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KingFisher Software

20 years online


In 1983, age 12, I was given a bad mark for an English assignment. I'd described a team of kids playing computer games together across long distances using some kind of computer network.

The mark down wasn't for writing but for such a "far fetched" story. He was convinced this was the stuff of StarTrek and not our lifetimes...

10 years later I started working for a company called Demon, who had just started the UKs first dial-up Internet company. Cliff Stanford had warned me that my job security was based on not getting involved in the Internet side of Demon at all.

A year later, I was testing that theory =) Around June I was given a new role within Demon, that of automating the registration of Domains.

Naturally, I needed something to test my automation with...

Domain Name:KFS.ORG
Created On:14-Jul-1994 04:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:23-Sep-2003 10:54:02 UTC
Expiration Date:13-Jul-2005 04:00:00 UTC
Registrant Name:KingFisher Software
Registrant Organization:KingFisher Software

Back then registration could take a while, something I soon found myself taking to task...

At around the same time, I got a 2mb "Baseband" home connection, and my first Linux computer, so when kfs.org was registered, it began its presence on the 'Net immediately.

The original kfs.org was "flamegrill" (it tended to get very hot) and "whopper" (it was an old, bulky thing).

This set the naming convention to come for years. Shortly afterwards I acquired a 386, an apricot Xen-ii if memory serves, which due to its speed (compared to the other two) became "twoshakes".

Since most of my friends/acquaintances were working with or on the Internet, kfs.org rapidly gathered a small community, including Andrew Beattie who created the "Kite Fliers Site" - which frequently leads to my being accused of having stolen the site ;)

When I eventually left Demon, displaced kfs.org users lead by Andrew Beattie created OurShack which graciously offered kfs a continued home.

I've grown somewhat attached to my domain, so I intended to keep it for the foreseeable future. Occasionally I get surprised emails from old friends amazed that I still have the same domain ...

You should know me better... I'm too lazy to get a new one ;)

In August 2002 I left sunny England for the cooler climes of Bedford, TX to work on an online game myself. 10 years later I hauled myself to California for another project.

Oliver