Psychic Origami

Well it turns out that NetNewsWire's javascript confirm() function doesn't actually show a dialog. Instead it just returns false. So if you browsed from the feed to a game and tried to press the resign button not much would happen, as the javascript would behave as if you'd hit …

So finally got around to putting something up on fivepoundapp.com. It's just a single static PHP for now, more well well appear when I get around to it. We'll be listing details of future events and summarising past ones there. Just need to start playing around with Django next …

This is the third part in my series on the "travelling salesman problem" (TSP). Part one covered defining the TSP and utility code that will be used for the various optimisation algorithms I shall discuss. Part two covered "hill-climbing" (the simplest stochastic optimisation method).

I am currently using ctypes (lets you call native code using only Python - no C) for a project on OS X and ran into a little problem today:

"Illegal instruction"

Not exactly very specific.

Initially I thought this was due to some threading issues, but after ensuring I only had …

A very quick update to chrss:

• AJAX-style move selection - choosing which piece to move no longer reloads the whole page (if you've got javascript turned on)
• Bug fix for chess engine - on the initial move it was possible to move a pawn through a piece that should have been in …

After re-theming this blog and a couple of comments about the graphics I decided it was time to re-theme chrss. I'd been meaning to do it for some time, as I'd never been too happy with the look before. However after it was pointed out that viewing the black pieces …

So playing with a bit more paint I thought I'd have a go at drawing something from my head. I'd just been reading the Diamond Age and had vague ideas along the lines of drawing Nell with the primer. Didn't turn out quite that way (just went with what seemed …

Another update, where most of the work is under the hood, but I did catch a couple of small bugs in the sign up process.

Apart from that, visible changes are:

• It should be easier to sign up as you are joining a game now - a user shouldn't need to …

So I've decided to try more painting, rather than drawing and inking. So needing a subject matter, Mr Bowie seemed to fit the bill. I also happened to have young americans on vinyl, so there was a picture to hand. I didn't spend too long on it, but here's the …

Finally got around to theme-ing this blog. I've taken the default theme and stripped it down, then reset the css and started from there. Nothing fancy at all, just a bit more personalised and suitable for the subject matter I normally discuss. I fully expect there will be some things …