Whilst the rest of the world is burning, flooding, running out of toilet paper, locked down due to a pandemic and have to boil water for daily use, DigitalReviews.Net has been working hard in defiance of the best 2020 is throwing at us.
As you may have noticed, we have invited, cajoled, even tied and gagged a bevvy of new faces to DRN. Contrary to rumours, our hazing ritual does not involve shibari, but apparently it can get our attention.
DRN is proudly Australian based and owned. Since our inception our charter remains the same – bringing unique and unbiased content to our readers. To our existing reader base, thank you for your on-going support. For our new followers, welcome aboard this wild ride. We have been bringing more diversity and genre into the mix. As a team we believe in work and life balance, even if we can’t always action it, and our content will certainly reflect our efforts outside of technology.
How are we different?
The team on DRN are here for the passion of speaking our minds on what we write about. Our reviews are based our real world experiences, and our background and expertise is the sparkle to our colours. DRN is proudly independent with our work, and we work hand in hand with vendors and suppliers to resolve any issues or provide technical tips. With the expanded team you see cross-pollination of articles, multiple points of views and use cases for categories of products. Everyone and every environment is different, and DRN recognises this.
Who are the team behind DRN?
There is me, Kevin Cheng, heading up this incredibly talented group of misfits. It has been some 14 years since I was introduced to the site as a fresh new face, and what a ride it has been in the intervening years both professionally and personally. My promotion to the hot seat was covered off here so I won’t bore you with a repeat.
My background is in engineering, specifically in aerospace and fluid dynamics. I have spent the last few decades in technology, working my way through the ranks from engineer, solution architect to C-level position. Along the way I have collected various levels of expertise in storage, communications, business continuity and EDRMS to name a few. When you stir-fry that mixture together, my niche is finding the right sized pieces to resolve pain points.
DRN was founded by Martin Regtien along side with his son Arjan. Martin is now enjoying semi-retirement and swears that he is going to chill by the bush and watch the world go by. I would call it lies, damn lies and there is thirst for gadgets. Like any father, we do not walk away from our babies and we are pleased that Martin will continue to contribute to the site for many years to come.
Enough about us old folkies, what about the new faces?
Peter Bower is our favourite ginger. In former lives, he was a professional photographer and videographer, published writer, English academic, award winning poet, hater of soup, website manager, social media guy, semi-serious competitive gamer, and creature of the night. He is a former content-creator for DigitalRev and DIYPhotography and the founder and former editor-in-chief of SWAMP, Music on the Spot, and VoTogs. Underneath all that facial hair is a baby face, a pure heart that is known occasionally to don the Dougal outfit. Some would call it cosplay, but I will (in this instance) say he was raising money for the Cancer Council. His website is well out-of-date, but you can say hello to him on Twitter @OeterB.
Simon Pollock is a Melbourne based photographer with an ardor (his word not mine) for good coffee and music. He manages social media, worldwide content creation and community for multiple award winning photographic companies, mostly powered by a double expresso platform. You can see some of his wood working products on his website, all made from recycled timber.
Joanna Wieclaw is our unicorn with over a decade’s experience in automation engineering. Say hello to your future overlords now as she is combining that knowledge with Mechatronic Engineering. I am hoping that DRN will get an exclusive on Skynet, or Jownet when it eventually reveals itself, much like the Sith. Rumour has it that she is an amazing cook, and I will credit her for working out why my bread dough were failing.
Ben Webb is our resident adrenaline junkie. How else do you describe someone who served our country as a radar engineer on HMAS Darwin (thank you for your service), played rugby league for the Canterbury Bulldogs, (finally stopped) jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, master diver, motorbike trail riding, ski, fish, golf, hike, play, coach and president at cricket and soccer clubs, amongst a plethora of other competitive sports? Just to round out the kind of guy with the big heart that Ben is, he played in a band at the Tamworth music festival for years. Ben is knowledge and fact driven, something that also drives his wife insane, but he is happy to contribute to DRN whilst at the bottom of the ocean exploring a wreck or testing the spin rate, bounce, functionality, feature set or durability of anything you can throw at him.
Lis Petersen rounds out our team, with an equal passion for law and technology. Lis is notable for actually winning a trip for a family of 4 to Mauritius in 25 words or less. Now that she has an open charter with no word limits, who knows where she may end up? Is Virgin Space doing competitions?
From time to time we will feature guest writers as well, just to further diversify our voice.
When we’re not having fun and embracing the chaos of this world, we will continue to work hard for our favourite readers (ie all of you!). Sure we will bring you the breaking news, but as a team, we pride ourselves on in-depth real-world experiences of each product that we review. Our commitment to you is our honest thoughts on how each product work for us and how they can work for you. Strap in and be part of our journey.
