Samuel Penn

glendale what i'm doing scary
Contacting me

I can be contacted online by either email or through IM. In both cases my address is sam glendale.org.uk. I use Jabber/XMPP for IM, so any Jabber client (such as Google Talk) can be used.

Past lives

I've had a few online identities over the years. My first were as smp@dcs.ed.ac.uk or samuelp@castle.ed.ac.uk when I was a student. They no longer work, so I don't care if they're spammed.

Since 1995, I've used my bifrost.demon.co.uk domain, though this is now going to close once this site is fully online.

I'm Samuel Penn, born in Kent, England in 1973. After living in Edinburgh for a while at University, I'm now living and working in Hampshire. My current job is being a solutions architect at Centrom developing and designing various document management solutions with Documentum, OpenText and Hyperwave.

When not working, I have several open source development projects on the go (mostly Java based), and I spend time roleplaying, wargaming and reading science fiction and fantasy, as well as science books in general.

Technical stuff

I work as a Solutions Architect at Centrom in Fleet where I do a lot of stuff with Content Management Systems, J2EE and other technologies. I've had experience with various UNIX systems (Solaris, AIX etc), and programmed in C, C++, Java, Perl and lately even some C#.

I grew up using various Acorn computers, starting with the BBC Model B and gradually working up to the Risc PC. The Risc PC still gets used occasionally, though really only when I have to access old documents. The Acorn taught me BBC BASIC and ARM Assembler, and to a lesser extent C and Java. At University I was introduced to Solaris, which I gradually grew to like despite initial dislike (it's hard to go from a decent GUI like RISC OS to twm).

Gaming stuff

Actually started running my own system again - Yags - after years of putting it off. Using the classic Traveller setting, so I've added lots of support for SF/Modern type things to the game. It's probably going to take some time before I get used to GMing again.

I tend to prefer my own homegrown systems as a base for my own campaigns, mostly because I haven't found a decent generic system that doesn't have horrible flaws. GURPS seems to be the least worst, though most people I know hate it, so I don't get much opportunity to play or run it.

Other Stuff

I read lots of science fiction and fantasy, and like listening to classical music (including Opera). Nothing beats a good bit of Wagner or Verdi in my opinion.

Currently also watching quite a few DVDs, mostly anime or anything with swords - stuff such as Azumi, Hero, Warriors of Heaven and Earth and that sort of thing. Recently finished watching Elfen Lied (which was good), and need to finish Doctor Who season 2 (or 28, depending on how you count).

For the first time ever, I've started playing an online RPG - Vendetta. It's a bit like Elite was, and is quite good fun, though is considerably smaller than games like Eve. It does however run natively on Linux.