I’m Adrian Pritchard and welcome to my blog. In the time-honoured traditions of computing I’ve decided to call my first post ‘Hello World’. Not very original I know, but there’s a lot to be said for tradition.
This blog is all about my take on computing in general and software in particular. I’ve been fascinated by computing since Santa Claus gave me a ZX81 way back in the early 80’s. Ever since then I’ve found that unique blend of technology, creativity and empowerment offered by computing to be truly intoxicating. Computers are unique tools that can perform a vast array of different tasks. In a very real sense you are only limited by your own imagination. You can read more about me and my reasons for blogging by clicking on ‘About me’ at the top of this page.
Why ’44 Crosby Row’ and ‘One and one-sixteenth’?
Outside of computing, one of my interests is history. To me, history isn’t about learning lots and lots of obscure information about people and places that seem to have little or no relevance to the modern world. History is a living subject that explains the world around us. If you’re one of those people who are always asking why? then history provides a lot of answers.
My twin interests of computing and history led me to learn about Charles Babbage, a truly unique person responsible for many early innovations in computing. My domain name, 44 Crosby Row, is the purported birth place of Charles Babbage and ‘One and one-sixteenth’ comes from a quote of his made in response to a poem written by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
The strap line “Simplicity is complexity resolved” is a quote I discovered in a book called ‘Inside Steve’s Brain‘, by Leander Kahney. It’s a very interesting book about Steve Job’s unique management style and business philosophy. The quote itself is attributed to a Romanian sculptor, Constantin Brancusi, famous for statues that blended simplicity and sophistication. I think the quote is a great way to sum up the notion that it’s the simpler ideas that tend to be the best. It’s something I always try to keep in mind when building software.
What’s on the blog?
My blog is powered by Word Press. I’ve had great fun recently learning how it all fits together, choosing a theme, selecting widgets, plug-ins etc. The ‘What I’m Reading’ widget shows you my Delicious feed, so you can see my favourite bookmarks. If you’re not currently a Delicious user then I suggest you give it a try. You’ll soon say goodbye to that terrible feeling of losing bookmarks when you change computers or rebuild an existing one. Next there are a few Twitter widgets. The first is called ‘What I’m doing…’ and shows my tweets, the second lets you follow me and the third shows you all the people that I follow (they aren’t really my friends, well not yet at least) in the software community. These days Twitter is an increasingly useful way to find all sorts of information.
As I searched through the myriad of Word Press widgets I was really impressed by Onebox. It’s actually a Google gadget that uses a Word Press plug-in that enables it to run within Word Press. Onebox lets you search for information using many different search tools, such as Google, Wikipedia and Amazon. Why don’t you give it a go? The other widgets I’ve got include a BBC News RRS feed which keeps you up to date with the latest news and there’s an Amazon widget that shows you some of my favourite books. You’ll find both of these down the bottom right-hand side of the blog.
One of the first targets for my blog is to be self-financing, which at a cost of £4 ($6) a month should be a realistic one (hopefully). So if you like the blog please use my Amazon Search Box (bottom right) to buy some stuff. That way I’ll get a small commission to help pay my hosting bills.
What next?
To keep my blog fresh and up to date I’ll be posting regular articles, tutorials, news items and features on various software subjects. From time to time I’ll be going off on a tangent to talk about some of my other interests such as sport (particularly football), popular science, history and something which takes up most of my ‘free time’, parenting. So don’t forget to stay in touch by subscribing to my RSS feed or following me on Twitter.
First up…
My first article is called ’24 ways to make your web application more secure’, and ‘does what it says on the tin’. Security is an increasingly important subject. Recently, there doesn’t seem to have been a day gone without the news containing a story describing a major lapse in security relating to so some software system or other. Take a look and please give me your feedback.
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