Microsoft: Campus in the Fall

I took my camera along for a walk around the main Microsoft Campus recently and took a few photos of the nice autumn-colored trees. I ran into another Microsoftie doing the same thing but with a much nicer camera. Here are the photos anyway.

Nice red leaves.

A pretty ineffective lighting system.

Autumn colors.

Tree-lined streets. Note that a nice maintenance person has carefully raked up the fallen leaves to keep the grass nice and green.

More autumn colors.

Fremont: Red Bull Soap Box Derby

Red Bull holds an annual Soap Box Derby in different cities each year and this time it was Seattle's turn. We went along on an overcast day expecting on a smallish crowd but we were very surprised to see heaps of people also turning out for the event.

The Red Bull Soap Box Derby Photo Area.

Participants in the derby build a cart using a theme. At the top of the course the entrants have to perform a short skit related to their cart and then they head off down the hill. At the bottom the judges (who have watched a big screen at the top), take the cart, the skit and the time down the hill into account and award points just like in ice skating competitions. The winner is crowned later.

The Fremont Troll escaped from under the bridge to travel down the hill.

We took a tour around the pit area and we saw some pretty interesting creations. There were commercial carts like the Zune Cart, there were historical carts like an Abe Lincoln cart, there was a rolling toilet. They all looked pretty impressive while sitting still but I could see some potential issues looking at the flimsy wheels and axles on some of the carts.

Wow, the 80s is back with the A-Team. If you don't know who these guys are you're just too young.

We moved down the hill to try and catch some of the action. The first competitor flew down on what appears to be a see-through fish.

The floating fish, traveling at speed.

People were crowding the sides of the hay bale-lined street, leading to a pretty big crush at some points. Some lucky folks managed to get a view from their balcony and a few crazy folks were even up on their roofs to watch it.

The crowd watches a competitor on a big screen before they reach this part of the track.

The Finish Line

I'm really glad we made it to this event. Fremont is one of the funkier neighborhoods in Seattle and would be a great place to live if you worked somewhere nearby.

Seattle: Ballard Locks

A few weeks ago we went to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (also known as the Ballard Locks, because that is shorter). The locks are available 24 hours a day for boaters who need to travel from the lower waters of Puget Sound to the higher waters of Lake Washington.

Welcome to the Locks and Gardens.

The pecking order in the locks. For safety the little boats get to motor off first.

The gates are closing and the water is about to start rising.

Looking in the other direction when the Puget sound water level has been raised to the Lake Washington water level (at least in the locks anyway). The gates are opening.

Yachts get their own little locks to go through. Lucky folks.

There is also a Salmon Ladder with an observation area. Apparently August is a great time to visit with lots of big fish, but there were still plenty of fish in September. Apparently if you come here in November all you will only see bubbles.

It is well worth a visit to the locks because it is a bit of show as you see all the boats get carefully positioned. They have to adjust their ropes as the water level shifts and some owners are rightly concerned about the close proximity of the other boats.

Tourists can walk across the gates until just before they open and observe the process in some detail. The Salmon Ladder was also worth taking a look at. If you take a look from above all you see is churning water, but then you go down to the viewing gallery and there are plenty of fish navigating the seemingly serene waters.

Seattle: Mariners Baseball

I went back to the baseball a couple of weeks ago with G. Her camera is better than mine so take a look at her blog for more photos. We sat a bit lower this time and got a very different view of the game.

Welcome to SafeCo Field G!

Lots of workers were sweeping up the dirt on the field between games.

And we're playing.

I still didn't really get into the game and because it was played in the evening and we caught the bus to the game so we left after the 6th innings. At that stage the Mariners were losing but they actually won 4-3 against the Cleveland Indians.

IT: Facebooked

For some time now various people have been enticing me to join the crazy online community that is Facebook.

I chatted with some guys from work who still remember the original pure version of Facebook, which was only open to people studying at university. I talked to other Aussies who use it to keep in touch with friends back home. I read Scoble's posts about just how amazing Facebook is, but I still didn't get it.

Then my wife convinced me to join up and I've spent a fair amount of time setting up my profile, contacting my friends and writing on people's walls. I'm not entirely happy with the layout of the homepages, which requires you to scroll down past various apps and other stuff to see content and I had to tweak the privacy settings a fair bit, but I can definitely see why it is so compelling.

I can keep in touch with people without having to write an email to all of them. I can write information like I would on a blog, but restrict the audience somewhat for information I prefer to be less public.

I'm Facebooked. If you are too, and I know you, let me know. If I don't know you, well I'm sorry but I'm not trying to add 5000 friends like Scoble has.

I still don't see the value in some of the other new-fangled web apps like the noise generating, self monitoring, twitter, but maybe I just need more time?