radiac.net

I know you've all been looking forward to this as much as I have - yes kids, that's right, it's that time of year again - it's midnight on the first of December, and that means the decorations are up at radiac.net.

This year marks the 8th year I've put up decorations! I feel old ;)

So, what can you expect this year? Well, following its success last year, I'll be bringing back the advent calendar, as you may have already seen on the way in. Point your bookmarks at http://radiac.net/advent/ for your daily fix.

I'll tell you now so you don't get upset later - getting 25 calendar games out last year was a right mission, so this year I'm going to wuss out a bit and will be re-using a few of them when I can't get a new one out in time. Like today. I was --> <-- this close, honest...

But don't despair! There will be less fillers and more polish this year, including some fantastic all-new games which will be precisely four times as awesome - packed with plot, cut-scenes, sound effects and gradient fills, they'll make your brain explode with glee! So make sure you check back tomorrow to play the first installment in my advent calendar mini-series - Christmas needs saving, and it's up to you!

Oh yes, bet you're excited now...

And for the 6th time, I'm running the TCMI watch again - let me know if you use it or find it running on a website!

Now to put up the real life decorations. If Leela thought last year was insane... well, today I went out and bought as much tinsel as I could carry. Let's leave it at that.

So here it is, Merry Christmas! Have fun :)

I thought we all knew that GPS navigators can't be trusted, and their directions have to be taken with a healthy sprinkling of common sense. Shame nobody told this ambulance driver - seriously though, how could they possibly travel for 4 hours without realising they're going the wrong way? That's pretty spectacular - bet they'll never live that one down.

Earlier this evening I put Leela on a train to Cardiff, and now I'm back working on the activity for tomorrow. Two hours... will it be enough?!

Sorry guys and gals, it's another old one for the advent calendar today! The first installment in the mini-story has taken longer than anticipated - I could rush it and have it out at about 12:15, but I figured it would be better if I took my time and gave it the polish it deserves. It'll be here tomorrow night, promise!

The calendar game for today is the first installment of the mini-series story I'm doing this year, where you have to save Christmas. I had hoped to get it ready for the 1st, but the logic was a little more complicated than I'd anticipated, and adding all the little touches added time. Tracking down appropriate sound effects was particularly time consuming - I ended up at the free sound project, which is fantastic but huge. The game is now done to my satisfaction - tacky and silly and fits right in with the rest of my site ;) Hope you enjoy it - let me know what you think!

I had fun testing the AI skill level and trying to get it just right, but in the end I decided to let you change it. By the way, if you put it onto the easiest skill level and still lose, just remember that it's a game of luck! Just keep trying!

The calendar doesn't seem to be as popular this year as it was last year, which is a bit of a shame. I think it's partly to do with a trend I've been noticing with my friends from school, from Uni and online - the blogs and journals and diaries have been falling silent as people move on and become more involved in their lives away from the internet. Sad in a way, but then I guess that's life.

Still, I'll continue with the calendar because at least I'm having fun doing it, and that's the main thing isn't it ;)

Leave a comment, tell your friends, and check back for the second episode which will be coming up in the next few days!

So Leela was away this weekend, and I was left to feed myself. Normally this would involve toast, cheese, pasta, or a takeaway, but Leela left me with a list of the things in the freezer that I could probably eat, and one of those was a burger.

Mmm, I like burgers, I thought, so I pulled out the frozen slab of raw meat and read the instructions. "Best grilled. Cook from frozen under a medium grill for 20 minutes."

Now, everyone knows that meat is dangerous if under-cooked. Nobody knows exactly why - that information was lost centuries ago - but thankfully the warning has survived, passed down by the eldest male child in each family from generation to generation.

Bearing the wise words of my ancestors in mind, I decided to put the grill on high, and to grill it for 20 minutes on each side.

Things were fine for the first 35 minutes. First it sat there, then it sat there and started oozing juice, then the juice started to dance around and spit and hiss. It was pretty awesome, let me tell you.

