Site Change Log

(Most recent first)

1. 08/04/2007 Updated work in progress. Haven't done much since last time, actually.
2. 13/03/2007 Added some work in progress pictures of the current piece of art I'm working on.
3. 11/03/2007 Log of job applications and automated job notifications added to the hidden section, for the delight and delectation of Twickenham Jobcentre.
4. 19/02/2007 A few non-interlaced .PNGs converted to interlaced. Hard to tell whether a 50% increase in file size is worth getting a quicker low-res view of a picture. On balance, I don't think there's much in it, but I've used progressive .PNGs because they do at least give an indicator of download progress.
5. 18/02/2007 Raytracing section split into Graphics and Raytracing. Two new pictures added.
6. 16/11/2006 Some technical writing samples added. (Hidden.)
7. 05/10/2006 CVs updated again.
8. 25/04/2006 Updated CVs (finally!) posted.
9. 04/04/2005 Some hidden file areas for the Wesnoth computer game added. These are not available from my main pages.
10. 19/02/2005 Minor updates to the CV section.
11. 19/01/2005 Two versions of my CV now online - a 'system administrator' CV and a 'technical author' CV.
12. 10/12/2004 All .GIFs converted to .PNG format.
13. 19/10/2004-27/10/2004 En Garde section brought to life.
14. 18/10/2004 First version of site uploaded. Many gaps. Raytracing section mostly done given current available content, 'work' section half done, but others merely placeholders.

To Be Done - Ideas List

This is not in any particular order. The governing criterion is what generates the most amount of interesting content with the least amount of effort on my part. Well, this is only vanity publishing . . .

• It's long past time I produced an actual demonstration of some CGI scripting. I've paid an extra four pounds for a CGI-enabled Zen web page. And I'm getting started on producing an interactive on-line gaming forum for use by my Star Wars-playing friends. You know what's holding me up most? Producing a decent page design. Dan and Dunx make it look so easy, but getting a playable forum with the right atmospheric feel is taxing my poor brain at least as much as the scripting bits.
• The Laxey Wheel version I have up at the moment is rather old. A newer copy which looks a lot better is locked away in an archive somewhere. Has an irregular brick texture I'm particularly proud of.
• Job description needs transcribing - and possibly sanitising too I suspect. Will have to agree something with my old employers.
• Would be polite to get permission from The Daily Telegraph before I upload the article extract for the Mizutani table. Should be a formality, because AFAICS the extract I have taken counts as fair use.
• Need to put the site through a validator as well. Annoying how many supposedly professionally-designed sites don't bother with this. I've done a first-pass validation and fixed the quick stuff on the front page but at the moment I'm concentrating on getting the content up. Once a reasonable volume of content is present it will become worthwhile to automate the checks and then the corrections.
• The En Garde section will have copies of Toady newspaper, regimental vacancies, Les Belles de Paris and the Oily Serb. I will set things up so that there's always a link to the most recent version as well as archive copies of the old stuff. I've now had a reply from Pevans allowing me to use a graphic from the En Garde rulebook, which looks much better than my boring old fleur de lys line art.
• Mornington Crescent - ah, the game of Kings. King Lear, King George III and Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria particularly spring to mind. A lifetime to learn, a minute to master - and vice versa. Many fools believe there are no rules to this game. To them I say, 'Tish poo.' A game with no rules would be unplayable. Of course Mornington Crescent has rules. In fact, Mornington Crescent can be regarded as a light-hearted version of Herman Hesse's Glass Bead Game, a hypothesis advanced in this erudite article by a prominent Mornington Crescent scholar - <link to follow>.
• The Star Wars section will ultimately be the biggest. But one of the things I need to do first is write a text-to-HTML convertor which prettifies all my plain text documents. Won't be difficult, but will need a bit of time.
• Maybe add some Acorn-specific stuff? I did consider an 'Indispensible Acorn Apps' section.
• I was also thinking of doing a couple of applets for the PoVRay section. One idea was a proglet that would allow you to create a CSG shape from the difference of a box and an arbitrary number of planes. I have code to generate a plane from three points already. I was thinking of generalising an old algorithm I had so that it can cope with concave shapes as well.
• While I am mostly a fan of Mornington Crescent, there are other games like it in existence. It might be nice to collate information on them all in one place. There's the Glass Bead Game, Ochmir, Klin Zha Kinta and the related Komerex Zha, 3D chess, Mornington Crescent of course, and at least one other I can't currently remember. Oh, yes, I've remembered now. The English Constitution. Actually, I'm not sure I've spelt the Klingon one right. It was a long time ago I read about it.

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