Channel 8

Behind the Scenes: Imagine Cup 2008 US Finals Judges Exclusive

Max Zuckerman — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:51:00 GMT

Alright so I don't know if this is really an exclusive or not, but I doubt these guys were this candid in front of any other camera...

After a full day of judging multiple sections of the Imagine Cup US Final teams, check out what Andy, Neil (Randy), and Kevin thought about what they saw. They cover presentation styles, innovation, initiative, and even some spy activity.

BONUS:
You'll even get job interview advice for Microsoft and other industry style interviews.

This one's funny, so feel free to leave a comment and tell the judges "thanks for being open, rock on."

What's the Micro Framework?

Christian — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:22:00 GMT

Will and I had the chance to speak with Rob Miles and Dave Baker. They talked us into the .NET Micro Framework and showed us what you can do with C# on small devices (really really small devices) that could be embedded everywhere. Some of these devices are so small that their only reason to live is to work for us as a sensor somewhere.

It was really amazing to see how easy it is to use the Micro Framework and C# to create a solution that runs on a device that's just as big as my old Nintendo(r) GameBoy (and with a cover would also look exactly the same).

Tune in if you like to program for embedded devices and ever wanted to see your code running in a toaster!

Getting started with Silverlight

Christian — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:56:00 GMT

There are a lot of open questions around Silverlight: What's Silverlight? What's better in Silverlight than in its competitors? What's really making the difference to other technologies? What technology is running Silverlight? Why should a student even care about Silverlight?...

That's why I met with Jaime Rodriguez (after I have heard that he's going to come to Vienna) and asked him a huge load of questions on Silverlight. Jaime is a Technical Evangelist for Silverlight and does therefore a lot with Silverlight; and that's not only demo applications!

I tried to cover a lot of the open questions to give you a great overview on why to choose Silverlight. Since I'm a developer I went also a little bit deeper to understand what exactly is making the "Silverlight experience" run.

Tune in if you enjoy programming and/or designing for the web and you wondered if there is a way to create a richer experience than the one that is available through plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Ask the Zuck: "Do you have any more of those Windows Live OneCare Subscriptions??!?"

Max Zuckerman — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Well ladies and gentlemen, here is a perfect example of how you all as a community have the power to make cool stuff happen. In this first of many installments of "Ask the Zuck: Man on the Inside," I have a little surprise for you. It seems that the lead product manager for Windows Live OneCare, Larry B., is a Channel 8 reader! He was so impressed with everyone's passion for Windows Live OneCare both in the forums and in my last post, that he has dropped off 10 one-year subscriptions for me to do with as I please.

And since you guys asked for it, I am pleased to give all 10 subscriptions to you all! Want one?? Be one of the first 10 comments and you win! As soon as you comment, drop me a note at maxzuck AT live.com so I have a means of sending you your code. You must comment before sending me a mail. And do me a favor, please, and let me know who you are in the email (Channel 8 user name that is).

UPDATE: I have ONE MORE pass from Leandro, so that makes the total 11!

Reaaaady.... GO!

Get your hands dirty: Introduction to Visual Basic 2008

Lean — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:39:00 GMT

Did you get your software from DreamSpark? Here you have a tutorial on how to use it. Mario (MSP) gave us an introduction to Visual Basic, how to build applications and start coding right away. And here are samples... Enjoy!

Language(s): English

Product(s): Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2005

Duration: 50 Minutes

Author: Mario Meir-Huber

Getting a Gaming Job, Round Table Edition

Clint Rutkas — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:57:00 GMT

After spending hours attempting to get as many game developers in a room as possible, I managed to track down Ian Lewis from the XNA team at Microsoft, Andrew Brownsword from EA, Kent Quirk from Linden Labs which make Second Life. I may or may not have used an Xbox 360 with Rockband primed as bait.

As usual, I asked them what a student should know. They talked about figuring out how to solve problems, working in teams, writing good code, the coding or testing hat, and a bunch more.

While these are game developers, almost everything they mention directly translates to normal development.

Spice up your Zune Card with Channel 8

Max Zuckerman — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:06:00 GMT

As you guys know, I like to customize things ranging from shoes to wallpaper. And since I'm a big Zune fan and of course the social aspect of it, I thought I would create a little Channel 8 background for my Zune Card since it shows on my site and even on my facebook.

