Steve Balmer at Microsoft Student Technology Day

Steve Balmer runs Microsoft. He took over from Bill Gates earlier this year. I've seen him talk before. He's good.

Today I saw him talk again at the Microsoft Student Technology Day in London. Zoe, Sam and I caught the early train out of Hull and headed for the Royal Festival Hall in London for Student Technology Day.

The Steve Balmer session was in the middle of a whole bunch of presentations put on for students from around the country. All the sessions were excellent.

First up was Andy McLoughlin, co-founder of Huddle.net. Huddle is a rather nice looking group collaboration tool which Andy and his company have taken from an idea they had in a pub to a fully fledged, venture capital backed, commercial application in a few years. Andy talked about the 20 rules for any startup and really laid it on the line about how to succeed. Very interesting and inspiring stuff.

Next up was Jay Girotto, Principal Group Program Manager, Windows Live Search. Jay took us through the latest version of Live Search and how the chase is on to produce search engines that provide more than just a few links to things that might be useful. This led into discussions of context, artificial intelligence and systems of fearsome complexity, all with the aim of making it easier to find what you want.

Ralf Herbrich is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft's computer science lab in Cambridge and he was up next talking about Artificial Intelligence in games. Excellent stuff. The presentation took the lid off lots of clever things that they have to do to make your computer opponents more interesting, and to match up players in network games so that everyone has a good time.

And then we got to Steve B. And how. Say what you like about the bloke, but he has amazing presence. At the start of the talk he made the point that computers should make it possible to have gatherings like the one we were attending, without the need to for us all to actually travel to the same place. On that I disagree. Just watching the effect this chap was having on the students in the room, I could see that actually being in the same place as a speaker is really the best way to get a feel for their energy and where they are coming from.

The man himself

After his talk Steve answered some questions posed by delegates. And the first question he answered was from me! Who would have thought it? I'm told that all the sessions have been recorded and will be available soon. If you want to find out what I asked and what the answer was, I'll put the link up as soon as I have it.

Finally we had a session from Paolo Barone an Academic Technologist who took us for a lap around Microsoft Surface, the new platform from Microsoft. This is amazing. Multi-touch from multi users, intuitive interfaces and what looks like an easy to understand programming model. Want one. Really, really, want one.

And then it was time for the train and home.

Many thanks to Microsoft, particularly Andy Sithers and Mark Johnston, for making everything go so well. Andy did a great job as Master of Ceremonies too, although I think he should have worn a suit as well.....

A great day.

Last Call for Collectormaina

This might be the last hurrah for our trips to Milton Keynes. We've found out that after today the whole shebang is moving to a football stadium. We've been going for a while, and the mix of celebrities and interesting stands has held our attention up to now and  because there is also a Lego shop (and an Apple store) at the shopping centre where it is held we've seen it as worth the trip.

Anyhoo,  we got up at an early hour and set off. Number one son was meeting us there and wanted to snag one of the Serenity cast.

Morena puts pen to paper..

So, who is this cool gentleman?

..and this chap (a clue, his part is going to get a lot bigger in the future..)

Not sure if we'll do this again, but it has been fun while it lasted. I bought another watch, and then we retired to a Travelodge to watch "Strictly Come Dancing" (although I was more pre-occupied with checking the score in the Hull City match - which we won. Yay!).

London tomorrow.

A Walk in the Woods

Went for a walk in the woods today.

This is what you seen when you look down.

This is what you seen when you look up.

First BBQ of the Year

We had our second barbeque of the year today. This is a bit late (the first one was on Monday. Snag is, we have just not had the weather for standing outside admiring the miracle that is fire. Anyhoo, it went well enough.

Firelighter power

In the field next day they were getting in the harvest.

I wanted to complain, because according to all the research I performed at the age of five, a combine harvester is red. Not camouflaged. I had a play with the macro lens whilst the burgers cooked.

I think this is a thistle.

And this isn't.

American Birthday

Went to the American Museum in Bath as part of some birthday celebrations. It is a wonderful place. And we didn't get rained on.

I like the shades of green.

Art in Hereford

We like to go to the art festival in Hereford. Last year we turned up on Monday and found that the main exhibition was shut. So this year we did the same thing, which was a bit daft really.

Anyhoo, we did find some artists who were doing little exhibitions at home, which was very nice. If I was rich I'd love to invest in a few bits and bobs.

Showing style in the face of adversity. And yes, those are guys in sumo costumes in the distance.

