The Imagine Cup is something I'm taking part in this year. You may have seen my post stating that it was your last chance. What I failed to mention was that although this is the case for the UK regional entries in Software Design and Embedded Development, it is not the case for some other competitions, which are globally run. You can still enter worldwide competitions, including regular quizzes for your chance to get to the Worldwide finals in New York.

So how do you do this?

Head over to www.imaginecup.com and sign up. Simple as that. In fact, there's a quiz today. Why not give it a shot? Even if you don't sign up you can see what it's about, it may even get your "help solve the world's toughest problems" juices flowing!

You can see the UK's site for progression of UK teams at: http://www.ukic10.com/.

Inspiratech

My team is getting ready to kick off after our Christmas and New Year break. You can follow us on twitter @Inspiratech and see our website here.

Nathan Ghann (@nathanthatguy) kindly offered this audiobook to me, as a fellow MSP, in return for some feedback.

Firstly

I don't think I have the release version, 250~Mb zip - 1GB+ uncompressed. Quite large, WAV format, not sure if I would have this on my phone or Kindle. I have now re-compressed to be under 250mb. Now, this is my first ever audio book since being a kid with story books - personally I prefer reading books. You can read at exactly your own pace, pick it up, put it down with ease and maintain your place. It is a little more difficult to do this with an audiobook. However, I would love to see a transcript of this made available for download.

Content

The book is not about giving you the motivation you require to achieve a first, but steps to going about it. Rather than sitting about playing a video game or browsing through articles on the internet in your spare time the book gives some tips in how to make more productive use of this time beneficial to your course.

There is a pdf with the diagrams described in the book. The actual content of the book is fairly general, however also heavily related to, what I believe to be Nathan's course. I'm not sure of the relevance to all subjects, however many techniques I would imagine apply to any.

Getting to know terms, time management for tasks, answering questions - becoming known to your lecturer, how to deal with procrastination, tackling group work, importance of attendance. It's very much related to his personal experience. It covers the need to go about surrounding yourself with like-minded, driven people. Prioritising your Degree course as an when it becomes most important.

I hope that I will be able to learn from this book and utilise it in my course. I've been lacking in study skill and determination lately, however this shows how that can be turned around, despite pressure and stress.

Availability

The website for the book is: http://www.1stclassadvice.com.This book will be available in print in 2011, hopefully in enough time for exams. The audiobook has been made available on  iTunes.