Introduce yourself topic!

[Ecobion]

Hello Martin,

Is there an introduce yourself topic on here? I haven't seen one, and if there is, is it a sticky so its easy to find? If there isn't, should we start one?

I'm Brent Stevens, AKA Ecobion, and I must say that watching your progress to date has been very interesting indeed. I'm based in Farnborough, Hampshire, in the UK, home to the Farnborough Air Show, and home to a lot of secret technology research & development, defense and aerospace by the likes of companies such as BAE systems and Qinetiq, there's also companies like Motorola, IBM and Nokia based here. Farnborough is also home to the UK Air Accidents Investigation unit of the Ministry of Transport, and is the place where the first airoplane flew in the UK, just 2 years after the wright brothers (and unlike the wright brothers, it flew entirely under its own engine power, rather than slung from a ramp).

I'm into electronics engineering and regular engineering as well. I'm following a few different electronics engineering channels on You Tube, and yours is the latest I've come across (thank Dave Jones for the traffic to your site). Its informative, and you have a positive way of presenting. Nothing worse than presenters mumbling and you can't understand what they are saying.

Lived in South Africa between 1981 and 1985, in Gordon's bay, next to Somerset West, I can't imagine how the country must have changed since I was there.

Keep up the good work! 

UFFFF, Is the verification necessary for making posts? Does it eventually go?

[SeanB]

Thanks for starting it, welcome to the blog.

as to the "Are you a spambot or something resembling human" box, it does go away after a few posts, as you will be deemed to be either human, Kzin or something close to intelligent.

[classicmacintosh]

Hi there.
Fine! A quick paragraph to introduce myself...
I'm Ed Neil, born in Bromley (just by London) on March 20th. I'm only 17(!) but like to think that I am unlike most other 17 year olds; I do not listen to godawful modern 'music', loiter outside public buildings or act like a fool.
My hobbies (as exciting as they may/may not be...) are tinkering with (and repairing) computers (both old and new) and I run a Windows 2008R2 Active Directory domain. I am lucky enough to own a Dell PowerEdge 2850 and a PowerEdge 1650 (thanks to a local charity donating it to me, bloody hell it's loud) and the troubleshooting and repair of electronic equipment.
As to what makes me so unlike your average 17-year old is that I have both Autism and ADHD (which is kinda handy actually, keeps me *quick*) and an insane attention to detail.
(Crikey, that was a long introductory paragraph!)
I've been following MJLorton since August 2012.

So.. that's me.
-Ed

[Ecobion]

Sweet! Looks like I already started something.

@seanB - Looking forward to not being a spambot sometime soon.

@Ed - I don't subscribe to this disorder classification that they have to give people, I think it's simply a case where people's brains are wired differently, and different people have different talents. My own opinion is that its a matter of perspective, of which the norm seems to be polarised. I hate this thing where everyone has to be defined these days. Why can't people be allowed to be different. Bring back good ol' English eccentricity - That should be the norm!

[steve30]

I'm Stephen, I'm 22, I'm from Rotherham in England, and I also have Asperger's Syndrome.

I like electronics and computers. Like Martin etc, I have a bit of a test equipment fetish .

[MJLorton]

Welcome to Ed and Brent (and Stephen...but he's been here a while ;-) )

My name is Martin Lorton....

I was born in Guildford, Surrey...in the UK...and 6 months thereafter my parents...along with my two older bothers emigrated to South Africa....and Cape Town became home.
I went to Vredehoek primary school...then Sea Point primary school....then Sea Point High School. I had mediocre results in matric (grade 12..standard 10) so had to go to technical

collage to get my N4 so I could get into Cape Technikon to start studying electronics (poor maths result...). The course was electrical engineering, light current. The course at the time was

a 3 or 4 year course with 6 months of classes (theory) and then six months of in-service training.

I only ended up completing my T2 (2nd year) and then decided to go into IT...

I started my IT career (1991) working for a company that supplied Tatung PCs to Shell Oil and I worked as on on-site support engineer at Shell in Cape Town. I soon gained an interest and

exposure to Novell networking (Netware 3.11 at the time) and left the company doing PC support and starting working directly for Shell as a network support engineer / certified CNE 4.

After about 5 years at Shell I left to travel Europe for a while and then worked in the UK for Sun Alliance. I then returned to South Africa and found work back at Shell again as a

network support engineer. I finally left around 2000 and did a 6 month stint in Dublin, Ireland, working for HP.

I returned to South Africa and after a while found work with EDS (started by Ross Perot). EDS contracted their support services to BP Southern Africa to look after their Windows server network.

After Windows 2000 and Active Directory came about, EDS won the contract to support BP USA, UK and a fair part of Europe.

In 2008 we (family) came to the USA as my wife was offered a secondment by her company...I retained my job and I telecommuted from the US. My role had changed a little...I no longer

did technical support but assisted with scoping and writing up new business opportunities that were presented to EDS by BP.

As the South African work day ended around 1pm / 2pm for me in the US...it gave me time to tinker and play....that's when I started sharing videos on Youtube for fun!

We returned to Cape Town in December of 2010....at that stage HP had purchased EDS....as part of cost saving exercises...many of us had our jobs shipped off to India...so by April 2011 I

was unemployed...

