Posts Tagged ‘lego’

Is Twitter killing this blog?

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I sat down to write a post called “Is Twitter killing this blog?” but in the process managed to hose the whole blog while doing an upgrade of the software. I needed back-end access to the server to fix something that went wrong during the upgrade only to find out that there was something wrong with the account such that I was locked out. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long for the nice folks at PlusNet to sort things out and I was able to get the blog back up and running.

However, it took me a couple more weeks to get round to writing this post, so… Is Twitter killing this blog? Well, perhaps not killing it but certainly slowing it down. I can certainly vent minor, trivial thoughts to Twitter, which I might have previously spun into a post here. Also, now that there’s a small band of friends on Twitter, I’m enjoying the banter there… far more feedback there already than here.

In addition, life is fairly settled currently, so there doesn’t seem to be much to write about. And then there’s Ben’s DS. I think I’m catching up for several years of missed computer games. I’m at 97% on Lego Star Wars Saga. I think if I can grind my way to 100% I’ll have definitely maxed out and be able to leave it alone for a while.

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My first computer

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Ben had his sixth birthday last weekend. Aside from a large assortment of Lego (awesome!) from the family, his present from us was a Nintendo DS Lite. It’s amazing the change a generation has seen. The first computer I used was a ZX81, complete with 1024 bytes of RAM. At the same age, Ben has his own computer. It’s the same size or perhaps a touch smaller but has built in touch screens (plural), sound, microphone, battery, storage, wireless… and 4 million times as much RAM.

Now if Moore’s law holds, this means our grandchildren will get computers with 16 terabytes of RAM. That’s something like 2000 DVDs loaded in memory. Err…!

My main concern was that Ben was going to do nothing but play on it, so we set him a daily limit. This can be confiscated for bad behaviour, increased for good behaviour and all those other parent-style tricks. I’ve been pleasantly surprised, however, that he’s got a very balanced approach and he’s yet to challenge over having extra time.

His favourite game is Lego Star Wars and now I have a whole new set of problems to face as a father, such as how to trip up an AT-AT with a tow-rope on the Empire Strikes Back level. It’s a hard life…

With the Lego sets, the Lego Star Wars game and a trip to Legoland, it was a “very Lego-ey birthday” in Ben’s words. I won’t go into how we lost Ben for half an hour in Legoland, suffice as to say losing your child at any time is one of the scariest experiences you can have.

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Games for boys (or XYZZY FTW)

Monday, December 15th, 2008

If you ever played Command & Conquer back in the day and are looking for a passing distraction you could do worse than trying out Crystalien Conflict. It’s a great little RTS on the Lego web site, which Ben and I have been playing together recently.

Things have certainly come a long way from when I played Adventure with my dad, loaded from tape on a home-made Acorn Atom. I remember this experience vividly and how much fun I had as we mapped our way through the maze of twisty passages by leaving our possessions behind in a trail, Hansel and Gretel fashion.

For this reason I’m taking my time with Ben and making sure we get through the game. The adventure I had with my dad was never completed because we got stuck, much to my disappointment.

At this point it’s traditional to make curmudgeonly grumblings about there being nothing wrong with simpler, traditional games that don’t require a computer. Well, I don’t agree but I’ll make this observation: Just yesterday Ben was played Draughts with me (and others) on a real board in the real world. He got just as excited and involved as with anything on the computer.

I think what you’re playing is not so important. As long as it catches their imagination and is fun for both of you then you’re winning. If I can get Ben thinking stategy, be that why jumping an opponent’s piece isn’t always your best move or why defending your Crystal Harvester is so important, then I’m happy.

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