Alex's Adventures on the Infobahn - review

The Locksmiths Dream

2022-12-28T14:54:00+00:00

Just before Christmas I attended a LARP adjacent event at the conveniently local 17th century manor house Treowen called The Locksmiths Dream. I use that phrase because I'm fairly sure some of my fellow attendees had prior live roleplaying experience although it is certainly not required. The organisers have evidently spent a lot of time making the game as accessible as possible to the widest range of participants.

Setting

While there is no requirement to dress-up it seems waste of the environment to not make some sort of effort. The world of event is set loosely in the 1920's in a house that sits on the boundary of our world and other planes. Secret gods have met in the house before your arrival and your mission is to sift through the traces of their interactions and perhaps discover some deeper meaning. To aid your exploration and puzzle solving a cast of characters inhabit the house who are perhaps able to help your exploration. The staff will also prepare you 3 meals, lunch on arrival, an evening meal and breakfast the next day, to keep energised for your task.

Gameplay

On arrival I headed to my room which involved some winding stairs and eventually a short ladder to enter my bedroom at the very top of the house. The player bedrooms are off-limits to everyone else unless by invitation so I had a chance to collect my thoughts and read through the supplied materials while enjoying a nice view of the surrounding Monmouthshire countryside.

The materials included a brief overview of the game (solve puzzles, collect the ephemeral birdsong left behind by the gods), a letter from my in-game sponsor outlining some particular tasks and a beautifully bound personal note book.

The note book was the first indication of the attention to detail and production values of the event. It contained a number of in-game printed notes to provide background and clues as well as plenty of blanks pages for taking notes. You are strongly encouraged to make liberal use of the book and it provides for a nice memento of your experience afterwards.

The initial puzzles are fairly simple with keys being found around the house with an attached set of clues. Solving these clues will lead you to a location where you can find and hopefully unlock a padlocked box to reveal your prize. Each key comes with several clue styles so for example those unfamiliar with the lore of the cultist simulator from which the event draws its story don't draw a blank. Sometimes the boxes reveal additional clues to some of the deeper puzzles that require solving in multiple stages and paying attention to changes in the rest of the house and its characters.

My Experience

I was originally going to attend with a friend of mine however they were unfortunately unable to attend thanks to our virus afflicted times. I also missed out on the first few hours where the house tour and orientation events happen which help the players learn about where they are. Fortunately the staff were very helpful and able to give a few useful hints to ease me into the game once I arrived.

The event was certainly immersive and I never found myself bored and without something to do. The food was very nice although at stages I was worried if I should concentrate on eating the meal or trying to solve the meaning of way it was presented. The organisers took full advantage of the nooks and crannies of the wonderful setting.

Next time I will have to make sure I have a back-up buddy in case of illness because some of the more in depth puzzle solving benefits from having another person to bounce ideas off. You can of course talk to the other guests playing the game although some of them might be working for competing sponsors with different priorities.

It was certainly one of the most engaging experiences I'd had this year. I would recommend it for anyone interested in an immersive puzzle solving weekend and especially if they are already interested in the source games lore.

Media

The following video made by the team behind he game was put together with footage from the game I attended and gives a give idea of the setting and ambience you can expect.

I also found another more detailed write-up of the event over at No Prescenium if you want another perspective.

2012 a year in review

2013-01-18T12:38:00+00:00

In past years when I would review the year I'd flip back through my blog. For 2012 however I managed on average one post a month and the majority of those were geek related ones which in some ways are a lot easier to write.

The big change has been becoming a parent of course but at the same time I also took back the reigns of management as I became the head of the software team at work. The combined effect has been a year that flew by very quickly leaving a slight sense of bewilderment about where it has all gone.

I no longer feel quite as out of my depth as I did half way through last year. The first 6 months are pretty gruelling in terms of missing sleep and trying to interpret the needs and desires of something that can basically sleep or cry. However Ursula has grown up so fast you soon forget about what she was like and try and re-focus on what's she's doing now.

For starters she's now a fully mobile and operational battle-truffler able to move under her own direction. Next to that she's moved from simply reporting state (happy/unhappy) to communication. Granted every object she sees currently seems to be a cat (or possibly "that") but I suspect her vocal cords just need to catch up.

She's now pointing to objects she wants to interact with including multiple objects she'd like to combine (e.g. Bonjella and teething ring) like some sort console RPG game. She laughs at silliness, enjoys playing around and being chased and basically has a personality that is uniquely hers.

