Friday, July 15, 2011 at 10:47PM 
Boston has a very nice waterfront.
We went for a wader round Boston today. Very nice. Went down to the waterfront and had a hot dog.
This is what the waterfront looks like when it gets a bit darker.
In the evening we went to see an open air movie, “Megamind”, which was a good piece of CGI with a nice plot and a happy ending.
Movie Crowd.
Science Museum tomorrow…
Life Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 03:43PM 
After the excitement of the Imagine Cup we are today heading of for a few days in Boston. Heard nice things about the place, so it should be fun.
Life Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 09:49PM 
These are the top three for the Imagine Cup Software Development Challenge this year. We have OaSys (Jordan) in third, NoteTaker (USA) in second and Hermes (Ireland) first. Very warm congratulations to you all.
More winners take to the stage.
The awards ceremony was a great event, with appearances from the Mayor of New York, and Eva Longoria, to name a few. The students had a great time, which got even greater when they were told that along with the Kinect they will be taking home with them, they have also been awarded a brand new “Mango” release Windows Phone device as soon as they become available. Lucky people.
Imagine Cup Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 09:29PM 
Imagine Cup Final Judges, from the left: Kulbir Arora -Technology Director Goldman Sachs, Edward G. Happ - Global CIO and Head of ISD; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Sandra Regina Boccia -Editor PEGN Magazine, David Tisch - Director TechStars NYC, Dr. Fiona Wood -Director McComb Research Foundation, me, David Connor - Managing Director, Europe; 3BL Media.
Well, that was fun. Six and a half hours of deliberation, including six team presentations and a lot of discussion. I thought when we started that we wouldn’t need all the discussion time. But we did. It was not so much that we couldn’t decide the results, but more that we all wanted to be certain that we had done right by the six finalists. Eventually we handed over the winners and then I staggered off to bed. For me the judging is now complete. 67 teams have been taken down to a top three.
I want to thank all the judges who helped us get where we are. This kind of competition is as good as the judging process. If that is broken the whole thing becomes pointless. I’ve been so proud of the way that the judges have done their jobs over the last few days. The Imagine Cup can be justly proud of them too.
Monday, July 11, 2011 at 10:47PM 
Today was a cultural day. This is when the Imagine Cup delegates get to do their own thing, or take part in some activities specially set up for them. However, in the morning we had our own agenda, and set off to go up the Empire State Building. The good news is that if you go first thing you can pretty much walk straight in. It was rather nice to walk through all the areas that would normally be fully of queuing people. Once at the top I took quite a few pictures, which will doubtless surface on these pages over time.
Then we went over to Macys store and had a look round, before returning to the hotel to join a “walking tour” around Manhattan. When we arrived the advice from folks who had been here before was to just walk around the city. I completely agree. Each neighbourhood has its own character and it is very interesting to see each one change into another. You can walk a single block and find all the shop signs complete change from one language to another.
In the evening we joined the trip to Ellis Island for a barbeque.
On the way we went past a New York icon. and even managed to get onto the island and see here up close and personal.
There are all the teams, with a rather nice backdrop.
The skyline looks even nicer when the sun goes down a bit.
Once we’d had enough to eat and drink we had a quick look around the Ellis Island museum and then it was time to get back on the boat and head home. Just a fantastic evening, thanks Microsoft.
