David Such

Webcomic - Quantum Physics and Comics?

2011-12-21T22:22:00.001+11:00

I've been dabbling with the idea of a physics / engineering / science webcomic.

You can check out my efforts at the newly developed Ethanol and Entropy site.

I guess some of the jokes may be a little obscure...

2011 Semillon

2011-07-24T09:59:00.001+10:00

Kintarla 2011 Semillon

Our 2011 Semillon and Verdelho is now available for order at the Kintarla website. We tried the Semillon last night and it is delicious. This wine is quite delicate at the moment but will age will and should develop for the next ten years or so. Young Semillon's are a very different drink to when they get a bit of age on them.

At the moment our Semillon is a very pale yellowish green in colour and the tastes which predominate for me are lime, pear and apple. It would go great with seafood or pork. As the wine ages the colour will darken to a deep golden hue. I'm not sure yet how the taste will mature but usually you start to get toasty vanilla and almost oak characters emerge.

Portrait of Georgia

2011-05-28T09:32:00.003+10:00

While up at Byron Bay we had found an artist that does dog portraits!

This is a scan of the portrait that she did of Georgia.

Rejection!

2011-05-21T11:09:00.004+10:00

My First iPhone App rejection!

The horror!! Well this is a pain, I did have a feeling that this App may have trouble getting approved by Apple.

The problem is that it is basically an eBook albeit with narration done by yours truly.

Luckily I was using some standard free eBook code so I only wasted a couple of weeks tweaking this and formatting the story in HTML. Still...

The answer is to submit the story directly to the iBookStore. I will probably do this at some stage but you have to setup a separate iTunes account, financials, tax info, etc. which is time consuming.

If you want to have a look at what might have been and hear a sample page you can check it out at the Reefwing Software web site.

This is what rejection looks like:

Hello David,

Thank you for submitting Blood Bath to the App Store.

We've completed the review of your app, but cannot post this version to the App Store because it did not comply with the App Store Review Guidelines, as detailed below:

2.21: Apps that are simply a song or movie should be submitted to the iTunes store. Apps that are simply a book should be submitted to the iBookstore

To reply to this message or to get more information, visit the Resolution Center in iTunes Connect. Do not reply directly to this email.

The 2011 White vintage

2011-05-15T10:25:00.003+10:00

The 2011 white vintage has finished fermenting and will be bottled at the end of May.

We crushed 2.5 tonne of Verdelho which converted to 1,500 litres. Assuming no wastage that will convert into 2,000 bottles or about 166 cases. A conversion ratio of 600 litres per tonne. The 2011 vintage is 100% our fruit.

It is interesting to compare this to the 2010 Verdelho vintage. In 2010 we picked 1.5 tonne of our own fruit and bought another 1.5 tonne of fruit from our neighbours. This 3.0 tonne converted to 1,587 litres. A conversion ratio of 529 litres per tonne.

For the Semillon, we crushed 4.0 tonne which converted into 2,200 litres (2,933 bottles or approximately 244 cases). A conversion ratio of 550 litres per tonne. We only used the first press for the Semillon which explains the lower conversion ratio. To add a bit more complexity to the Verdelho we blended some of the 2nd press Semillon into this. This is our first Semillon vintage.

Kintarla 2011 Labels

2011-04-22T08:46:00.002+10:00

Lisa has finished our labels for the 2011 whites. Bottling is scheduled for May. Stay tuned...

Personality Profile v1.1

2011-04-10T06:43:00.003+10:00

Personality Profile v1.1

A new question pack has been added to the Personality Profile App.

The Id Pack investigates the dark, inaccessible part of our personality.

This update has been submitted to Apple for approval. It should be available in about a week. Stay tuned...

Number Converter Pro v1.2

2011-04-06T16:48:00.001+10:00

Version 1.2 adds significant more functionality for engineers and programmers. Including:

- Conversion to and from ASCII

- An ASCII table showing the character representation in decimal and hexadecimal.

- Access to the device system logs. This gives you a window into what is happening on your iOS device and may be useful in troubleshooting App's which crash. Tapping a log item will take you to the detail view for that logged event. The detail view will show the following (if available):
+ Time of event
+ Host
+ Sender
+ Facility
+ PID, UID and GID
+ Logging Priority (see below)
+ Log Event Message

- System Information, which includes the following (where available):
+ Platform ID (e.g. iPhone3,1)
+ Platform String (e.g. iPhone 4)
+ Orientation
+ Platform Code
+ CPU Frequency
+ Bus Frequency
+ Total Memory
+ User Memory
+ MAC Address
+ Host Name
+ Local IP Address
+ Local WiFi Address
+ External IP Address

- Access to the Reefwing Software store to see what other Apps are available.

Tap the [More] button on the calculator to access the last four features.

The Apple System Log priority levels are defined as follows:

- Level 0: Emergency
- Level 1: Alert
- Level 2: Critical
- Level 3: Error
- Level 4: Warning
- Level 5: Notice
- Level 6: Information
- Level 7: Debug

Tasting Notes for the 2011 Whites

2011-03-26T08:16:00.004+11:00

The ferment is nearly complete for the 2011 White vintage and it looks like we have one white to drink now and one to put down (unless you prefer a young Semillon style which I do). The Shiraz needs to go sit in some oak for a year.

2011 Kintarla Semillon

The 2011 Kintarla Semillon is made in the unique style that is typical of classic Hunter Semillons. The wine shows intense aromas of lime and cut grass, while the finely balanced palate offers flavours of pear and green apple. As a wine of great length and character we expect it to mature and gain complexity over the next ten years.

Alcohol: 11.5% (TBC closer to bottling)

Fined with milk and fish products

Preservative 220 added

2011 Kintarla Verdelho

The 2011 Kintarla Verdelho offers bright aromas of melon, pineapple and liquorice. The youthful, full bodied palate is showing the complete spectrum of tropical flavours typical of this variety. Offering fine balance and great length, this wine best enjoyed in its youth.

Alcohol: 14.5% (TBC closer to bottling)

Fined with milk and fish products

Preservative 220 added

Observations on Goals

2011-03-12T08:35:00.004+11:00

New Years Resolutions

I read an interesting article in the March 2011 edition of PC and Tech Authority called "Testing your Resolve" by Joel Nation.

According to psychologists at Sydney University 50% of Australians made New Year resolutions at the end of 2010.

Apparently though only half of those who make resolutions stick to them after 6 months and this figure drops to 10% after 12 months. You would have to conclude that resolutions don't work for 90% of the population.

So what is going wrong, why is this so? I have previously spoken about my 5 reasons why New Years resolutions fail.

To make sure you are one of the 10% that stick with their resolutions - just do the opposite to the actions listed in my previous post.

Or if you need a system to help you and have an iDevice then you could download my App Life Goals from the iTunes App Store. ;-)

Read all about it at the Reefwing Software web site.

Life Goals v2.0 - Promotional Video

2011-02-20T19:59:00.002+11:00

Life Goals v2.0 - Backup & Restore Data

2011-02-20T14:44:00.005+11:00

Life Goals Data Backup

In version 2.0 of Life Goals we have added the ability to share or back up your goal and task data to any other iOS or Macs you have connected via a LAN.

To start, tap on the Life Goals Sync button at the bottom of the Settings & Backup Screen.

This will bring up the device discovery screen shown below. Any other iOS devices or Macs running Life Goals will be shown here. You will need to tap the Life Goals Sync button on both devices for them to be shown.

Devices also need to be on the same LAN to be discovered. The example here shows the local device name at the top (DS_iPod) and any remote devices discovered in the table below (DS_MacBookPro). Tap the remote device that you want to sync with or the cancel button.

If a successful connection is made you will see the Life Goals Sync screen from which you can import or export data.

Note that all data on the device which imports will be erased and replaced by data from the other device. Data is NOT merged so take care.

Tap the export button to back up data to the remote device. Tap import if you want to restore data from a previous backup.

An alert will appear on the device which is having its data erased and replaced. Tap cancel to stop the process or continue to complete it.

