 Who Am I?
The Otter Joy website was created and is maintained by Lesley Wright.
This site was originally created using Notepad and HTML; I now use DreamWeaver. The content management system is my head! Graphics are mucked about with using JASC PaintShop Pro. The site is hosted by Abode Hosting.
Otter Stuff
My first and best love is animals, especially OTTERS (in case you haven't noticed!). They consume my free time as you can see. I would love to have one of my own, but it hasn't come to pass yet due to financial constrictions (like a giant anaconda squishing my bank account).
I have several friends who have pet otters, and many friends who work with them in zoos or in the wild.
 I occasionally help Martin and Daphne Neville display their pet Asian Small-Clawed Otters, Bertie
and Belinda at shows and events in the south of England. Yes, I have been nipped, but it was an accident. My cat has done far worse damage and he doesn't even need a licence...
 I am a member of the IUCN
Otter Specialist Group, looking after the website and mailing list, and helping prepare the Bulletin for electronic publication..
When not doing any of these things, or at work, or asleep or eating, I visit zoos and otter parks, read books about otters, watch TV about otters, collect toy otters - I am in general an Otter Fool.
Work Stuff
 I
am a senior database analyst at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, which is
part of STFC. When I left school I
started there as a Lab Technician,  but I have been in science sector computing
services for nearly 20 years. I currently work in the Energy Research Unit
 Along the line,
I have been a programmer working in teams and alone, and an Oracle DBA
managing my own technical team of 11, working on a variety of projects
ranging from the exchange of information on unpublished research in progress
in the G7 countries, to the Lab's finance system, to a single-user system
managing Health & Safety
courses and a public access register
of UK Energy Research. These
days, all the interfaces are web-based, and this organisation was
an early adopter of the Web. We are also the European co-ordinators
for the W3CLA initiative, and web technology is central to our work.
My department is also heavily involved in GRIDs and E-Science. My
own customers have included international science institutes, satellite
construction teams, accountants, administrators and the entire corporate
staff of CLRC. These days I mostly use Perls, MySQL and, Oracle, running
on Redhat Linux platforms.
The Laboratory does loads of fun stuff with synchrotons, lasers, satellites, space probes, microfabrications etc. It is located on the Berkshire Downs south of Oxford in England.
If you want to contact me professionally, or learn more about the Laboratory,
go to our external website, or email
me on lesley.wright@stfc.ac.uk
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