Heading to Boston

After the excitement of the Imagine Cup we are today heading of for a few days in Boston. Heard nice things about the place, so it should be fun.

Imagine Cup 2011 Awards Ceremony

These are the top three for the Imagine Cup Software Development Challenge this year. We have OaSys (Jordan) in third, NoteTaker (USA) in second and Hermes (Ireland) first. Very warm congratulations to you all.

More winners take to the stage.

The awards ceremony was a great event, with appearances from the Mayor of New York, and Eva Longoria, to name a few. The students had a great time, which got even greater when they were told that along with the Kinect they will be taking home with them, they have also been awarded a brand new “Mango” release Windows Phone device as soon as they become available. Lucky people.

Imagine Cup 2011 Finals Judging

Imagine Cup Final Judges, from the left: Kulbir Arora -Technology Director Goldman Sachs, Edward G. Happ - Global CIO and Head of ISD; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Sandra Regina Boccia -Editor PEGN Magazine, David Tisch  - Director TechStars NYC, Dr. Fiona Wood -Director McComb Research Foundation, me, David Connor - Managing Director, Europe; 3BL Media.

Well, that was fun. Six and a half hours of deliberation, including six team presentations and a lot of discussion. I thought when we started that we wouldn’t need all the discussion time. But we did. It was not so much that we couldn’t decide the results, but more that we all wanted to be certain that we had done right by the six finalists. Eventually we handed over the winners and then I staggered off to bed. For me the judging is now complete. 67 teams have been taken down to a top three.

I want to thank all the judges who helped us get where we are. This kind of competition is as good as the judging process. If that is broken the whole thing becomes pointless. I’ve been so proud of the way that the judges have done their jobs over the last few days. The Imagine Cup can be justly proud of them too.

Imagine Cup 2011 Culture and Party

Today was a cultural day. This is when the Imagine Cup delegates get to do their own thing, or take part in some activities specially set up for them. However, in the morning we had our own agenda, and set off to go up the Empire State Building. The good news is that if you go first thing you can pretty much walk straight in. It was rather nice to walk through all the areas that would normally be fully of queuing people. Once at the top I took quite a few pictures, which will doubtless surface on these pages over time.

Then we went over to Macys store and had a look round, before returning to the hotel to join a “walking tour” around Manhattan. When we arrived the advice from folks who had been here before was to just walk around the city. I completely agree. Each neighbourhood has its own character and it is very interesting to see each one change into another. You can walk a single block and find all the shop signs complete change from one language to another.

In the evening we joined the trip to Ellis Island for a barbeque.

On the way we went past a New York icon. and even managed to get onto the island and see here up close and personal.

There are all the teams, with a rather nice backdrop.

The skyline looks even nicer when the sun goes down a bit.

Once we’d had enough to eat and drink we had a quick look around the Ellis Island museum and then it was time to get back on the boat and head home. Just a fantastic evening, thanks Microsoft.

Imagine Cup Round 3 Finalists

This is me taking to the stage to announce the teams that are going forward to the finals on Tuesday. Fortunately there are no pictures of me nearly falling off the stage at the end.

Anyhoo, the six teams that have made it to the final round are:

• Care Everyone China
• OaSys Jordan
• OneBuzz New Zealand
• SIMPLEX Romania
• Team Hermes Ireland
• Team Note Taker United States

Awesome work folks. Very impressive stuff. Now these teams have got to take their presentations onto the big stage on Tuesday.

Imagine Cup Round 2 Judging

Not a bad place for breakfast.

Imagine that you spent a day doing something which was great fun. And then you got to spend another day doing the same thing, only better. Well, that’s how today is going. Yesterday we judged the Imagine Cup Round One teams, who were excellent. Today we get to do the same thing for Round 2, with the 18 teams that are left. I’ve done my marking and I’ve even had time to stitch together some pictures that I took at breakfast, which is nice. The other judges are still working away at their score sheets, and later today we will be announcing the six teams that will be going forward to the finals on Tuesday.

