dragonflymediaservices

1988, CPC-464, green screen monitor, top loader cassette drives... it was a time of pixels, a time of bleeps, a time when miniature blocky-edged 'sprites' controlled by keys 'a', 'z', 'o', 'p' and the 'enter' key (a gigantic blue button) or indeed if you were fortunate enough, codemasters of the 1980s assigned the movements of the 'sprites' to a suction-pad assisted stabilised joystick with hand grooves, unergonomically designed to not fit your, then, very small hands.

 

Aahhh! It was a free time, a time when viruses were 'bugs' and they didn't infect your computer hard drives or presented you with the dreaded "Blue Screen" we all hate to see nowadays. How could there be viruses when the hard drive was the cassette tape? In those days, who was to know?

 

It was a time when the only hardship was the dreaded waiting time which was only indicated by the two famous words, "PLEASE WAIT"; all the while, the cassette shrieked codes of instructions to a 64kb memory bank and a whopping 4 MHz processor all of which was amplified through a mono loudspeaker from the side of the keyboard. What style!

 

It was a time when young geeks would stare at copies of C&VG during lunch breaks at school or marvel at pages of computer magazines displaying the graphical abilities of the then amazing Archimedese machine (which none of us had). After laying my eyes on the graphical achievements of an Archimedese machine (in a computing magazine), I knew that I wanted to design graphics. There were other contributory factors as well such as the software houses that produced the games we played as children on our 8-bit and 16-bit machines; companies such as the legendary CAPCOM or Psygnosis that brought incredible games such as Street Fighter 2 and Shadow of the Beast respectively. A few years ago, I found my NRA (National Records of Achievement) folder, curiously, I flicked through and found an autobiography I wrote in which one of the lines read:

 

"...I want to design computer graphics and I would also like to become a programmer..."

 

amongst other cringe-worthy lines. Anyway, when I read this, I became that much more convicted that I was doing what it is that I enjoyed the most and further immersing myself in it as a passion. Although, I do not consider myself a programmer, save for PHP coding and other common web related coding languages, most of my undergraduate modules were heavy programming courses, ranging from C++ to Java, and from Visual Basic all the way to Visual C.

 

A simplistic view is that I blindly took a programming-heavy IT degree course because I made some colours and shapes react to simple keystrokes programmed in BASIC on the Locomotive operating system which was running on the CPC 464 as a child, and that had been my drive ever since. The more advanced view which makes a lot more sense is that I discovered from an early age that I possessed a methodical mind and it makes perfect sense to do what you love and what comes naturally. Ok, so I had some encouragement from my family to pursue a career in computing.

 

My personal reason for following this path is that I seemed to be the only person around that understood computers to a level that warranted distributing help to unsuspecting users of computers that believed that 'computers would simply not perform the task they had instructed it and it was a machine from hell'; that and also being the only computing genius around for miles, it made perfect sense to base my career in this discipline. My decision to follow this path paid off because I was able to grasp the concept of Object-Oriented programming which were core modules in my degree course.

 

It was inevitable that the path I had chosen as a career would lead me to where I am am today; running a business providing IT related services with a focus on creative design because everyone around me considered me as the person that 'knew enough about computers' to solve their problems, regardless whether it was hardware related or software related. Whilst studying, I started off creating web pages and logos and business cards and even flyers and posters for friends and relatives. Eventually, this became a frequent activity. Then friends of friends and relatives heard about what I could do and they too sought my assistance. It made perfect sense to charge for my time (even though it was not a lot) and as convidence grew, abilities increased and my knowledge of software improved, so did ouput in my creativity. The only route to follow now was to make this an economically viable venture. That's when Dragonfly Media Services was born!

 

Although, still a fledgling in 2005 especially to the world of business, the interest was keen and the energy was thriving.

 

Why Dragonfly Media Services you might ask? Well, this all leads back to the Legend of DfMS©.

The Legend of DfMS©

The Legend of DfMS is not like other legends. In 1988, a trully glorious time; I discovered the ancient world of Colony Caligo© (and the inventive mind of youth). In Colony Caligo©, it is common knowledge that dragonflies live forever. Did you know that? Well, if you didn't know that, now you do.

 

Long... long ago... for centuries, the people of Colony Caligo© debated the age-old question of whether dragonflies live forever (or if indeed they were immortal). The scholars, wisemen and elders of Colony Caligo© finally concluded the the legendary dragonfly, a majestic creature in nature and fierce in flight which protected the people had been around for many millenias. Some even claim they have been around since waking of the Sun.

 

This is obviously true because you see them around today and if you were interested enough, you'll find that they've been around even when the dinosaurs marauded our planet.

 

It is also a known fact that dragonflies are also extremely creative (when they are not being majestically protective) because of their imaginative minds; remember, they've been around for a long time.