I now have two pro accounts on weewar, and which alternates between the two bots and runs their code.

I set up two accounts purely so I was not having to wait for human players to take their turns, particularly during the earlier stages of development as this would be inconvenient for both.

At the moment they are simply moving to a random position out of a number of possible movement positions.

WeeWar bot programming from shedali on Vimeo.

I’ve decided to make the switch from google reader to NetNewsWire for my syndication because:

- It supports authenticated feeds so can get feeds from my university forum, online project management tools etc.
- An iphone application

I’ll probably switch back when google releases offline functionality for the iphone.
http://www.shedali.com/skitchImages//Contacts-20080906-194017.jpg

I posted a video of me posting envelopes on youtube and have had three people writing to me asking how they could get such a job. . .

. . . and there I was thinking it wasn’t the best job in the world! Plus I haven’t been paid for it; I wonder if they want to do it for the money or for the sheer joy of placing things inside envelopes.

The park was buzzing with nationalistic sentiment as the fireworks went off tonight at the Summer Fair 2008 to the sounds of “Land of Hope and Glory”; timely for the day England brought home two gold medals from Beijing.

I recognized one chap playing the piano - he used to be the guy at the back of the coach listening to loud death metal pounding his fists into his briefcase; now transformed into a vicar of winchmore hill.

this has been going on for years and I’m sure there are many people out there who have noticed this phenomenon themselves. In two different gardens I have noticed a gentle curved area of enhanced turf growth with mushrooms growing along the curve.

What on earth could this be?

Now I have a gps-enabled iPhone in my hand and a host of great apps to try out, I’m very keen to get hold of an application which can post my precise coordinates to a group of authorized friends and family - so the search is now on!

I have not fully considered the privacy implications but for now shall suspend paranoia (that some freak will find and kill me) and perhaps try out anything which posts coordinated to facebook which seems the most useful place for this information. Maybe then, friends can tell when they are close-by and meet up for a coffee.

I shall post my findings shortly…

–update:

I’ve installed a GPS tracking application which allows me to post my location to facebook and to this blog. But there are times where I’d like my position to be shared privately among one or two people. . . and this broadcasting is not appropriate for that purpose. . .

Here’s what I’m doing to get the most juice out the iPhone, let me know if you got any good ideas.

As soon as I know in walking into a wifi zone such as university or home then i make sure wifi turns on. I believe when connected to wi-fi the 3g chip will automatically turn off.

3g is most definitely a huge drain so I’m only using it where speed is beneficial otherwise for basic data sync and mail I don’t mind being drip fed data on edge.

Searching for cell towers is another drain so being out if reception kills the battery faster. If you’re on underground or somewhere where you know there is no reception - immediately switch to ‘airplane mode’ to save unnecessary searching.

I keep the settings tab visible on the front screen to make the changes easy to access. It’s a shame the options  arent all on a single page.  Airplane node is the first thing you see after pressing settings but the 3g switch is another menu level deeper.
Bluetooth should always be off unless you are using the headset which I only use if typing alot, doing something where the cable might get in the way, walking around with shorts which have have no pockets or of course driving

The screen brightness should be set as low as possible obviously. Unless you are hard of sight, the lowest light level is fine for most purposes; I’ve only needed to increase this when showing off the device to others.

And on the odd  occasion you might be using the location aware services that can be turned on manually otherwise keep that GPS chip off!

Apple distribute the iPhone with all these bells and whistles switched on like a show room with all appliances and lights switched on  - but turning them off will increase battery life considerably.

i feel sick for today I have inadvertantly crushed a baby mouse to death in the hinge of a door. I opened the door to check that it was ok after having put it out of reach of the cat, and not being able to see it I closed the door not knowing it had run into the corner. Her guts were all over the place.