goParker

Bored? Games! 2 Fast 2 Festival

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Back at the beginning of the academic year, we were all geared up to run the Festival of Daring and Excitement. However, upon arriving at the University the day of the event, I discovered that all the doors to the building were taped off and a strictly no entry sign was stuck to the doors. Cue me rushing around like a lunatic trying to find out what happened, and telling as many people as quickly as possible that we would have to cancel the event and try again another day.

Another day arrived.

UK and Ireland Programming Competition 2023

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Uk and Ireland Programming Competition is back, or was back.

This year we had 5 teams of three students attacking 14 algorithmic puzzles with the aid of just one computer and no internet! You can see them hard at work in the picture above, approximately mid contest.

http://ukiepc.info/2023/

Kattis Algorithmic Athletics 2023

Sat, 29 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On the Saturday of the May bank holiday weekend, four teams of courageous coders came together to compete in the Kattis Algorithmic Athletics here in the School of Computer Science at the University of Hull.

They were glorious, and this is how it all went down.

Global Game Jam 2023

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Global Game Jam was back this weekend just passed. This year the theme was Roots. There was a modest turnout, but games were made and fun (and learning) was had.

Bored? Games! Christmas Bash 2022

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

After a long pandemic hiatus, yesterday saw the return of the Bored? Games! Christmas Bash. Once again collaborating with the student Gaming Society and the Card and Board Game Society. There were mince pies and everything.

UK and Ireland Programming Competition 2022

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It always seems to take a while for me to get around to writing about this event.

Once again Hull teams took to the field in the UK and Ireland Programming Competition. This year we had a bumper crop of teams applying their brains to some fun algorithmic puzzles. The format is classic: each team can have up to 3 members and are given 1 computer and 0 internets to solve up to 12 secret programming puzzles in just 5 hours.

http://ukiepc.info/2022/

Kattis Algorithmic Athletics 2022

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

On Saturday we hosted a programming and algorithms competition where teams of up to 3 would pit their wits against the 8 programming puzzles and try and solve as many as they could in just 3 hours.

We had teams from across the degree levels, from our first year certificate stage all the way to our masters level.

Climax Game Jam 2022

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Last weekend Climax Studios, a game development studio based out of Portsmouth, hosted a game jam in support of the mental health charity Mind. They invited our students to take part and, since we were about due another game jam anyway, we hosted a local jam site in our labs and ordered in some pizza.

UK and Ireland Programming Competition 2021

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This Saturday, just passed, we once again hosted a local site for the UK and Ireland Programming Competition (http://ukiepc.info/2021/).

We had one valiant team enter the fray.

Fresh Fish

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This post is a bit of a two for one.

Firstly, I thought that I would say hi to all the new students joining us this week at the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Hull.

3D Printed Maze

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Today I presented a session in our new students induction called “Building Your Brand” which was broadly about how to develop your profile in a way that supplements everything that you are explicitly learning on your degree programme. In preparing for it I came across something that led me to an interesting diversion.

UK and Ireland Programming Competition 2019

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This is a bit of a while coming, mostly down to the need to generate Mobile Devices content each week. Better late than never.

Back in mid October we once again took part in the UK and Ireland Programming Competition. We fielded teams for the first time last year and this year doubled our entries with 4 teams. Each team can have up to 3 members and are given 1 computer and 0 internets to solve up to 12 secret programming puzzles in just 5 hours.

http://ukiepc.info/2019/

Festival of Daring and Excitement 2019

Sat, 21 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Another academic year has whizzed by and it always seems to accelerate to a final sprint in the summer. Subsequently, the new year is upon us and we have just finished Induction (Welcome/Fresher’s) Week for the 2019/2020 intake. The grand finale to the week is the student’s introduction to the Bored? Games! events: The Festival of Daring and Excitement.

Here is a little account of what went on.

Staying Cool

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A little while ago I was designing and printing an update to my printer to allow it to use one less motor for controlling the z-axis. The basic printer design uses two lead screws to raise and lower the x-axis. It still does, but now it only uses one motor to control both screws instead of the original two. But that is not what this post is about. Instead it is about staying cool under circumstances to drive one mad.

