Amazon Music Store Fun and Games

Amazon are moving in to music distribution. Alongside books, computer games and toys you can now download unprotected MP3 files at very good prices including some albums at a loss leading 3 pounds each. So I had a go.

First mistake was to try and use the university network. So that meant a big hello to the university firewall and everything locking up and timing out. So, after a number of retries I just closed the notebook and went home, hoping that the machine would fire up and keep going on the home network.  Which it did. Problem was that I had initiated the download several times, and the rather stupid Amazon download tool insisted on fetching the same thing three or four times, just to be sure. So that was an entire evening of bandwidth out of the window.

However, once I'd got the files off the machine and tidied up all the excess copies I reckon it is a pretty good deal. The files are standard MP3s captured at 320K bps, which means that they will play pretty much anywhere with good sound quality.

Worth checking out, but don't press the download button more than once.

the Day the Earth Stood Still

We had a great office lunch today. Good food, good company, and I also got a set of measuring spoons in my cracker. Excellent.

Then, in the evening we went out to see "The Day the Earth Stood Still". This is a remake of a classic Sci-Fi film from way back, a tale of an enigmatic alien, his giant robot and shiny spherical spaceship on a mission to destroy all human life. Oh, and a mother with issues with her stepson.

Keanu Reeves didn't have much of a challenge playing the man from outer space. The biggest surprise to me was that nobody referred to him as "Mr. Anderson" at any point in the movie.  

The plot was pretty hackneyed, but resolved neatly enough at the end. One rather striking thing was the sheer number of product placements for a film where, at the climax, every machine in the world stops working. There was one bit where the heroine picked up her LG mobile phone just before checking her Citizen watch. The camera lingered just long enough for the names of these consumer durables to register, completely ignoring the fact that she didn't make a call, and at the end of the world perhaps the last thing that you really want to know is exactly what time it is. 

As a bit of escapism with full on special effects it does the trick, but don't go expecting anything else.

Christmas Bash

We had our Christmas Bash today. Went rather well, right up to the point where I opened the box with the game disk for the quiz, right at the end, and found that it was empty. So, no quiz. But we did everything else and much fun, and pizza was had. It is a moment of great personal pride to think that I managed to get to the point where all of the 60 or so students were full up. We nearly had food left over. Amazing. I took the big camera and loads of pictures.

Sam gets into Half Life 2

Drinks and nibbles (and pink christmas trees)

Thanks for coming and thank to everyone who helped out.

Video of Micro Framework Presentation

If you have an hour to kill (and I do mean kill) you can now watch the TechEd 2008 presentation I did in Barcelona in November. This is the one about the .NET Micro Framework where I make my Christmas tree lights flash red when I add a new post to this hallowed blog. I've just managed to watch a few minutes of it through the gaps between my fingers. Hopefully you might last a bit longer:

http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer/tv/default.aspx?vid=70

Dare To Dream Different Round One Ends Monday Night

If you have an idea for an embedded device there is still just time to enter the Dare To Dream Different challenge for the .NET Micro Framework.

http://www.dreamdifferentcontest.com/

The first round entry closes at midnight on Monday 15th December. You don't actually have to build anything, just pitch a good idea that you and two of your friends have had.

If you make it to the next round you get some hardware to play with, and the prizes are well worth having. You could also get help to turn your idea into a money making business opportunity.

..and if you a student from Hull the first few to show me their submitted entries will get free T shirt from the ones that I have left in the office.