For a while now Microsoft has been working with Mono, a Novell sponsored .Net implementation for Linux to not only get .Net onto multiple platforms, but also to get Silverlight across to all of the platforms. A key step in gaining a stronger foothold in the flash dominated world.

This implementation, named Moonlight allows for Linux users to view Silverlight applications online just as any Windows or Mac user would, and with many web developers praising Silverlight, this should only be a benefit to the web development community.

For the Linux community, this also has the extra bonus of allowing Desklets to be created, this is synonymous with Adobe AIR, which allows desktop applications to be developed by web developers without having to learn advanced skills.

(Source: http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2008/05/14/moonlight-silverlight-for-linux-is-available-now.aspx)

Have you heard about “It’s Not Cheating“?

Perhaps you’ve added Roger Hero on Facebook, or played the Cheat Street game.

If you’ve got no idea what I’m talking about, this is basically an awesome offer from Microsoft which allows Australian uni and Tafe students to purchase the entire Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate suite for $75!

What do you get in Office Ultimate?

• Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 - new interface, better picture, charting and graphics tools to help you produce better looking documents
• Groove 2007 - work anywhere, at any time - online or offline!
• Outlook 2007 - features a new “To-do” bar - organise your life (my favourite program!)
• OneNote 2007 - a digital notebook that provides a flexible way to gather any notes, pictures or information

All this for $25 per year, or $75 for life!!

Guess what! This offer was due to finish on the 15th of May, however we can now tell you the offer has been extended until October!

Check it out online, or contact us and we’ll get a CD with the software on it to you.

As of now the XNA 3.0 Community Technology Preview is available for download.

XNA 3.0 CTP

This requires a version of Visual Studio 2008 and will co-exist with Visual Studio 2005 and XNA GS 2.0.

Media without XACT is now supported with a SoundEffect class, and Mp3 can be imported straight into your solution, allowing compressed music finally!

Note there is no Xbox360 support in the CTP release, however there will be with the final release, currently only PC and Zune.

Now I am off to see what else they added. Enjoy.

(Remember, this is a testing/preview release and is not a reflection of the final product.)

Hi fellow IICT students,

Those coming here from my Intro to ICT lecture talk may remember me mentioning the 20th of May as a possible date for an upcoming event, just wanted to say that was a mistake and that I meant 2 weeks later, which is the 3rd of June. This is just just a provisional date however and is not official yet.

Check back here soon for then final date and time as well as other details you will need to find out how to get free or cheap stuff from Microsoft.

Michael

Hey everyone, I’m Chris Webster, the other Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). I’m currently in my third and final year of the Bachelor of Information Technology program, so when I’m at uni, you can find me around the Faculty of IT.

Michael’s given a pretty good intro to what Microsoft Student Partners are, and the sorts of things that we do as MSPs - basically we’re here to share our experiences with you, and get you using the best of Microsoft’s products.

My interests are more aligned with the business-side of IT, as well as in web and multimedia design - so I can tell you all about some of the office, design and front-end development products/services that Microsoft offers.

Shortly, Michael and I will be giving a talk at UTS about “How to get free stuff from Microsoft” - so stay tuned in the next week or so to see what we’ve got to offer you.

Hi everyone, I am Michael Quandt, attending the University of Technology, Sydney. 1st Year Bachelor of Engineering, ICT.

I am also a MSP, that is a Microsoft Student Partner. Basically I do events that in some way involve and encourage use of any Microsoft Product or Technology and everyone learns new things and has fun!

So you are on the website that is now the home for us (there is 2 of us) MSPs. Here you will find event details and promotions that as a student you would be interested. (We get tons of great stuff, take advantage of it!)

Events, promotions, freebies, fun, its all for students and we intend to bring as much of it to you as possible.

Events means finding out about cool new things and giveaways! Prizes and freebies is what everyone loves.

If you go to another University, do not worry! There is probably a MSP at your uni with the same goals as us, and most of the promotions we present here are for students in general.

If you are a Software Developer or Designer, you will be the focus of my presentations. (not all, but a few) I have a strong interest in C#/.Net and XNA, so if you want to write games and want to run them on the Xbox 360, then I will probably do something you will like for an event.

Check back here frequently or subscribe to our RSS feed and get the latest information on offerings to students and events we are running at UTS.