Rupert Goodwins (born 23 May 1965) is a British writer, broadcaster and technology

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He began his career as a

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

for

Sinclair Research Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. It was originally incorporated in 1973 as Westminster Mail Order Ltd, renamed Sinclair Instrument Ltd, then Science of Cambridge Ltd, the ...

in the early 1980s, working on the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

. He moved to

Amstrad Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad ...

after it bought the rights to the Sinclair name and range of products. He was the Technical Editor of ''

IT Week ''IT Week'' was a weekly magazine for the UK computing industry, published by Incisive Media. History and profile The magazine was launched on 18 May 1998. It was originally published by the UK subsidiary of American media company Ziff Davis. In ...

'' magazine and has written for a number of other UK computer publications, including: *

Sinclair User ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was publi ...

Personal Computer World ''Personal Computer World'' (''PCW'') (February 1978 - June 2009) was the first British computer magazine. Although for at least the last decade it contained a high proportion of Windows PC content (reflecting the state of the IT field), the mag ...

* MacUser UK *

PC Magazine (UK) There are several different versions of ''PC Magazine''. The UK edition was taken over by VNU in 2000 and ceased publication in 2002, although they still maintain a website. Its columnists moved to ''Personal Computer World'', the first Briti ...

* Nature *

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

Rupert also wrote the 64-page novella accompanying the game

Weird Dreams ''Weird Dreams'' is a cinematic platform game developed by Rainbird Software which was published for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and DOS. A modified version served as the visual component to a phone-in quiz on ITV's ''Motormouth''. The ...

by Rainbird. He was editor of

ZDNet ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication. Hist ...

UK. His most notable contribution to the site wa
Rupert's Diary
which preceded the blogging phenomenon by some years. He occasionally appeared on

CNet ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

UK's technology podcast
Crave
and the Dialogue Box video series. In addition to journalism, he also writes short stories, often with a technological theme to them. He is a regular contributor to radio and television news and current affairs programmes on business and technology issues. Rupert is also a keen

amateur radio operator An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators hav ...

with the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

G6HVY.

Bibliography

Online archived short stories

The Cold Winds of Heaven
" in ''Quanta'' (1991), edited by Daniel K. Appelquist

Essays and reporting

References

1965 births Living people ZX Spectrum British male journalists European amateur radio operators 21st-century British inventors Amateur radio people {{UK-journalist-stub