User:SteveMcBill

My Background

I have been 'interested' in wildlife since I was 4 years old but my interest did not become 'serious' until I reached 30 when I joined the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society.

Work wise - I started in the lab of a hospital (Whiston - in Merseyside) and then moved to chemical research (Croda). Following this I worked with the Department of Employment as a programmer for 25 years (much of it managing IT projects for the Dept.) - it was virtually all mainframe in Cobol, Plan, Fortran, Filetab and a few other languages.

Home IT interest led me into music and graphics programming for fun (Atari Basic and 6502 Assembler) and thence to developing the initial website for the Cheshire Wildlife Trust during a boring Xmas period in 1996.

Since October 2000 I have managed the local biodiversity records center for the Cheshire region - rECOrd. As at October 2006 we have 1.6 million species records available on-line for the public to search and map.

Who knows what will happen for/to me from here on in ?? Well, the answer was leaving rECOrd in May 2007 due to health reasons (a small stroke). Cest la vie !!

My Major Interests

- General Entomology

 - Symphyta (Sawflies)
 - Carabidae (Ground Beetles)
 - Lepidoptera (Moths & Butterflies)
 - Invertebrate Survey

- Terrestrial Mollusca

 - Identification
 - Survey

- Micro-fungi

 - Identification
 - Survey

- Photography (mainly digital nowadays)

 - Natural History photography for website usage
 - Photography for sale on Micro-Stock Sites

- Ragtime and Country Blues Acoustic Guitar

 - Playing - especially steel-strung flat-tops
 - Listening to old Country Blues players (e.g. Blind Blake, etc.)

- Information Technology (IT)

 - Website design and implementation
 - Database design
 - Making use of accumulated data
 - Making use of the technology to allow simple use of the data
 - IT standards across the web and in other areas
 - Mechanisms for collation and collection of biodiversity data over the web.