Zune HD is out, and it Supports XNA

Today the new Zune platform is released by Microsoft. Called the Zune HD it looks absolutely wonderful. It has solid state storage, an OLED display and a multi-touch user interface.

And, (and this is the wonderful news) it supports XNA. A set of XNA 3.1 Extensions has also been released which you can use to take your games and run them on this fantastic platform. And the extensions even provide access to the accelerometer and the multi-touch input.

If Microsoft get around to putting a phone in there too they will have their first proper iPhone beater.

The only snag is that for now it is a US only release, but with a bit of luck it will make it to us eventually.

The Problem is Never Where you Think it is

I mentioned to David how I had put the 2 of “our hall smells funny” together with the 2 of “..and the flat roof looks a bit old” and got the result “therefore the roof is leaking”.

He made the (quite sensible) observation that it hasn’t rained for over a week.  Oh dear, that probably means I’m playing with plumbing again.

Interesting Question

I was helping someone fill in a form about me recently and they asked the “Where do you work?” question.

“University of Hull”

“..and how long have you been there?” was the next thing they wanted to know.

“Thirty one years” was my reply (and it’s true – scarily enough)

When they said “Oh, do you like it there then?” I wasn’t quite sure what to say next. If I said I hated the place this would mark me down as rather a slow learner.

Clipper Race at Hull

The Round the World Clipper Race does exactly what it says on the tin. Ten yachts from various countries are setting sail around the world. The different thing about this race though is that the crews are made up of ordinary folk who have signed up, got trained and will join their boats for various stages on the round the world trip.

It starts from Hull tomorrow, but today the boats were in Hull Marina so we went for a look. I took the little camera for some snaps. I had a go at making a panorama shot of the side of the marina.

It seemed to come out OK.

The atmosphere was great and the weather amazing.

Home is where the leaky roof is

Got home from our holidays, not to a hero’s welcome, but to a dank smell in the hall. It seems that the flat roof on the porch is doing what flat roofs do every ten years, which is need replacing.