MSSA UNSW

A must-read: Free bar-tab, free food, a chance to win 1-months paid experience at Microsoft Australia.

2010-05-04T10:10:00.002+10:00

Can it get any cooler than this? You bet.

Check out this event! A Windows 7 Tweetup just for the Uni crew with a free bar tab? That's pretty sweet...

The Tweetup is an event where University and TAFE students can come together, demo the latest tech gear going into the Student Share house, learn some cool things to do on your computer, and maybe win a few prizes. There will be some very cool competitions with food and drinks provided by Microsoft (and a chance to win a sweet Xbox if you're 1337 enough). You can also find out how you can win one months paid work experience with Microsoft Australia!

The event is open to all students who wish to come together and have some food & share a drink.

We had a very successful turnout at our Tweetup in March which took place at the Shelbourne Hotel, featuring some of Australia’s most influential Twitterati, Bloggers, IT journalists and online content creators in Sydney.

The Windows 7 Student Tweetup will be held at Hermann’s Bar, at University of Sydney Cnr City Road & Butlin Avenue, from 7pm on the 4^th of May.

The event is free, but registration is required due to limited capacity (200 people). Register your attendance at: http://bit.ly/win7unitwtup

Tweet about the event using the #unitwtup hashtag.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Windows Team, Microsoft Australia

Imagine Cup 2010 - let the fun begin

2010-03-08T02:14:00.005+11:00

An opportunity to showcase your talent!

Pick a technology. Any! & participate.

Be “the one” to represent UNSW amongst the world.

The Imagine Cup encourages young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world – today. Now in its eighth year, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a truly global competition focused on finding solutions to real world issues. Take a minute to learn more about the Imagine Cup's 2010 Theme. More details at http://imaginecup.com/About/WhatIs.aspx

For many students it opens doors of opportunity and dictates a future.

Categories include, Software Design, Game Design. Best part is You can use any development platform/Technology of your choice. Further details at http://imaginecup.com/Competition/Overview.aspx

Open to students around the world, the Imagine Cup is a serious challenge that draws serious talent, and the competition is intense. The contest spans a year, beginning with local, regional and online contests whose winners go on to attend the Worldwide Finals held in a different location every year. The intensity of the work brings students together, and motivates the competitors to give it their all. The bonds formed here often last well beyond the competition itself.

Register NOW!!! Registration close 15th March

To register,

Email the following details to anoopm@cse.unsw.edu.au

· DisplayName (maximum of 20 characters)

· Competition Type (Software Design/ Game Design)

· University/School

· Email Address

· Preferred Language (if not English)

· Newsletter subscription? (Yes/No)

· Partner Emails OK? (Yes/No)

For further information, please feel free to contact Anoop Mehta, email: anoopm@cse.unsw.edu.au

MSDN Magazine for free download

2010-02-14T11:35:00.001+11:00

Hi,

Don't miss on this link. It contains a huge archive of MSDN Magazines, free for download, So have a go. Its in PDF format.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee412244.aspx

Cheers,

Anoop!

Remix sessions

2009-06-19T19:02:00.001+10:00

For everyone that wanted to go to remix Australia or is interested in any of the content that was presented

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/remix/videos/

IE8 Treasure hunt

2009-06-18T16:23:00.001+10:00

Microsoft Australia is running an IE8 competition to find a $10,000 prize on in the internet. The only requirement is that to find the clues you need to be running IE8. Get started here.

Blind search

2009-06-07T21:40:00.001+10:00

Michael Kordahi from Microsoft Australia has created a rather interesting website which lets a user test which web search service that they prefer. Currently the site let a person search for a term and the site returns 3 columns that are in random order, and have a uniform layout that represent bing, google and yahoo search results.

The blind search website is available here, and Michael’s blog entry in regards to the site is here.

Microsoft Internships

2009-06-05T09:02:00.001+10:00

Microsoft in Redmond has started their recruitment process for interns over the Australian summer holidays. Below is an add for the intern positions, with details about how to apply.

Options are Good. In life and in your career.

A Real World Experience like No Other. As an intern at Microsoft, you’ll have real responsibility, real work, and real opportunities to jumpstart your career. (You’ll get paid, too!) It’s an experience you’ll never find in a classroom. You’ll be given manageable assignments that you can complete while you’re here, and your efforts will likely take shape in Microsoft products—or be used by Microsoft teams—long after you return to school. And imagine millions of customers, not to mention your classmates, seeing your work! Some interns even parlay their experience into a job offer.

An Opportunity to Shine. Our interns make a real difference. Not by filing paperwork or running errands, but by developing real products. Here, you’ll run your own projects and put your skills to work. This is why our internship program is one of the most successful in the industry. You’ll learn more in 12 weeks than you would in a whole school year. It’s the kind of work that gets noticed by millions of people all over the world. Kind of redefines the whole concept of internships, don’t you think?

“An internship allowed me to identify areas in which I needed to grow and helped to validate that I am working in the right field.” - John, Software Development Lead, Windows Server Performance

Current Internship opportunities with Microsoft:

1) Software Design Engineer (SDE) Intern

Work at the Core of Every Product We Build
This internship is where the fun begins for code gurus like you. As a hands-on Software Design Engineer intern, you’ll learn how to make decisions about design and feature implementation, using your mastery of technical tools to help make a product vision a reality. If you would like to write code and design efficient data structures and algorithms to develop next-generation applications or operating systems, listen up. This internship shows you how SDEs bring products to life by working with Program Managers to ensure strong design andSoftware Design Engineers in Test to ensure quality through testing. Ultimately for the SDE, it’s your code that turns concepts into new technologies and services.

