This page is an archived about me page, because I hate throwing away content. The newest version of this page can be found here: About Shane Preece.
At the moment, I’m an A Level student studying business studies, law and computing. Though, I’m getting ever so close to the day that I leave college and head off for the big life of work… if I can find a job. Because I’m getting closer and closer to my exams, you’ll find that I do a lot of revision here. Well, that’s the plan anyway.
Another thing that you might find me posting here is coding things. I don’t pretend to be a brilliant programmer, because I’m certainly not, if I ever post anything here that looks like a tutorial bear in mind that it isn’t; it’s just a pointer for me to remember something for the next time I need it.
The Disclaimer Bit
In face, lets make that a disclaimer right now, shall we? You should take everything I say in this blog as incorrect and a lie, until you test out what I’ve said myself.
If you decide to try using a defence of insanity after you’ve killed someone when in fact you should have tried for diminished responsibility and then get laughed at by the Judge, don’t try and sue me. Or more likely, if you revise from an answer I write and I get something completely wrong causing you to fail your exam, it’s not my fault. I’m learning this stuff too, you know. I’m not a lawyer.
If you run a script I publish on this blog and it rm -rfs your hard drive, don’t blame me; you should know better.
Back to the About Me
As I was saying, I like to code stuff. I’m working on a number of personal projects at the moment, none of which are finished (except maybe AyTwo, which is at least usable, though since WordPress 2.5 has come about I sort of don’t see the point anymore).
As anyone that uses the Internet should, I know HTML. As any web app developer should, I know XHTML, CSS, Javascript and AJAX. My “native” language is PHP. I’m learning a number of other languages too, but what good developer isn’t at any given time. I’m picking away at Perl and C++. Whilst we’re listing languages, I might as well chuck in that I’m learning Bash scripting too.
I’ve spent my life around Windows machines, even if I still haven’t really touched a Vista machine, and I’ve recently decided to start renting a VPS running Debian. I very much like command line except for the few times done stupid things and felt my heart stop beating before realising that everything is okay.
I like to read, but not too much. The only time I bring myself away from my laptop to actually open a book is when I’m on the bus. Even then the only reason I don’t have my laptop out is because my area isn’t exactly safe enough to be handling such equipment so publicly. In fact, even on the bus I prefer to make my own stories up in my head. When I do find myself reading it’s usually a Dan Brown book, or Michael Crichton. I like those authors because their fiction is easy to believe since they support it with strong evidence which allows me to believe in the story.
I play Guild Wars. I have a level 20 Archer/Mesmer and a warehouse full of upgrade components that I don’t know the value of, so can’t easily get rid of them. I have Age of Empires II installed, and the CD is usually in my drive, so I find myself playing that. I’m not too good. I never seem to make military units fast enough – too happy building my happy village – before the other players wipe me out. I play Kongregate games a lot and always get the Cards on the Friday they’re released within a few hours, hoping that I’ll be released into the beta for the card game whilst it’s still in beta.
I have an awful lot of time dedicated to pursuits which won’t academically help me, yet I stress about exams and coursework a lot. This I find ironic, but I put it down to my being lazy.
And that, lady’s and gentlemen, is a good chunk of me.