Blog

Most of my blog posts dating back to 2002. Some written here, some written elsewhere and aggregated here.

Playtesting Chip Shop
19/10/2015

Chip Shop is ready for play testing! Find out how to get involved. There are still components missing and a lot of design work yet to happen, but the game is ready enough to start getting feedback from those of you generous enough to help me. At the moment, unless you live in Berlin and want to meet me at a future play testing session, you need to print and cut out the components yourself. I know this involves some work, so anyone who does help me playtest will receive a thank you and some for...
$Creating PDFs from Markdown with Pandoc and LaTeX$

Creating PDFs from Markdown with Pandoc and LaTeX
30/09/2015

If you've read some of my previous posts on SitePoint or elsewhere, you may know that I'm working on a board game. In the game, called Chip Shop, you get to run a computer company in 1980s America. As part of the project, I'm attempting to open source the entire game as much as possible. After several false starts, I've decided on a basic framework of Markdown for most of the game components--especially cards and the manual. As the game's website uses Jekyll, the website for the game is genera...
Video - The Evolution of Androids Ecosystem
21/09/2015

In this video I'll outline a history of Android versions, and explain whether we should still support them in our applications and, if so, how. [Read more](https://www.sitepoint.com/watch-evolution-androids-ecosystem/)
How I Became an e-Resident of Estonia
16/09/2015

I've lived in three countries in my life, and I travel on a regular basis. I wouldn't go as far as to say that we should have global open borders, but there are ways that the life of the new breed of global entrepreneurs could be easier. One of those is registering a business. Registering a business outside of your country of residence has historically been reserved for those who have big businesses or those up to no good (or both). I would guess that many of you reading this live in one countr...
Versioning Large Files with git LFS
11/09/2015

Versioning large files can be problematic with distributed version control systems like Git. Git Large File Storage (or LFS) is a new, open-source extension to Git that aims to improve handling of large files.
- git
Video - Structuring an Android Project
09/09/2015

When a project is created in Android Studio it contains several auto-generated files containing skeleton code for our project. In this video we look at what function these files perform and when and why we would edit them.
- android
Sustaining and Maintaining your Not-for-Profit
09/09/2015

You've had and developed an idea, got it started and hit the ground running with people involved, projects happening and hopefully some outcomes. _Now what happens?_ After the initial adrenalin and enthusiasm wears off, just keeping going, growing and knowing what to do next can be one of the most difficult stages in any not-for-profits lifecycle. ## Reviewing where you're at At regular intervals you should take time to evaluate and review your organisation and those working within it. This doe...
- not-for-profit
Video - A Tour of Android Studio
04/09/2015

Android Studio is now the official IDE for Android development. In this video we look at how to download and install it, tour the interface and look at some of the tools and features it offers.
Running Crate on Linux and Windows with Azure
13/08/2015

We have had requests from many of you about the potential of running Crate on Azure cloud hosting and/or Windows. Whilst this was always possible with some exploration, we now have official documentation.
- azure
- windows
Video - Understanding Android Differences
11/08/2015

In this video we'll look at understanding the differences between Android devices, system versions and the components that comprise the Android Operating System.
Creating a Game with Markdown, Pandoc, Latex and PDFJam
11/08/2015

The main reason for a lack of small posts on the progress of Chip Shop is that behind the scenes we have been working on some large stumbling blocks to push the game towards play testing. We wanted to focus on getting those completed over all else. ## New and Improved Cards We have added a lot of [new cards](https://chipshopgame.com/cards/) but also spent time fleshing out the existing ones with flavour text, images, legal information and removing as much extraneous text as possible. I have always wanted the game to be as un-re...
Open Source Presentation Tools - Are We There Yet?
29/07/2015

Powerpoint and Keynote are powerful, but also a dead-end for your data. I shows-off the growing power and flexibility of open source presentation tools.
- revealjs
- presentations - open-source
Crate adds Unicast host discovery via DNS and the AWS EC2 API
28/07/2015

