Can't Resist a Bargain

I can't resist a bargain. Whether I need the thing or not, I can't resist it. For the last few months I've been watching the price of a DVD player (including 6 speakers and all the trimmings) drop down from 120 pounds to 69 quid in our local WH Smiths. Today I cracked and bought one. This is good news for number one daughter, who is going to have it set up in her room so that she can watch DVDs. Whether she wants one or not. I also bought "Prince of Persia" for the XBOX. I'll let you know what I think of it. Number one son has got a copy of the latest Final Fantasy (consolation prize for not getting a DVD player I guess) and is presently battling away. I'm going to make this particular purchase in to a profit centre. I've also bought the enormous hint book for the game and I'm either going to sell him hints at a pound a pop, or (and this could be the more lucrative one) threaten to tell him the ending unless he pays me......

Then back into work for another "Admissions Day Experience" (tm). The biggest turnout so far. We even had to move to a bigger room to accommodate the crowd. Everyone seemed to have a good time. We now have a visitors book into which people can write things, and everything they wrote seemed to be nice. And then home to Fish and Chips.

 

A Winner....

Wes tells me that the film is Underworld. And he is right. Good film too. Excellent performance by Kate Beckinsdale. Also very good stuff from Bill Nighy, who plays a part slightly different from the one he had in Love Actually. There's quite a good web site for this film, which includes a Half-Life mod so that you can relive the film in a video game...

Oh, and the students have found a wonderful but completely incomprehensible game here. You drag things onto the thing in the middle and it does stuff. And that is the best explanation of what goes on that I can come up with....

 

Smartphone Fun

Microsoft sent us a Smartphone today as a prize for our Games Club Programming Competition. Lovely. Just like mine. Whilst I've got the two I'm going to see if I can make them talk to each other. I just love writing stuff for the Smartphone. I've got my "Big Scrolly Thing" working really well now, with an icon and everything. Today I wrote and ran some code in my phone which placed a phone call for me. And I topped that by running code through to a web service on my desktop PC after around ten minutes of coding. This stuff is really powerful.

Then home to watch a movie. Number one son has been on a DVD buying frenzy (well, he bought a couple - which is the closest to a buying frenzy that I've seen for a while). Second film was very good too. Captured a frame with the Smartphone. First one to name the film wins nothing at all (but might get a mention in these august pages...)

She doesn't look at all well...

 

A Day at work, and a quiet evening out

The rest of the family has gone orf to York for the day to spend my money. Meantime I'm stuck in the office writing exam questions..... Lovely. But we did all have a nice meal out at Pizza Hut

 

Making Stuff Interesting

Started my part of the Virtual Machines course for the .NET postgrads today. We are diving into Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL). I'm trying hard to make descriptions of opcodes sound fun and vibrant (I learnt many years ago that just because I find it interesting this is not a guarantee that other people do as well...) Ho hum, I suppose I'll just have to give it my best shot. If only I could juggle....

 

Jumpy Students

The students are getting worried about their dress shop programs (people have also been asking about why we are doing a dress shop - no reason except that it lets us create a nice hierarchy of objects for different kinds of dress). I've even got some people putting pictures onto their stock items. When they start modeling them I'm going to get seriously worried.....

Number one son went and bought "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" on DVD. Good fun if you don't expect too much. Some very good one liners and lots of special effects. Got me to thinking about possible spinoffs:

The League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen A film about a very boring bunch of chaps who save the world from not much really.

The League of Extraordinarily Gentle Men A film about some very nice blokes who make very good parents and cry when bad things happen in EastEnders (i.e. every week).

The League of Extraordinarily Gentile Men A film about some people who are definitely not Jewish.

And I've thought of a rude one, which I'd better not post.

 

Goodbye Rich

Rich is going over to the 'states next week. He has just got his visa and he is getting married over there in April. He dropped by to say goodbye. He is the bloke that got me hooked on pinball, even to the extent that I bought his machine off him. Of course, he is way better at it than me, witness:

However, with practice we might be able to get up to a 10th of that value. Anyhoo, go Rich, and best wishes for the future. We'll keep the machine warm for you...