Download it while it's hot!

I expect to see a few of your own submissions from the usual suspects :)

New Live Search front page

Max Zuckerman — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:47:00 GMT

This one actually caught me by surprise, which sometimes is fun, but other times when you catch the early flight home from San Diego to find your...... oh never mind.

Anyway, it seems that the front page for live.com is sporting a sleek new interface that I personally think looks--dare I say--elegant.

What do you think??

Zune 2.5 Software Release... now with more Social

Max Zuckerman — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:00:00 GMT

In today's Spring update, bringing us to version 2.5, the Zune software takes a big step forward in the "social" experience particularly. The improvements can be seen throughout the web, the local client, and the device itself.

The main features added include:

The ability to transfer a friend's Zune Card to your device which will keep an up to date list of that friend's most recently played songs, favorites, and top plays. If you have a Zune Pass, then you will be able to play the songs from your client and they will automatically be synced to your device. Best of all, it will keep this list updated so you can think of this as an automatic DJ playing your friend's tunes for you.....
Video store to download and take TV shows etc. on the go
Client/Player enhancements like creating autoplaylists, no gaps in the playback, multiple Zune sync, and easier editing of track information

Some really cool scenarios come to mind with these new features. For example, my best friend Nick and I have similar taste in music but he is usually a little faster at finding the good stuff. If I just sync his Zune Card, I am all set to get the best and latest music that I have a much better chance of liking than if I try to find just the overall top 40 songs from the radio.

There are even going to be "super" friends that you can add--which won't take up one of your 100 maximum friend slots--that will be experts at choosing music based on certain genres. I'm imagining it like a radio station on-the-go, but will have to try it to find out.

The video you see is the new TV ad that is about to hit airwaves... I like it much better than other Microsoft TV ads (can you say "the 'wow' starts now??").

Some screen shots:

Now you can see more social information directly in the Zune client... And yes, that's a "friends of friend" row at the bottom for you to further explore

The "autoplaylist" feature helps quickly put togther music based on artists, genres, etc.

The video section will have some of your favorite shows like "The Office" or "Heroes."

Even the Zune Social homepage got a little visual tweaking...

EdVangelist gives his advice

Max Zuckerman — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:16:00 GMT

Edwin Guarin, "EdVangelist," has been in your shoes as a student. He has also been the "paratrooper" of enterprise business support... on call at any moment to jump on a plane, go onsite to customer locations, fix mission critical issues, and maybe grab a sandwich on his way home. Now, he's in front of students like you every day discussing where industry is going, technology today and how it can help you, and ways for you to learn and find your passion.

Edwin gave one of his famous interactive talks to students at the Imagine Cup 2008 US Finals where he discussed the future of the job market and ways for students to prepare. Check it out and get some advice from the pro.

Note: I cut the video he references: Tina's "Life at Microsoft."

Academic Community Launch in Austria

Christian — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:13:00 GMT

In the last 4 weeks we three Microsoft Student Partners (one even Senior Student Partner), Alex, Mario and me, did the Academic Community Launch in Austria.

The idea was to visit a lot of the universities in Austria and do the something similar as the launch events (Heroes happen here, anybody) that Microsoft held in the different countries around the world.

We also wanted to show them the new technologies (in talks and one workshop) in a from-students-for-students perspective.

This video is a summary of what we did, plus (after minute 9:30) an interview with Alex where he speaks about the organization of such an event and also about what we learned while doing it.

Age of Empires creators + Halo = HALO WARS

Max Zuckerman — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:58:00 GMT

I was not entirely sold on the idea of a real-time-strategy (RTS) game on the Xbox 360 when I first heard about it. In addition, I was less sure of this plan when I was told that it would be based on the Halo story. I decided to approach it with an open mind, however, and I checked out the teaser web site.

Looks like I may be proven wrong......

Although there is no official launch date yet and some other details have yet to be decided, this actually has my attention now and has potential to be an interesting game. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a good trailer, but if the game comes close to what I am seeing, then I'm for it.

What do you think??

