Next on my list of hobbies is “computers”. Even a quick glance down the list will confirm that I am a geek, so I’ll not bother to apologise.

My interest in computers started pretty late on. All through primary school I ignored them, while the other kids played on “My World” and this trendy new “Windows” thing. It was only at high school that I started to become interested in computing. The big reason for that was (I’m sad to say) AOL. One PC in the School Library had AOL’s walled garden installed, on a patheticly slow modem, but I was hooked. I’d queue for hours, waste lunchtimes and stay late after school, just for a 15 minute slot on the Internet.

Slowly the school added more and more Internet connected PCs to its network. And by now, these weren’t AOL. And they weren’t dial-up either. The school had a radio link to Lancaster Uni’s “proper” connection. I began exploring the delights of TeenChat and Yahoo!

It was Yahoo! that introduced GeoCities to me, right at the end of my school life. At last, instead of just reading the Web, I could write it too. With friends, I created a handful of sites, from the Britney Spears Appreciation site, to the delightful www.eggybread.iskinky.com. Thankfully these, and other moments of madness, are lost to the sands of time.

At about the same time as Britney Spears entered my consciousness, so too did a little-known operating system called Linux. It was Rob I have to thank for showing me a disc of Caldera OpenLinux 2.3. He’d installed in on one of the Boys’ Brigade PCs and I was mesmerised. It was like Windows but different. Things looked the same, but to use them, I’d have to learn new things. It was this encounter with Linux that started my inquisitive nature about computers. I wasn’t happy using them anymore unless I had some sort of manual next to me, learning new things to do as I went.

Eventually my Dad bought me my first proper PC. It came with no operating system installed (it was one I’d picked from Ace Computers, our local hardware shop), which was perfect. I stuck in the disc from the back of one of the manuals I had picked up, and an hour later I was up and running.

Since then I’ve been using computers for more and more things. I’ve built a Media Center – a sort of Digital Video Recorder on steroids, I’ve built PBX’s – phone exchanges which can place calls across the internet. I’ve learnt new programming languages, I’ve forged a career in Website Development. But most importantly, I’ve made sure that I’m constantly learning something new. Thin Clients are my current big thing, so I’ll keep you up to speed on how that goes over the coming weeks.

Over the next few days I’m planning to lay out a little information on my hobbies and interests. For reference this is what I’ve told the world my interests are (via Facebook).

• Boys’ Brigade
• Computers
• Railways
• Canals
• Ubuntu
• Web Design & Development
• Maps
• Voice Over IP

Let’s take it from the top of the list: Boys’ Brigade.

First, a quick history lesson on the BB. The Boys’ Brigade was created by William Alexander Smith in Glasgow in 1883. It used a combination of military discipline and Christian teaching that had never been used before. Boys of all ages took up the idea of BB in good numbers. From that day forth the BB has been challenging young people in a way that school, church, and youth clubs never really can.

Today. the militaristic nature of the Boys’ Brigade is largely replaced with an ethos of adventure and fellowship. And with 60,000 young people across the UK, and over a million worldwide, it is still as relevant to today’s youth as ever.

My own history with the BB starts 18 years ago, in 1989. As a five year old, my Mum had taken me along to Boys’ Brigade one evening on the invitation of a lady from the Church. I must admit I don’t remember much about my first few years, but I know I enjoyed it because I stayed through most of my childhood. Some of my earliest memories of BB are making a papier-mache rugby ball, and a very odd competition to see how many small things we could fit into a matchbox.

While my younger years in BB were no doubt fun, it is the years since I reached high school that I’ve come to treasure most. With BB I have learnt new skills, and been to new places, even overseas (well, Northen Ireland!). Every week would bring a new challenge, and I looked forward to receiving my badges at the end of each year to prove what I’d done.

By the age of 18 I had attained the highest award in the BB – The Queen’s Badge, awarded by The Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire on her Majesty’s behalf. This left me faced with a decision. After 13 years, do I wave goodbye to the BB, or can I give something back to the organisation which gave me so much?

I decided that I couldn’t walk away, and shortly after making that decision, I found myself running the Junior Section (for ages 8 to 11). In addition to that, I’ve organised weekends away for the older groups, and this year I organised the Annual Camp for the 11-18 year old section.

I reckon that the last five years of my Boys’ Brigade life have been the most enjoyable, and by far the most fulfilling. If you want to do something practical to make your society a better place to be, leave a comment with contact details, and I’ll get in touch.

In the past I have tried all sorts of different software for my blogging needs. I started off with Movable Type. It was written in Perl, a programming language I’m not overly-familiar with, and to be honest it stunk. Rather than just adding an entry, you had to click a silly publish button which recreated all the changed pages every time you posted.

That wouldn’t do. So in typical fashion I decided that I would write my own blogging software. I spent many a long night writing the code for this! Eventually, the software was where I wanted it, so I started using that. And things were good. For a while. Weeks after launching, my blog was riddled with spam advertising all sorts of crap. I tried fixing the software to stop it, but it didn’t help much. So I turned back to pre-built solutions.

I set up test installs of about 6 different pieces of blog software, and tested them all. It didn’t take long to fall in love with WordPress. It was PHP-based, so I could actually understand the underlying code. It was open-source (more on this another day), and it was easy as pie to use. From that day forth I’ve used WordPress, hosted on my own domain (matt-fletcher.co.uk).

Fast forward a couple of years, and I hit a big problem. Jatol, the American firm that I’ve held a reseller hosting account with for a good few years simply vanished, taking all of my websites with them. Now, being a good boy, I had my most important data backed up, but when I checked for a copy of my personal blog? Zilch. Bugger all. Not a sausage.

So over the last few months I’ve been mulling over what best to do. I have a Blogger account somewhere, and I think I even have a LiveJournal account hidden away someplace. But I also have a WordPress.com account. For those who don’t know, WordPress.com is a version of the stock WordPress software that is hosted elsewhere on your behalf. This is great because it makes it easier to set up, and I don’t have to worry about keeping the hosting up and running. But best of all, I get to use the latest version of WordPress all the time, without having to continually upgrade.

So my plan is this: over time I’m going to move all my email accounts over to Gmail, like my friend Graham has done. My domain will be pointed at my WordPress blog. And my Facebook will use a new application I’ve found to display the RSS Feed from my blog. Soon I’m hoping to no longer need to run my own web server, as I start moving my online life to remotely hosted solutions.

I think we’re nearing the point where the web browser has become the operating system.

I’ve had blogs before. A fair few in fact. But I’ve noticed that I tend to grow bored of them over time. My latest blog on my personal domain was lost when the hosts vanished one day. So this is my newest attempt. I won’t promise, but I’ll try and post every day (or at least every weekday). Life just got a heck of lot more exciting lately, so I should have plenty to say.