DreamSpark for High School Students Too!

Finally! More students can get the share of the good stuff offered by Microsoft. I’m writing an email to my high school computing teach as I write this post. More free software!

Source: Bill  Gate’s announces DreamSpark availability for High Schools

Internet Explorer 8 RC is out, but not for Windows 7?

While IE8 RC 1 is available to everyone in general, the people who are more likely to try out the latest and greatest software are locked out of it.

I was really excited when I heard that the first release candidate of the next generation Internet Explorer 8 is out, and I went ahead and downloaded it.

There were options to download it for Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and 2008, in both x86 and x64 flavours. Hmm, it makes sense for them not to officially support Windows 7 before it is released. Thinking that the closest OS to windows 7 would be Vista, that’s the one I downloaded.

So here’s what the installer told me when I ran it “Internet Explorer 8 is not supported on this operating system”:

Hmm, interesting isn’t it? We dedicated guinea pigs of the newest Windows 7 didn’t even get a chance to update our IE8 to the latest! Arguably, we’re still ahead with the version number being 8.0.7000.0 even though that was from way back even before beta 2 came out…

Checking Windows Update didn’t help either – no updates for Windows 7 to download. Rather disappointing.

Windows 7 Beta is still available to students

Today, Microsoft stopped offering downloads for its Beta version of Window 7 (Build 6.1.7000).

Sorry, Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer available. If your download was interrupted, you can still finish it. And, you can still register for a product key or look up the key you’ve already gotten.

Students rejoice! The download is still available to you. Simply rock up to your MSDNAA site and find “Windows 7 Beta”. It has been out on MSDNAA since 5 Feb 09!

If you don’t see this on your MSDNAA , it’s about time to bug your MSDNAA administrator for it. This is what MSDNAA is about. Giving students all the good stuff.

For Sydney Uni students, your MSDNAA can be found at:

• http://msdn70.e-academy.c0m/ele_ele/ for Electrical Engineering, and
• http://msdn70.e-academy.c0m/usyd_itech/ for School of IT.

Jumpstart and Demystify your Live

There’s been so much hype and so much talk revolving around Microsoft’s Live Services. Live Mesh has even made it to the keynote feature of this year’s TechEd in Sydney. So what is Live? Simply put, Windows Live is a collection of services that we use every day from Live Messenger (MSN) to Live Mail, Live Search, Live Maps, and pretty much everything else that has the word ‘Live’ in it.

What Microsoft is doing though, is more than just providing these services – they’re also making it easy for people to make use of creatively, building on top of them as a platform. But at the speed they come in, it’s pretty easy to become lost in this strange new world.

So that’s were Live Services Jumpstart 2009 come into play. It’s a FREE 2-day training session that’s coming to 11 cities around the world, dedicated to demystifying all things to do with Live Services and the hottest new Software + Services architecture.

So Sydney’s pretty lucky to be one of these 11 cities to host this event, on 8 – 9 Dec 08, 8:30am – 6:30pm, at Four Points Sheraton, Darling Harbour. Since this is the ultimate place to get free in-depth technical training, spaces are limited -Register now!

Careers and Microsoft China R&D

A few days ago, I wrote about the event by Microsoft China Research and Development Group. Having attended this even today, I found that it wasn’t what I have expected it to be. I was hoping for a presentation about the role of Microsoft Research, and what MSR China does. But in fact, MSR China is a subsidiary of a much larger group called Microsoft China Research and Development, and this presentation today was more like a careers talk without any specifics. But nonetheless, it’s good to see at least 4 students from Sydney Uni turn up today. Most other people were from Macquarie Graduate School of Management though.

Anyhow, there are good points that are worth taking from today’s presentation.

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