The weather forecast wasn’t wonderful. But that hasn’t stopped us from going to Whitby before, and it wouldn’t this time. And the Big Camera went too.
Beach Huts
The Harbour
We did get rained on. But we did manage to get into “The Magpie” for lunch. This is quite famous for serving really good fish and chips. And it was really good.
Round Thing with No Purpose I can Understand
I seemed to have jetlag in advance today. From trying to scan the passport in the wrong part of the check-in machine, to having a suitcase 3 pounds over weight, to being invisible to all flight attendants on the plane (and the person sat in front, who insisted on trying to tip her seat back even though this is not physically possible if I am sat behind you), to losing my headphones the whole day has not been much fun. Good thing that, thanks to the flight, I seem to have lost 8 hours of it somewhere.
Our flight left early afternoon, which meant there was time for one final Seattle breakfast. It was as if the city was putting on its best show ever in an attempt to get us to stick around. The weather was the best I’ve ever seen in the place, which exposed some superb views.
Market sign
Ferry and mountains
Ferry arriving (as seen in “Grey’s Anatomy”)
To be honest, it won’t take much to persuade me to come back. Then it was off to the airport.
Plane spotting at the airport.
It has been a great summit, here’s to next time…
Today was our day off. We planned to go to the Seattle Museum of Flight. Being an economical traveller I was going by bus. I had written careful notes describing which bus to take and where to get off. Being an idiot, I of course left these in the hotel room, but remembered enough to get us onto route 174 from tunnel C.
Seattle has this wonderful underground level, in fact the city is built up on previous implementations. You catch the bus in something that looks just like a subway station, except that there are busses instead of trains. The bus took us through some of the industrial heartland of Seattle, which is pretty heavy engineering, and finally deposited us outside the museum.
We were a bit worried about finding the right stop, but they had parked a handy marker for us.
The museum is amazing, which loads of planes, many of them hanging from their enormous exhibit halls.
We had really come to see Concorde though. We have a familial link with the plane, knowing the one based in Bristol quite well. We thought we’d check out the one in Seattle as well.
Truth is, the one in Bristol is much more of an experience. At Seattle the plane looks rather forlorn, tucked away in one corner of a collection. In Bristol there is much more room to move around the plane and you actually get to sit in the seats as you make your way around it. Here in the souvenir hunter conscious Seattle everything, including seats inside the plane, are hidden under layers of plastic.
Concorde Flight Deck
After a wait for the returning bus we got back to Seattle just in time to go up the Columbia tower. This is the tallest building in downtown area and has an observation deck which gives some of the best views of the city.
You can see the Space Needle in the middle of the picture.
If you ever go to Seattle you should go up this tower. Oh yes. Cheaper than the Space Needle (although that is a great experience) and you can see a lot further.
Then it was out for tea (chicken and chocolate anyone?) and then back to the hotel.
Steve B makes a point.
Say what you like about Steve Balmer (and lots of people do) the guy can work an audience. I’ve seen him speak a few times and he’s not failed to deliver yet. His talk (and the question and answer session at the end) was one of the highlights of the keynotes that we had today. Although the session about Windows 7 from Mike Nash was also very good. I think I’m allowed to say that Windows 7 is looking very promising. For me the only thing bad about it is that you can’t buy it in the shops yet.
Once the keynotes were over that was just about the end of formal proceedings for the summit. It was great to see everyone again, and put some faces to names that I’ve only ever seen on mailing lists in the past. We went out for a wander around Seattle.
In the Seattle Art Gallery they have these cars hanging from the ceiling with lights coming out of them. Not sure why, but it sure looks nice.
Pioneer Square
Today was the second and final time at the Microsoft campus. More presentations and more good stuff. I took a trip over the the legendary Microsoft Company store which was wonderful. Halo Wars on day of release at 25 dollars? I should think so. Of course I had resolved not to spend much money. Of course I failed.
In the evening it was time for the summit party, which was held at the “Experience Music Project” at the base of the Space Needle. They had Rock Band, karaoke with a live backing group and huge amounts of food and drink.
