Category: Uncategorized

Now and then I stop programming for thirty seconds to do other things. Compulsive blog readers may recall I moved house recently, just before PC Gamer put my business on the map as being in Guildford (not any more!). The good news is instead of having a view of a busy road, and the house about 60 feet away from me across the street, I can now look out of windows and see this:

Woot. There are sometimes cows and sheep and horses and all sorts of ‘country’ things. It’s l33t. the downside is that the only way I get to afford to live here is by getting somewhere that needs ‘work doing’ as they say. This house was built in 1750, and I think 1750 was the last time anyone tried to insulate it. Having no cavity walls, single pane thin ‘post-war glass’ windows and a damp cellar/dungeon with a well in it, does not make for a warm house. Even worse, as it’s ‘listed’, you can’t even bung in modern windows. Nor can you do almost anything. What you *can* do is insulate the cellar ceiling / living room floor, so it’s no longer just floorboards and then icicles. But due to the damp / listedness, it can only be insulated with sheeps wool.

Cue a whole day installing wool insulation. Now you might think its’ easy, if you’ve seen the TV ads. After all, they sell the stuff pre-cut to the standard joist gaps. Those gaps must have become standardised sometime after the battle of waterloo, meaning when this house was built, it was more freeform. Not a single strip of insulation went in without cutting it to size first with a breadknife (it’s the best way). The insulation is called thermafleece, but it’s basically just wool. Cue silly expression posed for camera… Behold my l33t pipe lagging too. (They hadn’t even done that).

It’s about half done, And I don’t reckon just wedging it up there will hold it in place. I need a breathable membrane sheet over it I reckon. Still, it’s one step towards being able to sleep without 6 jumpers 4 blankets and 2 cats on the bed to keep warm.

I still did *some* work today. Some more work on the supply limits editor, which I’ll use to test out and implement that feature, and eventually will maybe make it into a generic player-usable challenge editor.

As it is the UK custom to drop the interest rate on all bank accounts, and then open new ones each month with a higher rate (to screw customers out of money) anyone who keeps an eye on things in the UK and doesn’t like rip-offs has to constantly change bank  accounts.

As a result, I recently tried opening an account with citibank. I should point out I’ve been a UK citizen for all my life and have been a company director for over 10 years. I have had a number of different bank accounts, and never been in any financial trouble that would put up a warning flag. In short, I am a good customer. Here are the highlights from citibank:

send us one document from each of the two lists below to our freepost address by 26-Dec-09.

Proof of Identity (a certified copy)
Current signed passport.
OR
Current UK photo card driving licence (a non photo driving license is, unfortunately, not acceptable)  [sorry, non got one. mines too old]
OR
Current signed national identity card issued by a member state of the European Economic Area (EEA). (Click here for a list of EEA countries)  [ we don’t even HAVE THESE IN THE UK YET!]
Please send only certified copies of your documents, and not the originals. Certified simply means documents that have been signed and dated by a lawyer, notary public or banker using an official stamp, and with their name and address written on it.

They actually expect me to go find a f****g lawyer to get the lawyer to say ‘yes that looks like the passport of a guy I met 10 seconds ago!’ (lets dwell briefly on the idea that the most trustworthy members of society are lawyers and bankers shall we? not a heart surgeon or a priest or a social worker. They are obviously corrupt and evil, unlike the banker…) They also wanta  utiltiy bill which does not exist because mine is online. yay! Also I love the word ‘simply’ in there, just ebfore the bit that makes it stupidly involved. Hardly cutting edge NLP…
And the highlight:

We look forward to welcoming you as a Citibank customer.

Note: Please do not reply to this email, because this email address is not set up to receive incoming email.

Classic. In other words. “we want to hear from you!. But not really. Sod off.”

Citibanks correspondence now lines my cats litter tray, where it is at least of some practical use :D. It amazes me how companies get so big by treating their customers as an irritation. I treat my customers as partners and as a major benefit to the company. Some of the best feedback I get on my games is direct from customers. There is only one email address ending in positech.co.uk that gets auto-deleted:

cv@positech.co.uk.

I’m sick of crappy recruitment companies that don’t even update their database every decade…

We moved house recently. I shall entertain with pictures of its quirky bits at some point (the house was built in 1750). Right now, my opinions of the house is ‘cold’. However, even though most of our life is in boxes and the shower (if you can call it that) onyl has cold water and it’s winter in England… None of this seems to bother either cat, which have both settled in incredibly easily and well.

Jadzia posing:

Jack Relaxing

And here is the new office. Right now its empty, and freezing, and badly needs carpet (which I’m sure I’ve measured wrong. what a dork…) and so on, but at least it’s big enough for me to actually move my chair an inch backwards, unlike the last one. Plus it’s on the ground floor! Hurrah!

I haven’t had any time at all to really chill out in the new hosue due to GSB stuff, but that;’s indie game development for you. GSB is live on steam any minute now!! (bites fingers).

So it finally worked. I have moved to the country. Ooh-arr etc. To my delight the internet works! (at 1.8MB right now, but I’m assured my IP Profile will go up to 5 one day). To my dread, the lan connection to my desktop PC was borked until an hour ago. Cue lots of stress, involving  many cables, pulling out of remaining hair, and at once stage, a hammer drill. Connection now fixxored.

Sooo… if you emailed me recently, I havent replied yet (probably) but will tomorrow morning GMT. Apologies  for the delay. I haven’t been able to check forums or do other support stuff yet either, but I’ll catch up soon, and get working on GSB again.

I got jadzia in the box. after a lot of worry and planning and stress. It was a sudden and VERY fast struggle. My better half almost physically collapsed with relief after she realised I’d managed it :D. Both cats ave adjusted pretty well to the new home, although Jack went up to the attic and refused to try and come down (its very steep) five times in a row.

Things I have discovered:

Oil fired central heating smells.

People go past my house on horseback now and then.

This is the best place ever to have been given night vision goggles for your birthday

I’m moving house tomorrow, several hundred miles. If I don’t blog or reply to emails, then it’s all gone wrong and I’m without a net connection for a few days. Hopefully that won’t happen.

In any case, in 11 hours time, I’m going to have two cats in two boxes, even if it means I need to use a dartgun.