Response from ImageMagick folks, when I asked them to either re-instate the working binaries, … or stop building as Lion-only: “We only host and maintain current versions of ImageMagick on one OS release level. We have a small development team and do not have the time to support multiple releases […]
Yearly Archives: 2011
139 posts
The IM maintainers seem to be taking a leaf out of Apple’s book: if you don’t purchase the latest Apple OS upgrade (that most people don’t need), you can no longer use their software. If you follow their 4-line install instructions, you’ll get: dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/X11/lib/libpng15.15.dylib Referenced from: […]
One of the features of Gmail that I’ve long relied upon is the: “Default: Reply to all, instead of Reply” In 95% of cases, this is correct – it’s only rarely that you want to actively remove everyone else from the conversation. …but this stopped working shortly after Google+ came […]
There’s a new Syndicate game in development. After one of the most facepalm moments in game design – taking a unique game-genre and replacing it with an FPS, at a time when FPS market is massively over-saturated – the studio has gone one further: “we’re taking the Persuadatron and evolving […]
Today I was forwarded what looked like an interesting little event: “The Gamification of Everything”. I applied. Or … tried to. The process on all event websites today is: Type in your name Type in your email address Click “attend” 3 steps. This event has a process with … 15 […]
Today I finally discovered that the iPhone has StreetView. That means it’s only taken me THREE YEARS to find this secret feature that Google has worked very hard to make sure no-one ever uses. The best bit? The top two Google results for “iPhone Streetview” were both incorrect, and useless […]
I believe this is the best post I’ve seen on startup funding since the creation of Venture Hacks: Raising money for a startup is an inherently risky proposition. You step up to the plate knowing that the odds are slim and that, for every story of success on TechCrunch, there’s […]
A delightful quote from Google. Although equally, Florian Mueller has an interesting analysis on whetherGoogle really wants to kill patents – or just kill “patents which Google doesn’t already own”? note that Google’s discussion of its intellectual property rights starts with patents. They could have started with copyright, trademarks and […]
I couldn’t enter this LudumDare competition on a technicality, but here’s my entry which plays by the spirit of the rules. I took a total of 24 hours (out of 48), of which only 12 were actual design + development (see below). Hopefully next time I’ll be able to do […]
…or at least tries to, when Chris Lewis comes out with quotes like this: “you can be very confident we seek to maximise our own advantage to ensure the playing field is even, and certainly plays to our advantage” Wait, what? An “even playing field” is one which “plays to […]
I’ve just added a new, improved Entity System design to the wiki. I’ve also created a github project for it where I’m about to check-in working source. The only source I’ve provided is Java – but it’s an evolution upon the old “RDBMS with Code in Systems” type, that already […]
Eclipse current version (3.7?) randomly chooses some of the fonts from the System Font settings – this strikes me as rather stupid: you are only “allowed” to customize 90% of the fonts. Since OS X (10.6.7) still can’t render fonts correctly, when Eclipse grabs the system fonts, they’re often “wrong”. […]
Following my own install-guide from Jan 2011 (because Google didn’t provide one at the time)… Google still doesn’t provide an install guide Eclipse is a *little* clearer on what to download – but only slightly Eclipse.app on Mac OS X is *still* broken ADT is still “hidden” by Google for […]
(that’s almost $12 billion) This is a BIG DEAL, for the UK, and for Cambridge. Rory Cellan-Jones is moaning about how terrible it is (“looks like a sad day for British technology – and for Cambridge in particular”) – and I wanted to put across a very different perspective. NB: […]
I’ve encountered many managers who are in love with the IDEA of supporting their team, but not the REALITY. Typical examples: “My team are great. I push them hard and they deliver great stuff on time” (in reality: the team resents the bullying, self-aggrandizing jerk) “I’d do anything for my […]
TL;DR – notch reckons “it’s a scam” (I wouldn’t go that far – “scam” is a strong word, I reckon they’re just too naive/ignorant/foolish/arrogant to realise what a huge mistake they’re making) My gut feeling is: this would be a terrible investment. By comparison, the middleware companies that sell for […]
Any journalist who continues to not only re-hash the self-aggrandizing bull**** of greedy and abusive games-industry managers, but goes further and writes about these people and their behaviour in unquestioning, positive terms … is open-season for ridicule right now. We’ve had enough; developers are starting to get really pissed at […]
You know you’ve made it when… http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Adam%20Martin …although I’m a bit disappointed. I mean, it’s not exactly on the same scale as a Santorum, is it? (don’t google it. No, really – don’t.)
StackOverflow.com has long had one of the worst search-engines I’ve ever seen. It’s clearly a simple thing hacked together. It generally doesn’t work, and most of the people I know use google isntead, and rely upon Google to collage all the stackoverflow results together. Occasionally, you have search terms where […]
Over the past couple of years, there’s been much coverage within the games-industry press about the fall and fall of the UK games industry. Nicholas Lovell has done a particularly good job of tracking studio closures. Many of the big companies, and the trade associations, seem to have spent most […]