Barcelona Pictures

The light around here is fantastic. So I've taken some pictures.

Cute Sunshades

I think it is called "contre-jour"

Lovers of Tony Hawk on the PS2 should beware

Another tree picture

Micro Framework Fun and Games

Today Dave Baker and I strutted our Micro Framework stuff in front of our TechEd audience. Someone had rather kindly told Dave that "He must be mad to present with Rob". If I had a pound for everyone who has said that.....

We had some very nice toys to show off

The talk went very well, in spite of the fact that I told my favourite and second favourite jokes. I'm saving my third favourite for the talk tomorrow. We gave away a bunch of T shirts, a copy of the book and a complete development kit, so there were some very happy delegates. We had loads of questions, which I reckon is a good sign.

At the start of the Dave and Rob show

After the talk I headed off to "Ask the Experts" and spent a happy ninety minutes admiring all the new .NET Micro Framework platforms that seem to have appeared since I last looked, and meeting up with Roger and Colin, who had come al the way over from Seattle to run some porting classes and talk to delegates.

The way that Microsoft are prepared to send over the people who actually make their stuff always amazes me. Delegates can actually talk to the programmers who actually make the products they are working with. It must be hugely expensive in time and effort, but I'm jolly glad they do it.

Bridge Pictures

I took these pictures a while back, but I came across them earlier today and I thought they were worth putting out here. I must remember that this time of year is very good for sunsets.

CollectorMania Again

Perhaps I'm getting too old for this. Perhaps not. At least the fact that we british are messing around with our clocks again this weekend meant that the half five start didn't feel quite so painful, what with the extra hour in bed and all.

Anyhoo, it was off down the motorway to get autographs and stuff. Lots of things to do, and stuff to wish we could afford.

 
Jewel Staite does the business

..or we could have a new kitchen...

The Milton Keynes tree

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.

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.

Campus Pics

I love autumn. You get the most amazing light and colours.

 
As close to artistic as I'm ever going to get...

Frosty Sports Field

Loten looking good

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

Hull Fair Heights

Hull Fair is one of the biggest fairs in Europe. Which attractions are there? All of them. We went tonight, and I took the medium sized camera. I conquered my fear of heights and parting with money to buy a seat on one of the two big wheels, and grab some overhead shots of the action.

Just a small part of the fair. You can see the Humber Bridge on the horizon.

More of the fair. We didn't get around to going on the other big wheel you can see in the distance.

My kind of game of chance, a prize every time..

Probably my favourite of the trip, although there are some other ones that I like on Flickr.

Things you don't want to see...

Another Day Another Party

today it was the turn of the post grads to have their party. We had another, eerily similar quiz and more games. Great fun.

The winners

Second place

And finally third  place.

We had all  kinds of fun with the toys again, and everyone went away happy.

Book now for next year.....

First Year Welcome Party

Qn: "What is the combined age of the "Chuckle Brothers"?

Ans: - you'd know if you'd been at our First Year party...

We had a quiz, and Guitar Hero, and a PS3, and Wii Tennis, and 8 player Halo 3, and free drinks and food, and, and, and.....

And it was good.

Many thanks to Warren for bankrolling the operation and Adam, Simon, Dan, Zoe, Sam, Helen, Joan and Amanda for helping make things go with a swing (and apologies if I've missed anyone out). I took a camera (some of our students have got some amazing cameras - we must sort out a Flickr group for pictures) and took some happy snaps.

Full Swing

What half the room does when you shout "smile"

What the other half does..

These folks came first in the Quiz

These came second

And these won the, er, "special" prize

Big riffs. Sam found this amazing disco sound system that we ran Guitar Hero through. And dig those groovy lights on the pillars...

On the left we have Wii Tenis and PS3 Motorstorm, in the middle we have Guitar Hero and on the right, for your pleasure, we have 8 player Halo 3.

It was a great night. Hopefully more (and perhaps less grainy) pictures will surface. I'll put them on Flickr if they do..

Halo House

In keeping with the much anticipated launch of Halo 3 real soon, tonight I saw a house with "Master Chief" windows.

This is an original, completely unretouched picture. And I've got the RAW file from the camera to prove it. Spooky eh?

