The Intern's End

Well, I’ve got about 2 more blog posts left for this internship, maximum. Man, it’s been a whirl. 

ABC News 24

‘Nuff said.

It's been known for years

ProgChal Night

Microsoft held a coding challenge night for the interns, where we formed teams of up to 3, but no less than 1, and solved programming problems. 

Our team was the venerable Thunder Down Under, formed of me, Wiz, and some intern called John. 

In two hours, out of six questions, we answered a total of 4, gaining us a total of 8 points, and with a jump of 4 points in the last 3 minutes we tied in 2nd place with PotatoBattery and lost to String.Empty in 1st place with 14 points. 

This was actually my first coding comp, and I have to say, it was both reassuring and distracting to have Harley, a couple of seats down from me, constantly talking to his teammates: 

“What the-? Guys, what’s the python method for [insert functionality here]?"

“The **** is my code doing?"

“I’ve solved most of [problem A], but I just need the regex part"

for example. 

Whenever I voiced a syntax question aloud, though, he would answer, which was helpful. 

And I think an amusing addition to this would be a quality sports commentator, commenting on the progress of the teams. The dulcet tones of The Chaser’s Chris Taylor come to mind. 

I really enjoyed this night, especially the feeling of getting something right in the last 3 minutes and then appearing on the leaderboard.

Guess which team we were

Things around the office

Gandalf visits sometimes. We employ him as security. When someone forgets their keycard at the door, he just tells then that they cannot pass.

I am the Servant of the Secret Repo,
and the Wielder of the Sacred Bash Script!
Go back to the Abyss, Flame of Apple!

Boeing

We went on a tour of the Boeing factory in Everett. Unfortunately, I have no photos of this, because we were not allowed phones or cameras on the tour. Something about “security”. Neither were we allowed weapons, and as the security guard was mentioning this to us, I was tempted to make the joke of “Sorry guys, I’ll just go put my knife in the car” or something like then, then I remembered that you don’t do that here, because they take security seriously. (Despite the fact that they seem to be attacked by their own countrymen obeying their own laws more often than not)

Anyways ...

The factory floor was enormous. 

It was too big to comprehend all in one go. 

Picture an assembly line for cars. Think about how big the surrounding factory has to be for that. 

Now replace each car with a 747.

Yeah. 

That’s not entirely accurate, but it gives a decent picture. 

Virtual Sports Apocalypse Laser Tag

Holy cow. 

Sorry, Zone 3, you just lost. 

So in Australian laser tag, or at least the ones I've played, you have plastic guns, bulky packs with large zones to get shot in, or you have three tiny dots and you're impossible to hit. 

This ... this was laser tag perfected, or rather,  a hell of a lot better than Australia. 

Firstly, only in America are the laser tag guns actually repurposed M4 carbines!!

Secondly, we had tag dots all over us, on vital points. 

Thirdly, the guns had recoil, cos they had CO2 canisters to provide a burst when you fired. Firing came in single, burst, or safety (none). 

You had a base in which to respawn, and reload. 

The arena was a maze reminiscent of CoD, and they had several game types - we played team deathmatch and Control Point.
Here's my scorecard: http://barracks.icombat.com/Tactical/Player/Overview/102644

They also had ..... Zombie Survival!!!!!!!

Oh man ....

The Kangaroo and Kiwi

Once a jolly madman camped by a billabong, 

under the shade of an akubra or three.

And he sat as he waited for his lemon, lime and billy to boil ...

oh, who’ll come a waltzing Australia with me!

The Kangaroo and Kiwi is an Aussie/Middle Earth bar we went to after laser tag. This just looked and felt like home:

Unfortunately the staff were not Australian, but they certainly tried with the food:

And I think this list actually describes some Aussie politicians:

The first is Bill Shorten
The second is primarily Abbott, but also many others
The third is Pauline Hanson
The fifth is Palmer
The sixth is Ruddock

I had a classic meat pie, with baked beans and chips, not fries but chips:

Mate. Maaaaaaaaate.

And a lemon, lime and bitters, with extra tomato sauce.

The classics

My Nameplate

I finally got a real name plate!!

They even spelt my name right

Until now, I’ve had to improvise:

I advertise bush trips, and warn of their dangers

They are an endangered species.
Not enough people believe in them

Cos I'm T-N-T!!!

It's true

The Can Competition

So at the end of week 1, Chris and I started a competition for who could drink and collect the most fruit juice cans at work, since we both loved the little juice cans supplied to us by Micro$oft. This was Chris’s idea.

The person with the fewest cans, by Friday week 11, could only drink tomato juice in week 12, of the fruit juices. So milk, fizzy, etc, was allowed, but no fruit juice except tomato juice, at a minimum of 1 per day. 

This progressed over the weeks.

I have to say, I have had far more variety than Chris. 

Originally, I started out just lining the cans up according to flavor: 

But then I had some more interesting ideas:

This made it easier to count, because it was just the sum of the first n squares. 

Then I got creative. 

Just a standard castle was not enough for me. Those who knew me in my teenage years will remember the other can fortress I made. I couldn’t just do something normal, now, could I?

So I started building Minas Tirith:

When that was complete, I added trebuchets, and legions of Orcs:

"You are men of Gondor, and whatever comes through that gate, you will hold your ground"
"But what if cans come through?"

And then, to cap it off, I added Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld:

GROND! GROND! GROND! GROND! <Please insert Disc two>

Now, for the winner ...

Chris actually had more. 

He had 172, I had 168.

However, we started out with a difference of 9 in his favour. 

So, subtracting 9, we get …

VICTORY FOR ME!!!

And before someone suggests that we should have cheated, we both did. We are both filthy cheaters. 

Now, Chris? Get started on that tomato juice ...