UK Academic Team Blog : Microsoft

MSDNAA ELMS and Windows 7 Beta

ukacademia — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:31:37 GMT

Hello Everyone,

There has never been a better time to move your MSDN AA subscription to ELMS (e-academy License Management System) because as from Thursday 5th February Windows 7 Beta will be available for distribution.

To make Windows 7 Beta available on your storefront please follow the steps below:

Step 1: Login as the Administrator
Step 2: Click on the Hosted ELMS icon on the right side of the administration page
Step 3: Select Windows 7 Beta from the product list
Step 4: Click on the button Enable Selected

(Please note that Windows 7 Beta is only available in English, German and Japanese.)

In addition to Windows 7 Beta, the following products are also available for distribution:

· XNA Game Studio 3.0

· Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Academic Edition

· CCR and DSS Toolkit 2008

Information about ELMS and Hosted ELMS

Host MSDN AA software remotely through Hosted ELMS (e-academy License Management System). Hosted ELMS provides administrators a remote server to enable direct download distribution without a local server on campus. Transition your ELMS Account with these how-to guide and videos.

How-to Guides for accessing MSDN AA software. Help your students help themselves with these how-to guides and videos.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email on ukacinfo@microsoft.com.

Best wishes,

Allison

The Future of .NET Languages

ukacademia — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:14:32 GMT

Hello,

Following on from the article on Microsoft Azure Services Platform, I thought I’d also point you in the direction of a further independent article, this time on The Future of .Net Languages and written by Damon Armstrong. Based in Texas, Damon is a senior architect with Cogent Company and is author of 'Pro ASP.NET 2.0 Website Programming'. He specializes in Microsoft technologies with a focus on Web application design using ASP.NET.

The article begins …

At this year's Professional Developers Conference (PDC 2008), Microsoft® was quite forthcoming with specifics about the future for developers on the Microsoft .NET® platform. In this article, we will take a quick look at some of the upcoming features in the .NET 4.0 Framework, the new Microsoft F#® language, and discuss the long-term vision Microsoft has for the .NET Platform in the years to come.

To read further, please click .Net

As always, if you have further questions regarding this article or .Net. please do get in touch by emailing unacinfo@microsoft.com.

Best,

Allison

Microsoft Azure Services Platform: Opening Up Cloud Computing

ukacademia — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:46:37 GMT

Hello,

I thought I’d tell you about an independent article on Microsoft Azure Services Platform, written by David Jacobs of The Jacobs Group. David has over twenty years of computer and networking industry experience. He has managed leading-edge software development projects and consulted to Fortune 500 companies as well as software start-ups.

The article begins…

IT departments have long faced the problem of planning for and providing sufficient processing, storage, and network bandwidth to meet the needs of the busiest times on the calendar. Application developers have distributed processing between workstations and servers within a single enterprise but crossing enterprise boundaries has proven more difficult. End users have struggled to remember a different login ID for each service they use.

Microsoft® Azure™ Services Platform addresses these issues by moving computing "into the cloud." With the Azure Services Platform, processing and storage moves from individual corporate servers and websites to large Microsoft data centres.

With cloud computing, corporate processing, storage, and network capacity no longer must be scaled to meet the highest expected level of demand. Microsoft's data centres contain processing and storage resources sufficient to meet maximum levels of demand.

Cloud-based applications and storage make it easier to share data. Enterprises can make applications available to partners without requiring users to remember different login credentials for the services each partner provides. Because all partners access the same cloud resident data, changes made by one application are automatically available to all.

While applications that execute in the cloud must be designed for the Windows environment, non-Windows based applications can access services on the Azure Services Platform using industry standards. Applications communicate with the cloud using HTTP and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), while services and data are identified and accessed using URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers). Developers administer services on the Azure Services Platform via a browser-accessible portal.

To read more please click Azure.

As always, if you would like to discuss this article or obtain further information, please do not hesitate to contact me on ukacinfo@microsoft.com.

