HYPERTEXT WONDERLAND

Truth be told, I wasn’t aware of the stupendously jolly music of Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass band until about a week ago. Sure I’d heard “The Spanish Flea” before. I remember it from that scene in The Simpsons where Homer is sitting in his car while Bart and Milhouse are at the Spinal Tap gig. But their music? No, I'm afraid. Not until somebody linked me to yet another of the internet’s random dog memes and I thought, “Hey that song's catchy, let’s listen to the original”. As it turns out, this was a great decision because it meant I eventually stumbled upon Going Places , one of their albums from the 1960s. It’s a great collection of tracks: bombastic and happy.. Have a listen!!11 //

When somebody mentions programming to me, the first thing that springs to mind is the image of an quirky start-up. I’m sure you can picture the scene: girls in colourful dresses, guys with black t-shirts, a pungent smell of coffee lingering in the air, and even the odd ping-pong table for those quieter moments. It’s official, programming is now cool (I think) but it wasn’t always this way.  Wargames and Hackers once tried hard to portray hacking with an air of youth rebellion because until recently it was way more likely to be considered a strange bedroom hobby than a trendy career option. Quadrilateral Cowboy , the new game from one-man game programming machine Blendo Games aka Brendon Chung, reminds me of this. It’s a retro-futuristic hacking-fest about raiding stock exchanges, stealing safes, but most importantly, about having fun with friends. Set in 1979, it harks back to a world filled with technological clunkiness; a time when phones didn’t fit in our pockets and lap...