Philip Wand

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Philip Wand (born December 3, 1969, in Chelmsford), known to his readership as Wandy, is a British computer hardware journalist and technical advice columnist.

Wand was originally a developer of IP networking tools for Windows, and later became founder shareholder of two successful technology businesses. In the 1990s he acted as consultant to a number of blue-chip companies such as Computacenter and Railtrack, and co-authored several of the UK's first high-traffic, high-profile web sites, including those of softcore magazines Knave and Fiesta.

In 1999 he created one of the more widely-used IPTV software products in the UK corporate sector, BT-Enfocast, and is now Founding Partner and COO of an Essex-based video streaming company. In his spare time is a technology columnist for a number of consumer IT publications.

He has written for titles including Cre@te, Official Dreamcast Magazine, FHM and Computer Shopper, but is most often associated with PC Zone where he is the title's longest serving contributor.

[edit] Dear Wandy

Wand is responsible for PC Zone's self-help column, Dear Wandy, and uses each issue's hardware news and reviews as an outlet for his trademark cynicism. In the past he has campaigned against case modding and overclocking, saying he would "rather have a stable and quiet machine than a slightly faster, stupid-looking one with epilepsy", and once claimed the last computer game worth buying was Chaos for the ZX Spectrum.

Dear Wandy has an online community which started life as a self-help forum for magazine readers but now encompasses anything tech-related.