Andy William Farrell
Encyclopedia
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
terminals in 1984.
At the age of 17, he was described as a "whiz kid" in The Weekend Australian newspaper of 10–11 September 1983 and similarly profiled in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Before turning 18, he left OziSoft and founded his own software company, Prime Artifax. The company went on to develop over 28 software titles for personal computers, many of which were sold internationally, including the Commodore 64 games Underworld of Kyn (originally also sold on the MicroBee
MicroBee
MicroBee was a series of home computers by Applied Technology, later known as MicroBee Systems.The original MicroBee computer was designed in Australia by a team including Owen Hill and Matthew Starr...
), Cup Challenge, Forest Raiders and Typing Tutor.
From the age of 18, he was also the editor of the world's longest running monthly magazine for Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
and Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
computer users, Australian Commodore & Amiga Review, which was published from early 1983 until August 1996. Farrell also contributed regularly to the Sydney Morning Herald computer section, and freelanced for several computer publications including Your Computer
Your Computer (Australian magazine)
Your Computer was an Australian computer magazine published by the White House Publishing Group and printed by The Lithgo Centre, Waterloo. Starting with the very first issue in May/June 1981 at the recommended price of $2.00...
and Australian Personal Computer
Australian Personal Computer
APC is a computer magazine in Australia. It is published monthly and comes with a cover-mounted DVD of software...
. He was also editor and publisher of Australian PC Review from 1994 until it ceased publication in 1996 and co-presented the 2GB radio Computer Show with Gareth Powell, former editor of the Sydney Morning Herald computer section.
Farrell left Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
after 23 years in the religion and appeared on a Channel 9 Sunday program documentary, Silent Witnesses, on 22 September 2002, which exposed systematic cover-ups of child abuse within Jehovah's Witness congregations.
In October 2000, Farrell founded Gravitymax Pty Ltd and conceived and developed Infomaxim, an online business solution platform that used a hierarchical object model for defining functional web templates. Infomaxim allowed the publishing of entities the structure of which could be dynamically defined without the need for server side scripting. The application was used for a range of solutions including content publishing, consumer panels, ecommerce and custom web applications. Infomaxim is available through Web Design company, netAttention.
Softography
- 1983 Underworld of Kyn - MicrobeeMicroBeeMicroBee was a series of home computers by Applied Technology, later known as MicroBee Systems.The original MicroBee computer was designed in Australia by a team including Owen Hill and Matthew Starr...
- 1983 Master File - Commodore 64
- 1984 Maths Master/Light Pen - Commodore 64
- 1984 Typing Tutor - Commodore 64
- 1984 Underworld of Kyn - Commodore 64
- 1984 Construct-a-brix - Commodore 64
- 1985 Cup Challenge - Commodore 64
- 1985 Forest Raiders - Commodore 64
- 1986 Typing Tutor - Commodore 16
- 2001 Manifest CMS
- 2002 Infomaxim eCommerce Software Suite / eCommerce Software