Sunday Ducks

We went off to see the ducks at Slimbridge today. We go there every year and always enjoy it. I took the big camera and tried to get some snaps.

These are not ducks

Anniversary Bash

My Uncle Tony and Aunty Iris have been married for quite a while. Apparently I was at the wedding, but I cried so much I had to be carried outside. Doesn't sound a bit like me actually, but my recollection of the event is a bit hazy to be honest.

Anyhoo, to celebrate this we were invited down for a do, and as soon as I heard the magic words "Free Food and Drink" it was out with the satnav and into the route planning phase.

The party was held at cousin Lindsay's super house, which has a wonderful view out of the back. And the weather was fantastic. Food was eaten, stories swapped, speeches made and champagne drunk. Fantastic.

I've hidden a clue as to which anniversary it was somewhere in this picture. See if you can use your skill and judgement to work out the answer.

One thing that came out of the do for me was that technology is now everywhere. Digital cameras were being produced and compared, there was talk of email and SMS and Vista and many things technical. I talked quite a bit of "shop" (sorry about that) and it turns out that my cousin Sue is actually an Internet entrepreneur (try saying that after a few glasses of champers).

She runs myblankets.com which sells personalised gifts, baby presents, even stuff for your horse (if you have one). She also does a roaring trade in "taggies" which are cuddly comfort blankets for the very young.

I really liked the colours on this one, but I've been told I'm a bit old for them.

Anyhoo, thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the party great, and best wishes to Tony and Iris.

Kipling Country

We were down in the south of England for a family "do", but the place we were staying was in walking distance of "Batemans", where Rudyard Kipling lived. So we wandered out into the morning sunshine to seek it out.

I can see why Kipling liked the place so much.

They were having a historical re-enactment thing in the grounds of the house, which meant that there were lots of people in period costume quite literally living in the past for the weekend. We didn't have much time to take a look round, but I did make time for some pictures.

Old style family entertainment.

Then it was time to get suited and booted for the main event.

Robs Travel Tips

Here's a tip. If you are going north to south in the UK it is worth thinking about using the A1 rather than the M1. The M1 is the main motorway up the UK, but it is always busy and often delayed. The A1 is not all motorway, but it is all dual carriageway and it has a certain period charm which the other road lacks.

And if you stop for a coffee you might see one of these in the car park.

We shot down the A1 at the legal speed limit pretty much all the way. The only slight problem was that the road has been "improved" by the removal of a bunch of roundabouts that the satnav thought were still there. I'm sure the machine was impressed by the way that we could find exit 2 at 70 miles an hour.....

Back in Blighty

Today we are making a guest appearance back in Hull, before we zoom off again to a wedding anniversary. We got back first thing this morning and watched the boat dock.

"Well I don't care about that. I'm wearing blue tomorrow because it matches my eyes."

Birthday in Bruges

Busy week this week. Just back from London and now we're in Bruges for my birthday.

Looks good from the river

The Belgian take on strawberry flavoured milk. Very nice.

Lots of controls. But what for?

View from the top.

Bruges is a great place for a visit. Lots of shops selling chocolate, which is always a good thing. Although I enjoyed the boat trip just as much as the city, even though I didn't get the top bunk.

The Land of Noise Reduction

In spite of the dodgy weather forecasts we decided to spend the first day of our holiday walking round the Dalby Forest. And we were very lucky.

Nice Colours

Flowers

We just managed to find a space to eat our picnic.

London Birthday Bash

Today we all headed for London and the birthday bash for number on daughter. Lots of treats to come. Including a trip to the Apple store (which was for me).

Racing to London. We beat the car to the next junction.

We arrived in London bang on time, got to the Apple store before it opened and I got myself a docking station or two (the shiny new iPhone doesn't have a docking station supplied like the old one did).

Then we went for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (excellent food and a thunder storm every twenty minutes) and on to Spamalot. Very well done, and very funny. For it to work it had to have proper music and dancing. And it did. Along with funny jokes and some tunes to sing along to. Heartily recommended.

Then the final treat of the day, a trip on the London Eye. With the big camera and fat lens.

Base of the eye

Looking towards the Telecom Tower

Our seat of "government"

Back on terra firma

Then we wandered out in search of food and taxis.

This is my favourite picture of the whole trip.

Although this runs it close. There are more on Flickr.

Then back to the hotel for a rest. Excellent day. More tomorrow. Can't wait.

Universal Saturday

With the conference over we headed out to Universal Studios for another visit. We went there on Thursday, but we wanted to see it again in daylight. Even though this time we'd have to pay for food.

