Day 2 at CTRE in the desert, mummys, drums, rafts and country and western

The second full day at the Arizona Biltmore was even more packed than yesterday. Up at the crack of dawn, well 7:30am and off to breakfast.

The morning session was hosted by Nick Donofrio, who is retiring this year. This being his last CTRE was something of an emotional time as he has been quite an influence on many of the technical great and good in the company. So this was the start of a goodbye from Nick, though as he pointed out he is not really going anywhere.
We then had two guest speakers. The first was Dr Zahi Hawass. He is the "real life Indiana Jones" from Egypt. He has a fantastic passion and enthusiasm for archeaolgy and history. He presented a set of photos, but in fact it was his delivery and story telling that captivated the audience. I have seen him a good few times on TV including the live events in the valley of the kings. He explained some great pieces of detective work from both traditional methods and blending with CAT scanners and a DNA lab he now has.
It was interesting to hear a person with a passion for something for so long speak about it. It was also interesting the semi relunctant fame, but loving it really, that he alluded to. Clearly he is a public figure with some mad internet true stories about secret tunnels leading from his office bathroom to the great pyramids where they say he hides finds for later.
Our second speaker and performer was Angelique Kidjo. As a multiple grammy award winning musical perfomer of "world music" she and her band did a fantastic set with a mixture of songs and of monologue from Kidjo about her life and her wish to make good thigns happen for her native country of Benin and for the african continent. She even got a room full of IBMers singing along with her. She is very hard to ignore and as a UN ambassador she is clearly having the influence she wants. Her foundation Batonga is the focus of much of this passion, mainly to improve Africa through the education of women.
After that rousing start to the morning we all headed out for lunch and then to the afternoon activites.
We headed out on a inflatable raft drifting down the salt river

It was pretty relaxing really, we say all sorts of wildlife (as we were the first raft down in raft number 13). Horses, Bald Eagles and some locals having a swim.

On coming back from the trip we sat and drink beer in the sun with Andy, Kath and Daz hearing tales of their trip.
Then it was off to put on the suit and tie for the gala evening. In the massive ballroom we all had allocated tables and an allocated exec. The warm up act was a guy doing some brilliant musical impressions, singing all the parts of we are the world. He was very very good. I really like impressionist acts, but I think everyone enjoyed it.
Then was the slighlty more official bye bye to Nick. He was presented with a poster of him running, but done as a photo mosaic of all the attendee photos. We were on the table next doo to Nick's right at the front and you could tell he really was moved by it all. It also meant I got atleast to chake his hand and thank him for his influence on me and us all. Its cool we are all going to be hanging on his wall somewhere watching on.

The evening then kicked off big time (after a fantastic meal of scallops, beef and baked alaska + wine) when the guest act turned up. Lean Rimes came on stage and did a fantastic set. I am not a massive country and western fan, though I have heard a lot of it. she is atleast a bit more contempary. Though any live music of this sort if bound to be good. I know we really enjoyed this gig.

A good night was had by all, we returned to the room to find we had a pewter photo frame in the style of Frank Lloyd-Wrights work at the Bilmore hotel.
The next day was departure day, but before the 10 hour overnight flight back we went out and about with Andy and Kath to Scottsdale's old town. On the way we saw a very unusual ornament on the back of a truck


We got home ok, though jet lag coming back is never pleasant. I did get a chance to both write this, uplaid some photos to flickr the full set is here if you are interested
I also put a load of video together of the Hummer tour from the previous post. It includes at around 1 min 44 the snake wrangling.

Full Day at the cool award trip in Arizona - Defying Limits

This first full day of CTRE after a night of relaxed reception last night started with an early breakfast, seemingly too early but what can you do!
We then had a 4 hour morning session. The main speaker was Frans Johansson author of the medici effect. A great presenter, I was sort of taking notes mentally in the delivery. His main point is that real ideas and innovation comes from diverse and apparently unrelated teams. Much of what he said was preaching to the converted. The theme being defying limits.
I already had by defacing my badge with my moo sticker.


Then we had SJP (the IBM chairman/CEO) pop along and give a more financial related pitch. It was a good one, he was as per usual relaxed and natural on stage. Threw in a good few jokes as well.
Next was all the new fellows, then some extra awards of 20-30k awards to people for cool things and patents.
It was a good sport to guess what them music they played for each award. e.g. telecoms people they played "hanging on the telephone" and automative "Cars" by Gary Newman.
Then it was the afternoon activities after a very very quick lunch.
For us a hummer ride in the Arizona desert.


