This is an excellent video about the importantance of technology and the impact Microsoft is having in this industry. The video provides an insight into how the industry (developers/architects) perceive the value of Microsoft technology and the significance of software development. If you are interested...

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer will be in Sydney on the 6th of November presenting at a one-off event designed specifically for the Australian developer community. Ballmer, a long time advocate and supporter of the global developer community will look to inspire and inform the audience on the latest...

What a fantastic event, Student Day (SD) attracted over 1200 students both from Universities and High Schools around NSW and some interstate. Student Day was the platform for the official launch of Microsoft Dreamspark and StudentstoBusiness (S2B) in Australia. If you haven't heard already, Dreamspark...

Check out the new Microsoft Windows commercial starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. The commercial is funny but strange at the same time. I can't seem to clearly understand the messages coming out of it. From what I gather, this is the first commercial from a series of mini-commercials to come. Hopefully...

I recently came into contact with Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong (a member of the 2007 Imagine Cup World finals winning team from Thailand) via this blog for a chat. After emailing back and forth a bit, 'Badd' (his nickname) agreed to answer a few questions about his experiences at the world finals. I...

OK, so it's not necessarily 'academic' related, and by now you may have seen this - it's just one of those things that spreads like wildfire as soon as it goes live. This is Bill Gates' last day at work. (And Microsoft BOB , for those who are 21 and under and don't remember, was one of Microsoft's proudest...

It's an amazing figure, but true, according to an IDC paper released yesterday. The whitepaper, entitled "The Economic Impact of IT, Software and the Microsoft Ecosystem on the Global Environment ", is a VERY interesting read. Of course, with the paper being sponsored by Microsoft (and we being who...

Normally, Microsoft Office 2007 wouldn't find it's way onto my blog. Not that it's not a good product (I use it and IE7 almost non-stop for the 9 or 10 hours a day I'm at work), it's just that, well, Office isn't usually all that newsworthy unless you're an Office Developer or an Information Worker....

I run Imagine Cup each year in Australia. It's (primarily) a software design competition, and is open to university students worldwide. The prizes are great, students get treated like rockstars and it's all a cracking good time. The following is from my Imagine Cup blog (all Imagine Cup news will be...

2 major recent changes with MSDN AA First up, there is now a second MSDN AA subscription called Designer AA to compliment the 'traditional' subscription (now called Developer AA). It's a trimmed down version of the original MSDN AA subscription, tailored specifically to web designers. Designer AA...

I have in my hot little hands around 30 copies of the " Windows Academic Program" CD. It's a special kit coming out of our Redmond HQ that's meant for teachers (and researchers) of operating system units in tertiary institutions. Oh, what a package it is... The disc contains: "1- Windows Kernel...

Good morning friends! The lovely Carrie Read and Michelle le Cour, Microsoft's U.S graduate recruiting angels, are coming back to our shores later this year to interview students for technical intern roles for students at MS's Redmond headquarters! Be damned, brain drain , be damned! Oh well, Australia...

Exciting news from the U.S Academic team this week - Channel 8 has gone live! Before anyone gets really excited (as I did) and starts imagining a TV channel dedicated solely to IT students, Channel 8 is not a television station (although that would be great - anyone with a few million lying around, please...

A few questions every person should ask themself: - Can a beast with the head of a ram and the body of a man use Visual Studio ? - Is it possible to travel to a tech seminar attended by industry leaders by using levitation? (It's much better than driving - levitation emits zero emissions) -...

Part of my responsibilities in my role with MS is to run the Australian leg of Imagine Cup. It's a worldwide software development competition for uni students, with a variety of prizes and benefits for the students and uni's involved. This year, the finals took place at ReMix in Melbourne, and the top...

Here's a lovely story to tell the Vista fan boys to help them sleep tight at night - the Vista 6 Month Vulnerability reports have been released, and Windows Vista is safer than Mac OSX 10.4, Ubuntu, Novell AND Windows XP. (Gotta love that we've got finally got something concrete to smile smuggly about...

Semester 1 is about to end in Australia - which probably means plenty of you will be flat out marking assignments and planning classes for next semester. Microsoft's Faculty Connection is a site that operates (in conjunction with MSDNAA) to do exactly that - helps plan your classes for the coming semester...