Undercover Laptop Sleeve

If you want something to carry around your big laptop (or even your tiny Butterfly Touch) you could do a lot worse than the Undercover Laptop Sleeve. I got mine last year while I was in the ‘states, and I was quite surprised to find that they are actually made by a UK company. They are basically a thick, padded envelope with a nice soft lining that you can put your laptop in. The envelope is printed with lots of (rather amusing) fake stamps and address stuff that make it look like you are carrying an old envelope, rather than your super expensive laptop.

If you have a tiny tablet like mine you can fold the whole thing double for even better protection and the top uses velcro to keep everything nicely sealed. It is perhaps a bit expensive just for a laptop sleeve (although I’ve seen some with really eye-watering prices) but if friends or family are looking for things to get you for your birthday this would make a really nice present. They also do a smaller envelope that would fit an iPad.

My iPad Beater

A while back I got myself a Packard Bell Butterfly Touch laptop. It reminded me a bit of the Toshiba M200 I used to know and love, with a twisty screen that made it into a tablet or a notebook. I quite liked the machine and found it much more useful to carry round than any device whose name begins with i. A few weeks ago I popped a solid state drive in it (you can get the OCZ Agility 3 120G drives for less than 100 pounds now – excellent value) and loaded it up with Windows 8. Result = happiness. I’m in the process of getting used to Windows 8 (I keep starting up Internet Explorer rather than the Start button) but what I’ve got now is a really useful device with a battery that seems to go on for ever.

I took this machine to Singapore and, although it is a teensy bit underpowered to run Kinect programs, it did everything else I asked of it with aplomb. I did quite literally a whole day’s work at Schipol airport using the device. I really can get 10 hours of useful battery life out of it.  And it can boot faster than my iPad.

Windows 8 on the touch screen works very well, it seems to support the swiping gestures very well, and the fact that I can open it up and start typing into Word, or PowerPoint, or Visual Studio, is just wonderful. I even wrote my first Windows 8 application on the device while I was at the airport, along with my sessions for CampFire.

There are not many “twisty top” laptops out there at the moment, perhaps this will change when Windows 8 gets going. And while I was at CampFire I got a look at Shane’s really nice Samsung Series 7 Slate. But for now this is my weapon of choice for carrying around and doing stuff.

Singapore Rocks

Before I went to Singapore a few people said that I’d like it there. They were right. I’d go back tomorrow if I could. For a Brit it has a weird “Abroad without being abroad” kind of feel. The cars drive on proper side of the road. Lots of the streets have familiar, English sounding names. Even the mains sockets look the same. And yet, unlike the UK, there is a vibrancy about the place that is really rather nice.

They have lots (and I mean lots) of shopping malls. They have Prada and even Mont Blanc shops like other places have Starbucks. And they have Starbucks as well. I’d love to have had more time to take a bit more of a look around, most of what I saw was basically like a tidy, well run city anywhere in the world.

My advice; if you get the chance to go, just go. Even if it means a 30 hour journey.

Heading Home from Singapore

Bangkok airport, although it could really be any one of them.

Of the last five days I’ve spent three of them travelling. Today it was time to go home, which meant another day or so sitting in a metal tube. Kudos to KLM for moving me to a seat which I could actually fit into for the 12 hour flight from Bangkok…

On the way out I thought I’d play a game by posting pictures of departure lounges and getting folks to spot where in the world I was. Of course some of the sharper people out there just went straight for the GPS data that my phone puts in each image and told me, to the nearest foot or so, where I was when the picture was taken. Most impressive, if a bit scary….

Anyhoo, all the flights and connections were on time and worked, and I even got my luggage home too.

Back at work tomorrow.

Singapore Imagine Cup Finals

These are the winners, congratulations to the four team members from NYP-School of IT who are about to get covered in celebration bunting…

I was lucky enough to be invited to help judge the 2012 Singapore Imagine Cup Final presentations today. Yesterday a series of sessions had taken the teams down from 16 to 4 and today we had to pick the winner from these. For the teams in the room it must have been especially nerve wracking because the finalists were announced just before they had to present and had a scant 10 minutes to prepare for their session. Not that it showed.

Every team delivered a very professional result which brought home to me just how much the standard has improved in the competition. All the presentations were what I would call “world standard”, in that they were the equal of ones I have seen at the World Final level.

However, there was a standout winner and so congratulations to Eustace Zheng Xiangwen, Nur Nadiah Binte Zailani, Koh Kai Wei and Mong Xunheng (hope I got your names right) who made up Team AlphaWaves. Their system, the Dementia Assistance and Recall Engine (DARE) provides support to sufferers of one of the nastiest things that can happen to a person. I wish them the best of luck in the world finals in Australia later this year.

If you want to find out more about the competition and get some tips about preparation for the next rounds I’ll be hosting a Live Meeting on Wednesday 18th of April at 16:30 GMT.  You can sign up here for the meeting.

After the finals I had a quick look around Singapore and then we headed off for a really posh meal. Thanks for inviting me folks, it has been great. My only regret is that I’m in town for such a short time.

I’ve not bought many souvenirs, but that’s because I’m definitely coming back some day…