I tried work doing solar power, energy audits and heat pump installations...but none of that took off....after not being paid for a small solar powered project...and being rather peeved...I

decided to try make money out of running my Youtube channel full time (December 2011)...it was at this time that Comtest (Fluke agents) found me and started loaning me kit for review...

The rest...as they say is history....and I count myself very fortunate that this line of "work" keeps food on the table.

That's me!

[steve30]

Interesting story Martin. I often wondered about your career/life history .

Makes mine sound a little boring. I used to work as a cleaner in a primary school. Sounds dirty, which I suppose it was, but I enjoyed it due to the practical nature, short shifts, localness and reasonable pay.

I do have a National Certificate in Electrical/Electronic Engineering though (with double distinction) from my local 'tech' aka 'further education college', And I have just finished an HND in Electronic Engineering at another local college (this time, a technical college which likes to think its a university )

I'm glad you manage to make a living out of the video blogging Martin. I'm surprised that you can make such a niche area profitable .

[Ecobion]

Martin, When you said you were from Surrey, I didn't realise it was Guildford. Our warehouse facility is in Godalming, just 10 mins drive from there.

I'm seeing a lot of people going back into education as they approach middle-age, particularly into electronics at the moment. It's something that seems to have resurrected within the last few years, possibly with the popularity of the maker community kick-starting it again.

I think the school system can often be at odds with creative people, and this seems to be one area that is a magnet for us. I think if something like BTEC vocational qualifications were available to you at school, you would have done well with them - No exams, only assignments.

My own return to electronics came recently. As a kid I was deeply into it, but the focus started to shift into processors, and subsequently into software, so I ended up doing Software Engineering at university. Took me about 20 years or so to realise I had gone down the wrong path, so got my skill set boosted with mechanical and electronic engineering. Don't think I'll ever stop learning now.

[MJLorton]

Ecobion...interesting point about the school system being at odds with creative folks. I think I would have done far better outside of the traditional school frame work.

This is where the Internet and places like Youtube can (sometimes) be great for discovering and learning about topics...and as you say...allowing those of us at middle age to continue the growth in our knowledge without having to seek out formal educational institutions to do so. Bloody marvellous!

[Jason]

Hi. My name  is  Jason  Guiry and I live in a lovely 200 year old cottage in the countryside  of Ireland  near a coastal  town  called Dungarvan. I used to  live inland until I was 12 when  my father brought the rest of my family  to the countryside to live a quieter, slow paced life than town/city life. My grades in school  were borderline average but not good enough to be accepted into any of the college  courses I applied for which at the time i think was mostly in the computer forensics, programming, and biology related  courses.

I did get offered a place on a nursing PLC course which is basically  a one year course  where they  teach you about nursing and do some  work placement. You could think of it as a try before you buy course, however I declined and excepted a course called Nautical Science as both the PLC and this course were interview based entry. I studied Nautical Science from 2007 to 2011 where you are trained to become a navigation officer on merchant ships, ie. Passenger, cargo, oil tankers etc...

As part of the course you have immense work placement sections of the course, probably about 50% of the time you are travelling the world permanently on 3-6 month contracts each time with various shipping companies followed by more time in college. It worked out to be 1st month in college,  7months at sea, 6 months in college, 6 months at sea and so on until my final  exams in the summer of 2011 where I failed 3 of my exams due to the loss of interest in the course and career path. Sure it was fun and exciting to say i have literally circumnavigated the  globe by the age of 22 but I had no further interest to continue. I have been to every continent bar Antarctica but I did try to  get on an Antarctic research vessel.

 I would love to  study electronic engineering and hopefully i will have the opportunity to do so next year as it is something i am always playing with,  electricity and electronics, sometimes garden equipment engines too,  but i never have enough money to buy any good equipment so i just made do with my €15 multimeter and a few cheap  parts from eBay as my family was never well off financially. As a result I adopted the approach of "Don't turn it on, take it apart!" as Dave Jones affectionately says.  Plus from watching others play with electronic circuits i found Martin's channel which I   have  followed ever since which has been beyond invaluable to me. Ok so this turned into more of a life story than an introduction so I'll call it quits 

[MJLorton]

Brilliant...thanks for the into Jason, always great to have a background and an idea of the challenges we face with finding a career we can enjoy.

Cheers,
Martin.

[Ecobion]

Ecobion...interesting point about the school system being at odds with creative folks. I think I would have done far better outside of the traditional school frame work.

Funnily enough, it seems the Government here is actually acknowledging this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23168781

I must say that doing a higher level vocational qualification as an adult, where you get no exams, has been really great fun. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get into engineering or electronics.

[electric]

Hi guys, my name is Sergio at the moment i live in finland and was born here even tho my profile state that i am from Puerto Rico kinda, my dad married my mom when he worked at this factory in Puerto Rico where he met my mom there so im half Finnish and half Puerto Rican. Started doing electronics when i was little modified my rca cars, then when i got my driving licence started doing car hifi systems installs and making sub boxes. Going to start studying electronics soon, hoping to become engineer soon. Thats about it 

[Ecobion]

Buenos dias Sergio, bienvenido!

[electric]

Buenos dias Sergio, bienvenido!

Mucho gusto Ecobion y muchos gracias,eres español también?