However, when I peeked through the oven window with 5 minutes left to go, things had changed somewhat. The top of the oven was now a swirling white, with occasional yellow flashes punctuating the darkness. I decided to open the oven door to take a closer look.

Turns out I'd managed to set my burger on fire. As I opened the door a fireball shot out, nearly singeing my hair, quickly followed by thick billowing smoke. I coughed and spluttered, shut the door, and peered inside to see yellow flames licking the top of my burger. Oops.

Having flashbacks to Backdraft, I turned everything off and waited. I fell back on my years of training in Chemistry class (aka playing with burning splints), and I watched the flame die out as it ran out of air.

I opened the oven door again and retrieved the grill pan, again greeted by more smoke. I decided to get some fresh air into the kitchen just as my new neighbours were walking past, and they looked rather alarmed to see someone wide-eyed and choking, clawing at the window while surrounded by thick billowing clouds of doom. Needless to say in this day and age, they pretended they hadn't noticed and just kept on walking.

I now remember that there's a reason I don't cook meat - this sort of thing has happened before, like that time my sausages burst out in flames, or that time the bacon caught fire. However, everything seems to be fine with the oven now - I guess that's not too surprising as it is designed to withstand heat - and as it turns out I'd actually managed to cook a pretty tasty burger. Mmm, flame grilled!

I'll be going away to Kent for the next few days now - lots of exciting meetings lined up, including one in 3 hours... Hmm, 3 hour drive, currently sitting in Cheltenham... oops. I'd better ring ahead...

Even though I won't be here, don't fret - I'll make sure the advent calendar gets updated, and I'm sure I'll still manage to check back every few hours ;)

Have a nice time, and behave yourselves while I'm gone.

I'm not entirely sure why, but on my way to the bank today, I found myself staring into Game and HMV longingly, sad that I had not pre-ordered a Wii. Perhaps there are some still unsold in Cheltenham? Perhaps I could track one down? Ugh - I don't think I've ever been such a victim of marketing ;)

But they do look fun. The crowd standing around the display model in Game all had wide grins on their faces - although I'm not quite sure which they found more entertaining, the gameplay or watching the little fat boy gleefully jiggling around. I'd like to try the Wii, but I think I'll wait a few weeks for the queues to die down.

I'm quite surprised that I'm so interested, nay, excited by the Wii. I wouldn't really class myself as a gamer - at the height of my Quake 2 addiction 7 years ago, maybe, but not now. I play GTA or Hitman now and then, but I don't devote hours of my life to it, I can't now - I don't have the time. So for me to find myself wanting to buy a Wii must mean it's something special, right? Either that, or they've done a really good job with their marketing ;)

I'll try to stick to my original plan; wait a couple of months to see if the novelty of the controller wears off, see what other games come out, and how they review. I'm not spending £200 just so I can have a couple of months waving my arms around before getting bored and going e-fishing in Zelda, thanks all the same. I'll also be interested to see how they tie in the DS as they have promised. When all the facts are out and they've had time to solidify into a well-weighted public opinion, that will be the time for me to make my decision.

How boring.

Looks like Nintendo saw my calendar last year and thought they'd better get in on the action: Mission in SnowDriftLand...

Just a quick post to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about this Christmas Story thing, but I've had a hectic week-and-a-bit so haven't managed to get much done other than work.

This week should be a bit quieter - I've caught up with the work from when I was in Kent last week, so this week should just be some minor site upgrades, some more site migration, and sorting out my self assessment tax return - SUPER HAPPY JOY FUN! Nothing like leaving things to the last minute, eh? Yes, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get a couple of Christmas Story episodes out over this week ;)

I love Nando's. It's cheap, fast, friendly, and the food is incredibly tasty. And, if it wasn't for the chips I insist on having whenever I go, it would be rather healthy too.

A Nando's opened in Cheltenham just before we moved here, and it's right opposite the new cinema, so sometimes we'll go over there for a Nando's followed by a film.

However, I would find it hard to justify going to Nando's for lunch every day, much as I would like to, so you can imagine my delight when I found a bottle of Nando's Extra Hot Peri-Peri Sauce in Sainsburys last week.

