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James' little website: Biography

This a little bit of information about me, in case you were interested (yes, yes, I know...):

Name
James David Forrester OW[1]
Birthdate
31st March 1983
Location
The University of Warwick's Computer Science Department, during term time; London elsewise.
Occupation
Student (specifically, 4th year CS\MEng)
Interests

Academic-related:

  • writing software (many terminated projects; a few completed and released, though none of particular note; many on-going-but-sleeping; and just a few actually active ones)
  • intellectual property rights law (patents, copyrights, etc.)
  • commoditised computer hardware (I've been building machines since 1996)

Otherwise:

  • reading (primarily science fiction, comedy, and political thought, as well as 'work' books; current favourite authors include Clarke, Hamilton, Paine, Chomsky, Borges, and Marquez)
  • talking (politics[2], methods of education, purpose of life, nature of society and humanity, etc.)
  • working towards public erudition projects, such as the Wikip[a]edia and Distributed Proofreaders
  • listening to music (just about everything)
  • good classic comedy cinema (think: Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, etc.) and most modern cinema
  • current and classic comedy radio, such as I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, Just A Minute, and The Goon Show
  • playing piano (very badly and infrequently, sadly)
  • running MUNs (Model United Nation society meetings), such as WSMUN

Sporty-ish:

  • walking (most especially around London)
  • swimming (less than I should, and, indeed, did)
  • skiing (though I haven't progressed very far in the last decade, really)
  • sailing (well, yachting; dingy-sailing sounds far too wet)
  • sports rifling (again, badly)
  • horse-riding (not for a while, unfortunately)
Education

Chronologically, this is how I have spent my (academic) life so far:

  • 2001 - [2005]: MEng in Computer Science, The University of Warwick (state-run university)
  • 1996 - 2001: Westminster School (independent Public School[3])
    A-levels: A - Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics; B - Chemistry
    AS-levels: A - Electronics
    GCSEs: A* - Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Electronics; A - Biology, History, French, Geography, English, B - English Literature, Art
  • 1991 - 1996: Westminster Under School (independent prep. school)
  • 1988 - 1991: Charterhouse Square School (independent pre-prep. school)
  • 1987 - 1988: William Tyndale School (state-run primary school)
  • 1985 - 1987: Canonbury Road Nursery (independent nursery)

After my current degree is over, I might go on to do a doctorate. And then, perhaps, a further degree. Or I might not. I've got a few years to decide.

Notes:

[1] - This means Old Westminster; I'm not entire sure whether my former School has a Royal Charter allowing the use of said letters after one's name; however, I have seen it in use elsewhere.

[2] - I am, in fact, a card-carrying member of the Liberal Democrats.

[3] - [This is primarily meant for those that are confused by the terms used in the British schooling system] In British English, the term Public School is given to academic institutions that generally teach pupils from age 13 to 18, having arisen as a contrast to local Free Schools which were non-fee-paying and open only to the sons of the free men of the local cachement area, being open to all persons, and generally involved payment; however, lately (19th century onwards) the term has been commonly restricted to a specific set of 10 that were founded (or re-founded) with Royal Charters, being, in order (alphabetically), Charterhouse, Eton, Ely, Harrow, Merchant Taylors’, Rugby, Shrewsbury, St. Paul's, Westminster (or rather, The Royal College of St. Peter at Westminster), and all other non-State-funded schools being termed Independent schools, which is used as a super-type of Public School (id est, a Public School is also an Independent, but not visa versa). Schools that are publicly funded are termed State Sector or State Funded schools, being run by the local Local Education Authority on mandate and funding from the central government department, the Department for Education and Skills. Approximately 8% of children in the U.K. are educated in Independent schools, 'saving' H.M.G. approximately £4bn annually (£45bn * ((1 / 0.92) - 1)), quite apart from other considerations. Independent (and Public) schools can also have primary (5 to 13) education departments, often as part of the school as a whole, but these are generally considered separate.

If you really want to know more about me, you can contact me through the email address below, or, indeed, you can extract all required information from your local .org DNS database.
Server : www.jdforrester.org
Apache/1.3.36 (Unix) mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_log_bytes/1.2 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635.SR1.2 mod_ssl/2.8.27 OpenSSL/0.9.7f
Webmaster : James D. Forrester, james@jdforrester.org (PGP key)
Page : http://www.jdforrester.org/biography.shtml
Latest update : 2005-03-09 12:54:37 (GMT)

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