It was a bit like our Christmas Bash, only slightly bigger.
The venue is also host to a great science fiction museum, with books, props, sets and robots to look at. Great stuff.
This guy was working the lights on the video wall behind the stage. What a cool job.
Toby Richards gets us all fired up.
The MVP summits happen every year or so. Microsoft invites all of the 4,000 or “Most Valuable Professionals” they have recognised for efforts in their field to come to their headquarters and meet with the teams that actually make the products.
It still amazes me that Microsoft organise things like this. It must cost them a fortune, and in these cash-strapped times they might be looking at other things to spend their money on. Quite often, when things get tough the on of the first things to go is events like this, where the benefits are very hard to put directly onto the bottom line.
Each MVP is awarded in a particular specialism. I began in the area of Mobile Devices (search for “Smartphone Cheese”) to find out how I got started. More recently I’ve done work with XNA and the .NET Micro Framework, but I’m still very interested in device development, and so that is what I was here to find out more about.
The summit began with some welcome presentations, starting with Toby Richards who manages the MVP programme. It was rather nice to have someone stand at the front and tell us all how important we are (although I always feel a bit guilty at this point as I’m never quite sure what it is I have done to merit the attention). Then we had a talk from another Microsoft bigwig, as Rich Kaplan told us lots of interesting things about the future that a Non Disclosure Agreement that I’ve signed prevents me from writing much about. Suffice it to say that things are going to be interesting.
Then it was outside for food and mingling. I’m not a great mingler. I tend to stand there like a lampost with a drink, whilst everyone mills around me. But I did meet up with a few people that I hadn’t seen for a while, and I even remembered some names, which is nice.
Then it was back to the hotel and a meal in the lounge right at the top. This has some amazing views. I’ll take the camera next time.
The summit starts proper tomorrow, with meetings with the product teams. Can’t wait.
The MVP Summit is next week in Seattle, and lucky old me is going, which is nice. Set off today from Humberside, my favourite airport.
We had a very smooth journey, and I took a few quick pictures on the way.
Obligatory Taxi Shot
Night Traffic. (I just wish the hotel windows were a bit cleaner)
I’ve noticed that one way to get really good photographs is to go to nice places and take pictures of them. I’ve lost count of the number of lovely shots I’ve seen in photo books with captions like “The Rice Fields on the mountains of Jokarta look lovely just after dawn”. In this respect, Portugal is a definite win. It has this fantastic light.
Cranes on the skyline
The way into the hotel. Pity the fountains were turned off, but you can’t have everything.
The venue this year was the Instituto Superior Tecnico at Taguspark, right opposite the Microsoft Portugal offices. I like doing sessions in Portugal. I always get a great audience. The session was all about the .NET Micro Framework, and how you can take over the world using it.
I said I’d put a picture of you all up after the session. Here you all are.
Playing with the toys afterwards…
Now, that’s some kind of font…
Outside the building.
I got back last night and staggered into bed. I’d been away just about 24 hours or so and spent 8 of those in the air. But it was all great fun. Thanks to Microsoft Portugal for setting it up.
I’ll be putting the sample code and the presentation up on my blog tonight.
I’m off to Portugal next week. I’m doing a session at DevDays 09 about the .NET Micro Framework. If you happen to be in Lisbon next week it would be great to see you.
I was supposed to fly out to Copenhagen to give a session tomorrow as part of the Windows Embedded European tour. I had all my slides with the snazzy tour template, and a bag packed with hardware to show off.
Instead I went to an airport, sat in a plane for forty minutes, had a drink of orange juice, got out of the plane, queued for an hour, found out there was no way I could get to Copenhagen in time and went home.
We had all watched the plane land, and then were told that "For safety reasons" it was not able to take off again. I reckon the people that we saw arrive in it had a lucky escape.
