IT and R & D

I keep the website up to date and generally assist with the IT and Research and Development for Think Healthy Me. I have been a director of a software company since 1979, specialising in data collection systems, local currencies and discount & reward systems.

Designer of Local Exchange and Trading systems for KUTLETS, RAMLETS, Exmouth LETS and the payment interface for the Kingston Pound. I produced and ran the Visa Cash system for the World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway in 1997. I developed the software for a Front End Communications Processor for Clydesdale Bank which controlled their ATM system. Designer of environmental monitoring systems for Spook Ltd since 2000. I designed and implemented a data collection system for Thorn EMI which retrieved transaction data from 6000 branches and transferred it to a mainframe, all within one hour using the very slow communications available in 1980.

I have had a variety of jobs. I worked as a porter in Sotheby’s auction house, manning the display rooms and interacting with potential bidders; as a share fisherman on a trawler out of Fowey in Cornwall catching queen scallops; post room operative for British Olivetti in Berkeley Square; data entry for Horizon Holidays; porter in the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and Great Ormond Street Hospital; building a pitch and putt golf course in Dublin; delivery driver for a synthetic leather wholesaler in Dublin; and finally, from 1979, as programmer, analyst, partner and then owner of an IT company DTA Computer Systems, which had subsidiary companies called DTA International, Chipwell and Authentik.

As well as my work with Think Healthy Me I help to run the Thanet Diabetes Community Self Care Group and the Thanet Thinkers philosophy discussion group.  I am developing systems for recycling automats in Scandinavia and I am also IT Support and Admin for the Thanet branch of the U3A – https://u3asites.org.uk/thanet/welcome