down by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Please do not allow this crucial piece of both British and World culture to disappear. If ever an example were needed of Britain leading the world, this surely would be it. To allow it to fall into the hands of developers would be simply unconscionable.”

You can see the full petition here: (do a search for “Andy Parkes”   )

I’ll be honest I’d forgotten I’d signed up for this (the deadline was in May) but I got an email today to let me know that the government had responded

 

Thank you for your e-petition.

The Government agrees that the buildings on the Bletchley Park site are of significant historic importance and, although recognising the excellent work being carried out there, at present it has no plans, nor the resources, to extend its sponsorship of museums and galleries beyond the present number.

A number of things are being done to help Bletchley Park.
English Heritage, Milton Keynes Council and English Partnerships have worked jointly with the Trust that runs the Park to prepare a Conservation Management Plan for the site.   English Partnerships has acquired some parts of the site and will ensure that any development of these areas is planned and delivered in a way that reflects the important historical nature of the Park.  English Partnerships has also invested in the core site and contributed funds towards an emergency repair programme on Block D, the largest derelict wartime building in Britain, and is planning to undertake further substantial works to sensitively refurbish this important listed building. 
The Heritage Lottery Fund’s regional development team, along with the DCMS sponsored  Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in the South East have been in regular contact with the Bletchley Park Trust, offering advice and guidance on how best to put together a robust application for funding.   In addition, the Trust has now made a further application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In November 2008 English Heritage announced the award of a grant of £330,000 to Bletchley Park to cover urgently needed repairs to the roof, and in March of this year it was announced that Milton Keynes Council, in partnership with English Heritage, will provide a further £600,000 for critical restoration work.

I’m not sure if this good or bad??

As far as I can see the government recognises it’s an important part of British heritage but don’t want to specifically put any money into it. Most of the funding has become the responsibility of Milton Keynes council (if it’s a site of national importance shouldn’t we all be paying for it?) and that everyone else will “advise” on how to apply for more funding!

If you interpret this differently to me please do comment below

It really would be a massive shame if the site disappeared. The grounds are amazing and the story of the place is fantastic, especially if you’re a geek –they have a working version of the worlds first programmable computer!!

If your like to spare a few pounds you can donate from the home page www.bletchleypark.org.uk

I posted a little while back about the good news Bletchley Park received and said that I’d like to visit and take a look around the National Computer Museum

Well as a bit of a weird coincidence I’d completely forgotten that we’d arranged a visit to Milton Keynes on the Saturday immediately after the post

Said friends actually live in the Bletchley area which made things even easier so I dragged one of my friends along

First up we had a quick look around the mansion which was a fantastic looking building 

In here there were details of the history of some of the famous names such Alan Turing (wikiepedia entry here)

After that we had a quick look through the huts where all the code breaking took place

Listening station – she didn’t say much Alan Turing’s office

After that we jumped onto the end of one of the tours and heard all about “bombes” that were used to break the Enigma Machine

I won’t try to explain how the bombes worked!

Then it was onto the part I’d been waiting for and the National computer museum where we got to see the Colossus rebuild project 

 Colossus was the world’s first programmable computer.

It had no storage though and all output was directly to a typewriter

Calculations were performed using valves and the black valve on the left of this picture is an original valve used during the war! Apparently they have about 10 years worth of spare valves so if you have any old gadgets lying around that have valves they welcome donations

The rebuild project has been led for the last 14 years (!) by the legend that is Tony Sale. Most of the documentation was restored and whole project started from just 8 1945 photographs and some fragments of circuit diagrams some of the original engineers had been keeping illegally (good job geeks are hoarders!)

Me with Tony Sale

It was onto the museum proper after that and I was in my element!

Calculators and PDA’s! I had one of the Psion’s in this picture!

BBC Micro! I actually owned one of these CUB monitors as well. My dad hacked it up so when it was plugged into our spectrum we had sound and volume control. What a mod!

  Radar!

Punch cards!

The very first PC we owned had one of these in. Along with 8MB of RAM, a 50MB hard disk and a quad speed CD-ROM

Legend!

  An Apple Mac!

Had both of these. An Atari ST and a Amiga 500

The first two computers I have any memory of! Look at the rubber keys!

Why is the screen the wrong way round? Because it’s trying to look like a sheet of paper. This system was just a word processor. Look at the size of it!

  I want a desk like this in my office!

I’ll stop there….as you have probably guessed I took a ton of photo’s which I then spent the next week boring friends and family with

I had a great time with my only “criticism” (not really the right word) was I was expecting to see more hardware as there appears to be lots of gaps in the time periods (Other than a PET I didn’t see much commodore kit for example). But I do understand it’s still pretty new and things are being added all the time and they are running on a shoestring (donate!!) as the museum itself is free! It’s Bletchely Park you have to pay to get in

If you have any interest in computer history do something to support our computing heritage!

Other resources:

The National Museum of Computing (they have newsletters too)

Bletchley Park

Codes And Ciphers

Just saw this on this BBC news site

Bletchley gets £50,000 donation

The article is pretty comprehensive so I won’t reproduce too much of it here

I’m planning on making a trip to check out the National Museum of Computing soon so was pleased to hear this news today

The donations made by IBM and PGP are made with the idea it will help get some more funding to help keep the site up and running (another BBC article on the “neglect of Bletchley park” is here)

I was given this book Colossus- Bletchley Park’s Greatest Secret as birthday present which recommend if you have any interest in computer history (it’s huge though!)

Massive geek mode off

Just having a look on the BBC to website to find the National Muesum of Computing is moving to Bletchley Park

So if your into computer and codes they is only one place to go this summer (fun for all the family!:-))

I do have a bit of a softspot for any codes/cipher related

The Code Book by Simon Singh is an excellent read

I’m actually in Bletchley this weekend (coincidence!) visiting friends so it’s probably a little early for me to go take a look as my inner geek is dying to have a nose around 

Sorry for being random! I just thought i was interesting