Qualifications:

Fluency in C/C++/C# and a passion for writing quality code using computer science fundamentals
Ability to derive creative and innovative solutions by thinking "outside the box"
Ability to solve complex problems, sometimes by testing and debugging code
Expertise in feature definition, design, and feasibility
Demonstrated skill in estimating development time
Be available to relocate to our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, U.S.A for a 12 week internship (Microsoft Corporation pays all costs associated with relocation)
Functional level English Language skills, written and spoken requirement

2) Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET) Intern

Discover Life on the Last Line of Defense
As an intern Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET), you’ll own it, break it, fix it, and own it again. You’ll ensure a product’s quality by making sure it performs as users expect it to. Part of the fun is how creative you can be devising ways to manipulate, crush, and sabotage software into submission—while creating innovative testing technologies along the way. Ultimately, as an SDET intern it’s your input that can help make the difference between joy and frustration for the customers. Since you’re keen on how things work, and making them work better, you’ll work hand in hand with the Program Managers and Software Design Engineers to design, develop, and maintain automation systems for use in development and testing cycles. Using the tools you create, you’ll help pour over source code for trouble spots, debugging and isolating problems, and executing creative tests to find new bugs while regression testing recent fixes.

Qualifications:

Fluency in C/C++/C#/VB.NET and experience designing and developing tool architecture
Ability to solve complex problems and write automation systems and device drivers
Ability to author test plans and cases, conduct security and stress tests, and debug at source level after identifying, investigating, and prioritizing bugs
Demonstrated skills in negotiation and conflict management
Demonstrated interest in customer advocacy derived from a holistic understanding of the product from the code level to delivery
Be available to relocate to our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, U.S.A for a 12 week internship (Microsoft Corporation pays all costs associated with relocation and helps with housing)
Functional level English Language skills, written and spoken requirement

Whatever position you choose, you’ll make a real impact in the dynamic world of product development at Microsoft. All positions are12 weeks and located in the United States at our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Send Us Your Resume
Submitting a resume is the only way to get to the next stage of consideration, the interview. Our recruiting team travels to Australia regularly to meet bright and enthusiastic people like you, and we look forward to receiving your resume. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are updating your resume to send to us:

Clearly state your graduation date, degree/major and the university are attending
Specify your technical skills (including programming languages and other development tools you know well), project details (both within university and at any jobs or internships you have held), and technologies you have used on those projects
Describe your role in the projects that you worked on, and what you personally achieved
Provide an active e-mail address, physical address, and current phone number where we can reach you

If interested, please send your resume by July 22 to: ausrec@microsoft.com

A recruiter will review it, and if interested will set up a phone interview as a first step. And, by the way, we have many positions available, so if there is someone else you think we should know about; please share this information with them.

If we invite you to interview, we will cover your travel expenses. If you receive an offer, we will cover costs for visa processing and provide help with relocation. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer and supports workforce diversity.

Bing search is live

2009-06-02T17:43:00.001+10:00

Just a quick notes, Bing has been released to the general in ‘preview’ mode.

www.bing.com

Review – How we software test at Microsoft

2009-05-22T20:40:00.001+10:00

How we test software at Microsoft– Alan Page, Ken Johnston, BJ Rollison

How we test software at Microsoft is one of the more interesting computer books that I have read. I have learnt a considerable amount through reading the advice and anecdotes that are spread throughout the book written by the authors and other experienced testers at Microsoft.

The book begins it’s story from the basics of testing, the engineering cycle and where testing fits in at Microsoft. The story then continues to how Microsoft tests software including techniques that are used by the company. The way that How we test software at Microsoft differs from the array of other testing books out there that explain how testing can be conducted is all testing methodologies are linked back to arguments of why Microsoft does this. Additionally the book is filled with anecdotes and other stories by testers at Microsoft on what they did or experience in their roles.

The story then continues into what I believe is the unique section of the book, and this is the tools that Microsoft uses and has built themselves. The experience and insight of the authors is shown in this section as they discuss what they, fellow test leads and test architects have managed to achieve in create unique and specialised software to achieve to the colossal task of testing software such as windows and office.

The authors all of whom are part of the engineering excellence team, which is responsible for directing the overall engineering process in the company, describe their visions for testing at Microsoft. Their insight into the future of testing especially when the world transitions from web 2.0 to web 3.0 explores how Microsoft is evolving to test software faster with an emphasis on virtualisation and automation in all aspects of the testing process.

The book is enjoyable to read with humorous sidenotes in regards to testing at Microsoft inserted through out. The add-ins provide a respite from the explanations of testing techniques that are used in the company. The authors put in considerable efforts to not delve into what can be the dry topic of explaining countless testing techniques that exist.

How we test software at Microsoft is published by MSPress and written by Alan Page, Ken Johnston and Bj Rollison.

Imagine cup finals

2009-05-22T14:22:00.001+10:00

The imagine cup finals will be held on the 27th May (this Wednesday) and it will be held at the Microsoft Sydney office in North Ryde. For more details go to Link.

