Need for Speed Undercover Mostly Wanted

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I'm a bit of a sucker for the Need for Speed games. I think this dates from my early experiences on the Playstation 1, where you got to drive a real Ferrari  (honest) through a flickering landscape of pop up buildings. I even got one of the first steering wheel peripherals to enhance the, ahem, driving experience. I especially liked the way that you got cuffed and stuffed if you failed to outrun the police.

When I got my Xbox 360 I spent ages playing a downloaded demo of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" where you had to break free of the cops in a large city environment. Great fun, even if number one son complained that the car handling was floaty and imprecise (it was) and the way the graphics engine chugged when there was a lot going on made him sea sick (it did). However I enjoyed it so much I even bought the game.

Because the next two Need for Speed games seemed to play down the police chase aspect I wasn't that interested in them. I think that the publisher EA probably got into a bit of hot water for making a game that encouraged you to indulge in such anti-social activities as ramming road blocks and forcing squad cars into bridge pillars. Fortunately I seem to be able to distinguish the fantasy world of video games from real life, and so this was never an issue for me, but I missed the car chases.

Until now. Need for Speed Undercover turns you into an undercover cop infiltrating the evil world of dangerous driving by being the, er, most dangerous driver of all. I read some previews of the game where the developer was talking about the advanced car mechanics they've used and the new graphical enhancements and stuff. and they had it cheap in Sainsburys when I was doing the shopping and so I bought it.

Turns out that the car handling is still floaty, and the screen still chugs when there is a lot going on. I reckon they've taken the old Most Wanted engine, changed the layout of the city a bit, turned up the brightness and shipped it.  It is still fun though (but racing purists might not like it as games like Burnout Paradise do this thing a lot better - except for the cop chases).

New Xbox 360 Experience

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I fired up my Xbox 360 today and installed the new "Experience". It is a free download from Xbox Live and replaces the original "Blade" front end with a completely different look which I reckon is much easier to navigate. It also lets you create mini-avatars of yourself to use for your interaction with games and other Xbox 360 users. I've no idea where they got the idea for this. I spent a few minutes tweaking my avatar appearance to add my distinctive good looks, which was great fun. Or not.

One of the wonderful things about modern software based devices is the way that they can sprout new behaviours years after you got them thanks to the magic of the firmware upgrade. I now have what feels like a brand new replacement of my console. If you have an Xbox 360 you really must check this out.

Cheered Up by Students

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Bit fed up today. I hate it when I'm not where I should be, and I had been looking forward to going to Copenhagen. Never been to Denmark before and it might be a while before I get the chance again.

The good news is that being back in the office meant that I got a steady stream of students coming by with programs to look at and projects to discuss. And that really cheered me up. I love seeing people making progress and doing stuff. Thanks folks.

Never Trust a Plane that still has a Propeller

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I was supposed to fly out to Copenhagen to give a session tomorrow as part of the Windows Embedded European tour. I had all my slides with the snazzy tour template, and a bag packed with hardware to show off.

Instead I went to an airport, sat in a plane for forty minutes, had a drink of orange juice, got out of the plane, queued for an hour, found out there was no way I could get to Copenhagen in time and went home.

We had all watched the plane land, and then were told that "For safety reasons" it was not able to take off again. I reckon the people that we saw arrive in it had a lucky escape.

Such is life I suppose. I tried to be relaxed about it. The only time I got a bit cross was when I was at the desk after an hour wait and the lady there was trying to sort out my travel plans. Having determined that there were no seats on any flights out today, and that a flight tomorrow would have me arrive far too late for my session, I said that in that case there was no point in me going. "So" she said, "You are choosing not to take up our offer of an alternative flight?". I made the point that it was not a matter of choice, if I couldn't get there today there was no reason to travel. "OK." she replied "I'll put on the file that you have decided not to take up our offer". I was too tired to put up much of a fight, and anyway a prominent notice reminded me that anyone who got too shirty would have the full might of KLM to deal with. Assuming they could actually get here of course, what with their transportation technology being so ropey.

I'm very sorry that I didn't make it out to Denmark. I was looking forward to meeting up with the students and seeing some cool Lego tech. Perhaps another time.

Mini-Microsoft and Achieving Senior Level 63

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Talking of good blogs to read, I quite like Mini-Microsoft. This is an anonymous manager at Microsoft giving a take on the way that the company is going. It is also sprinkled with detail about life inside Microsoft, and how to get on in the corporate environment.

