Deadly Toasters

Never had much luck with toasters. The old one repeatedly tried to kill me, and the new one doesn't work at all. Ages ago we bought a shiny toaster, mainly because the picture on the box had a funny misprint. It worked fine, but it wouldn't give us the toast back. Kind of a pop-down design. It was practically begging me to insert a pointy, preferably metal, instrument into its innards to try and prise the hot bread out of its steely grip. Instead I used to turn it upside down and shake it, which spread crumbs around the kitchen and nearly set fire to the base, what with heat rising the way it does.

So on Saturday we bought a new set of toaster and kettle. The toaster has three buttons  and lights, a big dial and comes with a "User Manual". But if doesn't work. Of course by the time we got round to testing it we'd thrown away all the boxes and packaging, so I'm going to have to go down to Tesco armed only with a receipt and an aggrieved manner. No fair. I like toast.

What Can't You Fix with Cable Ties?

Some aspects of life seem to have an irresistible attraction to me. Take car window winders for example. I seem to be acquiring considerable familiarity with the darned things, mainly because the cars that I own have windows that go down. But not up.

Thus it was with the Scenic, and now car of number one wife has the same problem. My first solution,a length of duct tape over the gap was not entirely successful, and definitely not elegant, so today it was out with the big spanners and into the fray.

Last time I tried to take the door of the car to pieces it won. I was so concerned about damaging the thing that I gave up and got out the sticky tape. But this time it was different. I had no such qualms. Truly I was a man beyond fear. Although I didn't want to break any fingernails.

There is something a bit embarrassing about forcing something off with a hammer and chisel and then finding that there is a perfectly simple, and really neat, trick to removal. But there you are. I won.

Anyhoo, once I had the thing to bits the problem was obvious. The car maker had sent a plastic boy to do a man's job. The most important component, the link between slide and window, was a bit of bent, and now broken, plastic slide. Ho hum. Time for a really subtle and cunning invisible mend. As I went to get a bit of wood to prop the window up I mentioned the problem to Dave next door.

"I'll just be a minute" he said.

He came back with some jumbo cable ties, linked slide and window and presto. Fixed. What a guy.

Bag Yourself a SkypePhone

I wish I had more friends. Or more people who wanted to talk to me. The two free Skypephones that were very kindly sent to me for testing have languished on my office desk for the last week, whilst my iPhone keeps reminding me that I've not actually made a call for several days. I'm obviously not the kind of person who will go for the Skype part of the Skypephone, but the way that it provides cheap mobile network access for my notebook is attractive.

Today I saw someone up town offering the phones for 85 quid a pair, which is a very enticing price. And you can get them in white too.

If you want one for free you can take part in a little competition here. The idea is you pitch just how much you really want one, how it will change your life etc etc. The best pitches get a phones. My suggestion is not to go too far overboard on this though. A big production number with dancers and a sky-written message at the end would probably cost more to produce than the 49 quid or so you have to lay out for a phone of your own. But a cheap, heartfelt, plea might hit the spot.

By mentioning this I suppose that this means I'm actually taking part in some kind of viral marketing but what the hey, I like the product.

Audience Boosting

Apparently, according to research posted on the Internet (so it must be true),  a blog post which expresses deeply held personal beliefs and opinions actually gets more comments and interest than one which just conveys information.

I've been looking through my last posts and decided that they don't actually do either. So, with all this in mind here goes:

"I don't like broccoli very much"

A Day of Pong

Just had a great day.

Marking.

I've been working my way around the lab looking at programs that have been written for our first year C# course. All the students have to present their programs and I've seen some great work. I love it when people come up with ideas I wouldn't have thought of and then get them to work. The name of the game, quite literally, was to write a Pong implementation to run in the console window of the PC. Next semester, if they want, students can get the code onto a real console, when we convert the game to XNA for the Xbox.

Everyone I saw had a fully working version, some with sound, computer players, variable speed, the works. And many of the people that I saw only started programming in September. Great stuff.