We were on with a few other people, Daz, Andy Bravery and fellow metaverser Paul Moody.
This was very cool, mainly because our driver was from a race car driving family aswell as having some good tales to tell and being a very in control driver off road.
Tonight is off for a quiet meal, its our 13th wedding anniversary on this 13th of may. Seems to have been pretty lucky so far.
What has been cool has seeing so many faces and names I have heard of or interacted with in some way. IBM Fellows and VP's all over the place.
As with all these things there are people who really should be here too, but there are about 500 IBMers from the technical community here. Whilst this clearly is a jolly I hope that its something other people will see as a good thing, we get to swap ideas and put faces to names, spread the word and get more people aspiring to stuff like this.
The main message was to just do what we all do already, ignore the rubbish, the pointless processes etc. Just try things and it will pay off in the end. So I feel I am here with a load of slightly rogue operators, kindred spirits. Which is a good thing.

Of course the one thing that really annoyed me was that in the relaxing room they have some sweets and soda's etc.
However I was disappointed at this.



Now on my rock and roll rider I specifically asked for the blue m&m's to be removed! dont they know who I am !

Arizona, yes I am here in Real Life

yes its me, originally uploaded by epredator.

I am on a work award trip at the moment. Its the fabulous Arizona Biltmore Spa and resort in Phoenix. This morning we went and had breakfast sat in the warm sun and took a walk around taking lots of photos I was just using my mini pentax camera, but wish I had brought a bigger camera to get those magical shots that I know are lurking.
The next few days are a mix of work gatherings, and some recreational activities. Sounds quite packed.

Two bands I realy rate ATM :- pendulum and the ting tings

Yes ok, I am getting on a bit but I am still down with the kidz. Being part of generation V means that I dont care if I am the right demographic.
Two things that have got into my head, in particular for prepping for the next few weeks travelling. In no particular order
1. Pendulum. Their new album In silico is on its way the next few days. The song Propane Nightmares is awesome. A mix of electronic and pure rock (probably has some trendy name). I did get a bit confused in that it really has the same hook as smoke on the water as this mini mashup illustrates but dont let that detract from the power of this bands work. The itunes pre-order has a preview track of the entire album. Its catchy, grnungy, a bit punk and resonates with me.
2. The Ting Tings. I was so convinced this was a completely different sort of band when I heard the first Great DJ song. I liked it, it had a hook, but now I have seen them perform, a 2 part band drummer and lead they are amazing. I had no idea they were from Manchester either. Not that that makes a difference.
I was watching The Ting Tings on the red button replays of the BBC radio 1 Big weekend. Two years ago (hear comes some linkage flow) I was at the Second Life BBC radio 1 gig for the same event. It was a formative time. Now on the same day I am sitting watching some bands and about to hit the airport for an award trip to Phoenix as a result of me bringin my company to Second Life and virtual worlds and looking for new music for my ipod.
Of extra interest was that the Ting Tings website says that they are playing habbo hotel on monday! They also have bebo, myspace and facebook presences. It seems its not just their music that I am dran to but their choice of how to reach their audience. Maybe I will get to see them live, though its unlikely as its hard with kids to go to gigs.
Anyway, I am looking forward to both albums immensely!
The power and passion that the two of them put in to deliver some awesome sounds it brilliant. Driving live drum and a haunting and passionate lead singer.

Bronze for public transport !

Bronze for public transport !, originally uploaded by epredator.

Odd that I rarely use public transport (cue a jeremy clarkson style rant) however in liberty city in GTA IV my socialclub.rockstargames.com profile is showing I have achieved a mini goal in the meta game of marathon.
(Drive 4,000 miles, walk 400 etc)

Attention to detail GTA IV splat

GTAIV splat, originally uploaded by epredator.

Admist all the bullet holes, dented fenders and blown tyres in GTA IV there are still some details that I think are pretty cool. Even after getting about 50% through and loads of hours/days of play I noticed last night a lttle splat on the side of my car. As it slid around a corner I had caught a stander by, but I though they just bounced off. No it turns out they left a slight mark on my side panel.
Brilliant, if not a little gory.

Saucepan head GTA IV

Saucepan head GTA IV, originally uploaded by epredator.

The title says it all really. There are some people in liberty city who have an interesting choice in headgear. In this case a saucepan.

Mod for rocket day

Mod for rocket day, originally uploaded by epredator.

Here is my rocket mod for rocket day. A radio controlled disk propeller, no steering, but with the cardboard rocket bolted on top.
It flew ok in the field :-) Though home testing afterward broke it.


