Butterflies and Orchids

Sometimes you can't beat being in the right place, at the right time, with the right lens. Our front was covered in butterflies this morning.

And the orchids are in bloom again

..very scary looking plants...

Photosynth is Groovy

I've never had the chance to be in at the ground floor of the creation of a new kind of media before. But today I found myself watching a presentation of a really neat new technology which is now available for anyone to play with.  Photosynth has the potential to provide a new way of displaying visual information and allowing you to navigate around it by combining multiple images.

At this point I was ready to yawn, in that I've played with photo-stitching programs in the past and found them to be OK, but hardly ground breaking. But what Photosynth does is a bit more than that. By analysing the content of the images, finding the same content in each and then building a "point cloud' that describes the position of these items in 3D it manages to take all your photos and combine them into a navigable scene that recreates the geometry of where they were taken.  You can move in or out of the scene, go from place to place and get a really strong sense of being there.

There are some lovely scenes on the Photosynth site that show how this can be done properly, I thought I'd have a go at the university, so this morning on the way to the office I took around 130 pictures. I've not read the documentation, I just took loads of photographs trying to make sure that there was a bit of overlap between each. And I came up with this.

You can move around by clicking on the arrows, and also on the panes as they appear. You can also zoom in and out using the scrollwheel on your mouse.

Apparently the picture is 78% "synthy", which I think means that the system couldn't figure out where some of the pictures go. However, it is quite like being on campus, and one part, where I took a load of pictures of a flowerbed, does let you actually walk around the flowers and see them from different angles. With a bit more care, and a tripod, I reckon I could have got something really impressive.

Anyone can sign up for a Photosynth account, download the program and start building synths to upload onto the Photosynth site where you have 20G of space to share your creations with the world. Microsoft are hoping to build up a community of "synthers" - a sort of "Flickr you can walk around" and I can think of all kinds of useful things we could do with this. You could put a synth of your ebay items up, so that people can take an all round look at what you are selling. When your kids leave home you could take a synth of their bedrooms to remember them by.

I'm certainly going to get into the habit of taking along another little camera when I go out for "synth shots" and posting them up here. It is really easy to embed the synths in your web pages too.

Have a go with Photosynth. It really is great fun. And free.

Anniversary Bash

My Uncle Tony and Aunty Iris have been married for quite a while. Apparently I was at the wedding, but I cried so much I had to be carried outside. Doesn't sound a bit like me actually, but my recollection of the event is a bit hazy to be honest.

Anyhoo, to celebrate this we were invited down for a do, and as soon as I heard the magic words "Free Food and Drink" it was out with the satnav and into the route planning phase.

The party was held at cousin Lindsay's super house, which has a wonderful view out of the back. And the weather was fantastic. Food was eaten, stories swapped, speeches made and champagne drunk. Fantastic.

I've hidden a clue as to which anniversary it was somewhere in this picture. See if you can use your skill and judgement to work out the answer.

One thing that came out of the do for me was that technology is now everywhere. Digital cameras were being produced and compared, there was talk of email and SMS and Vista and many things technical. I talked quite a bit of "shop" (sorry about that) and it turns out that my cousin Sue is actually an Internet entrepreneur (try saying that after a few glasses of champers).

She runs myblankets.com which sells personalised gifts, baby presents, even stuff for your horse (if you have one). She also does a roaring trade in "taggies" which are cuddly comfort blankets for the very young.

I really liked the colours on this one, but I've been told I'm a bit old for them.

Anyhoo, thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the party great, and best wishes to Tony and Iris.

Kipling Country

We were down in the south of England for a family "do", but the place we were staying was in walking distance of "Batemans", where Rudyard Kipling lived. So we wandered out into the morning sunshine to seek it out.

I can see why Kipling liked the place so much.

They were having a historical re-enactment thing in the grounds of the house, which meant that there were lots of people in period costume quite literally living in the past for the weekend. We didn't have much time to take a look round, but I did make time for some pictures.

