Sq. Ldr Spitfire Sprinks – Winging Bandwidth Battles All Over The Digital Skies

As I write this story about Richard Sprinks, I’m reminded of a recorded conversation I read recently, between an air-traffic controller and a light aircraft -

Unknown Aircraft: "Hello?.."
Easterwood Tower: "Please say again."
UA: "What?"
ET: "Who is this?"
UA: "This is Joe"
ET: "This is Easterwood Tower, where are you?"
UA: "I'm in the plane!"
ET: "Joe, where is the pilot?"
UA: "He got out when the engine quit.."
ET: "Joe, what does your airspeed indicator read?"
UA: (Long pause) "Zero?"
ET: "Joe, whatever you have in front of you - a stick or a steering wheel - push it forward - you need to get airspeed over your wings!"
UA: "Are you sure?"
ET: "Yes Joe you need to push it forward... (pause)... What does your airspeed indicator read now?"
UA: "It's still zero."
ET: "Joe, where is your plane?"
UA: "We are parked down at the end of the runway, the pilot got out when the engine quit and walked back to the hanger.."
ET: "Joe, get off the radio."  


Richard is one of Idealogy’s digital developers, working on a range of projects from mobile apps, social media integration to CMS build and deployment. Now a 2.5-year Idealogy ‘veteran’, he has seen his role change dramatically since he began life as a callow designer in the 1990’s… 

“when I started in the graphics industry we used gallies of text, printed out by a typesetter. We used Letraset for headlines (where you rub the letters off a plastic sheet onto board and large cameras called Photographic Mechanical Transfer machines before Photoshop came along, to resize and add effects to text and pictures.” How quaint!

He is plainly an adaptable creature from an older time, but has taken wholesale change in his industry as a cue for personal development, rather than hark back to a more manually challenged era. Richard is the Joe of the above conversation. The guy happy to chat with all about his location and his surroundings, and who is also unafraid of any new challenge that crosses his desk, as long as he can communicate on his own terms, and not be rebuked about his constant questioning. It’s how he understands stuff.

So, over the years he has found himself as a studio artworker, designer, chauffeur, company owner, publisher and now a hugely capable and experienced programmer and web, mobile, social media and app developer who never says no and who stills communicates as economically as he can – “why use 40 words when 4 will do the same job?” It’s not code, but it is his interface between binary and the real world!

On a recent company event, an evening where handlebar moustaches seemed to be the order of the day, he was given the name ‘Sq Ldr Spitfire Sprinks’. The image above gives that particular moniker some credence, but the truth is that Richard is at his happiest when he is skirmishing with new technical battles that need winning. And he’s very good at it, no matter what form of device he is working with.

He’s a peripatetic techie who seems to carry his life in his Targus Backpack. And as you would expect, he watches lots of strange US TV Sci-Fi series like Fringe. He also has a compelling passion for fast cars – you should see what he keeps in his garage at home!

But I think the question we all want answered is “Is that a backpack or a parachute?”

How do we test that one out without someone getting hurt?


Posted by Idealogy