I joined the Starship Titanic crew on 1st January 1997, cheekily choosing a Bank Holiday as my start date and thereby becoming the second software engineer hired to work at The Digital Village. Two years later I co-designed h2g2, the site you're now looking at.

People frequently ask "What was it like working with Douglas Adams?", and in the past few years I've managed to dodge the question, for two reasons:

Firstly, I still miss Douglas like crazy, so any answer would require a restaurant staffed with those exceptionally rare waiters who can spot a situation in need of an intense interruptive flurry of waiter-ish activity, perfectly timed to defuse an anticipated emotional scene. (Such restaurants exist. Douglas took us to them all the time).

Secondly, I miss the work we did at The Digital Village. Not just the particular projects, but the energy that surrounded them - topping up our supplies of midnight oil and providing a net for our dawn-defying feats. Having a comedy genius and childhood hero whisk you out to lunch and laugh at your crap jokes and demand your opinions and argue with you about music and books and bits and atoms has an inspirational force above and beyond even the psychotic axe-wielding fantasies of game-publishing company executives.

After TDV finished, I knew I'd never find another job that came remotely close, so I started my own business. I have a lot of fun, a bunch of really great clients, and no projects that require me to sleep on the office floor.