Selling at the speed of eBay

I think I've finally figured out how to sell things on eBay. Previously I've had real problems, with items hanging around for ever and then being bought by people from far away places with no Paypal. Not good.

Last night I put a couple of things up for sale and I tried a different technique. I just checked to see how much the last couple of identical items had gone for and then placed my items with "Buy it Now" prices five pounds or so less than these figures. Both items were sold by the morning, so it seems to work. Furthermore, because I've used Buy It Now it seems that buyers "Pay for it Now" which means that you aren't hanging around waiting for the money before you can ship the items.

Sunday in Dublin

The hotel had some really posh flowers

Sunday finds me in Dublin, for the XNA European tour. This evening I met up with the tour team, who face the enticing prospect of seven European cities in as many days. Charles and Dave from the XNA group were amazingly chipper, despite having arrived only today and being deep in jetlag country. We had a splendid meal out and talked technical and non-technical (including my delivery of the "Orange for a head" joke - which probably represented the low point of the proceedings).

I'm just around for the Dublin event, I'm giving a couple of sessions tomorrow. Should be fun.

Computers Just Know When to Break

I'm just trying to get the last part of "the other book" finished at the moment. So of course this would be a good time for my word processor to break. Suddenly Word 2007 wouldn't start. When it did run, after a wait for ages, it just sat there grinning at me. If I tried to do anything it froze up again.

Of course the first question I could ask is "How does it know I'm under pressure here?", but I long ago stopped worrying about this. Computer systems just know. Many years ago, when I was writing lots of presentations, my copy of Powerpoint developed the ability to crash whenever I thought "I really need to save now". It did this three times in a row.

I've had so much experience of things failing just when it would be most inconvenient that I'm now convinced that computers just know when to put the boot in.

After some serious digging around, and a near re-install, I found out the cause of my Word problem. I use a network printer at work which I have set as the default printer (which is kind of sensible, since it is where I do most of my printing). This means that Word looks for it when it starts up. Of course the printer can't be found on my network at home, so Word just sulks for ten minutes and then gives up the ghost.

At tip. If you have the same problem, just change the default printer on your PC to one that is always there (for example the document writer) and the problem goes away.

I was feeling very smug this morning when I figured that out and fixed it, and reckoned that I'd got one up on the universe.

Then my monitor abruptly stopped working....

Easy Money

I won 10p yesterday. I had a bet in a lecture that:

i=0;

j = ++i;

- would set j to 1. (it does, because the increment is done before the assignment). Someone didn't agree, a bet was made. Sample code was written and executed. And I won. I didn't keep the money. I handed it back with a magnanimous "Get yourself a drink on me" which shows how out of touch I am...

I went into today's C# lecture with hopes for similar financial gain, but it was not to be. I think the word may be out that I am some kind of hustler. I really like teaching the first year course. Every year we seem to get a great batch of students who ask sensible questions and enjoy learning how to program. It is rather nice at the moment because we are looking at things where there are no "right" answers, just ones which fit the context better than others. So we can debate these issues. Great fun.

Wide Screen Pain

My new notebook has a wide screen display which, over the week away, I'd rather learnt to like. So, bearing in mind that I spend a lot of time staring at a monitor screen I thought I'd get a new wider one. So I did.

The new monitor has a fantastic, jaw dropping display of amazing quality. Which is just as well, because otherwise I might have chucked it through the window by now. It is a 22 inch HP job, with an HDMI input as well as VGA and a lovely glossy finish. However, it and Vista just don't get on.

I know exactly how this should work. I know because I've read the White Paper "Transient Multimon Manager (TMM) Ver. 1.1" by Yu-Kuan Lin Program Manager, Mobile PC Business Unit. This is well written, comprehensive and has some nice scenarios that explain just what should happen. Essentially, the whole thing has been designed so that you set a monitor up once, Vista remembers that setup and then replicates it each time you plug that monitor in again.

This does not happen.

What happens is that you set it up once, and next time you plug it in the system does what the heck it likes, with a range of implausible and hard to select display options. Should you be stupid enough to let the screen saver kick in it then does something else. And if you are such an idiot as to put the machine to sleep you can look forward to no screen, a black screen with a cursor, a screen that you can't do anything with because the window is on the other screen or the blue screen of death when you come back depending on the whim of the system.