The details:

Date: 27 May 2009
Time: 6:00pm start, finishing approximately 9:00pm
Where: Microsoft Australia office
1 Epping Road
North Ryde, NSW 2113
Cost: Free to attend
email to register: Australian Imagine Cup

Its not piracy competition

2009-05-16T16:01:00.001+10:00

The its not piracy website is running a competition, which enters anyone who buy office ultimate for $75, enters a draw to win $5000. This is being run until June 30th. Addition they are also selling windows vista for $80 for those of you who are interested.

Just a reminder this offer is open to students, so you will need your unipass of STA student card if you are from UNSW .

Windows 7 RC1 Disks

2009-05-14T15:43:00.001+10:00

As many of you probably know Win7 RC has been released on the internet for the general public to download, you can download it here. The problem with the download is that it is over 4GB, and that will eat a big chunk of anyone's download limit. I am therefore working on getting some disk that I will distribute to anyone who wants a copy.

Anyone who is interested in a disk leave a comment, additionally I will make another post when I have the disks.

Dream-Build-Play Challenge

2009-04-15T19:44:00.001+10:00

Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play challenge of 2009 has just started, and it is running from April 6 – August 6, so if you are interested in getting involved register here.

The dream-build-play challenge is an annual competition that is run by Microsoft that encourages anyone over that age of 16 to build their dream computer game. The prizes for this competition are pretty good, and include a share of $75,000 and more importantly a possible Xbox live publishing contract – if your game can cut it.

The basics of the competition are, use XNA and build the game for the Xbox. Additionally everyone that enters will get a free copy of a 12 month XNA creators club trial membership.

An introduction to cloud computing with Microsoft technologies

2009-04-13T16:24:00.001+10:00

As we all know there have been a considerable amount of interest and talk about cloud computing solution and over the past couple of years the large computing companies have started offering their solutions. Microsoft has also thrown its hat into the preverbal ring offering .Net framework.

Rob Bagby is writing a series on how to start using the Azure framework – Link

The video podcast by Rob of his blog entry can be found here

Free Microsoft Exams

2009-04-01T10:39:00.001+11:00

Microsoft is offering students free certification exams in any test that is for a technology specialist exam! This offer is available till the 30th June 2009, and is being offered as part of the Dreamspark program.

Anyone that is even semi interested in taking an exam I encourage you to sign-up before June 30th. If there are any problems with the offer leave a comment.

Click here to be redirected to the website

The new Dreamspark

2009-03-25T19:56:00.001+11:00

Several days ago Dreamspark was updated in include a new design\interface and also there is new software and goodies for students on the site. The first thing that you can notice is that there is more software to download now.

The latest full version for visual studio
The new SQL server
XNA 3.0
Windows server 2008

and much more.

The biggest change is that there are now free vouchers for MCTS certifications, these will let students get Microsoft certification for free. These free tests are available for specialist exams.

If anyone has any issues redeeming any of the software or any other offers leave a comment.

Students to business (S2B)

2009-03-18T21:28:00.001+11:00

Some time ago Microsoft introduced the students to business program, this is a graduate/recruiting program that is run by Microsoft match up graduating students with Microsoft partner businesses that have graduate and/or intern positions.

S2B site states- “The goal of Microsoft Students to Business is to provide students with the key competencies they need to excel in their future jobs and to further grow an industry that is empowering, inclusive and highly skilled. Strong local skills enhance economic growth and employment; promote innovation, and further encourage technological and cultural advances.”

For those of you graduating in the near future or have recently finished have a look at the site.

Its not piracy

2009-03-13T17:56:00.001+11:00

Microsoft currently is running an offer for heavily discounted software that include the companies flagship products that are not free with the university’s MSDN subscription. Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007.

This is a program that is being offered for the seconds time after its success due to its popularity last year.

New year, new software

2009-03-11T07:49:00.001+11:00

Happy new year, and hopefully everyone had a good start to your uni year. This year there is going to be most likely one major piece of software from Microsoft that you all will be hearing about, and that is windows 7. At this point there are two public versions, the first is an early build and the second is the beta version also know as build 7000. If you are interested in a copy of the software and haven’t downloaded it yet, leave a comment and I will see what I could dig up. Additionally if you have a copy of the software and need a cd key it is available here.

There are lots of new things coming out with Microsoft this year so stay tuned!

DreamSpark 2.0

2008-11-13T15:16:00.001+11:00

A couple of weeks ago Microsoft released a new version of DreamSpark. For those of you who don’t know what DreamSpark is, it is a ‘product’ from Microsoft that gives students a selection of free software. This is a parallel product to MSDNAA, and lets students download the software on the internet and not be dependent on their schools to actually buy MSDNAA, however it does offer less software, but still enables students to get nearly all the software that they need for development with visual studio.

DreamSpark now offers the follow

Visual Studio
SQL Server
Windows Server
XNA
Expression

The only catch at this point is you need to validate that you are a student, to do this you either need to go to a university on a list that is provided or have a ISIC student. At this point if you are a UNSW student you will need to have an ISIC card to access this service, they can be purchased from STA travel on campus or many other places.

Microsoft Student Partner

2008-11-11T14:39:00.001+11:00

Microsoft is looking for another student partner at the university of New South Wales (UNSW). If anyone is interested please have a look at the following links, and if you are interested either apply online or send me an email with you contact details and I will forward it.

below is a link to the poster for position

Windows Azure and the student community

2008-11-02T15:55:00.001+11:00

The release of windows Azure gives us students the ability to build new cloud services. Now while this sounds like a marketing ploy it more or less has my head spinning about the possibilities of what I could do. There are so many great programming languages and frameworks that exist out there, but probability the ones with the biggest corporate languages out there are .Net and Java, however the concept of Azure has taken it to a new level.