Mega-quick hands on with Ford Sync powered by Microsoft

Max Zuckerman — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:31:00 GMT

Dan Waters, the Academic Relationship Manager out of Tampa, FL, drives a Ford. And when asked about what some of his favorite features of the car are, he immediately mentions "Sync." You may have seen some of the commercials--my favorite is the one where a guy's friend reveals he has "questionable" taste in music--but have you actually seen it in action??

In case you haven't, this is a mega-quick hands on with two Sync equipped models. Dan walks me through the usage on one car, but honestly it's pretty intuitive and I think most people would get it just by playing around.

Cells on camp (with subtitles)

Ivana Tilca — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:25:00 GMT

25 April 2008 .. Hi! I wanted to share with you the Cells on Camp event which took place a few weeks ago in Salta, Argentina. This is the first of many events the students like me are planning on doing this year.

Over 1.000 students and teachers were present. Thanks to the MSP's Leonardo Amaya, Sebastián Miserendino and also to the cell members Cristian DiNatale, Ricardo Miranda, Ramón Romero, José Villagrán among others, people enjoyed topics like WPF , WCF, Silverlight , Hyper-V, XNA , ASP.NET Ajax, Windows Deployment Services , etc.

The event began at 9 a.m. with Pablo Listingart introducing Microsoft Academic Program, and finished with Alejandro Ponicke, an incredible IT Pro Microsoft Evangelist from Buenos Aires also a legend for students and professionals in our country.

We also had several topics that were given at the same time, so attendees were able to choose which they wanted to listen to.

Also Cell members showed the projects they've been working on, and we had an Install Fest in which we gave Microsoft Software absolutely free. The day ended at 9 p.m. with lots of presents for the crowd, like T-shirts, Books, Backpacks, etc. And as you can see in the video, people loved it.

This is the first event made by students in our country, and hopefully, will be others in a couple of months. Because students like us, enjoy learning, and OUR POTENTIAL IS OUR PASSION.

Imagine Cup USA Finals in Los Angeles

Max Zuckerman — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

40 students from over 15 different universities across the USA converged on the Orpheum theater in LA for a 3 day adventure filled with learning, real world hands on experiences, networking, showmanship and of course a whole lot of fun! The goal of the US Imagine Cup finals was to create an AMAZING experience for the student teams, and to give them the opportunity to have fun, learn from successful mentors, network with influential’s, and to use the Imagine Cup Finals as a launching point into their next endeavor.

Here's a glimpse of some of the student projects and shenanigans. This year's theme was all about the environment, so keep that in mind when you see people talking about saving energy, carpooling, and how our world looks.

Microsoft hits it big on Webware's top 100 Web Applications for 2008

Max Zuckerman — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:20:00 GMT

The voting is complete and the winners are posted from Webware's top 100 web apps chosen by the community (that's you!). The list is full of really great products and services that I have found to be invaluable tools for everyday Internet use. It was also nice to see some of Microsoft's recent advancements in the online space on some of the top 10 lists. Zune side by side with Pandora. Live Search up there with Google. Windows Live next to Skype and Yahoo! Mail.

Some of these services are pretty new have had rocky starts but are definitely contenders today as can be seen by how the community feels. If you haven't checked out Live Search lately, give it a shot. The results are MUUUUUCH better than they used to be and it has actually become my homepage. I personally use Pandora all the time but have augmented my music knowledge-base considerably with the Zune Social capabilities.

This is pure speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if Live Mesh took a few winner's slots in the near future :)

Imagine Cup 2008 | Russian Finals

Lean — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:06:00 GMT

The Russian Imagine Cup Finals took place in Moscow, in the popular student venue of Moscow Aviation Institute Club, and Channel 8 was there.

7 teams from different parts of Russia came to Moscow to participate in the local final to see who will represent the country in Paris. It was an incredible event with more than 400 visitors, a Roundtable for Young Entrepreneurs, featuring Nick Surin (Imagine Cup 2005 Worldwide winner), representatives from several companies and venture funds), a Blog Contest, Xbox zone and amazing projects…

The event was opened by a Rock Band “Footprints on Water” from Chelyabinsk – they wrote a song specifically about the Imagine Cup!

