2008 Winter Scripting Games
The Games in Action
The 2008 Winter Scripting Games in Action
An interesting thing happened to the Scripting Guys this year. We got a new manager. That actually isn’t all that interesting; here at Microsoft we tend to swap managers a lot. (And really, just how long do you think you would want to manage the Scripting Guys?) No, the interesting thing is that this new manager actually said something we thought was very funny. As we were in the midst of preparing for the 2008 Scripting Games he said “I think it would be fun to put together a slide show with pictures of the Scripting Games.” Now, here’s where it got really funny. He asked “Do you have any photographs from the previous Scripting Games?”
At this point we felt the need to explain to him that this is an online competition. What exactly would we have photos of?
But then we got to thinking. (Yes, it happens every once in a while.) Why not display photographs from the Scripting Games? Sure, on the one hand it’s a bunch of people sitting at their computers writing scripts, but, on the other hand, skiing is just someone on the snow on a pair of skis, right? Okay, maybe not the best comparison, but you get the idea. Don’t you?
Okay, the idea is this. Send us a picture of yourself competing in the Scripting Games. Whether you’re sitting in front of your computer, partying with your friends in celebration of correctly figuring out an event solution, or drowning in coffee trying to keep yourself awake as you stay up late trying to finish every single event in all six divisions plus the Sudden Death Challenge. Whatever it is you’re doing that shows what you went through, where you were, whatever, we’d love to see it.
So send us a picture. It will make our manager feel a little less silly for asking such an … uninformed … question, and it could be a lot of fun to see what everyone’s going through. We’ll post the pictures as we get them.
Photos
Just to get things started, here’s the Scripting Dog preparing for the Games:
Marco Shaw’s 3 ½ year old son, Samuel, was caught reading the new “Professional Windows PowerShell Programming” book before Dad had the chance to even look at it. Says Marco, “He seems very calm all of a sudden… Scary!”
Rajasekaran Panneerselvam found an … interesting … way to train for the 2008 Winter Scripting Games. By the way, those are real pythons; they are not Scripting Guys Jean Ross and Greg Stemp. (Although anyone who tried Sudden Death Challenge 1 might beg to differ.)
Ten-month old Gréta helps her father György Nemesmagasi prepare for the Games.
Kevin Wood sent us this photo of the “rare and elusive Jamaican Code Monkey,” which he says is “even more rare“ than Jamaican bobsled teams. We’ll have to take his word on that.
Here we have two photos from Damian Antonowicz in Poland. The first one shows Damian work feverishly through the night to complete an entry for the Sudden Death Challenge:
As for photo number 2, well, the Scripting Games are enough to wear anyone out:
Jarno Mäki “scripting in the middle of Prague Old Town.” Well, he says he’s scripting, anyway. Incidentally, Jarno is competing in the Scripting Games while on vacation. That’s the kind of dedication we like to see!
According to Trev Scott “With a little help from the Scripting bible and Piglet I might just get through the games! And is that a copy of Mr. Wightmans SQL book strategically placed or do my eyes deceive me?”
Stuart Henderson submitted this picture of his 10-month-old daughter, Stella, helping him with PowerShell Beginners Event 5. According to Stuart, their conversation went like this:
"Hey Dad, you've got Event 5 wrong: I'm only 10 months old, not 11. Want me to fix this for you?"
Storm, the Rocky Mountain Scripting Dog, helps his pet (human, Pat O'Connell) review scores on a 73-degree March 1st in Colorado Springs (Note Pike's Peak in background). Storm was quoted as saying, "Bossman, I told you an array was the best data structure for that event.”
Chris Cummings sent us a picture of his latest project. “I built a new computer with all the power anyone ever needs,” he noted. “Best-looking computer ever?”
