User:IrradiatedHaggis

About Me

I AM CANADIAN ( see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg)
I was born in a small town in western Canada in 1982 and lived in various small towns in BC when I was a kid. When I left home I moved to Calgary for university, and then to Toronto 5 years later for work. In 2010 I got assigned to a London based project and spent the year flying between Canada and the UK every few weeks, spending most of my time in hotels here in London with only brief weekend trips home. I enjoyed London so I asked my company to transfer me here permanently. They refused, so I quit and found a job here myself.

I work as a software developer for a bank and specialize in bond trading software. Don't blame me for the financial meltdown, I didn't do it - I just wrote the software that enabled it.
It's strange that I ended up in banking... When I was 4 years old, after watching Short Circuit, I announced to my parents that I wanted to be a robot when I grow up... Years later I decided it would be enough to program robots for a living... I eventually decided that I wanted to be an embedded systems developer. I learned low level C, C++, assembler, etc.... and ended up doing high level Java for a living.

Interests and Hobbies

Too many to list them all. I have so many interests I can't even keep track of them...
3d Printing - A relatively new hobby for me. I bought an Ultimaker 3d printer last year and it's amazing. Next I plan to try building a DLP stereolithography resin printer.
Tesla coils - I've built a few.. My biggest throwing about 6foot sparks when I was in high school... However, I don't have space here in London to build and run coils :(... Electronics - I like to build things and experiment... I tend to start projects and never finish them. I have no professional training in electronics, but I built my first AM radio when I was 9.
Ham Radio - I'm not active these days. Got my license when I was 15 and have had the callsigns VE7SOK, VE6SOK, and VA3TKP... I haven't gotten a UK license yet though.
Nuclear Fusion - My main project that I was work ing on when I left Canada was a Farnsworth Fusor fusion reactor (see www.fusor.net). I had a great demo-reactor setup and was working towards full D2 neutron production. Unfortunately I had to put my equipment into storage when I moved to the UK. See my Picassa album (linked below).
Astronomy - I had 3 telescopes back in Canada, my nicest one being an 8" Schmitt-Cassegrain. Shopping for good Dobsonian 'light bucket' right now to try to cut through the London light pollution.
3d Graphics - I'm no artist, but when I was in High School I used to play with 3d Studio Max and quite enjoyed it. One of these days I will learn Blender.
Medieval History - One of the reasons I love London... I'm a frequent visitor to the museums and occasional mud-lark on the foreshore of the Thames. I also am interested in swords and used to study medieval European style martial arts.
Artificial Intelligence - Fascinating stuff... Among my many personal programming projects I've worked on neural net programs for pattern recognition and 'artificial life' simulations. The emergent properties of simple programs are amazing.
Classic computers - I love computers... and back in Canada I built up a nice collection of classic machines. Some of my favourites in my collection: TRS-80 Model 40, MicroVax II, ZX81, and my Mark-8 microcomputer (mind you, I built it myself, it's not an 'original')
CPU Design - I want to build a 'Blinkenlights' computer... I have most of my architecture worked out, just need to get around to actually implementing it. I intend to one day build an 8-bit machine in discreet 7400 logic. My plan is to use EuroCard boards and wirewrap construction... If I can ever find a good price on a lot of relays (400-500 4P4D relays)I would like to build a relay computer...
right.... that's all I can think of at the moment... But anything science / technology related and you can be sure I'd be interested.

Maybe some day I will write more here... I have some public pictures of things uploaded on Picassa... I really should add some more of my geekery there to show off.
https://picasaweb.google.com/102544598518008997408