It’s now exactly 2 weeks since I rolled up to Reading University, and exciting times are beginning!

Not only am I now at University studying (sometimes) for a Computer Science BSc Degree I am also lucky enough to once again be a Microsoft Student Partner!

Last year I was a Student Partner and it was a fantastic experience and I have met a lot of awesome passionate people and friends – both those working in Tech, but also other students with similar tech  tastes – particularly with the #UKMSPMeetup event which was awesome fun, to both help plan and attend.

Other fantastic events include the Imagine Cup UK Finals at Microsoft HQ which is yet another great student focused scheme run by Microsoft – and I can definitely recommend entering as its great fun and offers the chance to compete and travel internationally!

This year looks to be even better, and I am eager to get going with the exciting plans for both University and the MSP scheme, with great technology to play with, awesome people to meet and hopefully a lot of people who I can be inspired by, and hopefully a few I can also inspire along the way.

I’m raring to go and I look forward to sharing my tech fun and journey on here, so watch this space!

Discovered via @Philcr & @MsUkStudents

This post is admittedly a little late up so apologies!

Once again on 20th April I was off to Microsoft HQ, as one of the lucky ones to be invited to the UK Imagine Cup Finals at Microsoft’s UK HQ in Reading.

So before I start talking about how awesome the day was, let’s first cover what the Imagine Cup is.

What is the Imagine Cup?

The Imagine Cup is the worlds biggest and best Student Technology Competition. Created by Microsoft almost a decade ago, the competition spans one year, starting with local, regional and online contests across over 100 countries/regions.

The lucky finalists can get to attend the – all expenses paid – Worldwide Finals which are held in a different country every year. This year the Worldwide Finals are in New York City, one of the most exciting and famous cities in the world.

The Imagine cup is a great competition which brings students together, providing the opportunity to innovate and help shape the future through technology.

Also check out this video which explains it with some awesome footage from last year’s world wide final in Poland! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRnH_tefgcc

The UK Finals

Ben Nunney kicked off proceedings in the opening ceremony of the UK Imagine Cup Finals with some inspiring words as well as info about the day, as well as the obligatory “message from the legal team”, and as expected many mentions of cake. Which for anyone which knows Ben is to be expected.

We then saw some words from Emanuele Ognissanti, from Microsoft Corp and head of the Imagine cup program globally to welcome us all and shared his excitement in the projects which come from the Imagine Cup competition and the 300,000+ Registrants world wide!!

We also caught a peak at a brilliant IE9 video with Microsoft humourlessly self-mocking past failures *cough* IE6 and celebrating the launch of IE9.

Video from Alex Oliver, hopefully Microsoft will YouTube an original copy soon…

The day proved to be a fantastic way for MSPs, Passionate Students and Imagine Cup hopefuls to mingle and network. With mouth watering food from the wonderful Microsoft hospitality team it was geek heaven. A truly fantastic experience meeting some great geeks, enjoying delicious food, and obviously free Wi-Fi.

As well as great food and awesome geeks we also had a short presentation from Chris Leydon, the Project Manager of TinyGrab.com a fantastic project offering “Simple. Screenshot. Sharing.” – With over 300K user base and some impressive 3,000,000 screenshots shared over 2 years, add the fact the everyone involved in the company is under 22!

Chris also shared some inspiring stories from his experience in the industry and some sound advice when starting your own Start-up, was great hearing from someone who seems to operate on a similar wave-length, and someone I’d love to hear more from in the future.

A very interesting chap and a fantastic product too, which I have now been using on a daily basis since installing!

After the event we all packed off to Pizza Express, after getting a little lost in a car park with @KirisuteRanza we found our way there and enjoyed a great meal and some fantastic conversation with both Students & Microsoft guys.

I particularly enjoy the informality of events such as this, it’s a fantastic way to talk to many people at a variety of levels within the Technology Industry from different areas, different ages, backgrounds and hold open honest discussions. I look forward to more in the future!

Windows Phone 7 has been a revolution to the mobile industry and brings many exciting new features, and concepts to the market.

The video below clearly goes through some of the key features of the Windows Phone 7, and how the interface and features help to make an all round awesome phone, check it out.