The local device will show a message and the spinning activity indicator until the alert on the remote device is acknowledged (i.e. cancel or continue button is tapped).

There is no undo available, once the Continue button is tapped, the data is over written on the device importing.

On completion of the data transfer, the LIfe Goals Sync screen will slide away on both devices. No further action is required, the data will now be identical on both devices. This includes the Vision if present but not the preference settings.

Visit Reefwing Software for more details.

Vintage 2011 - Tales of Incompetence

2011-02-13T08:43:00.004+11:00

Lisa was in charge of the Shiraz harvest and things went very smoothly.

The whites on the other hand were under my purview. Here is the full story...

The day we picked was really hot - it reached 40C by midday. We had about 20 pickers and a few adventures along the way. Picking started at 5:30am and finished at 3pm. I slept in the shed the night before and it must have been about 30C most of the night - I was dripping in sweat and couldn't open the windows because of the mosquito's. The shed was also full of spiders (mostly red backs) because we hadn't been there for a while and this didn't help me sleep either. A large frog has taken up residence in the toilet and jumped on me in the middle of the night. I'm sure you can imagine my reaction.

So with hardly any sleep I got up at 5am to load our 4 empty grape bins on the ute. The wine maker was supposed to have dropped them off the prior week but they weren't there. In retrospect this wasn't a bad thing as there was no way I could have got 4 bins loaded by myself - they are heavy. With picking due to start and no bins to fill, I'm a trifle worried. I eventually get on to the winemaker and find out that the bins are still at Wandin Valley, I was worried they may have been pinched. We don't think that we are going to get enough Semillon to make up a batch so I have arranged to purchase 2.5 tonnes off a friends vineyard. Luckily I arranged the picking to start at his place and he had some bins to get things started.

At 6am I get to Wandin Valley and they load up the ute with 4 empty bins using a forklift. My job is to transport the grapes from the vineyard to the winery, which is only 5 minutes from our place but a half hour each way to my friends place. Worried that I might be holding up things, I take a shortcut down a dirt road and perhaps are going a little quick for the conditions. There is a big wash out in the road ahead and even slamming on the breaks doesn't slow the car enough. I bounce over the wash and one of the bins goes tumbling off the back, fortunately missing the car behind. This is when I discover that there is no way I can lift a bin single handed on top of another bin. Lucky this is the country and I don't have to wait long before a bloke stops and watching my pathetic attempts, asks if I need a hand?

Loaded up again, I decide it may be a good idea to actually tie down the load this time.

Eventually arriving at the vineyard, the first bin is almost full. Our bins (the white ones) are supposed to carry around 500kg, but when weighing them at the vineyard most ended up closer to 600kg. My friend uses the blue bins which weigh about 800kg's full. Loading one of the blue bins on the ute using his tractor (which has forks), I head back to the winery. The ute handles like a pig with this much weight in the back and the clutch makes a funny smell when I go from a standing start. We used about 14 bins in total that day.

On one trip carrying two of our white bins, I took a corner a bit too quick (which is not very quick at all), and both bins slid to one side. It felt like the car was driving on two wheels. Having a degree in physics I worked out that if I turned in the opposite direction at just the right speed I could slide the bins back into the centre of the truck. Quickly working out the vectors, I decided to give it a go.

Of course I over corrected and almost spun the ute as the load shifted. The whole car slid sideways as the load moved. Obviously having a degree in physics doesn't help if you are an idiot! From then on I took it very slowly around the corners.

Apart from losing a few pickers to heat stroke, the rest of the day was tiring but uneventful. As we don't have a tractor, in our vineyard we pick straight into the bins on the back of the ute. I'm driving the ute, and let me tell you conditions are almost unbearable in the air-conditioned cab, CD playing and a cold drink to hand.

Vintage 2011 - The Shiraz

2011-02-13T08:20:00.003+11:00

The 2011 Shiraz Harvest

We ended up with 2.8 tonne of Shiraz this year. Last year we didn't get a crop due to too much rain and the year before (our first crop) we picked 1.8 tonne. We would have had more but the kangaroos and birds probably ate a tonne of fruit.

The urban myth is that one year in five is a good year in the Hunter. It turns out that this might be the year. Early on things were looking dodgy with a lot of rain but we haven't had as much during Jan and Feb as in previous years - I guess it is all up in Qld. This is a good thing. You don't want rain close to harvest. This is the first year that we haven't emptied the irrigation dam, so we were able to keep the drippers going up until picking.

But the ferments haven't finished yet - it wont be until then that we will get a real idea of the quality. One thing is certain, the 2011 Shiraz will be a much bigger wine than the 2009, the grapes were almost raisins by the time they came off so the flavours should be very intense. Of course the Shiraz needs to spend a year in oak prior to bottling so we wont be seeing that until 2012.

Vintage 2011

2011-01-29T20:51:00.002+11:00

Vintage 2011

The Semillon and Verdelho

This years harvest has gone mighty well. We ended up with 2.5 tonne from the Verdelho plus 1.5 tonne of our Semillon supplemented by another 2.5 tonne from AJ.

Each of the white bins weigh about 590kg's (including the bin). The blue bin weighs over 800kg. The ute wallows like a cow with 2 bins on the back and if they shift they can make the whole back end swing out. I was driving very carefully.

The top photo shows the Semillon waiting in the winery cool room to be crushed. Our grapes are the 3 bins to the right, you can see they are quite a bit more yellow than AJ's Semillion. This is the first year that we have been able to get a crop off the Semillon so we are very excited. It turns out that Semillon is a bit of bastard to grow, one hot day and it drops its bundle. They hate to be water stressed and have weedy shoots which break easily during training.

Verdelho and Shiraz on the other hand are very hardy.

The fruit is looking much better quality than last year and we are hanging out to do a side by side comparison of the 2010 and 2011 Verdelho.

The folks at Wandin Valley who make our wine have just built a new beaut winery which is filled with awesome gear.

The last photo shows the forklift tipping a bin of Semillon into the crusher / de-stemmer.

If the Shiraz makes it through the next couple of weeks we will harvest it around Valentine's day.

Personality rockets up the charts in Kazakhstan

2011-01-23T09:36:00.003+11:00

Great to see that the good people of Kazakhstan are supporting the Reefwing Personality Profile!

See what all the fuss is about - you can download it for FREE at the iTunes App Store. Click on the following:

Download Reefwing Personality Profile

Reefwing Personality Profile

2011-01-15T15:30:00.002+11:00

The Reefwing Personality Profile is a tool to gain insight into your character.

Answer just a few quick questions and you will be provided with a description of your personality traits. The App allows you to email the results, so you can share them with your friends.

The results are based on extensive research but are not meant to be taken too seriously.

Instructions:

1.Once the splash screen has disappeared, you will see the first question.
2.The dial in the bottom left can be rotated using one finger. On older devices there can be a bit of a delay initially as all the images load.
3.The answer is shown to the left of the dial in both picture and word form. Once you have selected the most appropriate answer, tap the [Next] button in the top right of the navigation bar.
4.Tapping [Next] will display the next question. Follow the same process as outlined above. Don’t over think your answers, your first instinct is usually the correct one.
5.After the last question you will have the results of your personality profile displayed. In addition to using the [Next] button to move between screens, in the results section you can swipe left and right to view pages. Your location is indicated by the white dots at the bottom of the screen.
6.At any time you can tap the [Store] button in the top left hand corner of the navigation bar. This will take you to a screen where you can use in-App purchasing to remove all advertising from the App or have a look at other Apps developed by Reefwing Software. Just tap on the icon to select. Note that tapping the other App icons will result in iTunes being loaded.
7.On the final page of the Results you will have the option to:

•Rate the App in the iTunes App Store. I am not currently charging anything for this App so if you enjoyed it and would like to see additional development (e.g. new questions) then please take the time to rate the App in iTunes. Alternatively go the store page by tapping the [Store] button and purchase the Ad free version or try one of our other Apps. Feedback is welcome so drop into the Blog or Forum if you have any suggestions or comments.
•Email the results of your profile. This is done from within the App, so once you have emailed you will return to this screen and can select from the other options.
•Restart the Test. Sometimes, there may be a couple of answers which you had trouble choosing between. Go back and try the other answer as this may provide additional insight.

