about dreaded ned

Ned Kelly - Bushranger

Ned Kelly (1854 - 1880) was probably Australia's best known bushranger, earning his reputation in various daring bank robberies during his short career. He has been variously described as a rogue and a villain (by the police), the man with the bucket on his head (by a disgruntled biographer) and Australia's last great folk hero (by a more sympathetic biographer).

The most memorable icon associated with Ned is the suits of armour worn by him and other members of the Kelly gang to protect themselves during shoot-outs with the police - hence the "bucket on his head" crack! The suit of armour was also Kelly's Achilles heel (so to speak) as he was finally captured after being shot in the lower leg, the only part of his body not protected by the armour.

Myths and legends (and some facts) abound about Ned Kelly and his gang, particularly surrounding his capture, trial and eventual hanging in Melbourne, and these days he is immortalised in books, films, various pubs and hotels (including one in France!) and galleries and museums around Australia, and of course on the web. A good starting point for Kelly-abilia on the web is The Ned Kelly Outlaw Home Page which has lots of information and links to other Kelly sites and places of interest. Hopefully more Kelly-abilia will be available here in the future as well!

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dreaded ned's - From BBS to WWW

Way back in the dim dark ages (more than 10 years ago, so the details are getting fuzzy!!), I decided to stop being an avid BBS user and become a sysop by setting up my own BBS in Sydney. Having just read a very funny and slightly high camp version of Ned Kelly's life called "The Adventures of Dreaded Ned", the choice of dreaded ned's as a name for the BBS seemed an obvious one - at least to me.

The BBS was started on an old 286 machine with a 300 bps modem and a small collection of shareware software. With an upgrade to a (then) 'super fast' 2400 bps modem, the BBS was connected to the international fidonet network and expanded considerably, carrying hundreds of fidonet newsgroups, and many local discussion threads. Like Ned Kelly (and myself), the BBS was a thing of many interests, and it joined PinkLink, Sydney's (and Australia's) first gay BBS network. With the death of the trusty old 286 machine dreaded ned's BBS bit the dust, but PinkLink continued to prosper. Some of the Sydney BBS's from those days have made the transition to the web, including The Eagles and Pinkboard.

A few years ago, while I was living in Thailand, I got restless and decided it was time to stop surfing the web for a while and put up a web site to spread the word about my adopted home, so I dusted of the dreaded ned's name and started learning a bit about HTML and web authoring tools (not learning a lot obviously, judging by the pages so far! - if I could just get this bucket of my head, I might be able to see what I am doing!) and dreaded ned's - explore gay thailand was born, and is still growing.

More recently the bucket returned to its roots for a while and dreaded ned's - explore gay australia was born. How many other areas dreaded ned gets to explore depends on how much time I can find - and how much money I can get from advertisers and sponsors!!

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Kelly Smith - AKA Dreaded Ned

	Born in 1956 in Sydney, Australia
	Moved to Bangkok, Thailand in 1992 and back to Sydney, Australia in 1999
	Have worked variously in hospital pathology laboratories, hospital supply companies, computer companies, teaching English and business communication skills, and most recently web publishing with some other computer stuff thrown in.
	Interests include computers, reading, computers, swimming, computers, travel, computers, languages (computer and human!), computers, having fun, and did I mention - computers. And of course my significant other, and computers!

To find out more, read the biography if it is ever published, or contact me by e-mail at ned@dreadedned.com.au

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