Picturing tweets turns into worldwide winner

Feb 18 2010 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A NEWCASTLE software developer has won a competition run by Microsoft which attracted entries from around the globe.

Chris Price, a graduate developer with Scott Logic, beat off worldwide competition in one of the categories of Microsoft’s annual 10k Smart Coding Challenge, which required entrants to write the best application is just 10kilobytes. He took the top place in the HTML5 category and a prize of $500 (£320).

Mr Price said: “I wasn’t expecting it at all. There were about 90 entries worldwide. This was the first one I’ve entered. I’ll definitely be encouraged to enter another.”

The University of York graduate, who is originally from Gosforth, Newcastle, initially joined Scott Logic on an internship then spent a year and a half with the business before a stint working in Birmingham. But he returned to work at the company in September last year and has quickly made his mark.

His entry, called 100pxls, transforms a stream of live posts from social networking site Twitter into a wall of tiny 10x10 pixel images. The image that is created depends on the common words in the post.

And users who want to create their own image can use the ‘drawing area’ of the application to convert an image into a ‘tweet’ and then use the button to post it.

Mr Price was one of six developers from Scott Logic who entered the three different categories in this year’s 10k Smart Coding Challenge using either HTML5, Silverlight or Gestalt technologies.

Managing director Gary Scott is keen to encourage his staff to get involved in this type of competition.

He said: “We are very much a hi-tech firm. This is almost a recreational thing we encourage them to do. It’s a fun thing to do.

“We have six people in the company who put in a program. It’s generally done in their own time and lunch breaks.”

Mr Scott is especially interested in the commercial possibilities associated with Silverlight.

“The technology itself is very, very useful. It is making the internet very interactive,” he said.

“Silverlight is trying to revolutionise the web and make internet applications feel a lot more like desktop applications.”

The company, which has offices in London and Edinburgh in addition to its Newcastle headquarters, is currently developing a number of products using the emerging technologies.

Mr Scott said: “We have written a product in Silverlight which we will be launching very soon and creating a business around those products.”

Scott Logic, which specialises in creating bespoke software systems for financial clients, is on course to double its annual turnover to around the £3m mark this year.

The company has also increased staff numbers from 18 to 45 over the last 12 months, despite losing its biggest client when US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed at the peak of the financial crisis in September 2008.

To check out Mr Price’s application, go to: http://mix10k.visitmix. com/Entry/Details/188

The technology itself is very, very useful. It is making the internet very interactive