Imagine Cup 2011 Round 2 Teams

At least the camera seems to be working again now…

Well, that was fun. Six presentations, six teams of passionate and enthusiastic students. Six good ideas well implemented. Now we have to put all the scores together and find the 18 best ones. We also have to assemble 18 feedback reports. And all before the end of the day. And we just about made it.

These are the 18 teams who are moving forward to the next round:

• 2ndSight Slovenia
• Apptenders Croatia
• Care Everyone China
• Celebrio Software Czech Republic
• DashPoint Ukraine
• Infiniti India
• LevelUP Brazil
• Lifeware S.A.C. Chile
• OaSys Jordan
• OneBuzz New Zealand
• OriTeam Russia
• SIMPLEX Romania
• Team 25k Finland
• Team Cyber Knightz Malaysia
• Team Hermes Ireland
• Team Note-Taker United States
• White Light Morocco
• Zippers Slovakia

I was up on the stage reading out the names Lisa pulled from a hat. We do this to set the order for the presentation tomorrow.

I was very aware that as well as making 18 teams very happy I was also making 49 teams a bit sad. We say “you are all winners” a lot at the World Finals. Mainly because it is true. For those that didn’t make the cut I can tell you that the competition was very fierce, with the standard going up again. (as it seems to every year). And you have all gained more from this competition than you know. It really will change your life. When you go for a job, make sure that you tell them about the time you had in New York, and what you built. It will be the making of you. Remember that your Imagine Cup entry is not the only great thing you will do. It is just one of the first.

And a final tip if you didn’t quite make it. Go to the eating area on the 8th floor of the hotel. Grab something nice to eat and drink and find a window seat looking out onto the lights of Times Square. Then say to yourself. “I’m in New York on an all expenses paid trip. Last night I saw Steve Balmer turn up and give a speech just to us. Tomorrow we have a BBQ at Ellis Island. I’ve got nothing to do but play with cool tech, hang out with folks like me and explore New York”. And then tell me again how unfortunate you are….

Imagine Cup 2011 Judging Starts

Turns out I’m wearing Mr. Burns socks today. I hope I don’t start behaving like him during the judging.

Today is the judging for the round one presentations. The judges are all ready and assigned rooms, but first we have to brief the students on how it is all going to work. Which apparently involved me going up on the stage and telling some bad jokes. I think most aspects of my life involve me doing this at some point.

This is the left hand side of the audience. When I tried to take a picture of the other part of the room (which is enormous by the way) for some reason my camera let me down. Sorry about that, and you were definitely the better looking half of the room too….

Each judge has been assigned up to six teams to score and provide feedback to. The presentation sessions each last 20 minutes, with 15 minutes for questions afterwards. We give out the top 18, who are going to progress to the next round, at 10:00 tonight. I hope the camera is working again by then….

Imagine Cup 2011 Opening Ceremony

Today the competition proper got under way. This is Jon Perera getting the competition started.

Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft, was in his element surrounded by a bunch of tech-enthusiasts.

At the start of every contest they cut a ribbon in half. I’m not sure why, but it makes for a good picture. Actually, perhaps that’s way. Anyhoo, this is Jeffery D. Sachs, Steve Balmer and Jon Perera doing the business in New York. We start the judging tomorrow. This is going to be great fun.

Coming to America

This is the view from the hotel window. Not too shabby eh?

The 2011 Imagine Cup World Finals are in the USA this year. New York City to be exact. I remember the excitement when this was announced last year in Poland, and I remember really wanting to go. And here I am. Thanks to Microsoft for inviting me. Planet Imagine Cup in New York. Great stuff. The hotel is right next to Times Square. We had a bus ride from the airport.

This is a dodgy panorama of the bus ride. I think that dodgy panoramas might be a trademark of my imagery for this year.

 

This was our first view of the New York skyline.

Once we had checked in I went over to see Lisa and the rest of the Microsoft team in the crew room.

Behind the scenes in the Microsoft crew room. Lisa says hi!

