Happy Valentine's day, Fin

I gave Fin her Valentine's present this morning. The present was a chapbook, a book of 31 of the poems I've written for her over the last few years. They are mostly sonnets and triolets, with a villanelle thrown in at the end.

But you may be wondering why I'm giving Valentine's presents in January. Fin has said that I can sell the book on Lulu and give the royalties to the Haiti relief efforts being run by Médecins Sans Frontières. The book is here; the royalties are $3 per copy, all of which will go to the earthquake relief.

If you would rather all the money went to MSF and none to Lulu or the post office, make a donation directly (in the US, go here; in the UK, go here; otherwise, go here), then tell me about it (marnanel at gmail.com), and I'll send you a PDF.

Please feel free to spread the word, if you have friends who like this kind of thing.

Edit: There is currently a sitewide 20% discount code, CABIN.

Maemo robotfindskitten 1.40

If anyone would like to test Maemo robotfindskitten 1.40, please let me know.

Changes in v1.40 will include:

1) (done:) kitten is on the front page as well as robot

2) (done:) portrait mode!!


3) (done:) rather than taps on the screen being interpreted with respect to robot's position, the screen is divided into parts as with the iPhone port (which I haven't played). This idea is from Will Thompson.

4) (done:) optification (doesn't affect most users except that they will have slightly more free disk space)

5) (still to be done:) help will be in-process using gtkhtml, rather than launching the browser.

I need to know whether the new controls are usable, and whether portrait mode is easily playable. I also want to know whether it's less disorienting for the board to turn 90° in portrait mode, or to stay as it is but be stretched.

v1.40 will not include the ability to edit non-kitten items, unless someone says they really want this feature.

The current known bug, which will be fixed by release time, is that the front screen is too cramped in portrait mode.