I used to think that it wouldn't get interesting until she learnt to talk but of course my preconceptions about what it would be like are constantly being shattered. Sure it still gets frustrating at times especially for Ursula. She understands more and more of what her parents are saying without being able to respond the same way. As she gradually realises she's an independent being able to manipulate the world around her she's very quickly having to learn that she can't control everything. I suspect that would put teenage angst in perspective if only we could remember our really formative years.

Well this post seems to have turned into yet another one about my child growing up. Other things have happened to me that are not Ursula related but really there not as interesting. Instead I shall try and look forward to what's coming up. The annual February walking holiday is just round the corner and I'm looking forward to catching up with all the other new (and slightly more experienced) parents at that. We'll be up in Manchester (without Ursula) for P&K's wedding which we are really looking forward to. And we'll be off to the land down-under for a much delayed holiday in April. Hopefully the next post will not be too far away ;-)

Uncaged Monkeys

2011-05-13T13:09:00+01:00

I find it heartening that a thing like Uncaged Monkeys exists. While I doubt science based entertainment will ever reach the stadium busting state that stand-up comedy did a few years ago I hope the trend continues.

The format worked well and was a lively cross between lecture and stand-up routine. Most of the comedy was handled my Mr Ince but the others more than held their own keeping the audience engaged. The topics covered included Simon Singh with a quick overview of cryptography which included a live demonstration with a real Engima Machine. Foxy Coxy waxed on about the LHC's search for the Higgs Boson and the evolution of the Cosmos. Being so enthusiastic about the subject he also overran making the first half of the show quite long.

There was a musical interlude by the rather charming geek songstress Helen Arney who played a few songs on her ukulele.

Due to the over-run of the first half the second half started with a very brief question and answer session with Cox and Singh. It's a shame they didn't get to do more but I did find the answer to the question "What's the biggest small thing in the universe?" fascinating. After the Q&A there was a little section on mapping the genetic history of humans were I learnt some interesting facts about earwax. The presenter Professor Steve Jones painted himself as a Dawkins lite but was funny and engaging nevertheless. Finally the energetic Ben Goldacre ran through the placebo effect and how to design drug trials. The data he presented about trail bias was was slightly concerning. Although he had no qualms about rubbishing the quack pill pushers it seems even the proper scientific approach of the big pharmacology companies is not averse to being gamed to show one treatment is better than another. Finally Cox brought the evening to a close introducing an audio clip of Carl Sagan musing on the Pale Blue Dot.

Although I was familiar with some of the material from Ince's previous show Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People I still learnt new things at this one. I hope the trend for taking science out to the people continues and I look forward to going to more like it.

Book Review: Free as in Freedom

2011-02-23T16:13:00+00:00

I've just finished reading Free as in Freedom a biography of Richard Stallman the founder of the free software movement. The title takes it's name from the oft repeated statement used to highlight that software freedom is not about the price rather what you can do with it.

The book itself is relatively short and is easy to read. It combines historical sections describing Stallman's intellectual journey with alternating chapters describing experiences Sam Williams had while interviewing this famously prickly character. As a long time follower of the FLOSS movement I was fairly familiar with the well documented early stories of the MIT AI Lab and it's demise following the rush to commercialise LISP machines. However Williams adds a lot more emotional colour to the story that left me feeling I had a greater understanding of Stallman's personality. I found it hard not to sympathise with the situation Stallman found himself in and the logic of his actions that ultimately led to the GNU Manifesto.

Stallman is often portrayed as a character who divides the disparate FLOSS community. People criticise him for his stubborn intransigence while missing the fact he holds his positions as a result of the logical extrapolation on sincerely held principles. It would be hard to argue that Linux would have taken off as a poster-child for Open Source had the ground work not been laid by Stallman's GNU project. In this light the call to refer to it as GNU/Linux and the importance of understanding the philosophical underpinnings of the movement seems fairly reasonable. After reading Free as in Freedom I do feel as though I have a better understanding of why things turned out like they did. It left me feeling how lucky we are that Stallman was born into this time and wondering how different things would have been otherwise.

CoD: Black Ops

2011-01-04T14:55:00+00:00

As is becoming traditional I got the latest instalment of the Call of Duty franchise, Black ops, as one of my Christmas presents. What follows is some brief comments having finished the single player campaign last night. I don't think I've been overly hammering it but I reckon it took around 16 hours of game time to finish.