5 Reasons that New Year's Resolutions Fail!

2010-12-31T09:30:00.006+11:00

5 Reasons That New Year Resolutions Fail and what to do about it!

As New Year's Eve rolls around we all tend to look back over the last year and score ourself on how well we did. If we met most of our goals then that reaffirms our self worth and encourages us to set new challenges for the next year.

Alternatively, if we didn't do so well in meeting our objectives, we tell ourselves that they weren't that important or we were too busy. Though you have to wonder why we would set ourself goals that were not important to us.

The good news is that there is a fool proof method to achieving your goals. Why goals are not achieved has been studied by many people and this problem has been solved. So why do so many people get to Valentines Day and they have already broken their New Years Resolution?

In my experience the following 10 things are why we don't meet our goals:

You didn't write them down. This has got to be the number 1 reason. There is so much going on in our life that you can't possibly hope to remember everything. Writing down our goals starts the commitment process. It is hard to fool yourself if the evidence is right in front of you. The process of writing also forces you to think about what is really important to you, which may come as a surprise. Some of you may have read "The Secret", while I don't agree with the whole premise (see next point), I do believe that clarifying what you want will open you up to opportunities to progress a goal.
You didn't do anything. I know "The Secret" suggests that simply focussing on a goal will cause it to be realised, however in my experience things go a lot faster if you take action. For example, one of my goals this year was to release an iPhone App and sell it on iTunes. To do that I broke the goal down and planned what steps I needed to take to get there. I needed to buy a Mac, learn objective C, XCode, Cocoa Touch, sign up for the Apple Developer Program, write code, debug, unravel the mysteries of code deployment and then negotiate the labyrinth which is iTunes Connect. I'm pretty sure if I just wrote the goal down but did nothing I wouldn't now be getting monthly deposits from Apple. So I suggest you break your goal down into tasks and start doing the tasks. It's like the old joke about how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
You didn't give up something else. Each day, we all only have so much time (24 hours on Earth). So unless you are near a black hole or travelling at close to the speed of light then we all have the same amount of time each day. Your days are already full so in order to meet your new goals you need to allocate some time to take action (see point 2). Not only do you need to decide what you are going to do, you need to decide what you are going to stop doing. If you aren't willing to give up something (e.g. watching 8 hours of TV a day) then you will fail. A common mistake here is to try and go cold turkey. You don't have to give up all TV, whatever you are willing to do without is time you can spend on your goals. Remember these are your goals, no-one else should determine what is important to you and if the most important thing for you is to watch 8 hours of TV a day then write it down and take action. But if it isn't then allocate some time to what is. As Stephen Covey said, "The key is not to prioritise what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities."
You weren't sufficiently motivated. Related to point 3, you have to be motivated enough to give up something you are already doing. The best motivators are Pain and Pleasure, in that order. So when you write down your goals you need to link them to these motivators and if possible to both of them. To exercise you might need to get up an hour earlier in the morning. Your motivation to get up needs to be stronger than your motivation to stay in a warm bed. This might be the endorphin rush you get after exercising (Pleasure), feeling better about yourself (Pleasure) or not dying early from being overweight (Pain). Habit is your friend - get yourself motivated enough to do this 21 days in a row and it will get easier.
You think it will take too long. I hear people say, "I would love to do blah but it will take 5 years." Guess how much older you are going to be in five years time? That's right 5 years. The time will pass anyway so why not spend it doing something that is important to you?

The best news is that all of the above is in our hands, so by all means set your New Year's Resolutions tonight, but make sure you also take the above into account.

Warning - shameless plug follows:

Goals have always been a subject that has fascinated me, which is why my first iPhone App was Life Goals. If you are interested in a goal setting tool which embodies the philosophies above then check it out on iTunes or read more about it the Reefwing Software web site.

An Eclectic Slice of Life

2010-12-12T09:09:00.002+11:00

Anthology Launches Today

Two of my stories (Memories and There is No Pain) feature in the Eclectic Slice of Life Anthology which launches today on facebook at 6pm Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time. The link is here if you would like to drop in.

If you would like to buy a hard copy of the book then nip over to Dark Prints Press.

The editor (Craig Bezant) has amalgamated some of the best stories from the first two years of Eclecticism E-Zine and his passion for what he is doing drips from the pages. There are some great stories inside - check it out!

Number Converter Pro v1.0

2010-10-16T08:56:00.007+11:00

NumConPro v1.0

Having just spent 4 months on my secret App project, I think I am a broken man!

It is 90% complete but horribly buggy. Perhaps my ambition has exceeded my ability in this instance. I was going for a very flash interface which of course turns out to be damn tricky. I needed a break to restore my enthusiasm for the project.

So...

I have taken a quick detour to finish a small project which has been on my development list for some time. It is a calculator designed for programmers. The Mac comes with one of these but it is absent from the iDevice family.

Like my free program NumCon this App converts numbers between binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal. I'm quite happy with final product.

In addition to the NumCon conversion ability, you can perform the following operations on any combination of these bases:

Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division
AND
OR
XOR
1's Complement
Shift Left
Shift Right

Please drop in to www.reefwing.com.au and let us know if there is additional functionality that you would like to see added to the calculator.

I intend to upgrade the FREE Number Converter to have a similar UI to the Pro version. I will also include the ability to upgrade via In-App purchase.

Calculator Constraints & Operation:

Operator precedence is evaluated strictly left to right.
Only integers are handled and consequently division remainders are truncated.
Shift Right is a logical shift not arithmetic so zeros are shifted in from the left.
The largest integer input or result is 28 bits long (i.e. 268,435,455 decimal or FFF FFFF hex).

‘An Eclectic Slice of Life’

2010-09-02T19:31:00.000+10:00

If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy of the print anthology, ‘An Eclectic Slice of Life’, this is your last chance to receive FREE POSTAGE/SHIPPING (anywhere in the world).

Representing the best of Eclecticism E-zine’s first two years, the anthology presents 26 works (short stories and poetry) from 14 contributors, including Joseph D’Lacey, Jason Fischer, Simon Petrie, Myra King, and Deborah Sheldon, amongst many other talented individuals. Most authors have contributed new, exclusive work for this anthology – 13 eclectic servings, in fact. 50% new work – that’s worth your money!

Presented in trade paperback, at 280 pages, this beauty only has a limited print run, and copies are running out. I will extend the FREE POSTAGE/SHIPPING offer till the end of the week, and then you will have to pay extra. So don’t miss out – order via the Dark Prints Press website today, only AUD$29.95. You do not need a PayPal account – you can still pay through PayPal with a credit or debit card, or you can e-mail us to arrange a bank transfer.

Visit Dark Prints Press to order: http://www.darkprintspress.com.au/eclecticslice.html

Life Audit v1.2 (FREE) - Available Now!

2010-08-01T08:17:00.003+10:00

Life Audit v1.2

By answering just a few questions, our free iPhone App Life Audit will give you a graphical representation of your Life Balance. As the pace of life increases at an exponential rate we sometimes forget to focus on what is important as opposed to what is urgent. Using Life Audit you will quickly be able to see the areas of your life that are getting the most focus and more importantly, the areas that you are neglecting.

The latest FREE version of Life Audit includes:

- 10 new questions

- Support for iOS 4.0 functionality

- Improved User Interface

- Fixed Category question misalignment

You can download Life Audit from iTunes.

Life Audit (FREE) - v1.2 Coming Soon

2010-07-24T18:56:00.003+10:00

Life Audit v1.2

The latest version of Life Audit has just been submitted to Apple for approval. It includes:

- 10 new questions

- Support for iOS 4.0 functionality

- Improved User Interface

- Fixed Category question misalignment

Stay tuned for the launch announcement in about a week.

Free App Number Converter

2010-07-13T19:40:00.003+10:00

FREE iPhone App

Number Converter

v1.0

Available Now From iTunes.

Download now and don't forget those 5 star ratings ;-)

Latest Reefwing App - Coming Soon!

