OK, I've decided to keep this site anonymous for long enough, and while I'm kind of amused by the fact that it doesn't appear when you Google for my name (at time of writing), I feel it perhaps needs a little less anonymity, and a little more pseudonymity for those who may or may not know who I am. Of course, if you really want to know, there's always my FOAF doc. Gah, there goes all anonymity. [What is FOAF, anyway?]

I try to keep personal info off this site, partly for privacy, and partly because I think that too many sites are taken up purely with a myriad of personal data of complete unimportance. I also happen to think that what I say is more important than who I am, although you could argue the two go hand in hand, I guess. I do, however, like living in Brighton.

I'm not sure that I have a single point of interest, but there are various topics that I tend to flick about like so many crumpled balls of thin paper. My background is heavily weighted towards computing, and I think a lot of it comes out of that. Some time ago, I worked out what really matters (although this continues to be re-defined every day), and that everything else is pretty much filler for our every-day business. Once you realise that, everything becomes a lot simpler, I think.

As such, I am engaged in a royal rumble, a clash between what to know and what to do - one being the important stuff, and the other being the time-passing activities handed down to us by the feeble world of our own imachinations. The former tends to guide the latter, and so is the flipside I'm most interested in, but that others might not (obviously) be. Currently, traditional Taoism is influencing much of my day-to-day movement, and it probably has a profound effect on the forms I fill out, although I may never know it (nor perhaps should).

I still have scientific roots though, which prevent me from abandoning myself to all things. This scientificism manifests in a variety of ways, such as a scattered venturing into Philosophy as and when, picking up what historical meanderings I can in order to make sense of the world and the people in it. As all things lead to all things, it's actually quite hard to stay in one place, and much of my interest now intersects computers with Politics and society, and by extension psychology, power/influence networks, emergences, architecture, methodologies, Economics, and a menagerie of other areas. Michel Foucault is currently also rather influential in all of this.

And so, it may take me some time to engross myself to a point of practicality within it. Social networking, distributed networks, and free exchange of data are potentially "buzzphrases" that you might use, but they have some oomph behind them. Enough to be worthwhile following up on, at least, from an operational point of view. I figure it's easiest to assemble thoughts in the head first to the point where knowledge is infused and permeated, and then let deeds trickle out of that like springs of water between the cracks in mountainside rock.

I like eating cold pizza in the morning, walking to work and listening to FIP and BBC Radio 4. I have musical tastes. I have an absolutely lovely girlfriend. I love thunderstorms, and sometimes rain is better than Sun, but never as good as mist or heavy snow. Magritte is my favourite painter.

• scribe

(See also: Public Key )