HypnoCube HypnoCute

I sooooo want one of these. Just a 4x4x4 would work for me.

Tech-Ed EMEA 2008 Barcelona

I've just found out that I have had a session accepted for Tech-Ed EMEA 2008. This means that if you sally forth to Barcelona in November you will be able to see me strutting my stuff about the .NET Micro Framework. I did a session about this in Orlando earlier this year, and this time I'll be able to use even more hardware (every time I turn around another Micro Framework board has appeared).

I'd love to see you in the audience, so if you are coming out to Spain feel free to search out the session. I'll post more details when I have them. And I'm going to be using "All New Jokes" (tm).

Underwater Magic

The University of Hull is one of the partners in the Venus Project. The aim of the work is to preserve underwater archeological  sites by making a completely accurate record of them, and provide a realistic visualisation of what they are actually like to visit. Paul Chapman from the department is giving a presentation of the system later this week, and as a taster he set it up in our visualisation suite and let us have a go on it.

Darren navigates the submersible to the site while Paul watches.

The system provides an eerily accurate version of the view that you would get from a submersible craft if you explored the sites yourself. You can move around just as you would in the submarine, and all artifacts are there just as when they were discovered.

Fantastic stuff.

Rob in the News

Earlier this year I was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status for another year. I was really pleased about this and the university seems quite pleased too. They even wrote a little story about it and the our Imagine Cup success over the years, with a specially taken scary photo of me in my "pyjama shirt". You can find out more, and marvel at the picture, here.

Sunday Reading

Spent a very pleasant part of Sunday reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. Absolutely brilliant.

If you've not discovered the Diskworld books then good for you, because it means you'll have the pleasure of reading them for the first time. They are written with a lightness of touch, a cleverness and a humanity that nobody else can match.

Terry Pratchett was recently diagnosed with an early form of Senile Dementia which doesn't seem to be slowing him down much just yet, thank goodness. He is truly great writer who has not been granted anything like the recognition he richly deserves in spite (or, one wonders perhaps because of) his great popularity with huge numbers of readers.