Back to Work
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Bellevue Movie Theatre looking good
..and today I go back to work…
Back in Hull
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Got back to Hull today. Nice to find the place just as I left it. There is nothing quite like not sleeping in your own bed.
I blame the jetlag.
Clothes Shopping with Jetlag
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We got back to the UK first thing this morning, had a quick nap and immediately decided to go clothes shopping. As you do.
There was actually method in this madness, in that we were in Bristol, which is home to one of the few shops that sells clothes in my size. And they have a sale just right now. So it was off to purchase a whole bunch of outfits. Took number one wife with me to stop me buying anything purple or orange.
Flyaway Home
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Flew home today. Much as I love Hull, it would have been nice to have had some more time in Bellevue. Lovely place. Thanks to Bob, Sharon, Libby, Jeff, Elese and Ben from Microsoft for making us so welcome and being part of something which was actually quite amazing.
And of course, a big shout out to Andy, my co-presenter. I think we have the start of a pretty good double act…..
Birthday in Seattle
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Lowells sign
Got to spend my birthday in Seattle today. Thanks for all the good wishes folks. Got a new Lego watch (and my own private jet as well).
We spent some time going around the city. Of course I took some photographs..
Ended the day out eating natchos in the Imax at Bellevue, watching “Inception”. Great film.
Windows Phone Jump Start Ends
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We used seat colours to get answers from delegates. Purple for true, yellow for false. Here is the audience making its mind up.
Final day of the course today. Great turnout, great interaction and some really good questions.
“Win your own private jet” – more pictures from pinksugarface here.
At the end we gave away the big prize along with two smaller, passenger ones. Thanks to everyone who turned up, I hope you enjoyed it, Andy and I certainly did.
Audience pictures are not the same though…..
Then it was out for a meal to celebrate.
This course was brought to you by (left to right) Sharon, Jeff, Bob, Andy, Rob and Elese. Thanks to Ben for taking the picture.
Remember, you can keep track of the course and find links to the videos and other cool stuff at:
Windows Phone Jump Start Questions
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Spent three hours today answering questions from folks getting to grips with Windows Phone. Some great questions people, thanks very much. If you asked a question during the sessions on Tuesday there is a good chance that we have posted an answer, so take a look here.
Windows Phone 7 Jump Start
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Nerves of steel in the studio.. Thanks to pinksugarface for the picture.
Andy and I did our first day of Windows Phone 7 training today. Fantastic fun with an incredible turnout. We did these silly quizzes where delegates had to answer true/false questions by changing their seat colours and it was amazing to see all the flags switching over to the right answer before our eyes. Folks, you were great.
I gave out the phone number of my Windows Phone 7 device and asked for some jokes via SMS (my “emergency” supply of humour ran out around 45 minutes in….). Got loads of texts in response, I’ve not got time to type them all in, but here is a choice selection:
- What did the blind man say when handed a cheese grater? “That’s the most violent book I’ve ever read”
- Where do you find a no-legged dog? Right where you left him.
- On which side does a tiger have the most stripes? The outside.
- Why do the French only have one egg for breakfast? Because one egg is an oeuf”
- A man is smoking a cigarette and blowing smoke rings in the air. His girlfriend becomes irritated with the smoke and says “Can’t you see the warning label on the box? Smoking is hazardous to your health.” The man replies “I’m a programmer, we don’t worry about warnings, we only worry about errors”.
Great stuff. Normally I have to buy a whole bunch of Christmas crackers to get material of this quality.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) we are open “office hours” (1:00pm to 4:00 PST) on the course web site. If you are having a play with Windows Phone 7 drop by and say hello.
http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/default.aspx
And remember, you can still sign up for the Thursday sessions here:
July 22 – 8am (PST): Session Three: Advanced Windows Phone Development
July 22 – 1pm (PST): Session Four: Selling Your Windows Phone Solutions & Wrap Up
Windows Phone 7 Jump Start Studio Prep
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Bob sets up the webcam while we sort out the introductions.
Today we went over to the room where we are doing our mammoth Windows Phone 7 Jump Start. It starts Tuesday morning and you can sign up here if you like. I was expecting a room with a desk and a webcam. They were there alright, in a studio with two proper cameras, a backdrop and all the trappings of a professional broadcast.
Oh gosh.
Andy settling in.
We did some dry runs where we found out a couple of things:
- Both of us speaking at the same time– bad.
- Neither of us speaking at all – bad.
However, I think we should be OK on the day.
Update on 2010-07-20 13:51 by Rob
If you want to take part in the fun, post to the course forum and download the materials you can go here:
http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/default.aspx
That way you can find the jokes before we say them....