I'm not sure who to blame here. The monitor has the habit of reporting itself to Vista as one of a number of devices. The HP monitor control program refuses to believe that an HP monitor is plugged in. The Nvidia display driver doesn't even let me change options and Vista seems quite happy that nothing is wrong.

As for me, the picture is so good that I'm just about prepared to live with it for now. But I've lost a couple of hours trying to find out why something which should just be plug and play is nothing of the sort.

Update on 2007-11-12 19:06 by Rob

'tis a driver thing. I've managed to track down a set of NVidia drivers that makes the monitor mostly work.

Telephoning Exam Papers

While I'm away I installed Skype so that I can phone home cheap. 1.2 pence a minute sounds like a good deal to me. Of course, today when you install applications you often get more than you asked for.

I've just gone on to our departmental Sharepoint pages to look at some past exam papers. All the files are indexed under course codes, which in our department means that we have links that start with numbers like 08101. A Skype browser plugin (which I didn't even know I had) converted all these into into buttons I can press to call each exam as a phone number, which is not terribly useful.....

Update on 2007-11-10 17:39 by Rob

You can get rid of the problem by going to "Tools->Manage Add-Ins" within Internet Explorer and disabling the Skype plugin. Or you can just remove Skype entirely, like I have just done.

Sexy Computer Science

I've been thinking a bit about how "sexy" the subject of Computer Science is. In her intro yesterday Karen Young from Microsoft mentioned that it was being seen as less attractive as a subject for students to take up. Applications to study computing are presently falling in Europe and the USA and for the life of me I can't understand why.

A few years ago there was a bit of a dip in the business, but at the moment the demand for computer literate people is as strong as it has ever been. If you are looking to move into a field where you get to shape the future and also build it then you should enter computing. If you like working with people, finding out what they want and creating answers to questions then you should enter computing. If you like puzzles and working in an environment where things just get more interesting every day, then you should enter computing. I can't think of any other field where you have the potential to have so much impact on the future. Computers are already a huge part of people's lives and that is set to accelerate.

For me the question is not "Why should I study computing?", it is "Why would I not?".

Professional Idiot

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to be as daft as I am. I must remember that not everything that seems like a good idea is actually a good idea. Here at TechEd they have a "Diary Room" in a kind of tribute to the "Big Brother" tv programme. It has a big red chair and a camera, and the idea is that delegates can describe their conference experiences which can then be put out as part of the coverage of the event. I guess the purpose is to get a true delegate perspective.

I walked past it this morning and the idea popped into my head that it might be hilarious to record a piece into the camera asking where the butter was, why there was no milk or cheese and then, after carefully examining the conference guide, look up take say "Oh, so it isn't the dairy room after all". So I tried it. Not good. I then made some other rather silly points and finally, for no sane reason, pressed the save button. Arrrgh. I'm cringing as I write this, I just hope that there is some kind of an editorial layer between my stupidity and worldwide distribution via the interweb.

Then, this afternoon I'd been asked to give a talk about being an valued professional. Karen Young, MVP Program Lead gave a great introduction to the program, finishing by making the point that computing is not seen a sexy any more. I started off my talk by wondering aloud if bringing me on next really was going to show how sexy computing really is. Good thought Rob. I then continued to tell all the students how the internet is "The Biggest CV you will ever have", and that you should regard your internet persona as a brand to be carefully managed so that you always look your best. As I was forcefully making this point the awful vision of me in front of the camera asking for yogurt drifted across my mind.

Idiot.

Update on 2007-11-10 17:41 by Rob

They've actually used my "dairy gag" on the end of the show-real for the Wednesday report on the TechEd delegate web site. The good news is that they've blurred it a bit and not added my name.

Sunny Barcelona

Had a nice flight out to Barcelona this afternoon. Paid the "Tall Persons Tax" to get a seat with leg room and the flight was fine.

This isn't Spain, I took it at the airport in Leeds

The conference starts tomorrow. We are on at just before tea.

Long Lens

I bought a long lens for the SLR today. It wasn't expensive, but it seems to work quite well. Of course it is unlikely that I will encounter anything worth photographing, but if I do, and it is in the distance, and I have time to do the lens swapping thing, I'll post the pictures.

200 Wrong Answers

At around half way through the semester we have some tests for our students. I'm doing a whole bunch of courses this year (including teaching Visual Basic - which has been interesting) and so I have to invent the quizzes. Each test has 25 questions with one correct and four incorrect answers.