The CoD series have traditionally alternated developers between Treyarch and Infinity Ward. While Infinity Ward's original Modern Warfare was fairly ground breaking for a FPS their engine is now used for both streams of development. Some people claim to prefer IW's games but I can say since the original MW I've been happy with both development houses which is just as well as most of the MW developers at IW have left Activision following disputes over bonuses.

The game itself is set in the cold war period following World War II. The plot is driven by the interrogation of the main protagonist and flash-backs to earlier events in which he or other members of the team were involved with. The story is a classic cold war conspiracy thriller set to a large over the top action movie. Considering the game format I think the story worked well and gave me some degree of sympathy for the main character.

The combat is as sharp as you'd expect from this successful franchise with a decent range of weapons to choose from. There are a number of quick time events sprinkled throughout which keep you immersed in the game during cut-scenes although are occasionally frustrating when you want to shoot something. I quite enjoyed the Mi-24 Hind section which allowed a not quite on rails degree of position control as well as full control of the weapons systems. It's still not quite as satisfying and MW2's AC-130 section though.

There are one or two niggles I have with the game though. There were one or two places where I ran into invisible walls at the edge of the game area. Admittedly this was mainly due to me getting confused in a fire-fight and running in the wrong direction. The other thing that annoyed me was occasional infinite enemy re-spawn sections. While the game rewards using cover and not being a damn fool this can mean you are occasionally in a nice comfortable shooting position wondering why the same soldiers just keep running into your kill-zone. Eventually you just have to charge forward and kill anything that spawns behind you and hope the spawning stops at that point. These niggles didn't massively detract from the game but it was slightly disappointing. I suspect some of that is just due to my dislike of re-spawn mechanics.

All in all I enjoyed the single player campaign although it seemed a little short to me. Having said that I'm not a completionist so I may well have missed some chunks of content in my head-long rush through the game.

Of course in terms of gameplay the single player campaign is more about setting. Most of the time a player will spend with the game is in multi-player mode. I've only played a few games so far so haven't had a chance to explore the range of multi-player yet. I did have a quick play with the Zombie modes which are fun although I suspect better in a party setting. Playing it on your own is ultimately frustrating as there is no win condition, eventually they will eat your brains...

2010 In Memorium

2011-01-02T15:25:00+00:00

2010 has been a pretty good year for us, it seems like is has packed a lot in.

Professionally I've been doing really well. The company I work for has had yet another record breaking year which has triggered my bonus again (although I don't find out how much until I get back). It continues to grow in both revenue and size. I finally feel comfortable with the code base I'm working with. At the same time the ever growing feature list means I've still got plenty of interesting things to do with it. Although the internal code is proprietary to the company I've got a fairly wide latitude to work with FLOSS code and it makes a significant portion of the NMS product. Pretty much anything that I hack on that is useful to the wider community outside the application specific task is fed upstream which is good for both the company and the wider world.

Aside from my work based hacking 2010 was also the year I became a real open source project maintainer. I've been publishing code I write and use for a long time and have done maintenance work on some niche projects as well as contributing to other projects as normal. However at the start of 2010 I released Edit with Emacs to an unsuspecting world. It started as a simple exercise in learning some Chrome Javascript and kicking me to delve deeper into elisp coding. However since then it has grown to something that gets regular contributions and is used by over a thousand people. To quote Blur it gives me an enormous sense of well being :-)

This year has also been an interesting year politically. While there is plenty of debate about the economics of some of the choices made by the coalition I'm personally fairly happy with the approach being taken given the fairly dire conditions they inherited. From my geek point of view it's heartening to see the pre-election commitment that was made to open data seems to be being lived up to. I'm hoping the changes to openness will get embedded into the way government does business permanently.

The big thing that dwarfed all other things this year of course was getting married to the wonderful Fliss. Saving up all my holidays for the honeymoon meant we didn't have many extended breaks and of course as the logistical tasks approached there was much running around and controlled panics. In the end everything went like a dream and the wedding itself was a blur of happy memories. It was a fantastic day and made all the better for all the friends and family that came along to share in the celebration. Getting married to Fliss is quite possibly the best thing I've ever done.

I do occasionally have pangs of guilt considering how lucky we have been especially when so many are struggling with the uncertainty of the economic situation and the stress that causes. All I can do is wish the best of lucky to everyone for the next year. I hope it exceeds the positive expectations and under-performs on the negative ones!

