Bike chains, board games and Bananaman 2009-02-24 00:00:00
Yes, I'm still here. I really must get into the habit of updating this just a teeny weeny bit more regularly - the record for time between posts hasn't been broken, I think, but I've come close...
Over cool s.. sorry, over Christmas, I acquired a bike. From a car boot sale. For the princely sum of £15 Great British quids. In the two months since, I have only actually been able to ride it for a grand total of about three weeks, and have come to the conclusion that it dislikes me with a passion. It spent the first week attempting to throw off its chain, otherwise remaining largely subjugated. During the second week (these are not consecutive calendar weeks, mind), having given in to the reality of how little time it takes to reattach a dislodged chain, it decided it didn't like having a derailleur attached to its rear wheel and snapped its mounting bracket. Significantly harder to reattach in situ. Today, having had its gears fixed, it shifted its attention back to the chain again, but continued with the general theme of snapping, with once again disastrous results.
Work, when I can actually get there in one piece (or, rather, with the bike in one piece), still revolves largely around SmoothWall and DansGuardian. It's been somewhat hectic lately, what with gearing up for a number of product releases, then suddenly being interrupted by talk of security holes. I won't go into details here, but my own opinion of the matter after careful consideration is that, whilst it needs fixing, the probability of successful exploitation is so vanishingly small as to be utterly insignificant in the real world. I can't see it being done without needing to find existing holes in trusted websites, and/or prior insider knowledge of your target's network, either of which render the vulnerability something of a moot point because there are umpteen gazillion ways to do more damage with such information via other, less contrived methods.
Anyway, it's not all bad. Thanks to Dan not updating the DansGuardian Amazon wish-list after getting given one of the things on it (not via the wish-list, obviously), coupled with the kindness of a random stranger, I am now the proud owner of a Bananaman DVD box set!
<Insert witty segue here>, which brings us on to the subject of board games. A long time ago I wrote an Ataxx clone in Delphi, and called it Infector. Well, recently I went and wrote it again in C++ with GTK+, added support for the Hexxagon variant, and called it... erm... ok, I called it Infector again. That site would host the results of some kind of ultimate robot deathmatch between the AI codez of Old Infector, New Infector and a friend's implementation known as Subversion, but Stu's apparent inability to administer his forum permissions (something I can like totally identify with) is currently hampering my efforts to get hold of the latter.
Fatherhood status: it rules! Zoe can now walk, and is just beginning to talk, with recognisable attempts to say her name ("Owee") and "thankyou" (best so far being "aah koo").
Comments
1 Stu 2009-03-05 16:47:04
Yabb starts so secure you have to fiddle with everything to let anyone look at it, never mind add things. :/
Still, I appear to have hit a middle-ground where people I recognise can post, and the forum spiders can only look. To be fair, no-one having access to the boards except me was only a slight downgrade on my old site...
If you're after Programs From The Past, I highly recommend Trap Door. It kept me (and still keeps Minature Sister) enthralled for hours.
2 Phil 2009-03-05 22:00:30
Yes! Trap Door is fantastic. One particular favourite of mine though seems to be disappointingly badly remembered and unavailable: Doris!
Some of the episodes had an incredibly wicked sense of humour. It's all coming back now: Marlon, Coolcat (who I always thought was a bit of a dick), Spacecat, Magicat, Rastacat, Cavecat, the mildly disturbing humanoid robot thing... and apparently Leo the Tiger, who I recognise, but don't remember ever knowing the name of. Watch an episode here - not the best, and sadly lacking any appearance from the inimitable Cavecat, but currently all I can find.
More links would be much appreciated.
3 Stu 2009-04-04 07:59:16
Darn your Infector program! It keeps outwitting me (It's winning 2:1 games). This is made worse by your critique of the quality of the AI previously. :|
I very much approve of the hexagonal version. It adds a bit more depth (width? complexificationess) to the tactics.
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