A well functioning Crate cluster relies on its nodes being able to utilize service discovery to become aware of each other. Until now the options available have been multicast, and when this is unavailable, specifying unicast hosts. To help with Unicast host discovery we are pleased to announce support for discovery via DNS and the AWS EC2 API. [Read more](ttps://crate.io/blog/crate-unicast-host-discovery-dns-aws/)
Goodbye Drupal, Hello Jekyll
09/07/2015

Sorry for the lack of updates in a while. There have been two main reasons for this, other commitments kept me busy and I've been reworking a lot of the technology stack that powers Chip Shop. I'd like to tell you more about updates to the later. I have been a [Drupal](https://drupal.org) developer for many years. I have contributed to core, to documentation, run meetups and code sprints and developed almost exclusively in Drupal for over seven years. Therefore when it came to developing web applications for my own...
- jekyll
- drupal
Crate.IO - A born global champion
02/07/2015

In June Crate.IO was chosen by the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce (WKO) to compete in the Born Global Champion challenge and received the reward. The Chamber of Commerce thereby officially recognizes Crate.IO for its "Outstanding merits in the internationalization of the Austrian economy". [Read more](https://crate.io/blog/born-global-champion/)
Crate drivers available for Laravel
19/06/2015

One of the best things about being an open source community is the unexpected contributions that appear. One of our development team was following an issue for our PHP PDO driver when he noticed that a participant in the issue mentioned they had created a driver for Laravel, a popular PHP framework. [Read more] ([https://crate.io/blog/crate-driver-available-for-laravel/](https://crate.io/blog/crate-driver-available-for-laravel/))
Understanding databases for distributed Docker applications.
01/06/2015

[Read more](/)
Adding Accessories
16/05/2015

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been traveling with work the past few weeks. However, I have managed to find the time to start adding accessories to the [product cards](/cards). Accessories are smaller products that can be attached to other products, even other players' products. They represent things like mice, keyboards and a plethora of others. Generally they are small cost and small return, but let you take advantage of other products for cheap wins. There are more to come, I am currently rese...
Review of The Circle by David Eggers
16/05/2015

I have been wanting to read this as part of my research into dystopian fiction for my One day the World Ended project and I have mixed opinions on this book. I loved the concept and it's scarily close. Whilst reading some of the book I was in NYC and it seemed even closer to reality. However, the pacing of the book was odd, it had a lot of padding and then the 'dramatic conclusion' is about twenty pages. Some of the writing is a bit trashy to, comparisons to Brave New World are not deserved. I...
- books
- reviews
Running and creating Crate databases with Mesos
13/05/2015

Apache Mesos is a fantastic tool for abstracting CPU, memory, storage, and other compute resources away from machines (physical or virtual). This lets you program against your datacenter like it's a single pool of resources. Crate's integration with Mesos enables simple management across any number of Crate instances you may require without needing explicit knowledge on the quantity and their specifications.
- mesos
- containers
New Cards, the Berlin Computer Spiele Museum and representing Failure
27/04/2015

Over the weekend thanks to [Berlin Games Week](https://www.gamesweekberlin.com/) I attended the <a href="https://www.computerspielemuseum.de/" target="_blank">Berlin Computer Spiele Museum</a> for free. It was a small exhibition but great research for Chip Shop and the visit combined with several other events during the week inspired me to work on some of the product cards on Sunday. Interestingly this included working on cards for several products that were either failures or were never released commercially. I wondered how thes...
- boardgames
- gamedesign
Adding Accessories
21/04/2015

Last week I presented [Chip Shop](https://chipshopgame.com) at an event here in Berlin. I was woefully unprepared and just had my laptop, showing a few screens and telling people about the idea. Despite that, I got some really good feedback on the game idea, the mechanics and story behind the game. It motivated me to get more done quickly and get some physical prototypes as soon as possible. People also suggested events and places I could test and promote the game at when I am ready, good to know that there is a healthy g...
Running out of Resources, Defining the Factory and Accessories
12/04/2015

