MSOZACADEMIC

Win $10,000 in IE8 Treasure Hunt!

IE8 is offering $10,000 for the first Australian resident who can find a hidden website on the internet! The treasure hunt style competition named, ‘Ten Grand Is Buried Here’ will start with its first clues on Friday the 18th of of June.

What's the catch? The website and clues can only be viewed in IE8, Microsoft’s latest browser.

Download IE8, follow all the clues on twitter (www.twitter.com/tengrand_IE8) and use your treasure hunting skills to find the loot!!

Good Luck!

Microsoft US Internships Open for Australian Students - APPLY NOW

A Real World Experience like No Other. As an intern at Microsoft, you’ll have real responsibility, real work, and real opportunities to jumpstart your career. (You’ll get paid, too!) It’s an experience you’ll never find in a classroom. You’ll be given manageable assignments that you can complete while you’re here, and your efforts will likely take shape in Microsoft products—or be used by Microsoft teams—long after you return to school. And imagine millions of customers, not to mention your classmates, seeing your work! Some interns even parlay their experience into a job offer.

An Opportunity to Shine. Our interns make a real difference. Not by filing paperwork or running errands, but by developing real products. Here, you’ll run your own projects and put your skills to work. This is why our internship program is one of the most successful in the industry. You’ll learn more in 12 weeks than you would in a whole school year. It’s the kind of work that gets noticed by millions of people all over the world. Kind of redefines the whole concept of internships, don’t you think?

Current Internship opportunities with Microsoft:

1) Software Design Engineer (SDE) Intern

Work at the Core of Every Product We Build
This internship is where the fun begins for code gurus like you. As a hands-on Software Design Engineer intern, you’ll learn how to make decisions about design and feature implementation, using your mastery of technical tools to help make a product vision a reality. If you would like to write code and design efficient data structures and algorithms to develop next-generation applications or operating systems, listen up. This internship shows you how SDEs bring products to life by working with Program Managers to ensure strong design and Software Design Engineers in Test to ensure quality through testing. Ultimately for the SDE, it’s your code that turns concepts into new technologies and services.

Qualifications:

· Fluency in C/C++/C# and a passion for writing quality code using computer science fundamentals

· Ability to derive creative and innovative solutions by thinking "outside the box"

· Ability to solve complex problems, sometimes by testing and debugging code

· Expertise in feature definition, design, and feasibility

· Demonstrated skill in estimating development time

· Be available to relocate to our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, U.S.A for a 12 week internship (Microsoft Corporation pays all costs associated with relocation)

· Functional level English Language skills, written and spoken requirement

2) Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET) Intern

Discover Life on the Last Line of Defense
As an intern Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET), you’ll own it, break it, fix it, and own it again. You’ll ensure a product’s quality by making sure it performs as users expect it to. Part of the fun is how creative you can be devising ways to manipulate, crush, and sabotage software into submission—while creating innovative testing technologies along the way. Ultimately, as an SDET intern it’s your input that can help make the difference between joy and frustration for the customers. Since you’re keen on how things work, and making them work better, you’ll work hand in hand with the Program Managers and Software Design Engineers to design, develop, and maintain automation systems for use in development and testing cycles. Using the tools you create, you’ll help pour over source code for trouble spots, debugging and isolating problems, and executing creative tests to find new bugs while regression testing recent fixes.

Qualifications:

· Fluency in C/C++/C#/VB.NET and experience designing and developing tool architecture

· Ability to solve complex problems and write automation systems and device drivers

· Ability to author test plans and cases, conduct security and stress tests, and debug at source level after identifying, investigating, and prioritizing bugs

· Demonstrated skills in negotiation and conflict management

· Demonstrated interest in customer advocacy derived from a holistic understanding of the product from the code level to delivery

· Be available to relocate to our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, U.S.A for a 12 week internship (Microsoft Corporation pays all costs associated with relocation and helps with housing)

· Functional level English Language skills, written and spoken requirement

Whatever position you choose, you’ll make a real impact in the dynamic world of product development at Microsoft. All positions are12 weeks and located in the United States at our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Send Us Your Resume
Submitting a resume is the only way to get to the next stage of consideration, the interview. Our recruiting team travels to Australia regularly to meet bright and enthusiastic people like you, and we look forward to receiving your resume. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are updating your resume to send to us:

· Clearly state your graduation date, degree/major and the university are attending

· Specify your technical skills (including programming languages and other development tools you know well), project details (both within university and at any jobs or internships you have held), and technologies you have used on those projects

· Describe your role in the projects that you worked on, and what you personally achieved

· Provide an active e-mail address, physical address, and current phone number where we can reach you

If interested, please send your resume by July 22 to: ausrec@microsoft.com

A recruiter will review it, and if interested will set up a phone interview as a first step. And, by the way, we have many positions available, so if there is someone else you think we should know about; please share this information with them.

