Terry Boon
@terryboon.bsky.social
Games & stories; maths & language; technology & risk; and thoughtful politics & law. Living in London, UK.
Views my own, not representative of employer or anyone else, & reposts and follows are not endorsements.
Also on Mastodon: @terryboon@hachyderm.io
Views my own, not representative of employer or anyone else, & reposts and follows are not endorsements.
Also on Mastodon: @terryboon@hachyderm.io
Polya's "How To Solve It" has related method under generic name "Variation Of The Problem": reduce it to a simple/degenerate case with known answer, to identify characteristics of general solution. E.g. for volume of a pyramid frustum, set the top to zero (pyramid!) or to match the bottom (prism!)
August 29, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Polya's "How To Solve It" has related method under generic name "Variation Of The Problem": reduce it to a simple/degenerate case with known answer, to identify characteristics of general solution. E.g. for volume of a pyramid frustum, set the top to zero (pyramid!) or to match the bottom (prism!)
Enjoying John Caird's "Theatre Craft", a hefty A-Z on working as a director. I don't expect to be directing a play (or doing any more than sitting in a theatre watching one!), but liking the insights on how it all works, run through with entertaining anecdotes and dry humour. #theatre #books
July 24, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Now curious about how the #Sinclair #ZX81 managed screen memory, after manual's warning that filling whole screen black would exhaust the store of a machine without expanded memory (i.e. the wobbly RAM pack). Retrocomputing Stack Exchange explains: retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/79...
May 3, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Now curious about how the #Sinclair #ZX81 managed screen memory, after manual's warning that filling whole screen black would exhaust the store of a machine without expanded memory (i.e. the wobbly RAM pack). Retrocomputing Stack Exchange explains: retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/79...
My first "graphics programming" was the "measles" program from the Sinclair ZX81 Basic Programming manual (64 x 44 pixels - and you could have any colour you wanted as long as it was black).
![Example code from ZX81 BASIC Programming manual. "Try this measles program: [code omitted] THis plots a random point each time you press NEWLINE."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wqmsa55xoejpq5t6hik32gb4/bafkreiarz6eaf6exqz5dskekjpg6prakpwnqxd5zqceddcjskf4xpmhjga@jpeg)
May 3, 2025 at 9:26 AM
My first "graphics programming" was the "measles" program from the Sinclair ZX81 Basic Programming manual (64 x 44 pixels - and you could have any colour you wanted as long as it was black).
I recall "Complete BBC Computer User Handbook" (1989) had a few pages on computerising an office/workplace, but forget what it covered. The book (fascinating compendium - wish I still had my copy!) also had overview of popular software for the BBC family. www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6642/The...
April 20, 2025 at 11:11 PM
I recall "Complete BBC Computer User Handbook" (1989) had a few pages on computerising an office/workplace, but forget what it covered. The book (fascinating compendium - wish I still had my copy!) also had overview of popular software for the BBC family. www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6642/The...
"Micro User" (for BBC/Acorn machines) had checksums with its type-in listings to help catch typos. In Apr 1988 they had a (mercifully short) program claiming to reverse the process: you could enter the checksums for it to convert back to a program. But the output with the test data... "APRIL FOOL"
April 1, 2025 at 10:47 PM
"Micro User" (for BBC/Acorn machines) had checksums with its type-in listings to help catch typos. In Apr 1988 they had a (mercifully short) program claiming to reverse the process: you could enter the checksums for it to convert back to a program. But the output with the test data... "APRIL FOOL"
Some more sophisticated version control in shared documents would be nice in principle, but making that simple, intuitive, and predictable feels a Hard problem - and I don't think offices are ready for industrial-strength "git"-style versioning when people just want to write a simple Word document!
March 22, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Some more sophisticated version control in shared documents would be nice in principle, but making that simple, intuitive, and predictable feels a Hard problem - and I don't think offices are ready for industrial-strength "git"-style versioning when people just want to write a simple Word document!
