Embedded Reading

Went to Reading today to give a talk about the .NET Micro Framework for an Embedded Development day. I've often found that a bunch of academics make around the toughest audience you can get, but these folks were great - even though they showed a marked lack of appreciation for my jokes.....

My demos mostly worked and the tiny tablet behaved herself impeccably. And the trip back on Hull Trains was as smooth as smooth. And I watched "Love and Death", one of the best films ever, on the Smartphone. Wonderful.

I'd taken the camera, but I got the best pictures when I got off the train at Hull after the journey back.

Great to be back

Neat Sky

While I was going through Reading on the bus I saw a sign at Reading Baths that said "Learn to swim here". I thought about going in and asking "What if I want to swim somewhere else?".

But I didn't.

For those at the academic event, I'll have the slides and demos here tomorrow.

Doncaster Duty

We were at Doncaster today. That's two days in a row for exam boards there. We were a bit worried about flooding in the area (the college is very near the water) but it seems that they escaped, and their shiny new campus is just as shiny and new as it used to be.

The Doncaster folks do excellent work, with students delivering taught projects which are saving their employers literally thousands  of pounds. It is amazing how a little bit of the right knowledge applied in the right way can make a huge difference.

Pop Goes the Fuse

Got home today to find that half of the kitchen was without power. Since this was the half which contains the cooker it was into the bin with the chicken we were roasting and out to the takeaway for something in a cardboard box.

Turns out that a couple of fuses in mains plugs had blown for no reason. I found this out after I had shut down all the mains sockets in the house and power-cycled all the devices looking for failed power lines. Why this has happened is a mystery to me. Nothing else in the house has been affected, just the oven and the microwave.

It is a bit like one of those horror films, where they have lines like:

"Must be a power surge. I'll just go down into the basement/bilges/engineering and fix it". Cue ominous music followed by moving shadow followed by blood curdling screams.....

Update on 2007-07-11 20:17 by Rob

Think it must be the microwave. Tried to do some jacket potatos and there was dull thud and the fuse went again. Oh well.

Colour of Danger

According to the radio this morning you are more likely to be involved in an accident if your car is coloured silver or black.

That is, the most popular color and the one that is hardest to see in the dark.

Do these people get paid extra money if their conclusions are extra obvious?

Alcatraz Life

So I got these "Alcatraz Rules and Regulations" playing cards. Each of the 54 cards contains a "Rule from America's Most Notorious Prison". I was hoping for something along the lines of "Transgressors who spit in public shall be hanged by the giblets from the North Tower until sorrye" kind of thing. So, what did I get:

Six of Spades : "You are required to work at whatever you are told to do"

Nine of Hearts: "At the wake up bell in the morning you must get out of bed and put on your clothes"

Queen of Diamonds: "You are not allowed to have money of any kind in your possession while in this institution"

Actually, it sounds remarkably like my life.....

XNA and C# For Fun and Profit

Writing books would seem to be quite moreish. As soon as you've finished one you want to do another. So I am doing. This time it is a fun packed programming book which teaches C# and XNA at the same time.

If you know nothing about programming but want to make your XBOX do cool things then this is the book for you. If you have a wobbly table and need something to put under one of the legs, then this is the book for you. If you want something with a lot of words to colour in, then this is the book for you.

I'm presently working on Chapter 4 (I'll put some sample chapters up once I've decided where to put them).

Ten lines of C# will get you this funky clock....

Cottingham Day

We went for a walk this evening, it was end of "Cottingham Day" and the fairground was just winding down. I had the camera with me (of course).

 
Hollywood comes to East Yorkshire

Barrel'o'Lights

All the fun of the fair

July Open Day

The university had an Open Day today. I shot back from town and then turned up suited and booted to do the talk. Thanks for being a good audience people.

Could have used a slightly wider angle lens.....

We will get C# books out to everyone as soon as we get another batch printed up. And we will be doing the draw for the PSP on Monday.

Anyone who was there but didn't get their name and address to us, all you have to do is send me an email with the name of the fish the Dutch audience didn't know, and we'll send you a book and enter you in the draw.

Seedlings In Seattle

Bill finds a bug, and Matt stays tight lipped....

I've managed to track down a picture of Hull's Imagine Cup winning team in Seattle meeting Bill Gates last week. Apparently Bill found their project fascinating, which is nice. Next stop Korea, for the Imagine Cup World Finals. I've been appointed an Imagine Cup Judge (don't think that I have to wear a wig though) and so I'll be traveling out there as well, which is wonderful.

Our Book, Cheap

Daniel Moth has just reminded me that the Micro Framework book that I helped write is currently available at a 40% discount for the next few days from here. Get one. Get two. I think that you really need one for every room in your house...

If you want to find out about more reduced price deals you can subscribe to the UK MSDN Flash Newsletter here.