Old style family entertainment.

Then it was time to get suited and booted for the main event.

Robs Travel Tips

Here's a tip. If you are going north to south in the UK it is worth thinking about using the A1 rather than the M1. The M1 is the main motorway up the UK, but it is always busy and often delayed. The A1 is not all motorway, but it is all dual carriageway and it has a certain period charm which the other road lacks.

And if you stop for a coffee you might see one of these in the car park.

We shot down the A1 at the legal speed limit pretty much all the way. The only slight problem was that the road has been "improved" by the removal of a bunch of roundabouts that the satnav thought were still there. I'm sure the machine was impressed by the way that we could find exit 2 at 70 miles an hour.....

Back in Blighty

Today we are making a guest appearance back in Hull, before we zoom off again to a wedding anniversary. We got back first thing this morning and watched the boat dock.

"Well I don't care about that. I'm wearing blue tomorrow because it matches my eyes."

Birthday in Bruges

Busy week this week. Just back from London and now we're in Bruges for my birthday.

Looks good from the river

The Belgian take on strawberry flavoured milk. Very nice.

Lots of controls. But what for?

View from the top.

Bruges is a great place for a visit. Lots of shops selling chocolate, which is always a good thing. Although I enjoyed the boat trip just as much as the city, even though I didn't get the top bunk.

Best Picture Ever?

Today we set sail for Bruges. You can get there really easily from Hull on the ferry that leaves from here. It should be great trip, because the boats are great fun and I've heard good things about the city itself.

We were lucky enough to be leaving in great weather, travelling almost exactly east for a while, with the sunset behind us. I was on the back of the boat taking pictures of the light on the water when the pilot launch appeared and did a little turn in the wake of the ship. And, having the big camera and fat lens I took a few photographs. Like this.

Sometimes you just can't beat being in the right place at the right time.

The Land of Noise Reduction

In spite of the dodgy weather forecasts we decided to spend the first day of our holiday walking round the Dalby Forest. And we were very lucky.

Nice Colours

Flowers

We just managed to find a space to eat our picnic.

London Birthday Bash

Today we all headed for London and the birthday bash for number on daughter. Lots of treats to come. Including a trip to the Apple store (which was for me).

Racing to London. We beat the car to the next junction.

We arrived in London bang on time, got to the Apple store before it opened and I got myself a docking station or two (the shiny new iPhone doesn't have a docking station supplied like the old one did).

Then we went for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (excellent food and a thunder storm every twenty minutes) and on to Spamalot. Very well done, and very funny. For it to work it had to have proper music and dancing. And it did. Along with funny jokes and some tunes to sing along to. Heartily recommended.

Then the final treat of the day, a trip on the London Eye. With the big camera and fat lens.

Base of the eye

Looking towards the Telecom Tower

Our seat of "government"

Back on terra firma

Then we wandered out in search of food and taxis.

This is my favourite picture of the whole trip.

Although this runs it close. There are more on Flickr.

Then back to the hotel for a rest. Excellent day. More tomorrow. Can't wait.

Graduation Day Fun

Some bits of my job I love. One of them is helping with degree congregations. I do the warm up talk at the start and then get the graduands down from the hall for their moments of glory. Today it was my turn to help run the science and medical ceremonies. I took the big camera.

The flowers on the stage were looking good.

These were the science graduands. Sorry if it is a bit blurred, the lighting was not good. But you might be able to find yourself in there....

These were the medics. Again, hard to take pictures but I did my best.

After the ceremony they took a special picture of all the graduates from the Hull-York Medical School, which has just graduated its first cohort of doctors. This was a truly momentous moment for the university, which we are all very proud of. Hearing them all state their oaths during the ceremony was just fantastic.

It was a great day, but boy was it hot in all my suit and robes.

