My Band My main interest is my band Perverse Scarecrow, I first formed the band with a few friends way back in 1999, originally I was rhythm guitarist (self taught), but very shortly after the band started I was moved to lead vocals. The band has gigged many times especially during the earlier days, we are currently in the process of recording our second album, over 100 copies of the first album where distributed. Whilst I was on industrial placement at Mars Inc (Aug 2003-Aug 2004) I had to move away from Leicester down to Reading, unfortunately this meant that practices where very difficult to arrange and attend as I would have to travel all the way back to Leicester every weekend, but for that year we managed to have a few practice/jam sessions and I believe that the break did us a lot of good as it allowed us all to work on our own ideas, so when we all returned there was rekindled life within the music we created together. More recently during the last year or so, as mentioned earlier we have started work on out second album, which a friend of mine has helped us record and mix. The new music is a little different from our old style as mentioned we have all brought up diversity and influence into the band to make the final sound quite different to anything else. Many people have asked us how we define ourselves, but to be honest there is not really a style that we conform to. Unfortunately there is only one song that is available for download from the Perverse Scarecrow website, however when then ext album is finished and we have the copyright etc sorted for that we will be placing it on there, keep checking the website for future updates and gigs etc. Word has it that we are aiming for August for our next gig, though we will have to see how the new album comes along first.

Music If you have read the above section about the band that I belong to you will know that I am the lead singing and rhythm guitarist. Though I have had no real formal training I like to play guitar, I prefer acoustic as opposed to electric, mainly as I find it easier to simply sit down and sing along to. Some of the bands that I am interested in are Radiohead, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins and Therapy, of which the band has covered songs by from time to time.

Programming In past days admitting that you enjoyed programming was the equivalent to admitting that you dress up as a Klingon on the weekend. Fortunately as time has progressed and IT has become a popular career choice this it not so. My first programming language was VB 5.0 which I used whilst at college, although I have only been programming for about five years (in different languages), it has only been the last three that I have settled on java as my favoured programming language, my academic background has a large amount to do with this. This was the first language that I study at University and have liked it since, I understand it has its floors, but then there is no silver bullet when it comes to programming languages. The largest application that I have programmed was my final year project which was an automated Windows Server 2003 build via a network that coupled many aspects that an enterprise with a large server infrastructure may find useful. Some of which are: - Remote Network installation (no CD changes required) - Server Configuration - Optional applications installations - Automated logical disk partitioning and labelling - Baseline of updates installation - Disk Configuration Utility - Server Inventory Management System - Server Disk Imaging System - Server logging system This was a large system that was inspired by my employment at Mars Inc as a European Server Infrastructure Specialist, I managed to get 74% for this project. Some other applications that I have programmed have been an etch a sketch style drawing system, a robotic program that switched through various states depending upon its inputs from the environment, library cataloguing systems, business systems for calculating different financial predictions, server patching systems, car booking system as well as a few other smaller ones. At home I like to program applications for friends use such as forums for websites etc, as well as this I am currently teaching myself MIDP 2.0 (which is also based around the java technology) whilst writing two mobile games, though they are both in the early stages. This is an area that I am interested in, but I will see how things go before making the jump into this somewhat niche programming market.

Games This was the first aspect that got me into the world of computing, I have played computer games from about the age of 5 on my old Commodore 64 with good old classics like Dizzy, Chucky Egg and Jack the Nipper. Shortly after, I turned to the world of consoles with NES and then SNES, which I bought and played multiple games on. I bought my first PC in 1994 and really started to get into gaming buying many many games. Some of my favourite games are Baldours Gate, Counter Strike Source, Half-Life 1 and 2, Unreal 1, Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights.

Cars and Driving I bought my first car shortly after I turned seventeen in 2000, it was a 1983 Mini Mayfair, black with checked roof, when it was first purchased it required much tlc. Fortunately my dad helped me with the body work, I managed to rebuild the back shelf, dashboard, speaker system and most of the interior and again with help from my dad and we both tuned and repaired areas that where required under the bonnet. I passed my driving test later when the car was complete and I loved it. Unfortunately when I moved to Reading the car the classic 998cc original engine from 1983 which had been around the clock (probably twice) was struggling with pasting it was getting from the two and half hour drive every other weekend from Reading to Leicester, one week the engine was stalling for no apparent reason, the tires would pop often (and ten inch Dunlop tyres are rare and difficult to get hold of cheap), it was becoming less easy to start and the constant overheating was shocking, even after I had bought and fitted a three core radiator and taken the thermostat out. All this gave it some great character (cough, cough), unfortunately when the breaks failed to stop me quite as well as drum breaks (about the worst type of legal car break there is) should I decided it was time to move on. My favourite car at the moment is the TVR Tuscan, whilst still on placement, so still technically a student getting one of these was a little unfeasible and so I opted for what my budget and driving experience would allow, so I bought a 1994 1.4 Citroen AX Echo Diesel, yep not quite the TVR that I was looking for but it got me from A to B so that was enough. This has been a very reliable car, wouldn’t fancy having a bump in it let alone a crash, but the diesel made it worth it as this was almost equally as efficient as my mini. Not sure how long I will keep this car for, it depends on the commuting distance when I get a job and how quickly I can pay the dreaded student loan back.

Reading I read many different types of materials, may most enjoyed type reading is books that are written by my favourite author R.A. Salvatore, I have read over twenty books by him and think that his writing style is amazing, from emotion, to action through to memorable characters. I often buy custom PC magazine to help keep up with my knowledge on the hardware front both for modding and general system components, I also am a subscriber to server management so that and can keep up to date with the latest technologies within the remote computing information distribution world. Finally I often (but not always) buy PCGamer magazine to find out what is going on in the world of computer games, but most of my information on this is gleaned from friends or simply cruising the net.

Writing This is a new pass time for myself, something that I only really started about a year ago, I am currently in the process of writing a book, not many pages in (about a chapter) but when I am feeling inspired I like to write some on it, probably a bit rubbish, but you have to start somewhere hey?

Overclocking and Modding Not as such a major pass time but something that I often tinker with, overclocking is the art of overriding the manufacturer’s clock settings on hardware and pushing them to go faster. This is generally makes hardware go faster, but at the cost of system instability and can reduce the hardware’s lifespan. I have to admit a few graphics cards of mine have gone onto another life at my hands (sob), but I am generally a lot more cautious with other components (and now my more expensive GFX card) and keep an eye on my temperatures. The key to good overclocking is to ensure that your system stays cool, to do this many people use the conventional fans found on most systems, either replacing current ones with higher powered ones or simply adding more. More recently many overclockers are turning to water cooling products to rig their systems up, this is far greater as water is a better conducting than heat and is more controllable via pipes and radiators, one major added bonus to this cooling method is the fact that it is noiseless (or at least a lot less noisy than the conventional fan). Modding is making your rig (system) look quite bling (within the computing world), this is attempted (sometimes even attained) by adding extra colourful lights to the base unit, adding clear panels to the casing so that the internal components cam be viewed as well as adding neon and reflective strips etc basically anything that is not beige and gives a bit of a shine or something a bit different.

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