Ian RentonBlog Archive — Page 17
These are some pretty old posts! I don't blog that much any more, but if they are of interest, feel free to browse. Alternatively, you can go back to the homepage to see some more recent stuff.
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On Game Design: DJ Rivals
There’s a formula common to many of today’s popular “casual” games. If you’ve played a bunch of Facebook games recently, you’ll probably recognise it. It goes a bit like this: You have a pool called something like “Stamina” or “Action Points”, which refills slowly in real-time. Once you’re out of...
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An Ending in Darkness
I lie unmoving on the floor of the bedroom, stretching my back into shape as I listen to the splattering of raindrops against the window. A cold north wind blows them on, a rare wind in these parts. So rare is this wind, and so sheltered is our flat from...
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Summer Calling
It is past midnight here, and a warm onshore breeze is just beginning to slacken. I stand barefoot between the blinking lights of the town and the endless beaches that sweep up the sea, whole again. There’s sand in my shoes, sand in my bag and sand strewn across the...
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Why I'm Voting "Yes" to AV
A while ago, I blogged my indifference to the Alternative Vote system, and politics in general at that point, in a post entitled “Meh” to AV. My main objection was that AV would increase the likelihood of the country being governed by bland centrist coalitions. However, now hopefully somewhat more...
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Easter's Approach
Not too many years ago, Easter fell early in the month of April. I spent it camping in a blizzard somewhere near Birmingham, packing in as many people as our tent would hold so that we wouldn’t freeze overnight. My choice to spend the daylight hours running around a frozen...
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Of Abandonment and Starlight
Winfrith’s “Starlight” children’s nursery has always struggled to stay open despite a lack of demand for its services. After one of many closures, it opened again late last year – only to close again in February after one of its staff was arrested (though never charged). Now it is abandoned...
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The Platform Blues
Hearts sink as the display updates from showing wildly inaccurate times to showing Delayed, Delayed, Delayed from top to bottom. “Signalling fault at Bournemouth”, it says, and we know then that all hope is lost. It is April now, and somewhere lilac trees and fields of dandelions are blooming. But...
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In Praise of Disjointed Communities
Prime Minister David Cameron is set to make a speech on immigration today which, to the very vocal displeasure of Vince Cable and doubtless many Lib Dems, is designed to appeal to the core and right of the Conservative party. According to the BBC article: Communities have been affected by...
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Data and the Generation Gap
I returned to my parents’ house after my final year at university approximately an eternity ago* to discover that they had at last entered the Cretaceous and acquired a broadband internet connection. I was less than impressed with the limits imposed on this connection, though - it came with a...
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When Science met Big Society
Yesterday’s announcement that the Arts and Humanities Research Council will, on pain of losing funding, devote a “significant” amount of time to studying the notion of “Big Society” is frankly shocking. If it is indeed true, it smacks of incredible egotism on the part of the government. The government’s money...