I'm in the lab tomorrow too. Lucky me.

Rob's Guide to Entering the Imagine Cup

I'm giving a presentation today at Hull on how to take part in the Imagine Cup. This page summarizes all the links I'm going to give out, and gives some advice. First thing you do is register here:

Imagine Cup Registration

This is free and doesn't commit you to anything. Take the quiz. This is fun, you and might win a prize. I'd have a go but unfortunately I'm too old. And not a student. And I'd win anyway.

Imagine Cup Quiz

There are a number of invitationals. Each of them is a separate competition in its own right. You can enter as many of them as you like. Each of them has its own particular entry process. Here is a summary of the ones I think you should enter, and how to do it.

Software Design

You'll need to form a team for this one. Once you have up to four people (all of them registered) you can work up your idea for an entry. The Idea is what will get you past the first round. The theme for this year is "Imagine a World where technology enables a sustainable environment".

All you have to do is fill in a form with an idea and then submit it. The idea has to have an environmental feel, but it doesn't have to be directly environmental:

• Technology that lets people swap things rather than buy new ones
• Technology that changes the way (or frequency) that something is used to reduce the impact on the environment
• Technology that makes people aware of the impact of their behaviour on the environment and seeks to modify this
• Technology that improves the efficiency with which a resource is used

Once you have a team, all sit around a table (possibly in a pub) and then work through the bullet points above and see if you can't come up with something. Map the points onto your life and see if there is anything that you could do to modify the way you do things. See if you know anyone in another department (Geography, History, etc) who might have an environmental problem you could have a go at. If you want an idea of what to do, take a look at this example by Ed Dunhill.

Fill in the form here and submit it. And be quick, the entries close on the 14th Dec.

Algorithm

Remember that quiz I mentioned above? Get through that and you are into the Algorithm Invitational round 2. You get to download some code and fiddle with it.

Well worth a look if you enjoy programming.

Embedded

You'll need another team (or perhaps the same one from the Software Development invitational). This round is also idea driven, in that the first round is based on an idea that you pitch to the competition. It can be the same idea as for the Software Development round, or it can be a different one. It should be based on an embedded device and if you make it through to round 2 you will get some hardware to play with. Again, you have nothing to lose by taking part except a bit of time to fill in your entry and write up your idea. You can find the details here.

Game Development (XNA)

You'll need to form another team  (or use the same long suffering chums). You need to create a game demo with XNA and pitch it. You can find out more here. Remember that XNA 2.0 provides Xbox Live network gaming between PC and Xbox. So your game could be multi-player. You could also use a PC as a gateway between the real world and Xbox clients, so you could feed live data into the games by doing this. There might be some really nice simulation/visualisation stuff you could do with this.

Programming Battle

Project Hoshimi is great fun. Write code of your own to take on other programs and win. Get started here. I'm told that getting through round 1 is actually quite easy. Ed Dunhill has a nice post here which should get you a long way down the road.

Information Technology

This one looks to be a hoot. You have to take an on-line test to get through the first round. There are a bunch of these in the run up to the close of round 1. If you get into the final you have to set up and manage a server which must then withstand a good kicking and stay up whatever is thrown at it. Find out more here.

Interface Design

Nobody from Hull has ever had a go at this one, and yet it looks very interesting. Essentially you devise a scenario in which a system could be created to help solve an environmental issue and then build a user interface for that system. You don't actually have to write the application, but you must create enough behaviours to allow the user interface to be demonstrated. If you can find an artist to team up with you could have some real fun in this one. Find out more here.

Photography

How hard could this be? Cameras even focus for you and everything now. All you have to do is come up with a photo essay (tell a story with pictures) on the environmental theme. You can find out what a photo essay is here.

Short Film

If four of you fancy making a film then you can. It might be great fun. The standard of the film entries to the Imagine Cup is usually pretty high (and someone from Canada quite often wins for some reason as I recall). Having said that,  I'd really love someone from Hull to have a go at this, take a look here to find out how.