Review: The Ballad of Gay Tony

2010-05-27T10:34:00+01:00

We finally reached the limit on the PS3's hard disk a few weeks ago. Although I had the option of reformatting the hard drive to reclaim the 10gb after Sony disabled OtherOS* it seemed a lot easier to get a newer more spacious disk. A quick trip to Amazon later and a very simple backup and upgrade and my PS3 was wallowing in a spare 300gb of internal storage which should be enough for all the DLC we can afford for a while.

The Ballad of Gay Tony has finally finished it's exclusive stint on the Xbox360 and is now available on the PS3. Being a long time fan of the GTA series I forked over my hard earned cash for the ~2gb download. When you first start GTAIV again it detects the presence and offers you a chance to start a new TBGT based game complete with a new disco friendly loading sequence.

Although the game takes part in the same expansive world of Liberty City it involves a brand new set of characters and a new protagonist in the form of Luis Fernando Lopez who is the titular "Gay Tony" Prince's right hand man. The story line is what you expect from GTA although being DLC skips a lot of the build up from the main game dumping you almost immediately into the sort over the top gun battles and movie inspired chase scenes that are the GTA's forte. Refreshingly your character starts tooled up for the job without having to start at the bottom of the equipment tree like Nico does. A couple of other gameplay tweaks are also evident including the ability to restart sections of the mission (although you lose trophy bragging rights if you do) as well as rudimentary targets to aim for in each mission. A few new mini-games are also introduced including golf and the ability to take a more proactive role in managing Tony's night clubs.

The game benefits a lot from the solid foundation created by the GTAIV rendition of the living detailed Liberty City. Even after finishing the original game I found there is still a lot of discovery possible. Given the amount of effort invested in building the city simulation the DLC model should prove lucrative for Rockstar providing the story, characters and acting keep up to the high standards expected of the series. So far for me TBGT has done exactly that, it's just a shame I had to wait so long for it to turn up on my platform of choice.

* Brief aside: Yes I'm pissed off at Sony for removing OtherOS but realistically I never really used the functionality as the core operating system support for media and streaming is already very good. It does provide yet another salutatory lesson on how we don't really control our modern consumer hardware anymore though.

Review: Noises Off

2010-03-17T16:54:00+00:00

Last night Fliss and I watched the film version of Michael Frayn's Noises Off. Fliss explained to me that it is a film beloved of theatre technicians due to it's setting, following the goings on behind stage of a dysfunctional group of actors performing a classic English farce. The film version stars Michael Caine and includes fine performances from Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve and Denholm Elliott.

There is not much I can say about the plot as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. However it is a laugh out loud comedy that had been literally crying with laughter throughout. I'd quite like to see a proper staged version of it some time. Highly recommended.

App Review: Smart Alarm Clock

2010-03-05T11:10:00+00:00

One of the reasons to own a smart phone is to run applications on it. There are some fantastic ideas out there and given the relative youth of the mobile app explosion I'm sure there is plenty more to come. Today I thought I would offer my thoughts on Smart Alarm Clock.

The concept is fairly simple. When you go to bed you place your phone on your bed. It uses the built in accelerometers to monitor your movements as you move about in the bed. By analysing the magnitude of your movements it attempts to deduce what part of the sleep cycle you are in. Once your within range of when you want to wake up it and it detects you exiting the REM cycle of your sleep it will gently wake you up.

There are some problems with some models of phones that require the phone doesn't go to sleep for the sampling of the accelerometer. However the workaround of leaving the phone on is fairly benign as it's the time the phone is attached to the charging cable. Also there has been an update in the last few days which increases the accuracy of movement detection. You even get a nice graph of your movements over the night.

The app also has a number of other features including a useful muting of all ringtones while you are asleep as well a feature I haven't tried that attempts to stop you snoring by giving you an acoustic nudge.

As I've gotten older I've often found myself waking before the alarm, however when I don't the waking I've gotten from the gentle increasing alarm sound has been a lot less jaring than John Humphrys suddenly berating some politician. I have noticed I'm remembering my dreams more vividly the last few days but I suspect I need a few more data points to see if it is due to the app. Either way the trail version is free and I can heartily recommend giving it a try.

Review: Silicon Snake Oil

2009-04-09T08:23:00+01:00

I picked up a copy of Clifford Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil in a second hand book shop a few days ago. You can read the review behind the cut.

Silicon Snake Oil Silicon Snake Oil by Cliff Stoll

rating: 2 of 5 stars

I first came across Clifford Stoll while reading the excellent Cuckoo's Egg. It's a griping real life story about how he discovered and chased down one of the early Internet hackers. This is why when I was in a second hand bookstore I picked up a copy of Silicon Snake Oil. The subtitle, "Second Thoughts on the Information Highway" gives an indication about what it's about.