Such is life I suppose. I tried to be relaxed about it. The only time I got a bit cross was when I was at the desk after an hour wait and the lady there was trying to sort out my travel plans. Having determined that there were no seats on any flights out today, and that a flight tomorrow would have me arrive far too late for my session, I said that in that case there was no point in me going. "So" she said, "You are choosing not to take up our offer of an alternative flight?". I made the point that it was not a matter of choice, if I couldn't get there today there was no reason to travel. "OK." she replied "I'll put on the file that you have decided not to take up our offer". I was too tired to put up much of a fight, and anyway a prominent notice reminded me that anyone who got too shirty would have the full might of KLM to deal with. Assuming they could actually get here of course, what with their transportation technology being so ropey.
I'm very sorry that I didn't make it out to Denmark. I was looking forward to meeting up with the students and seeing some cool Lego tech. Perhaps another time.
So, what do you do when you are in the city of dreams, when the day dawns full of sunshine, wonder and promise? You stay in your hotel room and write Visual Basic courseware. That's what.
Mind you, after the excitement of yesterday I could probably do with something a little more sedate. And I did nip out to City Walk for a burger. And of course I took the camera.
I call this one "Water Pipe and PDC bus"
I'm not very good on fairground rides. And I hate heights. So why not jump out of a plane at 12,500 feet?
I blame Iain. He mentioned that, seeing as we were out in LA a day early, and he knew of this ace skydiving place down the road, why not drive down there and maybe do a jump?
Iain is a proper skydiver, with his own parachute and everything. I would be travelling with a partner who would do all the important bits and make sure that nobody died. Having signed one of the scariest waivers I have ever seen in my life, forked out a goodly sum of cash (including the video package where they give you your own cameraman up there to film the whole thing) we set off.
I felt really sorry for my instructor. There were three of us doing tandem jumps. Two charming, beautiful and petite young ladies. And me. If he did draw the short straw, he took it with good grace, and was excellent. How you can make a career out of strapping yourself to total strangers and leaping out of planes with them is a mystery to me, but by gum, he was good.
Forced jollity at ten thousand feet
After this it is downhill all the way
The instructor even let me drive for a while.
Bank on terra firma.
I can't describe what it was like. How it feels to be falling at 120 miles an hour is a difficult thing to put into words. I can say only it was like nothing else. And if you get the chance you should do it. I've got a video of the whole thing, nicely set to Frank Sinatra. I'll put it up once I've transcoded it.
Thanks and kudos to instructor Adi Blair, videographer Herbie Loureiro and everyone at the Perris Valley Skydiving School who made the most frightening thing I've ever done in my life so much fun.
So, this morning Iain and I headed off for Humberside Airport (my favourite) for the first leg in the trip to the 'states. Even managed to get a leg roomy seat on the long flight, which was wonderful. Then into a taxi for the ride to the hotel.
The driver didn't think we were worth putting his tie on for......
My hotel is right next to Universal Studios, which is nice
Artistic roof shot
My kind of guitar
What I should probably settle for.
The hotel is great, with a good, fast network. And I've just done a couple of hours of email and blog posts at four in the morning. So the jetlag is coming along nicely.......
Straight after Grahams ceremony it was time to head off to Bradford and Black Marble. They have a program of community events and we try to get along if we can. I filled a mini-bus with students and we set off in search of enlightenment and free food and drink
The "Black Marble Posse" striking a pose.
Today it was all about SilverLight, XNA and a famous game from way back, Manic Miner.
Richard Costall & Pete McGann have created a version of this venerable game which you can play in your browser and Richard had come over to talk about it. The talk was wide ranging and interesting, ranging from the difficulties of the playing the original game all the way to the fun you can have trying to create pixel perfect collision detection within a Sliverlight application.
All really good stuff. Everyone had a good time, and the food was excellent (and there was plenty too - even by student standards).
Thanks to Black Marble for inviting us along, and Richard for giving such a good talk. I'm going to do a Silverlight talk at Hull, having been inspired by what I've seen.
On Wednesday the 22nd of October I'm taking a bus down to Black Marble to attend one of their developer events. If you are interested in game development, or just want to see what happens at a professional event, you can find out more here.