WebMatrix is Microsoft’s new offering for web developers with some very nifty features to help you get your sites made and online. Take a look at the overview video below to get  an idea how WebMatrix may prove useful to you.

I will hopefully be writing some better reviews and how to’s for WebMatrix as I use it a little more, also soon I will hopefully be giving a lecture on using it for PHP development! So… Watch this space.

But at the same token they really have pulled themselves together in the past few years and I am really excited to see the technology, software and cool tech they have been and will be releasing… So here’s some very impressive stats about how Microsoft are doing. Did I mention Microsoft make more than Apple & Google combined?…

• 150 million Windows 7 licenses sold – That’s 7 copies PER SECOND.

• 7.1 million projected iPad sales in 2010
• 58 million projected netbook sales in 2010
• 355 million projected PC sales in 2010

• less than 10 percent of U.S. netbooks ran Windows in 2008
• 96 percent of U.S. netbooks ran Windows in 2009

• 0 paying customers running on Windows Azure in November 2009.
• 10,000 paying customers running on Windows Azure in June 2010.
• 700,000 students, teachers and staff using Microsoft’s cloud productivity tools in Kentucky public schools, the largest cloud deployment in the U.S.

• 16 million subscribers to the largest 25 U.S. daily newspapers
• 14 million Netflix subscribers
• 23 million Xbox live subscribers

• 9,000,000 customer downloads of the Office 2010 beta prior to launch, the largest Microsoft beta program in history.

• 21.4 million new Bing search users in one year.

• 24 percent Linux Server market share in 2005.
• 33 percent predicted Linux Server market share for 2007 (made in 2005).
• 21.2 percent actual Linux Server market share, Q4 2009.

• 8.8 million global iPhone sales in Q1 2010.
• 21.5 million Nokia smartphone sales in Q1 2010.
• 55 million total smartphone sales globally in Q1 2010.
• 439 million projected global smartphone sales in 2014.

• 9 number of years it took Salesforce.com to reach 1 million paid user milestone.
• 6 number of years it took Microsoft Dynamics CRM to reach 1 million paid user milestone.
• 100 percent chance that Salesforce.com CEO will mention Microsoft in a speech, panel, interview, or blog post.

• 173 million Gmail users
• 284 million Yahoo Mail users
• 360 million Windows Live Hotmail users
• 299 million active Windows Live Messenger Accounts worldwide.
• 1 – Rank of Windows Live Messenger globally compared to all other instant messaging services.

• $5.7 billion Apple net income for fiscal year ending in Sept 2009
• $6.5 billion Google net income for fiscal year ending in Dec 2009
• $14.5 billion Microsoft net income for fiscal year ending in June 2009

• $23.0 billion Total Microsoft revenue, FY2000.
• $58.4 billion Total Microsoft revenue, FY2009.

Source

Just for a bit of amusement, here’s an apparent internal video for Vista SP1…

I have been lucky enough to play with Kinect a few times now, most recently at the#UKMSPMeetUp event on the 21st and it really is an incredible bit of kit – If you’re feeling generous, contact me and I’ll send you a postal address to send me one!

Now I am not much of a dancer. At all. Most would say I am horribly bad, I however – when alone in my room with no one home, blinds closed and music blaring – think I am awesome, but there is always room for improvement and among other talents I’d very much like to have (but probably never will) which includes singing, playing guitar, being good at picking up cuties in the bar and having a social life which doesn’t involve social media being a good dancer is pretty near the top – after all… It’s one way to attract your future partner right?

Now I have played a few dance games in my life ranging from the PlayStation with a now archaic dance mat, to exercising/danceish games on the Nintendo Wii, but none of them can touch the awesome combination of XBOX 360 and Kinect.

The Kinect with its cool technology can map many points on your body and detect a huge array of data from your environment add this to a excellently made dance game and you have a winner, with Dance Central for the XBOX 360 you can dance, move, shake you hips, wave your arms, nod your head tap your foot and probably a whole lot more without even touching a the system directly because “You are the controller!”.

So whether you’re working your own moves, trying to get the upper hand on the dance floor, dancing on your own when no one can see (and probably keeping fit too as its a great work out!) or trying not to embarrass yourself with friends, Dance Central is a great game to pick up on boxing day!