Without the weight it flys much better :-)

Rocket - Check those production values

Rocket, originally uploaded by epredator.

We are having the second (not quite so annual as it was about 4 years ago) rocket launching work event with the Hursley Emerging Tech crew.
I am going for the most unusual category, not the most technically accomplished.
I had to do a last minute bit of changing the way I was approaching this bit of fun. The rocket I bought and was going to custom up turned out to be one that needed solid fuel motors. It was a cheap rocket, but clearly not in the rules of this particular event.
So it was poster paint, stickers and a toilet roll insert to the ready.
This is a component of the top secret approach that will be revealed this afternoon.

GTAIV Special Edition

GTAIV Special Edition, originally uploaded by epredator.

Its here, its good. can't type need to explore.
Yes alright its just a game, but having been a game player since the late 70's they have to be very special events to get this excited about.
This one is an event, it is a very very impressive piece of work, but it is also a very expressive environment to explore.
The early parts are really training missions, you have to do those to get the thing to open up even more.
For all the swearing and violence its the carry on style innendo that gets me laughing. The adverts and the tv stations in the apartment. Priceless, well written and completely tongue in cheek.
Not one for the predlets though not too shocking for regular adults I would say :-)

We7 regional lockout

I was happy to see that we7.com seems to have started to break some of the insane restrictive practice of many of the record companies. Having a mix of buy the track or get the track for free plus an advert, in non DRM mp3 format makes sense to me. Downloading tracks is a bit like radio but with choice. Even the non somercial radios spend a while advertizing their gigs and shows.
The minor problem (that they do admit) is the stupid things of "this song is not avaulable in you region). The restrictive practice plagues the games industry. Trying to force some element of zoning on the world to maximize a fake revenue stream at the expense of the customer. When product was physical and had to be manufactured and shipped it made sense that there was a limit to how many units of x, y or z you could deliver. In the long tail of digital content it makes no difference. All it does is annoy customers (in a bad way not a generation of demand way).
If I was an artists I woudl be saying, hell no just let anyone buy my stuff wherever they are.
Still I am sure the powers that be have a much better handle on this than me.
I hope we7 are succesful as they (backed by peter garbriel) seem to be on the side of the conten creators, the artists. They are the ones I want to pay, and I am happy to pay for good stuff.

Champagne on a weekday?

currentcost meter in action, originally uploaded by epredator.

I recently twittered that we had cracked open a bottle of champagne here at the chez epred. Now there was a legitimate reason, but not one that is mine explain, but it was worth celebrating a little.
However another reason was the installation that day of my CurrentCost meter.
This handy device is sweeping through the people at Hursley. Its a very simply principle. It tells you how much electricity you use and how much it costs, but in a way that makes tech geeks happy.
The device has a transmitting element with an inductance loop around (but not cutting) the main line into the house. It then uses RF to communicate to a base station as in the picture.
That station tracks and displays the usage. As you turn stuff on the meter shows the house wattage usage and relates that to a cost.
Hey what about the champagne? I hear you type in comments.
Well.... I noticed a little spike in the energy now, yet nothing where I was was kicking in, out fridge, boiler etc were silent at the time. Then I remembered our christmas spare fridge/freezer in the garage. We tend yo need this for overflow at holiday times, for beer and icecream and the odd turkey. That fridge was still on and had decided to kick in and make itself known.
There were a few things in the fridge, most notably a bottle of Lanson champers. So, to reduce the cost, save the planet and so as not to waste all the cooling that had occured I decided to crack the bottle open.
Whilst the device uses power, and we are also all hooking it up to a nano broker to send the information on a pub sub system to help Andy SC and co test things, it does actually make you pay more attention. Hence reducing the electricity usage, or atleast becoming aware of what does what.
Its a pity there was only 1 bottle in the fridge :-)

