David Sidwell's Starting Page

About Me

I live near Melbourne in the south east of Australia. I attended Monash University from 1979 to 1982, taking a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Physics. Also dabbled in Astronomy, Maths and even (erk) Chemistry.

I finished at Monash in December 1982. About 2 weeks later I started work with IBM Australia. Since then I have worked for an excellent company called Aspect Computing; which was apparently acquired by a company called kaz.

I''ve left Aspect and have started my own Services, Consulting and Freelance Writing business. I've called it Artwill Services.

With over 20 years experience, I'm a hybrid of Senior Technical Consultant, Marketing/Demonstration Specialist, Technical Team Leader and hands-on Implementer. So I'm pre-sales through to actual project and then services. I work in the areas of e-business systems and services on Unix (AIX) and Linux. My main focus has been the Java application servers such as WebSphere and Tomcat; of course that drags in Apache web servers, DB2 database and the whole lot in between including multi-tier, security, networking, advanced problem solving, performance tuning etc etc.

Interests

Music music music: Beatles, Cole Porter, Sex Pistols, Gershwin, Crowded House, Kate Bush, Klaatu, Simply Red, Bread, Neil Young, Pink Floyd.

Movies: (in random order) Laura, Do The Right Thing, The Last Temptation, Devil's Backbone, Once Were Warriors, Bliss, Taxi Driver, A Zed and Two Naughts, Spirited Away, Mad Max n, Pulp Fiction and its earlier Dogs, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Lantana, Eraserhead, 2001, River's Edge, Film Noir, Blade Runner, Blue Velvet, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Mississippi Burning.

Other Interests: Ancient Egypt, Photography, Creative and other non-fiction writing (see Creative link, above), Australian History (mainly Gold Rush period here in Victoria), Four Wheel Driving, Aussie Rules (go Bombers!), Quantum Physics, Astronomy, Body Boarding , Cricket, playing keyboards and guitar - both self taught.