Update 18 February

The wake will be held on Tuesday 21 February, in The Bridge at Shawford (map link), from 13:30. There will be some light snacks. There's no dress code - wear what you're comfortable with.

The pub is one that we used to go to some summers to walk along the river up to St Catherine's Hill as a family, and also one where Dad and I would often have lunch together in the last few years.

This is an open invitation; if you know someone that would also like to say goodbye, please pass it along. Please would you let me know if you are coming as soon as possible so I have an idea of numbers.

Update 10 December

The wake will be held sometime in early 2017. The current time of year has confounded attempts to hold it earlier than that.

David Charles Mounce

1951 - November 2016

On 15 November 2016, Dad had a fatal heart attack. He was found the next day. He looked peaceful; it's unlikely he felt a thing.

I (Peter Mounce) am still trying to process the fact that he's not there any more. I loved him very much, and I miss him dreadfully. It hurts.

I'm very sorry if this is how you are finding out that he is gone. I am making efforts to contact people that corresponded with him, but inevitably I will have failed to reach some of you.

I feel like if you have been reading his website over the years, you already know what an amazing person Dad was. He loved Christa and I more than I have words for.

A wake will be held in the near future. This may be as soon as 5 December, depending on venues at this time of year. Details will be confirmed as soon as they are finalised, but it will be near Chandler's Ford, and most likely during the daytime on a weekday afternoon. You are welcome to say farewell, either in person or by sending me some words to read. I would be grateful to hear from you as soon as possible, to plan accordingly.

I can be reached by email same as him, but pete@ (this site) instead of david@ (this site).

I intend to keep this site alive as long as I am.

Blessed are the nonchalant...

A chap should write a book1, plant a tree, and raise a son. ICL published my first book in 1975. I planted my first tree in 1961. And Christa and I raised Peter from 1980. When her health failed, I retired from IBM to be with her. ("In sickness and in health", remember?) I miss her dreadfully.

Happy couple

My interests include the work of three geniuses: Charles Babbage, Shary Flenniken and George Cogar. I enjoy humour. Examples? Ernest Bramah and Emo Philips. Jokes (example). I even wrote a Chandler parody (for a bottle of Scotch) — I was young and innocent. I've been known to fight large corporations (and win!). Or castigate the BBC Trust. (6Music was saved.) There's a piece here I wrote for the IBM Hursley staff rag. And one on reverse parallel parking. Even thoughts on being an unrecognised genius.

A miniature rumination on Time. One on my mother. (Plus my recent orphan status.) Brief thoughts on choosing, and longer ones on using, Linux. Even my first (1975) hi-fi magazine article on Living with Dolby B.

I may voice the occasional opinion2 you find uncomfortable, but I don't set out to offend. Please tell me of any problems with the site. I keep things as simple as I know how — but no simpler. Thanks for dropping by.
Errors are (of course) deliberate. I provide something for everyone, and some people are always looking for mistooks.

Footnotes

1  Local evidence. Martin Campbell-Kelly asserts (in the Preface to From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog which quotes from a book of mine that I sent him) "In the whole scheme of things, CICS is much more important than Microsoft Windows".
2  See Harlan Ellison's® take on opinions.