It is with huge regret that I have to announce the death of Megan Stopford, my Grandmother and India's Great-Grandmother. She died suddenly this morning, aged 83. She will be sorely missed.

For those of you who don't remember, there used to be a handheld electronic game made by Tiger Electronics, called LightsOut. I got bored travelling up to London on the train the other day, so I whipped out my laptop and started coding this little bit of fun. I came back to it a couple of days ago, and added the original 50 levels from the handheld unit.

Please remember that the whole thing was an elaborate attempt to waste time on the spectacularly dull Yeovil to London journey, so don't expect anything truly amazing. But its plus points are that: it's written in C#, it's got 50 really irritating levels and it demonstrates writing your own owner-drawn user controls. Full source code is in the Zip file.

Oh yeah, and if you haven't got it already, you'll need the .NET Framework to run it. Any questions?

Andrew, Sachin and I finally passed our MCSD exams today, which means that we now have the dubious honour of being able to use the MCSD logo and put the letters after our names. Even more excitingly, we'll get a tie-pin in the post. I could barely contain myself when the MCP tie-pin arrived, no doubt I'll explode with joy when this one arrives.

I've started work on a port of the classic Repton 3 for the BBC Micro - a game that took up far too much of my time when I was younger - to the .NET platform.

Considering the amount of time I've had to get the project underway (not a lot) and my unfamiliarity with the .NET framework (there's just so much in there...) I'm quite impressed with how far things have progressed.

I started by having a look at the KRepton port, and I've quite unashamedly nicked all the maps and graphics that were supplied with that version! The only difference is that I've converted all the sprite files to PNG as opposed to BMP. As the .NET framework can handle .PNG files natively, and also as I'm injecting all the images and maps into the final executable, it makes sense. At present, with all 21 map sets and related image files, the whole thing is weighing in at 300k.

At the moment, I've got the basics of the game in working order. Rocks fall correctly, keys open strongboxes, blips fly around the maze following the left hand wall switching cages into diamonds (albeit far too fast at the moment) and the main character is fully animated.

However, there's quite a lot left to do: as yet there's no scoring mechanism, there's no way to complete a level (crowns, bombs and timers don't work at present), monsters are not implemented, eggs don't crack and falling rocks don't kill you. Phew.

Anyway, as soon as there is a slightly more complete version, I'll post it to this site. You've been warned!

There are times when I truly despair about people, and although my wife accuses me of being a "Bah! Humbug!" when it comes to Christmas decorations, it has to be said that there are some people who take things just a little too far. Couple that with the knowledge that Yeovil has never been known for its elegance or taste, and you have a recipe for disaster; in one case, absolutely literally.

So, armed with my digital camera, I took a couple of pictures of two of the worst offenders

The awful truth behind this atrocity is that we're not talking about just one house here. Oh no, that'd be too easy. What you're looking at here is actually the left hand side of two houses. Not only are they physically joined, but they're joined by an appalling dedication to tacky Christmas decoration.

And here's the right hand side. Oh dear...

Most people would reckon that that's about as bad as you can get. Unfortunately, this is Yeovil we're talking about here, and no it isn't... Check this one out for an example...

Notice here the subtle use of 'Santa' motifs, and the glowing snowmen on the front lawn. Hmmm, I think that someone at this house wants us to remember that it's the Yuletide, and as such needs to light up the front of his house in such a way as to completely distract motorists who have the audacity to drive past. It would be funny if it wasn't true; I didn't have time to take a picture, but I assure you that there is a car currently sitting outside this property, that has been completely written off as a direct result of this house.