The framework is currently in CTP phase and as such there is a queue to get a login and unfortunately like everyone else I need to wait my turn to get a login to the service. There is a CPT download for the local development environments so time to download to installers and develop your killer apps.

I will post some code soon for those that are interested in seeing what an Azure can do.

In the mean time here is a link to Windows Azure

Steve Ballmer in Australia

2008-10-29T12:11:00.001+11:00

Microsoft is hosting an event power to developers, on 6th November in Sydney, the talk will be in the afternoon and will present Microsoft's strategy into cloud computing. This will be on the back of PDC that is currently in progress, and based on what information that we will be released on cloud computing.

The event is unfortunately invite only and because of that and the extremely high demand for tickets, there is no chance for everyone to get tickets. The upside is that it will be streamed on the internet, and during this exam period it will let us watch the event online and not waste time getting to and from the event

For more details look at the Power To Developers websites.

Worldwide Telescope

2008-10-27T22:17:00.001+11:00

Microsoft research released the worldwide telescope recently and this is a program that really make me say WOW, in a similar way as when I saw Google maps for the first time.

This program in its essence is similar to many of maps programs out there where you can find an image of the world and then zoom in till you get to a house level. So for me it is surprising after Google was first over the line with Google Maps and Google Mars, Microsoft releases the Worldwide Telescope.

The program lets us explore space and the universe in a way that static images that we see in books or find on the internet just cannot compare with. There are also guided ‘tour’ of the universe for those of us that do not have a degree in astronomy.

We can also explore other planets including Earth during the day or night, the night sky as we can see it from telescopes, and also images from probes that have left Earth, including the Mars Landers.

You can download the program – here

New MSP contact email

2008-10-22T12:56:00.001+11:00

If any of you are looking to contact me in regards to anything to do with this blog or things I am involved with Microsoft please use my new MSP email alexMSP@live.com

Internet Explorer 8 beta 2

2008-10-04T17:53:00.000+10:00

I would like to suggest that anyone that does web development or just interested in new browsers have a look at internet explorer 8. This is probably the most ground breaking version of internet explore since the browser wars of internet explorer and Netscape. The new application includes several unique prices of functionality such as accelerates, these are little add-ins such as page translation, and email from web clients that give you quick access (right click) to useful pieces of software.

There are also some much hyped addition such as privacy mode and web slices which give you very similar functionality to Google reader, however since this information is maintained on you local computer then Microsoft or Google does not have you functionality.

This release is also meant to be more compliant with w3 standards, while in the same time it provides a features the lets you see website in ‘compatibility mode, that is based on the rendering engine of previous internet explorers.

You can down load it here

XNA games development studio seminar

2007-06-25T11:30:00.000+10:00

I know i haven't updated this blog in a while but i hope all your exams are going well. The MS people have planned for next semester an XNA seminar at the university. At this point we don't have any concrete information to pass on but this is planned for early next semester. If there is anyone interested in getting involved with this on more than just an audience member please contact me and ill get you in touch with the right people. I will post more information about this as i get it

hope you all have a good holiday.

the email

2007-05-17T18:24:00.000+10:00

sorry forgot the email in the last post its alex@student-partners.com

New email address

2007-05-13T14:55:00.000+10:00

For anyone that needs to contact me I have a new email address for all Microsoft related things at uni.

Orcus

2007-04-30T09:11:00.000+10:00

The "generation" of Microsoft development products that will be released is visual studio code name "Orcas", aka VS9, aka VS2007. We are planning for a campus launch some time semester 2. However there is a public beta out that is pretty stable. The beta works off .Net 3.5 and also extends C# with things like LINQ.

If you are interested in downloading it go to link alternatively i may be able to get my hands on some burnt copies of the software.

Office 2007 survay

2007-04-24T20:28:00.000+10:00

I just got a request from the MS people for those of you who bought a copy of office 2007 at the student price to complete this survey. They are offering anyone who completes it an entry into a draw to win an X-box 360.

-alex

Vista and office Presentation

2007-04-23T15:26:00.000+10:00

I hope those of you that come to the Vista and Office presentation today found some use from it. Ive attached some pictures, and unfortunately they are not too good.

alex

Office 2007 - Student Edition

2007-04-15T21:05:00.000+10:00

As most of you know there is a $75 version of office 2007 available. This version contains most of the individual pieces of software that the ultimate version has. Microsoft is also offering a $25 yearly subsection for the same software.

You can buy the software and download it from http://itsnotcheating.com.au. However if you don't want to download the software then leave some contact details and i can get you a CD with the key pieces of the office suite.

Also if your interested in a trial of the software i can also get you a copy of that, same deal applies leave some contact info and I will get it to you.

hope you all had a good holiday

- Alex

UNSW Vista Launch

2007-04-11T22:54:00.000+10:00

Its been a while since i updated this blog but there are several events round the corner. The main one that we have in planning is the windows Vista launch at the university its been planned in the next few weeks (after the semester break).

Here we will introduce the features of vista and we will have several presenters. We are going to showcase the features that make vista firstly and improvement of windows XP. Then what makes it unique from everything else that is out there.

If anyone has any questions about vista or anything else that Microsoft is doing on campus feel free to contact me.

