Brave New Worlds

If you were writing a taxonomy of stories you might choose books as a good place to start. Flicking your way through the world’s libraries, time and the Dewey Decimal System would eventually bring you to the fantasy genre. There is a lot of fantasy writing out there, and you might choose to subdivide it further. A one potential way of cutting it... Read more
14 Mar 2011 / 5 minute read / bibliophile

Spicy!

What, in your opinion, qualifies something as a good advert? Answers on postcard, or alternatively in the comments section below, if you find that easier. In the technical sense the main thing is surely that you actually end up buying the product in question. In terms of absolute results, I suspect that subtlety is probably key. If an advert ma... Read more
30 Jan 2011 / 2 minute read / blogger

The Day Job Part 2: Let's get SAUC-E!

If you know when I started my PhD you’ll be aware that it took quite some time for me to finish it. There are various reasons for this. One is that I spent quite a bit of time working and getting industrial experience during it. The other is that it took me something in the region of 18 months to figure out what it was I was actually going to do... Read more
22 Jan 2011 / 7 minute read / hacker

Spins a Webb, any size...

Okay, so there has been a shameful lack of posts here in recent weeks, and for that I apologise. I’ve had some stuff going on in both my personal and professional lives, and so this blog has really been put on the back burner. I swear to you that there is more coming, though, and soon. I have a fairly large and media laden post which is mostly w... Read more
21 Jan 2011 / 1 minute read / cinephile

Procedural Landscape Generation:

The Elephant in the Room

Since I haven’t been able to do any actual work on my Clockwork Aphid project as of late, I suppose I may as well talk about the background behind it a little more. Those who talk about it the most are the ones doing it the least, and all that. I’ve spoken a little about virtual worlds before and focussed almost entirely on World of Warcraft, be... Read more
07 Dec 2010 / 5 minute read / hacker

The Day Job: Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

If you’re reading this blog and don’t actually know me in the real world then you might be wondering “who actually is this guy?” and possibly even “what is it that he actually does, aside from starting to talk about procedural landscape generation, and then falling suddenly silent?” Well, clearly I’m a person who is currently coming to the end o... Read more
19 Nov 2010 / 2 minute read / hacker

The Boardroom

That important thing I was talking about before? It was my PhD viva, and it happened last Friday. Remember, remember, the fifth of November, indeed. It’s possibile that given time I’ll look back upon it as a positive experience (as many others do), but right now I’m still reeling a little. The closest thing I can compare it to is a really intens... Read more
10 Nov 2010 / 3 minute read / hacker

A Short Note Regarding the Deafening Silence

For a while there it really looked as though I was on top of this whole blogging lark, didn’t it? The problem is that writing this blog (and to an even greater extent, working on the Clockwork Aphid project) doesn’t feel like procrastinating. It feels like doing something. Not working exactly, but definitely making an active contribution. As a... Read more
03 Nov 2010 / 2 minute read / blogger, hacker

What todo?

The return train ride after a visit to my parents’ house is, if anything, more pleasant that the outward journey. This is not least, of course, because it ends in Edinburgh, rather than Doncaster1. Be that as it may, this is perhaps a good time to pick up the thought I left hanging at the end of my last entry, in which I talked a little about wa... Read more
28 Oct 2010 / 5 minute read / hacker

The Journey Home

Authors note: This post was actually written on Sunday. As it turns out, writing it on the iPad was no problem at all, but actually posting it (with the picture and links) was a different matter entirely. You know, the train journey from Edinburgh to Doncaster is really quite beautiful, for the most part. A reasonable amount of it happens withi... Read more
26 Oct 2010 / 4 minute read / globe-trotter