We start the briefing and preparation for the competition tomorrow. Can’t wait.

Packing for New York

Stretching a bus with a Panoramic Camera in Hull. Going to try this in NYC

I’m packing for New York at the moment. I’m taking a bunch of cameras, computers and loads of power supplies. Mustn't forget the adapter plug too.

Hull University in 3D

I’ve been playing around with a 3D camera and I think it sort of works. these are the left and right pairs that I took on the way into the office. I’ve found this really useful program that can convert the stereo MPO files produced by the camera into twin jpegs. If you want to see exactly what I saw as I walked past the library you just need to print these out and stick them on the inside of your 3D glasses. 

Radio Cube

The scene, a boardroom in Tokyo. The chairman surveys the ranks of executives ranged down each side of the long walnut desk and speaks.

Chairman: “So, we have nearly concluded the business for today. We have decided to build a new factory in Osaka to make a new electric sports car, agreed to an investment of 3 Trillion Yen in battery technology, and to sponsor the 2012 Olympics. Just one vital item remains for discussion.”

An expectant hush fills the room.

Chairman: “Can Rob have a replacement radio for his Nissan Cube?”

First Executive: “Sounds fair enough to me. After all, it is not his fault that it broke, and the car is under warranty”

Second Executive: “I agree. I’ve always enjoyed reading his blog”

Chairman (picking up a quill pen and signing a scroll): “Then it shall be so.”

Actually, I’m not convinced that this is how it turned out, but I’m jolly pleased that Nissan did agree to a replacement. Driving home without Radio 4 has been a bit lonely, although I have figured out that I can use the TuneIn Radio on the Windows Phone via Bluetooth to get reasonable coverage.

Special shout out to Trenton Nissan in Hull who negotiated with Nissan on my behalf and did the job very quickly and efficiently. They gave me a courtesy car while they diagnosed the problem and insisted on washing mine before they gave it back to me. And the hadn’t even sold me the Cube, they were providing warranty support on behalf of another dealer.

Imagine Cup Video Round Judges Comments now Available

I’ve just finished spending a few hours in the Imagine Cup Judging tool. I’ve been going through the judges comments on the Video Presentations that we’ve been reviewing. The idea is that we can get some feedback to the teams in advance of the finals in New York next week. This will allow them to add some detail to their presentations and make sure they can give their best.

With over 60 teams it has been quite a challenge to summarize all the comments and get them distributed but I hope the teams find the information useful. I was very impressed with the videos that I saw, and it was good to see comments from other judges saying how much they enjoyed seeing theirs as well.

Remember that these comments are there to make good things even better. If we have mentioned that you could add some coverage to particular aspects of your presentation this means that we liked what we saw, and we want to see more.

I’m really looking forward to New York next week. It is going to be super great. Come and say hello if you see me. I’m the tall bloke wearing the Lego watch….

Cottingham Day

Cottingham Church was open too

Today is Cottingham Day. I normally miss this because I’m out of the country at the Imagine Cup World Finals, but this year they are a week later and so I’ve had a chance to take a look. On Cottingham Day they close the main street and set up stalls and stuff for folk to take a look around. They also have some classic cars parked up, so it was out with the big camera and off for a look.

Cottingham churchyard

I used to have a Mini, but not as nice as this one…

Cool Rover

Proper motoring

The whole thing was great and had a super atmosphere. If you are around next year, well worth a trip.

Another year of MVP-ness

Just got the email from Microsoft telling me that I’ve been reappointed as a Windows Phone MVP for another year. Very pleased. It seems that rumours of the death of the Windows Phone MVP programme are somewhat exaggerated. Or something.

I’ve been an MVP since 2003. I’m never quite sure what I’ve done to deserve it, but I hope that as long as I keep doing stuff, they’ll look kindly on me each year.

Windows Phone 7 Mango Magic

Mango Upgrade - Star Trek fans please note

I upgraded my “proper” phone to Mango yesterday. I wasn’t going to, the plan was just to upgrade a developer phone and use that to play with the new SDK features. However, once I’d played with the system for a while I just had to do it so I can use Mango as much as possible.

