About Colin

tea's up!
tea's up!
Not yet quite regarded as a 'local' by the older families in the town, I've nevertheless been living in Cromarty since the age of 3 (41 years if you're counting). My parents started the Cromarty Pottery here in 1965 and, since they retired, it is now run by my wife Bärbel who was born in Hamburg. We live with our two cats 100 yards from the Plexus office - just far enough away to relax properly.

Clarissa cat - regal and effortlessly superior
Clarissa cat - regal and
effortlessly superior
Plexus operates a mixed computer platform, which essentially boils down to me using a Mac for graphic design work, and the others using PCs for ASP programming and multimedia development. My Apple G4 also currently houses my extensive collection of MP3 files (note to myself - get bigger hard drive), which gives me godlike powers in choosing the office music each day - something against which the others occasionally rebel, as my taste stretches from The Red Army Chorus, through Bhangra, Huun-Huur-Tu throat music, to 80s kitsch, 30's acapella, I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue, and classic Puccini and Fauré.

Fluffy - lost an eye in a cat fight
Fluffy - lost an eye
in a cat fight
One of the main advantages of living and working in Cromarty is that we don't have to commute at all (though Garve has recently moved to Kessock and drives 20 miles to work each day - turncoat!). We do try to operate as much as possible as a paperless office, and not having to use a car to get to work also helps to keep our eco-debt to a minimum. We've found that being located at a distance from Inverness has not proved a disadvantage - clients are willing to travel that little bit further to get the professional service that they want. And they also get a nice drive through the splendid Black Isle scenery thrown in at no extra charge ;)

But, seriously, folks ...

African Wild Dog on the brink of extinction
African Wild Dog on
the brink of extinction
As an extension of my interest in waste minimisation and ecological issues, I manage a web site which helps highlight the plight of the African Wild Dog and aids others in making donations to conservation projects.

Currently there are more than 1,500,000 people on this planet for every African Wild Dog left alive. Once widespread across Africa, the Wild Dog is down to it's last 4,000 spread across 5 African countries, whilst we swarm and multiply like there's no tomorrow - as indeed there may not be if we don't become more responsible. Despite their best efforts to resist trapping, fencing, snaring, poisoning, and becoming roadkill, the Wild Dog is on the brink of going out with a whimper. And though many might think we'll follow along shortly with a bang, it seems more likely we will simply drown in the rising tide of waste that we generate.

It's long past time for us to take responsibility for the impact that we have on our world and on the other species that we share it with.

If you'd like to learn more about the African Wild Dog, and how you can help to prevent it's extinction, please visit my Save the African Wild Dog site.

The Cold Light of Day . . .

     and the horrible orange glow at night.

Recently I had a bit of a run-in with my next door neighbour. He'd fitted a 500 watt halogen 'rottweiler' insecurity floodlight at the back of his house, tilting it up above the horizontal (contrary to the fitting instructions and the Institution of Lighting Engineers recommendations) so that it would light his garden, our garden, the other houses beyond our garden, the car park behind our local Londis store, a nearby area of wild plants, and around 1/4 of the rest of the town.

This type of light fitting creates nearly ten times the light of a car headlight on full beam, and is half as powerful as the brightest lighthouse in the UK!

Dark Sky Lighting UK - power-saving and sky-friendly outdoor lighting for responsible homeowners and small businesses.
Dark Sky Lighting UK - power-saving and
sky-friendly outdoor lighting for responsible
homeowners and small businesses.
Cunningly, it was set-up to be triggered by a 'PIR' motion detector mounted, you guessed it, beside the exhaust of his central heating boiler. Result? The light typically cycled on and off every 5 minutes all night. Fortunately, after several months of negotiation, he was persuaded to change it for 2 lower wattage PIR bulhead lamps. Not great lights from the light pollution perspective, but at least not triggered by the central heating.

No surprise, then, that I've become rather interested in the issue of light pollution, and the despoliation of the night sky by the glow emanating from every community. I've set up an Outdoor Lighting Reviews site, and hopefully this will help others find better light fittings, and encourage more responsible lighting. There is a better way of using lighting when it's really needed. See my review site - Dark Sky Lighting UK site.

Ripped Off by Zoodex on Ebay

The latest windmill that I'm tilting at is a company called Zoodex (Mopodo Ltd), from whom I recently bought a CD Player on Ebay. Unfortunately I appear to have been ripped-off. See our BAD page for the full story.

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