Best,

Allison

Silverlight News

ukacademia — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:23:56 GMT

Hello Everyone,

As usual, go away for a week and you come back to lots of interesting news. So, here in the first of several blogs, I thought I’d share some of this news with you.

Silverlight Controls Source Code

The source code for the Silverlight 2 controls has now been released enabling you to download the code and modify the controls as you wish. Click here to access the download page.

Silverlight and Windows Live Essentials

Silverlight is now included in the installation package for Windows Live Essentials. Here is the list of software included:

MSN Messenger
Writer
Photo Gallery
Mail (desktop email client for those who don’t have Outlook)
Toolbar
Family Safety
Movie Maker (still in beta)

Silverlight and Linux

Work is progressing on the Moonlight project (the porting of Silverlight for the Linux platform). Since Moonlight 1 was released in Beta, Tim Heuer has published a screencast detailing his experiences of installing it.

MIX 09

The next MIX conference will happen in Las Vegas on March 18-20 and several sessions have already been announced, including quite a few around Silverlight 3.

Scott Guthrie has already announced several of the enhancements the team is working on and you can obtain further information from his blog.

Finally, the first beta version of Windows 7 has been released and while this is not strictly a Silverlight event, Silverlight runs great on it.

Well, that’s my Silverlight news, but as always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to raise them with me on ukacinfo@microsoft.com.

Best wishes for the new year,

Allison

Imagine Cup Registrations

ukacademia — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:44:17 GMT

Hello Everyone,

Interest for the Imagine Cup has been strong and we can confirm the various categories are now open for competition. From experience we know that the next couple of months will be key in getting great UK representation in the Imagine Cup.

Here are just a few of the reasons for encouraging your students to compete:

- PR: The Imagine Cup attracts the attention of both regional and national newspapers, together with technology and education press and news websites such as the BBC. Having students from your university compete in the Imagine Cup is great for raising the profile of your university in two important ways. Firstly it demonstrates the quality of your graduates to IT employers and makes them more attractive as employees (e.g. Dominic Green, UK winner of the 2008 competition) and secondly, it attracts new students to your university.

- Skills Development: Fundamentally the Imagine Cup is about helping students get real world experience with Microsoft technology. The skills learned during the various competitions compliment their studies and are invaluable when students apply for jobs with IT companies.

- Students Inspiration: With every technology interest area catered for, the competition is a great way to channel students’ passion for technology out of class.

We want as many UK institutions and students to get involved with the Imagine Cup as possible, and to help you participate we provide:

- Giveaways for students: Every week we give away web cams and Starbucks vouchers. We also hold a monthly draw for a Dell laptop, providing everything a student needs to see them through their studies and the Imagine Cup competition.

- Donation of an Xbox 360 gaming lab kit for your university: The university with the most registrations will receive 4 Xbox 360s, 8 wired controllers and an assortment of the latest Xbox 360 titles. You are free to use them for XNA development or as a social/recreation area for students.

If you would like to receive regular updates on the registration numbers from your university then please let me know and I will happily send them to you. You can contact me by telephone (0118 909 3409) or if you prefer by email (mailto:ukacinfo@microsoft.com).

And just to give you an idea of how we are doing so far, here are the top fifteen universities with the highest number of registrations:

University	Registrations
Brighton	89
Birmingham City	38
Cumbria	38
Bradford	37
Reading	35
Robert Gordon	35
Derby	31
Nottingham	24
De Montfort	23
Keele	23
Cambridge	20
Hull	20
Imperial College	20
Brunel	18
RHUL	20

If you would like to know more, them please email or telephone me. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.

Good luck,

Allison

Student Technology Day - Microsoft Research Talk on CS Inside Halo 3 True Ranking System

ukacademia — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:53:11 GMT

For those of you who joined us at the Royal Festival Hall on 1st October and, especially for those who were otherwise engaged, please find below the session by Thore Graepel, Joaquin Quiñonero Candela and Ralf Herbrich on Microsoft Research Talk on CS Inside Halo 3 True Ranking System:

If you are unable to view the above clip, please do let me know.