2010-07-06T20:17:00.003+10:00

Number Converter

Version 1.0

My latest App has just been submitted to Apple for approval. It is something that will appeal to 1% of the population (if that) but it's something that I will find useful - and sometimes that's all the excuse you need.

I developed it primarily to try out the new iAd functionality released in iPhone iOS 4.0, so I wont be charging for the Application.

The theory is you get paid via the (*discrete*) Ad at the bottom of the screen. I'm not expecting to retire on the proceeds, to do that you probably need to develop an App that a lot of people want.

I will announce when it is approved and will post details on the Reefwing Software web site.

Bad Writing?

2010-07-02T10:19:00.002+10:00

A thirsty gerbil's kiss takes out the best bad writing of 2010 competition

A romance book's opening line about a gerbil has won a bad writing award run by a US College / James Croucher Source: Supplied

AN unseemly sentence that compares a kiss to the union of a thirsty gerbil and a giant water bottle has won the top prize in an annual bad writing contest.

San Jose State University said today Molly Ringle of Seattle was the grand prize winner of the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which the university has sponsored since 1982.

In her winning entry, Ms Ringle wrote: "For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss - a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."

The literary competition honours the memory of 19th English century writer Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, who famously opened his 1830 novel Paul Clifford, with the much-quoted, "It was a dark and stormy night".

Steve Lynch of San Marcos, California, won the detective category: "She walked into my office wearing a body that would make a man write bad (cheques), but in this paperless age you would first have to obtain her ABA Routing Transit Number and Account Number and then disable your own Overdraft Protection in order to do so."

Linda Boatright of Omaha won the Western category: "He walked into the bar and bristled when all eyes fell upon him - perhaps because his build was so short and so wide, or maybe it was the odour that lingered about him from so many days and nights spent in the wilds, but it may just have been because no one had ever seen a porcupine in a bar before."

Dark Print Press

2010-06-05T08:00:00.001+10:00

MEDIA RELEASE

Announcing the arrival of a new small press publisher!

DARK PRINTS PRESS

Shining a light on dark fiction

Dark Prints Press is a brand new Australian independent publisher who aims to publish works of dark fiction (encompassing crime, thriller, speculative fiction (horror, dark fantasy) and dark comedy). Its initial focus is on an adult market, with the desire to also venture into the young adult market in the future.

The small press is a partnership between West Australians Avril and Craig Bezant, who aim to provide another, much-needed avenue for a range of printed fiction, including short story collections, novellas, and novels. Their publications will range from lavish trade paperback editions to small, pulpy works, depending on the relevance to the story and its genre. Digital publications (e-books) of the publisher's list are forecasted in the future.

The first publication for Dark Prints Press will be an anthology of the best stories from the online magazine Eclecticism E-zine, an e-zine that has been shortlisted for 2 awards, is archived in the National Library of Australia, and has established a dedicated readership and subscription list over the past 3 years. The anthology is titled ‘An Eclectic Slice of Life', available for pre-order from 06/06/2010 via the website. Read more about this exciting new venture at:

www.darkprintspress.com.au

E: info@darkprintspress.com.au

---------------------------------------------------

‘AN ECLECTIC SLICE OF LIFE’

Featuring the best short fiction and poetry from the first 2 years of the award-nominated Eclecticism E-zine, plus exclusive new work by most authors, including:

Joseph D’Lacey, Jason Fischer, Myra King, Deborah Sheldon, Simon Petrie, Alice Godwin, Mark McAuliffe, Julia Brannigan, Keith Nunes, Jacqui Dent, Brian G Ross, Eril Riley, David Such & Simon James.

C Format Trade Paperback, 280 pages, AUD$29.95 ISBN: 978-0-646-53641-5

Pre-order from 06/06/2010 via the Dark Prints Press website: www.darkprintspress.com.au

or through Eclecticism E-zine: wwww.eclecticzine.com

Publication Date: 12/12/2010

Contact: orders@darkprintspress.com.au

WRITING QUOTES - From CS Weekly

2010-05-16T09:17:00.003+10:00

Some more aggregated quotes:

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
- William Wordsworth

"Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies."
- Terri Guillemets

"Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible."
- Leo Tolstoy

"I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head."
- John Updike

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
- Jack London

"Fantasy's hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
- Lloyd Alexander

"Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."
- Neil Gaiman

"Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it."
- PD James

"The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it."
- Elizabeth Drew

"There was never a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn't be. He is too many people if he's any good."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying."
- John Updike

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."
- Ernest Hemingway

"Measure your mind's height by the shadow it casts."
- Rex Stout

"It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does."
- William Faulkner

"Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it."
- Truman Capote

"A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others."
- William Faulkner

"When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence."
- Samuel Butler

"Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn't we?"
- Terri Guillemets

"Every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future."
- Jorge Luis Borges

"There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there's only narrative."
- E.L. Doctorow

"The drudgery of being a professional writer comes in trying to make good days out of bad days and in squeezing out the words when they won't just flow."
- Benjamin Cavell

"No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice -- your choice."
- Beth Mende Conny

"To me the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make."
- Truman Capote

"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions."
- James Michener

"It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop."
- Vita Sackville-West

"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible."
- Vladimir Nabakov

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Reactor - Chromasome

2010-05-10T19:16:00.003+10:00

GeoDefense Swarm

Download Hard Levels - Reactor

Level 1 - Chromasome

The tip given when you first lose this level is the key - diversify!

Alternate blasters and thumper towers, working out from the entry/exit points. You want to create a winding path which all the creeps follow. Don't forget to connect your laser towers to the vortex.

I originally tried to create a straight path down the middle but this didn't work. Once you have completed the path start upgrading from the middle out.

I only upgraded the laser towers and vortex towers once as they are so expensive.

If there are any other particular levels that you are having difficulty with let me know and I will post my solution here.

Life Goals v1.3

2010-04-18T17:54:00.000+10:00

This release continues the incremental feature updates, improves a number of facets of the user interface and fixes a bug which was introduced in version 1.1.

- The Goal description input screen is now multi-line and scrollable which facilitates the entry of long Goal names.

- New Category items will now be assigned a random colour instead of all new Categories being given grey as a default colour.

- 15 New Category icons have been added.

- The Task description input screen is now multi-line and scrollable which facilitates the entry of long Task names.

- The Task entry screen has been upgraded to make it more intuitive to enter the effort and impact for each task (see the screen shot).

- A bug was introduced in version 1.1 which could cause the App to crash if more than 10 categories were added and you selected the Graphs Tab. This has been fixed.

This version is backwardly compatible with data from earlier versions.

Life Goals cracks top 5 in Productivity Charts

2010-04-18T08:23:00.002+10:00

Version 1.2 of Life Goals was released last week. With Apple's publicity from the "New & Noteworthy" section of iTunes it was great to see the App climb into a top 5 position on the charts. This increases sales by a factor of 10. If I could get the same in the US charts the factor would be more like 100.

Unfortunately a user in the UK has identified a bug which crashes the App if you add more than 10 categories and go to the Charts Tab. This problem was introduced in v1.1 when the ability to add/edit categories was added.

It has been fixed in v1.3 which has been submitted to Apple for Approval.

Life Goal reaches top 10 in Productivity Charts

2010-04-13T20:41:00.003+10:00

Life Goals Enters Top Ten

And a new chart record - Life Goals is up to tenth spot with a bullet!

No doubt related to being listed in the New and Noteworthy section of iTunes (see previous post).

Very nice!

Life Goals in iTunes New & Noteworthy!

2010-04-13T19:43:00.002+10:00

What a blast! Apple have listed Life Goals in the New and Noteworthy section of iTunes.

I am really chuffed by this. With over 150,000 or so Apps it is pretty hard to get noticed.

It is only a fluke that I saw this as Apple don't tell you if you have been added.

The next version (1.2) has been submitted for approval. Hopefully this should be released later this week.

New Life Audit Video Tutorial

2010-04-06T21:44:00.002+10:00

I have just posted a video tutorial for Life Audit.

Click on the link above to see it.

Some folks couldn't work out what to do once the splash screen had loaded. Poor usability design on my part!