Got Phone
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Mine
Got my Windows 7 phone working today (I’m calling it mine in case anyone tries to take it away). Works a treat. Once I got it to talk to the hotel WiFi it started to show just how nice Windows Phone 7 actually is. I really like it, but this week my focus is on writing programs, not phone user interface design.
So it was on with the fun and games getting my programs deployed to the device from Visual Studio. Which I had not done before. For this I had to lean on the expertise of fellow MVPs who came to my assistance with advice and software in equal measure.
Thanks to Ginny, Joel and Nick for sterling support which paid off in the end. It really was nice to see my program running on a device, and I love the feeling that I can get any of my silly ideas deployed to a real phone (and maybe even sell them)
Then we went out for a walk and I bought a Pay as You Go sim for my phone. I’ll let you all know the number later, so you can ring me and talk to a real Windows Phone if you want.
Hello Seattle (again)
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Nice view from the plane
The lady at US Immigration looked at the stamps in my passport and said “You come here a lot, don’t you”. I suppose I do, wouldn’t have it any other way.
Anyhoo, we had a very smooth couple of flights thanks to Continental airlines (although the airline food version of a cheeseburger is something I only want to experience once in my life) and finally arrived in Bellevue in time for a walk around. During which I broke my shoes in half. Fortunately they had a huge mall just around the corner which had loads of shoe shops and so I was able to get something I’ve always wanted, a pair of Converse All Stars. Excellent.
Downtown Bellevue looking good.
Then Sharon arrived at the hotel with a Windows Phone each for Andy and me. Truly, the day could have got any perfecter.
Mostly Writing, and then a Drive
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Spent today feverishly writing Windows Phone 7 content and then driving down the motorway to Bristol to hook up with number one son ready for the flight out tomorrow.
I’m taking an entourage to Seattle with me, they are going to have fun going round and seeing the sites, and I’m going to have fun teaching.
Windows Phone 7 Training Mayhem
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Who? Me?
I got an email a couple of weeks ago asking if I would like to do some Windows Phone 7 training. Thinking that this might be a useful stepping stone to getting my hands on a device, and it might be fun to do I said why not? Actually, it was a bit more complicated than that
I fly out to Seattle on Saturday. I started off thinking that I would be doing this using Live Meeting in a little room in our house, it turns out that I will be using Live Meeting out of a studio in Bellevue, Washington State, USA.
At the moment I’m working on the content. We have 12 hours to fill…
Omar Sharif Graduates from Hull
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Omar Sharif came to see us today and collect an honorary degree. He gave a superb speech, explaining his friendship with Hull born actor Tom Courtenay and his ups and downs as a long standing Hull City fan.
Great guy.
Windows Phone 7 Jump Start
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As announced earlier today in The Guardian among other places Microsoft is running a Windows Phone 7 Jump Start course next week to get developers started writing applications and games for Windows Phone 7. Andy and I are doing it, live from Bellevue Seattle on Tuesday and Thursday. Using the magic of Live Meeting anyone can take part and it is free to sign up.
Should be fun.
Graduation Day
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Did the warmup for two graduation day ceremonies today. One of them was for students from Computer Science. I took the tiny camera and it seems to have done a pretty good job in difficult circumstances. If you were there you should be able to find yourself in this picture or the other one on Flickr.
A couple of great audiences, thanks for that folks.
Flamingo Land
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Just to prove we went there…
Took number one daughter to Flamingo Land today, as a birthday treat. It is a theme park near Malton in Yorkshire and it is great. Some big scary rides and a really nice zoo. If you’ve not been it is well worth the trip. Much closer than Alton Tours and just as much fun.
Saturday Open Day
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Some of the audience. There is another picture on my Flickr site.
Many thanks to everyone who came along yesterday to our open day. It was great fun and you were a lovely audience. I’m sorry I had to zoom of after my talk. I would have loved to stay around and chat, but I’ve been away for a week and I had to go home and sort a few things out. If you have any questions about the department please get in touch.
Free Windows Phone for Imagine Cup Students
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We found this phone in our dressing room at the Warsaw Opera house. The design and style are fantastic. But I think on balance I’d rather have a Windows Phone.
One statement by Jon Perera on Thursday got the biggest cheer of the night. All the students who attended the competition, in all the teams, are getting free Windows Phone 7 developer devices as soon as they become available. Bearing in mind he had just given two real devices to the winners of the Imagine Cup Windows Phone RockStar competition I reckon this will be quite soon. Must find out how I can get hold of a device myself….
Flying Back from Poland
/Flew back from Poland today. Very sorry to leave, but at least I don’t have much jetlag when I get home. Thanks Microsoft for setting up such an amazing competition.
Everybody liked my Lego watch. Get yours from the Lego store.
Whenever I go through Schipol airport I always take a picture of the Seafood bar. I love the organisation and colours. There was someone buying stuff this time.
