Great news here! The guys from Russian IC 2006 Software Design Team have finally started their blog at http://thespoke.net/blogs/sportster . Actually it's going to be a team blog where everyone will be able to post including mentors, i.e. myself and Nick (yesss!). It's a place where we plan to gather our collective experience of the Imagine Cup Finals, post photos and even videos. So make sure you don't miss it from now on and till the world finals end on August 12.

The guys started off with team introduction and the description of their project - "Sportster. The hi-tech smart music sportswear." We plan to give out more details even before the finals so feel free to ask questions in comments. Last Thursday we had a unique meeting where the guys made a demo to a panel of cosmonauts (the Russian equivalent of the word astronaut) and science experts. The meeting was even covered by Russia's biggest newspaper. Curious? Read about it here.  

Exactly a year ago our - on July 27, 2005 - we landed in Narita Airport in Tokyo. I immediately posted to blog from an Internet kiosk right in the airport then (see photo below). Imagine Cup World Finals are very intensive - especially for the student competitors - so that was one of the two blog posts at the Imagine Cup 2005 finals then. I hope this year I'll have more time and there will be more posts:)))

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А ровно год назад - 27 июля 2005 года - мы приземлились в Токио в аэропорту "Нарита": http://thespoke.net/blogs/zadig/archive/2005/07/27/315915.aspx

Та историческая запись была написана прямо из аэропорта с помощью прикольного интернет-автомата:

Тогда это была фактически первая и последняя запись в блоге: финал Imagine Cup уж слишком насыщенная событиями пора, особенно для непосрдественных участников.

Надеюсь, в этом году свободного времени и записей в блоге побольше будет...

I've just received the Imagine Cup 2006 Kit as a mentor of the Russian Software Design team. It contains a nice brochure about the Imagine Cup, Delhi, Agra and India (a lot of interesting historical and cultural information there), a booklet of the 5-star Jaypee Palace Hotel near Taj Mahal in Agra (this year's competition's primary venue), a bunch of bag tags, stickers (one of them is now on my laptop and the 2nd is on my guitar case which also bears some theSpoke and IC stickers from the previous years), official letters and two postcards with addresses of random IC participants for sending out.

My pen pals are....

from Slovenia... SERGEJ JURECKO! He lives in Maribor

and from ........ The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia..... ALAA OMAR KHADIDOS!

Guys, if you are reading this, I'll do my best to send out it to you from our post office in Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow Region, Russia. Most probably the postcards will arrive to your homes already after the finals. See you there!

P.S> I also got back my passport with the Indian visa... We are leaving Moscow literally in a week (next Thursday, August 3). Today we (the team + mentor1 (me) + mentor2 (Nick)) are going to have some great meeting. Probably I'll blog about it later.

The Imagine Cup 2006 Finals site has just launched at http://www.imaginecup.com/finals

On the site you can find lot of details about this year's finals which are going to take place in Agra and Delhi, India August 6-12, 2006.

Enjoy!

Dubbed an iPod killer codenamed Argo, an MP3 player from Microsoft has been officially confirmed to be released soon under the name of Zune.

"Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products," said Chris Stephenson, the Microsoft's general manager for marketing in an interview for BBC. "We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow customers to explore and discover music together."

BTW, In case you did not know the buzzword campaign "Coming Zune" has already launched.

My father doing videoconf [Konotop, Ukraine - Moscow, Russia] with me over Skype.

Technology really makes wonders!

Did anyone have problems with WPF samples like this? (click the picture for a larger view)

Just see it for yourself: http://seewindowsvista.com

And if that's not enough for you download the 60MB Windows Vista Product Guide.

Matthias "Taennyn" Huisman just sent me yet another userbar (I like to call them picture-facts, see a lot of them about me in my hub),  this time for IC2k6 participants. It's awesome, I loved it!

