SOFTWARE

I grew up with computers, exploring their potential through writing software packages and simple hardware projects. Some of my code snippets going back many years are online at My Handy Code Library.

More recently I have played with constructing environments in 3d landscapes using code. It is a great way to learn a new language and play with different algorithms. Here are some things I have made:

CASTLETECT makes towers, turrets, walls and archways for castles.

CASTLES AND KEEPS makes entire castles with a single click.

SURFACE_F(x,z) is a collection of procedures for warping space and objects in interesting ways.

   

RASPBERRY PI

The Raspberry Pi is a lightweight educational computer that is about the size of a credit card. My growing interest in the prospects of Single Board Computing can be followed on my Tumblr feed.

MINECRAFT

In 2011 an independantly developed simulation engine hit the big time, cunningly disguised as a sandbox game. It has broad appeal across people of all ages and walks of life. At the time of writing there are more people registered for Minecraft than there are people in the whole continent of Australia. The remarkable thing to me about the company behind the game is that they successfully crowd-source many aspects of product development, from "requirements gathering" through "testing" and, to a degree, "coding". The community is active and vibrant. There are learnings to be had from the remarkably innovative and very, very successful business model that has emerged.

USING THE WEB FOR GOOD

I was part of the successful team that challenged the dumping of the ex-HMAS Adelaide frigate at Avoca Beach in 2010 and forced the removal of PCB contaminated cabling, flaking lead paint, as well as over 44 tonnes of additional fibreglass insulation and canvas from the vessel before it was eventually dumped in 2011. Analysis of past dump sites as well as identifying problems with the clean up helped reduce the impact of the action on the bay. You can read more about this action at my site What Happened at Avoca Beach? and the team's No Ship website.