Smart Switch

Sat, 15 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I quite like gadgets. So it should come as little surprise that I have been drawn by the bright future promised by smart bulbs. By their nature, in order to retain access to their smart functionality they need to be ‘on’ even if they are not shining. This presents a problem when faced with several decades of habit of flicking the power switch when you walk in to and out of a room.

Being ‘smart’ you can voice control them using Alexa, but that has some faintly annoying lag and that is even if she understands you the first time. Plus, shouting “you damn well know what I meant, Alexa!” to turn off the bedside light can be disruptive to one’s sleeping partner.

So this is about the start of my quest to find another way.

Studio Gobo and Electric Square talk

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, Terry Haynes from Studio Gobo and Electric Square came to Computer Science to talk about why our students might like to work there.

UK and Ireland Programming Competition 2018

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today we fielded our first teams to the UK and Ireland Programming Competition. In it teams of up to 3 are given 1 computer and 0 internet to solve up to 12 secret programming puzzles in just 5 hours.

http://ukiepc.info/2018/

UK and Ireland Programming Competition 2018 update

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

http://ukiepc.info/2018/

The Three Thing Game

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A new music cover to entice the masses to Three Thing Game. This is for the 3rd and 4th November 2018 event.

https://threethinggame.com/post/2018-10-01-the-autumn-event/

Playing Games

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

To cap off our induction week we ran a Bored? Games! event. Specifically the Festival of Daring and Excitement.

Still wondering? Let me explain.

Robocode Challenge

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

During induction week this year I put together a lab activity based around Robocode (https://robocode.sourceforge.io/). The students were introduced to it on Wednesday afternoon and had lab slots during Thursday to further refine their creations.

Today we got to find out how they all did in an epic showdown.

The Printer

Thu, 05 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I have mentioned my 3d printer a few times on the blog now and I have been meaning to document the various modifications and the overall journey that I have taken with it.

So here it is.

Smiler has a boyfriend

Thu, 28 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Introducing Butch. Butch is Smiler’s new stable mate. Look how happy she is to have some company!

Resurrection

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Smiler has been revived and she is now better than ever following the Dead Led debacle (http://goparker.com/post/2018-05-29-dead_led/)

Dead Led

Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This is a little of a public service announcement as I didn’t follow the instructions and have now killed my NeoPixel ring leds.

Smiler!

Mon, 28 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I have finally got the various bolts required to assemble the electronics in to the PixelBot chassis. So here she is. I felt that I couldn’t just keep calling the PixelBot “the PixelBot”. So her new name is Smiler.

It's Alive!

Sun, 27 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The other day I started my HullPixelBot journey (http://goparker.com/post/2018-05-25-plastic-parts-printed/) and I have made some progress since then.

Open to Discussion

Sat, 26 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In one of my previous posts on the value of blogging (http://goparker.com/post/2018-04-23-csblogs-and-blogging/) I remarked on how once a random internet stranger had left a comment that substantially improved the performance of the eGPU setup that I was blogging about. That was awesome, and I really think of it warmly.

It also occured to me as I wrote this that the way I had the blog currently setup, using static site generator Hugo (http://goparker.com/post/2018-05-08-github-pages-and-hugo/) I did not have the capability for people to leave comments.

This is where Staticman comes in.

Plastic Parts Printed

Fri, 25 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I finally decided that I should have a crack at building one of Rob Mile’s Hull Pixel Bots (http://hullpixelbot.com/)

I have completed the first step by printing out the plastic parts.

Even More Ultimate King Domino

Tue, 15 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

So yesterday I talked about Kingdomino and what the maximum possible score is in two player 7 x 7 grid mode is (http://goparker.com/post/2018-05-14-ultimate-king-domino/). I showed a possible contender (267 points) and asked whether you could do better, throwing down the gauntlet. Well I picked the gauntlet back up again and did better myself.

Ultimate King Domino

Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Just a few days before last Christmas I began belatedly thinking about what sort of things I could do with my family during the holiday period. A little while ago, one of my buddies had introduced me to Kingdomino (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204583/kingdomino) which is a fun tile placement game for up to 4 players. It was on ‘the list’ of games that I had put together after perusing a number of sources on the internet for games that play well with three players. This is because my immediate family unit is made up of me, my wife, and our (currently) 9 year old son.

