Who is The Archer?

In the beginning...

Archer '91

An ugly one, isn't he?

Kade Francis Hansson, first born son of Francis James and Maree Anne, was born in Hobart, Tasmania in the wee hours of Tuesday 17th February 1976. And so the story of the Archer began... [Insert musical fanfare]

Archer adopted his name in March 1990, when he was officially enstated to the position of Student BBC Econet Supervisor at Latrobe High School. Officially, he held this position for two years, although his status as "Supreme Advisor To The Landcruiser" has never formally laspsed.

Archer (if I can apply His name in retrospect) was assistant to his predecessor "TonyT" and the almighty oracle "Snodgrass" during 1989, though merely recognized as the Latrobe network fix-it-man "Y91.HanssonK". During 1989, Archer's duties primarily consisted of specially assigned programming tasks for Snodgrass, including projects to allow multi-user access to educational software packages.

Archer operated without fileserver priveleges in 1989, Lorraine, TonyT and Snodgrass being the only active priveleged users at the time. His duties were performed in specially made accounts where Archer had full ownership rights to the hierachies of those programs he was modifying. It was through these activities that Archer came to be known and respected by the oracle, who would recommend Archer to replace TonyT in the following year.

In 1990, the Computer Monitors (a group of students who would assist users in computer labs) were established, and their first meeting saw Archer elected as the Supervisor by an overwhelming majority. And in a historical moment a few days later, the name "Archer" was first applied. It was the day of the almighty *NewUser command which would see Archer's birth...

Snodgrass: "So what shall we call this account?"

[A few options are discussed and rejected.]

Snodgrass: "What is the name of the street you live on?"

Archer (smiles): "Archer Street."

Snodgrass: "I like it. Archer it is."

[The *NewUser Archer command is entered at Snodgrass' prompt, and with a *Priv Archer S, the birth of TonyT's successor is complete.]

At the time, I lived in one of four units at 1 Archer Street. Unfortunately, my family moved about a month later, so that I didn't live on my street for very long. The street runs by a wide muddy creek, and is actually called River Road as it continues upstream. It is in the small seaside holiday town, Port Sorell, which I still call home.

During my time as Econet Supervisor, I wrote a large number of network management utilities, and actually purchased an Acorn BBC A3000 for my own use at home. Maxwell Kenneth Archimedes (1991-) was my second computer, the successor to Herbie Arnold Amstrad (1985-), an Amstrad CPC464. I have been hooked on the power of Acorn's RISC OS ever since.

In addition to my second term as Econet Supervisor at Latrobe High in 1991, I also was elected to serve in the Student Representative Council by my peers (after being nominated by my teachers). During this year, I also earned several academic awards including two major awards from the Latrobe Lions and Rotary clubs.

In my first year (eleventh grade) of matriculation college (The Don College), I set up my own temporary fileserver during break periods, called KaServer. It proved itself popular amongst the students, providing some varied entertainment and amusement. The News In Briefs newspaper, perhaps the forerunner of today's Archer Review in many respects, was my personal favourite resource, although others seemed to prefer the cool little demos, games and music I selected for their enjoyment. In twelfth grade, I concentrated more on my writing, impressing both my English teacher and the TCE board of examiners.

My success at the pre-tertiary level saw me receive the Jane Franklin Hall Tioxide Scholarship to assist my studies at University for the duration of my degree in computer science. My first year of University was in 1994 (University of Tasmania), and it was then I finally discovered the Internet in all its glory. Of course, there was no looking back, although I still have fond memories of the fun I had on Econet LANs. I continued my writings, and broadened my readings to all the wonderful literature that can be found on the net. By the end of the year, I had made many friends, and shared many stories.

At the end of 1994, Tioxide, the paint manufacturing company who pay for my scholarship, offered me a summertime job while I was on holiday from my studies. By single-handedly writing a gigantic database application for them, their Instrument Documentation System (IDS), I managed to earn enough money to buy a new computer, Simon Jerry Archimedes (1995-), and a decent stereo. I returned to Tioxide in late 1995 to continue my work on a variety of new database systems and network management, and my systems were used successfully on KaServer2 (The Next Generation), a Windows-based PC at the Burnie plant.

