Wednesday  the Twenty-Ninth of January, 2003

I've started piling other men's treasure into Trodo - the list is here if anyone wants to stake any claims (although I'm only shipping within the UK). Friends without Trodo credits (or with Trodo credits in the wrong medium) can just take their pick and email a list of demands, if they like. It is mostly rubbish, though.  ]
A Google images search for Sokoban is wonderful - a colony of diverse and mutated single-celled lifeforms.  ]
I enjoy and fear Leonard's spontaneous generation theory of Tetris clones - I got eight or nine levels into writing a mildly gimmicky Sokoban clone in Verge last year, before remembering how much I hated Sokoban. (If anyone wants to submit some more levels, I might get around to unleashing it.)  ]

Passing Frenzies: Thief II - Button Men - Startopia - BlogNomic - Hours of Inform - Trodo


 Tuesday  the Twenty-Eighth

"Crosswords tell stories. But who is telling the story? Is it the solver, or is it the setter? A good clue will send the solver shooting off into a variety of orbits, but he will always come back to the same point. In the end, all that is required is that he think of a synonym for the definition. How hard can that be?"
The mysterious world of cryptic crosswords, in this extract from this book, somewhere in Saturday's Guardian. I'm still leaning my tired forehead on the cold, glass periphery of these things - although I'd grasped the anagram hints, I had no idea that the first or the last word of the clue was generally a synonym for the answer. This useful guide has further pointers for the amateur.

You can take a stab at the Guardian crosswords online, with or without the magic of Java applets.  ]



 Monday  the Twenty-Seventh

More of the West Pier / Looking a lot more fragile / Than I thought it was.  ]
Has anyone ever ventured the theory that convergent evolution demonstrates plagiarism between localised gods?  ]
Ah, the nasty aftertaste of plagiarism, whichever way it goes. Bartering-credit site Trodo seems to predate the previously-mentioned Swappingtons by over a month, and operates on a similar but more bluntly quantised system of medium-for-a-medium - a CD is worth a CD, a book is worth a book. Blank cardboard boxes labelled "a thing I'm happy to give away" should be considered fairly interchangeable, after all.

You can sign up here; you have to enter three initial items as part of the sign-up, but you get instant, spendable credit for entering those items. Swappingtons falters because the enthused new user has to walk away and wait (perhaps forever) for someone to 'buy' their goods, before they can 'buy' anything themselves - although Trodo leaves itself a bit more open to scammers by giving new sign-ups free 'money', the immediate user empowerment is good and important. [via Technovia]  ]


As 
Above

Brain children. Recent or noteworthy Web offspring.

Online cliques. Trespassers may be welcome.

In the bookpile. Powered by allconsuming.net.

Incidental music. Ohrwurmen or otherwise.

Other weblogs. The ones I make a point of returning to a lot.

Supporting cast. That have Web pages. In alphabetical order.

Weeks beginning. All having ended.
2003: 27.01 20.01 13.01 06.01

2002: 30.12 23.12 16.12 09.12 02.12 25.11 18.11 11.11 04.11 28.10 21.10 14.10 07.10 30.09 23.09 16.09 09.09 02.09 26.08 19.08 12.08 05.08 29.07 22.07 15.07 08.07 01.07 24.06 17.06 10.06 03.06 27.05 20.05 13.05 06.05 29.04 22.04 15.04 08.04 01.04 25.03 18.03 11.03 04.03 25.02 18.02 11.02 04.02 28.01 21.01 14.01 07.01

2001: 31.12 24.12 17.12 10.12 03.12 26.11 19.11 12.11 05.11 29.10 22.10 15.10 08.10 01.10 24.09 17.09 10.09 03.09 27.08 20.08 13.08 06.08 30.07 23.07 16.07 09.07 02.07 25.06 18.06 11.06 04.06 28.05 21.05 14.05 07.05 30.04 23.04 16.04 09.04 02.04 26.03 19.03 12.03 05.03 26.02 19.02 12.02 05.02 29.01 22.01 15.01 08.01 01.01

2000: 25.12 18.12 11.12 04.12 27.11 20.11


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