Ross' corner of the web
Greetings. I'm a twentysomething ex-patriate Scot living and working in the Cambridge (UK) area.
I'm a general geek, professional geek and a recreational pilot. This small corner of the web is just a place where I can witter, post photos, and so forth.
computers
Computers seem to have featured prominently in my life since about the age of eight. My first was an Amstrad CPC 6128; my home machines are currently an Apple iBook and an x86-based frankenputer. I am a fan of Debian and Ubuntu Linux.
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS/AT d@ s+:- a- C++(++++)$
UL*++(++++) P++(+++) L++ E- W@
N+(++) !o K w(---) !O M+>++ !V
PS PE Y+ PGP+ t 5? X(+) R(-)
tv(-) b+(++) DI+(++++) D+ G+
e++ h(++) r y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
I'm often crazyscot when I'm online.
My day job is as a director and principal of a Cambridge software consultancy. I used to be a software engineer (professional geek) for a high-tech Cambridge company. My technical interests lie in the field of cryptography and IT security in general.
In my own time, I occasionally write free software and contribute to various free software projects. Once in a while I get a project to a state where it might actually be useful to someone. Just in case this is the case, I have exposed the public side of my workbench. I have dabbled with Debian development from time to time, though I am not a registered Debian developer.
flying
Many years ago, I somehow got it into my head that it would be cool to learn to fly. It's not clear exactly why; perhaps just the sheer idea that one could quasi-sustainably not be directly in contact with the ground. The feeling ebbed and flowed over time, but the seed was there. Finally, in spring 2002, I started training, with Skyline at Little Gransden.
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." (Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci)
In February 2003, I was finally accorded the immense privilege of being allowed to fly an aircraft solo. (Newsgroup write-up, lj write-up.) After a little more circuit practice I got on with the navigation parts of the syllabus in earnest, and completed my Qualifying Cross-Country (Livejournal write-up, Google Maps plot) on July 24, a fine summer's day which took me to Norwich and Leicester - all on my own.
On Sunday 24 August 2003, I took and passed my Skills Test. The CAA paperwork came through about a month later; I am now a licensed Private Pilot.
Where next?
, I wrote in 2004. It's hard to say. I'd quite like to just fly around a bit now, enjoy it and share this incredible privilege with my friends.
I have had a couple of memorable days taking part in club fly-outs (to Sandown on the Isle of Wight, and to Bodmin) and would like to do more.
Noteworthy events since then:
- Late 2004 - complex taster (Piper Lance PA32R); night taster.
- Early 2005 - night training at Flying Club Conington; Night Qualification achieved April 14.
- Late 2005 - became full member at Conington.
- Early 2006 - started occasional weekend work at Conington as ground crew, radio operator and fire crew.
- 2006 - Long (300 mile, CPL qualifier) cross-country, July 12; full complex course on Conington's Arrow (PA28R), Nov/Dec; AOPA Silver Wings awarded.
- 2007 - IMC Rating course started.
I have been playing around with Google Maps. The result is not well polished, but I've used it to plot my collection of memorable flights (JavaScript required).
I have been vaguely on the look-out for a share in an aircraft for a while, for improved flexibility of access and (hopefully!) reduced costs. I am also considering the CPL and FIR courses so I can share this wonderful world with others, but like many dreams this one is rather expensive. Even if I didn't go that way, I'm thinking about taking the ATPL groundschool anyway, because it's darned interesting. Looking further ahead, I dream of both having access to and being rated to fly a nice twin tourer with full airways kit (and presumably having an Instrument Rating to go with it).
miscellanea
My PGP/GPG key.
As well as these pages, I also have a LiveJournal which is updated a lot more frequently. I tend to write about things in my life which I think people might find interesting, as opposed to using it as a general mouthpiece.
If you want to contact me, you can email webcontact at crazyscot.com. If you want something to add to your address book, please email me and observe the address I reply from. (I used to tell people to email ross at crazyscot.com, but that started getting large amounts of spam and is now very well filtered.)
photography
I used to store my photo gallery on these pages. I moved it to fotopic some time ago. In late 2006 I started playing with flickr and my photos since then are there. If your browser supports JavaScript and Flash, you should get a dynamic badge in the sidebar showcasing some of my all-time favourite photos; if not, here's a link to the set. (Click on any photo to see it in more detail.)About these pages
I'm a great fan of low-maintenance set-and-forget websites, because I don't like to spend every last waking moment maintaining them. I'm also very strongly in favour of standards compliance. Believe it or not, these pages satisfy both properties.
The current incarnation is mostly HTML, with a couple of perl scripts and a smattering of m4, automated by a makefile. The goals were:
- to reproduce the same basic style and sidebar on every page, noting that this server does not allow SSIs;
- to provide a slightly nicer interface to the CSS variations on each page than writing it raw;
- originally, to automatically create the gallery index, before I moved it all to fotopic.
Those of you viewing in a new-fangled Technicolour browser with sufficient CSS magic will be treated to a shiny version of the navigation bar; in earlier browsers the bar appears at the bottom.
Kudos to Eric A. Meyer for the most excellent CSS resource.