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Bio: James Fortune 14-Mar-2002 -- Susan Pichotta This week's INN Bio is the first featuring a British Clarionite, and another in our continuing series of presenters and others involved in the upcoming ETC conference. A magician, director, producer and writer, he has a rich and interesting resume in the show business world. In the Clarion world, we know him as a Brit with a rather noticeable sense of humor, and he's also the official Clarion trainer for England. In his bio, he mentions being slapped in the face with a fish and OOP in the same sentence... 
Who do you work for?Me :) Do you own your own company? Yup. James Fortune Associates has been going for many, many years. I also have two other companies that handle the marketing and sales of my two main development areas: AccountForce Software handles my accounting software and Acclaim Software handles Professional Investigator, my PI software. What do you like best about what you do now? I love developing new programs. I really enjoy the early development phases - the initial design, the file relationships, the dictionary design and so on. This is my favourite bit. I also enjoy training. I am the official Clarion trainer here in the UK and often do talks for our User Group. What has been one of your biggest challenges in using Clarion? Understanding the heavy nerdy stuff. I'm not a 'natural' nerd - in fact, when my son Charlie was diagnosed as being dyslexic, they said it was likely that it was inherited from a close family member and that turned out to be me! We never had dyslexia in my day, we just sat at the back with raffia! :) Anyway, I've never been any good at maths or spelling and understanding the 'heavier' aspects of programming (i.e. binary, assembler, etc.). Luckily, my business partner (and brother-in-law) Stephen Bennett is good at all this stuff. A true nerd. It took me nearly THREE YEARS before I suddenly understood OOP. I will never forget John Griffiths describing OOP as "POO backwards"! Finally the funny little orange man came up to me while I was standing at the bus stop and slapped me round the face with a wet fish and, in an instant, I fully understood it. I think that's why I can now train it effectively. I'm doing this talk at ETCIII. What has been one of your biggest challenges in business? Making money! Do you use any computer languages besides Clarion? No. Why? Because I don't understand any others. Clarion's hard enough for me. When did you start using Clarion? Years ago now. Version 2 of CPD, I believe. I was using a thing called Omnis3 at the time. It was a fully relational database but had many restrictions such as only allowing twelve files in its dictionary. Nonetheless, I wrote an entire accounts package in it. It was time to move on to something more powerful. I looked at everything at the time - Dbase III, FoxPro, TAS, Rbase, Clipper, etc., etc. and wasn't happy with any of them. What's the coolest project(s) you've worked on using Clarion? It must be Professional Investigator. But my new software for professional magicians will have some nice bits in it! Have you done anything for a living other than software development? Yes - lots. What was it? Now you're asking. (Deep breath…) I have another couple of careers. Check out http://www.norwelllapley.co.uk/james_fortune_biog.htm for my 'official' showbiz biog and http://www.magicfun.co.uk for my magical persona. Yes, I do kids' parties too! :) What are your hobbies/what do you like to do when you're not using Clarion? Writing computer programs - no!! Playing computer games - especially nasty shoot-em-ups like Doom, Quake and the new Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Cool. 'Armchair' anything - history, archaeology, criminology … I like 'ology's! Magic has been a good hobby throughout my life - waxing and waning depending upon circumstances. It's been dormant over the past few years but its back again with a vengeance - to the point where I could now call myself a semi-pro. And, yes - I do have a pack of cards in my hand as we speak. :( Married, children, grandchildren, other close family you want to mention? Married to Louise since May 10th 1991. My step-son Oliver is now 18 and at Cambridge University reading English. Daughter Lucie is 13 going on 18 (nightmare!) and son Charlie is 10. He's a sports fanatic and plays rugby, football, Tai Kwan Do, basketball, athletics, etc. Yup, if you're good at maths you've worked out that Charlie was a bump when we got married (photographer: "Move the bouquet down at little bit more Mrs Fortune") and Oliver and Lucie were page and bridesmaid respectively. Damn disgrace! :) Where were you born? Kingston-upon-Thames, England. I was adopted so I have little knowledge of any of it. Apparently my real name was Dermid Daly - yes, you guessed it - I'm half Irish on my mother's side!! Unfortunately, I've never done any hunting so I have no idea if I have any blood relatives living. Where do you live now? Purley in Surrey, England. The nearest big town is Croydon, about half-an-hour from London by train. What's interesting about where you live? Nothing sadly. It's a bit of a boring dump. I've got a nice house though. Have you lived any other interesting places? I had a bachelor pad in Wimbledon (where the tennis championships come from) for 16 years. Wow, that house saw some action! :) Which person, from past or present, do you most admire and why? My ideal dinner party would consist of at least The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr, David Copperfield, Dai Vernon, Tim Rice, Elton John, Edward Woodward, Ellis Peters, J.K. Rowling, David Lean, Lawrence Dallaglio and, of course, Bruce Barrington! :) What is your favorite food? Italian. Capaccio particularly. What is your favorite drink? Fizzy water - mineral water - you know Perrier. I drink gallons of it all day. I even drink it in pubs! I know - get a life James!! My favourite alcoholic drink is probably gin & tonic to mellow out but the lovely Nik Johnson introduced me to a rare old bourbon called Maker's Mark. Nice! Oh, and tea at 4 o'clock, of course! What is your favorite type of music? Well, being an old ex-hippy, I like a lot of music from the 'Sixties. I particularly like Jethro Tull for their complex rhythms. Having said all that, having children keeps you young and, as a family, we watch Top Of The Pops together every Friday evening. It's a half-an-hour weekly chart show that's been going here since 1964. I also enjoy classical music too - especially Baroque (Handel, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc.). Indeed, I've just been commissioned to write the 'book' to a stage musical with music from that period. I think we're gonna call it Too Hot To Handel - The Full Monteverdi! If Clarion never existed, what do you think you would be doing at this time? A writer and professional magician! Anything else you want to mention? I was put on this Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind I will never die! As I get older my original motto - So Many Women - So Little Time! - has mutated too So Many Breakfasts - So Little Time! Sad, isn't it? Ah well!
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