Happy Easter

-Alex

Semester 1 plan

2007-02-06T14:47:00.000+11:00

I have the following planned for semester 1 for events at the uni!

Official Imagine cup launch - there will be some surprise announcements at the official launch so stay tuned
MSDNAA show case - we will be demonstrating the new MS products that have been put onto the market just recently. Hopefully some hands on stuff and maybe even running one or two labs
MSDNAA install fest, im not too sure if this is really that required at CSE, but possibly run this in conjunction with the other MSP that is joined to the commerce faculty.

Vista and Office 2007 Launched

2007-01-30T11:42:00.000+11:00

Yesterday saw the release of Vista and office 2007, at a midnight launch in Harvey Normans around Australia. This was marketed by Greg Harvey selling the first copy of Vista and a couple of them signed by Bill Gates. While this in itself would be exciting most institutions have had access to it for 2 months and those of us who risked the beta builds or even alpha builds may have been using for more than a year.

So what got me interested in the launch was the look of the casing that the product is sold in, and unfortunately I was rather disappointed! I expected a shiny metal case but only saw plastic, but at least it was not cardboard like so much other software is sold in.

XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Released

2006-12-22T11:10:00.000+11:00

The game development studio for X-box 360 was released recently. This is one of the more anticipated SDKs ( for me at least) that was promised to come out at the end of year. The studio works with C# and visual studio express, so its free to download.

If any of you are interested in playing around with it look at the links listed below. Also if there is a bit of interest in having someone demo it, I can organise early next year a speaker either during or before uni starts. (interest based)

Links:

XNA
Visual Studio Express

Imagine Cup 2007

2006-12-15T13:33:00.000+11:00

This morning Brad from CSE sent out an email in regards to the imagine cup and possible help if anyone needs it in regards to university students and obtaining a memtor. I want to also add that if you have any questions that you would like a response from MS send them to me and ill get you an answer or if its more complicated in contact with someone that might be able to help.

Vista and office campus launch

2006-12-06T16:28:00.000+11:00

There is talk beginning about a campus launch for vista and office 2007 to be early in the start of the fall semester 2007. I hope to get interest from societies at the university for this launch and possibly with some luck a little bit of faculty interest.

If you fall into this category or are interesting in general contact me and ill love to hear your thoughts.

How msdnaa works

2006-12-05T08:47:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone,

i recently received a question on how all the CD keys work with MSDNAA I'm going to put a disclaimer here that this to the best of my knowledge is correct, but there might be mistakes, i have done everything to avoid them. Alternatively if you want to read the actual contracts and legal stuff contact me and ill get that for you, or alternatively contact SS or the help desk and at least on of them should have all that documentation.

The school has two types of software that is receives from MS the simplest to deal with is something that does not require activation. For this type of software there is a generic CD key for all students and staff who want to use it.

The second type are products that require activation, this includes vista, for this the school gets pools of keys that they hand out to students on request, most of these keys are single license and as for all MSDNAA they are for educational purposes.

Now just to note MSDNAA is not MSDN! MSDNAA has a subset of software that is available on and MSDN subscription and also the licensing wise you get much more out of the normal MSDN subscription. Now we as students don't have access to www.msdn.com, however the school should have access to the subscription part of this site.

I hope this helps

Alex

Vista keys now available

2006-12-04T19:53:00.000+11:00

The Vista business CD key can now be requested from the CSE website.

I received the following email from SS

Please note the Business version is the only version that will be

available to us (and you). For information on what the differences
are between the many versions, please consult the Microsoft Vista
site :
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx

Keys can be obtained from https://status.cse.unsw.edu.au/accinfo/
and, until our webservers are upgraded to Apache 2.0 (probably not
until the new year), the DVD must physically be borrowed from the
Help Desk.

It is likely that the keys released to MSDNAA will work
with any other Vista DVD release, but I can't say for sure.

Help Desk hours are currently 1:00pm to 3:00pm Monday to Friday

Thanks to SS for organising this.

MSDNAA and Office 2007

2006-11-27T19:14:00.000+11:00

I was told today by a microsoft staff that Office 2007 will not be available with a MSDNAA but "there is a special student promo coming out around O week" I don't know what this will be but i will blog when details are out. If you want to be notified leave a comment or contact me.

Vista Media

2006-11-20T12:25:00.000+11:00

Hi all, i just thought i would upload a bit a screenshots of vista, firstly this is the new windows-tab, that exists along with alt-tab

Secondly there is a new start button, which now doesn't exist.

lastly for this post the start menu, note the alpha blending

Vista released on MSDN

2006-11-17T20:49:00.000+11:00

Hi every just a quick note for anyone that wants to get a copy of vista, the help desk should be getting copies of it very soon and making it available for students. If anyone has problems installing or getting their hands on a copy just contact me and ill help you how I can

PS - good luck for all of us that still have exams left

Official launch date

2006-11-06T09:35:00.000+11:00

Quick note vista office 2007 and exchange 2007 are scheduled to have a business launch for the 30th of November 2006. The general consumer launch is still early next year with and unconfirmed date. If your interested in getting it from MSDNAA check after the launch date as it should be there by the 30th but I'm not 100% sure

Post Ready summit

2006-11-03T18:41:00.000+11:00

Well now that the presentation of vista and office 2007 is ready we have a couple of exciting things "available" on the market, well available soon. I urge all of you who haven't had a chance to look at these products to at least grab a copy of office and have a play around.

