Microsoft Student Partners

Although I’m not sure it went as previously planned, Friday (25^th June) was Bill Gate’s last day as a full time employee at Microsoft. He’ll be moving on to work full time at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation although will still be sticking around as chairman (and don’t forget that he’s still Microsoft’s largest stock holder).

Whether you like him, hate him or are just plain jealous of him, there is no denying that he has had a major impact on computing and revolutionised the way that we think about the PC. As such, there are a number of worhwhile tributes around the web, that are well worth a read:

• The Bill Gates Timeline
• Bill Gates is retiring, sort of
• Return of the ’70s Weirdos

And if you want the official word, Microsoft have a website dedicated to Bill Gates (Silverlight required).

Something tells me that this isn’t the last we hear of Bill Gates!

Remember, you can still get Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Full Unrestricted version for $75 or $25 per year as the offer was extended until September 2nd.

See http://www.wamsp.com.au/?page_id=42 for more information.

Hot off the press – Group Shot is a nifty little toy from Microsoft Research that solves the group shot problem. Have you ever taken multiple photos of a group of people, only to be thwarted time and time again by different people closing their eyes?

Group Shot solves this by allowing you to select the “good parts” (i.e. all those open eyes) of all the images and then joining everything together into one final shot. You can use this to make sure that everyone in that family shot is looking at the camera, and that those unwanted photobombers are history!

Check out the example (and tutorial) or go straight to Group Shot for a download.

It’s exam period as well, so Good Luck to all, and stay tuned for exciting happenings coming to a University near you!

Ever wondered what Microsoft is up to? What the next version will look like, or what the next big thing is? Luckily Microsoft, like most other companies, releases public (and private) betas to help iron out bugs in their software and to give user and developers a taste of what is to come.

I’ve collated three such Microsoft Beta sites for your browsing pleasure….

Microsoft Connect

http://connect.microsoft.com/

Formerly knows as Microsoft Beta, Connect is the place to go for any new piece of software or technology that Microsoft is planning. The site revolves around allowing users to download beta software, test it and return any feedback or bugs that they have found.

Connect also allows you to sign up to waiting lists for the closed betas (such as Live Mesh) and coordinates invite-only betas. Additionally, the more you participate on Connect, the more likely that you’ll be invited to the next private beta (Windows 7, anyone?). Certain betas also offer incentives for bugs, such as the Microsoft Assessment and Planning beta, who recently handed out copies of Vista and Office to their top 10 bug reporters, as well as a 80Gb Zune to the top bug reporter.

Another brilliant point of the Connect site is that it allows you to preview next generation paid-for software for free. For instance, Expression Studio was and Live OneCare is currently available in their next versions as beta software, allowing you to “try before you buy”.

Office Labs

http://www.officelabs.com/

Anyone using Office 2007 must visit the Office Labs – if only to grab Search Commands (more on Search Commands later). Office Labs is the site where the Microsoft Office group post beta versions of the latest add-ons and tools for Office, making it a must for any one who uses Office on a regular basis.

My favourite tool from Office Labs is Search Commands – this adds an extra tab to the Office Ribbon Bar that allows you to search for a button or command. For instance searching for “Header” brings back “Insert Header”, “Go To Header” and “Header\Footer Options” amongst other useful buttons. This makes the transition between Office 2003 and 2007 a breeze and follows Vista’s new paradigm of searching for everything, rather than having to memorise each particular tool.

Live Labs

http://labs.live.com/

Contrary to what its name suggests, Live Labs is more about new technologies to make Rich Internet Applications then the next version of the Windows Live Software Suite. For any Web Developer or Designer, the possibilities and technologies that are presented by Live Labs makes your mouth water.

Two technologies that I’m watching *extremely* eagerly on the Live Labs site are Volta and Deepfish. Volta allows web applications to be developed in .NET as a standard Windows Applications, then automatically transformed into ASP.NET, HTML and JavaScript; while ensuring that best practices for compatibility, HTML validation, security and efficiency are met; in effect this allows any Windows Developer to become an awesome Web Developer, and that those (kinda) old .NET application that you want to share can be converted to an easy to share Web Application. Deepfish is a technology that deals with something I am passionate about: Windows Mobile. The browsing experience on Windows Mobile, especially an older device like mine, is awful. The browsers to choose from are either Pocket IE (which is non-standard complaint, and only has half CSS and JavaScript implementation), Opera Mobile (which is extremely slow and eats memory on my device – not to mention costs money) or NetFront Browser (which crashes when there is too much JavaScript (like Google Maps…)). Deepfish overcomes these issues by rendering the page on a server, then displaying the rendered content on the Windows Mobile phone, this allows a standards compliance, quick rendering and a reduction is bandwidth used. Unfortunately, Deepfish is in closed beta and only supports static (ie no JavaScript) pages – but we can always hope!

Bonus Site: Microsoft Research

http://research.microsoft.com/

Although not a true beta site, for blue-sky research and technology that is just awesome, look no further than Microsoft Research.

Microsoft Research does offer a download section, with some cool technologies, as well as a feed of articles and information from the labs. Microsoft Research is a must for any tertiary level researcher, as it is the section of Microsoft that often partners with Universities and also offers a number of research orientated tools, such as Singularity.

- Daniel
Curtin MSP

Microsoft Tech.Ed Australia 2008 will be happening in the first week of September at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Tech.Ed is of the largest developer conferences in Australia and is a great way to learn from the experts on the latest technologies and connect with other developers.

Day 2, on Tuesday the 2nd of September will be Student Day, so check it out if you are in Sydney at that time.

More information and online registration can be found at http://www.microsoft.com.au/teched.

In what can only be described as “it’s about time” DreakSpark is set to land in Australia on September 2^th during the Australian Tech. Ed 2008 (Sydney) Student Day.

What do I get with DreamSpark?

DreamSpark currently contains:

• Visual Studio 2008 Professional
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Version
• Expression Studio
• XNA Game Studio 2.0 (+ Creators Club)

So what’s so great about DreamSpark you ask?

Yup, you get all the software it comes with via MSDN-AA anyway – but there are two big differences:

1. The license is unencumbered so you can use it for profit
2. XNA Creators Club! Perfect for those with Xboxs (and Zunes soon) the Creators Club grants you access to exclusive content and the ability to develop and debug games directly on the Xbox (but you already know that of course, because you attended game camp!)

It’s nice to (finally) see DreamSpark make it’s way down South – we’ll keep you posted as more information roles in!