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March, 2011

  1. No Boom

    March 28, 2011 by Asim

    I can’t take tablet “computing” seriously, as it is just basically glorified Mobile phones without the phone bit. But it is a tech growth area, the majority of my posts including this are done via my own tablet pc the nokia n900 (its actually a phone too). Regardless, there is now a huge market available for tablet pc and every phone manufacturer on the planet seems like they want a piece.

    Something that flew under my radar was the RIM Playbook, RIM better known for the blackberry are now entering the tablet market with something that doesn’t do anything that’s over and above what is currently on the market. Joining a long list of tablet manufacturers, with another “me too” product.

    Apple are market leaders for a reason, no doubt in small fact for the way they market themselves. Saviours of humanity is what I see them marketing themselves as, and it resonates with the marketplace. I had never in my life seen people line up outside shops to buy technology before, now its a regular occurrence when the latest apple product comes out. A fashion statement as well as saviour to humanity has given birth to an almost religious fever to Apple products and enthusiasm for the brand.

    It will take a lot more to usurp Apple from their position than another run of the mill product where there is no boom for the buck.


  2. On Projects

    March 20, 2011 by Asim

    Given I had some downtime this week, I was looking to catch up on some of my personal projects. Of the dozen or so thing I started, the biggest and most challenging one is to make a computer game. Specifically I’ve wanted to put together a steampunk based MMORPG or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game aka world of warcraft style game to the non gaming geeks.

    I got arround to researching what game engines or Software Development Kits were available for MMO development and I came across this: Heroblade, quite possibly the answer to my dreams. Only downside is it costs $5000 for a licence. With heroblade I could easily design and build a visually stunning game over the course of a couple years.

    Given I don’t have the $5000 or the time required spare I’m going to need to shorten my vision and do something a bit smaller in the short term. The whole idea behind my projects were so I could develop my skills by doing something proactive so a smaller project seems the best bet as I do have the bad habit of quitting halfway through a development if things aren’t working as they should.

    Given I said all that, I should point out that i’m going to finish off older projects before starting the game, I’ve just gotten back to developing my physics engine I started 3 years ago and stopped working on 15 months ago.


  3. On Japan

    March 16, 2011 by Asim

    The worlds media seems to be missing one of the biggest news stories ever when covering the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

    Millions of people were saved by brilliant engineering.

    I may look at Japan with rose tinted glasses and honestly believe that the nuclear facility currently at risk of meltdown would have blown up already if it were built anywhere else.

    Although with this current meltdown crisis occurring, there is going to be a big backlash against the British Government proposals to build new nuclear power stations.