Microsoft Student Partners

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, or your still reeling from the fact that Tesltra has killed off its home ISDN plans (don’t laugh – I was still using ISDN until the beginning of this year), you probably would have noticed that Microsoft has been busy at work preparing the next generation of client, server and development software that they are so famous for.

As a quick recap, these are the betas\CTP’s that are making news:

• Windows 7 RC
• Server 2008 R2 RC (<- Site is up, and linked to form the Server 2008 home page, but no download likely until tomorrow)
• Exchange 2010 Beta
• Visual Studio 2010\.NET 4 CTP
• Windows Azure
• Live Mesh Beta
• Office 2010 (No beta\CTP available yet…)

So, the question you probably asking is "Why should I care? Why should I spend my time looking at this stuff when it isn’t even finished yet?". The answer to that is simple…

Consider: most of the people reading this blog are students interested in technology and, most likely, Microsoft technology. Most of the betas above are likely to be ready, deployed and industry standard by mid to late 2010. By which time you should have either graduated or be close to it. This means that you’re going to be looking for a job that involves the final versions of there products (on that note, open Microsoft Students to Business in a new tab and register after reading the rest of this blog). At the point where you are in the interview where your potential employer asks "How much do you know about Program X Version Y" how much better will it appear when you can honestly say that you have not only been using "Program X" but you have been running "Program X Version Y Beta" for the last few years and helped submit a number of bugs which were then fixed. Not only does it show that you have a few years experience with the program, but also the fact that you participated in a beta program indicates that you enjoy learning and experimenting and that you aren’t afraid to do some testing and go the extra mile.

Other than that, there is nothing more enjoyable then playing with (and breaking) pre-release software…

- Daniel
Curtin MSP

Confused yet?

Often an issue when showing off aspects or presenting a demo with Windows Mobile is that the screen is too small, and you have to move your hand over the screen in order to interact with the device (making a PDA->Camera->Projector combination difficult), while devices with TV out are extremely rare (although the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro will both have HTC’s extUSB, which has USB, Audio and TV Out).

So the solution? My Mobiler. This allows you to not only display the contents of your PDA’s screen on your computer, put also control it from there as well. It also features screen scaling and by IP or ActiveSync connection (making wired or wireless both options). Best of all it has a small resource footprint and is free!

I also use My Mobiler when adding in a number of new contacts or calendar items as it is a lot easier to do via my PC than my PDA (even though my PDA does have a full 50-something key keyboard).

So, My Mobiler  – De-Mobilising Windows Mobile and Re-Mobilising your Mobile demos and Mobile’s data!

- Daniel
Curtin MSP

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