Gran Turismo 5 is Hard Work

Don’t cars have nice headlights these days..

I hesitate to say that I grew up playing Gran Turismo, because that would imply that I’ve actually grown up. But I do remember first playing it on the PS 1 and my amazement in how it looked and handled. And the cars had reflections. I’ve been through all the versions since then and even invested in a force feedback steering wheel that added a lot to the PS2 version.

So it was with some excitement that I fired up the PS3 version this weekend.  The intro video is very impressive and after watching that I was looking forward to going racing. And then it got really tricky – at least for me. GT 5 has a mode where you can pick a driver and then manage them through a racing season. In fact for me that seems to be the only way I can play some parts of the game. This was somewhat depressing. I didn’t get my steering wheel down from the loft just so that I could watch some other bloke drive round a track.

I took all the licence tests (I’d forgotten how boring these are) and still ended up watching Mr. Fernandez drive around in a car I’d just bought.  And the program kept asking me to sign in to the Playstation network even though I already was signed in. This sign-in kept failing, which was also a bit annoying.

In the end I switched to arcade mode and did some rally driving. The good news is that my old steering wheel works fine with the game. The bad news is that the whole thing seems just too much like hard work. I’m sure that for a dedicated petrol head who can obsess about cam belts and marvel at the accuracy of the car images and their handling models GT 5 is great news, but for me I ended up lobbing a copy of Split Second into the drive and driving in a completely unrealistic way through exploding landscapes. Much more fun.

Cold

Hull Marina in the snow

It is not supposed to be this cold this early. Whilst snow is initially impressive it doesn’t half make doing things difficult.

Christmas Bash 2010

Christmas comes but once a year. As does the Christmas Bash. The poster pretty much says it all I guess. Tickets will be going on sale next Tuesday at 2:00 pm in the Departmental Office.

Will be fun. Oh yes.

Watch This

Clean the Fan

Thanks to Andy for the link. And good luck in the new job sir.

Unstoppable Movie Review

The new Windows Phone takes really good pictures. I guess it helps if you hold it straight though.

Tonight we went out to see “Unstoppable”. My first movie where the bad guy is a train. And no, “Starlight Express” does not count here. Neither does “Thomas the Tank Engine”. And anyway, Thomas was a “Really Useful Engine".  But I digress.

Unstoppable is a darned good film. At the start it says “Inspired by true events”.Indeed. Although I’m sure I would have seen something in the papers if what happened in the film did actually happen.

Real life not withstanding it is very well made, well acted and looks terrific. The kind of film that you need a big screen and loud sound for. Don’t let anything stop you seeing it.

Preston Foster Rides Again

Last night we went out and stood in the rain while they turned the Cottingham Lights on then we went for a walk and I took some photographs. I’ll have some more later when I figure out how to use the new lens properly.

Tonight we went out for a beer for the first time in ages. We have not had a meeting of the “Preston Foster Appreciation Society” (long story) for quite a while.  Apparently they had heard we were coming, because the pub was shut. But that didn’t stop us. Where we live you are never more than a stone’s throw from a pub. Although the police turn up and tell you off if you start doing that. We not only managed to have a quorate meeting of the society, but Nick managed to work out which “reserve pub” we had switched to and join us as well.

Film Ideas

I’ve been working on some film ideas:

The year is 2054. Brunettes have taken power. Anyone daring to be different is ruthlessly hunted down by the state. This is the story of a band of freedom fighters who, armed only with hair colouring and bleach, take a stand against oppression.  Working title: “Illegally Blonde”

In a world where outrageous has become the normal, this film tells the story of one man’s fight for the right to be boring. Working title: “Legally Bland”.

This hard hitting documentary tells the story of the only officially licenced, Ian Fleming approved 007 impersonator. Working title: “Legally Bond”.

Bletchley Park Trip

Emma is organising a trip to Bletchley Park next year. I’ve already signed up. If you fancy going (in spite of the early start) you can find out more here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=164986853521267

Super Sleuth

Achieved one of my minor ambitions today. Got to see “The Mousetrap”. This is the longest running show in the world, and likely to stay that way looking at the size of the audience today. It is a good, honest, country house murder mystery that manages to be both completely of its time and also timeless. It is well worth seeing. And I’m not just saying that because I managed to guess “whodunnit”.

Microsoft Certified Career Conference

Andy and I did our Windows Phone 60 Minute Rock Star show today. Andy is actually in a rock band and played a proper concert last night. I have a copy of Rock Band and like the Lego version best….

Anhoo, all went well – apart from my laptop freezing and falling off the network, forcing me to spend a nervous five minutes rebooting the thing and getting back into the Live Meeting. Fortunately this happened just at the point where Andy was showing off his Silverlight skills and I was able to drop back in on cue and show some live Cheese Lander action in XNA.