..we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes....

This picture is in no way faked.

The Simpsons ride (good but nowhere near as good as Spiderman at Adventure Island)

The .NET Micro Framework in Action

Today I went down to the Hands On Lab area at TechEd and had a go at the Micro Framework lab, just to see what it was like. The first exercise was to drive an LCD panel from a Micro Framework device....

Shameless .NET Micro Framework promotion....

Then it was on to building a little burglar alarm controller. Great fun. And the lab section was enormous.

We think our labs are quite large at the university in Hull, but this is just silly....

In fact the conference itself is just plain enormous. This is one part of one part.

If you want to find out more about the .NET Micro Framework, including devices and how to get hold of the development kit you can go to their site on MSDN. They also have a very active blog.

From C# to Sea World

I feel terrible about this, but whilst other folk were working in the conference hall myself and number one wife went to Sea World.  (actually, my conscience was clear in that I have got all my slides done and checked in, and my demos all work fine).

Obligatory jumping killer whale shot

Seaworld was excellent. Gave me plenty of chance to play with the new camcorder (this including recording five minutes of "non-video" when I forgot to press the record button...).

There is probably something very interesting and fish related in this picture, but I'm darned if I can find it now...

Experience those penguins...

Back to work tomorrow, my session is at 10:30 in the morning, right after the keynotes. I quite like this, in that it means that I get it over and done with.

Virgin on the Ridiculous

We flew out to Orlando today. We flew with Mr. Branson's favourite airline, which meant going to Manchester Airport to get on the plane, along with 450 other soon to be close friends. Normally I fly from Humberside Airport, which is just down the road and tiny. When you ring them up and ask them what time the plane takes off they ask "What time can you get here?". They don't have a luggage belt, just a chap with a wheelbarrow. Actually I'm being a bit unfair here, they have everything that you get at a proper airport. Last year they even had a delay. I love flying from Humberside, but I also love money, and unfortunately flying from Manchester was much cheaper.

Anyhoo, we got to make a two hour drive to Manchester and queue for a while. I tried to check in on-line, but the system wouldn't let me because all the on-line check-in was full. I wasn't sure what that meant until I got to the airport. The idea of internet check in is that you do all the hard stuff before you just turn up and drop off your luggage. The funny thing was that the queue at the airport for the luggage drop off was about three times the size of the normal one, which I thought was rather funny. Although of course our queue ran at a quarter the speed, which I guess more than levels things out.

The reason for this seemed to be that people were very fussy about where they were going to sit. I think that planes are now so big that they are becoming like cities. You have your east side and your west side, and a very dodgy neighbourhood down at the tail end. During the flight I went up to the galley to get a drink, and saw a rather nasty incident between the Sharks and the Jets which had to be defused by the stewardess lobbing in those little cans of cola (Virgin of course) and a barrage of small bags of pretzels. Down towards the cockpit someone had set up a gated community and where we were sitting several of the seats had been boarded up. In the middle over the wings there were loads of skips outside the seats, each full of last year's furniture.

But I digress. At least I got an aisle seat. Unfortunately it was behind the only person bad mannered enough to tip their seat back. I don't know whey they make the seats recline, because although you get that 75mm of extra space you also have to listen to the crunching of bones and the screams of pain from the person sat behind you. I had to put my legs into the aisle where they were run over by the drinks trolley and every one of the hundred or so small children that were also on the flight. Great stuff.

Eventually, we arrived more or less intact and made the taxi ride to the airport. The hotel is actually quite posh, and I'm really looking forward to the conference. And Disneyland.

Packing for Heat

Heading 'stateside again tomorrow. I've giving a session at TechEd 08 in Orlando, Florida which should be fun. Anybody who is turning up and wants the "Rob Miles Experience" (patent pending) can come along to my Micro Framework talk on Tuesday morning. I'll be giving away copies of my book, and one from someone else.

Sign of the Times

These "lucky" people were at my XNA talk today.

..and here is the rest of the room

Another smashing audience, thank you for laughing in all the right places..

I'll put all the content up here tomorrow.

Then it was off to do  book signing. The man who runs the bookshop had, perhaps somewhat optimistically, got 100 copies of my book in to sell.

I ended up selling 10, which was nice. Then I went around and took a look at what the students here are doing with XNA.

The answer is lots, and very well. I saw some Imagine Cup entries and some very impressive work. Well done folks. And now I'm zooming of to catch a plane home for fish and chips.....