Sponsored Post

It has been a long couple of days for me, finally on the train back to Swindon from London, and boy am I tired! But it was so worth it. Where have I been? You may be thinking and if you aren’t and the title still hasn’t explained, I will.

I posted a while back about the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Meet Up, where a few MSPs and I organised the #UKMSPMeetUp event – with just a little (a lot) of help from the awesome Ben Nunney, Phil Cross & other guys at Microsoft who really made the event happen so lets start with a huge thank you to the guys at Microsoft for all their support, time and dedication.

So this great event, what actually happened?

The event itself proved to be a great opportunity to network with other Student Partners and it was a great experience putting a real life face to Twitter handles and get to have a chat and experience some awesome tech.

We got to have a look at all the cool stuff in the “Microsoft Home” which is Microsoft’s view on what our living rooms may look like in the near future / now if you’re loaded, such as Surface & Kinect and of course have a good play as you can see from the rather unflattering pics of Blake Pender and I playing Kinect. As well as being sneakily recorded playing Kinect!

For reference, I am the large grey blob on the right, the guy on the left, looking a damn sight better while playing Kinect than I is Andrew Langhorn.

It was great to get some sessions from guys at Microsoft and really helped to give an overview of some of the many areas I’d like to get stuck into.

Welcome to the Future

Ben Nunney kicked off proceedings with a great talk on tech (and Nunney) past, present & future with a look at how technology has evolved and the many incarnations of Windows from the from the good (XP), the bad (Vista) and the downright awesome (Windows 7). Always fascinating to see how Windows and technology in general has progressed, and as always exciting to see where it might be going tomorrow…

Session 1: Developing for Windows Phone 7

A particularly great session with some interesting code examples from Kris Athi (@Lookitskris) for the Windows Phone 7 and explained some of the real-world development methodologies such as MVVM (Model View ViewModel), which has definitely given me another kick to get stuck into C# & Windows Phone 7 development – Can’t wait to get my hands on his code and have a play!

Session 2: Developing for the Web

Following this we had Martin Beeby (@TheBeebs) with some interesting web development and some great demos on HTML5 such as Pirates Love Daises and some simple ways HTML5 can be used, it was also interesting (as an avid Chrome user) to see how IE9 is really stepping up the plate on HTML5 and seems to be outstripping Google Chrome by miles on performance and W3C validity with HTML5… Most impressive.

It was also very interesting to see web development from a Microsoft standpoint being as my view is pretty much purely a Dreamweaver Code view on a LAMP (Linux, Apache MySQL & PHP) standing. I am definitely going to download the development tools such as WebMatrix and other and see if I can have a play with that way of developing for the web, maybe if I am lucky I can find a way to test out the Azure cloud too. I may even get really really daring and see about learning some ASP.net. But I won’t be rushing into that one when I have C# and a never ending list of things to learn & play with.

Session 3: Game Development for XBOX, Phone and PC

Next up on the list of sessions was XNA Game development with Paul Foster (@PaulFo) now I have never really had any interest in games development, but the session defiantly made me at least think its something I’d quite like to have a play with (yet another thing!).

With a simple yet fun game created in a short space of time showing off what can easily be done with the development tools, and again I’d very much like to grab the code and see if I can figure it all out and get my head round some basic XNA development. If I am lucky I might be able to hack together something cool and release it onto the Windows Market. Which would just be plain cool, so watch this space and hopefully I can create something awesome.

Session 4: How to get jobs, get skills and make lots of money.

We ended the sessions with Phil Cross standing in to give us an insight into how potential employers will likely select candidates with some fun and interesting examples and group activities helping to provide a real insight into what may be in-store for when I begin applying for my summer internships & other jobs!

Eating, Drinking, Geeking.

The natural end to a great day was a fantastic evening meal and drinks and another great opportunity to relax and chat with like minded folks and hopefully made some good friends which I can’t wait to meet up with again.

We of course did end up meeting up most of the guys numerous times, with breakfast at McDonalds mainly to abuse their WiFi and of course with horrible situations with travel we all bumped into each other and ended up spending an hour or so chilling in Starbucks in Victoria station enjoying the coffee and of course… WiFi. Because geeks can’t live without internet connectivity. True story. Last time I didn’t have it, I got “the shakes” and everything. Scary.

