Shreyas Vijaykumar pointed out on his blog that the Imagine Cup algorithm invitational first round quiz is live! Go take the quiz and check out the message board today. -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)

I had a question the other day in an interview about the performance of StringBuilder and while I had run performance tests with StringBuilder in the past I had never really looked under the covers to determine why StringBuilder was or wasn't faster then...

The WeRock247 .NET SmartClient Training DVD contains material on developing Smart Client applications for .NET and is based on a virtual rock group. WeRock247.NET takes you through building an enterprise application using Windows Forms, Smart Documents...

The Imagine Cup US Software Design spec has now been released in a Word version as well as the OneNote version . Fill it out today because entries are due February 16, 2005! -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)

Don Syme points out on his blog that a major new version of F# has been released. F# combines the safety and productivity of ML with the libraries, tools and cross-language working of .NET. Check out the screenshots . Also, version 1.2 of SML.NET was...

Josh Blake just pointed me in the direction of a new unofficial Imagine Cup Visual Gaming contest called the Happy New Year Competition . This competition takes advantage of a new SDK and tissue and gives you an opportunity to get to know the new features...

Gretchen from Microsoft Recruiting briefly outlines some links to Microsoft's college and high school internships. We do have high school summer internships , but only for students who already live in the Puget Sound (in Washington State, USA) area. Cool...

Recently there was a lot of hype about the success Apple's iPod. People were interested in what Microsoft and its partners might do to get into this market, while others think Microsoft just doesn't get it. Who really cares? Why can't people just be happy...

Eric Gunnerson has an interesting blog entry comparing C# and C++. The Computer Science department at CSULB currently uses C++ for most of the programming courses. I think it would be interesting to switch to C# as the default language. Would you rather...

Scott Watermasysk created .TEXT (the blog engine this blog runs on), works now with Rob Howard over at Telligent Systems , and also works with INETA Academic. He's looking for a few students in the NY/NJ/PA area to get involved on a .NET community project...

For those attending a school in the United States you can now find out if there is a Microsoft Student Ambassador on your campus. Check out the Student Ambassador site and learn how you can become a Microsoft Student Ambassador! -James (California State...

G. Andrew Duthie asks: " Will 2005 be the year of Least Privilege ?" Scoble, seems to think that it won't be and I would probably have to agree. I do think that we all as individuals could help convert the community at large if we preach about it enough...

BlogSavant highlights this BBC News article on how academics in the UK are using blogs to aid in their research and thesis writing. Open question for students: Does anyone else have good examples of blogs being used in an academic research environment...

Leaderboard so far highlighting the US teams - impressive scores especially by the team from Middle Tennesee State!

Infragistics, Inc. is currently seeking bright, self-motivated team players for a variety of open positions ! Infragistics is the market leader in providing a broad range of presentation layer development tools and services for building applications utilizing...

You now have an extra month to compete in the Imagine Cup Visual Gaming Invitational . The first round deadline has been extended from February 1st to March 1st . A remember - just for competing you qualify for a free copy of Office 2003 ! (you do have...

Due to the fact that my professor hasn't questioned the .mcf file format yet, I have not released its spec. He has asked another professor in the department about the format but this professor did not budge even though he knows all the details. --Eric...

Check it out here . This is issue #3 - we've been going monthly up until this issue, and now are ramping up to every two weeks. If you prefer everything wrapped up in one good-looking email rather than a blog, you've got a choice! -Kevin (Microsoft)

Alfred Thompson says the sign up for Windows Challenge has been extended until February 6th. This is a great contest for Computer Engineering students. Sign up today! -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)

This past weekend I re-imaged my Tablet PC and vowed to run strictly as a power user. Thus far I have not had too many problems, but thought I would share the short list of issues I have encountered: Microsoft's AntiSpyware Beta does not appear to perform...

In response to a post I wrote earlier this week, I Can Read ANY Format. I'm a Mac User. , I figured a follow up post was necessary behind reasoning for calling what I submitted a file format and not an encrypted file. Even though I do use the word encrypt...

Linux doesn't have to be hard for everyone, even you can Linux! Yes, even you! If you are intersted check out this short little tutorial from Ohad's blog . --Eric (Grand Valley State University)

I really wish I could read the Apple Student Blogs via RSS or Atom, but it appears that they have an issue with producing a valid feed . I don't think it's just me and my reader, but maybe it is. Anyone care to give it a try? --Eric (Grand Valley State...

This semester I am only taking one class as it's the only class I need to officially graduate. I had contemplated taking a few other courses, but decided not too as I need to start saving money for the wedding . The class I am taking is CS460 - Management...

As Linux increasingly hits the enterprise and consumer mainstream, a growing number of security threats are emerging which prey on holes in applications and files managed by desktop users. Read more... -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)