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January 2008 - Posts
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We think this is a fun way for us all to test our IT Pro skills.
Just when you thought your eyes had finally healed from years of straining to make out pixilated adventure game graphics, Server Quest rolls into your browser like an avalanche of early nineties gaming action. Prepare to be ushered into a world where the IT pro is king. “Isn’t he already?” you might ask. Maybe so, but this is your chance to prove it.
You are Matt, the IT genius, navigating your way through the perils of office life, while trying to make a play for the hand of the beautiful and irresistibly geeky Alicia. Are you geek enough to win the affections of the office’s comely new Security Officer? In order to find out, you’ll have to dig deep into your surroundings, solve puzzles, and uncover Easter Eggs and mini games that will help you inch your way closer to the prize—and closer to carving your name into the annals of geekdom. Look for Server Quest online at www.server-quest.com This winter, play Server Quest…and give a geek a chance.
Please note the competition element is for the US only so you won't be eligible for any prizes.
Have fun,
Claire
Technorati Tags: IT Pro, Game, Students
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We are pleased to announce that the following have been selected to go through to the next round of the Software Design Challenge of the UK Imagine Cup: Stuart Hicks, Kamilla Bremeraunet, Callum Newman, Ashley Marsh, David Wilson, Kenny Chung, Sam Dennison, Nicholas Bolt, Anthony Mbah, Jon Lawley, Jonathan Witts, Hamid Hassan, Fahad Anwar, Matthew Hailey, Alistair Scott, John McCaffrey, Graeme Miller, Richard Pilot, Andrew Church, Caroline Fletcher, Julien Nitescu, Tony Tang, Christian Brueggemann, Iman Samizadeh, Eric Spolidor, Matt Duffin, Dominic Green, Ben Nunney, Chris Alexander, David Thai, Stephen Akpakwu, Emannuel Akpakwu, Chilunga Chipungu, Amaka Agugua These students represent Hull, Reading, Herfordshire, St Andrew's, Westminster, Aberystwyth, King's College London and London Metropolitan universities and are about to embark on the adventure that is round two. Here they will participate in two days of intensive training where they will learn about: - Business Skills for Software,
- Building a well designed solution
- and Giving a knock-out business pitch
before presenting their improved ideas and returning to university to finish their code. We'll keep you informed of their progress. Claire 
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You seem to have taken very well to XNA Games Studio Express; many of you have attended events, requested Getting Started DVDs (I still have some left if anyone else wants any), have introduced it to students and into the curriculum and have been enthusiastic for news and information. So, now is your chance to give your feedback on the newly released XNA 2.0 The XNA product team in the US has a short survey and would love to hear from you. Claire Technorati Tags: XNA, Games, Survey
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The natural cynic in me was not too enthused about the relevance or the fun of blogging until fairly recently. I have now been bitten by the bug though and enjoy finding articles and information to pass on. Our statistics show that you enjoy reading our blog too and increasingly we are making new contacts and starting new conversations with blog readers as a result. If you already have your own blog or are thinking of starting one then read Eileen Brown's top tips for blogging success. To this I would add three of my own tips: - Use a blog writing tool such as Live Writer - this gives you more control over the look and feel of your post
- Encourage your audience to sign up to your RSS feed - this way they can get your posts delivered directly to a folder in their email client and do not have to remember to go and read.
- Tell us about your blog, we love to link to your posts and share the good work that is going on.
We always welcome your suggestions or feedback so please get in touch with me directly or leave a comment. Claire 
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The MSDN Code Gallery is a new resource that we have just launched. Somasegar describes the gallery as: The MSDN Code Gallery is a portal for snippets, samples and other resources. In it you can find pages that describe samples and supporting documents including screenshots and design documents. In addition, you will find hosted conversations about these samples, sample projects or other resources that have been provided to the community. This destination is open to the entire community to contribute content to. Code Gallery is, at its core, simply a community enabled site where we share developer enabling information and resources that will be integrated into the MSDN experience. Please take a look but better still, contribute. Claire 
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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 
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Last week we announced that we are accepting registrations for our Silverlight Academic Day at Bletchley Park on March 12th. This event is aimed at both designers and developers and we are pleased to say that we are almost sold out of developer seats. If you have already pre-registered by emailing me then we have reserved your seat but you now need to obtain your joining instructions by calling: 0870 166 6630 If you would like to reserve one of the remaining seats then please also call the number. Any questions, please let me know Claire 
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Have your students been inspired recently? Our Inspiration tour sold out early on and continues to be a huge success. If your students missed it then they can now see it online because we are releasing the sessions on Channel8.com, our international video blogging site for students. You can see the first session here, the rest will be online in the next few days.
Claire
PS: That's Ed on the left and Ben in the centre. Many of you have asked if that is me on the posters, the answer is no :)
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Many of you will have met or be about to meet Ed Dunhill as he tours the country with Ben Coley delivering the Inspiration Tour. When not on the road, Ed has been working on a great deal for students - Free ASP.NET hosting for all UK Students. To get this the students need a unique code and an academic email address (one that ends in .ac.uk). I have a pile of codes on my desk and am happy to send them out but the more effective distribution method is to point your students to Ed's blog post. Here they can: - read all about the deal,
- request their code
- and activate their code.
Please let all students know about this; it really is free, there really are no strings attached. Claire Technorati Tags: ASP.NET, Students
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This practical site offers great advice and resources for both current and potential Computer Science students. With categories such as: - Advice
- Money
- Organisations
- Careers
- Artificial Intelligence
- Hacking and Security
- Programming
- Information Sources
and There really is content for everyone. Claire 
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 Oh yes. Following up from his earlier announcement, Scott Guthrie has just announced the broad availability of the .NET Framework library source code for debugging in Visual Studio 2008. Full details can be found on Scott's post, including a comprehensive how-to (and a link to an even more comprehensive how-to), but in short, you can now drill down into the code that drives: - ASP.NET (System.Web, System.Web.Extensions)
- Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms)
- Windows Presentation Foundation (System.Windows)
- ADO.NET and XML (System.Data and System.Xml)
Enjoy! Andy ps - if you're looking for Visual Studio 2008, it's in your MDSN AA subscription! | |
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