Imagine Cup Festival

I've said before that you can regard the Imagine Cup as a kind of alternative reality where you are surrounded by people passionate about technology, the food and drink is free and you are in some amazing location. I think the time also moves faster too, since I can't believe that we have already been here nearly a week. Anyway, today everything is rounded off with all the students showing the projects for everyone to see, business leaders and high powered politicians dropping by to take a look and the announcement of all the winners.

The whole setting was amazing and it was really nice to get a chance to look at some of the projects that I hadn't had a chance to see during the judging process. I also had some good chats with teams that I had seen, who were very keen to know what I thought. The best thing for me was that everyone I spoke to was determined to come back next year and do it all again. And these were people that had been without sleep for the best part of a day and a half and sweated and strained to get the best possible project and presentation into the competition.

The festival itself was hosted by Joe Wilson, who seemed as surprised to be wearing a suit as we were to see him in one. I've put loads of photos up on Flickr, I'm sure the Imagine Cup website will have some better ones.

Finally the results of our deliberations were announced and Project Soak was revealed as the winner. This entry from the Australian is an innovative watering system with the ability to make sure that plants get precisely the right amount of water and no more. It considers all the angles, from the current soil moisture, the needs of the crop and even the current weather forecast, to make sure that no water is wasted.

The team already have a farming estate signed up to prove that their idea holds water, so to speak. With a good looking and functional interface and a realistic development plan it is a very strong winner, and we look forward to seeing it achieve great things in the future.

After the presentation we all went back to the hotel to get ready for the final night party. At this point there was nothing left to play for, and everyone was keen to relax and have a good time. So we did.

The party itself was held at an amazing place just under one of the bridges of Paris. With a DJ specially flown in from the 'states, lots (and I mean lots) of really good food and drink. I only managed to last until 11:00 (my excuse is that I have to be up early tomorrow) but it was great just to meet up with the team members and chat about life, the universe and everything.

Power Presentations

This afternoon finds me as one of the distinguished judges at the Imagine Cup Software Development Challenge finals. This is being next to the Louvre in the centre of Paris. A good place to make an exhibition of myself methinks.

The  setting was fantastic. The whole hall had been decked out with moving Imagine Cup logos and video screens, plus this really cool little camera on a boom, which gives all an excellent view of the hardware projects. In the middle of this we have the student teams who now step up from presenting to a handful of judges in a little room to performing in front of an audience of many hundreds.

First up were the embedded challenge finalists. These presenters not only had to deal with an unfamiliar stage with camera crews milling around but also the scary prospect of giving live demonstrations of their systems. They were all excellent. The subjects varied from remote robotic environmental sensors to systems to protect animals crossing highways, preventing them from becoming road-kill.

My personal favourite was the Irish entry, which uses a cunning combination of hardware and software to allow a standard diesel engine to run on ordinary cooking oil. This system was so effective they had even managed to drive all the way to the venue on fuel they picked up at the local supermarket.

Then it was on to the Software Development finals, and my turn to shine, quite literally as we had to sit in the glare of the TV lights when we posed our questions to the presenting students. It is quite un-nerving when you are trying to think of something sensible to say and you glance up to see a huge image of yourself, looking sweaty and harassed, on the video screen above the stage.

Anyway, I managed to get to the end without asking anything too obviously stupid, and then we were ushered out to complete our deliberations. The judging is based on categories set down in the competition rules, and so we all filled in our numbers, passed them on to the organisers and then were pleasantly surprised to find that we were in broad agreement about the winners.

I said in the final that I love watching presentations and I hate deciding who has won. Every project had its own merit, and all of them were presented with spirit and style. One of the judges, a battle hardened venture capitalist who has seen many pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs, commented that several of the presentations were better than ones he has seen in the course of his job. And these were delivered by students on technical subjects, who are not expected to be good at this kind of thing. So, fantastic job everyone.

I'm sworn to secrecy over the results, which will be revealed tomorrow at the grand presentation.

