Impro, originally uploaded by SkyFireXII.

Yesterday in work we identified an issue with customers not finding the wireless password for their networks on the bottom of the routers we supply. Our guide says where it is, but doesn’t illustrate it (shame, as it’s awesome in every other way).

Today I wrote up a ‘quick fix’ guide to send out with the routers, so needed an illustration to show the underside of the router. Unfortunately our media room only has a green background (great if I want to show the router flying through space) so I improvised a white background with some sheets of A4 and the corner of my desk.

Pity about the shadow, but with the available light and one flash it’s about the best I could muster in a short space of time.

If only I had a bigger product option than my beer-box “studio”.

The winners were Locomotive Prod Dev who finished top of our group. They’re pictured with their trophie here:

The runners-up were Group 1 winners, CS Legends; pictured here graciously congratulating the winners.

As ever, a fun time was had by all (even if there’s a fair share of bruises to go around) and we’re grateful to Jamie and Web Sol for organising what’s become a regular event in the calendar at work. I certainly enjoyed it; after all, it’s not the winning that matters, it’s the taking part (I would say that though – I didn’t win).

More pictures can be seen on my Flickr account: Phil Long on Flickr.

For those who want to know, click through to see the full results for the group stages.

Group 1

Game Results for Group 1

Group 2

Game Results for Group 2

’twas a good night with myself and Richard ending up outside the Gibson Hall with people from our awards table and MacWorld’s Editor and Sub-Editor, a guy from MacFormat and the Sub-Editor from Digital Arts. I managed to pursuade people to point in photos, as ever – which can be seen over in the album on Facebook. I’ve avoided putting the really bad ones up for fear of alienating those we were sat with after the main event.

As is typical for transport in the UK, the train down was late meaning it was all rather rushed, which was a shame. We were staying in an apartment, and had been upgraded to a nicer one – though with just an hour to get ready on the night, and getting back at 2am for a 7.30am start on Friday we really didn’t get to appreciate it. Again, Facebook pictures illustrate the swanky apartment.

On the way back the train from Kings Cross was cancelled, so we had a half-hour delay there. Though that meant I could get a bacon and egg Burger King breakfast and hash browns, which helped me slightly in my recovery from my, er, celebrations. I then went into work to drop the award off as it was on the way. Suprisingly some of my team still expected me to be able to process questions.

I’m behind on my management course – so today I did some work towards bringing me up-to-date, which included completing a 2,500 word assignment and associated stuff. I also did a bit of background for my next assignments, and my main, 7,000 word, Business Project which is due in later this year. All in all, I’m glad to get one out of way, as I’ve proved to myself that I can actually apply myself to completing the rest. This is, however, typical of me, education and the “last minute or not at all” pattern I seem to consistently follow. Interestingly, the assignment is titled “Introducing Strategy and Managing Change” and since I started each of the suggestions I made have actually begun being (or already have been) implemented.

I also popped into town this morning for brain provisions (food!) and a dinner suit. Tomorrow is the annual MacWorld Awards ceremony down in London and Zen have been nominated in the Best ISP category. Hopefully we’ll win that as it’s voted for by the readers so is good recognition of our efforts to support the best platform around. We’ve worked hard to ensure we keep up-to-date with training and to provide useful resources and tools to customers so it would be good to see that recognised.

I am now rewarding myself for my hard days work with a glass (or two) of wine.