Climbing Needles

Panorama

I’d convinced myself that there was no point in going to Seattle. I’ve been before, it is a half hour bus ride and I had work to do. Then I saw the weather outside, and I went anyway. Monorail – Space Needle – Pike Place Market – wonderful.

Reflected Tower

This is the tower reflected in the building nearby. Amazing stuff.

Two Boats

Another view from the top of the needle.

I took a bunch of pictures that will no doubt appear on these pages over the years. Then it was time to board the return bus and head back to pick up my luggage and catch the flight home. I’ve been using this rather cunning (I think) trick of getting up around 3:00 am while I’m out here to try and trick the body into not adjusting to the Seattle time zone. In a couple of days I’ll find out if it works…

It’s been a great trip. Very intense, but very rewarding. Great questions and interaction with the audience. Thanks folks.

A Job With Rob

Downtown Boston

One of the great things that the university does is Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. These are set up to do two things. Get students into good jobs and spread expertise into business. We are presently setting one up and I’m one of the academics at Hull University who is involved with managing the work. It is a very interesting project in a nice part of the world (not Hull actually) with good pay. If you are a recent graduate who wants to get started in the business you could do a lot worse than apply. Even though you might end up in meetings with me….

There are lots of KTPs out there. The one I’m talking about is here. You can find lots more, including some others from the university here.

A Floor in the Plan

WP_000265

Spent some of today looking at kitchens and tiles. Great fun. No, really. Very useful to have a phone with a good camera. Whenever we saw something we wanted to remember we just took a picture. No messing around writing down names and numbers, just a quick click and there you are. These pictures are then dutifully uploaded by the phone to SkyDrive where they will probably stay for ever…

Bristol M Shed

Boat

Outside M Shed they have this rather nice boat

M Shed is a really good industrial museum in Bristol. You should go. It’s free and the whole setup tells the tale of commerce and trade in Bristol through the ages. The cafe is nice too, and they have a rooftop terrace with some really nice views that will find their way onto these pages once I’ve tidied them up a bit.

Raleigh

Inside they have some very interesting exhibits with roots in the area, including this Raleigh moped.

Meeting Alfred Thompson

Meeting Alfred Thompson

Alfred and I, conveniently name tagged for your convenience. No idea who the bloke in the background is though…

One of the really nice things about going to the Imagine Cup was that I got to meet up with some friends I’d never met. One of them was Alfred Thompson. I’ve known Alfred since the days of “the Spoke”, an early network community where we used to via for visits to our respective pages. This was way back in 2003, when the idea of community sites and stuff was just taking off. I was very proud of the fact that I’d had more visitors to my page, right up to the point where Alfred overtook me and headed off into the distance.

Alfred works hard to promote Computer Science as a “good thing” and it was nice to finally meet up and swap some stories.

MIT Museum

Lisp Machine

This one’s for you, Dr Brayshaw….

We went to the MIT Museum today. One of the highlights of the trip. They take all the things they’ve done and put them on display. Great idea, and some really interesting stuff.

Robot Closeup

Robot close-up. I know what a few of these chips actually do..

Robot Idea

They had this robots idea wall. I had to add an idea of my own. I’ll be back next year to see how they’ve got on.

Boat Trip

This is our third day on the water. Today it is a boat trip around the harbour.

Wonderland Train

This is how you get to the Aquarium stop. The final stop for this train is “Wonderland. I’d love to go there.

Uss Constitution

This is the USS Constitution, or “Old Ironsides” as she is known. Apparently in the seventies she went around in a wheelchair solving murders..

Boston Skyline

Boston harbour looking really nice.

Whale Watching

If you go to Boston you really should go whale watching. They don’t guarantee that you will see a whale, but they will give you another trip if you don’t. You sail out of Boston for an hour or so and then spend some time searching for tell-tale spouts on the horizon. Then the boat accelerates like mad towards them, until the whales go back down again. This was great fun, and we were really lucky to see several whales while we were out there.

Whale Watchers

Watching for whales.

Spouting Whale

A humpback comes up for air.

Whale Money Shot

…and then goes down again.

Boston Science Museum

Not a lot of narrative for the next few days, but a few choice pictures from our holidays. Today we went to Boston Science Museum.

Science Museum Clock

They have this amazing clock in the lobby

Science Museum Sparks

They also have a really impressive lightning display, including sparks to music.

Science Museum

I’m not sure they should call it a Science Museum, in that science is not something that exists in the past, but it sure is a great place to visit.

Boston Wandering

Boston River

Boston has a very nice waterfront.

We went for a wader round Boston today. Very nice. Went down to the waterfront and had a hot dog.

Evening River

This is what the waterfront looks like when it gets a bit darker.

In the evening we went to see an open air movie, “Megamind”, which was a good piece of CGI with a nice plot and a happy ending.

Movie Crowd

Movie Crowd.

Science Museum tomorrow…