Climbing the Tower

This morning there was a tiny lull in the Imagine Cup proceedings, and so we went off to climb the Eiffel Tower. The queue for the lifts was huge, but there was nobody waiting to climb the stairs, so off we went. Of course I had the camera with me.

Looking up from underneath

Even at the first level the views were amazing.

I've actually got a a confession to make. At the first level you can transfer to the lift (which is actually worth knowing, and a way of beating the queues on the ground) and so we took a lift to the next stage.

Telescope

Waiting

Impressive sky

And more so

At this point we kind of ran out of time, because we had to head off to the Imagine Cup finalist presentations. So I never quite made it right to the top. But I will next time.

Imagine Cup Dinner Cruise

Tonight we were all invited on for a boat trip. Free food. Free drink. On the Seine. In Paris.

Sign me up.

The boat was huge, I couldn't believe that they would get everyone on board but they did. I took the big camera, and loads of pictures (there are a bunch more on Flickr).

All aboard

Kite from a bridge

Nice sky

 

The tower by night

The whole thing was excellent. At the end I staggered back to the hotel and collapsed for the second time in a day...

Shopping for Fleas

Today is a rest day. I thought it might be fun to search out the Paris Flea Market at Porte de Cligancourt and so off we went.

Here comes our train

During the journey a bloke turned up with an amplifier and microphone and serenaded us for a while. Dennis and Nannette don't seem that impressed to be honest.

This was the view from the place we had lunch. I could have bought a rug, but in the end I didn't. The food was great though.

The market was huge. We were there for a while, and we only saw a tiny part of it.

Got some nice presents here.

Then we wandered back to the metro, ambled back to the hotel by way of a pavement cafe and I sat down on the bed for a second and woke up an hour later....

Imagine Cup Open for Business

I've been lucky enough to go to quite a few Imagine Cup finals. Each host nation works really hard to give the contestants the best time ever, and this time it is the turn of France. I was looking forward to this. If there is one thing the French are good at, it is having a great time.

First off we boarded the bus to the opening ceremony, which was being held at City Hall. I had been told this place was pretty impressive. We shall see...

On the way there we drove straight towards the Eiffel tower, which was nice.

City Hall is impressive. Very impressive. The ceilings in the entrance staircase were good enough, but when you got into the main rooms things got serious.

The poshest ceiling I've ever seen. We got to mill around and take pictures (I took lots - there are more on Flickr). It was nice to meet up with old friends from previous finals.

Each team got to walk up the "stairs of fame" into the competition, to a round of applause from those in the hall. This is the UK team having their moment of glory. Then we had a few speeches.

This is the Deputy Mayor of Paris, the chap on the right is his interpreter. I'm quite proud of the fact that I understood some of the bits that he said in French.

Jean-Phillipe Coutois very cool He talked about computers from way back when, stuff that I actually remembered using. Young developers have it so easy these days....

Joe Wilson made the very good point that this is probably the largest gathering of international students there has ever been. With teams from 61 countries here, there has never been a gathering like this before. That in itself makes the Imagine Cup pretty special, before you even look at the entries.

Finally Eric Boustoulier rounded things off by reminding everyone that we actually are going to go out there and build something of the future.

Once the ceremony had completed, and the competition was underway it was time for some food and a look around Paris.

Our train back to the hotel.

Tomorrow the judging gets underway.

Flower Power

The Lily in the garden is out.

..as is another, as yet unidentified (at least by me) flower.

Spot the Graduate

Somewhere in this picture of Durham is hidden a recently graduated "Master of Mathematics". See if you can use your skill and judgement to pick him out.

Kudos to number one son. Well done sir.

St Anne's Masterclass

We had a bunch of students come to see us today from St. Anne's. They were great. As usual I took a picture of the audience at the start, while they were still smiling.......

Audience View

At the end of the talk I did a kind of Aibo vs. Pleo thing, where I turned Digby and Trevor loose together to see what would happen.

Will they fight?

They seemed to ignore each other most of the time, although Digby did keep trying to climb off the edge of the table.....