Big Martyn is my best friend. He died two years ago today.

I knew Martyn through the Compulink Information Exchange (cix.co.uk), which was one of the first social networks, before that was a phrase we really used. I leapt into the Modern Age in 1990 by joining CIX.

I had a modem attached to my BBC microcomputer, and I could dial in to CIX and transfer messages at a staggering 300 baud (bits per second), or about 30 characters per second.

Although Sir Tim Berners-Lee had invented the World Wide Web in 1989, whilst working for CERN, for most of us it was to be several years before we got to use it.

Before the web really happened, almost everything was text based. Because handling images used lots of resources which were typically not available, especially to the home computer user.

So I knew Martyn virtually and from occasional real life meet-ups.

In August 2000 I joined a new company (Computer Generation, based in Atlanta, GA, USA) as their first Europe-based employee.

I was encouraged to bring a partner to the Christmas party, which was being held at Hampton Court Palace that year.

So, I phoned Martyn and, after some discussion, managed to convince him to come to the party as my ‘plus-one’. We met at the venue and had a brilliant night. There was a live band who kicked off their set with a cover of Disco Inferno by the Trammps. We both rushed to the dance floor for a massive boogie.

After the event, I remember chatting to Martyn for ages in the car park, neither of us really wanting to leave.

So that was the start of a fabulous friendship.