Ok, so this blog post wasn't written in the USA - we are currently flying somewhere over Iceland. Economy extra at Scandinavian Airlines is super-sweet! I have a power outlet for my computer, we bought Wifi access ($27 for the whole flight), personal tv/game screen, more than enough leg space and we just ate an excellent Mexican veggie meal while watching Scrubs. So far this is the most comfortable flight I have ever been on. Too bad poor Bobby is all alone in his crate somewhere in the cargo room... Hopefully he’ll forgive us when we take him to the dog parks Berno suggested :) Ohh, "Over The Hedge” is starting now, later!

We have been back from India for a while now, but we have been very busy packing, getting our visas and preparing for the next chapter in our life – moving to the USA. I have gotten a full-time position as a Program Manager at the Tablet PC team with Microsoft in Redmond. By tomorrow night our tiny family (including Bobby the dog) will have moved from Norway to Redmond :) We are all really excited about settling in the Seattle area. I start working October 2nd, so we have a week to get acclimatized and start the house hunt etc. Ok, I’m off to bed now, next time I blog I’ll be in the USA.

I’m currently sitting in an internet café, with possibly India’s slowest internet connection, in Palolem. After Imagine Cup was over Ingunn and I stayed in Delhi for one more night and then we flew down to Goa. The first couple of days we stayed at a fancy resort close to Panjin (www.cidadedegoa.com). Unfortunately it is the monsoon season down here, so it is raining a lot. At least I got to play football on the beach in the monsoon rain and we also went to a really cool organic spice farm. After a couple of night at Cida De Goa we took a taxi all the way down to the south of Goa, to Palolem. It’s a very small town with an incredible beach. Things a pretty slow here now, with a lot of stores and restaurants closed down because it is out of season (with the monsoon and all). We do get the occasional glimpse of sun, and thankfully we have a nice hotel room (www.hotel-oceanic.com) with cable-tv for when the rain doesn’t want to stop. Ok, we’re off to get some dinner now. Later!

Sweet! We got 3rd place in the software design invitational! With so many good solutions we never thought we would get this far. No time to blog now, we are going out to celebrate!
My team mate Gøran has put up some pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22075141@N00/sets/72057594128196432/

Sweet! We got through to the second round! We have just finished our 35 min. presentation now and it went really well. All the judges seemed to like it :)

Along with us in the second round we have Germany, Denmark, Brazil, USA, China, Russia, Slovenia, India, Japan, Guatemala, Italy. This is all from the top of my head, so I hope it's correct. I'm not sure when they will announce the final 6 teams that go on to present in Delhi. But it is probably tomorrow or when we get there. Good luck to everyone! No I need some rest - off to the swimming pool!

Today was the first day of the Imagine Cup competion. In our invitational, Software Design, we started with a ligtning-round presentation (7 min.) this morning. After lunch we had the first round presentation (20 min.). Both the presentations went really well. Thankfully our demo worked perfectly - no demo ghosts, yay! Because we were drawn to present as number two in our group we were done quite early. This left us plenty of time to relax by the pool before holding a press conference together with the British and Japanese teams. Like my team mate Jonas said: "It's like American Idol for geeks with all the cameras and attention".

There's no more official stuff for the Software Design competion going on tonight. Tomorrow morning all the teams are going to show off their systems on their stands. Then, at noon, they will announce which 12 teams (out of 41) that will advance to the second round of the competion. The second round is later the same day and consist of a 35 min. presentation. Ok, looks like the rest of the team wants to go to the arcade hall at the hotel and play pool and bowl. Later!

After a long flight to Delhi and a nice bus ride from Delhi to Agra we finally arrived at the venue for this year's Imagine Cup finals. We have actually been here for two days now, but we've been far too busy with relaxing at the pool and getting massages to blog ;)

Earlier today was the opening ceremony and dinner. The ceremony was inspiring and the food was great! It's super to be vegetarian in India - we're the norm over here, hehe. So far I've had the chance to briefly meet Bernard, Stan and Matthias. I'll probably have the chance to talk more with them throughout the week. Right now we're putting the finishing touches on our presentations. Tomorrow is the big day, with the lightning-round and first-round presentations. 41 software design teams will be trimmed down to 12 for the presentations on Tuesday. Ok, back to work now (the local time is 2:00 AM)!

This is a QuickMark code with the URL to my blog.

On this webpage you can create your own QuickMark codes containing any of the following: URL, text, phone numbers and SMS. The concept is pretty much the same as 2D barcodes, but there is one thing that sets QuickMark apart: you can read the codes using a cellphone with a camera! Sweet! You can download the reader application for free at the QuickMark webpage. It is available for an impressive amount of different cellphones.