Now, every meal tastes like Nando's! Peri-Peri Tacos, Peri-Peri Tuna Salad, Peri-Peri Strawberry Yoghurt - the possibilities are endless!

(This post should blatantly be sponsored by Nando's)

Several years ago I made a website for someone who started our dealings with the immortal phrase "I want a website, but I don't want to pay for it."

To cut a long story short, I did the website, registered a domain and still host the website to this day, all for free. It was for someone I now consider a friend, so this doesn't bother me too much - but still, I'm now out of pocket for 6 years of domain renewals. Sure, they're not that bad, but it does add up.

He contacted me a few years ago saying that he now wanted to sell CDs through the site. Ok, I said, but not wanting to set up an e-commerce site for free I suggested we link to Amazon. I then opened an Amazon Associates account, and any referral fees come back to me in an attempt to recoup my lost renewal fees.

After a few months of no activity, I stopped checking the Amazon account. For over three years. I remembered about it today, and checked it a few minutes ago.

I was expecting there to be no sales, no earnings, nothing. But boy, was I in for a surprise.

Woo hoo! 1/60th of the way to breaking even!

So it's not looking so good for my Christmas Story, is it? The things I'm doing are taking a surprisingly long amount of time to get right, and I'm rapidly running out of time. The past few weeks have been rather busy with work and other things, and I can't see it letting up before the weekend - by which point I will be without internet access anyway. Unless there's a Christmas Miracle, it looks like you'll be stuck with last year's stuff - for this, I apologise!

I must also apologise for forgetting to put today's advent calendar up until lunchtime - sorry to those of you who noticed! However, to make up for it I have found you a very pleasant Orisinal Christmas game, if you're looking for something to amuse you! 317210 is my score to beat ;)

Those of you who are employed by someone else will probably not know that online self assessment tax returns have to be in by the 30th of December.

I, however, did know - they wrote to me in April and told me. Today is the 21st of December, and that means that I have 8 days left in which to submit my tax return.

It's not that I forgot, it's just that I have been incredibly efficient at putting it off. It's not that numbers scare me, it's just that these numbers have consequences. And that I don't really understand all of them. And that if the numbers are wrong, the consequences would be more numbers; big red numbers next to angry words.

Most people in my position would think about getting an accountant. I also thought about getting an accountant, for they understand the magical inner workings of capital allowance, and whether cars qualify for first year allowance or merely the writing down allowance. The PDF Files of Wisdom suggest that it is the latter, but I can't sue a bunch of PDFs if they have advised me incorrectly. So I thought about getting an accountant, but then I am a proficient procrastinator.

I will not bore you with the minutiae of my tax return, but suffice it to say that it doesn't look like they'll be paying me like they did last year. I will throw out one exciting figure for you though - in the financial year 2005-2006, I spent £1084.75 on petrol. Of which about £750 would have been tax as duty and VAT. Ouch. And now I have to pay them more? I need to find a better country ;)

To say this this is interesting perhaps says more about my current state of mind than the value of the quote, but I thought I'd share this little gem about the taxation of websites:

The cost of a web site is analogous to that of a shop window. The cost of constructing the window is capital; the cost of changing the display from time to time is revenue.

(From: hmrc.gov.uk)

Also, computer software is classed as revenue expenditure if it has a life expectancy of under two years, otherwise it is capital cost. And according to the HMRC definition, 'software' includes both programs and data!

Interesting facts to throw at clients, #736 and #737!

Boy, I'm going to be the life of the party this Christmas...

I'm off to Kent now to spend Christmas with my Dad and my Gran. I realise that leaving at 5pm on the Friday before Christmas weekend isn't really ideal - I've spent today catching up on the work that was due before Christmas that I should have done last week. Slightly irritating thing is that it's apparently now not needed until the first or second week of January - still, I wasn't to know that.

Gah! Why is it that Windows Unison only ever fails in the middle of a sync when I'm in a hurry? *click click click* that's better.