One of the things that I used to love about my iPhone was the way that I really enjoyed using it. I’d fire it up knowing that whatever I was going to do, from create an appointment to surf the internets, would be fun. The people who make the iPhone really seem to understand how software must not get in the way, it should just make doing things better. With Mango, Windows Phone has reached that point. I love the way that it organises all the interactions with friends into single strand. I can see all the phone calls, emails, texts and messages in one conversation, which is just so nice. Being able to make family groups who I can message and deal with as a single entity is great too.

One thing I used to do with the iPhone was spend an evening browsing the App Store and parting with a couple of pounds (less than the price of a pint of beer) on little programs that would be fun to play with. The Windows Phone Marketplace is by no means as large as the App Store, but it is plenty big enough for me to start doing this again. And now we have Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies (two must buys) as well.

There are still a couple of things missing to make my Windows Phone experience perfect. I’d love to have Street View for the navigation (although on the plus side I now have turn by turn navigation with spoken directions) and not having BBC iPlayer is sometimes a bit of a pain, but I now have a phone that I open up knowing it is going to be fun to use, which is really great.

If you are a Marketplace Developer I’d strongly advise you to get Mango on your device. Sure, it will make you able to play with the new code libraries, but it will also give you a really nice phone experience. I’ve said before I reckon that version 3.0 is when Microsoft start to really nail their products and Mango is definitely proof of this theory.

Poolside Programming with the C# Yellow Book

Russell, who has signed up to be in our First Year starting in September, shows how he is getting ahead of the game by taking the C# Yellow Book for some poolside programming in Fuerteventura. Good stuff.

It seems that the Yellow Book is looking a little pasty this year. I was going for an artistic shade reminiscent of dappled sunlight through tall tress in spring. Unfortunately I got muddy white. But don’t worry, the next Yellow Book is going to be the yellowist yellow you have ever seen. I’m presently working on updates for the content. Remember that you can get your own, completely free, PDF version of the book from www.csharpcourse.com I’ll put the new version up when I send it to the printers for copies for next year.

Mango Unleashed

In case you were wondering what a Mango actually looks like. I think you should know that I had to buy this picture from iStockPhoto….

Big things afoot in Windows Phone 7 land.

Firstly, the latest version (7.1 beta 2) of the toolchain is now available. You can get it from here. This lets you create Windows Phone apps for the Mango build. It replaces version 7.1 beta 1, which you must remove before you install this one. A tip, I download the iso image (there is a link on the download site) and burn it to a disk. Then I can update machines at home without losing all my network bandwidth.

Secondly, and this is the big one, all registered Marketplace developers will get access to a Microsoft Connect program which will enable them to put Mango system images onto their developer devices. And not just the special developer phones. This means that I should be able to get some Mango goodness onto my Samsung Omnia 7. Wonderful. The email invitations are going out at the moment. Not got mine yet, but I’m watching my inbox.

Thirdly, if you are a student you can take advantage of a new DreamSpark inspired competition.  Here are the instructions, hand stolen from the WindowsTeam Blog (I always think that says Window Steam Blog – but that’s just me).

1. Make sure you’re registered for DreamSpark
2. Download and install Expression Studio Ultimate and the new Mango Windows Phone Developer Tools (available free as a member of DreamSpark)
3. Get the free Sketchflow Template for Windows Phone and create a Sketchflow mock-up of your app
4. Post the Sketchflow mock-up somewhere online and tweet out the link using the hash tag #WPAppItUp
5. We will review all prototypes and will contact the developers who submit the best ones and send them a special Mango developer device.

Great stuff.  Windows Phone is going from strength to really strong.

Optimus Quest 2 Reminder

Don’t forget my Optimus Quest competition. The Hull student with the most Windows Phone Marketplace downloads up to the end of July 2011 will win a shiny new Optimus 7 device. Then we do it all again in August.

Full details here.