Street Fighter Tutu

So I like computer games. This isn’t news, really. Not in a hardcore live-to-game type way, more in a general fondness type way. That said, I did, as a youngster in an age before mobile phones, catch a bus to the next town so I could play a particular arcade game in what was (on reflection) a seriously dodgy little shop. That game was Street Fig... Read more
06 Jan 2009 / 2 minute read / geek

It Kneads the Dough

I like bread. I like it lot. So I was quite pleased when my parents gave me their bread machine and associated recipe book a couple of years ago. Their reasoning was (believe it or not) that I was the only one actually able to make bread with it. Their own attempts closely resembled articles suitable for construction, rather than ones suitable f... Read more
04 Jan 2009 / 3 minute read / foodie

Objects of Desire

I haven’t blogged in some, so it seemed only natural that I should do the churlish thing and write about items I would like, but do not have, post Christmas. First of all is a pod based coffee maker. When walking through House of Fraiser pre Christmas my beautiful and wonderful girlfriend had cause to exclaim “These are so cool*!” What she was ... Read more
02 Jan 2009 / 3 minute read / geek

An Open Letter

Dear Road User, Should you be located in the UK and in possession of an automobile, you may have noticed a strange lever positioned to the left of your steering wheel (the circular device which changes the direction of your car). If you are of the inquisitive sort you may have also discovered a causal relationship (or at least a very strong cor... Read more
24 Oct 2008 / 1 minute read / blogger

Sasanach

Helen’s comment on my previous entry put me in mind of what I’ve felt as the Scottish attitude towards England and the English more or less ever since I arrived here (seven years ago!). It goes something like this: The English? Bastards! We hate ‘em! Oh, but we’re not talking about you, of course. Dear me, no. More tea? Scone? I am gener... Read more
04 Oct 2008 / 1 minute read / globe-trotter

Why Bristol Depressed Me, and Other Stories...

So. It’s not that I feel that Bristol is an intrinsically bad or depressing place. My attitude to it was coloured by the fact that I was a little tired of travelling, tired in general and didn’t entirely want to be there. Also, and this is the key fact, I’d just got back from Iceland. I liked Iceland a lot, despite the twelve hour days I felt a... Read more
02 Oct 2008 / 2 minute read / globe-trotter

Flip side

Two updates in one day shocker! The last one was a little downcast, though, and I felt a need to pass on something awesome by way of balance. Here it is: Perhaps you’re thinking “Huh? Who’s this guy?” or “What’s with the cake?”. You’ve been missing out if that’s the case. Jonathan Coulton (for that is the man’s name) is a computer p... Read more
30 Sep 2008 / 1 minute read / audiophile

Ferðalangur

I’ve been traveling around for work for the vast majority of the last month, so generally speaking I’ve been anything but at a loose end. Evenings were full of work or spent with the colleagues / friends I was traveling with. But now I’m back and finding that I don’t know what to do with myself a lot of the time. It’s giving me time to think abo... Read more
30 Sep 2008 / 2 minute read / hacker, globe-trotter

Being Yvan Petillot

So. There I was, sitting across from a senior manager from Thales and two Professors, one each from Cambridge and Robert Gordon’s Universities, discussing the precise definition of the term “emergent behaviour”… Wait. No. Rewind. Thanks to my current uncharacteristically basy schedule, I arrived late to the Forum on Unmanned Systems and A... Read more
16 Sep 2008 / 2 minute read / globe-trotter

Well... Here I am...

…In Iceland! I wanted to come here for a long time (this is no secret), and as the result of a highly unsubtle campaign of strategic hint dropping, here I find myself. It’s not under ideal circumstances, though. I’m here for work and so I’ll be spending most of my time working 12 hour days, doing fiddly embedded computer programming and ridding... Read more
02 Sep 2008 / 2 minute read / globe-trotter