Bret Stateham's Blog

Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge

Headphones on. Tilt the seat back. Just steady codin’ as the keys get tapped. Get ready, because Nokia Developer is about to turn your town into Dev City with its Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge.

Nokia is hitting the road to 13-cities looking for developers who want to build an experience not just another app. To kick off the Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge, Nokia Developer will hold hackathons across the US and Canada beginning in May. You can sign up individually or form your own team to build the coolest, baddest apps for the Windows Phone platform and Nokia Lumia devices.

Prizes will be awarded on site at each event for the top 3 created apps, top student created app, and most Nokia-branded developer (use your imagination). App winners will be judged on creativity, usability, technical difficulty and app presentation.

• 1^st place: $500 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
• 2^nd place: $250 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
• 3^rd place: $100 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
• Student Winner: $150 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
• Most Nokia-Branded Dev:  $100 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900

At Nokia, we don’t have ordinary developers, so these won’t be ordinary hacks. We have some amazing experiences in store – like our Re-Charge Room – for developers to chill out between pounding out code. So come showoff your skills and earn rewards. Space will be limited so register early.

The Challenge is on. . . .Ready.Set () {Code}

Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge Schedule:

08:30 a.m. Light breakfast and registration\
09:00 a.m. Welcome and competition overview
09:30 a.m. Let the hacking begin!
12:30 p.m. Lunch
07:00 p.m. Show us your app/Dinner
08:00 p.m. Winners announced

Yesterday (03/15/2012) I attended the first day of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) LA Regional event at the Long Beach Arena.  This was my first FRC event and I was blown away by what these kids were able to accomplish in just six weeks.  I call them kids not be belittle them, but rather to humble myself.  It was truly amazing.  I brought my ten year old son along with me and were both enthralled with what we saw. 

This years competition is entitled “Rebound Rumble” (see a video about it here) and it challenges the student teams to build a robot that can pickup compact foam basketballs, shoot them at one of four basketball baskets, as well as navigate a set of “teeter-totter” style “bridges”.

I was there as a Microsoft Developer Evangelist because in the competition this year, the teams were allowed to use the Microsoft Kinect both on the robots themselves as well as from special Kinect driver stations.  I found teams at the LA regional using one or the other.  One team in particular though, Team 987 from Las Vegas’ Cimarron-Memorial High School was using the Kinect both onboard for depth perception, as wells as from the Kinect Driver Station during autonomous / hybrid mode. 

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I’m speaking tonight at the LA .NET Developers Group.  If you want a copy of my slides or demos, you can grab there here!

Going to the Game Developer’s Conference?  Check out Microsoft Developer Day. At this event Microsoft will introduce developers to the future of games and entertainment.  With technology deep dives focusing on Xbox LIVE and Windows 8, lean about how you can build great experiences by capitalizing on Microsoft’s vision for connected entertainment!

When it is?  Tuesday March 6th from 10:00am to 5:30pm.

Where Is It? At the “Game Developers Conference” at Moscone Center in San Francisco.