In preparation for my new working from home reigeme I spent a lot of time looking for a new keyboard. I knew I wanted a mechanical keyboard, known for their robustness and customisability, and I ultimately settled on a TADA68. The TADA68 hit a number of my key wants including customisable mechanical switches, QMK firmware to reprogram the keyboard, and a small 65% profile. Most important of all the TADA68 is available in the standard UK (ISO) layout unlike most other mechanical keyboards which are only available in the US (ANSI) standard.

My friend Joel and I have been playing through CD Projekt Red’s original Witcher game for a month or so now by sitting in front of my PC with a mouse and keyboard. Now I’ve moved in with Catherine I wanted to take advantage of the sofa, my larger TV, and my Steam Link. As an older game The Witcher doesn’t work out of the box with anything other than a keyboard and mouse by default but fortunately the Steam Controller is capable of remapping itself to correspond to mouse and keyboard controls.

A long time ago I spent a Christmas trying to figure out the best way to solve the problem of documenting my plugins for Rock RMS. I’d decided I wanted each to have a standalone website and that I wanted them all to look and feel similar by using a common template. The documentation would live alongside the code by using Github Pages but I was still struggling with one problem - how do I update all of my plugins if the template changes?

Moving in with Catherine has prompted a number of changes, the main being that my computer could no longer be the focal point of the room. Instead, it’s relegated to the back corner of the living room which is absolutely fine for development work but less than ideal for gaming with friends. Given that most of the gaming my friends and I do is through Steam I figured I’d give a Steam Link a whirl and for £12 it didn’t seem like a bad deal.

I’ve recently started playing Hearthstone, Blizzards online TCG. Coming late to the party (by roughly 3 years) I’ve been at a significant disadvantage not only due to my inexperience but also my rather small card collection. As a result, I’ve been determined to grab every free pack that’s available and so I’ve put together this guide to help other new players in a similar position to me and I’ll also touch on some great tips for new players not directly related to getting packs.

For years, going back to my childhood, I’ve dabbled in various competitive card games - most consistently Yu-Gi-Oh! but also Pokemon, Netrunner, Magic the Gathering, and Mojang’s Scrolls. When a friend introduced me to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links I couldn’t resist. The premise is pretty simple, your starting character is one of the two main characters from the original TV series - (Yami) Yugi or Seto Kaiba; and your aim is to rise to the top of Duel Links tournament which pits the best duelists in the world against each other.

One of the key principles of software engineering is DRY, or in long form: Do Not Repeat Yourself. It’s a principle that prevents errors, reduces the size of your code, and makes refactoring easier. In near direct opposition to this is the poor standard of coding on the web. Tutorials are full of examples that encourage you to do exactly the opposite, to repeat yourself, and given the scarcity of good example architectures it’s easy to fall into bad habits.

eBay offers its sellers a service to help them ship items internationally called the Global Shipping Programme (GSP). In exchange for a cut of the item cost eBay handles the import and delivery of items through a chain of international contractors and GSP hubs. To say that the GSP has been unpopular would be an understatement, it has been heavily criticised for offering a poor service, slow delivery, and causing inflated prices.

Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a behemoth of a game and with epic scale comes the challenge of complexity. Fantasy Flight, to their credit, have done a decent job of making the game digestable with the tutorial mission and the two rules books: the Learn to Play guide and the Rules Reference booklet. Shut Up and Sit Down have a fantastic getting started video to bring new players up to speed as well.

Fantasy Flight Games make some outstanding board games. In fact half of my current collection are games published by them and every single one of them is a quality title. Equally Fantasy Flight know how to milk their games for maximum profit. They’re in the business of expansion packs and episodic content, viewing their products as franchises rather than games and leaving players nickeled and dimed in their wake. A great example of Fantasy Flight’s cash over consumer culture is Star Wars Imperial Assault and it’s ally and villain packs.