This week I have added rules to the '[Playing the Game](/manual/playing-game)' section of the manual to cover the following: - How and when products pass from being private in a player's factory to being public in the general playing area. - What happens when players run out of certain resources. I added a [game concept to cover accessories](/content/accessory) (keyboards, mice etc). Finally, I am speaking at the Berlin Game Scene's <a href="https://www.meetup.com/BerlinGameScene/events/220863773/" target="_blank">Talk & Play event next...
Organise your Browser Tabs with OneTab
11/04/2015

One of the main perils of the modern world is there is far too much to distract us. So many interesting blog posts to read, events to attend, crap-we-don't-need to buy and other assorted diamonds from the internet. I'm sure several days into the working week we look at our browser and find 20+ tabs open, all eating up memory and so cluttered you can't even remember what is what anymore. So we dutifully bookmark them and close them all, resolute in the knowledge that one day we will revisit and...
- browser
- productivity
Manual organised and consolidated
06/04/2015

I spent today drawing together the disparate parts of the game manual and concepts into something more cohesive and readable, it can be found [here](/manual). I used the Drupal module <a href="https://drupal.org/project/menu_block" target="_blank">Menu Block</a> so that the manual can be organised as pages and sub pages (with associated menu links) and the structure then shows correctly. This will enable me to add and edit more in the future and everything will fit together nicely.
How Voipstudio searches Multiple Cloud Systems with Crate.IO
27/03/2015

The VoIPstudio Telecom system is a unique cloud system running on a large amount of servers in a wide variety of locations. Each data center has two basic roles: storing data in real-time and backup for other locations in the system. This results in a lot of data that has to be processed around the globe. Retrieving data in this environment is complex and fetching results can be time consuming. [Read more](https://crate.io/blog/how-voipstudio-searches-multiple-cloud-systems-with-crate/)
Dockers 2nd holiday in Berlin
25/03/2015

Docker is currently one of the most spoken about tech projects right now and it's hard to believe that it's only two years old. As part of the celebrations, the Docker team decided to host more than a dozen open-source-a-thon parties around the World. Not only to help people learn how to contribute to the project, but also donating $50 for every contribution to the Oceanic Society. In our first blog post as part of the celebrations, we attended the party in Berlin. The event was held at Soundcl...
- docker
Add your suggestions to "What Came Next"
22/03/2015

One Day the World Ended is designed to be an open source and collaborative work of fiction. Most of this will come later when I have more material ready, but <a href="https://github.com/ChrisChinchilla/One-Day-the-World-Ended-Jekyll" target="_blank">the code of the website is on GitHub</a> and you're more than free to issue pull requests if you want to. At the moment there's one part of the work where you can contribute and I welcome your ideas, this is for the "<a href="https://onedaytheworlde...
Confessions of the Game Doctor, Bill Kunkell
22/03/2015

Bill Kunkell helped create "Electronic Games Magazine" in 1981, the first magazine dedicated to video games. It seemed a great research resource for Chip Shop to get some anecdotes and atmosphere for the era. Being born in 1981, I remember the 80s, but not in any great detail, my first real memory being the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Hence I am aware of the hedonism of the era, but sometimes reading about it is still a surprise. It would be hard to imagine computer journalists of the pr...
Battle Royale, Koushun Takami
12/03/2015

In my continued efforts to read as mazy works of dystopian fiction as possible, next on my list was Battle Royale. On a side note, are there many works of purely utopian fiction? Or would that not sell? Back to the east Asian republic. Set in the non-too-distant future, a large Asian empire now rules over an undefined area, full of social control, aggression and suppression. Once a term a class of school children are chosen to compete in a battle to the death on an abandoned island with no hope...
- reviews
- books