Towards a Taxonomy of Twitter Tropes


The Twitter logo drawn in circles.

If you hang around on a social network long enough, you'll find the same tropes being repeated again and again. So, I thought I'd document some of the ones that I personally find annoying. This blog post is an extension of my moderately popular Twitter thread - with a bit more detail about why they are irritating. The Thief of Words .social-embed{all:unset;display:block;}.social-embed *…

Continue reading →

Augmented Reality Games - How Far Have We Come In 7 Years?


There's a delightful video doing the rounds of an Augmented Reality game for the iPhone. What better use of technology than to simulate the destruction of TIE Fighters? While undoubtedly cool, what amuses me about this game is why it has taken the gaming world so long to catch up with Symbian! Way back in 2003, I got my hands on the Siemens SX1. It was the first non-Nokia handset to be running Symbian. As well as "modern" features like GPS, web browsing, and apps - it also came with a…

Continue reading →

London - As Though I Had Never Seen It Before


Text message conversation. Control "A serious setback. Agent Yuri has compromised our security and obtained the visual ID of one cloak team member. Tread carefully, you may already be known to the enemy now. Hurry." Me: "Ithaca in room 22?" Control: "Correct. Daggers on site at third location:"

In the last week, I've played two ARGs around London. Using Alternate / Augmented Reality is an amazing way to discover - or rediscover - a city. The Real Game This is still in "beta" so I can't say too much about it. It's a spy game with a twist. You and your partner race around London solving clues. All the while you are being chased by a "Dagger" team whose aim is to solve the same clues, find you and photograph you. Running around London solving riddles is fun in of itself - but what …

Continue reading →