Microsoft Student Partners

In case you missed it, recently I was accepted into a Microsoft Internship for 3 months.

We left Perth, Australia on the 23rd of Nov, travelled for around 30 hours and finally got to our apartment in Redmond late on still, the 23rd!

I started New Employee Orientation (NEO) the next morning at 8am which ran day 1 and till noon day 2 when we received our ID cards.

I got one of the Microsoft Prius Shuttles over to my building and met my Manager and Peer Mentor.

So now I’ve just finished my first day on the job here at the Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA and it was great.

I am in the Server and Tools business division, working on developer tools for Visual Studio Team System.

After having some good talks with my mentor and manager I was introduced to the rest of the people in my team. I set up my machine and added it to the domain. Attended a SCRUM meeting which was primarily focused on quality control of our product. Discussed and decided on the project I will be working on during my internship and wrote up a small “about me” document for the rest of the team.

And true to the Microsoft free drink thing, I went ahead and drank 3 chocolate milks for the afternoon

So first impressions? The team is awesome, and my manager and mentor are really fun and relaxed who definitely seem to know their stuff. My project looks pretty difficult, but really interesting.

I’ve got high expectations for the rest of the internship.

If you have any questions about Microsoft Internships for Australian students, please leave a comment.

Luke

UWA MSP

Sporting a new look website and integration into more universities (including those slow-to-integrate ones, like UWA), Dreamspark 2.0 also brings with it an updated set of software suites, now providing:

• Windows Server 2008
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional (2005 also available)
• SQL Server 2008 Developer
• Expression Studio 2
• XNA Creators Club – 12 month subscription (via Game Studio 2.0 but don’t forget to check out 3.0!)

Dreamspark 2.0 - new look website

Shibboleth to the rescue! (UWA login)

Tip for UWA students: Login with your student number and library password (i.e. card barcode), hopefully the interface will become somewhat more user friendly as we progress. For those who really care, UWA are using Shibboleth.

In what can only be described as an unforgettable and amazing finals race two teams – Team Emo (Michael Lawrence & Daniel Fozdar) and Team Dunno (Judah Lieblich & Jonathan Toby) raced through to a death (frag) defying draw after three rounds! Check out the amazing score sheet:

After three rounds with no possibility to declare a winner – neither in frags nor games, it was decided to declare both teams King of Halo!

Final Standings

Congratulations to Team Emo and Team Dunno and to everyone else who participated in the first (of many) UWA Halo shootout!

To the MVP - Microsoft mini-golf!	The Finals Get Intense	Team Emo and Team Dunno (check out the scores!)
To CSSC - Halo 3 for their new Xbox 360!	Till Next Time!

If you aren’t down here – you should be! With 16 playes (8 at the same time) duking it out for the title of UWA Halo King 2008 the Mac (ironic huh?) lab is henceforth to be known as the Halo Galdiator Pit!

4 teams duking it out

Halo 3 on the big screens!

In case you missed it, XNA Game Studio 3.0 has now gone live!

The biggest feature of course if the ability to create games and distribute them through Xbox Live Community Games.

Remember, as a student you can get access to XNA Game Studio free of charge through DreamSpark!

Luke
UWA MSP

Shooting myself in the foot here – as part of Steve Balmer’s visit down under Microsoft are giving away a couple of Xboxs and some games. Only signup is required – so what are you waiting for?

On that note, don’t forget to tune in to hear Steve Balmer’s talk in Sydney this Thursday – more details on the Liberation Day website!

Good Luck on your exams!