Born in 1984 Ross J Gillespie was in pole position for computing and technological events.

Whether using a Sinclair Spectrum, retuning a television, programming a VCR or replacing a battery in a wrist watch I was ready to play with, upgrade/fix and most importantly learn as much as possible from any piece of technology I could get my hands on.

The first computer I used was a Sinclair Spectrum 48k using cassettes.

Taking five minutes to load and about ten seconds to crash would put most people off but I reperceived and was eventually able to play classics such as Jet Set willy and its sequel Manic Miner but it was educational games such Postman Pat and Thomas the tank engine that stuck with me and taught me how to do things such read, write, type and count.

All of which led to learning my first lines of code and instructions creating stars, small music files and greeting cards.

By the mid 90s our family finally got its hands on a hand me down pc this brought new joy to me and plenty of problems to solve as well.

Our first computer had Windows 95 as its operating system which adequate was not as new as what our friends were using which quickly meant upgrading to Windows 98.

This was a demanding experience as my family had little time or patience for upgrades and updates (probably down to the 14.4kbps modem we had) meaning every Saturday and Sunday I would end up maintaining the computer.

This was especially challenging when my father deleted the graphics driver not once not twice but three times.

I would have to spend several hours figuring out how to change settings such as resolution and colour palettes just to be able to read the screen followed by scouring the internet to try and find a driver that worked which invariably didn’t.

However after much waiting and reading and learning I was able to not only fix the issues but also upgrade the looks and performance of the old pc which then went on to serve my father for another five years albeit with many a phone call to me for support.

After high school I decided I needed my own computer which led me to make at the time my biggest ever purchase a fully functional desktop pc with Microsoft Windows XP.

Unfortunately the computer did not come with Windows installed meaning I would have to install it myself a task that was very slow not due to the processor or RAM or even the hard disk drive but because the operating system came on 13 floppy disks, patience is clearly something I was born with.

My new computer was amazing but like all technology needed updates and after some persuasion I was able to get my parents to upgrade our internet to broadband speed (256kbps or 0.25Mb!).

This did make a great change for our small flat but we still had some hurdles to jump over such the modem being just a modem and so learning about wireless modems routers soon became a priority.

Once the new router was purchased no more would we have to unplug the old modem from the family pc and drag it through the house to my pc to let me use the internet or home networking.

It was around this time I began learning about portable hard drives and other storage mediums.

It was clear that my 80 gigabyte hard drive was no longer capable of storing my projects, CVs, pictures, videos and yes games.

The portable hard drives were useful but also prone to knocks and even spillages and after one drop too many one of my drives was lost and with this I started to learn about network storage and cloud services.

Now working for a UK based electrical company I was able to use my knowledge of computing to help sell and set up multiple computing devices.

Whether it was a Windows desktop, Apple MacBook, Android tablet or mobile phone I would regularly be asked to help other members of staff to set up products for customers including installing software, creating recovery media and most importantly cloud storage services.

All of which directed me to business to business sales of much higher value.

This responsibility would mean explaining to people wanting to create new or upgrading existing businesses how to connect desktop computers to tablets and phones while both in the office and on-site all of which needed to be fast, reliable and secure.

Having moved on I soon joined a popular mobile phone retailer and began to explore the new world of smart phones.

Learning about Bluetooth sharing along with 3g communication would lead me to becoming a specialist for Sony, Microsoft and Apple phones and devices and earning me the role of trainer for all new employees.

As well as this I would also be in charge of teaching staff how to talk to customers to find what they needed as well as offering services they may not have been aware of.

Time was again moving on but technology doesn’t stop and I had to keep up.

I invested in new devices such Raspberry pi single board computers and have begun multiple projects from building a retro gaming device to Network attached storage as well as creating an ad blocking unit that sits between my router and the internet.

I also got married (yay!) which meant I was able to help my wife set up and maintain her photography business.

I very much enjoyed this as it let me learn about Wi-Fi cameras and setting up websites learning and teaching each other how to send vital publicity photos where they needed to be instantly and securely.

I was also able to put to use my knowledge of multiple operating systems having to transfer photos and files via Android to MacBook and back ups on Windows and Linux.

Over the years I have always tried to maintain and increase my technology knowledge and in my spare time have recently begun studying Linux subsystems on Windows.

Learning Linux has always been a challenge for me but has also given me access to Virtual machines, remote desk top software and maintaining hardware that is defunct or abandoned which again helps and has helped both customers and friends and family when needing updates upgrades or replacements.

There is much more for me to learn and I have always wanted to use my skills not just to make my life easier but to also help others.

Thank you for reading this hopefully we can meet up and collaborate one day

Ross J Gillespie