The concept of posting QuickMark codes is apparently quite popular in Japan. Image all the possibilities! Magazines can include URLs in articles as QuickMark codes, businesses can post their address info in QuickMark code so that customers easily can transfer it to their cellphone, etc. etc. Ohhh, you could even include a QuickMark code with your contact info on the back of your business card so that people can save it on their cellphone. Ahh, I love technology that allows you to use your creativity and find new ways to use it. Please post a comment if you have any other good usage suggestions :)

 

Here I'm using the Smartphone app on my Qtek 8310 to read a QuickTag of my laptop screen. The reader app works remarkably well, but unfortunately it isn't in English (it is still usable though).

Last Friday was the end of 17 years of school for me, well 18 years if you count the officers’ training school. I submitted my Master’s thesis at midnight, and have now finished my 5 years Sivilingeniør degree at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The official degree in English is Master of Technology in Computer Science. Now I can finally wear the prestigious Sivilingeniør ring:

You have to finish NTNU’s Sivilingeniør program to be able to buy the ring. The program has a reputation of being the best technical education in Norway, so the ring is kind of a big deal. In stead of buying a new ring I actually got my father-in-law’s old one. It was too small for him, and I think it’s cool to inherit it :)

The title of my thesis is: Personalized and context sensitive foreign language training supported by mobile devices. Phew! Quite a mouthful, hehe. Here’s an abstract for the curious people:

In this research project I try to answer how context sensitive mobile devices can be used to complement traditional foreign language learning in a classroom. My approach to answering this question is based on the goal of creating a prototype application called the “Personalized And context sensitive foreign Language training system for real Life situAtions using mobile devices” (PALLAS). To be able to develop PALLAS satisfactory I start by performing a prestudy to create a theoretical ground for my ideas. This allows me to come up with ideas of how PALLAS could be used. To systemize my process I create a scenario-based development method. I start by writing user scenarios of the PALLAS system in use. This is the part where new ideas are included into PALLAS. Then I analyze the user scenarios and create formalized models of how PALLAS is supposed to work. The models are in turn used to design a system architecture, which finally is used to implement the PALLAS prototype. I finish my research by comparing the finished PALLAS prototype to the original user scenarios. It turns out that the process has resulted in an architecture that can almost completely satisfy the features found in the user scenarios. With this solid architecture in place the next natural step for PALLAS will be testing in real-life scenarios with students and teachers using the system. 

So, the wedding is over, my thesis is submitted, and next up on this summer’s program of madness is the Imagine Cup World Finals in India! Sweet!

 

July 1st 2006 Ingunn and I got married in lovely Stavern, Norway :)

Here's another picture - this one is taken by the fancy photographer:

The wedding was a lot of fun and everything went smoothly. The only problem was that time flew too fast! At least everyone had a lot of fun :)

For our honeymoon we are going to India! Ingunn is coming with us for the Imagine Cup, and when the contest is over (Aug. 12th) we will travel by ourselves till Aug. 31st. Woop woop woop!

Bill Gates is retiring from Microsoft! Well, almost. He is giving up his daily role to be able to focus on his work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It’s reassuring that he still will serve as the company’s chairman and advice on big development project. I understand him very well. He has achieved a lot with Microsoft and his work on global health and education has been truly inspiring. It’s going to be interesting so see what he can accomplish now that he can fully focus on working for the B&M Gates Foundation. Good luck Boss :) !

Sweeeeeet! We won! The Danish team placed second, so they will join us and go to India for the world finals. Ok, gotta go - dinner and party coming up!

The presentations are now over and we are waiting for the judges to decide who to send to India. The winners are supposed to be announced in 20 min. More pics are now up :)

Things are going smoothly so far here in Oslo. We stayed up till 7 am to polish our prototypes and it was worth the work. People who came to our stand seemed to be impressed :) Right now Accenture is holding a talk about RFID technology. After that all the teams will have their presentations. New pictures are up at my flickr account :)

Another team, another Imagine Cup – and it seems like we have a strong team this year (Gøran, Hans Olav, Jonas and me). We have advanced to the Nordic finals and will represent Norway in the competition tomorrow :)
We are now at our hotel room in Oslo, fine-tuning our presentation and demos. I think our project is pretty strong, so it will be exciting to see if we’ll get one of the two tickets to India tomorrow.
I’ll use my new Canon Ixus Wireless (WiFi) camera to post pictures directly to my flickr account during the event. I'll also write how the event is going in the picture comments, so be sure to check it out frequently. Well, well back to work!