Best wishes,

Allison

UK High Performance Computing Award

ukacademia — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:11:22 GMT

Hello Everyone,

The Windows Server HPC team have created a special award for UK Software Design competitors who use the Windows HPC Server in their Software Design solution of the Imagine Cup.

Microsoft want to stimulate the thinking of UK students about how HPC can change the world. We want students to think big, and to use the world’s fastest systems to solve the world’s biggest problems. That’s what the HPC prize in the Imagine cup’s about.

You know how mutli-core is about writing a program that uses more than one cpu? Well HPC (High Performance Computing) is the next step up: it’s about programming for hundreds or thousands of CPUs. This is for all the stuff that needs more compute than you can get from a single server. Think about online gaming, when you have hundreds of people simultaneously modifying a visual database – that needs more power than you can get one a single CPU. Think about calculating the temperature over 20,000 land sites in the UK and then projecting that forward into the future, one minute at a time, for 500 years. This all needs heavy duty computing – and that’s HPC. It’s the A380 of the computing world.

To win the HPC prize you don’t need to have a working system – but tell us how your design would scale-out from one CPU to a thousand. And explain how all that power would help. The award will be given to the Software Design teams who demonstrate technical competency with HPC, have a real world need for high performance computing and present the commercial viability of their implementation.

HPC is used in lots of places – last year the two winners used HPC for genetic engineering and motorway design. People in the UK use HPC for everything from theology to thermodynamics, archaeology to aerodynamics, gaming to genetics. How could you use it?

If you’ve got questions please contact your local HPC or SuperComputing Centre. Or email Michael...

Good luck and hope to see you at the finals.

Best,

Allison

ITA Student Pass

ukacademia — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:00:27 GMT

Hello,

I’d like to tell you a little about the ITA Student Pass which gives students access to a large number of e-learning courses free of charge. The e-learning materials will provide your students with access to training on real-world technology and industry-recognised certification.

You might even envisage an opportunity to incorporate some of the e-learning into the curriculum for new courses or simply to replace existing materials.

If you would like your students to have access to Microsoft e-learning materials I can supply, upon request, a series of unique codes for you to distribute to them.

To see a demonstration of what e-learning has to offer please click demo.

For the codes themselves, please email i-allmc@micrsoft.com with a subject header of ITA Student Pass.

With Best wishes,

Allison

Windows Embedded Seminars

ukacademia — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:58:02 GMT

Last week I posted news about the Windows XP Professional for Embedded Systems Event at TVP on 21st October.

Following on from that post, I’d also like to tell you about a series of online seminars relating to specific aspects of Windows Embedded technology. While not perhaps for those of you already teaching embedded technologies, the seminars may prove useful if you are considering future curriculum developments.

Windows Embedded and Gaming
16th September 2008
9:00 - 10:00

Windows Embedded and Kiosk Solutions
13th November 2008
9:00 - 10:00

Windows Embedded and Industrial Automation
19th February 2009
9:00 - 10:00

Windows Embedded and Medical Solutions
30th April 2009
9:00 - 10:00

If any of the above are of interest, you can get further information by clicking here.

Best,

Allison

Microsoft Research Asia - 10th Anniversary Innovation Forum

ukacademia — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:29:56 GMT

On August 12, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft^®, joined visionary technologists from Microsoft Research (MSR) Asia, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, and the University of Hong Kong, to celebrate a decade of ground-breaking collaboration during the Microsoft Research Asia's 10th Anniversary Innovation Forum.

Gates, who delivered the keynote speech, said that Microsoft’s relationship to academia in the Asia Pacific region remains vital and that cultivating the next generation of researchers should continue to be a focal point of MSR Asia’s work. “For the last 10 years, great collaborative work between Microsoft Research Asia and the region’s world-leading academic researchers has resulted in a wide range of exciting technology innovations,” Gates said. “As Asia becomes more and more of a global centre for innovation, I have no doubt that Microsoft Research Asia and its academic partners will have an even bigger impact on the world of technology.”

At the MSR Asia Innovation Forum, Bill Gates said that the success of Microsoft depends on its ability to attract and retain the best talent from around the world—something he believes MSR Asia is doing well.

