July 2005 - Posts - Ruari (Chuck's) Mind
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Ruari (Chuck's) Mind

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July 2005 - Posts

  • Imagine Cup Day 4 (Final Presentations and Online Winners)

    Oh my word, today the online winners were announced, and we were all invited to enjoy the presentations of the final 6 software design projects and the Short Movie sections.

    What can I say, not a lot, I really had the lump in my throat today, what creativity, what innovation, well done to the 6 finalists, it's really great to see the enthusiasm for technology amongst these students.

    After all the presentations we all went for a formal dinner in the most up market restaurant in Yokohama. As Dem would say Microsoft really knows how to throw a party.

    Where are the Students tonight? Asleep I hope, they deserve it, it's been an emotionally draining day. (shhh, we were up rather late last night)

    So the rest I'll say in Pics, check out the Gallery http://dotnet.org.za/ruari/gallery/1155.aspx

    Just in Closing......  “GOOD TO BE GEEK!!“

     

  • Imagine Cup Day 3 (Final 6 announced - maybe)

    And…….

    Well today – no competition, Imagine cup competitors were treated to a trip to the Sankeien Gardens. (www.sakeien.or.jp). Wow what an amazing place.

    We took plenty photo’s and got to see a part of the garden the public don’t.

     

    Then it was relaxing, and off to the digital dinner where we watched the Rendering winners apps. (Some amazing stuff here as well, I’ll post some pics).

     

    Now I think I’ll take the team for a drink, they deserve it, they have worked hard to get here and competing at this level can be very taxing.

     

    And……..

    Breathe, sit down, and breathe again:

    The teams that went to the next level are…..

    Germany, China, Russia, Brazil, Greece and Slovenia.

     

    Breathe; We had to, as we then realized that we had been holding our breaths through the whole speech. (No wonder people were looking at us hehe).

     

    Next year we will get them ;-). Now I’ll let the team relax after a job well done, take them out to town tomorrow morning, and look forward to watching the winners present their solutions as they compete for the top 3.

    Well done to all the teams and good luck for the next stage. I’ll keep you posted.

     

    So team, a bit of a let down, but you have done exceptionally well, just getting to the Imagine cup makes you the best of the breed.

     

    “So? Now what, apart from being Tired what are your thoughts at this stage?”

     

    Rob: “A bit disappointed, but next year we plan to enter again!  Now we know what to expect.”

     

    Dem: “It has been a great trip. A bit disappointed we didn’t make top 6, but it’s been a great learning experience”

     

    Maree: I am just proud of our team. They did their best. The six judges obviously had their criteria (and we had ours; which did not correlate)! It’s been great and we are grateful for the experience!

  • Imagine Cup Day 2 WOW!!

    Suspense killing you yet?

    Don’t feel alone, I practically have no nails left. (Gotta stop biting them)

    Well all I can tell you is that after our two presentations my adrenaline was pumping, it’s almost as if I’m in the competition.

    (These main judging presentations were 25 minutes each, which included slides, live demo and Q&A  - butterflies I tell you!)

    What great delivery, what a great system. Hey any system that combines both a fuzzy logic and a neural network AI engine reporting into a new technology which the students call a CAE (Central Analysis Engine).

    All this to detect and stop network intrusion. Like I said most network administrators would give anything to get their hands on this.

     

    But…. We will only know tomorrow if (or should I say ‘that’) they made it to the next round. (Positive thinking there J)

     

    Well, before I spill all the beans lets see what the students think of their chance.

    “So guys, how do you feel now? Reckon you gonna take this one?”

     

    Dem: “It’s too early to say, but the judges seemed excited about our system :-D. Its going to be a tense wait for a day or so, Microsoft really knows how to throw a party!!”

     

    Rob: “Well you never can tell what the judges are thinking; but most of them were quite keen to hear more, they even let us go slightly over-timeJ. I am so nervous and can’t wait till tomorrow when we hear if we go through! ”

     

    Maree: OK, I’ll go along with the whole Alfred Hitchkock thing…I suppose the fact that a judge commented that our CS Dept was obviously “good” means something…They also suggested that the students patent their idea…does this mean they were impressed?

  • Imagine cup: Day one draws to an end.

    Today consisted mainly of the following.

    After breakfast there was a briefing where we heard the ground rules.

    Basically today consisted of setup, were the students got to set up their tables and solutions.

    Then every team had to made 10 minute presentations (Lightning presentations) to 2 panels of judges, this means that each team had to do 2 presentations today.

    Considering that there are about 38 teams. That would make a lot of presentations.

     

    So what did they do between presentations? Well a quick walk around the Mall (to clear the adrenalin), then a short nap, and revisit material.

     

    How did it go, well we won’t know yet, they have to do 2 more presentations and demo’s tomorrow to the panels, then we will find out.

    Well guys good luck, I think I’m more nervous than they are!!!

     

    So tell me guys.

    “How do you feel after today’s presentations?”

     I had a lump in my throat, you and your project really ROCKS!!

     

    Dem: “Feeling really good after today, think things went well, enjoyed the presentations! Looks like the judges had fun too ;-)”

     

    Rob:  “I think that the judges were pretty impressed, was pretty stressful but went well.  now onto the main presentation tomorrow!!”