Life Audit for iPhone - FREE

2010-04-03T09:39:00.002+11:00

Life Audit v1.0 Available now - FREE!

Download it now from iTunes at http://itunes.com/app/LifeAudit or http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/life-audit/id365471153?mt=8

If the links don't work (because it is so new) then just Search for "Life Audit" in iTunes.

Feedback most appreciated - Don't forget to rate it in iTunes.

Life Audit - v1.0 Coming Soon!

2010-04-02T16:55:00.003+11:00

Free iPhone App - Life Audit

Coming Soon!

Life Audit is currently being reviewed by Apple for inclusion in the iTunes App store.

By answering just a few questions, our free App Life Audit will give you a graphical representation of your Life Balance. As the pace of life increases at an exponential rate we sometimes forget to focus on what is important as opposed to what is urgent. Using Life Audit you will quickly be able to see the areas of your life that are getting the most focus and more importantly, the areas that you are neglecting.

Check out the Life Audit web page for more details.

Life Goals v1.1 - What's New?

2010-03-26T13:00:00.001+11:00

Life Goals v1.1

What is new in this version?

Category names, icons and colours can now be edited and added.
15 new Category Icons added.
You can assign custom colours to a category.
Pop up category legend added to charts.
Category colour is now part of the category picker.
Extensive update to the Help Tab. Help files from the web site are now included with the App. A goal setting tip section has also been included.

Life Goals Sets High Bar in Goal Management

2010-03-13T09:08:00.004+11:00

The iPhone App Review Site & Life Goals v1.0

Anna Papachristos from the iPhone App Review site has recently reviewed Life Goals. Here is an extract from the review:

"What is great about Life Goals, as opposed to other goal management applications, is the way it provides its users with a pre-designed set up featuring different categories. Many similar apps make it easy for users to enter their goals and set due dates, but Life Goals helps you break things down into categories that some may even overlook as being an area of their life they could improve upon. Life Goals uses a simple interface that makes recording goals and tasks easy, while also monitoring their importance and your progress instead of leaving such tasks up to the users themselves."

You can read the complete review at:

Life Goals Sets High Bar in Goal Management http://bit.ly/axyYTp

Life Goals - Review

2010-03-13T08:35:00.002+11:00

Life Goals v1.0 - Reviewed

I have long been a fan of Alex Curylo's blog. One of the great things about the iPhone / Mac development community is the way that people share resources and knowledge. Alex is a living embodiment of this. So guessing that Alex was a pretty giving bloke and since I respect his opinion I asked him to review my iPhone App "Life Goals."

While perhaps unconvinced on the philosophical need for such an App he does say, "Yep, it’s very pretty. That goes for the rest of the application too — very nicely designed and intuitively laid out and apparently well programmed..."

You can read the complete story at this link: Life Goals Review.

Kintarla - 2010 Shiraz RIP

2010-03-07T10:17:00.004+11:00

Sultana's anyone?

We spent all Saturday dropping the shrivelled remains of our Shiraz crop. After a years work, it is pretty heart breaking to have to cut the grapes and leave them to rot on the ground.

You need to do this to stop fungal spores building up in the sticky mass of decaying grapes and to stop the vine wasting resources on trying to ripen the doomed crop. These resources are better spent on building carbohydrate reserves for next year.

So not only do you lose the crop but you have to waste time harvesting it anyway. The only good thing about being a farmer is that it gives you a good excuse to moan.

Bottling is still scheduled for late March, so it will be exciting to taste our first vintage (last years Shiraz and this years Verdelho). We plan on selling this via the new and improved Kintarla Web Site.

Life Goals iPhone App cracks top 20

2010-03-07T10:04:00.002+11:00

Life Goals reaches 13th spot on the Aussie Charts.

My iPhone App Life Goals reached 13th spot on Sunday. It is now starting to tail off but I'm pretty stoked that it got that high with no real marketing.

I have just started on v1.1 which will add in some of the features that users have requested. The proposed development pipeline is shown on my blog at www.reefwing.com.au.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Fusion - Crossed Wires

2010-03-07T08:59:00.002+11:00

New Downloadable Content for GeoDefense Swarm

There was an upgrade published last night (in Australia) for additional downloadable levels for GeoDefense Swarm. The first level, "Crossed Wires" is free and you can buy another 10 levels (5 medium and 5 hard) for about $1.

The free level is fairly straight forward. If you get stuck a solution is shown in the attached picture. There is probably also a solution using just thumpers. Start by building towers straight up and down from the exit points and then gradually build the path as you get more cash. Eventually you will run out of spots for additional towers, so start upgrading.

Life Goals iPhone App cracks top 50

2010-02-27T08:26:00.001+11:00

Life Goals Hits 44th Spot in iTunes Productivity Section

Life Goals the objective / goal setting App for iPhone moved up the charts to 44th spot in the Productivity section of the Australian store.

It has also cracked top 100 in the UK, Italian, Canadian and Danish charts.

I've mentioned PositionApp before but let me again say what a great App for Developers. It is addictive watching the progress of your App around the world. The charts seem to update about every 7-8 hours.

Life Goals up to 80th spot in Productivity

2010-02-23T21:33:00.005+11:00

Life Goals Progress

Life Goals hit the App store at position 106 with a bullet! Over today it moved up to 80th spot. For some reason it seems to be doing really well in Denmark - thanks to all my Danish supporters!

I know this because I'm using the free iPhone app called PositionApp. I would recommend this program to all developers, it makes it really easy to keep track of your Apps progress. There is currently no data from Apple (via iTunes Connect) so this is the only feedback I have on sales.

Life Goals v1.0 launched on iTunes

2010-02-23T00:27:00.004+11:00

Life Goals iPhone App is now available from Apple iTunes.

Click here to have a look.

New Kintarla Web Site Launched

2010-02-20T20:06:00.002+11:00

New Kintarla Web Site

The new and improved Kintarla web site has been launched.

You can sign up to our mailing list from here and reserve your bottles of 2009 Shiraz and 2010 Verdelho. These are our first vintage for those two varieties and we only have 1800 bottles of Shiraz and 2000 of Verdelho.

We will shortly be adding the ability to buy the wine on-line (once I work out how to do it) and if you sign up to the mailing list then you will be the first to hear about it. As usual comments and feedback is welcome.

Both varieties are being bottled at the end of March and should be available for shipping in April.

iPhone - Life Goals v1.0 Submitted for Review

2010-02-14T16:08:00.003+11:00

Life Goals v1.0 Complete!

I just submitted my first iPhone App to the iTunes App Store for review.

I'm not sure how long it will take from here but I think it will be 7 -14 days before I hear something.

It took me just over 4 months from turning on Xcode for the first time to wrestling iTunes Connect into submission. The whole code signing and provisioning process is hard work.

Eventually I ended up following the process here and everything seemed to upload smoothly. I know in my search to ensure that I did this properly that there are a lot of other people who had problems with this.

If you would like to know more about Life Goals then pop over to Reefwing Software.

WRITING QUOTES - From CS Weekly

2010-02-13T09:57:00.002+11:00

Some more writing quotes aggregated from CS Weekly:

"It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause."
- Henry Ward Beecher

"Writing makes a map, and there is something about a journey that begs to have its passage marked."
- Christina Baldwin

"A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness."
- Edith Wharton

"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist."
- Isaac Asimov

"A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer."
- Karl Krauss

"No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous."
- Henry Brooks Adams

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way."
- Ernest Hemingway

"The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium."
- Norbet Platt

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
- William Wordsworth

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."
- Ernest Hemingway

"Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile...a stain upon the silence."
- Samuel Beckett

"When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to contemplate."
- John Steinbeck

"For a creative writer possession of the truth is less important than emotional sincerity."
- George Orwell

"But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."
- Lord Byron

"Writing is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public."
- Winston Churchill

"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible."
- Vladimir Nabakov

"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions."
- James Michener

"One writes out of one thing only -- one's own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from the experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give."
- James Baldwin

"The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself and all things."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

LifeGoals Demo Video Posted

2010-02-07T20:15:00.004+11:00

LifeGoals

Version: 1.0

[Coming Soon to the iTunes App Store]

The LifeGoals demo video is available now at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvYyX8-rqz0

This was made using:

1.The Xcode simulator;
2.SimFinger (to generate the transparent “finger” dot, add fake apps and set the carrier text);
3.iShowU HD to record the video; and
4.iMovie to add the titles, credits, transitions and soundtrack (music was bought from Jamendo PRO).