Steve Balmer runs Microsoft. He took over from Bill Gates earlier this year. I've seen him talk before. He's good.
Today I saw him talk again at the Microsoft Student Technology Day in London. Zoe, Sam and I caught the early train out of Hull and headed for the Royal Festival Hall in London for Student Technology Day.
The Steve Balmer session was in the middle of a whole bunch of presentations put on for students from around the country. All the sessions were excellent.
First up was Andy McLoughlin, co-founder of Huddle.net. Huddle is a rather nice looking group collaboration tool which Andy and his company have taken from an idea they had in a pub to a fully fledged, venture capital backed, commercial application in a few years. Andy talked about the 20 rules for any startup and really laid it on the line about how to succeed. Very interesting and inspiring stuff.
Next up was Jay Girotto, Principal Group Program Manager, Windows Live Search. Jay took us through the latest version of Live Search and how the chase is on to produce search engines that provide more than just a few links to things that might be useful. This led into discussions of context, artificial intelligence and systems of fearsome complexity, all with the aim of making it easier to find what you want.
Ralf Herbrich is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft's computer science lab in Cambridge and he was up next talking about Artificial Intelligence in games. Excellent stuff. The presentation took the lid off lots of clever things that they have to do to make your computer opponents more interesting, and to match up players in network games so that everyone has a good time.
And then we got to Steve B. And how. Say what you like about the bloke, but he has amazing presence. At the start of the talk he made the point that computers should make it possible to have gatherings like the one we were attending, without the need to for us all to actually travel to the same place. On that I disagree. Just watching the effect this chap was having on the students in the room, I could see that actually being in the same place as a speaker is really the best way to get a feel for their energy and where they are coming from.
The man himself
After his talk Steve answered some questions posed by delegates. And the first question he answered was from me! Who would have thought it? I'm told that all the sessions have been recorded and will be available soon. If you want to find out what I asked and what the answer was, I'll put the link up as soon as I have it.
Finally we had a session from Paolo Barone an Academic Technologist who took us for a lap around Microsoft Surface, the new platform from Microsoft. This is amazing. Multi-touch from multi users, intuitive interfaces and what looks like an easy to understand programming model. Want one. Really, really, want one.
And then it was time for the train and home.
Many thanks to Microsoft, particularly Andy Sithers and Mark Johnston, for making everything go so well. Andy did a great job as Master of Ceremonies too, although I think he should have worn a suit as well.....
A great day.
This might be the last hurrah for our trips to Milton Keynes. We've found out that after today the whole shebang is moving to a football stadium. We've been going for a while, and the mix of celebrities and interesting stands has held our attention up to now and because there is also a Lego shop (and an Apple store) at the shopping centre where it is held we've seen it as worth the trip.
Anyhoo, we got up at an early hour and set off. Number one son was meeting us there and wanted to snag one of the Serenity cast.
Morena puts pen to paper..
So, who is this cool gentleman?
..and this chap (a clue, his part is going to get a lot bigger in the future..)
Not sure if we'll do this again, but it has been fun while it lasted. I bought another watch, and then we retired to a Travelodge to watch "Strictly Come Dancing" (although I was more pre-occupied with checking the score in the Hull City match - which we won. Yay!).
London tomorrow.
Went for a walk in the woods today.
This is what you seen when you look down.
This is what you seen when you look up.
We had our second barbeque of the year today. This is a bit late (the first one was on Monday. Snag is, we have just not had the weather for standing outside admiring the miracle that is fire. Anyhoo, it went well enough.
Firelighter power
In the field next day they were getting in the harvest.
I wanted to complain, because according to all the research I performed at the age of five, a combine harvester is red. Not camouflaged. I had a play with the macro lens whilst the burgers cooked.
I think this is a thistle.
And this isn't.
Rob Miles is technology author and educator who spent many years as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Hull. He is also a Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP. He is into technology, teaching and photography. He is the author of the World Famous C# Yellow Book and almost as handsome as he thinks he is.
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