After the opening, the competition split into parts: on main stage, in front of 400+ audience, 7 software design teams from different parts of Russia presented their projects, while competitors in Algorithms and Project Hoshimi competitions started to work on their problems in the “behind-the-glass” style of open space, observable by others. Following teams’ presentations, there was an Entrepreneurship Panel and Roundtable, where all students could ask their questions on how to turn their ideas into successful project. The panel included Nick Surin, Imagine Cup 2005 worldwide winner (he also served as a member of the judging panel), representatives from sponsor companies, venture funds, etc. While students were busy participating in the panel or relaxing in the special Xbox zone the judges were busy making the final decision.

As a result:

· 1^st place was given to the joint team from several St.Petersburg Universities (SPbSU, SPbSU ITMO, SPbSU “LETI”) with the project “Arina” – the system to model the fire spread in forests and to help chose the right method for fire extinguishing. Their presentation was by far the most spectacular, and the level of problems they were handling is amazing!

· 2^nd place went to the team from Nizhny Novgorod with .Life project (aimed at modeling the ecological situation in cities, taking into account highways, buildings and green areas on the map), and 3^rd place – to the joint project from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Baumann Moscow State Technical University with AirRanger project (they designed a small helicopter to track the fire and actually made it fly into the audience during their presentation!).

· Special Entrepreneurship prize from Intel was given to the team from South Urals State University (Chelyabinsk) with FreeWay project, which used GPS-equipped cars and centralized server to prevent traffic jams.

nevertheless Imagine Cup in Russia is still alive, PhotoCup.ru is still receiving entries for the Digital photography category.

There are more local finals happening now all around the world and they will be here soon!

Brushes for Expression Design : foliage brushes

Donald Adu -Poku — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:22:00 GMT

I present to you the newest set of free brushes/strokes for Expression Design : Bittbox's foliage brushes. Download the file, read the "how to" in the file and you are good to go. Have fun experimenting.

If you are wondering where the first set of brushes are then check this out.

Worldwide demo competition. The art of demo

Lean — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:51:00 GMT

We have fun with our products all the time, every year we do an internal competition for demos. This year Windows Vista and Windows live were the themes. Employees from around the world compete in each one of their countries and then they compete in the final even in Redmond. The UK sub was represented by a team composed by Students, they are interns from Customer Service and MCS, here is their story.
You can watch more on 10

Pitching Your Idea

Clint Rutkas — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Perry Lowe, a professor at Bentley College and Philip DesAutels, an uber-microsoftie, were giving students advice on how to pitch your ideas and some presentation skills at the Imagine Cup US Finals.

Perry and Philip talk about telling a good story, rehearsing, does bleeding edge technology sell the product, and knowing your audience. Perry and Philip also were nice enough to give out their slides. One deck is on innovation and entrepreneurship and the other is on giving the killer presentation.

Build a Robot, Make it dance through the Maze, win BIG PRIZES: It's ROBOCHAMP TIME!

Max Zuckerman — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:36:00 GMT

This is one of those competitions that I'm really excited about. Why? Because it really bridges the gap between the virtual world and reality. It's called RoboChamps and it's being spearheaded by Mr. ~~Tafiti~~ RoboChampion himself, Marc Mercuri.

Here's the concept: design a robot, program it to successfully negotiate a maze full of traps and surprises, win fame and glory! This is all accomplished by simulating your design in Microsoft Robotics Studio. As Mark explains, this contest is open to everyone, but he would love to see a student win it! You guys have a nice advantage with your access to DreamSpark software to get you rolling.

You will see in this video Marc's demo of the maze, the mars rover, and the web site with avatars and talking robot shows! Also, make sure to check out Channel 9 and Channel 10 for the developer and technology enthusiast perspecitves, respectively.

Get Meshy with Live Mesh

Max Zuckerman — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:22:00 GMT

"We started with a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home..." - Bill Gates

What may have sounded crazy at the time isn't too farfetched today. In fact, I began writing this very post on my laptop, saved a draft to the web, and finished it on one of my three desktop machines (I have a media center and desktop at home, and a work desktop in my office). What really is a pain now, however, is trying to figure out where I have my pictures, music, documents, or programs. Add on the multiple external hard drives I have and it gets even more confusing.

Enter the Internet where you could at least backup and store your documents, but what if you're not online? Or worse, you are online but never uploaded the file! Or what if you need more than just a few files and need to access a specific program?

