Bristol Balloon Festival

We went to the Bristol Balloon Festival today. It was probably advertised as “An Event for all the Family”, because all the families in Bristol seemed to have the same idea. My goodness it was busy. We had a bit of a queue to get into the car park, and then a bit of a trek to the balloon launching area. We’d heard on the way that, because of high winds, there was not going to actually be a balloon launch, but we’d already spent such a long time queuing at that point that we thought we’d stick with it and see what there was there.

The weather was great, we did get a glimpse of a balloon (see above) and it was a great evening.

Discount Kinect Start Here! with Moo Cards

It’s the other side of the card with the discount code which is the interesting bit….

I’ve always liked Moo cards. In fact I like them so much that ages ago I wrote a “Moo Card Splitter” program that takes images and makes them into a Moo Card jigsaw on Flickr. I’m not sure if it still works. Maybe I’ll make a Metro version that uses the Windows 8 Metro interface that looks like Metro nothing like anything else that doesn’t resemble a rather cool, Metro-esque interface using the Segoe font.

Anyhoo, Microsoft Press like Moo Cards too. Today I was sent a little box full of Moo cards about my new book. (I never get tired of saying “My new book”..). On the back of each card is a discount code that will get you 40% of the paper version of the book and 50% of the ebook. Now, of course, I’d prefer you to pay full price. The book is certainly worth it. But if you want a low cost way of getting hold of “the premier C# Kinect interfacing book written by a tall bloke with a name that rhymes with “Mob Riles” then I can recommend it. I’m carrying a few of the cards in my wallet, so feel free to ask me for your own personal card if you bump into me. Actually, I’d prefer it if you didn’t bump into me, just ask for the card.

Alternatively, email me with the title “I’ve just bumped into you” and I’ll send you a “Virtual Card” with the discount code on the back.

Update on Monday, August 13, 2012 at 11:35AM by Rob

I've just discovered that Flickr has moved on since I wrote the application and now my Moo Splitter no longer works.

Sorry about that. I'll see about making it work properly.

Amazing Pulse Gadgeteer Device

Scarlet put me on to this amazing device that transforms internet data into a graph. It was made using six servos which are driven by a .NET Gadgeteer processor. You can use it to show you the weather forecast, how busy your Twitter feed is, or anything that you can pull from the web and make into numbers.

You can find out more about the Pulse device here.

C# Yellow Book Updates

Spent today working on the next version of the C# Yellow Book. I’ve removed the errors that folks have reported (thanks for that, and keep them coming) and I’m updating the section on Windows Forms interfaces to cover WPF and XAML. It should be available for free download at the start of September.

Tetris Lights

Number one daughter told me that I might like to get some of these lights. She’s right. They’re great. The bottom Tetris piece (the blue bar) is connected to a power source and the others then light up when you stack them above. I spent a happy ten minutes getting them into this vaguely plausible arrangement. I’m trying to get them stacked with the top flat… If you are a Tetris aficionado you might want to seek them out.