David Netherwood

From his "Linked in" biography and e-mail communication

David Netherwood

David Netherwood worked for Memotech's in-house software arm, Continental Software, developing educational software before the release of the Memotech MTX. Robert Branton introduced David to the wife of one of his friends who had a background in education (Helen Reidy), David and Helen developed First Letters, and probably Word and Picture.

David recalls that when working on First Letters, the biggest challenge was to fit as many pictures in as possible without running out of memory. "Each image was 16x16 [characters] and I devised a way of smoothing them a little, which at the time I though looked charming, but now looks awful. The images themselves were done by me, you may have noticed, I'm not an artist They were done on a paper grid and hand transcoded into hex values. I seem to recall there was an art department, but I don't recall it being involved."'

David went on to work on software for the Memotech FDX floppy disk system.

David also recalls that working for Memotech was anything but lucrative! He and David Fazackerley (Maths-1, Physics-1, Reversi) had to negotiate a pay rise within his first few months with the Company to reach even a barely acceptable salary. David worked for Memotech for around one year from January 1983 to January 1984, feeling that his position at Memotech did not offer job security, and given an opportunity to join the much more successful Research Machines, also based in Oxford, he joined RM and wrote demonstration software for the Research Machines Nimbus PC. David has gone on to develop a successful career in IT and is now a Senior Developer with BSkyB.

David's career is described on his "Linked in" profile and summarised below :-

Senior Developer, BSkyB, March 2003 - Present : Development of interactive TV applications

Various contract roles, including :

   Developer, Go Interact TV, February 2002 – March 2003 : Development of interactive TV applications

   Technical Lead Developer, Systems Union,  May 2001 – January 2002 : Technical Lead on an accounting system

   Developer, ORACLE, September 1999 – April 2001 : Working on an Interactive TV product

   Developer, Securicor IS, August 1998 – July 1999 : Working on an Information System for the Police

   Developer, ORACLE, October 1997 – July 1998 : Working on an Interactive TV product

Software Development Manager, Intelligent Micro Solutions, March 1990 – September 1994 : Development team manager

Team Leader, IMS International (Dunne & Bradstreet), July 1987 – March 1990 : Leading a team of software developers

Team Leader, Lion System Developments, July 1986 – September 1987 : Leading a small team of software developers

Junior Developer, Research Machines, January 1984 – June 1986 : Wrote demonstration software for the RM PC

Junior Developer, Memotech, January 1983 – January 1984 : Wrote educational software for the MTX