pirespreto.com :: Who Am I

I really started to like them and I got hold of one Sinclair Spectrum (a huge machine with 48K RAM and able to read and write in cassette tapes...). One day the IBM XT appeared and I was amazed with the capacity of the beast - 256K RAM and and enormous 20MB disk, and it was really fast ;-)! After some troubled years working with computers and trying to become an architect, the computer thing got serious and I started to work for a big Portuguese company - Inforgal. The company sank like the HMS Hood and I had nothing to do with it (neither the Bismark). I was noticed by the Microsoft General Manager, that invited me to work in the Portuguese subsidiary of Microsoft. I accepted and I'm pleased I did.

Since 1 Feb 2001) I work for Telecel Online (Vodafone) as Information Systems Manager. I guess that if I change jobs every 9 years I'll still be there when the Internet changes to something completely different...

This Internet thing got a hold of me several years ago. At first it was pure curiosity, but it evolved to something more serious. I saw so many terrible sites on the net that I decided to do something well presented both visually and in content.
And I guess that the radio control theme is perfect for this kind of objective. I've had lot's of flattering comments on the site and by email, which proves that my efforts are appreciated. I hope you enjoy them. If not you can bash me on the Guestbook. Make your suggestions, your opinion counts.

Like most of us, our childhood dreams can only fulfilled when we are big boys. Archery has always been a dream of mine. Being able to hit a coin at 90 meters was something that I always wanted to try.
After stopping with radio control and selling most of the stuff I had, I decided to put that money into something new. I have to tell you that this is one of the activities I have that gives me the most pleasure. Seeing yourself become better and better at shooting and being with wonderful people at the shooting range is truly unique.
And I'm not bad either. 90 meters seems to far away yet, but at 50 meters I surprise myself. I can actually hit the target LOL

My hobbies changed a little since I made this site for the first time.
I was engaged in Radio Control for several years and it was nice. Especially the learning process. It's good to see our skills improving and to look at the lap times I used to do in the beginning and compared them with the lap times I did 2 or 3 years after.
However, there's no activity where everything is good. And radio control is no exception. And this happens because of, you guessed it, people.

When one comes from the bottom of the ranking to be a contender for the best positions, things start to happen. There's jealousy, and there's stupidity in it's purest form. So much that I decided to shelve all my models, motors, radios and equipment and forget about the whole thing.
But because I can't be still I decided to do something useful for my health. Mountain Biking. And this a an activity I really love. It's me against what the landscape throws at me, whether it's a huge descent or an uphill climb. At the end of 3 hours pedaling it feels like heaven. No worries, and no troubles. Unless a fall ruins your day, but that's a given. Take it alike a man (LOL)

Static models has become another of my hobbies. It's not new because several years ago (before I got married) I used to do model planes and I was quite good at it.
But planes take a lot of space and they are at a smaller scale (1/72) so I decided to go for 1/35 Armored Vehicles.

Professionally speaking, things are stable as they can be. Vodafone is going to outsource IT and of course I'm caught in the middle of the storm. But I'm confident that with my knowledge that I can find a solution for the trouble (if it becomes a trouble). If I can't I'll have plenty of time to finish my stash.

I was born in 1962 at Castelo Branco (Portugal), a small town on the interior, and moved to Lisbon to study architecture. The personal computers were then the Sinclair ZX81 and the Apple II.