Is it worth Entering?

Oh yes. Not everyone who takes part wins (even if they are from Hull), but that is not the point. If I was interviewing for Microsoft people it would go like this:

Me: "So, are you keen to work at Microsoft?"
Applicant: "Oh yes, yes, yes. Keen-ness on legs, big barrel of keen, uber keen. More keen than a very keen person from Keenchester central who is keen"
Me: "And yet you didn't take part in the Imagine Cup."
Applicant:"No. Never quite got round to it."
Me: (pressing bell on desk) "Next.."

I'm not saying that the only way to get to work with Microsoft, either as an intern, employee or Student Partner is to sign up for the Imagine Cup. What I am really saying is that if you want a real inside track on the process you should.

And even if you don't want to work for Bill in the future, it is still worth taking part 'cos it is great fun.

Update on 2007-12-07 15:12 by Rob

We are having another meeting at Hull at 1:15 pm on Tuesday 11th December to firm up teams and bounce around some more ideas. If you want to come along and take part it woudl be great to see you. Room 312 in the Robert Blackburn Building.

A Couple of Good Links

Thanks to number one son for this one:

http://www.sharebrained.com/chronulator/

I'm very tempted to get one and build it. I've got a picture frame that would fit it a treat.

And thanks to the Geoffmeister for this one:

http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/

Looks great fun.

Saturday Pictures

I took the tiny camera up town on Saturday (as usual). I've only just got around to getting the pictures off it. As usual.

Sky and Dish

Debbie and friends

Cheap Fun and Games for PS3

If you are a PS3 owner who is short of money (perhaps a bit of an oxymoron - although actually buying one can leave you a bit strapped for cash) then you should seek out this months official Playstation magazine. It has a Blu-Ray disk on the cover with a whole bunch of playable demos on it. I know that most of these are available for download, but I'm the the kind of impatient fellow that doesn't want to wait overnight for 800M of data to trickle down the broadband just so I can try out Sega Rally.

Turns out that Sega Rally is actually quite good. Nowhere near the simulation quality or graphics of the wonderful Colin McRae: Dirt game but it does have one thing that Dirt lacks, other cars on the road with you. Fighting against the clock is one thing, but ramming an opponent's car into a tree is another. Even though they instantly put on a burst of speed and zoom past you at the next corner. I think I'd ultimately find the lack of realism or feeling of control a pain, but for a quick half hour of powersliding for virtually nothing it is worth a whiz.

I then had a go at Stuntman: Ignition which struck me in the limited time (five minutes) that I had the patience to play with it to be deeply unpleasant. Maybe I'll go back and have another go. Maybe I'll be tempted to try one of the other twenty or so games on the disk instead.

One of the benefits of Blu-Ray is that it can hold a whole bunch of data. It is nice to see this ability being used to good effect.

The Galaxy is Mine

In a weak moment today I got hold of a copy of Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. And it's lovely. I'm having to exert my famous iron will to avoid losing time playing with it when I should be reviewing book chapters.

Ah well. Perhaps tomorrow....

Selling at the speed of eBay

I think I've finally figured out how to sell things on eBay. Previously I've had real problems, with items hanging around for ever and then being bought by people from far away places with no Paypal. Not good.

Last night I put a couple of things up for sale and I tried a different technique. I just checked to see how much the last couple of identical items had gone for and then placed my items with "Buy it Now" prices five pounds or so less than these figures. Both items were sold by the morning, so it seems to work. Furthermore, because I've used Buy It Now it seems that buyers "Pay for it Now" which means that you aren't hanging around waiting for the money before you can ship the items.

My Apologies

"I've just started up my computer, and it has challenged me to pistols at dawn"

"Oh, you must have set it to duel boot"

Vista Time Travel

I love it when systems are designed to accommodate my own stupidity. Like when I half remove a bunch of camera drivers, fully install the new ones and then find that, not surprisingly, things don't work any more.

