Degrees of Heat, and a Great Joke

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Degree ceremonies today. Gosh it was hot. And humid. And they'd closed the windows of City Hall. So we all broiled gently. The best bit was the speech by  Dr John Sentamu, the present Archbishop of York. He was awarded a richly deserved honorary degree in the second ceremony. In the context of having greatness thrust upon himself, he told a really good story, which I will now steal.

A great king had a beautiful daughter. He was very concerned that only the most worthy man should be allowed to marry her. So he built a large pool outside his palace and filled it full of alligators. Then he let it be known that he would grant his daughter's hand in marriage to the first man to swim across the pool. Many people gathered at the waters edge, but all were scared when they saw what happened when some meat was tossed into the pool and the hungry alligators attacked. Then, suddenly a young man was in the pool, swimming his utmost as the alligators chased after him. With a mighty heave the young man pulled himself out of the water and lay gasping at the feet of the king.

"You have done well" said the king. "You have shown great courage and may now marry my daughter".

"I am most grateful" replied the man "But although your daughter is very beautiful I would prefer you to grant me another wish"

"Very well" said the king, surprised at this "What can I do for you instead?"

The man looked at him and said "I would like you to bring me the man who pushed me in the water, so I can put my hands around his neck..."

Confused of Hull

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Since our microwave blew a fuse on Tuesday I've been morosely pricing up replacements. No fun. Today I thought I'd get some more fuses to replace the ones that blew. I picked up a pack in Wilkinsons and noticed something. They were red. Same colour as the one I put in the microwave plug. And they were rated at three amps. Now, for those unfamiliar with the ways of electricity, three amps will run a TV, a lamp and maybe even a mixer. But not a microwave when it tries to cook. I'd replaced the fuse in the microwave with one which will run the clock but will give up the ghost as soon as we actually try to heat something up.

I popped in a 13 amp version (coloured brown) and everything works fine. I guess this makes me an idiot. But a happy one just right now.

Embedded Reading

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Went to Reading today to give a talk about the .NET Micro Framework for an Embedded Development day. I've often found that a bunch of academics make around the toughest audience you can get, but these folks were great - even though they showed a marked lack of appreciation for my jokes.....

My demos mostly worked and the tiny tablet behaved herself impeccably. And the trip back on Hull Trains was as smooth as smooth. And I watched "Love and Death", one of the best films ever, on the Smartphone. Wonderful.

I'd taken the camera, but I got the best pictures when I got off the train at Hull after the journey back.

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Great to be back

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Neat Sky

While I was going through Reading on the bus I saw a sign at Reading Baths that said "Learn to swim here". I thought about going in and asking "What if I want to swim somewhere else?".

But I didn't.

For those at the academic event, I'll have the slides and demos here tomorrow.

Doncaster Duty

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We were at Doncaster today. That's two days in a row for exam boards there. We were a bit worried about flooding in the area (the college is very near the water) but it seems that they escaped, and their shiny new campus is just as shiny and new as it used to be.

The Doncaster folks do excellent work, with students delivering taught projects which are saving their employers literally thousands  of pounds. It is amazing how a little bit of the right knowledge applied in the right way can make a huge difference.

Pop Goes the Fuse

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Got home today to find that half of the kitchen was without power. Since this was the half which contains the cooker it was into the bin with the chicken we were roasting and out to the takeaway for something in a cardboard box.

Turns out that a couple of fuses in mains plugs had blown for no reason. I found this out after I had shut down all the mains sockets in the house and power-cycled all the devices looking for failed power lines. Why this has happened is a mystery to me. Nothing else in the house has been affected, just the oven and the microwave.

It is a bit like one of those horror films, where they have lines like:

"Must be a power surge. I'll just go down into the basement/bilges/engineering and fix it". Cue ominous music followed by moving shadow followed by blood curdling screams.....

Alcatraz Life

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So I got these "Alcatraz Rules and Regulations" playing cards. Each of the 54 cards contains a "Rule from America's Most Notorious Prison". I was hoping for something along the lines of "Transgressors who spit in public shall be hanged by the giblets from the North Tower until sorrye" kind of thing. So, what did I get:

Six of Spades : "You are required to work at whatever you are told to do"

Nine of Hearts: "At the wake up bell in the morning you must get out of bed and put on your clothes"

Queen of Diamonds: "You are not allowed to have money of any kind in your possession while in this institution"

Actually, it sounds remarkably like my life.....

XNA and C# For Fun and Profit

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Writing books would seem to be quite moreish. As soon as you've finished one you want to do another. So I am doing. This time it is a fun packed programming book which teaches C# and XNA at the same time.

If you know nothing about programming but want to make your XBOX do cool things then this is the book for you. If you have a wobbly table and need something to put under one of the legs, then this is the book for you. If you want something with a lot of words to colour in, then this is the book for you.

I'm presently working on Chapter 4 (I'll put some sample chapters up once I've decided where to put them).

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Ten lines of C# will get you this funky clock....

July Open Day

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The university had an Open Day today. I shot back from town and then turned up suited and booted to do the talk. Thanks for being a good audience people.

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Could have used a slightly wider angle lens.....

We will get C# books out to everyone as soon as we get another batch printed up. And we will be doing the draw for the PSP on Monday.

Anyone who was there but didn't get their name and address to us, all you have to do is send me an email with the name of the fish the Dutch audience didn't know, and we'll send you a book and enter you in the draw.

Seedlings In Seattle

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Bill finds a bug, and Matt stays tight lipped....

I've managed to track down a picture of Hull's Imagine Cup winning team in Seattle meeting Bill Gates last week. Apparently Bill found their project fascinating, which is nice. Next stop Korea, for the Imagine Cup World Finals. I've been appointed an Imagine Cup Judge (don't think that I have to wear a wig though) and so I'll be traveling out there as well, which is wonderful.

Kids in the House

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I've just found out that the university will be hosting classes for local schools which have been flooded. A local primary school, and a secondary one, will be sending teachers and kids over to make use of the Wilberforce building for lessons. I think this is an excellent idea, maybe the kids will get a taste for university life and come back in a few years as students.

SPOT that Watch

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I quite like watches. Not expensive ones, just different ones. I've had a hankering for a Microsoft SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology) watch for a while. If you live in the 'states these are actually very useful. You can get news, appointments and even messages beamed onto your watch.

Unfortunately the service has yet to roll out in Europe. But I still want one of the watches. I mentioned this to Colin Miller of Microsoft (he's the chap that wrote the forward to our book) and he was good enough to say "OK, Ill send you one then", which was very nice.

It arrived on Monday and I love it. It actually runs the .NET Micro Framework. All I can do with it is tell the time, but that is good enough for me, and some of the watch faces are rather cute.

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Spot watch on spotty wrist

This face is rather clever. A tree grows up the middle of the watch face every hour. If only there was a kind of XNA for watch faces, then we could design our own.....

Iphone?

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Apparently there is this new phone which has just been released by a jukebox company (or something, I'm a bit vague about the details - if only there had been something about it in the press).

Apparently it lets you read email (sort of), sync your calendar (sort of), surf the web, watch video, listen to your music, take photographs and not run programs that you've written for it.

Sort of like my phone, except that I can run my programs on mine and the synchronisation is wonderful.

(Actually, I must admit the IPhone does look very nice. If you want to see the guts of one, take a look here)