With these two new products there will be a big change in MS products, while the cooperate world will now have a new office format, sharepoint, etc. This for us as students and future IT employees we will need to know these products.

The summit itself presented a huge mirage of technologies that show an interesting new direction for Microsoft. The summit had one problem, if you were keeping up with the latest beta there were no real surprises in store. However some of the MS partners were pushing interesting new things, from seagate's new 650 gigabyte hard drive to Wacom's development tablets.

Also for those of you interested in aspect of development with MS technologies and some of the new stuff coming out, have a look at my other blog, I'm going to talk about windows workflow.

Ready Summit 06

2006-10-28T23:39:00.000+10:00

Microsoft is holding the ready summit 06 in Thursday two weeks. Everyone is invited, there will be a show case of vista and office 2007.

To Register

Basics of C#

2006-10-27T20:38:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,

its been a while! I'm going to be doing an introduction to C# and .Net in the beginning of the holidays some time early December. If anyone is interested in joining leave a reply with your email and i will try to organise a time which suites the majority

good luck with your exams

Tech.Ed 2006

2006-08-09T22:01:00.000+10:00

Its the time of year for Tech.Ed 2006, and we are lucky enough that this year it will be in Sydney. This year's Tech.Ed will be in the convension center in Darling harbor, from Tuesday 22nd August to Friday 25th August.

We, the students, have our own day on Tuesday that is especially designed to help students to make the transition from study to a member of the workforce when the time comes. If your interested in the latest Microsoft technologies or just want to see what is the most happening things come to Tech.Ed during the FREE student day, and catch some of the many give aways for free things. I hope to see you all there!

Register

Visual Studio 2005 Competition

2006-07-10T19:22:00.000+10:00

Thanks to everyone that entered the Visual studio competition, all the entries were great. I hope that you all managed to learn something and host of all enjoyed yourself. I would love to show you all the entries however due to time/resource limitation I have only uploaded one of the entries.

The page was made by Jonathon, and thank you for letting me share it with everyone. For anyone that is interested the site was built using ASP.Net 2.0 and atlas, the new June Atlas release is out.

TechNet and MSDN Flash

2006-06-22T14:48:00.000+10:00

Microsoft currently is promoting a bimontly newsletter they have about windows vista and office 12.

You and a friend could be exploring New Zealand on a fantastic adventure holiday. Staying in Queenstown, you can choose from a range of activities; take off on a heli-flight, thrill to a Shotover Jet experience, bungy jump, go trout fishing, enjoy wine tours and massages for two, float away on a hot air balloon and ride the rapids white water rafting!

For a chance to win, simply join TechNet Flash (for IT professionals) or MSDN Flash (for developers). If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up here for these fortnightly newsletters that will keep you up to date with the latest information, offers and training available on Windows Vista.
http://www.microsoft.com/australia/technet/innovation/promotion.aspx

Its free to signup so if your interested or would like to win some great prizes click on the about link.

Windows Vista

2006-06-17T21:07:00.000+10:00

I recently installed windows, it looks cool and my computer runs a lot faster, with the upgrade from a 32 bit version of windows XP to the 64 bit version. However like with any beta it crashed once for me when I was installing drivers. That however could be I am having problems finding 64 bit drivers for a couple of my secondary hardware(webcam, TV tuner, and finger print reader). The most surprising of this is that the finger print reader is a MS product, and they haven't put any 64 bit driver for it.

But the speed increase more than makes up for the increased amount of alpha blending. They have packaged a new search into the task bar, which is fast compared to the old find documents. There is also windows gadgets that have been introduced on the side bar of the window. This has removed the necessity of using third party desk top searches and custom add-ons.

Also they have a cool new scrolling/tabbing feature which will its really not needed and over the top is just cool! Now if anyone has some decent 64bit video codecs please tell me where I can get them

New webpage

2006-06-15T02:52:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,

as a tribute to procrastination 2006 I've put up a new atlas powered webpage at http://aspspider.org/alex699/. Hope have a play around with the with the two data control objects they are both database powered. Also the maroon rectangle is is movable, however don't move it below the bottom control on the page as it can't go below it.

If anyone is interested I can send you the files for this page and the other pages that I've put up previously.

New possible web server

2006-06-14T13:55:00.000+10:00

Hi I'm interested in how many people would be interested in getting a webserver that will run ASP.net, SQL server2005 and IIS 6? I am looking to get something that can be used by students for educational purposes So if your interested or would like to help if I can get something to materialize please contact me.

New website

2006-06-13T02:13:00.000+10:00

I've created a new website for sign ups for the new event that I want to have. It will be a build your first website event where I hope I can get a computer room or in the cse lecture theatre, if I can't get a computer room together. Also please do not sign up on the page as the the hosting that I am using has DB problems, I can't write anything to the database. Also as you "may" have noticed its also painfully slow, I'm hoping to move the website to a new server in the near future.

In addition hopefully I will have some copies of Vista and office by the end of this week, otherwise I will burn some copies for those who really want to get their hands on some copies.

Ps. Good luck with your exams

VS2005 Express

2006-06-07T23:35:00.000+10:00

FYI VS2005 Express will be available from the help desk from tomorrow afternoon

VS Launch

2006-06-05T18:47:00.000+10:00

We had a great VS2005 launch today, thanks to everyone that came today for making it such a great event. A special thanks to Andrew for his speech and Bernard. Here are the pictures from the event - Below Competition

The competition - The competition in principle is very simple; find a way to cube a number ie x^3. The requirements are you must use VS2005 with asp.net 2.0, Example (type a number into the second text box). The best prizes will be given to the most interesting "submission", while everyone will get a prize. The submission needs to be email me the source code files, by the end of June.