The first thing to note is this is a book that really shows it age. Published in 1995 it was when the Internet was moving from a cosy academic network used by scientists to the first commercial ISPs and early influx of AOLers. This when the World Wide Web was still know by the browser Mosaic. As will soon become apparent 13 years ago counts as ancient history when it comes to the 'net.

The books central thesis is one of scepticism of the promises that the advocates of the so called Information Superhighway where making. Stoll deals with the issues of information overload, signal to noise on Usenet and whether this technology will really turn people into infonauts or just passive consumers of the fire hose of information coming from another glowing box on our desks. He saves most of his reservations for the trend at the time to computerise education and worries the educational benefits of computers and 'net access are being oversold. Time and again he worries we will turn into one dimensional beings denied the "authentic" experiences of actually seeing, touching, smelling and interacting with things in the real world. There may be some interesting ideas that are still relevant for discussion today however it's hard to tell because of the numerous predictions that in hindsight completely wrong.

I don't blame Stoll for this. Predicting the future is always a tricky business. The 'net has grown up so fast and is consistently surprising the world with new inovations growing out of it. He's also not a reactionary Luddite, he "looks forward to the time when our Internet reaches every town and trailer park". However at the time he wrote this book he was clearly having a crisis of faith in what the futurists where promising.

A few illustrative predictions are worth quoting. When discussing shopping he asserts "no electronic shopping can compare with the variety, quality, and experimental richness of a visit to even the most mundane malls". This is before Amazon gave the bricks and mortar book shops a serious run for their money. He talks of the frustration of searching for information by keywords in titles of documents through various gopher services. This is before the all powerful Google "solved" the problem of search by using links to information to rank the usefulness of a page.

One thing that becomes clear is many of the obstacles he mentions has either been solved or is in the process of improving. The ease of use of computers which is another bugbear of his, usability has been late in the game of software development but people like Apple take problems like getting Grandma on the 'net very seriously. Humans have proved remarkably ingenious at solving seemingly insurmountable problems.

There are some areas he flags for concern that may still be relevant today. He wonders if the instant response of email is affecting our ability to write properly. If the ability to self publish will drown the 'net is a sea of dross. If social interactions on the screen can ever replace physically meeting people. However so much of this is mixed in with problems I know are now solved it's hard to not just write them off as excessive pessimism on Stoll's part.

In summary I would recommend reading the book if you want to remind yourself of where the 'net came from and what the early days looked like. However if your looking for a clear treatise on the potential downsides of the information world I suggest looking for a more recent book on the subject.

Crystal Aliens!?

2008-06-19T11:50:00+01:00

Despite less the glowing reviews we thought we would chance Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the cinema. It's not the worlds worst film, in fact if you disengage brain and enjoy it for what it is I thought it was pretty good. Some people have complained about the mixing of "Sci-Fi" with the traditional ancient relics and daring dos of the fedora wearing archaeologist. It's not really a problem and it's perfectly within the idiom of pulp 30's adventure flicks which was the entire point of the series. Having watched the original Raiders of the Lost Ark only a few days ago I can say much the same thing, it's not high brow cinema or particularly brilliant script, but it is a fun adventure.

Having said that there where one or two places where the modern propensity for CGI grated slightly. I suspect the director had just issued the declaration "walk quickly up those stairs" while omitting the CGI wizards would have them collapsing right behind them while being ground up by giant rolling stone wheels.

Smooth Running

2007-08-28T22:37:00+01:00

I came home on the metro today after a month or so of using the pretty efficient bus service. The ride is certainly a lot smoother although they seem to be taking it easy on the new rails at the moment. I knew it was quieter as I could hear my radio without having to turn the volume up to silly levels. We shall see if the other promises of increased reliability materialise over the next few years.

Last weekend was the second weekend in a row I've spent in London. Hi-lights include seeing Jo O and her new physics bloke. Apparently I engaged in some willy waving although I like to feel my question about the practical use of the knowledge of the Standard Model was a conversational gambit.

We went to see All About My Mother at the Old Vic last night. It was a preview night but despite Spacey's "Just in case" speech it all seemed to go quite well. It certainly wins a lot of technical points for the amount of scene changing involved. Diana Rigg was excellent playing Huma and plaudits should also go to Mark Gatiss for his portrayal of the transvestite prostitute Agrado.