Me, at the top of the Eiffel Tower June 2000.
I was born in..., well many years ago now, in Oxford (UK). I lived around Oxford for about 25 years before moving to Wokingham where I now live.
Programming is a hobby, it's also my profession. My first introduction to programming was while at school. A small group of us went to the local technical college once a week where we had access to a teletype and a modem - not your modern day modem but an acoustic coupler: a big sound proof box where you buried the phone's handset. We could not do much as we had to re-type in our programs every week - there was no storage. It was also at school where I met my wife. We have been married for 25 years now and have 2 children (age 21 and 19).
From school I went to Portsmouth Polytechnic (it's now a University) and did an HND in computer studies. On completion of the course I started my first job as a trainee computer programmer. This was commercial Cobol programming on an ICL 1900 mainframe using the George 3 operating system. I also learnt Plan (assembly language) and worked on real-time systems. The company I worked for also converted to IBM on a 370, so I learnt PL/1, VSAM and TSO.
After about 5 years I joined ICL where I did George 3 support, wrote an HLS (high level scheduler - scheduled jobs and MAC users) and worked on CAFS (Content Addressable Filestore : hardware disc searching). With George 3 being phased out and VME taking over I moved into technical support, supporting six mainframes and 10 operating systems. While here I learnt VME and worked very long hours.
Time for a move. I joined the company that I was with for 18 years. I started out doing consultancy and programming. The first place I was contracted to was - the place I just left - but luckily a different department. I was determined not to work the long hours again and to have a lunch break so I started to play squash. It did not take long to get me hooked. I'm still playing now and run the leagues and teams at my local squash club. With this new job it was soon full time programming again. I developed a VME performance monitoring package and a Job Scheduler. These have sold well and are still being run worldwide today.
About 1992 I moved from mainframe to PC development. I worked on a client server Service Management application (Help Desk, Problem Management, Configuration Management and Change Management. The server ran on UNIX and talked to an Oracle 6 database. The client ran on Windows 3.0. The code was written in C++ using Borland 3.0 for the PC development. This was also the time that I wrote my first shareware program, RQ's Leagues. I wanted to learn more about windows programming and needed an application to write.
About 199, the company I work for has been taken over and my job involved working with C++ Builder, JBuilder, XML, HTML, Appache, Java Servelets and graphics. Its a wonderful set of tick boxes for anyone's CV and is also fun, even though the hours are sometimes long.
Digital cameras have revived my interest in photography. I've had a Fuji MX-1700 zoom for 6 months now. It's good for taking snaps, but I long for the day when I can afford a decent digital SLR - Cannon or Nikon. By the time I can afford one they should produce images with well over 4m pixels. There is a lot of software out there for putting your images into albums, editing and printing with fancy borders. There is not much out there for managing lots of images, some of which are backed up on CD, or printing without the ghastly borders. Hence my latest part time project. An Interbase database with a C++ Builder front end to obtain pictures from my camera and to catalogue them. It will produce slide shows and let you print them. One day I may even finish it, I just need more time.
Anyway, I've a good life with a good job that pays me for pursuing my hobby. If you use my software, thank you and I hope it serves you well. If you do not use my software, maybe you will in the future - perhaps without realising it.
Richard Quartermaine
August 2000
About 18 months ago my employer changed. I was TUPE'd. What was my employer's customer is now my employer. I work in Soho in the centre of London. It's nearly 2 hours travelling each way every day! I did not think I'd stand the travelling, but I like the job and the people I work with. I work for Inspired Broadcast Networks Ltd. "Out of Home Pay to Play Networked Entertainment" is what we do. It's networked games machines and jukeboxes. The jukebox is awesome - "THE MUSIC™ allows consumers to access a database containing over 2 million tracks - equivalent to approximately 93,000 CD's. Tracks from every music genre are available to be downloaded in seconds, ranging from Indie to Dance, from Pop to Gold, from the very latest Pre-releases, to the big swing tunes of the 40's".
On the camera front, I'm about to buy a Nikon D70, if I can find one, they are like gold dust at the moment. I've done a little more to my imaging software. I now store EXIF data along with thumbnails and categories for my pictures. I do not think I'll ever market it as there is a lot of software out there doing a similar job - non as good as mine of course<g>.
Richard Quartermaine
June 2004
I still work for the same employer. Their name has changed to Inspired Gaming Group (www.ingg.com) and I'm doing a slightly different job.
On the camera front, I did buy the Nikon D70. It's a great camera. 12 months ago I bought a Nikon D80 for it's larger LCD screen. It's even better than the D70. My photo software has had 8 years development. I've just made a lot of changes to make printing simple. I'm considering splitting out the printing parts and selling it as shareware.
Richard Quartermaine
April 2008
Copyright © Richard Quartermaine 2000-2008
Last updated 13 April 2008