If we invite you to interview, we will cover your travel expenses. If you receive an offer, we will cover costs for visa processing and provide help with relocation. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer and supports workforce diversity.

Why Certification is important and how to prepare for exams- Live Meeting this Friday

XBOX Announces Project Natal- Revolutionary Gaming Experience

Project Natal was announced at E3 overnight. Project Natal is an add-on that will be released for the XBOX 360 Console. ‘The device will allow users to play and interact with video games by using their whole bodies’. Natal has 3D motion sensing and full facial and voice recognition.

Check out demo below

50% off all books on MS Press Online Bookstore

MS Press Online Bookstore is turning 1 and to celebrate MS Press are offering 50% off all books at www.mspress.com.au Until June 30th, 2009 when you enter this exclusive code MSPRESS1.

MS Press has an Amazon Price Match Promise on all books. If you find a cheaper priced book on Amazon – MS Press will match it. For more details visit the website.

Australian Imagine Cup Finals- Join Us!

Its that time of year again, the Australian Imagine Cup Finals will be held this week and we want you to join us in celebrating the winners!! The local finals play a crucial role in determining the best team/project that will represent Australia in the world finals in July.

The local finals will be held at the Microsoft Ryde office in Sydney this Wednesday, the 27th May, from 6 to 9pm, with the top 5 teams in the software design category delivering their presentations to a panel of judges selected from academia, the press, industry and Microsoft as well as an audience made up of journalists, faculty, students, and friends and family of the competitor, and the winning team will be determined on the night, receiving their prizes and a giant boarding pass representing their all-inclusive trip to the world finals in Cairo, Egypt in July.

We have Plenty of Prizes for the audience, including XBOX Elite packages, XBOX games, Web Cams and more. Simply register your attendance and be in the running to win!!

Register by emailing ausic@microsoft.com and include your name, phone number and how many people you are registering for you if you are bringing extras. We will email you back with details on the event and venue information.

The five finalist teams are:

• Team Xtreme – from University of Western Sydney, this team has come up with a creative solution for managing bush fire situations.
• Team deCarbonate – from University of Canberra, deCarbonate wants to highlight our carbon footprint and help us manage it better and make the world a cleaner place to live in.
• Team IWork – another team from University of Canberra who are trying to help those people out of work or who are finding it difficult to find jobs.
• Team Firefighters – this team from University of Technology, Sydney is also bringing us a bushfire management/warning system.
• Team eGreen – amazingly, the third team from University of Canberra brings us a creative way of looking at environmental sustainability – helping consumers understand the environmental impact of the products they buy.

Announcing the DeepZoomPix Technology Demo!

Today Microsoft announced the go live of DeepZoomPix technology demo . DeepZoomPix is a Technology demonstration of of Microsoft® Silverlight™, Deep Zoom and the Azure™ Services Platform.

Using Silverlight’s exclusive Deep Zoom technology, DeepZoomPix enables you to interactively explore and share photos like never before:

• Enable a seamless experience for navigating large numbers of images regardless of Internet connection quality.
• Make possible a “tactile” way of exploring and interacting with photographic images on the web.
• Empower users to dynamically zoom in on photos without having to navigate to higher resolution versions.

Directly access photos from Facebook, Flickr or any photo RSS feed and share your DeepZoomPix creation with the world through your blog or website.

DeepZoomPix is a technology showcase that enables end-users to see something familiar yet exciting. It shows designers the capabilities of Silverlight for creating rich user experiences. Finally, it shows developers how they can use various Microsoft technologies to create compelling and scalable systems.

DeepZoomPix is a technology demonstration that will run until December 31^st.

For more information, please read our FAQ and the DeepZoomPix developer story.

• Try it! Go to www.deepzoompix.com, sign in with your Live ID and create an account. Then upload some pictures.
• Tell the DeepZoomPix developer story
• Join our Facebook group

-Karo

Don’t know what to expect of your IT career? Join the Microsoft Students to Business live meeting

[ Are you graduating soon? And do not know what to expect from your IT career]

We can help! 

Microsoft Students to Business program together with Excom Education

Bring you the opportunity to clarify this and many questions you might have

Just join our Live Meeting session, this Thursday 23th of April at

2 pm (EST) Australia

4 pm (NZST) New Zealand

To join just click on the link bellow

Join the meeting

AUDIO INFORMATION

Computer Audio

To use computer audio, you need speakers and a microphone, or a headset.

Telephone Conferencing

Choose one of the following:

· Start the Office Live Meeting client, and then in the Voice & Video pane, click Join Conference.  The conferencing service will call you at the number you specify. (Recommended)

· Dial the conferencing service directly, and enter the participant code shown below:

Australia: 1800202713

New Zealand: 0800448997

Participant Code:                        2758513

FIRST-TIME USERS

To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is ready to use Office Live Meeting.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Unable to join the meeting?  Follow these steps:

            1.         Copy this address and paste into your web browser:

https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/_XML/microsoft/join

            2.         Copy and paste the required information:

                        Meeting ID: 29JJ8P

                        Entry Code: S~[x38<&F

                        Location: https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/_XML/microsoft

If you still cannot enter the meeting, contact support.