Kids in the House

I've just found out that the university will be hosting classes for local schools which have been flooded. A local primary school, and a secondary one, will be sending teachers and kids over to make use of the Wilberforce building for lessons. I think this is an excellent idea, maybe the kids will get a taste for university life and come back in a few years as students.

Favourite Film Line of All Time

They've got the Tomb Raider film on BBC 3 at the moment. It has got my favourite line of all time in it, spoken by the hyper intelligent Lara:

"It's from my Father. He must have written it before he died..."

SPOT that Watch

I quite like watches. Not expensive ones, just different ones. I've had a hankering for a Microsoft SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology) watch for a while. If you live in the 'states these are actually very useful. You can get news, appointments and even messages beamed onto your watch.

Unfortunately the service has yet to roll out in Europe. But I still want one of the watches. I mentioned this to Colin Miller of Microsoft (he's the chap that wrote the forward to our book) and he was good enough to say "OK, Ill send you one then", which was very nice.

It arrived on Monday and I love it. It actually runs the .NET Micro Framework. All I can do with it is tell the time, but that is good enough for me, and some of the watch faces are rather cute.

Spot watch on spotty wrist

This face is rather clever. A tree grows up the middle of the watch face every hour. If only there was a kind of XNA for watch faces, then we could design our own.....

Iphone?

Apparently there is this new phone which has just been released by a jukebox company (or something, I'm a bit vague about the details - if only there had been something about it in the press).

Apparently it lets you read email (sort of), sync your calendar (sort of), surf the web, watch video, listen to your music, take photographs and not run programs that you've written for it.

Sort of like my phone, except that I can run my programs on mine and the synchronisation is wonderful.

(Actually, I must admit the IPhone does look very nice. If you want to see the guts of one, take a look here)

Got the Bird

When I got out of the shower this morning I found that I was being watched by a bird. Well, with a body like mine I suppose I should expect this to happen every now and then.

Actually, it was not quite like that. The bird was sitting on the bathroom window sill

I don't think she saw much

When I left for work the bird was still there.

I think that particular part of the house has the attraction of the updraft from the boiler flue, which is probably a good way to warm up (it was slightly chilly first thing).

Bonus flower pic

"Box of de Lights"

What kind of fool goes to Ikea after dropping number one son off at the airport, buys some garden lights and then takes 40 pictures of them in the box, before spending half an hour picking the best of them, image processing them a bit and then putting them on his blog.

That would be me then...

Pack shot

A close up

Colour fiddling

Heroes with a sense of humour

I love it when people you admire turn out to be good folks. I've mentioned "The Pitchers" comic strip before. This is a wonderful take on Hollywoodland from the point of view of a couple of aspiring script writers by a pair of talented artists called Berger and Wyse (they also did the title sequence from the BBC TV show "Hustle" - which should have won an award).  With a bit of luck they might one day they do a book of the Pitcher strips. I'd buy it on day one.

Anyhoo, last week they mentioned a "Trip Hazard" character, a clear infringement of my intellectual property rights since I've been not writing new Trip Hazard P.I. episodes for ages.  They did it again this week.

So I emailed them to tell them they would shortly be hearing from my lawyers. They shot straight back with this link which proves they had the name first, and told me that now I would be hearing from their lawyers. I hope they were joking. I was. Honest.

Box of Delights

 
The Word

Got a parcel today. Not from the Post Office, they are on strike, but from DHL. In it were ten copies of my book.  Amazing. I daren't read it, as I'm scared that the first thing I'll see will be a huge glaring mistake, but it is very nice to actually see printed pages wot I wrote. There is even a picture of me on the back.

You can get the book from Amazon in the UK here. And in the 'states from here.

Hari Kiri Toshiba

My laptop tried to kill itself again today. It turned itself on in the bag. I got to it just as the batteries were giving out after spending around an hour trying to set fire to my house. The bag and the laptop were really hot. I'd like to think that it would actually notice when it was catching fire, and shut down or do something sensible, but I'm not convinced. Perhaps it makes a WIFI connection to the fire-brigade or something.

This means I'm going to have to update the BIOS for one which is a bit less melty. Wish me luck.

Update on 2007-06-29 18:33 by Rob

I've done the BIOS upgrade and it's definitely made a difference. The machine won't disconnect from the docking station now.....

The Secret of Eternal Life

My newspaper is presently doing a list of "1,000 Films to See Before You Die". I've got cunning plan which will enable me to live forever. I'm only going to watch 999 of them.

Of course this raises the prospect of an intriguing murder case:

"And so I put it to the jury that the defendant showed my client 'Barbette's Feast' with the sole intention of murder most foul...."

Actually, I'm taking no chances, I'm not going to watch many of them at all. And since it doesn't include Napoleon Dynamite I'm wondering if it is the kind of list that I should have anything to do with anyway.