All Quiet...

Well, here we all are again. Much changed since I've been gone?

I'd like to be able to say I haven't had the time to post recently, but really I've just been a bit stuck. Hopefully I can try and unstick myself briefly. (Fine, so 'unstick' isn't a word. But it ought to be.)

What's the time? 18:55. Which actually makes it 19:54, since my clock is 59 minutes slow. Twenty-two hours and six minutes until finally my grand master plan reaches its climax. Wow. Oh, er, give me a second...

[Brief interlude for picking-up grandparent.]

Sorry about that, my grandmother arrived. Where was I? Oh yes, my secret plan...

What do you mean, 'What secret plan'? The secret plan! You know! Ok, so maybe you don't. Well, I mentioned it here a little while back if you're interested. Not that I really described it in much detail (although isn't that the point of a secret?).

But anyway, now you know all about the secret plan (figuratively speaking) I suppose it's worth moving on to more pressing matters. Like cellular automata.

So, hands up all those who've heard of cellular automata. If you haven't got your hand up, then perhaps you'd like to use it to click on this link to the Wikipedia article on the subject. If you want the definition in a nutshell, imagine you have a sheet of squared paper and colour in some of the squares (although usually they're called 'cells'). Then imagine you have another sheet and, by applying certain rules to the first sheet, create a new pattern of squares. That's a cellular automaton.

Take Life, for instance. That's 'Life' with a capital 'L', by the way. Formally known as Conway's Game of Life, Life is probably the most widespread cellular automaton around. Part mess, part beauty, Life has deceptively simple rules:

1. Cells can be in one of two states, alive or dead.
2. If a cell is dead and has exactly three neighbours - either horizontally, vertically or diagonally - that are alive, it will become alive the next time the pattern is redrawn.
3. If a cell is alive and has either two or three neighbours that are alive, it will stay alive when the pattern is next redrawn. Otherwise, it will die.

Are you following all this so far? Good, you'll need to be...

The Game of Life is barely the beginning, though. For a wide selection of interesting rule possibilities and an easy way of tying them out, Windows users can try Mirek's Cellebration. If you've got a Mac, I haven't found very much for you except Golly, which nevertheless has plenty of Game of Life patterns to keep you entertained.

Well, I'm afraid that's all for now. My secret plan beckons!