This is where Live Mesh comes into play and offers a real solution leveraging software and services together for something pretty amazing. The basics: synchronize files between all your PCs and even devices, synchronize files between your local desktop and 5GB of space in "the cloud" (that's code for "online"), and my favorite: remote into any of these Live Mesh-ified machines via the web.

All sound too good to be true? Well check out the video... a public Technology Preview is now available, so get in on the action and GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK!

More Live Mesh Coverage:
- Jon Udell chats with Ray Ozzie about Live Mesh
- Charles Torre talks to Abolade Gbadegesin about the Live Mesh Architecture
- Fillo gets hands on with Live Mesh

Office Ultimate 2007 deal for students coming to an end

Mauricio Diaz Orlich — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:51:00 GMT

You know how the saying goes: nothing lasts forever. And this is also the case, unfortunately, of Microsoft's Ultimate Steal deal, of which I wrote about back in October.

If you don't know what the Ultimate Steal is about, in a few words, if you are a student in one of the ten countries where the operation is taking place (United Kingdom, France, Canada, United States, Italy, Spain, Australia, Korea, Mexico and Taiwan) you can get Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for about 10% of the retail price.

However, this offer is coming to an end in 6 days in many of the countries above. If you are a student in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Italy or Spain, you have until April 30 to take advantage of this deal. If you live in the other five countries, you still have a few months left, but don't wait too long, or else you might forget.

Watch Team Circle from Taiwan’s Film that placed 2nd at Imagine Cup 2007!

Laura Foy — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:21:00 GMT

As we said, Imagine Cup 2008 is coming. Teams are getting ready, optimizing their projects, preparing the presentations, etc.
Team Circle from Taiwan placed 2^nd in the Imagine Cup 2007 Short Film competition with their film, “BR-14's April” which tells the story of a friendship between a robot designed to fight wars and a little girl named April. Their film addressed the 2007 theme, “Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all.” Says the team, “The message of our film is, Education can change people deeply from their hearts, so if a person has good will in his heart, Peace will last.”
Check out what's going on in the IC forums

Microsoft on the Environment Round Table (Part II)

Max Zuckerman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Act One, Scene II. In this second look at a round table of Microsofties talking about the environment, we gaze our attention toward the future and how you as a student will be affected.

The main take-away seems to be that prioritizing the environment in all that you do will become increasingly more important. This will also lead to new opportunities for both entrepreneurs and those working for large corporations alike. Michael specifically sites an example about a business student who thinks there is a great opportunity to help out the environment........ an opportunity to make money, he claims. Clearly, his passion and pursuit are not quite matched, but other people really do believe the environment is a worthy cause and do put their efforts into making it better.

A broader view with more information is discussed in Part I of this discussion.

Microsoft on the Environment Round Table (Part I)

Max Zuckerman — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:04:00 GMT

With Earth Day right around the corner, I had a chance to sit in on a round table discussion with Microsofties and show you how they see the environment becoming increasingly more important to industry and consumers. You will hear from Microsoft Research's Feng Zhao, Environmental Technologist Mark Aggar, Program Manager Stephen Berard (he's behind some of the coolest power features in Windows), Marketing Communications Manager Michael Walsh, and a Microsoftie that on her own initiative started an environment-focused group internally: Tina Tam.

The crew covers topics such as sustainable computing now and in the future. One of my favorite points was about how sleep states of electronics really work and how much power something uses in the "off" state--is it really off? Much like safety in cars today has become a standard, designing with the environment in mind is quickly rising in priority and will hopefully soon be the norm, according to Mark.

This is Part I of a two part discussion, the second will cover what opportunities there are for students in this space.

How important is the environment to you now... what will it take for you to act?

Chris at the profs: Compilers, Languages and the Future

Christian — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:35:00 GMT

A few days ago - while being on the road for our Academic Community Launch - Mario, Alex and I had the chance to speak with Hanspeter Mössenböck, professor at the University of Linz, and Markus Löberbauer, who is an assistant at the university.

During the interview we have spoken about languages, compilers, the work at university and what is going to come up in the future. Prof. Mössenböck and Mr. Löberbauer also gave us information on what students should study to be ready for the future.

Tune in if you are interested in languages, compilers, the .NET Framework and JAVA.