Ajax.Net JavaScript

2006-06-03T16:13:00.004+10:00

Here is the source code for the Java script for the site published in the last post! The site took me a total of an hour to make with all the bugs i got because im using a new product. And BTW its free, made for the use of the .net community

Ajax.Net

2006-06-03T01:54:00.000+10:00

I recent went looking into Ajax and how it can relate to .Net 2.0. You will find that a vast majority of ajax articles and sources refer to php and how to combine the two technologies together. So with a little help in the right direction if found Ajax.net

Have a look at a little sample i created Ajax.net example

VS2005 Launch Posters

2006-05-31T23:12:00.000+10:00

The first Set of posters have gone up around CSE on Monday! Have a look for them around campus, the next set will be up at BIT

Outside Bugle and Pipe

Outside help desk towards the BBQ tree

Outside help Desk looking from Mech Eng Ball

"The reason to switch"

2006-05-27T23:22:00.000+10:00

I've been seen rather recently some of the mac switch commercials on the bogs and group emails that I have been receiving. So I want to share with you some of the more "serious" and comic ones that exist

Vista and office 12 Beta

2006-05-24T22:30:00.000+10:00

A couple of days ago the office 12 and windows vista beta were released to the general public. We at unsw are going to have the opportunity to receive a copy of the beta CDs to install for all the students.

I will blog again when I get the CDs and start distributing them for students that are interested! There will also be an opportunity to get a copy at the CompSoc install fest early next semester.

Binfsoc Indoor soccer Comp

2006-05-21T04:16:00.000+10:00

The binfsoc Indoor soccer competition was held last Friday, and from all accounts it was a great success. On the left we can see some of the participants with with most of them I was told being the winning team. The winners received a copy of VS Express and one of the newly released Windows Vista pens.

Benfsoc can be found at http://binfsoc.bioinformatics.unsw.edu.au/ I look forward to other events, which hopefully I can make next time.

Windows Vista Beta & Office 12 Beta

2006-05-19T21:02:00.000+10:00

Microsoft is about to release windows Vista and Office 2007 Beta versions. This release will be aimed at computing professionals and also at computing students, and therefore we at UNSW will be able to receive a free version.

Windows Vista will be able to from the end of the semester, hopefully it will mean that there will be copies for any staff/students at the vs2005 launch seminar. There will also be copies of the software available at the COMPSOC install fest to any interested Parties. I am hoping to possible have some sort of install fest before the end of the semester.

.Net BBQ

2006-05-17T19:29:00.000+10:00

I have managed to get a initial OK from all the main societies to host a BBQ after the .net seminar on the 5th June The BBQ will start at 1ish. I again invite everyone to attend the event and hope that we can learn something from the lecture, and carry something useful away.

Additionally Andrew Coates will be the guest speaker, he is currently the Microsoft developer evangelist for NSW and ACT. He will be the lecturer during the event. There will be also other Microsoft staff at the event, there attendance is to be confirmed.

MSDNAA

2006-05-16T19:12:00.000+10:00

I'm just blogging abit about MSDNAA, firstly the Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA) is a core part of the Microsoft students services. This pack represents firstly a easy way of getting any development software you might need from the Microsoft.

You can get the software from the Help Desk@CSE in the mechanical engineering building, and remember the news and beta software is available.

Rescheduled VS2005 launch

2006-05-15T20:39:00.000+10:00

The Launch for Visual studio 2005 is being post-poned to 5th June 2006. It will be held at k17 in the seminar room.

We have the following events lined up

Presentation by Andrew Coates on visual studio 2005 and MSSQL 2005.
Microsoft give aways
Copies of visual studio Express
BBQ hosted by the CSE societies

I encourage everyone to come along to the event and see what there is to offer, also there will be some Microsoft staff at the event so its a great place to network.

If anyone is interested in playing around with the new Visual Studio:

Click on the link below to download Visual Studio Express
Leave a comment and I will contact you; or
the Help Desk@CSE has CSE MSDNAA subscription, so any CSE students/staff can get a full very of VS and other MS products

Innovation 2006

2006-05-14T21:05:00.000+10:00

Innovation 2006 is upon us again, and this year we are being promised a huge line up. I know that at UNSW there has been some positive and negative talk, and more than anything anticipation of what will be included in windows vista. At innovation we will be let into loop of what is going on in Microsoft with the new development of their new operating system.

I would like to also encourage all those people that are converting to the new Mac os, and losing there touch with windows to some along and see what this new huge release will be!

Microsoft will also introduce office 12 and talk about their new product from a developers point of view.

If your interested in the details http://www.microsoft.com/australia/technet/events/innovation/ otherwise contact me and ill help you out any way i can.

Sesoc Trivia

2006-05-13T19:24:00.000+10:00

I'm a little bit behind on my blogging so expect some catch-up in the next few days! The first thing that I am going to be writing about is the SESOC trivia two weeks ago. The event is a trivia "challenge" similar to pub trivia that is held by the Sesoc every semester. It is the only one of its kind that is run in CSE and therefore has a unique place in the school. The other thing about the event it has been since the time I remember been sponsored in some way or another by MS.

