Ian Tresman

If I bought a newspaper, I'd be a Guardian reader. And I am a passionate squash player, and used to run our local squash leagues.

My main business is running Knowledge Computing as a Web publisher. I grew up and lived in Elstree and Borehamwood, moved to Derby at the end of 2003, and to Cheshire in 2009. I went to Furzehill School and Nicholas Hawksmoor School.

You may have heard of Elstree film studios, where they made Star Wars and Superman, and BBC Elstree TV Studios where they make the soap Eastenders.

Interests

• I am interested in the Plasma Universe (hence the fiery background), and also modern catastrophism, being a long-standing member of The Society for Interdisciplinary Studies. I also produce the Web site for Science Frontiers.

  For the last few years, I have also been putting together a catastrophism resource on CD-Rom, Catastrophism! Man, Myth and Mayhem in Ancient History and the Sciences. The work is still in progress, and is now available online.

• My politics are a touch left of centre. I used to be a member of Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and the Labour Party (then the Lib Dems), used to subscribe to Private Eye and The New Internationalist, and am in favour of further European integration, and enjoy the political intrigue described in the journal Lobster, whose CD and Web site I produce.

• I am also a regular blood donor (with over a 100 donations).

Background

I was an average kid. I compiled crosswords for a time, having my first one published in 1978; it's called a Hexaword because of its unusual hexagonal grid. About the same time, I built my first computer, a UK 101 with an incredible 4K Ram memory. It took a whole weekend to solder together, and a further two weeks to fix. A couple of months later I had written my first arcade game called Road Racer, and even sold a couple of copies to other testosterone bursting teens (I also wrote a game called Sheepdog Trials but suspect that it suffered from an image problem).

I have a fairly academic background which means that I have all the skills necessary to programme a video recorder set-top box. You would have found me at the University of East Anglia in the School of Chemical Sciences between 1979 and 1982, and at The University of Manchester between 1982 and 1983 doing Computer Science.

Favourite Sayings

"Keep your mouth shut and let people think you're an idiot, rather than opening your mouth and removing all possible doubt."

"There are two ways to defeat your enemy. One way is to defeat them in battle, the better way is to make them your friend." - Loosely based on text from The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for life."

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to use the Net, and he won't bother you for months."

A woman can have sex with any man she wants, whereas a man can have sex only with a women who will let him.

Favourite Words

Callipygous

Adjective: having beautiful buttocks.

Merkin

Noun: A hairpiece for the pubic area. From the Oxford English Dictionary on CD-Rom: 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), Merkin, counterfeit hair for women's privy parts. 1972 Variant I. vi. 54 Variant reporters interviewed a French pubic wig maker, the head of one of the world's most important firms making merkens (sic.) and other 'intimate wigs'.

Some Favourite Books (non-fiction)

The Vicars of Christ (1988) by Peter de Rosa

The history of the Papacy, full of intrigue, murder, mystery and sex. Revelations include an account of mad Pope Stephen VII (896-897) who dug up his deceased predecessor Pope Formosus after he had been dead for nine months, dressed the rotting corpse in full pontificals, placed him on the throne, and interrogated him on the charge of becoming Pope under false pretenses. Other goodies include Pope Joan (a female Pope), married Popes, a Jewish Pope, anti-Popes, and Popes that sired children.

The Electric Sky (2006) by Don Scott

A decription of the Plasma Universe and the importance of plasma in astronmy.

Thunderbolts of the Gods (2006) by David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill

A decription of the Electric Universe and possible implication on world mythology

The Multilingual PC Directory (1991-1995) by Ian Tresman

My first book! It was all about how to get your PC to work in different languages with the help of third party software. It was even translated into Japanese (see Publishing section)

Catastrophism! Man, Myth and Mayhem in Ancient History and the Sciences by Ian Tresman

My first compilation CD-Rom disc on Catastrophism! Recommended reading, details at its own Website here.

Contact

I can be reached by email at ian [at] tresman [dot] co [dot] uk