What Video Game Character Are You?

I was very happy when What Video Game Character Are You? told me who I am:



"I am Mr Do. I am sedentary by nature, enjoying passive entertainment, eating when the mood takes me, and playing with my food. I try to avoid conflict, but when I'm angered, I can be a devil - if you force me to fight, I will crush you. With apples."

Mr Do is my all time favourite arcade game. In case you didn't know, M.A.M.E is the place for all your retro-gaming needs.

Camera Obscura for the 21st Century

Applied Minds Touch Table is a Camera Obscura for our time. See the (40MB!) video here. Nice to see some familiar data being used.

Applied Minds is the enigmatic company that Danny Hillis set up, and sounds like a pretty crazy place to work. It's impossible to sum up Danny Hillis in one blog entry, so I won't even try. I wonder if he has a blog? Any suggestions?

UPDATE Another interview by Boing Boing regular Xeni Jardin with photos.

What would Jesus eat?

From BBC News: Americans look to Jesus for diet

Classic Books for Free

Free PDF's of some classics available here: http://www.planetpdf.com/free_pdf_ebooks.asp

Now all I need is a decent PDF reader for my smartphone; any suggestions?

NASA WorldWind on Pocket PC

Very neat looking port of WorldWind on Pocket PC written in a week!

Mobile Managed Direct 3D is undeniably powerful.

Physics for Game Programmers

Craig Andera has posted a favorable review of "Physics for Game Programmers". This is a subject I have always been interested in, especially after wrestling unsatisfactorily with implementations of "toy" physics-based games in the past. This book might be a useful addition to the hypothetical programming course I would like to teach in the future; working title: "No More Sieve of Erasmus!".

Interestingly the source code that accompanies the book is available here (link found on the The Z Buffer).

The book as available in the UK from Amazon:

New kitchen!

Slightly unusual topic for my blog: I have a new kitchen. This post is primarily so my hemispherically-challenged in-laws can see the pictures.

My friend James did the lot: floors, ceilings, plastering, plumbing, cabinet construction, installation, and project managed bits he doesn't do (electrics). He has recently gone full time as JRM Services (+44 79 29 21 10 52). The finish is showroom quality, his work rate is phenomenal, and the price was very reasonable. He is making a website at the moment, and I will post a link once it is up. He is also willing to travel outside Cardiff; in fact he might do my sister's bathroom and kitchen in London.

My camera-phone doesn't really do it justice:

Charles Manson is blogging!

http://img.slate.msn.com/media/86/huffington.html

I don't judge, I just blog.

Internal DVD writer for under £20!

From Morgain Computers £16.99 ex VAT, £24.66 incl. VAT and delivery.

Plenty of caveats, but seems like a bargin to me.

Orignally posted on The Register.

Neil Gaiman's WebLog

Neil Gaiman is another hero of mine, and I am excited to find he has a blog:

http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp

If you need evidence that Neil is the greatest comic writer since Alan Moore, you could should start with The Sandman and go from there.

Rudy Rucker's Software Engineering and Computer Games

Software Engineering and Computer Games is part of Rudy Rucker's approach to teaching programming without boring students to death. If you think games are frivolous, you should try writing one.

I am from the home computer generation, and learnt to program by trial-and-error on my ZX Spectrum, which was ready to program 2 seconds after you switched it on (it's not all progress is it?). In fact every kid I knew could coax the computers in WH Smiths to write "Rudy is Cool!" hundreds of times across the screen (albeit using the now frowned-upon GOTO command). Kids these days don't get that option: just try to program a PC or a MAC without buying hundreds of pounds worth of software and studying reams of manuals. We need more initiatives like Rudy's book to teach kids that computing can be a truly interactive experience, and empower them to participate and contribute.

I have been a big fan of Rudy Rucker for a long time, and the extent of his intelligence is obvious from this list of his publications. He also has a blog that is eclectic and fascinating.