Soronlin

To be honest, I don't know a good font from a bad one, but one thing I do know is that one font is not enough… In your CSS that is. I am using Linux here; it's very likely that I don't have Arial or Times New Roman, or any of the other fonts the Microsoft world takes for granted. So when your CSS calls for a single Microsoft font, I'm likely to get the standard Firefox selection, which is probably a very bad serif font. The guys on Apple Macs will be little better off, and they are more likely to scoff. If you want to be as helpful as possible, you should use standard font families and provide a good list of fall-back fonts for your readers. Wiser minds than mine have put together the following lists.

Text Editors are things people get religious about. If you want to start an argument among unix programmers, ask them which editor is best. When the smoke clears the only thing you can be sure of is that none of them will say Notepad.

For the sake of bragging, I spent several years using ed to write large programs. A while ago emacs and vi fought over mind-share with no quarter asked or given, but those days are (mostly) gone, killed off by the shift to windowing platforms. Now there are a huge number of editors available, all with their own capabilities, some better, some worse. Allow me to introduce you to the one I think is better than most. jEdit.

Roleplaying

Roleplaying is like improvised theatre without all the tiresome moving around and building sets. In fact maybe improvised theatre for the radio… without the sound effects. Anyway, six people sit down in comfy chairs with drinks and snacks, and create a story together. It is thrilling, moving, cathartic, escapist, … whatever you need.

I have played many game-systems over the years. I started out with a photocopied copy of Greyhawk before AD&D was released. Then Traveller, Striker, Gamma World, Paranoia. Now I tend to gravitate around World of Darkness, but still make regular forays into other systems.

Right now I am considering getting around to designing my scenario for AmberconUK 12. The Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game (ADRPG) is a roleplaying game without any dice. It is the ultimate is roleplaying, and AmberconUK is the ultimate in gaming conventions.

Programming

I am a software engineer specialising in control systems and SCADA, currently working in the automotive sector. In my free time I like to work with microcontrollers. I prefer the Atmel AVR to the PIC… and Linux to Windows.

Amateur Radio

Amateur (Ham) Radio is a fascinating and little-known world-wide hobby with international legal standing.

I was first licensed in 1983, although for the first ten of those I was stuck on VHF with no money for decent equipment, and then let my license lapse for another ten years.

Starring:

• Masie —Tortoiseshell
• Paddy — Long-haired tabby

Guest Star:

• Freya — German Shepherd

Science fiction is getting an ever-increasing fan base, be it Star Trek, Firefly, Babylon 5, or any of the dozens of movies and TV series, or thousands of books. On the other hand, it is demonstrably not necessary to actually understand science to produce a science fiction product, and there are some truly awful gaffs out there. Of course once they are committed to film, then they have to be explained away.

• Star Trek encounters an energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy. They meant the Universe, but had to do some fast footwork to recover.
• Firefly seems to take place in a single solar system with 210 inhabitable planets, every one of them with a 24-hour day and a 365-day year. Not to mention a temperate climate and Earth-standard gravity.
• Buck Rogers opined that there were a googleplex star systems in our galaxy. If you turned each atom in the entire universe into a zero, you'd have enough to write out a googleplex — it's rather a big number. Conversely there are at most four hundred billion stars in our galaxy.
• Star Trek III manages to use one quarter impulse power in space-dock. Full impulse power gets them up to just under the speed of light. It's about a million times worse than going around a multi-story car park in fifth gear with your foot only a quarter down on the accelerator pedal.