Readers' lives: Walk like an Egyptian

Ian Shandling found travelling in Egypt without his mobile phone rather trickier than expected

Shandling: Rugby would be a good addition to the Olympic Games

What was your first job, and how did you get into IT?
I got into computers when, as a university student, I bought a Macintosh in 1985 and became interested in PC networking -- in its infancy at the time. My first job was as a technical trainer for Roytech, a division of Royal Insurance (Canada). in 1987. I became a certified Novell engineer in 1992 and never looked back.

Planes, trains or automobiles?
The fastest vehicle for the budget available, of course! Cars offer us that most precious of modern commodities: the time to think, or not.

What sport should be in the Olympics but isn’t?
Rugby – it would be good for the sport and the sport would be good for the Olympics.

What was your best business trip ever?
NISC at St Andrews – vendors, partners and customers in a remote luxury hotel talking about a subject in which they all share an interest. Good speakers, open and honest conversation and good Scotch.

What was the best holiday you ever went on?
A tour of Egypt, without my mobile phone. A completely different experience and an adventure at the same time. Travelling and meeting new people, especially where I don’t speak the language, is great.

If you had a week to live, how would you fill it?
Family, friends and fun. It would have to be a celebration of life – isn’t that we do anyway?

“I never…”
…have time to play computer games. Well, almost never.

“I always…”
…carry a USB stick and nail clippers.

Will we see businesses take green ICT more seriously this year?
It’s hard to imagine private sector budgets being overly influenced by environmental responsibility in the current climate. Expect cost-cutting to be the vengeful king next year.

Print or online news?
Print makes a nice change, but online news delivers what we are looking for when we choose and isn’t bounded by pages, size or device.

Do you use social media?
For business, mostly. Social media are not without danger, and while the security cracks have just begun to appear to the layperson, security experts have for a long time tended to limit the personal information they expose thereby.

Will the economic recovery continue?
Depends how the global economies manage their currencies and inflation, as the failure of any one, could start another domino effect. With most Western currencies artificially supported, it would be risky to bet on a steady recovery.

Is IT well taught in schools?
No doubt it’s better than when I used a quill but it has a long, long way to go. Case in point: my eight year old son has no difficulty understanding and expressing such concepts as PKI in one or two sentences, yet children are not taught such concepts and most IT teachers don’t understand them. Concepts of identity and information security should be taught to younger children - regardless of their career path.

Ian Shandling is director of Winfrasoft