Airecon West
RogerBW's Blog10h ago
Back to ACWest and back to the Ramada. With images; cc-by-sa on everything. Friday After a smooth trip to Telford we began with two-player dnup.
RogerBW's Blog
blog.firedrake.orgadded August 2026
top 39%The Great Train Robbery
RogerBW's Blog1d ago
1903 crime, dir. Edwin S. Porter; IMDb. The robbers tie up the telegraph clerk, board the train, and make their getaway… This is one of the earliest films I've watched, and it's definitely still in...
The Gone World, Tom Sweterlitsch
RogerBW's Blog2d ago
2018 SF/horror. Shannon Moss is an investigator in a clandestine division of the NCIS. In 1997, she looks into the torture and murder of a SEAL's family, perhaps by the man himself… Spoilers.
Saucers and Sorcery, Tansy Rayner Roberts
RogerBW's Blog3d ago
2026 fantasy anthology, stories in Roberts' Teacup Magic setting. It's meant for people who have read the longer works already written for that setting, but I didn't find myself lost.
The Weekly Challenge 393: Prime Pythagoras
RogerBW's Blog4d ago
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved finding Pythagorean triples and prime numbers. (Note that this ends today.)
If Books Could Kill, Kate Eberle
RogerBW's Blog7d ago
2026 romance and more. Roxie Mitchell is happy working temp jobs to save up for wild excursions, and reading romance novels with her book club between times.
On the Basics of Sets
RogerBW's Blog8d ago
Sets (in the computering sense) are a useful thing, but they're a "new" (post-C) thing and so the syntax isn't standardised across languages the way it is for e.g. arrays.
Thirsty Meeples September 2026
RogerBW's Blog9d ago
Back to the boardgame café. First, a game I'd played on the tekeli.li forums but wanted to try in person: A Carnivore Did It!, essentially a set of deduction puzzles.
The State of eCommerce
RogerBW's Blog10d ago
So how's the online shopping experience going, now that AI has made boring old fixing bugs obsolete?
The Weekly Challenge 392: Extruded Palindrome Product
RogerBW's Blog11d ago
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string augmentation and analysis. (Note that this ends today.) Task 1: Convert Palindrome You are given a string.
The Innocence of Father Brown, G. K. Chesterton
RogerBW's Blog12d ago
1911 collection of 1910-1911 short stories, first of the Father Brown anthologies. Father Brown is an unassuming priest with a solid understanding of human nature.
By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
RogerBW's Blog13d ago
1990 war, dir. Jack Sholder, Powers Boothe, Rebecca de Mornay: IMDb. Terrorists fire a nuclear missile into the USSR. Things get worse.
Last Chance to Save the World, Beth Revis
RogerBW's Blog14d ago
2025 science fiction novella, last of its trilogy. Ada must sneak in to not-SpaceX headquarters and hack the nanites that will fix Earth's ecosystem so that they actually do the job.
Fail Safe (1964)
RogerBW's Blog15d ago
1964 war, dir. Sidney Lumet, Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau: IMDb. Once the machinery of apocalypse has been started, do you even want to stop it?
One Good Knight, Mercedes Lackey
RogerBW's Blog16d ago
2006 fantasy, second of its series. Princess Andromeda (she prefers "Andie") has her mother Cassiopeia's brains, but not her beauty, and is determined to be useful rather than just locked away...
Dr Strangelove (1964)
RogerBW's Blog17d ago
1964 war/comedy, dir. Stanley Kubrick, Peter Sellers, George C. Scott: IMDb. After the bombs fall, only three people are left alive… and they can't get on.
The Weekly Challenge 391: Arrange the Median Box
RogerBW's Blog18d ago
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved a median calculation and box fitting. (Note that this ends today.) Task 1: Array Median You are given two sorted arrays.
Dead in the Frame, Stephen Spotswood
RogerBW's Blog19d ago
2025 mystery, fifth in its series. As cliffhangered at the end of book 4, Pentecost has been arrested for murder.
The Cafe at the End of the World, Helen Comerford
RogerBW's Blog22d ago
2026 young adult modern fantasy, first of a pair of books. Lydie is the daughter of Death (now retired), but she just wants to work at and eventually take over the café in the tiny town.
Sentinel, Anthony J. Melchiorri
RogerBW's Blog23d ago
2021 military SF, first of a series. Cole Shaw signed up because the alternative was waiting to die on his failing colony planet. Now he drives a mech. So um yes.