Monthly Archives: May 2005

Next generation console problem

Gameplay code will get slower and harder to write on the next generation of consoles. This rather alarmist statement came out of a panel discussion at the Game Developers Conference. One of the panelists, Chris Hecker, suggested that the next … Continue reading

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Key labels or no key labels?

I’ve been slightly concerned recently that the key labels are rubbing off the keyboard of my iBook. But then I found this. A keyboard with no key labeling at all. 104 entirely black keys, no labels. Interestingly it promises to … Continue reading

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Odd Thoughts about modern books

I was reading a review on Amazon.com for a book (more on Amazon failings in some later post), when I came across two lines that perfectly describe a large number of the second rate novels being published: “Recent Plot Chunk … Continue reading

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Howl’s Moving Castle

The trailer for Howl’s Moving Castle has appeared on the Apple trailers site. It looks, as ever for Studio Ghibli, most remarkable.

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New Worlds Bookstore closed

I just read that New Worlds bookstore in London is closing. This is really sad news because I often visited it when I lived in Cambridge. It had a quite amazing collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, especially US … Continue reading

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I should really be working, not blogging …

I should really be working, not blogging today. (Since today is Monday).

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MPW mac error messages

Some old error messages from MPW (which was kind of like XCode for Mac before Mac OS X in one sense). “String literal too long (I let you have 512 characters, that’s 3 more than ANSI said I should)” “…And … Continue reading

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… a massively single-player game

There is a story up at Wired about Spore [flash heavy site]. Although spore is a single player god type sim game it will have some kind of internet access facility along the lines of the sims, you can place … Continue reading

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Retrofone

Retrofone is a fairly new company that sells older model mobile phones. It seems that this may be where some of the those traded in phones are actually going. The company has a whole range of old models for sale … Continue reading

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Cringely’s view of the future

Robert X Cringely offered up a new view on where Google is going. His view seems to be that Google will eventually be in control of much of the internet experience though their new google cache, Yahoo will probably win … Continue reading

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Explanation of the previous email

Well I feel stupid. I was notified today that marilac.malcolmhardie.com (ie this server) was apparently hosting paypal login spoof web pages. Somebody managed to crack one of the user accounts on the system and place a few files in the … Continue reading

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Strange email about spam?

Today, one of the email accounts at malcolmhardie.com received a very strange email just a line to let you know I have passed on you details to paypal and the police regards your scam emails trying to access my paypal … Continue reading

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Garbage Collection in Cocoa

One of the interesting things that seems to be happening with Cocoa is the addition of garbage collection. A finalize method has appeared in the documentation for NSObject. There is a curious warning attached to it stating that it isn’t … Continue reading

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May 5th – Election Day

If you’re in the UK, then today is Election Day. Please vote if you haven’t already made a postal vote.

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Almost 1kw psu!

The inquirer has a preview of a new computer power supply that is rated at 850W with a peak of 950W. This is almost a whole kilowatt! Who needs heating? Just install a few computers and you can have all … Continue reading

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