Year: 2004
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The Story Of Apple’s Graphing Calculator
There's a fascinating story behind Apple's "Graphing Calculator" application. Here's an extract:
In August 1993, the project was canceled. A year of my work evaporated, my contract ended, and I was unemployed... ...I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid … -
Playing Lord of the Rings, in The Flat
I've been pulling old videos off of devices I used to use. This came from an early-2000s mobile phone, back when mobile phones were REALLY bad at video. It features Paul M, Ruth V, Matt R, JTA, and Claire M playing a single turn of the Lord of the Rings boardgame (it was a complicated … -
Geekiest Christmas Card Ever
Just recieved this e-card from my mum's boyfriend.
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Conversation Of The Day With A Client
Fictional, of course. None of our clients are actually this stupid, and I wouldn't be silly enough to publish a real event like this on my blog, ever.
A client phones up and asks to speak to me.
Client: "I'm using the 'Data Export' tool in... [part of application I wrote, new version recently deployed to him] … -
GMail Invites
I've got nine GMail invites. Does anybody want one? Check the comments to this post to see how many have gone, and leave a comment to this post if you want one.
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Statto Plays With Blacklight
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Man And The Machines
There's a fascinating article on LegalAffairs.org (the self-styled "magazine at the intersection of law and life" on artificial intelligence and legal/ethical/socialogical considerations relating to it. Despite disagreeing with a few of it's points, it's well-written and excellently-presented. Go read it.
In case the site stops publishing the article, I've made a copy, below. Click on the … -
Scoville Units For Dummies
For the benefit of they that asked: a Scoville Scale worth seeing. I'm impressed that I own a bottle of the hottest sauce they do that's actually intended for consumption.
If I had £140, I still wouldn't spend it on a bottle of Blaire's 6A.M.... when a pepper sauce is contains three times the capsaicin level … -
Bug In Internet Explorer… But How Do I Tell Anybody?
This morning, I found a bug in Internet Explorer. I wasn't using it, of course, but I'd sent a Macromedia Flash file to a colleague by e-mail, who opened it in IE, but couldn't.
It turns out that Internet Explorer can't cope with opening Flash (.swf) files from the local file system, if the filename contains … -
Board Games Making A Comeback This Christmas
Board games are making a comeback this Christmas, reports the BBC. That's interesting news. So go "Have Your Say" already, and tell them what your favourite Geek Night board game is!
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Headache
My head really hurts. Ow.
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Which D&D Character Are You?
I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Elf Mage Druid
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral characters are unstable, and frequently insane. They believe in disorder first and foremost, and will thus strive for that disorder in everything they do. This means that they will do whatever seems 'fun' or 'novel' at any given time.
Race: Elves are the eldest of all … -
Nightmare Day, Part Two
The horror continues:
1. Still no fix for Andromeda. SmartData's web site is currently a temporary holding page I knocked up, and everybody's e-mails come to my desktop to be sorted and delivered to them by hand. The hosting provider still hasnt gotten back to me with anything but excuses, despite my calling them every hour … -
Review of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PC CD)
This review originally appeared on Amazon. See more reviews by Dan. Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PC CD) Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ Moderately Amusing; But Somewhat Repetitive
Sadly, the dramatic graphical improvements over the previous 'Larry' games is countered by a significant reduction in playability. Most of the sub-quests come down to one of five or … -
Nightmare Day, Part One
1. Andromeda (Smartdata's main online server) goes down, taking our web site and e-mail with it.
2. The hosts are slow and arsey and aren't much help at all. "I can ping it," says one. "Yes, well I can ping it too," I reply, coldly, "But apart from that, it doesn't seem to have any purpose …