Looking at Spotify playlists curated for boardgames after finding suitably tranquil music for "Dorfromantik". Pleasant historical European-esque themes fit many winners of "Spiel des Jahres" award; "Codenames" gets classic spy music; and railway game "Ticket to Ride" avoids obvious Beatles track...
February 2, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Looking at Spotify playlists curated for boardgames after finding suitably tranquil music for "Dorfromantik". Pleasant historical European-esque themes fit many winners of "Spiel des Jahres" award; "Codenames" gets classic spy music; and railway game "Ticket to Ride" avoids obvious Beatles track...
Another trend I think I've noticed for Penguin's orange-spined non-fiction: dropping the traditional "what's the book about" from the back, leaving bookshop browser with *only* (often less informative) writer/review quotes for clues. (Examples below, where I prefer the Dennett style.)
![Back cover of "Intuition Pump" by Daniel C. Dennett.
"Intelligence, insight and flair... They don't come much bigger than Daniel Dennett". Julian Raggini, Guardian
Thinking is hard. A few of us may be natural geniuses, others are blessed with reserves of willpower. Then there are the rest of us: not prodigies and short on time, but still aspiring to understand the world. What can we do?
Acclaimed thinker Daniel Dennett reveals a collection of his favourite thinking tools, or "intuition pumps". From Occam's Razor to the benefit of mistakes, the 90% rule to avoiding "deepities", this entertaining guide will enable you to tackle life's most fundamental questions - evolution, meaning, consciousness and free will - and teach you to think independently and creatively.
[In addition: quotes from Richard Dawkins, Melvin Konner (Nature), Jennifer Schuessler (The New York Times), Observer, and Daily Beast]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wqmsa55xoejpq5t6hik32gb4/bafkreiazcifwfum44liq5erxbzbgu7s4zl4vupm73ur3lkc3yn5kpvck6y@jpeg)
February 1, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Another trend I think I've noticed for Penguin's orange-spined non-fiction: dropping the traditional "what's the book about" from the back, leaving bookshop browser with *only* (often less informative) writer/review quotes for clues. (Examples below, where I prefer the Dennett style.)
Played Carl Wehrle boardgame "Arcs" for the first time. Directing fleets of spaceships, building cities, levying taxes, securing guild support for special abilities (I should have done more of that...) - now I understand the rules, looking forward to another game where I may have more strategy!
January 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Played Carl Wehrle boardgame "Arcs" for the first time. Directing fleets of spaceships, building cities, levying taxes, securing guild support for special abilities (I should have done more of that...) - now I understand the rules, looking forward to another game where I may have more strategy!
Reading Adam Bloom's "Finding Your Comic Genius: an in-depth guide to the art of stand-up comedy". I'd gone to a recording of his Radio 4 show "The Problem with Adam Bloom" years ago where he interestingly digressed into the art of *constructing* comedy, so nice to get a lot more of that.
January 25, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reading Adam Bloom's "Finding Your Comic Genius: an in-depth guide to the art of stand-up comedy". I'd gone to a recording of his Radio 4 show "The Problem with Adam Bloom" years ago where he interestingly digressed into the art of *constructing* comedy, so nice to get a lot more of that.
Loggins describes instrumental "The Weak and Strong Nuclear Force" as combining "progressive rock, fusion and new age" - despite reminiscent title, very different from Flanders & Swann's thermodynamic "First and Second Law" ("Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter... That's entropy, man!")
November 28, 2024 at 10:37 PM
Loggins describes instrumental "The Weak and Strong Nuclear Force" as combining "progressive rock, fusion and new age" - despite reminiscent title, very different from Flanders & Swann's thermodynamic "First and Second Law" ("Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter... That's entropy, man!")