Though I am not sure if I can use it: I have been mentoring the Russian team, so strictly speaking I'm not an IC 2k6 participant. Anyways, I'd love having 2k3-2k5 badges:))

If you took part in IC 2006 you can use thhis userbar in forums, blogs, community sites and anywhere else:

Matthias has also recently put up a forum where those going to India (and all others too:)) can interact during the month left before the world finals and afer on. Check it out at: http://www.nullfix.net/imaginecup/

The other name of this article by Eric Sink is "WPF for Laggards": http://software.ericsink.com/entries/WPF_for_Laggards.html

So the top ten things from Eric's perspective are:

1.  It's part of WinFX (OK, Eric just lagged in his very first point because it's actually a part of .NET Framework 3.0 :)))
2.  XAML is like HTML.
3.  There is no HWND.
4.  The "Cider" isn't ready yet.
5.  XAML Cruncher is Neato.
6.  Chris Sells' book is good.
7.  You can use Windows XP.
8.  But you have to use IE.
9.  Rod Paddock is right.
10.  There is no Windows Telephony Foundation.

Of course, there is more to read in the actual blog post. For example, in the last point Eric is sad about the fact that in the pack of W*F acronyms there is no WTF :)) (e.g. for Windows Telephony Foundation)

The blog is awesome (although it only started in  May 2006)! The samples are brilliant! you definitely need to check it out: http://thewpfblog.com

To tease you off I recommend you to start with the discussion of WPF vs Adobe Flash. Quite an interesting point of view from an experienced Flash developer/interactive designer.

Analyzed are:

• Video Capabilities
• Audio Capabilities
• 3D Support
• Programming Environment
• Data Binding
• Team Workflows
• Developer Tools
• Cross-Platform Support
• Communities and Support

Don't miss it: http://thewpfblog.com/?p=17

P.S. You can also check out http://theflashblog.com by the same author

A 43min video of the 7 teams (Germany, UK, Japan, Korea, Brazil, US, and India) showing their Imagine Cup 2006 projects to Bill Gates has just been posted on Channel9. Enjoy: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=212358

The Imagine Cup finalists were in Redmond recently to show Bill Gates the cool applications they've created targeting problems in the health care space. In this video you will meet Sanjay Parthasarathy, VP of Developer and Platform Evangelism (and chief funder of both Imagine Cup and our very own C9). You will also get to see Bill walking around checking out the finalists' applications and meet the teams from USA, Germany and India (I couldn't catch up with all the teams, unfortunately, but they are all represented in this video). There were many journalists covering the event and Channel 9 was granted "front row" access to Team Germany and Team Japan (each crew covering the event (CNN, ABC, NBC, etc) was given "front row" access to two teams...).

A great new developer community site dedicated to .NET Framework 3.0: http://netfx3.com/

It has 4 subsites: http://wpf.netfx3.com/ , http://wcf.netfx3.com/ , http://wf.netfx3.com/ , http://wcs.netfx3.com/

You can find some latest news, lots of great resources (samples, articles, presentations, labs) and - the last but not the least - participation of MS folks.

As the Imagine Cup Finals are approaching I suggest that everyone aspiring for the 2006 award looks at the DEMOGODS.

Just to introduce you to the DEMO and its gods, I should say that in this case the Demogods are not those vile spirits that break your demo just in its middle, they are not interferentions that kill your wireless internet connection just when you need it, they are not the tricky exception producers or the unpredictable wire unpluggers. While you should pray to these spirits just before your demo and sacrifice features to them by cutting them out from the almost-developed software, we won't be talking about them this time. In this case it's all about great people.

In 1991, Stewart Alsop changed the technology conference circuit by instituting a new event with new rules: DEMO would be about the products; would require timed, live demonstrations; and would not allow PowerPoint presentations! These rules still stand and, in recognition of the difficulty of communicating the power and value of emerging technologies on stage in a short 360 seconds, DEMO producers honor outstanding presentations by selecting DEMOgods. Chosen for their style, passion, clarity, and sometimes for their sheer outlandishness, these DEMOgods have a unique ability to deliver a great product and position it in the market, to show off it's most compelling features, differentiate it from other products - and along the way entertain a tough and critical DEMO audience with a few good tricks.

So enjoy these best of the best demos. Right here, right now: http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demogods.html 

The videos of all the demogods and others are available from the above page (check out its right side!)