     

    Maree: I think it went very well! Pertinent points were raised very impressively… the judges’ hand-clapping afterwards suggested that this was their likely impression too!

     

    PS: I have created a Gallery that I’ll keep updated at http://dotnet.org.za/ruari/gallery/1155.aspx

    Posted Jul 28 2005, 12:03 PM by ruari with 4 comment(s)
    Filed under:
  • Imagine Cup gets off to a great start.

    Ready, Set, Imagine cup GO!

     

    And we are off!! Imagine cup got off to a great start this morning. After a solid few hours of sleep we are bight eyed and bushy Tailed as we headed off to a delightful international breakfast (think I’ll go for the Sushi later ;-)).

     

    This year’s theme is ‘Breaking Barriers’, which is a really relevant theme for South Africa, we always breaking barriers every day of our lives.

    The South African team’s project for this years Imagine cup is a proactive intrusion detection system, something every network administrator would love to get his/her hands on. You really got to see this system, but more on this later subject later. I'll also set up a gallery where I will be posting pics, depending on connectivity.

    But for now a quick word from the team:
    “So guys, how you feeling about Imagine cup so far?”

     

    Dem: “Really excited at this stage!! We are just about to start setting up, looking forward to presenting, wish us luck :-D”

     

    Rob: “Woooohooo we are here and ready to ROCK!!  If all goes well, we come back with the first place…”

     

    Maree: Microsoft is a very professional organization – and that’s a serious understatement! This is a truly unforgettable experience! If we don’t win the competition, we’ll still be winners!

    Posted Jul 28 2005, 04:35 AM by ruari with 1 comment(s)
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  • A room with a view

    At last we are in Japan at the lovely Pan Pacific Hotel in Yokohama (www.panpac.com). I must admit I was worried when we got to Singapore and was informed that we had been booked on an overbooked flight (We won't say who I wanted to slap at that moment). But after some creative negotiating Singapore Airlines got us on the flight to Japan.

    Needless to say we are all rather tired, but excited to get going on the competition, we met up with our competitors from Germany and had a good time talking about all sorts of things, what an energetic crowd.
    Tonight is sleep time for the students, hey after watching movies all trip we need it, Singapore Air is way cool, every seat has it's own Monitor with movies on demand, I say “Hitchhikers guide”,” Sin City”,” The Wedding“,“XXX2“,“Robots“, and a few others. Did I say “Hitchhikers Guide“? Hmm.

    So in order to keep you all slightly jealous I thought I'd post one pic taken from my room.
    Enjoy

  • Japan!! Here we come.

    At last, after some really hectic juggling of airlines (thanks to our friends at SAA ;-)).
    We managed to get onto Air Singapore.
    So it's off to Japan for the Firefly team to compete in the international Imagine Cup.

    This is a Microsoft driven international software competition. The best student projects worldwide come together to compete.

    GO SA GO. we going to blow them away!!!

  • Gates: No magic answer to tech worker shortage.

    To true.
    http://news.com.com/Gates+No+magic+answer+to+tech+worker+shortage/2100-1022_3-5793384.html?tag=html.alert

    This article hits home the problems we face here in South Africa. People seamed to have lost interest in IT, we want all the cool gadgets, but have lost the passion in discovering new wonders.

    I think our lifestyles around “time costs money“, and “pursuing our passions are not profitable“ has done a lot to turn us all into nothing but task driven machines with little to no desire to get out of the box.

    What we forget is that to be happy we must pursue our passion, it's time to get out of the box. I think I will be on the watch for people who have passion, who drive their passion. I  think I will do all I can to associate with these kind of people, I think I will do all I can to promote these kind of people.

    If I look at the things I can do today because of technology I can’t believe I lived without it, and the types of people above are key to me getting better technologies into the future.

    Change is a wonderful thing, lets embrace it, lets drive IT.
    I WILL……..

    Posted Jul 19 2005, 11:51 AM by ruari with 1 comment(s)
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  • .Net 2.0 Competition.

     

    Objective

    To find new, creative ways to use Visual Studio and .Net framework version 2.0

     

    Competition

    Write a module that would express your idea’s for sadeveloper / saarchitect. This module should be something that can be utilized into the community site of the future. (Web Parts are also cool)

    This is the time to get creative, let your hair down and show off. Don’t worry about integration into the existing site to much, just worry about how great you can make your creation.

     

    Also keep in mind

    Must be written on .NET ver 2.0

    Good coding practices

    Security (watch for vulnerabilities)

    Have Fun…….

     

    Deadline:

    All solutions need to be submitted no later than the 2nd September 2005 at:

    rplint@microsoft.com

    or

    Ruari Plint

    Microsoft South Africa

    3012 William Nicol Drive

    Bryanston

    Johannesburg

    2191

     

    Prizes:

    1st Prize  : Ticket to Tech-Ed.

    2nd Prize : MCSD Study Kit.

    3rd Prize : Microsoft Keyboard / mouse set.

    Check it out on sadeveloper at http://www.sadeveloper.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=60435

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