Countdown to Grand Theft Auto IV

One of the most exciting gaming events I can remember is due to happen on 29th April with the worldwide and multi-platform release of Grand Theft Auto IV
I have had this thing on pre-order since the first day it appeared on Amazon, though strangely I selected the PS3 version back then. The reason.... well I assumed that by the time it came out the PS3 would be the most rocking platform. However a year down the line and its still the Xbox where my gaming collegues are. I had a minor panic in that realizing I wanted the 360 version this close in was going to mean not getting one. However ordering the insane special edition (something I dont normally do) seems to secure an order. I may yet be proved wrong. Being a bigger package it may take longer to get to me. Still its just a game right?
I have enjoyed GTA since its top down days. It was an old school massive 4 way scrolling car game. I particularly loved these games like super sprint, GTA had a great handbrake action. Already back then it was quite free roaming and seemed far larger a map than most other games.
By the time it had graduated across the first next gen consoles it had turned into a very intersting mix of sandbox and missons and actually a great way to consume music.
Even on the PSP Vice City Stories I find it great to tune into a radio station and raz around listening to tunes from my yoof :-) Yay for the 80's.
I am looking forward to the masses of tiny details in this new incarnation. I am sure there will be much of the same, but that is not a bad thing as the same means "alot" in GTA.
Having signed up for the rockstar social club it is clear they have some interesting links with the real world planned. Namely a hint that if you hear a track inworld, you can text a mobile service in world and have the track identified and placed on your external web page for purchase and download on Amazon S3. A nice touch!
The potential multiplayer sounds good too, cops and robbers in particular.
Anyone releaseing a game in the next few weeks I think will have a tough time. Plus the variety of gameplay and immersion from previous experience, takes the time away from everything else.
The reviews have been great too already. Thats not always a good sign, but Edge loved it and the 360 magazine gave it one of those rare 10's. So I am fairly certain all the delays, hype etc are going to be worth it.
If not.... well they will make a lot of money, but it will be the last time :-)

Predator Mii

Predator Mii, originally uploaded by epredator.

My version of a predator mii complete with sighting spot top left often left out in other mii's

A new sofa, a bit of a departure

130420081148, originally uploaded by epredator.

We just ordered a new Sofa. Oddly these things still take 12 weeks to make even in this day and age.
We have a more brown toned down colour than this vibrant red, but we have never had a leather sofa, nor one that is on legs, usually a more traditional boxed in couch.
The headrests are also more like a car one in that they are removable but on metal stalks.
We also have a chez long as part of the order, though they called it a day bed in the shop :-)
We are not getting all this, the house is not big enough, but some parts in this style to replace the very saggy 10 year old sofa we have now

I am loving this - music mashup and chain of discovery - The Anomalies

Whilst in the rock and roll metaverse meetup in the NY lower east side I got chatting with "Eric Reuters". We had not met in real life. As part of the old fashioned way we swapped cards and then emails.
Eric put me on to this awesome video on youtube. A brilliant mashup of rap over the top of a complete version of the predator movie in 6 minutes. It is both very clever and took a lot of time and effort to do.
I appreciate this on several levels. The first is a while back I ws trying to boil films down to the key scenes for a range of t-shirts called "under the influence" the closest I got to doing this was a montage that I use as a backdrop on twitter.
Secondly is the predator movie :-)
Thirdly, it was from a contact in Second Life and we were meeting in RL in the middle of a party scene of fellow metarati.
Fourth I was berated a little by DJ Astrud Sand for my last.fm music list as there was nothing new on it (partially because I had not been scrobbling much and the fact I had a mix up on accounts so I am vepredator on there. It turns out that this video was created by the members of a new band called The Anomalies.
I popped over to their myspace page and I must say I liked what I heard, so I will scrobble that when I get to my home machine and feedback into the loop of conversation from the lower east side party.
So in one fell swoop this has covered Second Life,real life New York, Last.fm, web2.0, web1.0, UK bands, Predator, mashups,youtube, myspace, itunes, rock and roll parties and serendipity.
That's exciting I think.
Anyway here is the video, listen how the lines rhyme from the rap to the parts of the film and the great line "so he set of a bomb, cos they don't like losing where the predator comes from"


They also have a website in an old fashioned way :-)

Rock-Pig - Very funny this one

I have been mentioning how we have thought of ourselves as all rock and roll as metaverse people, and of course we are :-) and that the Nickelback rockstar song is a tongue in cheek anthem now.
Well Andy's son has gone and gone the guinea pig version. Always good for a laugh and I do like this.

Virtual Worlds 2008 - The after show parties

Ok so conferences are a subtle blend of business and social. The virtual world conferences tend to have quite a large element of social. The medium we are working in, namely metaverses is inherently about connecting people. It is also a growing. but young industry so there are many "movers and shakers" who care passionately about it all.
The first nights party saw many of us wander along to the Electric Sheep Company offices in Manhattan. There was some fantastic buffet food, a very generous bar (featuring Jack Daniels amongst other things) and out back was Rockband set up on the Xbox. I particularly enjoyed getting to play Rockband as we dont have it in the UK yet and I am a Guitar Hero fan. Of course the blend of timezones, late nights and the previously mentioned JD may have affected my musical skills and coordination, but I did really enjoy the gathering. Thanks muchly ESC.



