Here’s a ton of pictures and videos from the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 which was held in Paris, France last month. Here’s a recap. Team SKAN won the Interoperability Award! For a more detailed report, please read the post I made about the Imagine Cup 2008 World Finals.

I’ve been raving about how awesomely beautiful the Eiffel Tower is at night. Don’t take my word for it, actually see the video in action There are a few still pictures too where you can see the Eiffel Tower in its 3 states, blue, night light show mode (like the video below) and in the day time.

Here’s the Shimmering Eiffel Tower.

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Thanks to Sriram Chandrasekaran for this next one. The title says it all.
Here’s Team SKAN - The Winning Moment Viewer’s Edition

Video: The Winning Moment - Team SKAN (Viewer’s Edition) (Link to Soapbox Page)
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If you’re in the mood for some craziness, do have a look at 40 seconds of nothing on Channel 8, another one of Sriram’s “masterpieces” As he said, be warned, this video has absolutely nothing which is remotely intellectual

I can’t not post a link to the first time we were on MSDN Blogs thanks to Mark Here’s the video interview he took of ours after we came second at the IC ‘08 India SDI Finals and its titled Team SKAN - Imagine Cup 2008 Software Design Interoperability Award World Finalists

Now its time for the grand finale for videos. Here’s a video of Team SKAN winning the interoperability. But wait, isn’t that what Sriram posted on SoapBox? Not quite. This is a video of Team SKAN winning the prize taken by a member of Team SKAN (Me) while going on stage. Not just that.. This video has everything. Joe Wilson starting off with the intro, then moving on to announcing the prizes and us screaming like crazy Subtitles for parts you can’t hear clearly (convos between us). I guess it’d also help those who can’t really understand Indian accents that well *pets dt and segosa* (A high resolution version of the video is available and shall be given on request)
Here’s Team SKAN - The Winning Moment On-Stage Edition

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Its been a bit over a month since I’ve returned from France so what prompted this move now? An article in Mumbai Mirror is pretty compelling

Team SKAN's article in the Mumbai Mirror titled "Idle Talk" on 17-08-2008. (Click the image to view the above article as an e-paper on Mumbai Mirror)

Not to mention the article earlier this month (August, 2008) in the Financial Times

Article in the Financial Times about Team SKAN being incubated by IIM-A. (Click the image to download the pdf version of the page)

Speaking of print media, we’ve also shown up twice more in Digit Magazines.

The May 2008 edition had a small piece on each of the finalists while the June one announced the winners and also had the video of all the presentations in the dvd So if you want to watch our presentation, go find yourself a dvd

Digit Magazine's May 2008 copy having an article on the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 India SDI Finalists. (Click the image to download the pdf version of the page)

Here’s a small preview of what’s new in my Picasa Album Click the images for larger versions.
Note: You might need to sign into your Google account to view the images.
Click here to view my John Anderton’s picasa album. It has a lot more pictures than this

Versailles Garden Fountain	Lille - Outside the Citadel	Concord	Chapel Of The Miraculous Medal
Blue Eiffel Tower	Worlds Largest Christmas Tree	Eiffel Tower In The Day	First model of the Statue Of Liberty
Me Near The Mona Lisa	Me with the Aussie Mascots	Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux	Louvre Pyramid Entrance
Team SKAN on stage accepting their prize	Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 - Interoperability Awardees	Team SKAN with Mr. Somasegar	Team SKAN at the Louvre Pyramids

Tags: Imagine Cup, Pictures, Videos

The entire trip was amazing. The greatest experience ever. We flew to Paris, enjoyed the city and brought back 1st place in the interop award I’d write a huge detailed account but I’m too bored. Its been an age since I came back and writing down every single thing that happened during the 6 days at the competition and the 5 days we spent there on our own would be just too much. So here’s a brief overview of what happened

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Tags: Imagine Cup

I’ll walk you through the entire experience of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 SDI India Finals which was held at Bangalore on the 8th and 9th of May, 2008. This could help other students who took part or want to do so next year

07^th of May, 2008

Amith left his place sometime around 2 PM and picked up SaM along the way to my place. I had just picked up a flex of our Architectural Diagram only a few hours ago and with my trusty bag and a laptop (which was borrowed from one of my dad’s friends) we left to the airport. Noel was already there at the airport when we came. We were scheduled to go to Bangalore on Jet Airways on a 737 which was to take off at 17:10. All I can say is that it was an awesome experience. My first flight and it was one to remember. Sadly I had to sit in the middle seat but it was fine. I was peeping out of the window to get the most amazing of views at 39,000 feet

The flight was on time though we were the fifth to take off on that runway so the take off was 15 minutes delayed but everything else was perfect. We landed in Bangalore an hour and 15 minutes later to a beautiful climate since it was just about to rain a bit. We had a pickup for the four of us which took us to Polo Nest. Me and Amith were allotted room 203 and SaM and Noel were in 205. We dropped off our bags and went to 205 to start off with work. We paid the Rs. 300 per night charge for Internet which was something we desperately needed. At around 10 we had dinner more or less alone. The entire crowd had gone back to their rooms except for мебелиBhavik and more or less the entire Novices@Work team. After dinner we went back to work and we did so more or less for the entire night. We took shifts to sleep 2-3 hours to maintain sanity for the big upcoming day

(I had written up a huge post of the other two days but I have no idea where it went.. I don’t think I can put it all down again like I did then but I’ll try none the less. Do note that the following part is written a month later so it might not be as detailed or as much fun as the original version, where ever it is :P)

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Tags: Imagine Cup

Late last night, I got a mail from Microsoft India about a small promotional video we (the Imagine Cup India finalists) have been working on. For those who don’t know, the contestants made a small video for the Imagine Cup to be used for promotion on college campuses around the country and may be elsewhere? Of course, any promotion that this event gets is good It’s an exceptional event and a great platform for students like me to do what they really like.

Last week, amongst our submissions, we did the necessary recordings for our video. I have a few pics of it that I’ll put up sometime. I’m wearing my Messenger Plus! Live Script Developer tee and yes, it was a coincidence. I came directly from college after a long day of submissions I haven’t received a copy of the video that fellow team mate, Noel cooked up but I’ll just get a copy next time I meet him

Getting back to the point, the email I got at 2:06 AM today had the Imagine Cup ‘08 Anthem attached. I must say, the music is pretty awesome I love it! Nice catchy music. Pretty good lyrics and nice vocals. Its totally theme based and switches between English and Hindi. It makes references to programming and the environment (the theme for this year’s competition). At first, some of the former seemed funny but honestly, the song overall is great. I’d like to know the guys who actually sung the song I presume this song is going to be played at the finals in Bangalore in a few weeks time A job well done. This is labeled as a premix so I’d love to see the end result along with the other things they are planning
I don’t really mind putting it up for download along with some of the pictures we took the other day but I’m not sure I’m allowed to share the former and as for the latter, I prefer doing so with all the pics from that day

My tickets are already here Also, my vivas are still going on! So back to studies and then to continue with IC work

Tags: Imagine Cup