I mentioned that I was belatedly thinking about it because I started after even Amazon’s Christmas delivery cut off. This might be an obstacle for your average fellow, but armed with my 3D printer I was not deterred.

Damn Dirty Apes

Thu, 10 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

So Three Thing Game (http://threethinggame.com/post/2018-05-05-the-event/) took place last weekend and much fun was had by all. That link was an article I wrote chronicling the event including all the winners. There were a number of other great games made that didn’t place and hopefully they will all make their own blog posts about it because this is my blog so I want to talk about the great game that I made.

Using Github Pages with Hugo

Tue, 08 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In a recent post about blogging and CSBlogs (http://goparker.com/post/2018-04-23-csblogs-and-blogging/) I mentioned that I have been playing around with using the static site generation tool Hugo (https://gohugo.io/) with GitHub Pages (https://pages.github.com/) as a means of hosting various websites at no cost.

Here I explain how it is done.

Three Thing Game award

Thu, 26 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, it was nice for the Three Thing Game and the Bored? Games! events to get some official recognition for the benefits that they provide to the student experience.

Adding files to source control

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today I have been frustrated by a perennial problem of mine which is forgetting to add a crucial file to source control. Consequently, a program that I had wanted to show off today won’t build.

CSBlogs and Blogging as an employability tool

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This is a post to proselytise the virtues of blogging with respect to getting your first job (and possibly ones to follow). I also want to reintroduce CSBlogs http://csblogs.com/ to the Hull Computer Science students. More on both below. The picture is unrelated but begs the question, Who’s a pretty tabby tiger?

Can't Stop The Coding

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A new music cover to entice the masses to Three Thing Game. This is for the 4th and 5th May 2018 event.

Clearing Video

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A while back I was asked by the digital marketing team whether I would feature in a promotional video for Computer Science and here it is! It speaks to the quality of the answers that I gave to their questions that what you see here is a subset of the whole of my ramblings.

Last Three Thing Game

Sun, 08 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Another in the line music covers to entice the masses to Three Thing Game. This is for the 3rd and 4th November 2017 event.

Three Thingian Gamesody

Sun, 08 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The first (of many?) music covers to entice the masses to Three Thing Game. This is for the 12th and 13th May 2017 event.

Frog poem

Sun, 13 Dec 2015 20:23:33 +0000

Under a rock and hidden deep, There lies a frog, he’s half asleep. He dreams no dreams of kingdoms far, But of being trapped inside a jar. He tossed and turned throughout the night, Not cold, he shivered from his fright. The jar was sealed, the air was thin, Not much air was there within. So he gasped and strived for a breath, And bravely waited for his death.

Code snippet test

Sat, 15 Nov 2014 20:22:05 +0000

If you want to get the first fault tree in my ExampleFaultTrees object, then the following code is for you: var exampleFaultTrees = new ExampleFaultTrees(); topNode = exampleFaultTrees.getFaultTree(0); You first need to instantiate an ExampleFaultTrees object and then you can ask it for the zeroth element in its internal array of fault trees. You can then simply call the topNode’s draw function, giving it the 2d context of the canvas as a parameter to draw to.

Lost in translation: How to draw a fault tree

Sat, 15 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The other day I gave a workshop for the 08240 2d Computer Graphics students in the Computer Science department of the University of Hull. A number of the students were struggling with this aspect of the coursework that they were undertaking. Above is a rough video I put together of the content. I made it using a chemistry beaker holder to hold my webcam pointing down at the surface of my desk.

Spooky Elephant releases Heartotron!

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:41:00 +0000

Just a quick note for now to announce the publishing of our game – Heartotron – to the Windows Store. You can preview and install it (for free!) on your Windows 8 device from the following store link: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/heartotron/569d7e21-6eca-479c-8dfd-03371b5f739e Please give it a go and leave us some feedback or ideas for improvements. We have a planned update for later in the week to add new enemy types so watch this space.