Thought "House of Cards" had been on BBC iPlayer, but seems nothing lasts forever... Search for it now finds 558 episodes of "House of Commons", "Bleak House" for another Andrew Davies adaptation with Ian Richardson - and, curiously, a solitary episode of 1980s Monkhouse quiz show "Bob's Full House"
November 22, 2024 at 11:56 PM
Thought "House of Cards" had been on BBC iPlayer, but seems nothing lasts forever... Search for it now finds 558 episodes of "House of Commons", "Bleak House" for another Andrew Davies adaptation with Ian Richardson - and, curiously, a solitary episode of 1980s Monkhouse quiz show "Bob's Full House"
Would I be right in guessing you might not recommend adding a *pizza base* under the whole carbonara dish? I've seen this in the supermarket, but haven't ventured to try it...
September 27, 2024 at 7:05 PM
Would I be right in guessing you might not recommend adding a *pizza base* under the whole carbonara dish? I've seen this in the supermarket, but haven't ventured to try it...
Nick Payne’s two-hander play "Constellations" features a cosmologist, a bee-keeper, and branching scenes showing the alternative ways their story could have gone. A blog post on drama branching and switching - both there and for another way to see Middle Earth: www.eclecticstacks.com/post/constel...
August 27, 2024 at 8:19 PM
Nick Payne’s two-hander play "Constellations" features a cosmologist, a bee-keeper, and branching scenes showing the alternative ways their story could have gone. A blog post on drama branching and switching - both there and for another way to see Middle Earth: www.eclecticstacks.com/post/constel...
Our pub quiz ends with jackpot round: one team plays "Play Your Cards Right"-style higher/lower game to win the pot. So I did Monte Carlo analysis in Python to work out the chance of a win (low) & if there is useful strategy beyond the obvious (only a bit): www.eclecticstacks.com/post/play-yo...
August 27, 2024 at 8:18 PM
Our pub quiz ends with jackpot round: one team plays "Play Your Cards Right"-style higher/lower game to win the pot. So I did Monte Carlo analysis in Python to work out the chance of a win (low) & if there is useful strategy beyond the obvious (only a bit): www.eclecticstacks.com/post/play-yo...
On Hanabi, a card game of co-operative counting with scope for intricate and exotically-named strategies (gentleman's discards, trash bluffs, & replay double ignition?) - and its echoes of puzzles with logicians condemned to guess the colour of their hats: www.eclecticstacks.com/post/coopera...
August 27, 2024 at 8:17 PM
On Hanabi, a card game of co-operative counting with scope for intricate and exotically-named strategies (gentleman's discards, trash bluffs, & replay double ignition?) - and its echoes of puzzles with logicians condemned to guess the colour of their hats: www.eclecticstacks.com/post/coopera...
I tried out the Inform 7 interactive fiction tool by implementing Peter Killworth's example MINI adventure in natural English (this isn't 1984's BBC BASIC!), finding interesting language features - and an in-browser playable version - on the way: www.eclecticstacks.com/post/mini-ad...
August 27, 2024 at 8:16 PM
I tried out the Inform 7 interactive fiction tool by implementing Peter Killworth's example MINI adventure in natural English (this isn't 1984's BBC BASIC!), finding interesting language features - and an in-browser playable version - on the way: www.eclecticstacks.com/post/mini-ad...
The game "Humanity" has similarities to 1990s classic "Lemmings", but the graphics are obviously 30 years more impressive :-)
January 7, 2024 at 9:11 PM
The game "Humanity" has similarities to 1990s classic "Lemmings", but the graphics are obviously 30 years more impressive :-)
Started "Humanity", an interesting puzzle game, on the Economist's recommendation. You play a dog, shepherding a stream of humanity across 3D constructs by placing orders across the map, averting their plunge into oblivion and guiding them to their ascension. Review: www.ign.com/articles/hum...
January 7, 2024 at 8:33 PM
Started "Humanity", an interesting puzzle game, on the Economist's recommendation. You play a dog, shepherding a stream of humanity across 3D constructs by placing orders across the map, averting their plunge into oblivion and guiding them to their ascension. Review: www.ign.com/articles/hum...