With University and High School exams nearly over, you are fast approaching the holiday period which means a few months of doing ummm not much… The Imagine Cup is a great way to kill some time and take part in an amazing competition + be in the running for some really cool prizes including $$$.
The the theme for this years Imagine Cup competition is quite broad and encapsulates the UN’s Millennium Development Goals which include ending Poverty and Hunger, Environmental Sustainability, Gender Equality, Universal education and more. With such broad themes and categories (8 competition categories) for the Imagine Cup, you can feel comfortable entering the competition on your own terms and abilities.
Round 1 for all categories except Software Design ends March 1 2009 (Software Design Round 1 ends March 27 2009). So be sure to enter the competition soon. For more information check out the Imagine Cup website.
The Australian Imagine Cup website will be launched within 2 weeks also so stay tuned for that!!!
Check out this cool video from the Imagine Cup competition below
-Karo
With the release of Microsoft Azure and all the talk around cloud services, you start to wonder where this mass amount of data is going to be stored? is it really in the cloud?
The BBC recently reported on one of Microsoft’s Virtual Storage Centres. Check out the video here. The centre houses hundreds of of servers dedicated to storing data, the virtual centre can store up to 6 trillion photos!
The Latest version of the Dreamspark has been released- Dreamspark 2.0. The first thing you notice is the cosmetic upgrade to the Dreamspark website. The cool new visuals and clear information which make it really easy to navigate through the site. The choice of software hasn’t changed much, I took a screenshot of the list of software below. any university Student can access the software for FREE. H.S students will have access to Dreamspark by early next year. If you are a H.S student and really keen to access Dreamspark now, drop me a line!
If you are a University lecturer or system administrator and interested in getting the benefits of Dreamspark across to your students, contact me and we can get you guys on board fast for Free!
For an awesome podcast on how Dreamspark works, Check out Andrew Parsons blog.
-Karo
With the official release of Live Mesh Beta last week, there have been some small improvements to the overall application, including a new Mac Client. People with Mac computers can now enjoy the benefits of Live Mesh including 5GB of cloud storage and take advantage of synchronisation between their Macs and other devices.
The list of things that you can potentially do with Live Mesh connectivity is endless. As Live Mesh starts to develop we are seeing more cool applications released including the latest, ‘Mesh Mobile’. Mesh Mobile has been designed for the car. The application includes, navigation, weather forecasts, Internet, synchronisation with your music, pictures and documents and so much more. Check out the cool Mesh Mobile demo on the Channel 9 site.
For more information, go to the Live Mesh website and sign up today for 5GB of free storage today.
-Karo
Small Basic has been designed specifically for novice developers. The easy to use programming language allows beginners to get a clear understanding of the fundamentals of programming and have lots of fun on the way.
Small Basic is available for download- Click here. Also check out the Small Basic Blog and Small Basic forums for more information.
-Karo
Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer will be in Sydney on the 6th of November presenting at a one-off event designed specifically for the Australian developer community. Ballmer, a long time advocate and supporter of the global developer community will look to inspire and inform the audience on the latest developments taking place in the developer space and offer insight into Microsoft’s future direction.
The exclusive event will be held in Sydney on the 6th of November 2008. The event will be streamed live online through the ‘Liberation Day’ website. You also download lots of cool posters from the ‘Liberation Day’ website like the one below.
Exclusive to MSOZACADEMIC, we are offering a Free ticket to ‘Liberation Day’ which will be held in Sydney on the 6th of November. Stay tuned for the next ‘Liberation Day’ post on MSOZACADEMIC where you will learn how you can win a ticket to this exclusive event! Its going to be easy!
Check out the video clip below where Steve Expresses his passion for ‘Web Developers’ Pretty Funny
-Karo
The team at Atomic Magazine are back with a bigger and better Atomic Live this year.
What is Atomic Live 2008? Atomic LIVE 2008 is an all-day PC, gaming and tech fun-fest, put on for you to catch up on the latest technological innovations from global market leaders, win cool prizes play computer games, learn a little bit about the industry & leading trends, and maybe even pick up some career advice. It’s everything that makes the Atomic magazine & website so great, gathered under one roof.
What do you do on the day? There will be plenty of fun filled activities, including Gaming- several LANs set up for everyone to play the latest games, lots of giveaways- including TV’s, Game Consoles, and more. The Main stage will see presentations throughout the day on the latest tech trends, educational seminars, competitions, giveaways.
When: October 18th. Doors open 10am, show finishes at 6pm, and there's enough to keep you entertained all day long!
Where: The Badgery Pavillion, Sydney Showground's, Olympic Park
Cost: Free!
Below: Pictures from last year’s Atomic Live
Microsoft China is coming to Australia!
Microsoft is a global enterprise with different subsidiaries specialising in various aspects of the business. China holds the second largest Research and Development Centre for Microsoft after the U.S.
Enwei Xie, the General Manager for Microsoft China, will be coming to Australia to discuss the exciting opportunities available in their R&D division.
During his visit, he has specifically asked to be given the opportunity to connect with University students to talk about the subsidiary and the Server and Tools business. The objective of this presentation is to attract, grow and retain talent for its centres of excellence.
This presentation will provide information on what the opportunities are in China, present and future development projects as well as information on how students can apply and the steps they can expect as part of the recruitment and selection process.