Boarding the Android Express

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:17:00 +0000

Today I took possession of my shiny new Samsung Galaxy Note II. My previous daily device was the Samsung Omnia 7 which was one of the debut devices of the Windows Phone 7 range. It was a close run race between the Note II and the flagship Windows Phone 8 device the Nokia Lumia 920. I mentioned before that it was a close race with the Lumia phone. Both are large, flagship devices with the Lumia being widely lauded as having one of the best cameras on a mobile phone, the best in low light.

My DIY eGPU Project – Speed boost

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:55:00 +0000

This morning, some lovely person using the handle Burger commented on one of my earlier postssuggesting that if I connect the eGPU setup after boot-up is complete then I should get a significant boost due to PCIe compression. I little bit of Googling reveals a bit more detail here, but it seems that you need to have a ‘modern’ Intel integrated GPU in combination with one of a fairly narrow range of Nvidia kit.

My DIY eGPU Project – The Hawk

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:20:00 +0000

Today my new graphics card arrived from eBay. It is a second hand MSI N460GTX Hawkwhich I picked up for a reasonable £79.02 including postage. This puts the running total for the eGPU project (not including bits that I had lying around) at £166.10. So how does it perform? Well you may remember that I previously benchmarkedboth the integrated graphics of my laptop and a borrowed Geforce 9600GT in the eGPU adapter with the eGPU providing a splendid 3 times increase in the 3DMark06 score.

My DIY eGPU project – Benchmarking

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:44:00 +0000

Well, I have done a spot of benchmarking. Specifically using 3DMark06 and the Resident Evil 5 benchmarking tool. If you are wondering what I am talking about here is an introductionand a follow-up. I guess a brief recap wouldn’t be out of place. I have a laptop with integrated graphics. This severely limits the games that I can play. This makes me sad. I have read that I can put together an adapter that plugs in to the ExpressCard slot in my laptop that allows me to use a desktop GPU to power the graphics.

My DIY eGPU Project – Delivery and Test

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:32:00 +0000

Today (26th) the adapter parts for my eGPU project arrived from Taiwan. I paid for it on the 20th via PayPal and on the 24th the PayPal status was updated to let me know that my purchase had shipped with a DHL tracking number. I am pretty happy with the delivery time. Something that I knew was a possibility, though was still slightly vexing, was an accompanying VAT charge from Customs amounting to £12.

(R)evolving Art

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:14:00 +0000

Though I like to think that my software development work shows a little artistry, I am certainly not an artist in the classical sense of the word. However, I have been developing an art project with artist Roberto Bono (Roberto’s website) for the past year or so, and as I have just uploaded a couple of new Roberto works I thought I would share them. The ‘idea’ of the work is that is is comprised of 12 double sided paintings that form the whole.

King of the Beverley Maize

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Today I spent the day a the Beverley Mazewith The Wife, The Boy, and some friends. If you haven’t encountered such a thing before, it is a large maze that has been cut in to a field of growing corn (or maize to identify the pun). In order to add to the challenge and fun of the exploration there are, dotted about the maze, some boards with quiz questions. By collecting the correct answers you can decode the final board at the exit of the maze and enter your self in to their competition.

Memory of a Goldfish

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 23:19:00 +0000

This game was my first foray into Windows Phone 7 development. It is a Silverlight app based on the card game of Memory (as I knew it, though it is also known by many other names according to Wikipedia). The idea is that you turn over the ‘cards’ in pairs; if they match then you get to keep them. If they don’t match then they are flipped back over and you get another try.

My DIY eGPU Project – Introduction

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:42:00 +0000

The PC that I use for work (and play) is a Toshiba Portégé R700-160 laptop. It is a delightfully sleek and portable device that packs a pretty decent Intel Core i5-520M Processor into its tiny chassis. A (perhaps unavoidable) weakness of the machine is its graphics capability as it relies on the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD GPU. It can just about manage Civilization V but anything more graphically intensive is a shuddering no-no.

The arrival of the juicer

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Today our shiny juicer arrived from eBay. So far we have tried apple and carrot, which was surprisingly nice, and banana and strawberry smoothie.

All about me

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have been in Computer Science at the University of Hull since 1999, first as an undergraduate, then through various flavours of postgraduate research, leading to now as a lecturer. I have held my lecturer post since 2011.