I'm 37, married to my lovely (and very understanding!) wife Sharon who loves her TiVo. We have two children, James Robert (born 14th July 2004) and Mitchell Edward (born 10th January 2006), however suddenly and without warning we lost James Robert at 38 weeks pregnancy. Despite having many tests and an autopsy there was no medical reason for his death and we miss him dearly. Stillbirth at late pregnancy is now recognised by the SIDS And Kids foundation too as a form of SIDS. If you have had, or know of anyone, who has faced a similar experience and wants someone to talk to please feel free to contact me at any time, or contact SANDS where I am also a volunteer telephone support person for SANDS Victoria. Support for grieving Father's is not as strong as it is for Mother's and I have been through some tough times dealing with our loss and I am willing to "lend an ear" if needed. If you would like to see how Mitchell is doing feel free to visit my online flickr photo album HERE where Mitchell has his own section! (you are also welcome to view all my other public photos too).
I grew up in Springvale which is in Melbourne's South-East suburbs. Some say I was born with a soldering iron in hand but that's not quite right as I picked one up at the age of 6 or 7 when my Grandfather was not looking. My interest in electronics from an early age was pulling apart working things and seeing how they worked - usually they did not work after me pulling them apart. Luckily that has changed and now I can occasionally make things work again (joke!). My parents and grandparents encouraged me to continue on with my interest, and in my teenage years I did actually work part time after school at the Springvale Dick Smith Electronics.
I completed Year 11 (form 5 in the old lingo) at Springvale High School in 1988 and attained an apprenticeship with the (then) Government run Victorian Railways where I was employed at an apprentice Electrical Fitter with Signalling component. It was here I gained formal qualifications in Basic Electronics, A-Grade electrician, High Reliability hand soldering and started my Associate Diploma of Electronics Engineering and Computers (dual Assoc. Diplomas).
After my apprenticeship I was employed as a Signal Maintenance Technician doing mainly programmed maintenance and emergency repair on the trackside railway signalling equipment. At the same time as this I completed the above courses and adding to that several other qualifications along the way.
Since 2002 I have been employed by a local company Rail Signalling Services which is an off-shoot to the railway industry where my main job is as Repair And Service Engineer for various computer based signalling equipment products. I also do design work for the industry.
TiVo for me is an outlet after work hours. Some people could not bear to continue doing things after work hours like they do during work hours, but for me TiVo is something different and very rewarding that I can give back to the OzTiVo community my hardware skills where other members have donated their programming and software skills which I have not the slightest idea about (and I guess the software people are the same with hardware too!).