About Ray Heffer from Sussex, UK

Hello and thanks for taking an interest in my website. I was born in July 1976 during one of the hottest summers, and did you know it was later that month when NASA released the famous 'Face On Mars' picture?! Also in 1976, the Cray-1 was revealed to the world which was one of the most successful and well know super computers in history.

I started my passion for computing and technology in 1984 when my father bought me a Commodore 64 for my 8th birthday. To the right is a book that my mother bought for my 11th birthday, and this was the first time I learnt machine code and hex. Throughout my school years my ambition was to become a computer programmer, but after college I was unconsciously steered into server and networking.

Since 1997 I have worked professionally in IT, and since I have worked in the public sector, commercial ISP, and government. Now in 2008 I specialise strongly on virtualisation and SAN storage. I gained my VMware VCP in VI3 in 2007, and my MCSE back in 2004.

For many years I've been really interested in Japan since watching my first anime movie 'Legend Of The Four Kings'. In 2003 I decided to start learning Japanese, and was attending a Japanese language class every Thursday evening in my local college. I really hate it when people ask WHY? in such a perplexing manner! Why the hell not? I've never understood the point in learning French, so why not Japanese? Japan has an amazing culture, martial arts, anime, and many festivals throughout the year.

Obviously, being interested in Japan brings Anime! To the right are Motoko and Naru from Love Hina! This has got to be one of my favourite Anime series, and it's very funny and a bit naughty in places ;P

Whether you are an anime fan or not, you must see Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. It's a story of a 10 year old girl that moves away from home with her parents, but stumbles across another world of monsters, gods and a witch!

If you are into action and violence then Legend Of The Four Kings is worth watching. It's fairly old now and you'll be very lucky to find it, but it's the first anime series I watched.

Cars are my second hobby, and after passing my driving test in 1993 I soon got into in-car electrical, audio, and mechanics. I was always better at the 12 volt electrical side of things, and as a college student I had to save money so I fitted my own alarm, immobiliser and sound system. It wasn't long when this hobby developed to such as extent, that I was featured on Channel Four's Big Breakfast and was officially the loudest car in England! Well... for a short time before a chap call Rob Cohen beat my record 158db with his 160.1db!!

Favourite Food: Curry (Madras)

Music: Evanescance, Prodigy, DJ Tiesto, Rank 1, Armin Van Buuren, Brooklyn Bounce, Milk Inc, Infected Mushroom, Kai Tracid.

TV: Anime such as Spirited Away, Love Hina, Chobits, Legend Of The Four Kings. Also supernatural and Sci-Fi such as Threshold, Lost, Hex and Heroes.

Favourite Movies: The Matrix (1st), House Of Flying Daggers, and old fifties Sci-Fi movies.

Hates: Stupidity and lazyness.

IT Skills: Microsoft MCSE, VMWare VI3 VCP, background in server hosting and data centers. I have 11 years experience within IT, and have extensive experience with Linux, Citrix, Cisco PIX and routers, Microsoft ISA 2000, 2004 and 2006, WebSense, MailSweeper, Active Directory, Perl scripting, Web development, IT Security... the list goes on.

Other Skills: I've been learning the Japanese language since 2003, and can read & write hiragana, some katakana and kanji. I'm also a keen DSLR photographer.

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