We’ve been in the UK about a week now. Here’s what happened so far: The flight was good because it wasn’t full. There was a spare seat next to us which meant the kids could both stretch out a bit and get some sleep. American Airlines has a new policy…
RIP drm
This week, Dennis M. Ritchie, co-creator of C and Unix, died. His death has not made the front page like Steve Jobs’ did. But although the non-tech world had never heard of him, he was more important than Jobs. I can still remember buying my copy of K&R, that slim…
It’s October
And that means the 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition is underway. This year there are many entries playable on the web! What will they think of next, eh? Also, Blizzcon approaches (a little more than 2 weeks away), another Humble Bundle is out (and as good as usual), and today…
Diablo III Beta goes public
After a few weeks of being friends and family only (and sorry to my games industry friends, but you weren’t allowed in either) it’s now open season for the Diablo III Beta test.
Explaining Maths
Recently, I was talking to my Dad about fiddling about programming the iPad (which I haven’t got around to yet) but I did mention that I might have a go at something simple just to get my feet wet. Beyond Hello, World there are many simple small-to-medium-size projects of course,…
Birthday
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. I got a few cool gifts: A set of 3 Airflite juggling clubs Unseen Academicals Moonwalking with Einstein Nature’s Most Amazing Events Fry’s English Delight iOS 4 Progamming Cookbook A cat flashlight And a lovely dinner of chicken parmigiana and penne, made by Mrs…
Blizzard Haz Talent
This afternoon was the Blizzard annual talent show (expanded from the old “Battle of the Bands” of the past three years). It turns out Blizzard does have some talent! We got to hear some cool music: electronica/rock/bluegrass/pop/etc, see a spicy salsa dance routine, a karate routine including breaking bricks (with…
Maths is fun
The other week, a colleague walked into my office and posed the following problem to me: For all n where n is prime and n > 3, show that n² – 1 is divisible by 24. Examples: 5² – 1 = 24; 7² -1 = 48; 11² – 1 =…
Keyboard fun
One can have hours of fun with xmodmap. Especially if one has a Symbolics keyboard. For a start, I get a “real” Meta key (not Alt) and a couple of extra modifier keys that emacs knows about: Hyper and Super. I mapped these to mod2 and mod3. Staying away from…
Let’s not go overboard here
There is no need to be taking Potassium Iodide, because: Japan is a really long way away, and any release of radioactive material would disperse before reaching the US. Iodine-131 exposure apparently doesn’t increase the risk of thyroid cancer unless you’re a kid. It is likely to do more harm…