The second evening was a very late one, Ids and I made our way down to the Lit bar in the lower east side to a metaverse meetup arranged by Annie Ok and Jerry Paffendorf. There were a stack of people there who are very active in creating and using Second Life and other metaverse tech. Annie has a particularly good set of pictures in her set here there is also a generic metaverse meetup group here

I did not get to take any video as it was very dark in the Lit bar. However Xantherus has made lots of videos of the Virtual Lower East vLes.com side that she worked on for MTV that was announced live at the conference.
Here is one video with Annie narrating :-)

I mused earlier on the difference between the almost grunge rock and roll chic atmosphere of the East coast metaverse scene versus the more techno cleanliness that seems to exists in the rich silicon valley west coast culture. I then merge that with out UK, Hursley countryside geekdom. It shows that there is somethine for everyone in the metaverse business.

Sifu pointed out at the conference he was expecting more cos-play apart from em that was as he pointed out I sort of do that all the time with my eightbar shirt and leather striped jacket.

Anyway it was good to see everyone, the 2am Macdonalds with Idz after the party really did show NY is the city that never sleeps. Though strangely the next day (Saturday) it was strange to find Macy's not open until 10 am.

Back from NYC

Noisy Scene, originally uploaded by epredator.

Yesterday was flight back from New York. It arrived about 10am UK time into a snowy LHR. We were stacked up for a while whilst the weather did its thing.
This trip has been a vary metaverse full one. Whilst only 7 days it seems like a few months (in a good way as so much has happened)
I think it is also, as evident in this picture, that the US bombards your senses with information, all the information is usually also augmented with stacks of text and warning signs.
So this trip.
1. Hawthorne - A day of meeting the IBM metarati from across many divisions, a real coming together of all the streams with such a stack of common insight not infighting.
2. Somers - CIO IQ team gathering. All the Innovate quick team in a room in Somers, again common understanding and purpose
3. NYC - Another cross IBM gathering (video in the next post) where we took to the streets of New York in a kind of virtual world treasure hunt time travel gig.
4. Virtual Worlds 2008 - 2 very busy days of conference. A massive trade floor to cover, conversations to be had, metarati to gather plus 2 evenings of party. The first at the electric sheep company offices (many thanks to them all) and then in the lower east side Lit bar (thanks Jerry and Annie) for a mateverse meetup.
5. A day dashing around new york city with Ids and Roo chatting and snapping pictures and eating food before heading to the airport.
I have not (except on the overnight plane) had much time to reflect but I know there are some new ideas forming in my head, and yet another perspective on where this all needs to go now.
I am even more convinced the industry is here to stay now.

Tripping America

Roo and I are on a rare "both metaverse evangelists in the same place" trip to the east coast.
Yesterday was a fairly straightforward flight and a very quick entry in the US. We usually dread the queues at immigration but this was very quick and very slick at JFK. I was asked what i do for a living and said "metaverse evangelist". That could have led to a longer conversation, but I boiled it down to virtual worlds.... web stuff.
We had a meeting today in Hawthorne (an IBM research building). It was a mass gathering of many colleagues and people with a lot of coverage in virtual worlds. It was icredible to have a large number of equally enthused evangelists and IBM movers and shakers from all parts of IBM. Our coming together was quite a momentous moment and we sent all day sharing with one another what we were up to, spotting where we crossed over, where we fitted in a strategic and tactical space. It was the most intense and productive meeting, and thats after having done this for 2 years (My SL rez day was a few days ago)
Tomorrow is a more local Innovate Quick team meeting. as we are a widely distributed team in the CIO it is good to put physical presence to metaverse ones.
All this leads up to the next stage of the trip which is back from danbury to NY and the virtual worlds conference.
In the mean time we get to go to Somers tomorrow. So it will be more driving, sat nav and human assisted navigation.
However with the sort of signs and mass of information it sometimes get confusing for us poor brits. I took this today on the way into Hawthorne. This was a small road junction.

Roo also took this whilst I was driving us from the airport up to CT.

I know it makes us seem like we never travel anywhere, but as we turned into this road we both commented on how much this looked like America. Its just a combination of styles and the lorry/truck on the road, the stop sign and the madness of taking what is in fact a wrong turn as neverlost tried to get us to left at the next junction not this one. With the giant arrow though it is not clear !