TechEd 2009 Test Firing

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I’m doing a session at TechEd 2009 in Berlin:

DEV08-IS Writing Games and Exploring the Microsoft Zune HD in XNA 3.1

Wed 11/11 | 17:30-18:45 | Interactive Theatre 2 - Orange

I got that information off the TechEd schedule builder. So it must be true.

As part of the preparation I delivered my first pass of the session this afternoon at Hull to a bunch of students and staff who were nice enough to turn up. Thanks for coming along folks. I’ll put the slides and sample code up on my blog after TechEd.

Idiot

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Last week I wanted to take the Tosh tablet home to do some work preparing it for TechEd. But it wouldn’t come off the docking station I keep in my office. The lever kept jamming when I tried to remove the machine.

I cursed this for a while, concocted a theory where something inside had got stuck and put the whole thing, laptop, docking station and all, into a carrier bag and took it all home for repair. I reasoned that I just had to pop the back off, release the offending catch by hand and then all would be well.

The back of the docking station is held on by twelve screws. I undid ten of them and noticed that the back would not come off. So I laboriously refitted all ten and, as I was tightening the last screw, I noticed the remaining two. So I took all the screws out and then discovered that to get the back off the docking station you have to also undo some fittings on the top of it. Which was presently stuck underneath the laptop, which was still securely fixed on.

So I cursed some more and had a cup of tea. As I was taking a sip I noticed a little lever on the side of the docking station that I hadn’t seen before. It had a little padlock drawn next to it.  I moved the lever to the other setting, unlocking the tablet and allowing it to be easily removed.

Idiot.

Another Reality Fault

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I love Windows Media Center. I’ve used it for a couple of years, ever since I got rid of my Sky box.

A couple of weeks back the Freeview system was “upgraded”. I got loads of difficult to remove messages on the TV telling me that I would have to re-scan and find all the channels again. What the message didn’t say was that after the “upgrade” pretty much nothing would work any more. All my TV channels are broken apart from Five.

Now I quite like CSI and Flash Forward, but there are actually other things I fancy watching as well. But I can’t. Kind of ironic really. An upgrade to improve the reception of Five has broken everything else.

Of course all my other digital tellies work fine, it is only the Media PC that is broken. Initially put it down to the TV tuner cards I’m using as they are a bit old.  So I tried playing around a bit. I managed to get the Sony PlayTV that I normally use with to the PS3 to talk to the computer and that duly found all the channels. But it would only show me channel Five. Wah.

This is very, very strange. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was happening I would say it was impossible. There is some muttering on the interwebs about changes to multiplexes and signal strengths, but nobody has reported the same problem I’ve got.

I call this kind of thing a “Reality Fault”, in that everything is working fine, it is just that reality around it is broken. Oh well.  If I can find a cheap enough TV card I’ll put that in and rebuild everything I suppose.

Don’t you just love progress?

Not Intrepid

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We got a letter today. Someone had tried to deliver a package and failed because “our house is not on a road”. Well, I looked outside and the road was still there. True enough, a road near where we live is blocked at the moment while some new flood drains are installed, but we can still get in or out. And the letter managed to get here….

I rang the delivery company and told them that it is actually possible to get to where we live. I guess that as soon as they saw that the way the SatNav was pointing was blocked they must have given up.

Team Fortress Game Afternoon

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Hull University, like most others, reserves Wednesday afternoon for games. So does our department now. Hull Com. Soc. is using one of our labs for Team Fortress 2 sessions every other week. I went along with the camera.

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The event was something of a success…

I would have liked to have had a go, but they had people queuing outside the door, waiting for their turn. Apparently there were also students taking part from off campus too, since we were using the Departmental Games Servers. The next one is in a couple of weeks, I’m going to try and get there early for some multi-player action.

Incidentally, if you are in Hull this weekend there is a FragFest organised for Saturday 17th at the Lawns. You can find out more at the Hull ComSoc web site.

Masters Welcome Party

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We had another party tonight to welcome our Masters level students. Same format, different quiz questions and some different winners.

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First prize

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Second prize (they actually got a higher score, but since the team was all staff and contained Warren, Head of Department, it wasn’t allowed to win.

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Third prize

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We had a wooden spoon (or plastic microphone) prize for the team who made it into last place.

Then it was on to Rock Band, Wii Sports and dance mats for the rest of the evening.

Making a Fool of Yourself the Rob Miles Way

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Turns out to be surprisingly easy. Here is your simple 7 step guide:

  1. Stand around talking after a lecture and forget that you are due in another lecture.
  2. Remember, panic and run to the lecture room.
  3. Note with surprise that your room is already occupied, and that a bunch of students are stood outside not knowing what to do.
  4. Assume that the there has been a timetabling error and apologise profusely to the students.
  5. Ring the office, and ask if there has been a timetable clash.
  6. Find out that you are in fact stood outside the wrong room sympathising with some students who you have never seen before, and that your class is in fact patiently waiting for you in the room across the corridor.
  7. Apologise to everyone. Twice.

Oh well. At least the lecture went well in the end.

Sometimes the Internet is less useful than you think

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Rob (on mobile phone in car, having waited 20 minutes to find a parking space):”So, you haven’t got any left in stock, despite me having specifically reserved one online before coming up town?”

SalesPerson:”No. Sorry about that. You can have the one that has been out in front of the shop if you like…”

Rob: “No thanks.” (sound of muttering and reverse gear being engaged…)

Girl Geek Dinners at Hull

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Girl Geek Dinners started in London some time back. The idea is to give girls who are interested in technology an occasion where they can get together and chat about life, the universe and everything.

The idea has now spread all over the world. We even have them in Hull now. The department is sponsoring the next one which will be in mid-October. If you want to find out more, there is a Facebook group “Hull Girl Geek Dinners” which you can join. If you are at Hull you should also keep an eye out for the posters that will be going up soon.

Start of Semester

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Everyone seems to have come back to Hull, which is nice. We have even had quite good weather today, which makes the whole thing even more pleasant. The corridor has been full of queues as people wait to register.

Being a new student seems to be a succession of standing in a queue to get a piece of paper that tells you to go to another queue and so on. As you go you accumulate lots of more bits of paper until at the end of the day you have a whole bag full. Then you sit through sessions where people tell you stuff that seems important but you probably aren’t taking in because you are concerned about being in the right place now and getting to the right place for the next session. And so on.

Don’t worry. It will all come right in the end.

Fingerprint Removal for Beginners

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I was doing some vacuuming today, as you do. The machine sucked up a couple of ball bearings (no idea where they came from) and proceeded to rattle like mad.

As an engineer, I knew how to fix this. I removed the little cover over the pipe and turned the vacuum upside down so that the bearings would fall out.Unfortunately, while doing this I left the machine plugged in. The biggest design flaw with our Dyson is that it is very easy to catch the power button and start it off. Which is just what I did next, with my finger still stuck inside it.

Apparently my screams were quite impressive. Number one wife even heard me, and she was downstairs on the telephone at the time. She snapped instantly into action “Rob’s just made a really strange noise” she said to the caller, and continued with her conversation.

When I got my digit out the end of the finger was all shiny, just as if it had been polished by thousands of strokes from a rotary brush. Which is not surprising really. It was also very warm. After I held it under the cold tap for a while it started to return to something like normal size and colour, and I think that no real damage has been done. I can still play the piano as badly as before I’m sure, and typing speeds seem unaffected.

The biggest worry is that it is one of the fingers that they check at US airports before letting you into the country. I wonder what they do if they discover that one of your fingers no longer has a print…