Game Camp was a great success. We're pulling together our plans to extend the concept out to those that have asked for it.
In the meantime, if you couldn't make it, i have just a couple of "This One Time at Game Camp..." Microsoft t-shirts. These are limited edition (only have a few left) and will never (maybe) get reprinted...
All the attendees received one... In any case, if you're interested, drop a comment with your email address and i'll pick someone to send one to.
That's uh.... a little different :)
http://michaelcastellon.blogspot.com/2006/11/kfcs-logo-first-to-be-seen-from-space.htmlÂ
1,250 Slices of Pizza
1,115 Cans of Pop
480 Time Horton's Donuts
~100 Litres of hot Tim Horton's Coffee
375 "This one time at Game Camp t-shirts"
300 Visual C# Express CDs
5 deep XNA sessions
351 Passionate Attendees!
1 Game Camp
So we held the kick off to Game Camp yesterday. Just incredible. I'll post more about this later in the week as articles, blogs and pictures continue to stream in.
In all, we had 351 people show up. Way more than we anticipated which is really good but had it's challenges. We went through 1,250 slices of pizza and over 1100 cans of pop! That's incredible on its own. The pizza place couldn't keep up with the higher volume of people! (we'll need to fix that)
Even with all that pizza and pop, we learned that we needed even more! (on average every person had half a pizza... crazy!)
My promise is that i will buy more pizza and more pop next time we run this. Apparently the Tim Horton's coffee and donuts were appreciated
Overall the feedback was incredible! We're going to regroup and make the next events even better. Currently we have Waterloo, Hamilton, Ottawa, Monreal and Toronto #2 under development! Do you want to host an XNA Game Camp? Post a comment and we'll send you the details!
I work closely with Dan Fernandez and it does bring a tear to my eye...
Happy Birthday Express, On behalf of Canada! :)
Someone vote for Alfred! You know he deserves it!
I thought this was particularly special given that we shipped Vista this week... Remember these days?
Video: Original Microsoft Windows 95 Commercial
This is a horrible reminder of what the next 5 months have to offer us Canadians....
Video: Car towed off snowbank
A big thank you to the guys at Schtickers.com. I just got my wicked/awesome Superman Laptop Schticker... Nice.
I don't know why I found this funny. Maybe it's the fact that Microsoft has always had tons of fridges filled with free pop, including Coke...
Oh ya, I remember now. I drink Pepsi.
Great post by Alfred Thompson.
We encounter this discussion all the time. Educators look to Microsoft and other companies for guidance with what tools and languages they should teach with. My response has always been that Microsoft and others provide tools and technology for a toolbox. Some educators have success using certain tools over others.
Education strategy is complex and of course there is no one tool for all jobs. We do our best to provide a wide variety of tools to choose from and of course the best resources to support them.
At the end of the day, we look to educators to tell us what tools have worked for them. That being said, i do believe it is our responsibility to help connect educators so that they may share their knowledge and improve the quality of education for everyone.
Can you tell i'm excited? That's right... Beta 2 for XNA Game Studio Express is on its way!!!
Check out the XNA Team Blog for details...
Dan Fernandez gave you a glance at what the new Coding4Fun site will look like. I do think it looks pretty cool. I'm a fan of the objects in ice look. To be honest, i'm just a big comic book fan. I can't wait to see the finished site.
What do you think of the design? Visit Dan's blog and let him know!
There are amazing opportunities for IT jobs in Canada. The SHRC suggests that almost 89,000 new jobs are expected in the next three to four years with only 7,000 estimated new graduates to fill these jobs.
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=40931
My experience says the same thing. There is a negative perception that job opportunities in IT aren't there. That's just plain wrong. Did you know that the IT sector has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Canada?
The good news is that high school students may finally be getting the message as enrollment is slightly up in many schools. The unfortunate news is that some schools have lowered their entrance bar in order to meet admission goals which may account for this increase. The schools that have lowered their entrance bar may pay for this in the long run as their graduating students won't compete with other graduates where the entrance bar has remained high.
Check out Laura Foy's Imagine Cup "behind the scenes" video. Featuring the winning Short Film team from.... CANADA!
BTW, what do you think of On10.net?
