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Sporenography

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Miscellany

Published: 13 January 2009

Hits: 2660

So it's after Christmas and the boy has brought over one of his new gifts, "Spore", a game in which you create and evolve your creature from single cell to galactic empire. And I'm curious, in part because I've seen Will Wright's Ted talk so we install it on the computer and he walks me through the first couple of levels.

I'm intrigued by this game, the graphics at the cell stage are remarkable, and beyond the graphics I'm curious as to how the game itself will evolve. I've decided to be a carnivore the first run through, and when I evolve onto land begin by making a feast out of any neighboring animals I can digest. The boy is concerned, I'm not doing my best to make friends of the neighboring tribes of animals, and I'm curious too what repercussions this will have upon my evolution.

The possibilities for a game like this are endless, and at first the game is an exploration as to what extent the possibilities have been realized. Is it possible to starve, because one has extinct every species on the planet? How will these actions affect my creation later in the game?  And then there is the diversion of the character editor, customizing your creature, adding horns, limbs, mouths and other features to make it unique. 

The boy interrupts me to check on my progress and looks with disgust upon my creation.

"There's a word for that. Sporenography." he says.

A better mousetrap

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Miscellany

Published: 13 January 2009

Hits: 2504

If you've been reading the blog you probably have seen mention of my pet mouse. Well, not a pet really, just a chronic houseguest. Sometimes I see him from the corner of my eye when I'm working on the computer, scurrying about the kitchen, for christmas I bought him (her?) a little hamster chew bar and hung it near the floor. I can now watch him cautiously poking out from underneath the stove, climbing and nibbling the chew.

Not that he needed it, but it's got to be a welcome relief from going through the garbage.

But I noticed the other day, as I watched him hanging on the chew bar, that there was still the rustling of the garbage bag, and a horrible thought came to me. And standing patiently in the kitchen, the garbage on one side, the chew on the other, it was confirmed. 

No longer is it just mouse. It's mice.

And where I was reasonably laid back about having a mouse now I'm a bit worried. Because for anyone good with math there is at least a 1 in 2 chance that 2 will become a few, and those few will become many.

So there will have to be an end to the free ride. They were beginning to keep me up at night anyways, the nibbling of baseboards, the noise from the kitchen, the rustling, strange sounds as if of things being knocked over (although I've never yet found what they were knocking over).

I've tried the humane traps before, with no success. The idea is to catch the mouse unharmed and release him/her into the wild. But this mouse was a little too clever for it. Somehow he'd get the bait and escape. And when the boy and I were bored I'd assign him the task of building a better mousetrap from his K'nex set. None of them worked either. There is, however, another option. The toilet paper tube baited with peanut butter and set on a counter top, precariously balanced over a high walled bucket or vase. 

This will probably be the way to go. I'll need to get a small cage to store them until spring before releasing them. And some seed so they have a good start on learning to forage. Soon the house will be mouse free....

Meet Karl Pilkington

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Audio & Podcasts

Published: 13 January 2009

Hits: 1999

As of late I've found myself listening again to the musings of Karl Pilkington.

Who is/was, if you don't know, voted the funniest man in Britain. Except that he wasn't joking. Formerly the producer at XFM, his views and opinions were found so amusing that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (co-writers of the hit BBC series "The Office", which spawned the US, German, French, etc... remakes) brought him into the studio to share them with the public. Completely raucous, with frequent baiting and swearing by Ricky and Stephen playing the straight man, egging him on, they make for strangely compelling listening. Look for those clips with "Monkey News" in the title, which focus on Karl's interpretation of archived stories, facts and miscellany about Monkeys. Chances are you didn't know any of it.