Sooo Close.

By a combination of RFID tag sales for the prize draw and accosting people who were injudicious enough to turn up at the lecture carrying money (I did let one lad keep his bus fare home though) I was able to take 210.90 pounds in cash down to the bank this morning and pay it into the prize fund.

Added to the amount given by my wonderful sponsors, this takes the total to 984.98. Just fifteen pounds and two pence short of me having to wear a tutu for the lecture.

Talk about precision planning. Go me.

If you haven't got round to sponsoring me and want to send me over the edge, so to speak, you can still donate at: http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/robmiles

Update on Saturday, March 16, 2013 at 08:41PM by Rob

Joost has just taken me over the target. Thanks so much. What a pity it's too late to wear the tutu....

Red Nose Day Fun and Games

Some of the audience, before the show started. Profuse apologies to the folks on the very front row. For some reason I didn’t point the camera in your direction.

Today did not dawn in an auspicious manner. I went into work prepared to put the starting touches to the presentation (only kidding, it was actually mostly written, but I have a policy of never finishing a talk until just before I really need it.). Anyhoo, I plugged in my shiny Sony and got all manner of USB “in and out” sounds. Truly, my machine was playing the hokey cokey with all my devices. A dance which ended with a bunch of unknown USB devices in Device Manager. Oh well. My first thought was my keyboard, but experiments indicated otherwise. USB hub then.

Ho hum. Time for a reboot. So I shut the machine down. And found I had 14 updates outstanding. Arrgh. This of course made my machine unusable for a lot longer than I had planned for. Wah. And when it came back, of course the USB drivers for the Gadgeteer (the thing my Lecture in Rhyme was all about) had broken. After another reboot (five updates that time) I managed to get something to work. By now we were about fifteen minutes from the presentation. No pressure.

Anyhoo, thanks to an awesome audience I managed to get through it all. Even when the demo failed because of lingering USB issues. Fortunately “The Door of Mystery” worked fine, and picked key number 71.

This is the lucky winner. I look a lot more pleased than him, perhaps because I’ve finished the lecture.

There are videos of the lecture, but they are kind of meaningless without the slide deck. I’m going to spend some time this weekend making a “director’s cut” with a narration that will hopefully make more sense.

Thanks to every one who sponsored me, the folks who turned up and had their pockets emptied, and apologies to the three people who wandered into the lecture theatre just after we had started only to have me point at them and shout “NEW PEOPLE. GET MONEY FROM THEM!” Apparently they turned tail and left in a hurry. I hope they’ve stopped running by now….

Update on Friday, March 22, 2013 at 09:37PM by Rob

You can find the video here.

You can still sponsor me here.

Hull Pictures

One of the great things about going up town first thing in the morning to review the papers for Radio Humberside is that you can get some great pictures.

Just to the right of the centre of the frame you can see the BBC offices.

Hull centre Looking good.

Red Nose Day Rhyming

I spent a big chunk of this evening writing poetry. Thanks to Carl for his donation, which gets him into the script.

As long as I can find something that rhymes with “Carl”.

If you want to sponsor me, and who doesn’t, then visit:

http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/robmiles

If we get more than 1,000 pounds then I will wear that tutu. You can find out more about my previous Red Nose Day triumphs here and here.

We will definitely video the lecture, and who knows, some of the students might try to live stream it too. Keep coming back here, and to my Red Nose Day sponsor page for news.

“Door of Mystery” Version 2.0

This is the upgraded “Door of Mystery”. It now takes you picture when you authenticate your tag and stores the photo on an internal SD card. Who knows what it will do tomorrow?

By the way, there is still time to sponsor me. Remember, if you reach 1,000 pounds I’ll wear a tutu when I give the lecture…

http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/robmiles