Vote Dennis!

I'm glad to see that the word is spreading already. Orangepeel spied this with his little i-thingy while out peddling...

Vote Dennis! (you know it makes sense)

Pop Goes The Dennis

Well, it's been a while in the brewing and a somewhat complicated birth, but Dennis is finally opening his eyes to the big, wide world. Lots still to do but thought I'd mark the occasion with a quick post between sips of bubbles. If you happen to be passing, do drop by and say hello...

Holy Whale? Maybe not. Whale of a time? Absolutely :-)

More votes for everyone!

So we have a new government, a coalition of the willing if you like, which is nice. Mr Cameron & Mr Clegg seem to be getting on awfully well, making speeches and compromises and promises of change and reform. Let's see how long it lasts.

It seems first-past-the-post doesn't necessarily deliver the ideal verdict but apparently there's a new way of voting just around the corner:- it will be slick, simple and much, much fairer. 

 Naturally, I’m not referring to PR, AV, AV+, STV, STDs or any kind of boring political reform. No, I’m much more excited about the incredible voting and ranking system that beats in Dennis’ heart, that our friendly Alpha Testers have been putting through its paces over the last 6 weeks or so.

Lots of brilliant feedback has led to lots of tweaking both small and large, and after (at the exact time of writing) 18,911 votes, 2,219 ratings and 616 reviews, we’re now very close to opening the doors to the wider world. Drop by soon at...

Incidentally, in The Top 100 Dinner Guests, Nick Clegg sits at #35 and David Cameron at #40, with Oz Clarke, Spike Milligan, Vic Reeves and Jamie Oliver nestling between them. Not much of a cabinet perhaps, but I suspect it would make a lively evening…

Funny farm or Animal farm?

Pope Benedict attacks government over Equality Bill

Leaving aside for a moment the whole issue of religious fundamentalists' desire to impose their archaic practices on the rest of the world, the Pope's subtle and disingenuous self-contradiction (for which I believe he has a natural talent), strikes me as particularly Orwellian.... "We believe in equality. Equality is sacrosanct. As long as it's our kind of equality. Some are more equal than others, you know." Here endeth the lesson.

The Big Freeze

It’s the bleak midwinter. I know this, because last night Dadnambulist, on the phone from the Southernmost tip of the Arctic circle, exclaimed through the chattering of his remaining teeth “They call this global f+++ing warming? If they want to save the polar bears they should bring ‘em all here to live in f+++ing Cornwall.”

The body and the ideology may be eroded by the passage of time, but the wit retains an enduring vitality. Perhaps that was cackling rather than chattering that I heard.


2009 was not the year of the Dennis after all. Instead, he remains frozen in dispute like some gigantic mammoth, locked in the permafrost by the evil wizard’s spell (he who must not be named, and who must surely live in a castle devoid of mirrors).

Still, while Lord Mouldyfort spent the holidays with his conscience, there was time to spare for much festive fun and frivolity. The hordes descended on the Applehouse for a Saturnalian Yuletide Winterval and then left fuller of mirth and girth. The turn of the year was spent in the delightful company of friends in Co. Kildare (Billy the Buttlander made it there and back with barely a whimper), where the mini-somnambulists enjoyed a week of walks, swims, games and marathon sessions on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, with their local comrades.

Then came the snows. All the Clanambulists love snow, not least the under-exercised hairy one, who takes to drifts with gay abandon. Although to be fair, he’s not so keen when I make him sit and dangle his soft bits in it, to pose for photos. Can’t blame him really.

While we’re waiting for Dennis to thaw, we’re making the most of the beautiful Kentarctica…

 

Denn...

I have so little time I can't even finish the subject title. Sincere, heartfelt, guilty, apologies to all the tasks that are being delayed by a few minutes, but I haven't posted here for some time, and the briefest of snapshots seems appropriate at this moment.

Our outstanding task-list on the Project Dennis alpha site has been gradually, methodically, unflaggingly whittled away to a paltry 50 items. Over the last couple of weeks, in the run-up to our full testing phase, the site has started to take on a much more dynamic, usable, 'lived-in' look and feel, and we are genuinely excited about inviting everyone on in less that three weeks.

It's been a long time (much longer than we had anticipated) coming, but the light is most definitely peering at us from the end of the tunnel. This is just as well, since my vow not to cut my hair until it's done and dusted has forced me to learn how to live with a pony tail. If only they could see me now. A good friend, who I'd not seen for some time, remarked that I look like an 'Italian porn star.' I suspect he didn't mean it as a compliment, but I'll take it as one nonetheless.

Onwards and onwards....

Dennis' Stablemate

Phew!

Time has acquired previously undetected physical properties and is evaporating vigorously before my very eyes... either that or its being consumed by Dennis' voracious appetite for man hours.

9 months into development, Dennis trundles along gathering proportions like a fast food addict. In a snowball. Would we have started, had we realised the gargantuousness of the task at hand? Sure, but we might have sliced him up into more bit-sized pieces.

I am not going to tempt fate by suggesting we have a sniff of the finish line. Instead, I'll content myself with the fact that a remarkable amount has already been accomplished, and that it won't be long before a wider audience gets their first look... I hope they are not entirely underwhelmed.

You might think, quite sensibly, that with Dennis seeming marginally Sisyphean, one would be foolish to embark on any additional, major undertaking in parallel. But we like a challenge at A Tiger In Africa, and possibly for that reason alone, Dennis now has a sibling.

Project Norman (unfortunately I was out-voted and the epithet 'Spiny' was removed from the title) combines real-world game-play with online connectivity and collaboration. That's about all I can say at the moment, but details will be gradually released here...