About BeachyUK
Hi, I’m James. I’m the owner of BeachyUK.com. BeachyUK has been the home of my technology experiments since 2000. I’ve worked with other technology enthusiasts over this time to provide a range of internet services for free wherever possible.
BeachyUK isn’t profit-driven, we want to grow our own, and others, knowledge. We aim to help everyone make the most out of technology, whatever their IT knowledge and skills are.
We’ve had a very successful history, being one of the UK’s cheapest Internet Service Providers (ISP) during 2000. As the Internet moved to Broadband, we moved out of the internet access market, entering the software and web hosting markets.
In 2003 we gained huge recognition for the development of BePing, a free, function-packed network utility (ping, traceroute etc) for Windows.
Web hosting is now a saturated market, with little extra we can bring to the market, so we’re now focused on bring help through how-to guides and information through this blog, and our YouTube channel: Artexic.
About James
I’ve been dabbling with technology since the 1990s. I started in the days of MS DOS and Windows 3.1; developing simple programs in QuickBasic on 3.5″ floppy disks, and learning to fix broken PCs and disks when my friend’s PCs let them down… I loved it, and that set me on my technology-focused path for the future.
On a University placement year at IBM, I spotted opportunities for improvement, and with their approval, automated a mundane process overnight that saved each of my team hours of daily pain, and enabled them to focus their energies on the fun part of their roles. This proved to me that there was a career to be had in helping others make the most of technology.
I returned to IBM after getting my degree in 2003, and spent the next 10 years of my career with IBM, working with a range of clients, to help them make the most from their IT systems. Whilst I managed teams for a living, I regularly got hands-on building systems to help drive efficiencies and quality across the organisation and its clients.
In 2013 I was under pressure to take on more senior roles overseeing multiple clients rather than embedding myself with one client. I decided this wasn’t for me, so I left IBM and joined a medium-sized business, to help them get the most out of technology. I’m now a technically-minded Head of IT, moving between organisations everything 3-5 years to find those in-need of my quirky mix of management, relationship management and hands-on technical skills where necessary. I help IT teams deliver through risk-based prioritisation, a structured approach and a focus on internal and external customers. I get a real thrill out of it!
Outside of work, I continue to experiment with technology on a not-for-profit basis as I believe life is best when we work together. I use Linux (specifically Ubuntu) rather than Windows and spend time most weeks experimenting with tools and code using php and Python as my main languages of choice. You’ll find some free online tools on the tools area of this site.
BeachyUK and the Artexic YouTube channel remain the outlet for my tools and idea sharing. I’d very much welcome you on my journey. Subscribe to the Artexic YouTube channel for regular how-to guides, or leave me some comments on this blog… it’s great to know if something I post is useful to anyone!
Good work you are doing, James.
How can I subscribe to beachy. Com hosting services. Thanks
Hi Adex, afraid I’ve shut down the hosting service. There is so much competition in hosting, it didn’t seem like I could bring anything unique to the market in that area any longer.