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<title>Bloggings</title>
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<h1>Bloggings</h1>
<a href="/static/index.php">Back</a>
</header>
<article>
<h2>About</h2>
<p><img src="/images/shadocks-pumping-300.gif"></p>
<h3>A French Englishman</h3>
<p>
<i>"Spends a lot of time looking out of the window" - school reports</i>
</p>
<p>
I first arrived in France from England in 1975 with a hitchhiker's
rucksack. Barely 18, I wanted to get out of my bubble and see the world,
and France held my breath. The wide open spaces, the Massif Central, the
beaches of Corsica. I realised that I could live differently. (<a
href="/sticky/summer-of-75.html"
><i>read summer of '75</i></a
>) <br><br>Many years and many lives later, I became a proud French
citizen and inhabitant of Brittany.
</p>
<h3>Computers and stuff</h3>
<p>
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, although I used a Burroughs TC500
terminal in 1974 at Barclays.<br><br>In the 80s, I wrote a Morse code
decoder in Locomotive basic on an Amstrad CPC464 for my shortwave radio
and read clear text messages from the French Navy in Toulon. I also built
billing spreadsheets in Multiplan on an IBM PC for a laundry serving
regional hospitals.<br><br>In the early 90s, I discovered Linux with a
copy of MNIS Linux because I didn't want to pay for Windows 95. Then came
the discovery of the Internet with a modem! I cobbled together an intranet
at work using Minitels and home-made electronics, but Windows/Netware was
preferred by my employer. Later the cost of Netware led me to replace
Netware with Mars-nwe, a Netware clone for Linux with dual boot Windows
3.1/Linux clients. I also wrote a
<a href="https://wittamore.fr/articles/2023/windowmaker-in-1998.html"
>luxury goods label printing app</a
>
in Applixware 4.41.<br><br>I wrote my first website in 1994, and in
1999, I became both system administrator and support technician for the
French branch of an American software company, where I encountered Unix
AIX, IRIX, Solaris and HP-UX. Two years later, I was appointed sales
manager in France, then in Europe. A highly unlikely combination of
technician and sales, but one that worked well.
</p>
<p></p>
<p>
<img
src="/images/shop.jpg"
alt=""
width="200"
><br><br>
In the meantime, I opened my own computer repair shop, wrote
a licence management application, a web CRM application, a number of
websites, and a few web applications.
<br><br>
Then I retired.
<br><br>
I'd been working in IT for 35 years, so I
turned to woodworking for a bit of creativity. I also built my own tools
such as a lathe and bandsaw. The advantage of woodworking over IT is that
you obtain a finished object that isn't obsolete after 5 minutes, and can
last for... well, longer than me.
</p>
<p>
<img
src="/images/bowl.jpg"
alt="Birch bowl with pyrograving"
width="200"
>
</p>
<p>
<a
href="https://www.lairdubois.fr/@philipw"
target="_blank"
rel="noopener"
>See my page at L'Air du Bois</a
>
</p>
<p> </p>
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