The past couple of days, while painful on my pocket due to our cheap bus not showing, causing a mad dash for a (stupidly expensive)  train ticket, and then on the journey back cancellations and yet more delays thanks to the snow but it was definitely worth it. It was fantastic to meet some fellow MSPs and I have been inspired to “Be what’s next”. I am hoping to get a lot of blogging done and posts written over the Christmas period as well as working on my various projects and websites before I got back to the thrill of college coursework.

Bring on #UKMSPMeetUp2011 !!!

There are 103 Microsoft Student Partners (MSPs) all over the UK. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, the UK is big. Wouldn’t it be great if, just for one day, we could all come together from whatever corner of the United Kingdom we’re from and meet up in person?

Well that’s what we’re here to announce! I’m part of a small group of Microsoft Student Partners who have come together to organise the greatest event in MSP history. Yes – you guessed it – a UK MSP Meetup!

The idea behind the hashtag was originally proposed by @Dansgalaxy (That’s Me!)

When?

On Tuesday, December 21st 2010, at Microsoft’s London office – which is right next to Victoria Train/Bus station, and also just down the road from Buckingham Palace.

The event will run from 12 noon until 18:00, with some optional dinner and entertainment in the evening kindly being provided by Microsoft.

It’ll be a great opportunity to network, make friends and hear some cool presentations delivered by some Microsoft speakers that we’ve invited. Here’s the agenda:

12:00 Lunch

13:00 Welcome to the Future

14:00 Session 1: Developing for Windows Phone 7

14:45 Session 2: Developing for The Web

15:30 Break

16:00 Session 3: Game Development for Xbox, Phone and PC

16:45 Session 4: How to get jobs, get skills, and make lots of money.

17:30 Round up

18:30 Dinner and Drinks

Big thanks to Microsoft for giving us a venue and feeding us all for the day. Their sponsorship has really helped make this event possible!

Who? How?

Now, we do expect the day to be rather popular, and we can’t fit all 103 MSPs into the venue – it’d be great if we could, but it’s simply not possible. Don’t worry though – we’re going to be live-streaming the event on the web for those MSPs that can’t make it in person!

There’s space for around 30 MSPs in person at the event though, allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Details of this will be sent out to all MSPs closer to the time. To register, drop an email to lewis.davies@msptechrep.com with your details and we’ll let you know if and when you’ve got a place. If you want to attend, don’t hold back – we’re expecting places to go pretty quickly!

And Finally…

If you’re travelling a long way, and fancy staying over in London for the night of the 21^st, a few of us will be staying at The Langland Hotel on Gower Street, not too far from Covent Garden and Soho. By tube, the hotel is around ten minutes on the Victoria line from Microsoft London. Shop around for prices, but the best we’ve found so far is over at LateRooms.com for £40 per night, including free in-room WiFi and breakfast the following morning.

We really want to make this event a success – so please, come on down to London on the 21^st and meet your fellow MSPs! In the meantime, you can chat about the event on Twitter using the #ukmspmeetup hashtag.

We’ll see you on December 21^st in London!

The MSP Meetup team:

Adam
@adambonneruk

I recently took up writing the majority of my posts using Windows Live Writer when I installed the Windows Live Essentials 2011 software, and so far its been pretty decent and includes some great features, including the ability to easily add watermark text to images before uploading to the blog, and here’s how.

Once you have your image in the Windows Live Writer post, you can no hit the aptly named “Watermark” button under the Format tab which will provide some options for the watermark text.

The watermark options are admittedly limited but are clear and easy to implement with little fuss, just enter the watermark text to appear on the image, the font, size and position the text should appear on the image and you’re set!

The watermark will appear on the image something like this:

Now while this is a handy feature to quickly place a watermark on your images it does have many limitations and a wide variety of improvements I would love to see in the next release of Windows Live Writer.

I’d like to see some more options, such as the colour of the watermark, which as it seems to come out a light grey colour which really doesn’t work for images with light background and can mean the watermark is almost unreadable.

As well as this the positioning could do with some tweaking, and the option to enable you to drag ‘n’ drop the watermark to a set location – and perhaps even the ability to save the co-ordinates of that location as a custom position for future use – would be a great option for making it just that little bit easier and flexible.