Mini (if I can use that name) has just posted a good post on how to get to Senior Level 63 (apparently some exalted management level in Microsoft). I've no particular desire to scale those lofty heights, but the post is interesting because I reckon if you follow the advice in it you will do well in whatever field you are in.

Microsoft, like everwhere else I suppose, is mainly interested in promoting useful, effective people and this post gives you an insight into how to be more useful and effective.

Hard Code on the Web

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I've mentioned I.M. Wrights "Hard Code" book before on this blog. It is actually written by a bloke called Eric Brechner, who adopts the I.M. Wright persona to write hard hitting, controversial, articles about software development best practice. When I mentioned the book before I said that I thought was worth a look. Having finished reading it I've changed my mind.

You must read this book. It is excellent. The even better news is that I.M. Wright also has a blog that is an equally good read. You can find it here.

EMB207 Putting Your Big Ideas onto Tiny Devices with .NET

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Plenty of toys....

Well, the presentation has been and gone. Thanks so much to everyone who turned up and gave me such a good audience. And a special call-out for the tech support guys who let me set up my toys last night and leave them in the room, still working.

I've put all the sample code here, so if you really do want to make a set of Christmas tree lights that flash red when you make a blog post (and who doesn't) then you can download my code and get started.

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Ready to go. Note Fairy lights....

I promised some links during the presentation:

You can download the Micro Framework here.

You can find out more about the framework here.

The Dare to Dream Different contest is here.

You can find out abut the Spark program here.

It Lives!

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Thanks to Ian, and his breadboarding skills, we now have a working prototype.

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With this, we can rule the world....

Everything went very smoothly really. In fact it worked first time - which always makes me nervous. Sure enough, later on it started to behave stupidly, which we tracked to a floating output enable signal. Now I just have to get it to Barcelona without breaking it.

Although I will be bringing it into the department on Tuesday to demonstrate as well.

Little Big Planet vs. .NET Micro Framework

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Today I bought a copy of Little Big Planet for the PS3. It is supposed to be wonderful. It lets you create fantastic contraptions in a virtual world. It is still in the bag, unopened.

Because I've been playing with the .NET Micro Framework. It lets you create fantastic contraptions in the real world.

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Circuit design. Actually produced in a pub.

I'm making up a hardware/software system for TechEd 2008 in Barcelona next week, where I'm presenting a session called "Putting your Big Ideas onto Tiny Devices with .NET". I can't tell you what it is yet for two reasons:

  1. It is totally top secret.
  2. I might not be able to get it to work

Suffice it to say that the above circuit is crucial to successful completion of the project. I'm having a whale of a time bashing out the code in Visual Studio and deploying it to the target device.

Tomorrow we build the hardware...

.NET Micro Framework 3.0 is Now Out

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While we are talking about Version 3.0 of stuff we find that the third version of the .NET Micro Framework is also available. This one is very interesting, because it with it the mouthwatering prospect of being able to develop for the embedded platform using the Express versions of Visual Studio. It runs in Visual Studio 2008, including the free ones. This is wonderful news for hobbyists, as it means that you just need to get some hardware and you are away writing C# code for your tiny device. Go and get it (again for free) here.

And don't forget to enter the DareToDreamDifferent contest.

Bond Fire Night

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Went out to see "Quantum of Solace", the new Bond film.  Didn't really fancy watching anything outdoors, what with the truly horrible weather. So it was off to Vue in the middle of Hull for fireworks of the indoor kind.

We drove through what seemed to be a "Festival of Bad Driving" to get to the theatre, what with death wish cyclists, deranged lane changers and someone who seemed to want to race me round the car park, our nerves were pretty shredded before the film started....

I wasn't sure what to expect. Some of the critics have been a bit "ho hum" about this one, but I think is because the novelty of a new Bond is starting to wear off as Daniel Craig beds into the part. They may have a point about the plot, which seems to have reverted back to standard Bond faire, with sinister world domination types coming back to the fore.

Having said that, the whole thing was done with conviction and style and everybody played their role very well. It was definitely a bit bleak though, if you are looking for smug type endings with Bond and babe under a fur rug somewhere in the sun you are going to be disappointed. But if you are looking for another good action thriller, you won't be.