Off to Barcelona tonite!
This is the moment I've been waiting for for about 2 months now. Nearly exactly 2 months ago, the US Finals for the Imagine Cup were in full effect. Now, after 2 months of waiting, not idly, I'm off to Barcelona, Spain tonite. These next two weeks will be filled with relaxation at first, Imagine Cup Competition next, and TechEd last.
I never made an "About Me" page here on my blog, but one of the things that I enjoy quite alot if travel. Being that I've never been to Spain (or on the Mediterranean Sea for that matter), I'm really looking forward to visiting Barcelona.
On Saturday through Monday I'll be partaking in the International Imagine Cup Competition. Since we have been allowed to work on our applications after winning the regional Imagine Cup Competitions, I added some cool new features to my Photo Album Web Service (and client applications). Generally, the application hasn't changed much, but I have added RSS support for my "See & Share" Web Application. I believe this feature is quite notable since it allows for RSS aggregators out there to "connect" to individual photo albums out there based around my Photo Album Web Service. This RSS Feed will provide a list of the latest categories and latest photos (with links) to anyone who requests the feed (and yes, the RSS feed is valid!). This RSS Feed addition is thanks to me joining the RSS.NET team run by George Tsiokos. To this wonderful library, I've added support for RSS Modules. The implementation of this support is quite general so it can be extended to any current or new RSS modules. In addition to this feature, I've also added some image processing filters to my Photo Mosaic Web Service. Essentially this is a second web service to enhance the Photo Album experience. With this Web Service users can take any number of photos and create a "collage" or "mosaic" of photos and then apply preset filters to the whole "mosaic". On top of these two improvements, I spent some time debugging known bugs and issues that the application has had in the past, as well as some usability and minor performance gains. Lastly, but definitely not least, I'd like to thank Julia for her outstanding support since April, Chris Sells for extending an invitation to present at the Applied XML Conference, Keith Ballinger, Scott Wiltamuth, all the other judges from the US Imagine Cup Finals, Ayca, Revi, Scott W., Claudia, my friends, and all my other supporters out there! And of course I can't forget the support of my parents, one on earth and one in heaven! I look forward to presenting and doing the best that I can possibly do at the International Competition! I'll be reporting back here throughout the next 2 weeks...
For those attending TechEd next week, I look forward to seeing you at the meeting that Christophe has mentioned.