About Me

What do you want to know? This page is in a corny question and answer style.

Who are you?

I'm...well, just me. :-) My friends call me Jonathan, amongst other things.

Are you a student?

Not any more; in June 2006 I graduated with a first class BA (Hons) from the University of Cambridge. I read Computer Science at Emmanuel College. I may return to academia some day and do a PhD, but I have no firm plans just yet.

What is your involvement with JWCS.NET Ltd?

JWCS.NET Ltd as a legal entity has now ceased to exist. It was a company I founded when I was 16, and ran for the best part of six years. I no longer have any direct involvement, though remain in contact with those who took on parts of it.

You're involved with youth work too?

At present no, though I've had involvement with the leadership of a number of youth and children's groups associated with the church before now. Before I went to University I was working with 3 different groups. I worked with them in a limited capacity while I was away at uni. For various reaons, I'm not currently involved in this ministry, but I am open to returning to it in the future, as I am called..

The church? Are you religious or something?

Kinda. I'd call myself a Christian. Whether Christianity is really a religion or not is a whole other discussion.

You really think there is a God?

We can't prove there is a God, we can't prove there isn't one either. I have personally come to the conclusion there is, though it's something we all have to find for ourselves.

Aren't you interested in science? Isn't your faith incompatible with that?

I believe the science and religion have more in common than a lot of people on both sides of the fence think. In science, a theory is only said to be "correct" because it has not yet been disproven. In the same way, the concept of there being a God has not been disproven. Likewise, a scientific theory will probably have evidence that agrees with it from experimentation. There is evidence that a man called Jesus Christ walked the earth. People (myself included) also have what we might call "spiritual experiences". How do we justify these? I think they can be taken as a form of evidence that suggests there may be a God.

In addition, religion and science solve different problems. In science we can ask how particles formed and how the universe came to be. In religion we are looking more at why does it exist, and what is the purpose of it all. In science we ask why is it that the neurons in my brain form a path that allows me to come up with this and type it. In religion, we ask why am I here to type this and what is the point of me doing it? Maybe there isn't and my life is pointless. Now there's a nice thought.

What if you've got it all wrong?

I'd much rather believe there is a God and there not be than run the risk of not believing and finding there is. I like my life, I like the way my faith shows how to live my life. When the time comes, I guess I'll find the answer, but whatever the case, I believe (well, hope) that I will have enjoyed the life I've lived.

So you're into programming?

Computers in general. I wrote my first program when I was 8 years old, and haven't stopped since. I guess one of the reasons I like it is that it brings together so many things; maths, logic, linguistics, engineering, creativity...

Favorite programming language?

That'd have to be Perl. It's versatile, well thought out, quick to write, supported across many platforms, and even makes coding fun. For lower level stuff I like C, and for GUI stuff my weapon of choice might be C#.NET these days; it became vaguely enjoyable to write in once they introduced generics and the type system stopped being so oppressive, and C# 3.0 is actually a decent language.

What languages and technologies have you worked with?

I know Perl very well and have done massive amounts of web development and other stuff using it. I'm fluent in JAVA and C, though haven't yet written any professionally (that is, been paid for it). Other languages I've worked with (paid) and know reasonably well would include C#, Visual Basic, and PHP. I know ML quite well from studying it at uni. Languages I've had a little exposure to but haven't done anything significant in include Python, Prolog, LISP and assembly for ARM and x86. Hardware wise, I've played with Verilog, targetting FPGAs, and done some digital logic design/implementation at a gate level. Database wise, I know SQL and have worked with the MySQL database server, and have had some exposure to MS SQL too. I could name more things I know something of, but I think that's all of the interesting stuff.

Are you involved in any open source stuff?

Yes; most of my work these days is on the Parrot virtual machine, where I lead work on the .Net to Parrot translator and have implemented various bits in the Parrot core, as well as most of the Parrot linker (pbc_merge). I have made a few Perl modules available on CPAN. I don't work on it so much now, but I also started the AMaMP (Audio Mixing And Manipulation Project); maybe I'll find reason to rescurrect that.

What sort of music do you like?

All sorts. I have a pretty big collection of trancey stuff on vinyl, but I'm going in more and more for the harder trance stuff now. I also like a lot of metal-ish stuff, my favorite band being Dream Theater. Dragon Force, Rammstein, Creed, RATM, Metalica, etc I enjoy too. I like other odds and ends too, such as Faithless, Moody Blues and Queen. Really cheesy pop music does my head in...

Favorite food?

Indian food is amazing (Jalfrezi, Madras, etc), Chinese can be very nice too (Sweet & Sour, Satay, etc). A good pizza is always welcome, Mexican food is something I've tried and liked (the best I had was when I was over in the USA). And of course, roast dinners are awesome too!

Favorite movie?

There have been many good ones, but my favorites (in no particular order) would have to include the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, The Matrix, American History X and A Beautiful Mind.

Where in the world have you been?

I'm fairly well travelled inside Europe, having been to Switzerland, Spain (and a couple of its islands), Cypress, France, Portugal, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Russia and Italy. Outside of Europe, I've been to a few bits of the USA as well as various regions of China.

Are you a hacker?

Decide what hacker means to you, take a look around the site and decide for yourself. I don't consider myself a cracker or black hat; I'd rather stay on the right side of the law (or more to the point, not be on the wrong side). If you're a script kiddie (e.g. you just download exploits and sets them on friends or someone else's servers to try and bring them down) then I think you should get a life and learn Perl. :-)

Windows Or Linux?

I use Windows as my main desktop OS, but run cgywin and UNIX Tools For Windows so I don't feel too deprived of grep and the like. For server side stuff, it's Linux.

Favorite Linux Distro?

For my workstation, I tend to use Fedora these days. It "just works" most of the time, which is what I look for in an operating system and desktop environment.