Update on 2007-09-25 08:54 by Rob

Oh, and I've just discovered that Microsoft have decided not to release a version of the game where the Master Chief joins the navy. It was going to be called "Halo Sailor".

Copyright, what copyright?

I got this last week at Hornsea Market. Actually works very well, and definitely not a shameless ripoff of another toy with a boys name. Oh no.

Hornsea Sunday

Today was a nice day. And we had a birthday to celebrate. So it was off to Hornsea Mere for a baked potato. And cheese.

It was very windy. But there were a few brave folk out in yachts

Then we went onto the front for donuts (forget your Crispy Cremes, these are the real deal - and six for a pound). And of course amusements....

Winning big at penny falls (you can actually see the pennies falling)

One of my ambitions, which looks like it might end up being thwarted by big city developers, is to visit Coney Island in New York. Hornsea is a bit like this I think with some amazing attractions. Including the "New Super Palmist".

The machine went up and down my hand and then printed out a very accurate assessment of my character....

I think that pretty much sums me up.

If you live in Hull you really should go to Hornsea.

The Long Kill - with pictures

One of the things that you get to do on holiday is read. But only if you've taken some books with you on holiday. Fortunately our cottage, as well as being wonderfully positioned and sparkly clean throughout, came with a few that had been left there over the years. One of them was a Readers Digest collection of condensed stories. This is where they take a six hundred page volume and boil it down to a couple of hundred pages. Oh, and they add pictures too...

A tale of daring do, and centre partings

"..and  if I were you young man, I'd clean the other nostril too..."

He watched them together, all the time waiting for the trick chair to fold itself up again....

"I wonder if this rock will leave a mark on my trousers"  he thought to himself while his girlfriend wondered why she seemed to have somebody else's legs.

Back in Hull

And so I am back home. I love the way that as you get closer to Hull the roads get that bit quieter, and the traffic reports of jams around the rest of the country have less and less meaning. And now I have my nice fast broadband connection (rather than climbing a hill, holding the phone above my head and waiting for a single bar of signal to appear).

But the holiday was fun though. I bought a Ferrari for five pounds. It turned out to only have three wheels, but I have plans to stick the missing one back on. I saw some stunning art, had a conversation with a horse (although it was a bit one-sided) and met up with the oracle pig again. Who turns out to be called Esmerelda. I also read some exciting books, one even had pictures in. Of which more later.

Oh, and I took the camera.

What a pity that mobile tower isn't my carrier.....

Sewerby Park Bank Holiday

We are becoming creatures of habit. Perhaps it's our age. Anyhoo, just like last year we went off to a place near Bridlington, Sewerby Park. It is a big country house, with lovely grounds, just by the side of the sea. There is a tiny zoo, pitch and putt golf and some wonderful walled gardens.If you live in the area you should/must go there. Just like last time they were doing Roman re-enactments. Just like last time I took my camera.

Any parent will be familiar with this domestic scene.

Add your own caption here

My money is on the blokes on the horses

They can do gardening here. Oh yes.

Butterfly

Boat

Bridlington bay

Night Boat

Tonight finds me on a boat on the way to Amsterdam. P & O do these wonderful little min-cruises, which for only slightly more than the cost of a return ticket to London will put you up for two nights on their luxury ferry and take you to Amsterdam for the day to boot (or should that be clog).

Anyhoo, we set sail tonight and, in spite of poor weather, spirits are high.

View of the estuary

Leaving port

We are to be up bright and early tomorrow (5:00 am)...

Radio A Levels

Went up town first thing today to do a paper review for Radio Humberside. We had a chat about the UK A-Level results, which are out today. Apparently everyone has done better than ever, and this is a national scandal. Although if everyone was doing worse, that would be a national scandal too. And if everything stayed exactly the same, that would be regarded as deeply suspicious because someone would obviously be fiddling the results....

I've seen modern A-Levels at first hand. I've know the amount of work that kids have to put in to get through them. All I would say is kudos to anyone who has got good grades, I hope they take you where you want to go.

Early morning Hull. Don't you wish you lived in a place that looked like this?

The BBC building