Wearing a Jacket Might Make You Nasty

I’ve started wearing a jacket for work. I’ve been referred to as “dapper” twice over the last week. Very nice. However, I’ve found that it has made me slightly more nasty. In lectures I’m now trying to stop people from talking as much at the back, and generally getting folk to turn up on time and take part. This doesn’t seem to be a case of “clothes maketh the man” as such, but it does seem that clothes maketh the man slightly more grouchy.

Or perhaps it is the jetlag.

Sign up now for Three Thing Game

Three Thing Game is a game development competition being run for students by the University of Hull. It will run for the week starting 21st March . The final will be on Sunday 27th March at the Platform Expo event, after a 24 hour intense programming session on Hull University campus the night before.

http://platformexpos.com/

The games will be written using XNA for Windows PC, Xbox 360 or Windows Phone 7. Microsoft are sponsoring the event and providing Windows Phone 7 devices for each team member as prizes.

If you are a student at Hull and want to form a team sign up (and you really should) you can find out more here:

http://www.threethinggame.com/

Red Nose Day and Windows Phone Fun

I’m doing another Lecture in Rhyme for Red Nose Day, March 18th.

The lecture will be all about Windows Phone Development and will be entirely in rhyme, except where I mention SilverLight, which doesn’t seem to have much that rhymes with it.

You can find out more, and how to sponsor me, here:

http://www.robmiles.com/RedNoseDay

The Red Nose Game is also coming soon for Windows Phone….

Update on Monday, March 7, 2011 at 04:04PM by Rob

Just got my first sponsor. Thanks James

Film Review Bonanza

Went to see “The Adjustment Bureau” today. Great film. A bit like Inception, but done better in my opinion. The story is based on one from Philip K. Dick. There have been so many films based on his writings that the next one will have to be a cinematic reworking of his laundry list. But I digress. The film tells of a pair of lovers star-crossed by fate or, more accurately, the Bureau of the title. Well acted, with very engaging leads. And a satisfying ending. It reminded me of a time I had to mend a desk in my office. Although actually that was “The Bureau Adjustment”. Anyhoo, enough of the bad jokes, good film, go see it.

Talking of “star crossed lovers”, here’s another pair. A week or so ago we went to see ”Gnomeo and Juliet” which tells of a couple of ceramic lovers of the garden gnome variety. This film has just enough wit and originality to sustain a 90 second trailer, which was unfortunately the thing I saw that made me decide to go and see it. Movies like this really make you appreciate Nick Park and Pixar, who can make producing this kind of fare seem effortless.  If you are five you might like it I suppose, but for the rest of you, just watch the trailer.

Billed as ‘the film that cost over 20,000,000,000,000 to make’ the movie ‘Inside Job’ is a documentary that tells the story of that economic crash thingy that was all over the papers a couple of years ago. You know, that thing that is going to blight the lives of an entire generation or two and is set to recur every now and then until the world realises that banks that are ‘Too Big To Fail’ are going to keep trying to.

I caught this film on the plane on the way home. You must see it too, if not for the lovely helicopter shots of cities then for the  squirming of some of the idiots daft enough to appear and try and justify the indefensible.

I’m sure it over-simplifies here and there and the viewpoint is not particularly balanced, but if only a fraction of what the film reveals is the case then the whole world (and I do mean everyone) has been taken for a massive ride. It has always puzzled me that things can just “go up in value” for no readily apparent reason. It turns out that they can’t, and if you base a business on this premise then every now and then we will have one of these massive crashes. If there ever was a job for the Adjustment Bureau then this is it.

Imagine Cup Live Meetings Next Week

I’m running two more Live Meetings next week, all about the Imagine Cup Software Design judging process.  The first one is on Monday, I should have recovered from my jet lag by then.

If you are entering, or thinking about it you really should come along. Here’s how:

The Live Meeting will be Monday, March 7, 2011 at 19:00 GMT and again on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 6:00 GMT. The same content will be reviewed at both sessions, so choose the time that works best. To join:

1. Install Microsoft Office Live Meeting. We recommend that you do this several hours in advance.  
2. Join the meeting on March 7, 2011 at 19:00 GMT. Find out what time this is in your country/region.
3. Join the meeting on March 8, 2011 at 6:00 GMT. Find out what time this is in your country/region.

You can find more details, and recordings of the earlier meetings, here:

http://www.imaginecup.com/competitions/software