-
Canvassing!
Out canvassing for the first time today. It was extremely interesting. In case you didn't know, I'm running for a seat on Hertfordshire County Council in the elections this May 2nd, on behalf of the Green Party ( Read more... ) -
Testing!
Well, I'm planning on using Livejournal to make my entries in this part of the site, and syndicating the content over.
This is a test! -
Crazy Schemes
Someone posted this to a flickr group:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulpod/3450561888/
I have a bunch of old BBC hardware at home. Given spare time, I might actually make one. The case may be just a tad more chunky, though! -
Ruminations on Balancing a Simulation
Last night I sat down to balance the dynamics in the game "Strike!", described yesterday. I thought it'd be a simple task. I ended up pondering some stuff from mathematical modelling ( Read more... ) -
Due tomorrow! Strike!
Last Friday, things on the First Capital Connect commute that I take from St. Pancras to Streatham had gotten completely unreasonable. Half the trains were cancelled because the drivers were refusing to work overtime. I was pretty exasperated ( Read more... ) -
Times Table Cards
Just a quick additional post. My daughter is having some trouble with her times-tables, understanding the various concepts, and memorising the various results. She's a very tactile learner, so I had the idea that I could create some "playing-cards" to help her learn.
The three-times-tables are here, others to follow.
To use them, instruct your ( Read more... ) -
Maintainability (Part I)
I tend to end up in roles where new work is being performed. Maybe a new department is being created, or an existing department is undergoing an overhaul, or a new IT system has been introduced. Generally, and particularly in the latter case, this involves the creation of ad-hoc databases or reports.
This sort of thing crops up with depressing ( Read more... ) -
Python for OpenOffice Draw
In a recent post I mentioned that I was looking into exporting data from OpenOffice Draw into another format. I've had a look on the web, and I'm pretty amazed by how little has been written on this subject. The majority of extensions seem to be written in Java, and most tutorials are aimed at that language, or the internal BASIC ( Read more... ) -
Flowchart Interchange Format
One of the shortcomings of OpenOffice Draw (another that can't be ascribed to the programmers) is that is doesn't export files to Word very easily. If you put together a flowchart (for instance), it loses all formatting and cohesion if you export it to Word via OpenOffice Writer.
I'm looking at ways of sorting this out, more as an exercise than as ( Read more... ) -
Newish IF Project
While I was on holiday in Madeira earlier this year, I had what I think is a rather good idea for a new piece of Interactive Fiction (or a text-adventure to our 8-bit ancestors). The plot has to remain a secret for now, but I'm greatly enjoying writing it and I'm up to something like 130 rooms and as many items.
At the moment I don't know how long ( Read more... )