During 1995, I became quite popular in the Internet-based Mariah Carey fan community, eventually creating the rec.music.artists.mariah-carey newsgroup in December. By this time, Tioxide Burnie was on the brink of an impending closure, which saw KaServer2 serve the Engineering and Drawing departments with further databases of drawings (The Drawing Index) and plant items (The PID). My InciData project, an accident logging program designed to meet world's best practice in safety standards, was trailled in the SHE department.

In 1996, with Tioxide Burnie undergoing demolition, KaServer2 was decommissioned, and I concentrated on adding to the life of my university college, Jane Franklin Hall. During the summer months I was a vacation tutor, servicing the needs of various individuals, families and other groups who use the college facilities over summer. Continuing into 1997, I acted in my capacity as a valedictorian of the college, and compered the inargural Jane Awards dinner and Webber Christmas Concert (in a suitable Santa disguise, but don't tell the kiddies).

Having completed my degree proper, in 1997 I moved out of Jane Franklin Hall into a flat in order to study for Honours. Mind you, I still bump into "old girls and boys" quite regularly. (In fact, my flat mate happens to be an "old boy".) And I haven't moved since, mainly because I can't be bothered.

And far be it for me to mention 1997 without mentioning the machine I used while studying for Honours- a grubby little baby PowerMac called MacLeod, of the order of MacAlphabet Soup. He ran KaServer3 (Deep Space Nine), which never quite made up it's mind whether to be a HTTP, FTP or SMTP server. At one point he was all three, though the EECS candlewall protected him from Dominion attack (and request packets off campus as well).

I have now completed my Bachelor of Computing degree with Honours. My thesis was on Java, and that has lead me to my first proper job with the University which is (deep breath) Junior Research Fellow In Java Technology.

As always, apart from writing (programs and stories), my favourite hobby is listening to music, as my 1995 yearbook entry ellaborates upon:

"Mariah Carey and 80s style pop says it all. Kade is incredibly quiet (or he would be if he had no stereo) and will probably make the worlds first computerized Lego man. One of the highlights of the year was his competition with Haggis to see who could turn up his stereo the loudest. Mariah may be good, but she'd be better if she were mute."

Not a chance. Mariah still owns my stereo! (Even three years later.) Oh, and if you took the time to listen, you'd hear that I also play the latest chart hits as well, even if Mariah doesn't sing them. But oh, how the charts are beginning to sour. Maybe I am reaching that age where new music is harder to accept, and you begin playing "golden oldies".

Programming projects still on the go right now, many of which are highly ambitious, include my program definition system Prodesy, with the aim of making programming languages, as we currently know them, largely redundant. Small projects include my Playtex application, incorporating a CD karaoke system (formerly AudioQ) amongst other things. I also write articles, poetry, short stories, novellas and a wide variety of other textual matter. I also fancy myself as a bit of a graphical designer, with particular interest in page layouts for documents, posters, as well as logos, covers and other designs.

I am editor and writer of The Archer Review, a home-brewed music magazine, associated with Audiotek, which is the name I give to my recorded audio/video library. Having created the rec.music.artists.mariah-carey newsgroup, I am also the maintainer of the Mariah Carey Newsgroup FAQ and the associated Mariah Carey Lyric Archives.

My major literary works (excluding my Honours thesis) include Dreamtime (1995), Make-Believe (1994), The Streetwalker (1994), Transposed (1992), Obsessive Attraction (1992) and Panic Stricken (1990). My current major work is now over six years old, and currently has a working title "The Electronic Dictatorship". On the back burner is another large work "The Machines Breaking Down", which is five years old. Panic Stricken's sequels are as old as the hills, but I have been working them into a screenplay since last year.

My job with the University occupied the three years from 1999 to 2001 inclusive. In 2002, I joined the Tasmanian public service in the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. I am the maintainer of their server-side Java architecture, which includes a database relational mapping called Mr Architecture (kind of EJB Light) and a device-independent presentation layer called Ms Architecture. I am working on my own full EJB implementation called Dr Architecture as well, but I haven't logged any company time on that yet.

Beyond all that, making Kasoft a company is, as always, a strong possibility.

See also: Archer's Dossier and Archer's Family

Last updated: Sunday 2nd November 2003