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

Ho for Holidays

We set off this morning for our week away. I'm only taking two computers, which must count as some kind of a break. Hopes are high for the weather, in spite of the disaster that was last week.

Not a bad view from the bedroom window

Sewerby Park

Took a day off from worrying about water, and went up to Sewerby Park in Bridlington. Great place.

It's a grand little pile of bricks....

They were playing cricket outside the hall

It's a beautiful pitch, right on the cliff tops.

And they were playing something a little more violent inside the grounds....

Now that's what I call a garden.

Anyone know what kind of flower this is?

Butterflies and Orchids

Sometimes you can't beat being in the right place, at the right time, with the right lens. Our front was covered in butterflies this morning.

And the orchids are in bloom again

..very scary looking plants...

Photosynth is Groovy

I've never had the chance to be in at the ground floor of the creation of a new kind of media before. But today I found myself watching a presentation of a really neat new technology which is now available for anyone to play with.  Photosynth has the potential to provide a new way of displaying visual information and allowing you to navigate around it by combining multiple images.

At this point I was ready to yawn, in that I've played with photo-stitching programs in the past and found them to be OK, but hardly ground breaking. But what Photosynth does is a bit more than that. By analysing the content of the images, finding the same content in each and then building a "point cloud' that describes the position of these items in 3D it manages to take all your photos and combine them into a navigable scene that recreates the geometry of where they were taken.  You can move in or out of the scene, go from place to place and get a really strong sense of being there.

There are some lovely scenes on the Photosynth site that show how this can be done properly, I thought I'd have a go at the university, so this morning on the way to the office I took around 130 pictures. I've not read the documentation, I just took loads of photographs trying to make sure that there was a bit of overlap between each. And I came up with this.

You can move around by clicking on the arrows, and also on the panes as they appear. You can also zoom in and out using the scrollwheel on your mouse.

Apparently the picture is 78% "synthy", which I think means that the system couldn't figure out where some of the pictures go. However, it is quite like being on campus, and one part, where I took a load of pictures of a flowerbed, does let you actually walk around the flowers and see them from different angles. With a bit more care, and a tripod, I reckon I could have got something really impressive.

Anyone can sign up for a Photosynth account, download the program and start building synths to upload onto the Photosynth site where you have 20G of space to share your creations with the world. Microsoft are hoping to build up a community of "synthers" - a sort of "Flickr you can walk around" and I can think of all kinds of useful things we could do with this. You could put a synth of your ebay items up, so that people can take an all round look at what you are selling. When your kids leave home you could take a synth of their bedrooms to remember them by.

I'm certainly going to get into the habit of taking along another little camera when I go out for "synth shots" and posting them up here. It is really easy to embed the synths in your web pages too.

Have a go with Photosynth. It really is great fun. And free.

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.

Best Picture Ever?

Today we set sail for Bruges. You can get there really easily from Hull on the ferry that leaves from here. It should be great trip, because the boats are great fun and I've heard good things about the city itself.

We were lucky enough to be leaving in great weather, travelling almost exactly east for a while, with the sunset behind us. I was on the back of the boat taking pictures of the light on the water when the pilot launch appeared and did a little turn in the wake of the ship. And, having the big camera and fat lens I took a few photographs. Like this.

Sometimes you just can't beat being in the right place at the right time.

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.

Graduation Day Fun

Some bits of my job I love. One of them is helping with degree congregations. I do the warm up talk at the start and then get the graduands down from the hall for their moments of glory. Today it was my turn to help run the science and medical ceremonies. I took the big camera.

The flowers on the stage were looking good.

These were the science graduands. Sorry if it is a bit blurred, the lighting was not good. But you might be able to find yourself in there....

These were the medics. Again, hard to take pictures but I did my best.

After the ceremony they took a special picture of all the graduates from the Hull-York Medical School, which has just graduated its first cohort of doctors. This was a truly momentous moment for the university, which we are all very proud of. Hearing them all state their oaths during the ceremony was just fantastic.

It was a great day, but boy was it hot in all my suit and robes.

Imagine Cup Festival

I've said before that you can regard the Imagine Cup as a kind of alternative reality where you are surrounded by people passionate about technology, the food and drink is free and you are in some amazing location. I think the time also moves faster too, since I can't believe that we have already been here nearly a week. Anyway, today everything is rounded off with all the students showing the projects for everyone to see, business leaders and high powered politicians dropping by to take a look and the announcement of all the winners.

The whole setting was amazing and it was really nice to get a chance to look at some of the projects that I hadn't had a chance to see during the judging process. I also had some good chats with teams that I had seen, who were very keen to know what I thought. The best thing for me was that everyone I spoke to was determined to come back next year and do it all again. And these were people that had been without sleep for the best part of a day and a half and sweated and strained to get the best possible project and presentation into the competition.

The festival itself was hosted by Joe Wilson, who seemed as surprised to be wearing a suit as we were to see him in one. I've put loads of photos up on Flickr, I'm sure the Imagine Cup website will have some better ones.

Finally the results of our deliberations were announced and Project Soak was revealed as the winner. This entry from the Australian is an innovative watering system with the ability to make sure that plants get precisely the right amount of water and no more. It considers all the angles, from the current soil moisture, the needs of the crop and even the current weather forecast, to make sure that no water is wasted.

The team already have a farming estate signed up to prove that their idea holds water, so to speak. With a good looking and functional interface and a realistic development plan it is a very strong winner, and we look forward to seeing it achieve great things in the future.

After the presentation we all went back to the hotel to get ready for the final night party. At this point there was nothing left to play for, and everyone was keen to relax and have a good time. So we did.

The party itself was held at an amazing place just under one of the bridges of Paris. With a DJ specially flown in from the 'states, lots (and I mean lots) of really good food and drink. I only managed to last until 11:00 (my excuse is that I have to be up early tomorrow) but it was great just to meet up with the team members and chat about life, the universe and everything.