MSOZACADEMIC
We have posted often about Microsoft’s It’s Not Piracy offer for students, allowing us to get a completely full, legit copy of Office 2007 Ultimate for $75.00.
Making it an even better deal, when you purchase Office for $75 you go into the draw to win $5,000!
The competition ends June 30th, 2009 so get your copy of Office now to go into the draw!
Luke
Aussie MSP Lead
The University of Western Australia
As we are gearing up for the new academic year here in Australia, I would like to remind everyone that the It’s Not Cheating Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate for $75.00 deal is still on.
Here’s how it works:
If you are a university or TAFE student, or staff member, you can use your institution E-mail address to get Microsoft Office 2007 completely legal for $75.00 outright or as a $25/year subscription.
You purchase online, and can download the software instantly or have it sent to you by mail.
Either way, you are up and running quickly, easily and cost effectively, ready to go for the new year.
Click on the banner to get your copy now!
Luke
UWA MSP
Another very cool development from another Microsoft incubator division is a program called Touchless.
Touchless allows you to create Multi-Touch applications, simply by using your webcam to detect movement.
The Touchless SDK team have also got a demo to download to show this off.
I’d love to see a whole bunch of Touchless apps coming from Australia students.
Luke
UWA MSP
http://twitter.com/ekulmi
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….
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”.
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.
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!
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
Once again Microsoft is running the “It’s Not Cheating” campaign this year.
Microsoft Student Partners have available to them copious numbers of the trial discs, which can be used and activated for a full copy of Office 2007 ULTIMATE!!! Alternatively the download is available online.
For the price of $75 (Australian), you can own a copy of Office 2007 Ultimate FOR LIFE!!
In the coming few days we will have a link posted that will take you straight through to activation page to purchase your very own copy.
For a further fee $14.95 (To be confirmed) Microsoft will also send out a backup disc, if you have downloaded it from the Internet.
If you would like more information, contact your local MSP today.
Allan
MSP (Curtin)