Read all about LifeGoals and how to design the life you want at www.reefwing.com.au

Kintarla - 2009 Shiraz

2010-01-29T18:53:00.003+11:00

Kintarla 2009 Shiraz Label

Our 2009 Shiraz will be bottled in the next month or so. This is our first vintage so we are very excited and on a steep learning curve.

Designing the labels was a lot of fun. There is an old dead tree which we wanted to feature on the front label. The visual designers at the Label House have done a great job (in our opinion anyway).

The next step is to update our website which is looking decidedly dodgy at the moment.

Kintarla - Vintage 2010 Verdelho

2010-01-27T18:54:00.006+11:00

Australia Day Harvest

We had our first crop of Verdelho picked on Australia Day (26 Jan 2010). About 1.5 tonne was the final weight of grapes which we supplemented with another 1.5 tonnes from neighbouring vineyards.

The fruit was a bit damaged from hail that we had in December but seems to have held up fairly well considering. Lisa skidded the ute into one of the end posts due to the wet and greasy conditions (it rained the night before). I think we should have bought a 4WD!

Last year the Shiraz wasn't ripe until late Feb, it will be interesting to see if there is any difference this year. We did a heap of bunch thinning on the 25th Jan which should help the remaining bunches ripen. We probably dropped about 1/3rd of the crop.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 10 (Crazy 88's)

2010-01-27T18:20:00.001+11:00

The Jab Solution...

This level seems to be a favourite with folks. Here is another solution submitted by Jab.

Over to Jab to explain...

Hi everybody.

I am happy to see that many people love this game as I do ^^
I manage to go until wave 261 with 2 830 millions , but the score did not save..
Hopefuly, I took screenshots :-p
My technique is simple : I do not juggle. I use all kind of towers and make the creep pass by the corner back right after the fast 8.

Jab

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 10 (Crazy 88's)

2010-01-20T20:36:00.002+11:00

Tactics for getting High Scores over 3,000,000,000

Kevin from Chicago sent me through his tactic for generating huge high scores (Thanks Kevin). Let me hand you over to Kevin to describe how...

"My simple trick to getting high scores (and not necessarily high levels) is at the very beginning of the game. If a creep comes to within the last one or two hexes before the exit when you kill them, you get a bonus: x5, x10, x20, or x50 if it is really the last moment.

These scores affect the scoring multiplier for the entire rest of the game.

So, to get significantly higher scores without any kind of fancy trickery with your pattern, just start the level by killing the creeps just before they exit for several rounds. There are few pretty predictable positions to kill creeps for bonus points in the first rounds. Once you know what you are after, you can get the multiplier up to x500 within the first 10 or so rounds.

After I get the multiplier up, then I focus in on just making sure none of the creeps escape, which is pretty easy in this level.

Attached is my high score and my pattern. I am pretty sure a more optimal pattern exists, but this one works quite well.

I made it to level 237 with a similar pattern, but it won't go much further. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to micromanage the towers vs. specific creeps..."

Kevin from Chicago

Kintarla - 2010 Vintage

2010-01-17T09:54:00.003+11:00

It is an exciting time in the vineyard as the 2010 harvest approaches. We have just finished the label design which was great fun. The following are the tasting notes for our 2009 Shiraz, which are currently in French oak barrels and will be bottled in March:

“The wine is crimson red in colour with a vibrant purple hue. This is an elegant Shiraz offering aromas of ripe plum, cherry, spice, and toasty oak. The complex palate is rich and full, offering great flavour intensity, balance, and length. This well structured wine should mature gracefully over the next 5 years”

We are hoping to get a Shiraz and Verdelho crop this year. Both took a hammering during the hail storms in December but fingers crossed. The Semillion didn't make it - maybe next year!

The following are some notes from our vineyard consultant on the December conditions and there effects on the grapes.

The weather features that affected the vineyard this month were:

Ø After a very warm November, December was also a degree warmer than the average daily temperature based on the 30-year average, and we had 15 days over 30C, and quite a few close to 40C. These hot days were interspersed with very mild days.

Ø The first 3 weeks of December were very dry and we were beginning to run low on water levels stored in dams and in the soil. Christmas time heralded the beginning of the cyclone-influenced cycle we are seeing now… warm dry days followed by humid, showery milder periods lasting 7 to 10 days.

Ø Humidity stayed low during the first half of the month but once the rain started on Boxing Day it was very high, and has remained that way well into January.

The results of these conditions were:

- Many vines kept growing and new disease infections appeared. Downy mildew pressure returned in the last week of the month, and spraying was problematic with the regular showery, and often windy, conditions. Once downy mildew infection became established, it has been very difficult to totally eradicate, although in most vineyards it is now under control.

The rain at the end of the month has come at a bad time in terms of coinciding with the vine stage of berry swelling and veraison. In any tight-bunch varieties (like Semillon and chardonnay) this has led to berries splitting. With the humidity levels as they are Botrytis was the inevitable result. This has red berries (eg in shiraz) rapidly expanded , the hail scars became loci for splitting, exposing seeds and flesh to Botrytis spores, ubiquitous to our Hunter environment.

It is tough being a farmer...

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 10 (Crazy 88's)

2010-01-17T09:34:00.002+11:00

Welcome to 2010.

Here is a solution to GeoDefense Swarm Hard Level 10 sent to me by Telo. I will hand you over to Telo now to explain what is happening...

"The first pic shows the route the creeps take, I drew on the route in pea green to show it clearer, and the second pic is my score at the end. I'm going to have another go at it soon! Hopefully do better second time."

Telo wiped out 239 waves using this strategy, which kicks the arse of my solution. If anyone can do better and is willing to share then shoot your solution through and I will post it.

iPhone - Screen Capture

2009-11-28T09:15:00.002+11:00

iPhone Screen Capture

The iPhone includes a handy feature to take a photo of the current screen.

To take a screen shot you need to hold down the "Home" button (at the bottom of the screen) and then hit the "power/sleep" button (at the top right hand side of the phone).

Your screen shot will then be available in the camera roll section of your photo app.

The attached photo should illustrate the process.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 10 (Crazy 88's)

2009-11-21T08:36:00.003+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 10 - Crazy 88's

Spoiler Warning!

My approach here is to split the screen into two regions and allow the creeps to channel between the two 8's.

I start with laying out the path near the exit. It takes a bit of trial and error to work out what the minimum number of towers work.

Interestingly my highest score is with 180 waves. Using another approach I got to over 215 but the score was lower.

Well that concludes the game! Hopefully Critical Thought Games will release some additional map packs. V3 of the iPhone OS has enabled in game purchases, more games should take advantage of this (IMHO).

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 9 (Revenge of the Eye)

2009-11-21T08:27:00.003+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 9 - Revenge of the Eye

Spoiler Warning!

There are a couple of different ways to skin this cat. Start with the towers near the exit to maximise your score - you may leak a few creeps.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 8 (Slightly Buggy)

2009-11-21T08:21:00.002+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 8 - Slightly Buggy

Spoiler Warning!

Just lay the path at alternately upgrade the missiles and thumpers.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 7 (Looking Glass)

2009-11-21T07:50:00.003+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Level 7 - Looking Glass

Spoiler Warning!!

OK this strategy allowed me to get a highscore which is number 14 in the world.

The secret is to allow an opening at the edges and don't build too many towers early.

By wave 5 you need to close the gap so you can get the creeps that are only effected by thumpers and lasers.

The pictures should be pretty self explanatory.

Of course this is probably going to destroy my top 14 ranking ...

iPhone Application - Life Goals

2009-11-15T08:35:00.005+11:00

iPhone Application - Life Goals

It looks like Apple has accepted me (or Kintarla Pty Ltd to be precise) as a new iPhone Developer - Hurrah!

