Welcome to Brew wood

Hello. My name is Darren Brewer and I live in the city of Birmingham, located in the UK. I first created my own website around 10 years ago. Since 1999 I have been registered as blind, although I still have enough residual sight to pursue my many interests and hobbies. I have tried to make this site reflect those interests, but I also hope you will find it a useful source of information on a range of subjects. The main areas of my site are concerned with woodworking, Computers , Physics & Human Vision which is why I have put those links separately at the top of this page. Links to other subjects can be found below.

When I first started using the Internet in the early 90s most web pages were quite simple. Mainly text based with a splash of colour and a few pictures. But now with the advent of increasingly powerful PCs and broadband, the content of many websites has become more and more visually orientated.

As well as the hardware becoming more sophisticated, so in turn has the software and the tools that allow more complex web pages to be designed. So, for instance, instead of having a drop down menu with a solid background. You now find that there are many sites that use transparent backgrounds for menu's. So the text within the menu options becomes confused with the text on that particular page.

For those of us who have a visual impairment or are totally blind such menu's are very difficult, if not impossible to use. Thus it is becoming increasingly difficult for people with visual impairments to navigate some of the websites out there on the Internet. Bearing that in mind I have tried to make these pages accessible. But of course inevitably many pages contain images and are obviously of no importance to someone who is totally blind. The best we can do is to use a simple label to indicate that there is an image, but to keep the description short so as not to detract from the textual content.

Nnote. I am currently going through the site making changes and this will take some time. So please forgive any broken links or missing images. They will all be fixed within the next couple of weeks.

Links to other areas of my site

Crystals: This is another little hobby I've dabbled with. Here you will find detailed information on making solutions for growing crystals from many different chemicals. The methods needed to grow large crystals. Lots of recipes and many beautiful photo's.

M.C Escher: Now this was a man who knew how to draw & more incredibly how to fool you into seeing what seems to be impossible!! Take a look at these optical illusions, they are fascinating.

TV Comedy: I love comedy & so have compiled a list of episode guides & background information on many of the best British comedies as well as some from the U.S.

Richard P. Feynman: Considered to be one of the greatest Physicists of the 20th century. Read about the life of this curious and amazing man who absolutely fascinates me.

Integrated Circuit Tester for PCs: This was the project I completed in the final year of my honours degree.

Science Fiction: Detailed guide to Star Trek (Next Generation)  the Star Trek movies.  Episode guides & info about Highlander the popular TV series.

Movies: Detailed information on over 250 of my favourite films

Genesis: Track listings for the first 19 Albums, before Phil Collins left the group.

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