Whilst the event is open to all University students with technical interests, we would like to highlight this opportunity to international students interested in careers in China.
Date: 3rd October, 2008.
Time: 1pm-4pm
Place: Microsoft office Sydney
1 Epping Road
North Ryde.
Note: Pre-registration is a must for entry.
Strict RSVP Deadline: 5:00pm – Thursday 2nd October, 2008
Email: gr8hire@microsoft.com
-Karo
What's DevSta? The Devsta {Challenge 2008} is a coding comp for Australian developers. Whether you’re a professional or amateur coder, you are invited to compete for the glorious title of DevSta! The competition has a very exciting surprise element to it.
How does the competition work? No one knows what they will be ask to code until the briefing which will be presented to all registrants on 0808 EST Monday 29 September 2009. Once briefed, everyone will have the same amount of time to code away- 200 hours, 8 minutes!
What is the reward? Your submission will be judged by a panel of experts and the winner will receive an awesome DevSta prize pack worth over $18,000* RRP – including a trip to Las Vegas to attend the MIX09 Developer Conference, a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition with a one year MSDN Premium Subscription, and an Xbox 360® Elite console package! With a total prize pool valued at over $33,000 RRP there are also some fantastic runner-up prizes to be won
How do I enter? Go to http://devsta.microsoft.com.au/and register now. All registrants can download Microsoft Visual Studio for free.
The DevSta website is very cool. Check it out
-Karo
Check out the new “I’m a PC” Commercials from MS. Pretty good commercial, has a few celebrities too, how many you can spot?
-Karo
What a fantastic event, Student Day (SD) attracted over 1200 students both from Universities and High Schools around NSW and some interstate. Student Day was the platform for the official launch of Microsoft Dreamspark and StudentstoBusiness (S2B) in Australia. If you haven't heard already, Dreamspark is a Microsoft student program designed to offer all tertiary students access to Microsoft’s designer and developer tools for FREE! Dreamspark will also be rolled out to High Schools early next year. Check out the website for more info www.dreamspark.com. S2B is a Microsoft Community initiative designed to connect Microsoft partners and customers with qualified students for entry level and internship positions. A great opportunity to gain work experience or a post-graduate position. Register at StudentstoBusiness.
For High School students, SD offered an opportunity for students to gain an insight into the wonderful world of ICT (Information, Communication, Technology). Industry professionals presented on a range of topics, including, Game Development, latest trends in technology, career panel and more…
-Main Theatre- High School session
-Game Development session with Luke Drumm from Readify
The University session as well as the High School session was keynoted by Joe Wilson, Microsoft Senior Director for Academic Initiatives. Joe's presentation was very insightful and inspiring, he discussed the importance of ICT and the significant impact each student can have by contributing their imagination and creativity to the industry.
- (Above) Joe Wilson Presenting (very cool guy!)
Student Day would not have been the same without the awesome effort of the Microsoft Student Partners who helped organise the event- big thanks to the MSPs!!
-(Above) MSPs (in red and white shirts) with the Tech Ed “Smack Down Team”
- (Above) Students going crazy at the “Its Not Cheating” Booth
Student Day will be transformed into a Microsoft Academic Road Show which will travel to 6 major states early next year (Feb-March 2009. Stay tuned for more info.
-Karo
The second commercial in the Seinfeld/Gates series was recently released. This commercial still leaves a lot for the imagination. They are slowly starting to give some hints as to what the messaging behind the campaign really is. Check it out for yourself below.
-Karo
Check out the new Microsoft Windows commercial starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. The commercial is funny but strange at the same time. I can't seem to clearly understand the messages coming out of it. From what I gather, this is the first commercial from a series of mini-commercials to come. Hopefully the next one will be slightly more informative. What are your thoughts?
-Karo
If you haven't seen Photosynth yet, you have to try it out! Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyses them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space. With Photosynth you can walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle. Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photograph whether it’s megapixels or gigapixels in size. See where pictures were taken in relation to one another, even find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing and let the magic of Photosynth put it all together.
Until now, Photosynth was only available to view as a demo, now you can download the program and create your own Photosynth. Cool features include:
- Embed your Photosynth creation in your Virtual Earth Applications
- Cloud service for Photosynths created
- 20gb hosted storage for your synth creations
I plan to take photos of the office and create my own Photosynth soon, very exciting!!! For more information check out:
Install Photosynth now
-Karo
With less than 2 weeks to go before the annual Tech Ed Student Day event in Sydney, High School registrations have reached capacity, with over 1000 students registered for the morning High School session, its looks like Student Day will be a sell out event! University registrations are still open, you can register for the free Student Day event by clicking here. The Afternoon University session will see the launch or Dreamspark, all students attending Student Day will receive a complimentary copy of Dreamspark software on two DVD discs, this includes, Visual Studio, Expression Studio, Windows Server and XNA game studio.
Prizes for Student Day University Session have been finalised, here is what’s on offer, 2 XBOX CONSOLES, 3 HTC SMART PHONES, 5 WEBCAMS, 10 DIFFERNET TITLES OF SOFTWARE, GAMES, AND MORE...
For more information, check out the Tech Ed Student Day website and register now!