As this is my first program written in Objective C and Cocoa Touch, I'm keeping things fairly simple. The plan is to release a goal setting application before the 1st Jan 2010.

I'm finding Objective C to be quite a bit different to C#. The way that methods are handled is doing my head in but after a week or so of concentrated effort it is starting to make sense.

The Icon in the title page screen shot is a west African symbol of life transformation called SESA WO SUBAN. It means to "change or transform your character." You can learn more about these symbols at http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/graphics.htm

To get everyone in a goal setting mood for New Years, I'm collecting relevant quotes. Here are a few to get you started ...

Goal Setting Quotes

"Success is 99% failure." - Soichiro Honda

"You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream." - C.S. Lewis

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 6 (Singularity)

2009-11-09T21:17:00.003+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 6 - Singularity

Spoiler Warning!

There are a few different ways to complete this level.

Start off by channelling the creeps by placing the rocket towers near the entries.

You can then start building towers around the singularity. You need to build fast but once you get here it is pretty much all over.

Happy Swarming...

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 5 (Thump This!)

2009-11-09T21:02:00.002+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 5 - Thump This!

Spoiler Warning ...

Another fairly straight forward level, although difficult to get a high score.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 4 (Crazy Ivan)

2009-10-31T10:04:00.002+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 4 - Crazy Ivan

Spoiler Warning...

I'm not sure why this level is named after a submarine tactic but what the heck.

This shouldn't be a hard level (in my opinion). The first solution I tried worked. It should be fairly obvious from the attached photo.

There is a new creep introduced in this level - a sort of sparkly dude. Lasers don't seem to do them much damage but the rockets knock them out.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 3 (The Race is On)

2009-10-31T09:51:00.003+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 3 - The Race is On.

Spoiler Warning...

Ok this level is tough! I tried a bunch of different strategies before hitting on the winning solution. Just getting past Wave 1 is tricky.

I finally settled on the formation shown in the attached photo. You can clear the 1st two waves using just this. I then added one of the top 3 laser towers. This will allow you to get past wave 4 which is the next tough spot. Add the remaining two laser towers in this formation and then start replacing the blasters with lasers. Replace the ones which line up with the creeps path first. Upgrade as you go. Wave 10 is tough to get past as is 14 and 15 but following this strategy should get you there. I'm not sure how sensitive this solution is to build order.

I have seen another strategy using juggling but I try to avoid those if possible. No juggling is required for this approach.

The game hints at using an upgraded blaster strategy but I couldn't get that to work. I would be interested in a solution using blasters - let me know if you managed this.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 2 (Lovely Flowers)

2009-10-31T09:47:00.002+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Hard Level 2 - Lovely Flowers

Spoiler Warning...

Nothing fancy required, just block the gaps and hit them with missiles.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Hard Level 1 (Middle Ground)

2009-10-31T09:32:00.005+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm

Hard Level 1 - Middle Ground

Spoiler Warning....

I'm not sure how the difficulty levels are worked out but I didn't find Hard Levels 1 or 2 particularly difficult. Hard 3 is a nightmare but we will come to that.

Simply lay out the path using the blasters and then add in the missile towers as money allows. Upgrading the missiles towers working back from the exit will maximise your score but may leak a few creeps if you time it too fine.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Medium Level 10 (Minefield)

2009-10-25T11:32:00.002+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy

Medium Level 10 (Minefield)

Spoiler Warning

The 2nd of the endless levels. I tried a few different approaches on this level but the best result (wave 169) resulted from the following strategy:

1. Start laying out the maze with blaster towers. Work from the exit back.

2. Use thumpers where you can weave creeps past them. You will need to add the thumpers early because this level has the creeps that cant be hit with Blasters below level 7.

3. Gradually replace the Blasters with Missiles and Lasers and upgrade as cash allows.

Eventually you will max out with spots to put towers and upgrades. I started to leak creeps around wave 155. You may be able to last longer if you replace all the missiles with lasers as well.

No juggling was used to get this result.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Medium Level 9 (The Hatch)

2009-10-25T11:24:00.002+11:00

iPhone

GeoDefense Swarm

Medium Level 9 (The Hatch)

Spoiler Warning

Another one of my favourite levels. You need to get the tower balance right or you wont make it.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Medium Level 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8

2009-10-25T11:07:00.004+11:00

iPhone GeoDefense Swarm Strategies

Usual Spoiler Warning

Medium Level 4 (The Long Way) - The bottom photo. Start with blasters and then replace them with missiles and lasers as you get more cash.

Medium Level 5 (Inward Spiral) - one of my favourite levels. It is easy once you work out the pattern. Upgrade from the centre out to maximise your score.

Medium Level 6 (Infiniconda) - I have come to quite like the thumper tower.

Medium Level 7

(Nucleotide) - This is quite a tough level.

Medium Level 8 (A Bit of a Juggle) - The top photo. The blaster tower is the one that you alternately buy and sell to juggle the creeps.

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Medium Level 2 (Home Base)

2009-10-24T10:33:00.003+11:00

SPOILER WARNING!!!

This is a relatively easy level. The build and upgrade order is not overly important. To maximise your score start from the exit and build backwards.

The first step is to block the entries to the non-healing areas (ie the area without all the + hexes) with guns.

Don't bother trying to attack the creeps while they are in the healing hexes.

iPhone GeoDefense Swarm

Medium Level 2 - Home Base

WRITING QUOTES - From CS Weekly

2009-10-24T09:45:00.003+11:00

Some new quotes from CS Weekly...

EDIT - New Quotes Added!

"English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education -- sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street."
- E.B. White

"There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself."
- Mark Twain

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
- Cyril Connolly

"Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it."
- David Sedaris

"In Hollywood, defining the content of a movie is like sex-- everyone thinks they can do it and do it well. And they're not inclined to give up the chance to do it just so someone else can do it."
- Terry Rossio

"Writing is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public."
- Winston Churchill

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."
– James Michener

"A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer."
–Karl Kraus

"Physics gives you a craving for elegance that I think has a parallel in storytelling, where you understand that you can lard up a story with a lot of complications, but it has to have a single spine that you love."
– Leverage co-creator John Rogers

"One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language."
– Denise Levertov

"People at their best I don't really want to watch in entertainment. I don't really want to watch mature people or smart people or people who do the right thing. I like to meet them in life, but I don't find them entertaining. And certainly not funny."
– Funny People's Judd Apatow

"Practice, practice, practice writing. Writing is a craft that requires both
talent and acquired skills. You learn by doing, by making mistakes and then seeing where you went wrong."
– Jeffrey A. Carver

"People want to put women in one box, and I'm interested in how women can be everything at once. She can be a slut who wants to fall in love, or she can party too much, but she's still very smart. I want to expand the vocabulary."
– Liz Meriwether, one of Variety's "10 Screenwriters to Watch"

"I just write scenes that are funny to me, and think: How do I string these together in the structure of a movie? And making sure there's enough characters that I like that if I get bored with one -- which happens constantly, because I have a short attention span -- I can move on to another."
– The Office's Mindy Kaling

"One thing about writing movies: It's different every time. When I finish a script and sit down to write a new one, I have to learn it all over again. Every single thing is completely different; there are no rules. As soon as you start to follow rules, your stuff becomes formulaic. Then you can forget about it."
– John Hughes, 1950 - 2009

"I'd like to be remembered as someone who used their ability as a novelist or as a dramatist to say the things he felt needed to be said about the society [while being] as entertaining as possible. Because if you don't entertain, nobody's listening."
– Budd Schulberg, 1914 - 2009

"You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club."
– Jack London

"There are so many different kinds of writing and so many ways to work that the only rule is this: do what works. Almost everything has been tried and found to succeed for somebody. The methods, even the ideas of successful writers, contradict each other in a most heartening way, and the only element I find common to all successful writers is persistence -- an overwhelming determination to succeed."
– Sophy Burnham

"The story…must be a conflict, and specifically, a conflict between the forces of good and evil within a single person."
– Maxwell Anderson

"People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It's better to write about things you feel than about things you know about."
– L.P. Hartley

"Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed."
– Leo Rosten

"It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop."
– Vita Sackville-West

"Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them."
– Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs."
– David Ben Gurion

"The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it."
– Elizabeth Drew

"In science there is a dictum: don't add an experiment to an experiment. Don't make things unnecessarily complicated. In writing fiction, the more fantastic the tale, the plainer the prose should be. Don't ask your readers to admire your words when you want them to believe your story."
– Ben Bova

"The image that fiction presents is purged of the distractions, confusions and accidents of ordinary life."
– Robert Penn Warren

"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."
– Woody Allen

"The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless
if he is a good one... If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is worth any number of old ladies."
– William Faulkner

"So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it."
– Harold Acton

"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket."
– Charles Peguy

GeoDefense Swarm Strategy - Medium Level 1 (Swarm-a-licious)

2009-10-21T19:59:00.002+11:00

WARNING LEVEL SPOILER!!