Anyway, I will hopefully be back over the weekend with my instructions for Christmas dinner - so if you'll be cooking that, check back to read them!

I anticipate that you will need:

• Prepared turkey breast in a tin with stuffing
• Prepared sausages wrapped in bacon
• Potatoes and parsnips
• Broccoli, runner beans, brussel sprouts
• Additional vegetarian options for foolish vegetarians
• Gravy

So get shopping!

If you've got a fun and busy weekend planned and I won't see you before, have a Happy Christmas!

I'm back in Sevenoaks now - my cunning plan to come back on friday was scuppered by work - by 5pm the fog had taken hold, and i thought it best if i stayed in Cheltenham that evening. So i went round to Sainsburys and bought the supplies for Christmas lunch - did i mention i was cooking for 8 people?

So i'm back in Kent now - went delivering cards yesterday, saw some friends i hadn't seen for ages and was invited in for tea, which was rather lovely. I should meet up with friends more often ;) my problem is that i'm too incompetent - by the time i know what i'm doing, it's too late to arrange anything. Sucks.

I still don't have internet access in Sevenoaks, so i'm making use of t-mobile's £1/day wap offer. Hurrah for deals! Otherwise this post would cost me about £3. Joke. This is also the slowest entry i have ever written - damn you, predictive text! My thumbs hurt ;)

I'll try to get back on again soon, but if I don't, I hope that you all have a fantastic Christmas day. See you next week!

Thank the sweet baby jesus for mobile internet ;)

I woke up as my alarm went off at 8. Christmas day used to be about presents and tv, lie-ins and luxury, having a nice day. As i continue on my journey towards senility, it is becoming increasingly apparent that those days are gone ;)

Apart from the 15 minutes I enjoyed eating breakfast and opening presents, this morning was spent preparing and cooking Christmas lunch. For 8 people.

It wasn't too bad at the start. I peeled and cut the potatoes, parsnips, beans, broccoli, and spouts, and put the turkey and bits in the oven. Everything was going perfectly. Things were all fine. The gantt chart was working. And then people arrived to 'help'...

After narrowly stopping myself from screaming many many times, and only running 1 hour 30 late, the now-charred turkey made it to the table, although apparently it all still tasted rather good. Much fun was had by all, apart from me, who spent most of lunch in the kitchen getting pudding ready (and attempting to avoid the inane conversation). Still, they were all too full when it got to the cheese, so I moved in and had my fill ;)

But enough of that, where is my Christmas spirit ;) it hasn't been all that bad! In a slightly sadistic way I guess I enjoyed in - as I'm sure Tristan and many others will testify, there's nothing I like more than a little complaining ;)

I can't believe I just typed this 1000 word glorified text message - I just hope it saves this time ;)

And with that, i will say good night ;) Happy Christmas!

Earlier today I read about a change to the Companies Act, which basically means that corporate websites need to display certain information, which they didn't necessarily have to before. If you manage corporate sites and haven't heard of this, you may like to read the article on OUT-LAW for more details.

That article links to a page on OUT-LAW, which has the details about the legislation. Most of it makes perfect sense, and a lot of it came in a while back, but the bit that gets me is this:

The email address of the service provider must be given. It is not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form without also providing an email address.

That seems a shame. There's no accessible way of putting an e-mail address on a website and keeping it safe from spammers, so I tend to just hide the address behind a contact form, and I know many others do the same.

Plain text is obviously not safe from harvesters, and I really can't see that bob AT example DOT com is either safe or usable, even though it is popular. With the botnets and cheap computing power at their disposal, harvesting scripts now execute JavaScript and perform OCR, so you can't use JS tricks or hide the address in an image.

That leaves you with time-sensitive addresses that you throw away after a week or a month, or hiding the address behind a CAPTCHA - but neither are perfect, and both seem like a fair bit of faff.

Whereas I could see the benefit to customers if it was a phone number that was required, I really can't see why displaying an e-mail address would benefit either customers or companies. All it means is that my clean hidden addresses are going to start getting spammed. What a pain.