NOTICE

Office Live Meeting can be used to record meetings. By participating in this meeting, you agree that your communications may be monitored or recorded at any time during the meeting.

By attending to this conference you will qualify for a chance to receive a complimentary copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007. (1 participant will be randomly selected*)

Want to know more about S2B? register today!

Any questions please contact s2bapac@microsoft.com

Dream, Build, Play – XBOX 360 XNA Game Development Competition- $75 000 Prize Pool

Are you a student, developer, or hobbyist interested in developing or learning to develop an Xbox 360 XNA game and are 16+ years old? If Yes, sign up for this amazing competition.  It includes a free 1 year XNA creator club trial membership.  Teams have a chance of winning a piece of $75,000 in cash prizes!

On top of that, you can use your XNA creation for the Imagine Cup 2010 competition and be in the running to win a trip overseas to compete in the world finals in July 2010!

Check out the Dream Build Play website for more details and to register.

-Karo

Azure Services Platform beta- Free invitational codes

What is Azure?

The Azure™ Services Platform (Azure) is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centres, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.

Free trial of Azure for Students and Faculty

Students and Faculty can register for Azure and receive an invitational code within 48 hours to access the Azure Services Platform.

Getting started with Azure www.microsoft.com/azure/windowsazurefordevelopers

To register for the free invitational code, please click here Register now

-Karo

Want 20% lifetime discount on all Microsoft products? Get a tattoo of Microsoft on your ear and you are eligible?

You may have heard this supposed promotion going around blogosphere today (check out Rog42’s funny Blog post). The rumour was Microsoft was going to announce today that as part of their Student Initiative Program, Microsoft would reward any student who got the Microsoft logo tattooed on their ear 20% lifetime discount on all Microsoft products!

Well i can confidently confirm that this is an April Fools Joke :)  and Microsoft will be doing no such thing!

Just out of curiosity, would you get a tattoo on your ear to receive 20% lifetime discount? what about 50%? :) Comment below

-Karo

Bill Gate’s announces DreamSpark availability for High Schools

Today at the Government Leaders Forum in America Bill Gates announced the availability of DreamSpark to all High Schools around the world. Australian High Schools can now register for Dreamspark and take advantage of free Microsoft software and training.

What is Microsoft DreamSpark?

Microsoft DreamSpark is a program that provides no-cost access to Microsoft designer and development tools and training for verified high school and university students around the world, to support and advance their learning and skills through technical design, technology, math, science and engineering activities. This program equips tomorrow’s developers with the professional tools to inspire and create today.

How can my school register for DreamSpark?

Teachers (administrators) will meed to register for Dreamspark for their school by clicking here.

If you are a H.S student and would like your school to get access to DreamSpark, please refer your teachers to the DreamSpark website or ask them to follow the instructions on this blog.

Dreamspark H.S FAQs

-Karo

Aussie Imagine Cup- Software Design Round 1 Submission

Software Design competitors, Round 1 optional submission is due tonight by 23.59 (Sydney time). All members of teams submitting Optional Submission for round 1 will receive an Imagine Cup t-shirt. There is a limit of 1 t-shirt per person.

What do i need to submit? Screenshots of Progress, visual representation of system architecture and a one page summary of your project.

Please email your submission to ausic@microsoft.com

-Karo

Dreamspark Evolution Release Now live!

The final instalment of the Dreamspark website is now live. The site has undergone an upgrade in design and UX making it even easier to access the software you want for free.

If you are not familiar with Dreamspark- The program offers Microsoft’s Developer and Design software (VS08, Expression2, WS08, SQL08, XNA and more) for free to students around the world.

The site also includes some new features:

• Training Section Added
• Free MCTS certification exam vouchers
• LIMITED OFFERING: Learn more here
• Pointers to free eBooks
• Pointers to Learning Snacks
• New Product List Page Added
• New page to list all products
• Added pointers to developer centres and training videos for server, developer, and design topics

Take advantage of the free MCTS certification exam vouchers which are available for a limited time only through Dreamspark! With the current economic downturn and the glooming job market, employers are seeking graduates who are trained and certified. Up skilling yourself will help you stand out from the rest and make you more employable. The MCTS certification vouchers are usually worth over $150 so please take advantage!

Original Dreamspark layout                   Most recent layout

New Dreamspark Layout

-Karo

237 Official Microsoft team Blogs!

This is a great post from our global MSP blog highlighting 200+ Microsoft team blogs all organised categorically. Get the information right from the source! These blog are run by Microsoft Employees and have the latest information on any particular Microsoft product.

Click here for more information

-Karo