If you were along for the ride this morning, thanks for the perceptive questions at the end, I hope what we did was useful to you. I said I’d put some links in the blog and here they are:

To get started and download the development tools:

http://create.msdn.com

To get a copy of Cheese Lander, plus lots of other XNA examples:

https://static.squarespace.com/static/5019271be4b0807297e8f404/52c5bcfce4b0c4bcc9121347/52c5bd05e4b0c4bcc9123daa/1289470629837/Demos.zip

Rob Miles–Tastes Like Chicken

Thanks for that Christophe…..

More Self Promotion

While I was in Berlin last week I recorded an interview with some Microsoft Student Partners. You can find it here:

http://www.msstudentlounge.com/tabid/60/default.aspx?id=1920

Great fun, and some very perceptive questions.

TechEd 2010 Sessions Now Available

If you want to re-live (or even live) the magic that was my TechEd 2010 sessions in Berlin last week you can find screencasts of them here:

http://www.msteched.com/Speakers/Rob-Miles

Thanks to Jeff for sending the link.

Microsoft Certified Career Conference

Andy Wigley and I will be giving  a Live session at the Microsoft Certified Career Conference later this week. This is a rolling, 24 hour, web based conference with a whole range of sessions that aim to help you get started in the business of computing. There are sessions on workplace survival, how to build the brand that is you and technical preparations for Microsoft MCP exams.

Andy and I are on at 10:15 on Friday 19th November UK time, talking about becoming a Windows Phone Rock Star. Should be fun. And we must remind you that no guitars will be harmed in the production of this session…

Students can get a discount on the registration fee of $55. If you register you can view the presentations on your desktop and chat with speakers and other delegates. Register by going here:

http://www.mscareerconference.com/login.aspx

Kinect will make you fit. Or kill you.

Managed to get some “quality” time with Kinect today. If by quality you mean “playing with it while the rest of the family looks on and laughs”.

Last Friday night I had a quick go with the Dance Central game, which did a very good job of tracking my body and telling me I wasn’t dancing right. This news actually came as no surprise, but the system was able to highlight in red precisely the bits of me that were in the wrong position, which was impressive. Although at one point my whole body lit up red…..

Today we fired up Kinect Sports and had a fun with Table Tennis, Bowling and Field Sports. Table Tennis is very impressive. Not quite as good as PlayStation Move at tracking the precise angle of the bat you are holding but getting everything else right. Playing without something in your hand feels strange at first, but soon you stop thinking about it and just get on with the gameplay which works a treat. Bowling is good too although my opinion of this might be coloured by the fact that I got a strike with my first ball. Maybe this is programmed in… Anyhoo I soon settled down to business as usual, with gutter balls and impossible spares appearing with disturbing regularity.

Field Sports nearly killed me. The Long Jump was particularly scary. Fortunately we have quite high ceilings in our house, although I was also worried about the ceiling in the room below collapsing when I landed. If you are looking for a fun way to keep fit I can strongly recommend it. Especially if you have high ceilings and concrete floors.

So, Kinect works. You can’t use it sitting down, but then again volleyball sat down is never going to be quite as much fun anyway. It does what it says on the tin, in that it seems to know where you are and what you are doing. If you wave your arms your mannequin on the screen waves too. If you throw the discuss into the ground, so does the chap on the screen.

Great fun.

In Praise of Long Focus Lenses

Went up town today. Took a long lens with me. Quite pleased I did really.

We do seem to be having some nice weather at the moment.

Definitely not delayed

Headed back today, after a very busy week. When I checked in at the airport the girl at the desk made a few phone calls and then assured me that my flight was not going to be delayed.

I took this as a warning sign.

Turns out the flight was delayed, but fortunately for me I had such a long wait for the next one that I arrived home at the proper time.  Bad weather in Holland meant that the landing at Schipol, on the only runway they were using, was a bit more interesting than usual. Suffice it to say that the pilot earned his round of applause at the end.

When I got back we had fish and chips and then shot up town to pick up a Kinect. Had a very quick play. First impressions? It works, amazingly well.

TechEd 2010 Day 4

Once I’d finished my talk and recovered I went for a wander around the exhibition. Of course I took the camera.

This makes the labs we have back at Hull look rather puny….

They had some Kinect systems out there. Looks like fun. With a bit of luck my system should be waiting for me back in Hull.

In the evening we went out for a meal at a posh restaurant. Thanks to Amina for the invite. Great company and good food.

Whizz Bang Phone Session

The delegates as they arrived, thanks for being another great audience.

Did my final session of TechEd 2010 today. Fun was had, and everything worked including the demos. I’m going to put Cheese Lander on the Windows Phone Marketplace at the weekend. I just hope nobody beats me to it……

As usual, you can get the code behind everything that you saw from here.

You can find the Farseer Physics engine here:

http://farseerphysics.codeplex.com/

You can get all the Windows Phone stuff here:

http://create.msdn.com

Windows Phone Mixer

Free food and drink? In  a brewery? Sign me up…..

After the exertions of the day we went out to the Windows Phone Miser at a really nice little brewery. The place was just nicely full with Windows Phone Developers and folks and we sat around chatting, drinking the excellent cloudy light beer and eating free food, my favourite kind.

The guys at the bar insisted I took this picture.

Then we trundled back to the hotel on all the right trains. Great fun.