Moving from iPhone (iOS) to Android (Samsung S8)

Samsung galaxy s8 2643381 1280 Moving from iPhone iOS to Android Samsung S8

Like many, I have been a happy iPhone user for many years now. My first was an iPhone 4. I have had several since then, up until the 6S, I have even had 3 iPads. I will be honest and say that I really have always liked iOS and the iPhones. To an extent, I still do.

However, the release of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 made me see a few cracks I had been ignoring with the iPhone. It showed me some issues with Apple’s business model as well. I was reminded that, just like all other major corporates, they just want my money no matter what it takes. Read More ...

Review: Eating Robots by Stephen Oram

34761663 Review Eating Robots by Stephen Oram

For openness, I was sent a copy of the book to review.

A rare book review from me. Every now and again, thanks to previously running a review site, I get asked to review stuff. In this case, it was a book of short stories titled  Eating Robots and other stories, by the author Stephen Oram.

I love dystopian stories, having even written several myself in the past. For me the future is anything but bright, depending on how you look at it.  One of the best representations of using this dystopian “lens” has always been the T.V. series Black Mirror from the brilliant Charlie Brooker. Read More ...

Pokemon Go: The Good, The Bad and Some Lessons

Pokemon go logo 01 Pokemon Go The Good The Bad and Some Lessons

Writing about Pokemon Go is almost as popular as actually playing it, so I thought I would join in the trend.

TL:TR It’s great fun but needs to have some careful consideration around safety concerns

In case you have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, let me just set the scene. Pokemon Go is a game based on the popular Pokemon franchise. It sees players using their mobile phones to hunt down and capture Pokemon in the real world. Using Augmented Reality (AR), Pokemon pop up all over the real world for players to capture and train. Once caught, they can be leveled up, evolved, battled with at Pokemon Gyms and more. Read More ...

Dynamic teams: Learning from the kids

Temple of mayhem 2 Dynamic teams Learning from the kids

The other day, I had the joy of taking my eldest daughter to a theme park (Chessington World of Adventures). We had an amazing time, finished off with a visit to what I thought was a sort of soft play area.

It turns out it was way more awesome than that. It was a steam punk themed ball shooting arena called Temple of Mayhem.

The arena was 2 floors high, with walkways laid out in a horseshoe around the edges. Each of the walkways had a bank of guns, whilst the ground floor had 2 large cannons.

The guns and the cannons fired tennis ball sized foam balls (as many as you could get in them). Also dotted around were various mechanisms to get the foam balls from the ground floor up to the first and second levels. Read More ...

Losing the game of life

Robotc 665x285 Losing the game of life

I was thinking how depressing life is recently. Hear me out!

We are an evolved species, we can think and act for ourselves. We have reached a point where we no longer have to hunt for food or build our own shelters (unless we choose to or in certain cases of poverty – you know what I mean though). We have cars and computers and a world connected in ways that we could never have imagined. We live longer, are healthier and more productive than ever before.

However, this has come at an extremely high price. The more “evolved” we become, the more ridiculous we have become. Read More ...