The Power of W

I'd never heard of W hotels before I came to Korea. I have now. This place is amazing. I could (and probably will) devote an entire post to my room. I've no idea how I managed to merit such lavish accommodation, but since it will probably never happen again, I'm making the most of it.

On the way to breakfast you pass this "wooden video wall". A camera in the middle grabs a video frame which is then used to orient thousands of little wooden blocks to show the picture. It does work, and the blocks make a super trickling noise as people walk past and the picture changes. I want to build one.

This is the view from the hotel restaurant. I suspect it looks even better by night. Say hello to Dennis and Nannette.

These are made of logs which have been sliced and fitted together to make art. Amazing.

Sometimes it feels like you've strayed onto the set of a sixties spy movie.

The lift has these amazing hanging lights. They are red when you are going down....

...and green when you are going up.

I'm sure I could get tired of living here. Maybe in 100 years.

Imagine Cup Top Six Rock the House

Today was the day that the top six contestants in the Imagine Cup Software Development Challenge got to strut their stuff in front of hundreds of students, a bunch of VIP judges and press from all around the world.

And by gum they were good. I was very pleased that a few of the teams that I thought were excellent had made it through to the final. Frankly, I wish they could all get first prize.

Rogerio gets things going

They guy in front of me was certainly on message.....

All the top teams at the end of the auditorium.

Very well done people. Your lives just changed a little bit....

Culture vs Gadgets

After lunch, and an ice cream, we set off on the next stage of our trip, which was a cruise on the Han river.

All aboard

Apartments

The captain, looking cool in white gloves

This bridge has a name, but I've forgotten it
Do I get any marks for composition?

Once we got off the boat we headed for a market street.

The pastel umbrellas are Imagine Cup students. Bless.

At this point I'm ashamed to say that I deviated a little from the enlightened path of culture when someone mentioned leaving the tour and heading for the electronics district. I'm afraid that I weakened and we headed off for the nearest subway station.

Route Planning

Hmm. Or we could just buy at the window...

Thank heavens I didn't pack my heels..

Not our train.

Tube travel

branded handrail

Now this is what I call a subway station

On the way to the mart

Mobile phones anyone?

Pink is the new black

Component heaven

Gadget happy team

People in Seoul are very obliging. I got the camera out and the guy in the booth instantly struck a pose.

Indeed it is

There is a Marks and Spencer coming soon...

Obligatory taxi shot

... and when we arrived

We found this amazing Italian place for tea. With the most wonderful artwork on the walls.

..and the calzone was wonderful too

Finally we got a taxi back to the hotel (taxis are amazing value here) and staggered into bed.

Greetings from the Future

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.

Korean ganja fizzy grape juice.....

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

the longest bar in South Korea. So they say.

Future phone, and a more traditional one

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

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.

"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

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

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....

Boggled

Number one daughter got me an uber-Boggle for my birthday. It does 5x5 puzzles. Wonderful.

How many words can you make?

A Somewhat Better Day

Well, bodily functions seem to have returned pretty much to normal, which is nice.

Not a good day

Today has not been a good day. Any day which starts at 3:00 am with a search for a bucket is not going to end well....

And so it has transpired. I must have picked something up on the trip to London. Maybe eating 4 Crispy-Creme donuts in one day is a bad plan. Whatever, I'm certainly paying for it at the moment.

Bowser Man

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

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.

Dunno what they are, but they look nice.

Breakdowns

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

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.

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...

Power Mad

Rechargeable Battery (as owned by Rob): [noun] "An object which fits in the battery compartment of an electrical device. And serves no other purpose."

(does anybody know a manufacturer of good ones?)

Sun, Sea, Sand and Certificates

Did the Scarborough degree ceremony today. Lovely. The weather was a bit brisk, but it never actually rained. I took the bigish camera and the wide angle lens. And had some fun taking photographs.

Fun on the beach

Grass

Graduand's Lunch

Funfair

View from the stage...

..and from the back.

There are a bunch more on my Flickr site.

Degree Ceremony Wide Angle View

I took the medium sized camera with the wide angle lens down to City Hall to try and take a picture of the congregation. It sort of came out OK, but I had to turn the speed up to get any kind of picture, and that makes some of the detail a bit noisy. Nevertheless, I'm not too unhappy with the results...

Can you find yourself on here?

...or here?

Degrees of Heat, and a Great Joke

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

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.

Displacement Day

I was supposed to be getting on with some writing today. Unfortunately this meant watching some progress bars for long periods of time while I made some software work, but I did manage to get my room tidied up a bit, which is always nice. I'm hoping that my subconscious has been beavering away on my behalf.....