There are a few different ways to solve this level. This version doesn't lose any lives but consequently wont maximise your score.

Start with the greens (left to right), then move down the screen adding the rockets and shock towers.

Kintarla - They're here!

2009-10-18T10:41:00.001+11:00

Fruit Set...

I'm not sure what sort of enormous lizard this is but we had a bunch of them hanging around the vineyard (well at least two). Hopefully they don't eat grapes but enjoy feasting on the various critters which do. We are trialling an organic spray this season so maybe that is helping attract or at least not kill the local fauna. Once we get through the establishment phase the plan is to go totally organic and eventually get certified.

The 2nd photo shows the new seasons grapes (this particular shot is of the Verdelho). Following bud burst (when the dormant vines start to shoot) you get flowering and then fruit set.

The vineyard is showing vines which are in all three stages at the moment. This is ok for different varieties but it is a problem within the same type of vine. This is because you want all the grapes of a similar variety to become ripe at the same time (which never happens) but hopefully not at the same time as the other varieties because you then run out of labour, bins, barrels, etc.

So at this stage it looks like we should get at least a Shiraz and Verdelho crop this vintage. Still very early days. The high winds have caused some shoot damage but the dust storms doesn't seem to have caused any issues (except everything in the shed is covered with it).

Our primary irrigation dam is down to about 75% already. Hopefully we will get some more rain before the end of the month.

The next stage in the vine life cycle is verasion. This is when the grapes start to change colour.

In anticipation of having something to sell early next year I am trying to get a liquor licence - blimey what a trial by bureaucracy!!

GeoDefense Swarm - Easy Level 10 (Ouroboros)

2009-10-18T10:29:00.003+11:00

GeoDefense Swarm - Easy Level 10 (Ouroboros)

Easy Level 10 is the first endless level. I was interested to see what the maximum level is if you don't use juggling (ie alternately opening and closing a path to force the creeps to keep cycling past the turrets).

Using just missiles I was able to get to level 105 without losing a life. You need to initially lay out the path using gun turrets. Once the path is complete, upgrade the guns as quickly as possible to level 6, then start progressively replacing them with missiles. Eventually the map will be chockers with missiles upgraded to level 7. Much past level 105 you will start to leak creeps so I switched to lasers on the straights. This allowed me to reach 127. I would be interested if anyone can do better than that without juggling.

GeoDefense Swarm - Easy Level 6, 7, 8 & 9

2009-10-18T10:25:00.002+11:00

Here are Easy Levels 6, 7, 8 and 9.

If you need help with the build and upgrade order then just leave a comment.

GeoDefense Swarm - Easy Level 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

2009-10-13T19:17:00.004+11:00

WARNING LEVEL SPOILER!!!

GeoDefense Swarm

Easy Levels

Level 1 - Beginner Swarm

Level 2 - Diamond One

Level 3 - Dual Channel

Level 4 - Line Up

Level 5 - Down the Chute

Interestingly my hit counter has gone bananas since I posted the solution to GeoDefense Medium Level 3.

Obviously people are more interested in finding out how to beat this game than what I usually blather about.

And.....

The latest version of the iPhone firmware (3.1.2) crashed my phone and I had to do a restore, thereby losing all my saved games (the horror!).

So......

Having to start again, I took screenshots of Easy levels 1-5.

I will post the other levels as I go along.

I make no claims to these being the optimum solutions. In fact looking at the leaderboards I can pretty much guarantee that they aren't. But posting these is more about showing folks that there is a solution. If you have any questions about a level, leave a comment here.

Happy Gaming!

iPhone - GeoDefense Swarm Medium Level 3 (Y Me?)

2009-10-05T18:03:00.003+11:00

WARNING LEVEL SPOILER!!

Totally unrelated to anything else on this blog, but anyway...

Have I said how brilliant the iPhone is? What a top bit of kit. It even isn't too bad as a phone, just don't try to SMS or dial while you are driving - lethal!

I'm a bit of a fan of the tower defence game genre, and the iPhone has a couple of rippers. The original GeoDefense was insanely difficult and the new update Swarm isn't any easier. In fact I think it may be tougher. Get the build or upgrade order wrong and you are a goner.

So to save some poor soul from gouging their intestines out with a spoon because they just had to redo this level for the 300th time - here is the answer to Medium Level 3 - Y Me?

The answer (as is often the case when you get stuck in these games) is the laser tower.

Start with the bottom right hand laser and gun turret. The gun is required to channel the creeps down the orange kill zone.
After the first wave you can build the bottom left laser and gun.
When you have enough cash build the right hand laser which is on the same diagonal as the >> tiles.
Then build the laser on the left hand diagonal.
Finally build the top two lasers.
Upgrade the lasers as cash permit. To survive the 13th wave you need to have the right hand lasers upgraded more than the left. The bottom right needs to be level 7 by this wave.

I suspect that there is also a solution using the shock towers but I didn't find it!

Kintarla - Spring has Sprung

2009-09-20T11:39:00.003+10:00

Desuckering and Fruiting Wires

We spent all of yesterday fertigating (adding fertiliser via the irrigation system through the dripper lines), dropping the fruiting wires (which you lift about halfway through the season to allow more air in the canopy and to maximise rays), and desuckering.

Desuckering is tough on the back. You have to run you hand up down the trunk of each vine to remove the shoots you don't want. It aint hard work exactly but after the first kilometre it starts to get old. If you walk along all our rows the total length is 7km's. Needless to say we didn't finish - We had to get back to watch the kiwis kick our arse again in the rugby.

We are trialling a new organic spray which doesn't kill anything or prevent disease but instead works on improving the health of the vine, thereby making it strong enough to fight off the various things that want to eat it. Lisa is keen on us ultimately getting certified organic.

Google Forms - the easy way to do surveys and mailing lists!

2009-09-15T20:05:00.003+10:00

So check it out.

I had read a bit about Google forms and needed a way for people to sign up to the Kintarla Mailing List (so folks can reserve their bottles of our limited release first vintage).

The process couldn't be simpler. You rock over to Google Docs, design your form and then embed it in your website or send people the link. When people fill out the form and press submit, the results are automatically collated in a spreadsheet. Brilliant!!

You can see the final product here.

Create a Forum for your Web Site

2009-09-11T08:38:00.002+10:00

The iWeb software on my Mac is nice and shiny but a bit lacking in the feature department.

In addition, if you dont want to pay for a "MobileMe" account you can't get comments working on the blog.

So how to get feedback? You can of course stick an email link but that is a bit one on one for these days of cloud computing and multicast communication.

I stumbled across a crowd called Ning (http://www.ning.com/) who make it very easy to set up a forum / chat site for free. It is simple to set up particularly if you are familiar with blogger as it uses a similar template based approach.

You can check out my efforts at http://reefwing.ning.com/

Now all I need is some comments!

FlashWRITER - New Template Available

2009-08-30T19:09:00.004+10:00

Flash Me Magazine

Publisher Template

You can now download a publisher template for Flash Me Magazine (http://www.flashmemagazine.com/index.html). It is available from the template section at the Reefwing Software site.