Seattle Air Museum

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Last day at the MVP Summit

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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.

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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.

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Pioneer Square

More Meetings and Science Fiction Frenzy

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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.

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This guy was working the lights on the video wall behind the stage. What a cool job.

Meeting the Mobile Team

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Today we got all got on busses bright and early and headed off to the Microsoft campus at Redmond. It was quite a nice morning, and on the way we saw a rainbow which seemed to have its roots in the middle of Microsoft, which I thought was interesting. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera out we had driven past it.

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The rainbow is about 20 feet to the right of this picture.

We had a bunch of presentations from product team members. I hope they found our comments useful. After that it was time for more mingling, and then a bus back to the hotel.

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I remembered my camera this time.

Doncaster Meeting and Programming Puzzle

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Went to Doncaster for an exam board today.

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The meeting room had this very impressive chandelier, which lent a lot to the proceedings.

Spent some time chatting with Colin, the external examiner, about programming matters. We were talking about good practices, properties and get/set methods and the like, and a question occurred.

“Why do some types in C# have a Length property (for example String and Array) whereas others have a Count method (for example List)? Both of them do the same thing, so it seems to be silly to have different names for them.”

Colin and I think we know the answer. But do you?

Having Fun By Degrees

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Did my one and only degree warmup of this round of ceremonies today. It was for the students from our faculty, which meant that there were people in the audience who I had actually taught something. Perhaps. Everyone played their parts very well and it was a terrific ceremony. I took the camera along, of course.

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Artistic shot of one of the maces

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Hon. Grad Sir Andrew Clark, Master of the Rolls, giving his speech (very good one by the way).

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Looking Left

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Looking Right

I took the pictures at the end of the ceremony when everyone is relaxed, including me. My little camera did quite a good job with the shots.If you want to see a much bigger versions (where you can pretty much recognise everyone) click on the images above and follow the links to the versions on my Flickr account. Then click on the (+ All Sizes) button at the top so you can play “Where’s Wally (or Waldo)” properly.

Pictures from Portugal

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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.

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Cranes on the skyline

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The way into the hotel. Pity the fountains were turned off, but you can’t have everything.

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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.

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I said I’d put a picture of you all up after the session. Here you all are.

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Playing with the toys afterwards…

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Now, that’s some kind of font…

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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.

Hull Museums Quarter

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For no particular reason we went for a walk around Hull Museums Quarter today. Makes a change from buying stuff up town, and I had a camera I wanted to play with. If you live in Hull and you haven’t been down there for a look round, shame on you. I’ve always liked looking around these places, and there are some quite nice bits and bobs in the Transport museum

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It might have had “One Careful Owner”, but what about all the other ones?

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I’ll have the oats please…