I was not able to attend the event however I only heard good things about it! I however managed to have a large distribution of Visual studio express and people did take them. This is a positive sign of uptake and interest in .Net.

I will post the pics when I get them.

VS2005 launch

2006-04-25T23:34:00.000+10:00

I've had some of the first things come together for the visual studio launch. I have been running around about mainly because this is the first presentation that I am making so I am not too sure about everything that needs to be done and mistake that seem trivial to others I've had some problems. Firstly securing some computers - Bernard however said that I can get some from MS.

so far I have the following things ready
-> Computers ( thanks to Bernad and a couple I have dug up)
-> VS2005 Kit (got it a while back)
-> Speaker
-> Tenative plan on what needs to be done

what needs to be done
-> Confirm Date
-> Book room ( based on above)

2006-04-08T17:04:00.000+10:00

Ive started to think about what activities i want to hold and to be a part of on MS behalf in UNSW. There are several traditional ones that have constant involvement since i started being a student at the university and others that i can get involved in. These involve some of the following
- Trivia
- BBQs
- Game nights
- computer game competitions.

The BBQs that are being held would only be usefully if they are close to the .Net 2.0 launch that i am still in the planning stages of organizing. Others like trivia i have contacted the relevant students and have plans at differing stages with them.

2006-04-06T16:40:00.000+10:00

I have began conversing with some of the student societies about the events that they are holding. This at this point involves SESOC, COMPSOC and CSE revue. Currently Sesoc and Compsoc are just hosting some smaller events and their requests for prizes is really nothing too big to deal with however CSE revue brings a bit of a problem.

Just a little background on them they are the biggest society in CSE and they have from the very beginning received considerable sponsorship from Microsoft. The amounts that they are talking about is a bit out of the range of give aways that I am allowed to authorize, so I helping them with ideas about a proposal to Bernard and anyone else at MS who needs to be involved in this.

Currently I have them thinking about getting the development that is required for the show to be moved to a .Net 2.0 platform, in C# or C++. The main benefit of this is that it will get the some of the best students in CSE involved in some pretty complex .Net development and also to start the conversion to .Net for all future projects. The long term aim would be to migrate everything that is currently built to .Net but this would require considerable support and "hand holding".

The best case option would be the development of .Net student community

2006-04-05T20:58:00.000+10:00

Ive spent the last couple of days getting in contact will all the computer related societies. That hasn't been much of a problem except for one of them. WIC or women in computing is on the official list of CSE ( school of computer science and engineering societies) but no-one including the female students that i have asked know who is the head of society. My current course of action it to send and email to the exec and hope for the best.

The main official societies of UNSW that are affiliated to CSE are :

There a couple of smaller ones that are not related directly to CSE but do have some involvement, eg game development society. Ill start contacting the small semi CSE related societies in the next couple of days.

Pictures "borrowed" from www.cse.unsw.edu.au

2006-04-01T11:10:00.000+11:00

I Spent some time putting up poster for the imagine cup and i didn't think that it would be so difficult to organize something like putting up posters. Our school is extremely strict on where you can put up posters going to such and extreme as fining people!

As you can all see that there really aren't many pictures and the quality really has something to look for, well i learnt that lighting does have something to so with taking pictures. There were more posters but the photos didn't come out

Imagine Cup 2005

2006-03-31T18:30:00.000+11:00

We at UNSW are very competitive, with the number one competition being the Robocup; however the imagine cup is nothing to laugh at. So on that note the Email below was sent out to the whole student body

Hi all,
Back in 2004 we had several students in the top 100 of the world list, and one who was the first ever to get 100% on the first round.

It would be great to see us do well again this year.

Cheers,
Brad

>Hi Brad,
>
>We have launched our new student competition Imagine Cup 2006. There
>are some great prizes for both students and faculty.
>
>Information regarding the Australian Imagine Cup finals are here
>http://ww
>w.microsoft.com/australia/msdn/students/imaginecup/
>
>Please let your faculty and students know about the competition. It
>would be great to see some winning entries from the UNSW!
>
>The prizes are:
>The top three groups will compete at the Australian Finals in Sydney
>for the following prizes.
>
>1st place winning team
>
>Represent Australia at the international final of the Imagine Cup
>2006 Software Design invitational
>Return economy scheduled flights
>Return transfers
>Hotel accommodation for 6 nights
>Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the venue for the Imagine Cup 2006
>Software Design Final The Academic Mentor will receive AUD$2000
>
>2nd place winning team
>
>Xbox 360 Gaming Pack valued at $649 and The Academic Mentor will
>receive AUD$1000
>
>3rd place winning team
>
>A copy of Microsoft Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office system at Launch
>The Academic Mentor will receive AUD$500
>
>Thanks, Deeps.
>

--

hopefully we(UNSW) can have such a great result again

New MSSA at UNSW

2006-03-30T11:57:00.000+11:00

Hi, my name is a Alex and I am the new MSSA at UNSW.

Im currently a third year at UNSW and doing software/biomedical engineering, still a long stretch of uni ahead of me. Ive been a programmer for a while, starting my "career" with the exciting adventures of future basic(basic on Mac) since that time ive grown to hate basic and im not the biggest fan of macs!

I received my VS .Net launch kit today and im amazed what Microsoft is willing to give away to students, and all the things that have been prepared for .Net 2.0 product launch. My only concern is that ive never done something like this before so im hoping to get some help on my first product launch/MSSA event.