Kitttens need new home.

Well I'd be prepared to look after one of these little cuties if it would help out. Provided that it doesn't mind sleeping in the bed with Cathy and myself. It would be a bit of a squeeze but I'm sure that I could manage. I would have to insist on none of that awful wailing that they do though.

Retrospecification

Get a technical specification; start programming; realise that the specification doesn't reflect real life requirements; write suite of programs based on real life requirements; rewrite technical specification to reflect real life programming which is now based on real life requirements; get technical specification signed off. Voila, retrospecification. Eyethangyew!

The big freeze

Well, a cold snap with a light sprinkling of snow arrived in Surrey overnight. I rode the bike to work this morning, 'cos I'm from Yorkshire and I'm 'ard. No problems apart from not being able to move because of the number of layers of clothing. Must get some heated handgrips fitted. I couldn't get my earplugs out when I got to work: my fingers were like pigs' tits. Still, I managed to bag a 25 and a 26 before my visor became so caked with salt that I could feel my arteries hardening and had to make loud squeaking noises and listen for the echoes to tell me where I was going.

Update: Didn't have the cojones to ride it home though, left the office without looking out of the window, rode out of the underground car park into a blizzard, did a U turn and caught the train home. Discretion is the better part of valour.

If it ain't broke, break it.

The principle seems to work in Java as well as other programming languages. I improved my RoboCode robot last night. Well, the code looks much nicer, but when it comes to kicking ass it's now a little closer to the bottom of the food chain getting its ass kicked. It seems to want to mess about near the wall, facing the wrong way, not shooting at anything and getting shot at or crashed into. Not winning behaviour for a battle robot really. I'm getting the feel for coding in Java though.

It's a small world …

… but I wouldn't want to drop it on my toe. It turns out that the chap I'm sitting next to at work, yet another Simon, went to the same school as me, two years my junior. Not only that, but he was on the same programming course immediately after me. We just had a look at Friends Reunited to see who we remember. I'm now having flashes of memory from my far distant youth. Some turns are best left unstoned.

Kicking ass the RoboCode way

I've just spent a couple of hours messing about with RoboCode. A great way to practice Java programming in the style of Robot Wars. You start off with a basic robot framework and add your bells and whistles from a bunch of supplied classes. Then you can match it against supplied house robots or cut it loose in the RoboCode world. I've turned my robot from being the battlefield seven stone weakling into an dynamic tension asskicking sonofabitch.

Anyone want to hire me as a games programmer yet?

Hasta la vista baby.