To learn more about this collaboration and to hear Bill’s speech, click Innovation.

Best wishes,

Allison

Microsoft Tech-Ed 2007 Conference DVD sets to give away

ukacademia — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:29:00 GMT

Good morning,

I thought I’d start the week with a give-away of the ten Tech-Ed Conference DVD sets sitting on my desk.

So, if you live in the UK and would like me to pop one in the post to you, email me your address details and the first ten to reply will get the goodies.

Have a good week.

Allison

Pixel Poetry

ukacademia — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:14:17 GMT

Hi,

It was our very great pleasure to sponsor and support the Microsoft Photography Competition at the Department of Engineering 2008, at the University of Cambridge.

Blue Spikes, by Sonja Findeisen-Tandel

If proof were needed, these photographs exemplify the strong connection between art and science and that engineering particularly, has an inner beauty. The winning photograph, Blue Spikes, by Sonja Findeisen-Tandel, together with other stunning entries can be viewed at Microsoft Photography Competition at the Department of Engineering.

Which puts me in mind on Imagine Cup 2009 and the category for best photo story. It isn’t too soon to get your students involved and thinking about the competition. You never know, the lucky winner could be from your university and joining us in Cairo for the world finals. The next set of photographs could be of the pyramids and feluccas on Nile.

For an overview of the photo story competition please visit Photo Story.

All the best,

Allison

remix UK – a 48 hour conversation

ukacademia — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:51:25 GMT

Hi Everyone

If you have been wondering 'where next for the web?' this event might just be for you and there is an early bird saving for the first three hundred people to book. Click here to reserve a place.

And if you have any ideas for a topic you would like to see presented at remix UK and have a good idea of just who you’d like to present it, there is a chance you can get it added to the mash up.

Best for the weekend,

Allison

Mix it up!

ukacademia — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:29:00 GMT

Hi! I'm Alfred Biehler, working with Microsoft UK alongside Claire in Microsoft's Developer platform group. My focus is on all our UK developers, and I've been given the opportunity to attend the MIX conference at Las Vegas. My expectations of the event was high, and I'm not disappointed!

For starters: You can join in this amazing event by going to http://www.visitmix.com. You can see the sessions on http://sessions.visitmix.com, and/or you can even attend a UK re-run later this year in the UK... more details to come.

Let me briefly share with you the biggest wow moments for me during the first keynote, that just finished:

IE 8 beta is available for download now. (This beta is intended for developers). Amongst the new capabilities shown in IE8, was the ability for web apps to detect and act on losing a network connection, and a back button that really goes back - even on AJAX pages!
SQL Server as a service has been announced. This is huge! I've been talking about this since the end of 1999, and it's fantastic to see this now becoming available. This would allow developers to build applications that draw data from "the cloud", without the need to manage and run the database yourself.
Silverlight 2 beta 1 has been announced, with awesome demos, including how we'll experience the Olympics in a few weeks, how HardRock Cafe has a memorabilia site utilizing DeepZoom (seeing a 2bn pixel photo, zooming into any area very quickly), Aston Martin's virtual showroom experience and more.
I really enjoyed seeing also some of Microsoft's partners (that also competes with us) on stage, e.g. AOL email using Silverlight, and DoubleClick (Google) for building Silverlight Adverts.
And lastly - we saw demos of how Silverlight apps just worked on Nokia phones after the agreement that has been reached yesterday with Nokia to support Silverlight on their phones.

One statistic that blew me away, was that we're getting about 1.5 million downloads and installs of Silverlight per day.

If you do have a moment - go and have a look at the sessions @ Mix online!

Alfred

Heroes Happen Here

ukacademia — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:56:00 GMT

Introducing tne new HHH (Heroes Happen Here) Comic Series. This is a new daily web comic by Microsoft and Seagate that adapts tech stories from actual IT Professionals and Developers - a web comic that reflects the real lives of IT Hero's such as you. Every business day we will release a new episode driven from suggestions from the IT community. Make sure you sign up for the RSS feed and remember, we want you to help drive the story!

Claire