That makes 200 wrong answers to be invented. Plus the sample tests as well. You might think that inventing wrong answers is easy, but actually it is a bit tricky. You have to have ones that kind of make sense, but are not right. If they are too right they are confusing, and if they are too wrong they are too easy.

Wonderful fun.

Delayed Answer

Our new answering machine is a bit tempremental. It seems that sometimes it takes a while to tell us about new messages, and it doesn't always give us all of them. This could of course be us not using it properly (as if) rather then a fault. Either way, it got me to thinking.

Perhaps one day there will be a market for unreliable devices. Perhaps people will pay extra for a slightly duff model so that they can say "Oh, sorry, the machine must have lost that one, sorry I didn't get back to you".

With the guaranteed delivery of SMS and universal voicemail, maybe we will eventually welcome a little bit of uncertainty in our lives. Perhaps our machine isn't broken, just ahead of its time. 

Inspiration on the Road

Today we had Ed Dunhill and Ben Coley from Microsoft over to see us as part of the Microsoft Inspiration tour. These guys work hard. A five hour drive to Hull, a three hour presentation, and a five hour drive on to the next gig. Tough stuff.

Ed and Ben in the Large (lecture theatre)

Some of the students limbering up

Keeping your audience watching....

The talks, about SilverLight, XNA, Embedded Development and why everyone should enter the Imagine Cup this year, were excellent, despite some comings and goings from students who had to head for timetabled lectures.

If you are at a college or uni. and you haven't got these two coming round to visit, you are missing out. If you check on the web site, I think they have a few slots free next year.

If you were at the talk and want to find out more about the stuff they showed off the best place to look is in Ed's blog, which you can find here.

How to turn a laptop into a paperweight

Lose the power supply.

I've just spent the thick end of an hour (and I mean the very thick end) looking for a little black box which is not worth a lot on its own, but given the fact that it has the right funny shaped plug and strange voltage output makes my little UMPC laptop worth having. I found it in the last place I looked.

Wish I'd looked there first.

Insomniac Dreams

I keep having this dream where I'm lying awake, trying to get to sleep.

Or at least, I think am.

Second Worst Place To Live in Britain

Some idiot Channel 4 program has just published a survey that makes out that Hull is the second worst place to live in Britain. This morning I thought I'd take a few pictures of the horrible place where I live.

The Spurn Point light ship as was. You can go round it if you like.

Princes Quay shopping centre

Posh boat

Awful place, isn't it.

Kewl bridge

Town Centre

Go Hull.

A Sad Moment

All good things must come to an end, so they say. At the end of the week we turn off our old departmental forums. I set them up many years ago and they have been a roaring success. Many students have signed up for them and some have stuck around for years after they officially left Hull, passing on help to undergraduates. Some of the debates have been truly hilarious, and others very thought provoking.

However, with a move to a more unified and managed set of resources we are finally turning off the old forums and moving on to our new shiny system. I'm sure that they will will soon be hosting the same level of discussion, debate and odd bit of stupidity that made our old forums so much fun.

But I'll still miss the original system....

How to succeed at Lan Parties

1. Turn up late.
2. Bring your own game.
3. Play your game until it looks like you might lose.
4. Leave.

It worked for me. Hull ComSoc had a lan party today. They had Halo 3, Quake, Wii Tennis, Guitar Hero, in fact all kinds of games. I took along my copy of Virtua Tennis for the PS/3 and played a few games, which was nice. I kept carefully away from all the games I was less good at (i.e. everything else) and managed to make sure I didn't lose. Wonderful. And you don't have "friendly fire" in tennis. I did take the camera though, and grabbed some snaps.

Halo 3 multiplayer semi final. Tight stuff.

A tense moment in the final

Mission Control

Magic spread a bit thin

I saw this today up town. "Experience the Magic of Light" eh? All together - "It's just a flashlight".

They don't seem to have sold many.....

Ancient History

Whilst digging around on my hard disk for some files I came across the notes I wrote for my Workstation Technology course in 1995. I thought it might be fun to pdf them and put them on this site. You can find them here. It is interesting to read them and see how much has changed.

And how much hasn't...

And just to prove that I'm still working in the present, I've put up another chapter in the XNA book.