Another Day, Another Webcast

I've just finished my latest webcast on mobile game development. If you were one of the lucky ones listening you can find the resources here.

If you were not one of the lucky listeners (or have a definition of lucky which does not agree with mine) then you can find the presentation itself here.

Unlimited Internet on the move. At last

When I first got a mobile phone that would work on the internet at first I was very impressed. Then I was annoyed. The problem was not that the phone didn't work very well, it was the cost. Getting hold of a few emails would not be cheap, and as for web pages and downloads,  they were out of the question.

And so it has remained over the years. Until now. T-Mobile, one of the phone operators in the UK, has just launched a new service which is just what I want. For an extra 7.50per month on top of a mobile contract I can now have unlimited network access. I can get my email, surf the web and talk to web services as much as I like.  So I can cancel my old contract, switch networks, have unlimited internet and pay around the same each month. Wonderful.

Better yet, when you sign up you can get a new phone (always nice).  For an extra ten pounds I managed to get hold of a thing called a Vario. It is a Windows Mobile 5.0 device made by Imate so I can use the lovely email synchronisation, write C# graphics games and, because it has a little slide out keyboard, actually do useful things with my network connection.

This is a simply wonderful deal on a lovely phone. You really should check it out if you are in a position to move your contract. Unlimited network access on the move is really liberating and will lead to me finding los of new ways to use the internet and my phone.  Great stuff.

Thoughts You'd Rather Not Have

I'm going to start building models of birds out of chocolates. The first thing I'm going to make is a Malteser falcon.

If Stelios opened a safari park would it be called "Easy Tiger"?

Thank you, and good night.

Shaky Hands..

I'm going to claim I was going for an artistic effect...

I was down in City Hall again today doing my degree warmup thing. Warmup is a bit of an understatement, it was like an oven in there during the afternoon. I took a picture of "my lot" in the audience. Unfortunately I forgot to hold the camera still. I know I wasn't shaking from the cold....

Puffin Spotting

Note to self. Get longer lens for camera..

This morning we went up to Bempton Cliffs to see if we we could see any puffins. We could.

Whitby and Robin Hood

A good place to eat a "Whitby Kipper". And a nice fish mobile too. But I think they would taste a bit woody.

Last time we went to Whitby it rained. All the time. But we still enjoyed it. So this time we went in the dry. Even better.

Whitby Bay looking good.

I think the captain was just showing off for us.

After we went to Whitby we stopped off at Robin Hoods Bay. No idea why it is called that, but it is a wonderful place.

A view of the bay

This season blue is the new black for fishing nets

Weekend Away

So much for Bliss....

We are having a weekend away. This weekend. So the car has been loaded with essentials and some beer (or is beer an essential?) and we have scooted off to Flamborough, a village on the coast about an hour's drive from our house. Arrived just in time to wander down to North Landing and take some pictures. The evening was very kind to us. The sea was like a mill pond and I got some rather nice shots.

You can't beat a sunset by the sea...

Upstaged by a dog...

Did the final Ace lecture today. Another splendid bunch of students and a good time had by all.

Danni warms up the audience...

Digby the digital dog drives them wild.

I don't know. You spend forty minutes showing off amazing technology, telling wonderfull jokes and so on. Then Digby comes on and kicks a ball and the crowd goes wild!

Anyway, it was great fun. I've put a little page together for those of you what want to have a go at the programming side of things. You can get the program I was writing from here. And you can find out about starting to program here.

Is this a photoblog?

Is this a photoblog?
Originally uploaded by RobMiles.

Update on 2006-07-07 12:34 by Rob

..and this is stage 2. All I need to do now is figure out where the text I typed has gone, and we are in busines.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Update on 2006-07-07 12:33 by Rob

I'm getting my new mobile phone geared up so that I can post to the blog from anywhere. This is stage one....

Too hot to post..

It is just too hot and sticky to post blogs at the moment. My room here is like an oven and even the fan (which was cheap from Tesco and sounds like a Jumbo Jet in an echo chamber) doesn't make things much better.

So I'm not going to post tonight. Except that I just have. So this whole blog thing has just not worked at all today.

I hate this weather.

As I was saying....

Did my first Webcast tonight.  Never done one before. You feel a bit stupid sitting in a room talking down a phone to a whole bunch of people you can't see, but you get used to it after a while. It is a bit scary though. There is a technique for dealing with presentations where you imagine the audience naked. In this case, they might actually have been - a horrible thought.

I'd very carefully scripted everything so that I knew just what to do and when to do it. So off I went.  Just about everything worked, although I did have to speed up a bit at the end to get to the finish without missing anything.  And I did tell my favourite joke as well, just as I promised. But of course I couldn't hear anybody laugh (so no change there). If you want to watch too, take a look here.

Ace Wednesday

Ace audience

Another day, another ACE talk.  Another great audience. I've no idea how Danni does it, but she gets in premium students each time. Anyway, today Digby sort of behaved himself, and of course got more applause than anyone else. I'm thinking about giving him his own blog on this site, but I'm not sure he needs the extra exposure..

Blurry Digby

Bye Bye Orange

I'm in the process of saying goodbye to an old friend. I've had a mobile phone with Orange since a long time ago, when black and white screens were cool. But now I'm leaving them and shacking up with T-Mobile. I gave Orange a chance, I spoke to their "Customer Retention" team (which sounds really scary) but at the end of the day they can't offer me what I want.

What I want is unlimited use of the internet on my mobile phone for 7.50 a month. I want to be able to use my mobile to browse the internet, check my email and download the odd file without worrying about the cost (which up until now has been horrendous). T-Mobile will let me do this. Orange won't. The nearest I can get with Orange (and this is a tip folks) is that if I use a Pay As You Go connection I can pay a pound for as much internet as I want for a single day. This is great for trips away and the odd demonstration. But I want the mobile internet as part of my life. So it is goodbye to Orange for a while.

I'm pretty sure that eventually Orange will have to come up with something similar, but I don't particularly want to wait. I've got a taste for mobile email and that means using the internet  a lot.  And I want it  now. So it is goodbye to my Orange contract and hello for a year with T-Mobile.

Lilies

Taken fresh this morning.

Why do I find this funny?

Today I got my new Lego mail order catalogue though the post.  (You think this is strange for some reason? Shame on you.) Anyhoo, I found the description for set 7880 "Duplo Big Pirate Ship" to be really funny. At the end it says "Includes four pirates and a monkey." For some reason that I can't explain I just find this amusing.

Hot Stuff for ACE week

 
What a great audience looks like.

I did another talk to a bunch of students from local schools today. The place was packed and it was a bit warm, but the whole thing went really well and the audience were great. For the first time I put Digby (my robot dog) on a black cloth. He loved it, he could find the ball and then fail to kick it really well.

Non-sensible Sunday

I've hidden a stormtrooper in this picture somewhere. Can you use your powers of observation to find him?

On Sunday sensible people stay in bed for a while, potter about, read the paper and generally relax in preparation for the coming week. They do not spend the day rising at 4:30 am, driving 220 miles to London, walking round a film and comic conference and then driving back again. Horay for sensible people. Meant the place was not so busy, and we got a chance to look around. And see a talk from two of the stars of Serenity, a good film that you really should have seen by now. I've put a whole bunch of pictures up on Flickr.

Open Day

Some of the audience, apologies to those who arrived after I took the picture...

We had an open day today. In spite (or perhaps because of) the football match we still had a good turnout. Those that came along seemed to have a good time, and they went away with wherewouldyouthink T shirts and a smile. Even though I told some of my jokes.....

Cool Photos

You find some amazing things on the internet. How about pictures taken with a lens made of ice?