I’m only a pretend geek. I’m bluffing it really - if it’s a real geek you’re after, you should talk to Sevitz.
But I do have an interest in the application of technology.
A summarised timeline of me and tech:
1982: Dad buys the family a 32k BBC model B micro. Along with thousands of other kids of that era, I learn to code by copying programs from printed magazines, then saving them onto cassette tapes. That sounds totally bizarre now.
1989: Probably the pinnacle of my coding achievements, I write a program for my Computer Studies GCSE to calculate the price of corrugated cardboard orders in the factory in which my dad worked. The program addresses data in the external floppy drive, not the RAM. My coding will never get any better than this.
1992: I get my first email address. I check it once every couple of weeks. My director of engineering studies is pretty much the only person who mails me.
1993: Together with a friend at Cambridge, I write the code that’s supposed to enable a robot built by some classmates to follow a white line and pick up a ball. As the pick-up mechanism blocks the white-line detecting sensors, the code isn’t much use.
1994: I discover the internet. Mosaic is pretty, but there doesn’t seem to be too much to look at on the World Wide Web. Gopher seems to have far more on it. I do all this from the college Macs and will be a Machead forever more.
1995: Having battled with keyboards using just two fingers, I decide that I’m likely to spend lots of my life typing. I force myself to learn to touch type. After a few weeks of hell, it’s probably the most productivity-enhancing decision I’ll make in my life.
1997: I buy my first mobile phone. It was the lightest one I could buy, was made by Philips and was terrible.
1998: Colleagues from BCG start leaving to join internet companies. Several leave to join Boo.com. I join RS Components, a mail-order supplier of electronics with an interest in using the web.
1999: I get a Nokia 7110, still one of the coolest phones I’ve ever owned. It is the first phone with access to WAP: the future of the internet is mobile. But better still the mouthpiece flies out like a bullet when you flick the switch on the back.
2005: I join the UK team at eBay. The week I am due to sign my contract, Bob Geldof suggests that I resign, along with all other staff, for allowing Live 8 tickets to be sold.
2006: Thanks to 3 and the Nokia N73 I have unlimited mobile internet and free Skype calls. The interface is still a bit frustrating, but access to the web from my phone quickly becomes a daily habit.
2007: I leave eBay for Telebid (now Swoopo), the pioneer of pay-to-bid auctions. Thanks to Facebook social ads and the Wii we fly.
2008: I work from home to pick up my iPhone 3G on the day of launch. It might not have a flip-mouthpiece, but the interface blows the N73’s out of the water.
2010: In California to interview folk about the future of tech, my visit coincides with the launch of the iPad. I pick one up from the Palo Alto store, and get Scott Forstall to give me a demo.
