Hi, I'm the flatmate and yes, my ears are really quite small.
I'm not on here simply to copy my flatmate in a weird SWF way (the film, not the file extension), that got boring several years ago. However he did point this forum out to me and I thought it was worth a look....turns out I was right.
My background starts with a childhood combination of Clarke, Asimov and taking toys apart. Remember those toys with the wire you had to guide a hoop around without touching it? I dismantled one of those and used it to make a Santa-alarm when I was six, and I'm still quite proud of it. Would have worked too if my dad hadn't come blundering in at 2am.
I tinker...there's nothing that I can't look and and think "Hmmm....I can improve that". The I'll take it apart, find I've broken it and put it back together in a distinctly Heath-Robinson style until I've got something that works nearly as well as before. It's called customisation. That's why I'm typing this on a linux system that uses a network of three different machines to get all of the hardware to play together properly and requires regular doses of coal to keep the steam pressure up..