Category: Uncategorized

And that means the 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition is underway. This year there are many entries playable on the web! What will they think of next, eh? Also, Blizzcon approaches (a little more than 2 weeks away), another Humble Bundle is out (and as good as usual), and today it rained quite a lot… Continue reading It’s October

After a few weeks of being friends and family only (and sorry to my games industry friends, but you weren’t allowed in either) it’s now open season for the Diablo III Beta test.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. I got a few cool gifts: A set of 3 Airflite juggling clubs Unseen Academicals Moonwalking with Einstein Nature’s Most Amazing Events Fry’s English Delight iOS 4 Progamming Cookbook A cat flashlight And a lovely dinner of chicken parmigiana and penne, made by Mrs Elbeno. And a delicious cake.

This afternoon was the Blizzard annual talent show (expanded from the old “Battle of the Bands” of the past three years). It turns out Blizzard does have some talent! We got to hear some cool music: electronica/rock/bluegrass/pop/etc, see a spicy salsa dance routine, a karate routine including breaking bricks (with a WoW magazine!) and in… Continue reading Blizzard Haz Talent

There is no need to be taking Potassium Iodide, because: Japan is a really long way away, and any release of radioactive material would disperse before reaching the US. Iodine-131 exposure apparently doesn’t increase the risk of thyroid cancer unless you’re a kid. It is likely to do more harm than good.

Yesterday I was asked (by a native French speaker) how long I had lived in France for. Nice to know that all those years of study haven’t atrophied too much (I have never lived in France). But I don’t speak French as well as my mother did, who was once asked (again by a native… Continue reading French

x = 16 sin³t y = 13 cos t – 5 cos 2t – 2 cos 3t – cos 4t

Right, that 100 books meme that’s been going around. First, it’s not really from the BBC. It’s from the Guardian. And it’s based on a poll from World Book Day 2007. Second, since it’s based on a poll, it reflects popular books, so I’m not sure why there seems to be a persistent myth that… Continue reading Bookish

No matter how much you badger me, I’m never going to sell back my used books. Never. I like books. That’s why I buy so many from you. And if you think I’m going to trade in a book I bought a scant 10 months ago (relatively newly-published, at that) for a third of its… Continue reading Dear Amazon…

I just installed the Now Reading Reloaded plugin and fiddled with my sidebar template, so you can see what I’m currrently reading. Over time, this will also log what I’ve read, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while.