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April 30 DDR Updated ScheduleI'm am a bit behind on my previous visits, but I promise they will be up tonight! Here is an updated schedule for the tour including my previous visits (subject to change):
April 17 Digital Dorm Room - Day 2 - Hofstra University
I'll be writing a lengthier update by tonight, but wanted to at least post some pictures. It was a real blast as you can see from the pictures below.
We arrived at 845AM and parked at the West corner of the Student Center.
Things were a bit slow in the morning (students still waking up), but once we had the music blasting from Rock Band, and the common hour came into play(no classes during this time), things were rolling smoothly! Common hour
+ crowds = happy students! April 16 Digital Dorm Room - Day 1 - CUNY ("NO SLEEP TILL...") BrooklynAnd we're off... I feel like I'm a school bus driver. "Hop on aboard if you dare, ye rascals!"
The first day is when you usually run into most issues. I decided to test the equipment before heading to Brooklyn. One "minor"problem. The generator wouldn't turn over. Hmm...
At this point I was a bit concerned. Having a DDR without any of the "Digital" aspect would be pretty lame. I called the folks back at HQ to help me out. 2 common causes:
Ahhh!! I had about 1/8 tank of fuel. So I decided to fill up en route... Then this happened... Remember how I mentioned that the first day is when you usually run into issues? well... Maybe someday I'll go into details, but for now, let's not talk about it...
I finally arrived at the designated parking spot around 12:45PM. The generator issue was resolved - stupid empty gas tank... The equipment was ready and secured. However, after getting the generator started, none of the equipment would turn on! Another call to HQ. Well, apparently there is a huge plug on the inside of an exterior panel that needed to be plugged in... right.... Awesome! The XBOX and TVs turn on, but none of the cameras or phones powered on... All the batteries neither installed nor charged, so that took an extra 15 minutes finding the boxes for each device. Oh yeah, I kinda need ink cartridges for the printers...
<sarcasm> yay </sarcasm> But now we have an awesome setup! Denon Receiver, Samsung LCD TV and XBOX 360!
Apparently there were elementary and middle schools nearby, so the typical age range of our crowd spanned between 10-23. Look both ways before crossing the street! well, this was a one way street, so i guess that rule doesn't apply.
Then we let them loose and it was pure madness until we ended at 5:45PM!
Rock Band was definitely the most popular piece of technology today! Everyone was pretty good about finding a group of 4 and alternating, so it was pretty self-sustaining with minimal supervision. Always a plus!
The Cash Cube was also a hit! But it got a little messy after a while. If you scored big and found the "special" bills, you'd win prizes such as:
There was always some traffic in the tour bus as well...
Some other pictures and videos...
It was a pretty long day, but the first day proved to be pretty successful. I was starting to lose my voice at the end of the event, but at least I was having fun doing it! What really made my day is a complement from a passerby who happened to be a Google employee. :) Off to Hoftra University tomorrow! I plan to go into a bit more detail regarding the actual technology on the tour. Stay tuned! The DDR minus the first "D"The essentials: All that's missing is a toilet and a shower... And please be considerate... The Arrival Part IIOk, so I have a few more pictures from the pickup around 12:38AM. I almost felt like I was waiting for arrival of a new Ferrari, but it just wasn't quite the same. Well thanks to Anthony from Rusty's Towing Service, it arrived safely. Apparently there was a 3 hour backup around Philly that caused the delay. Poor guy, he was planning to make the trip back to Ohio that same night! Doesn't that break some DOT regulations? I offered the guy Starbucks and/or Diner food yet he declined! Oh well. What a trooper. Here are some picture of the arrival:
Below are videos of the truck being unloaded and a short tour in the dark. At the time, it was pretty exciting.
Now the DDR is on its own 4 wheels ready for the long journey ahead.
License plate is somewhat funny:
What does it look like inside? Well, you'll have to find out tomorrow! Off to CUNY Brooklyn! April 15 The DDR bus hath arrived!Anthony drove this monstrous thing from Ohio, got stuck in traffic, and arrived at the (wrong) hotel at 12:03am. Poor guy... It finally arrived at the correct location at 12:38am. I took a couple of pictures, but here's a teaser for now. It's ready to roll for the first visit tomorrow at Brooklyn College! w00t! DDR Tour ScheduleHere is the schedule for the tour (subject to change):
See the schedule on Maps.Live.com I even started to create an interactive pushpin map with Virtual Earth via maps.live.com. Take a peek at http://maps.live.com/?mapurl=http://www.microsoft4me.com/ddr/tour.html Screen shot I basically modified what Derek Horton showed on his blog - I took his HTML file, modified the text and coordinates using Expression Web, and pointed maps.live.com to it. This HTML is really a KML, but renamed. Keith Kinnan's blog entry talks a little more about this in depth. This was a real pain since I did most of it manually. For coordinates, I referred to http://geocoder.us/ DDR... huh? No, it's not Dance Dance Revolution...Ok, it's the other DDR... Last summer, my manager and I were brainstorming on some ideas that would be really fun yet very interesting to students. We discussed renting an RV and having me drive all over the East coast, from Maine to Florida visiting schools, doing presentations, and giving away free software and swag. I could see myself just running out of the vehicle, throwing a pile of XBOX360 games into a crowd of people on campus, and running back into my RV for a quick getaway. Why not... I've been known to do crazier things. What can I say, I have no shame. Then recently, our team came up with the idea about converting one of the Microsoft Across America trucks (another link here)into a Dorm Room. Hmmm... Most people that have been in the car with me for some reason prefer not to be passengers in the car when I drive. Is it because I have "the need...for speed..."? Perhaps. So why would anyone put me behind the wheel of a big tour bus? Because I was born to drive... oh yeah... First, we needed to list some goals:
Next was, WHY do we want to do this? What type of message are we trying to send?
The fun (and not-so-fun) part: Figuring out what should be on the bus: I had a pow-wow with some of my colleagues: Clint, Dan, DeVaris, Gus, Philip, and Cy. We definitely needed XBOX 360, Media Center, and Rock Band. No question. We really tried to get Microsoft Surface, but unfortunately there just weren't enough available. If you haven't seen or heard of Surface, you really have to check out some of the Surface Videos. Here's an example of a really cool use of Surface in the future. Another cool piece of technology that would have been great to have on the bus is Microsoft Sync. Perhaps we can "Sync My Ride!" for the Fall. What's actually on the bus... Fortunately, we were able to partner with HP - they sponsored a lot of the awesome hardware. Here's what will be on the DDR:
But wait, there's more! Prizes galore! We also hired Crystal Entertainment to set up a Cash-Cube (below) and external screens and speakers to play Rock Band.
These will be used as contests for winning prizes such as:
I also have tons of swag lined up to give away! First come - first serve basis!
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