Greetings from the Future

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It is now Wednesday morning. Except that it isn't where you are reading this. Probably. Because of the time difference thingy I find that I'm in tomorrow, whereas the readers of this might blog not be. Until you  catch up of course.

Very confusing, and yet somehow appropriate for Korea. I've had time to take a few happy snaps around the place.

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Korean ganja fizzy grape juice.....

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...with Korean ingredients (I wonder which one is sugar?)

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the longest bar in South Korea. So they say.

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Future phone, and a more traditional one

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What we are here for

We are going out today (or is that tomorrow) for some culture. I hope that too much doesn't rub off on me. I'll post some more pictures from the future later.

Imagine Cup Update

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Korea is an amazing place. I know we are getting 90% posh hotel and 10% Korea, but it is still amazing. Tomorrow we take a break from the competition and go for a look around Seoul, so that will be a chance to try and see what the real place is like.

For me, formal involvement in the Imagine Cup 2007 is pretty much over. Today, after a very intense but hugely enjoyable set of judging rounds I've completed my duties. In all I've sat through 22 team presentations, and I've enjoyed every one. I've a whole bunch of comments for each team and I plan to go round and try to have a chat with each at the World Fair at the end of the week.

Sadly,"The Seedlings" are also out of the competition. I've not seen their final presentation but I do know how hard they have worked and how much they put into their entry. Very well done guys for getting this far. It is a perhaps a bit of a cliche to say that "Nobody leaves the competition empty handed" but, in terms of the value of the experience and the way that having taken part in will change their lives, I reckon that for the Imagine Cup it is definitely true.

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"The Seedlings" - Master of Complications all

I've got a garden shed full of respect for you guys, and your mentor from Black Marble, Robert Hogg. (You must come round and get it soon - I can't reach the lawn mower).

Here Comes the Judge

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First day of judging today. I've watched 9 presentations in the Software Development category of the Imagine Cup. Wonderful stuff. So many keen people with the nerve to stand up in front of an audience and make their pitch.

I think I get involved with these things as a kind of assurance. I want to be able to convince myself that the future is in capable hands. Well, on today's evidence it is. Well done people.

I was a bit nervous, since I've never judged at one of these events before. Fortunately, thanks to detailed briefing, being in pool with a bunch of great judges and the fact that I've had a bit of a practice at this kind of thing in my time at Hull it all went swimmingly.

If you want to pick up some presentation tips you can find some words of wisdom here. 

Jetlagged Software

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I'm trying a new trick to deal with jetlag. The name of the game is "get enough sleep to stay sane". This means that if I find myself wide awake at, say 2:00 am in the morning, the trick is to go with the flow, work on something for a little while and then go back to bed.

Snag is, this means that I need something to do in the time. So I've decided to start writing silly software in this situation. I've written a daft little application that I'm now using in Korea on the wonderful Smartphone (which gives me another advantage for the device - if I find something I need to make it do, I can just write a program).

You can find out more here.

Note: I nearly bought "jetlaggedsoftware.com" to go with the product but in the end I backed off. Perhaps I'm (gulp) growing up....

Bowser Man

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Bowser is not just a baddie in a Mario game, it is also a thing for delivering water. My brother in law has just lost his water supply thanks to the floods, and so we filled our car up with water (not literally - that would be stupid) and headed off to Cheltenham on the way home. We drove past bowsers on street corners, and people walking purposely to and from them. We dropped off our load of water (just a few bottles and some containers) and chatted for a while about this and that, before heading guiltily off to our house, where the taps work.

Just as we left we heard news that some parts of the area had got their water supplies back. I hope it is all sorted out soon.

Rain

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It only rained twice today. Once for four hours and once for eight. We are now in the deep south of england, where people talk funny and the beer tastes strange. The flooding here is awful, on a scale with what Hull experienced recently, but with the added twist that a water treatment station has been put out of action by the rising floods. Which means that people are surrounded by water but have nothing to drink or wash in. Truly horrid. I can't imagine life without running water, it is just one of those things that you never expect to break.

In between showers I did manage to take a few photographs though.

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Dunno what they are, but they look nice.

Breakdowns

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Headed off down south today for a family visit. I don't know about you, but I'm noticing a lot more broken down cars these days. Time was when during a long-ish journey you would see two or three people stranded forlornly at the side of the road. But until recently you hardly saw any. Nowadays they seem much more frequent. Are cars getting less reliable, or are people not having them serviced as often as they should?

Fair Weather Friends

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Had a BBQ today to celebrate my upcoming annual event. Most surprisingly the weather was very good to me, with a break in the rain just long enough for Tim to cook some burgers and sausages, and us to sit in the garden and drink beer whilst solving the problems of the world.

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Colourful cutlery

Folks turned up with presents and cards and I was supplied with a special T shirt to wear, celebrating the fact that tomorrow I'm very old. Unfortunately no photographs were taken of this.. Good stuff and thanks to all.

A great time was had, even though I was beaten at Mario Strikers on the Wii by someone less than a seventh of my age...

Degrees of Heat, and a Great Joke

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Degree ceremonies today. Gosh it was hot. And humid. And they'd closed the windows of City Hall. So we all broiled gently. The best bit was the speech by  Dr John Sentamu, the present Archbishop of York. He was awarded a richly deserved honorary degree in the second ceremony. In the context of having greatness thrust upon himself, he told a really good story, which I will now steal.

A great king had a beautiful daughter. He was very concerned that only the most worthy man should be allowed to marry her. So he built a large pool outside his palace and filled it full of alligators. Then he let it be known that he would grant his daughter's hand in marriage to the first man to swim across the pool. Many people gathered at the waters edge, but all were scared when they saw what happened when some meat was tossed into the pool and the hungry alligators attacked. Then, suddenly a young man was in the pool, swimming his utmost as the alligators chased after him. With a mighty heave the young man pulled himself out of the water and lay gasping at the feet of the king.

"You have done well" said the king. "You have shown great courage and may now marry my daughter".

"I am most grateful" replied the man "But although your daughter is very beautiful I would prefer you to grant me another wish"

"Very well" said the king, surprised at this "What can I do for you instead?"

The man looked at him and said "I would like you to bring me the man who pushed me in the water, so I can put my hands around his neck..."

Confused of Hull

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Since our microwave blew a fuse on Tuesday I've been morosely pricing up replacements. No fun. Today I thought I'd get some more fuses to replace the ones that blew. I picked up a pack in Wilkinsons and noticed something. They were red. Same colour as the one I put in the microwave plug. And they were rated at three amps. Now, for those unfamiliar with the ways of electricity, three amps will run a TV, a lamp and maybe even a mixer. But not a microwave when it tries to cook. I'd replaced the fuse in the microwave with one which will run the clock but will give up the ghost as soon as we actually try to heat something up.

I popped in a 13 amp version (coloured brown) and everything works fine. I guess this makes me an idiot. But a happy one just right now.

Embedded Reading

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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.

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Great to be back

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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

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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.