Previously there would have been a lot of cursing and muttering and attempts to get the system back to a "known good state" (i.e. before I started fiddling with it).

But with Vista I just fire up the recovery menu and step back in time to the good old days, when things worked, and try again. And I made an interesting discovery, which is that if I don't do stupid things it works a lot better....

An Appeal

Does anybody out there in Internet land have an old BBC monitor that they don't need? The one in the Galaxians machine in the open area has failed and some of our students are suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

If you've got such a beast in your loft or garage we'd love to take it off your hands and give it new home.

XNA Fun and Games in Dublin

We were up bright and early for a "Breakfast Round Table" discussion with academics from all over Ireland about the teaching of XNA and Computer Science.

Some of the delegates had got up at scarily early hours to travel here and take part. Once I got over the disappointment that the table wasn't actually round a great discussion was had. It was interesting to hear how the computing scene in Ireland is not that different from the UK.  Quite a few places are getting their students to write games as part of their teaching, others are starting game development courses. At Hull we have been doing this for a while, and so I delivered a bit of insight into how we make things work. And gave the book a good plug.

Then the student presentations started. Due to popular demand we were running two tracks and so everyone gave their sessions twice.  I took some pictures of the audience looking happy at the start of my sessions (I always take the pictures at the start, in case it all goes horribly wrong).

The audience for session 1

The first session went really well with a great audience. Then I staggered out of the lecture room and into the second session.

The audience for session 2, how they appeared at the start....

However once I got the laptop working on the projector things settled down a bit and I was able to focus on the job in hand....

Another superb audience.

I had another great session with these folks, and then it was off to the airport for a flight back to Hull.

The XNA European tour goes on tomorrow to Vienna. You can find out how they are doing on Charles Cox's blog here.

Sunday in Dublin

The hotel had some really posh flowers

Sunday finds me in Dublin, for the XNA European tour. This evening I met up with the tour team, who face the enticing prospect of seven European cities in as many days. Charles and Dave from the XNA group were amazingly chipper, despite having arrived only today and being deep in jetlag country. We had a splendid meal out and talked technical and non-technical (including my delivery of the "Orange for a head" joke - which probably represented the low point of the proceedings).

I'm just around for the Dublin event, I'm giving a couple of sessions tomorrow. Should be fun.

York Trip

What a way to start the day

Today we headed off to York for a family get together. I had a plan to get yet another camera (don't ask) and in the process rationalise my camera collection a bit. The weather was pretty horrid, and I wasn't very hopeful of any nice pictures. Nice sunrise notwithstanding.

York Minster and Moon

Seems like I was wrong. We ended up going on the York Wheel at the Railway Museum. You really should go there - the museum is free and wonderful and the York Wheel, while no London Eye, is really good. And you do get some nice pictures.

York Station

The Wheel

Yes, I did get another camera. If anyone wants to buy a Canon EOS 300D (lovely camera, just not quite as nice as my new one) then let me know.

Taking the train

XNA 2.0 Available

Great news for XNA developers. Version 2.0(beta) is now out. Even as I write this it is installing on my machine. The list of improvements is long, and includes lovely things like XBOX Live network support, which is really interesting.

Find out more here : http://creators.xna.com/beta/betahome.aspx

.NET Micro Framework Resources

A couple of weeks ago, at the TechEd 2007 sessions in Barcelona I was giving with Dave Baker of Microsoft, I promised that I'd be putting up the sample code that we used. Apologies for the delay folks, but they are now here: https://static.squarespace.com/static/5019271be4b0807297e8f404/52c5bcfce4b0c4bcc9121347/52c5bd05e4b0c4bcc9123e9f/1195635219027/TechEd%20Demos.zip

If you are into the .NET Micro Framework (and if you aren't, you should be) then take a look at their blog. There is some really good stuff on there about hardware interfacing. I'm not just linking to it because it mentions me. Oh no.

http://blogs.msdn.com/netmfteam/