Comments for Microsoft Student Partners at UTS http://www.utsmsp.com Microsoft Student Partners at the University of Technology, Sydney Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:14:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc Comment on How to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft! by Did you learn how to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft? at Microsoft Student Partners at UTS http://www.utsmsp.com/events/how-to-get-free-and-cheap-stuff-from-microsoft/#comment-10 Did you learn how to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft? at Microsoft Student Partners at UTS Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:18:28 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?page_id=33#comment-10 [...] You can view all the photos and the slides from the day on the Events page. [...] [...] You can view all the photos and the slides from the day on the Events page. [...]

]]> Comment on Did you learn how to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft? by Bryce G http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/06/did-you-learn-how-to-get-free-and-cheap-stuff-from-microsoft/#comment-9 Bryce G Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:50:49 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?p=23#comment-9 Sure did "learn how to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft"! Great presentation, awesome freebies - definately worth my lunch break. Cheers Chris! Sure did “learn how to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft”!
Great presentation, awesome freebies - definately worth my lunch break.
Cheers Chris!

]]> Comment on How to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft! by Thomas http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/how-to-get-free-and-cheap-stuff-from-microsoft/#comment-8 Thomas Thu, 29 May 2008 09:39:33 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?p=19#comment-8 DreamSpark is an interesting concept. I sat up and paid some attention when .NET was coming out -- it's a powerful library and C# is not a bad language. Most importantly, all the usual tools were available in express format for free; Visual C# Express, Visual VB.NET, etc. It's a good way to get people on board. It's an often-used strategy to market software to university students so that they want to continue to use it in their professional career. All the technical software like Mathematica, AutoCAD, etc. has generous academic licences for this reason. So it makes perfect business sense for Microsoft to distribute their development stuff for free. It worked well for Apple -- XCode, a beautiful and full-featured development system, has been free and available with Mac OS X since the beginning. And university students are poor. Vendor lock-in is a big deal for operating system developers. Apple's doing it with Cocoa, and Microsoft is doing much the same with .NET (except for oddities like the Mono project). If Microsoft is going to keep up with increasing market pressure, it needs killer software infrastructure. A killer app can be written for any platform and anybody can port a killer app, so it's the tools and libraries at the developer's disposal which count. Visual studio and .NET are Microsoft's basis for modern development, so they need to push it. Here are the results, and developers like you guys win. I'm not at UTS, so I'm not going to be able to see the talk, but hopefully it's an interesting presentation and some good software will come out of it in the long run. Enjoy. DreamSpark is an interesting concept. I sat up and paid some attention when .NET was coming out — it’s a powerful library and C# is not a bad language. Most importantly, all the usual tools were available in express format for free; Visual C# Express, Visual VB.NET, etc. It’s a good way to get people on board.

It’s an often-used strategy to market software to university students so that they want to continue to use it in their professional career. All the technical software like Mathematica, AutoCAD, etc. has generous academic licences for this reason. So it makes perfect business sense for Microsoft to distribute their development stuff for free. It worked well for Apple — XCode, a beautiful and full-featured development system, has been free and available with Mac OS X since the beginning. And university students are poor.

Vendor lock-in is a big deal for operating system developers. Apple’s doing it with Cocoa, and Microsoft is doing much the same with .NET (except for oddities like the Mono project). If Microsoft is going to keep up with increasing market pressure, it needs killer software infrastructure. A killer app can be written for any platform and anybody can port a killer app, so it’s the tools and libraries at the developer’s disposal which count. Visual studio and .NET are Microsoft’s basis for modern development, so they need to push it. Here are the results, and developers like you guys win.

I’m not at UTS, so I’m not going to be able to see the talk, but hopefully it’s an interesting presentation and some good software will come out of it in the long run. Enjoy.

]]> Comment on How to get free (and cheap) stuff from Microsoft! by Chris http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/how-to-get-free-and-cheap-stuff-from-microsoft/#comment-7 Chris Mon, 26 May 2008 12:31:45 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?p=19#comment-7 woohoo! keep those responses coming guys! thanks to everyone who's already registered their interest. Look forward to seeing you next Tuesday! woohoo! keep those responses coming guys! thanks to everyone who’s already registered their interest.

Look forward to seeing you next Tuesday!

]]> Comment on ReMIX08 Sydney - Expression Studio 2 is here :) by Chris http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/remix08-sydney-expression-studio-2-is-here/#comment-6 Chris Mon, 26 May 2008 05:21:29 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?p=17#comment-6 Hey Matt, Quick answer: I don't know. I checked out both MSDN:AA and the full MSDN subscription on the weekend, and neither of them have Expression Studio 2 up there. The Expression website still has the beta 2 version available for download as well. I'm following it up, and will have an answer at the talk next Tuesday :) -- Chris Hey Matt,

Quick answer: I don’t know.

I checked out both MSDN:AA and the full MSDN subscription on the weekend, and neither of them have Expression Studio 2 up there. The Expression website still has the beta 2 version available for download as well. I’m following it up, and will have an answer at the talk next Tuesday :)
–
Chris

]]> Comment on ReMIX08 Sydney - Expression Studio 2 is here :) by Matthew Hilton http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/remix08-sydney-expression-studio-2-is-here/#comment-5 Matthew Hilton Sun, 25 May 2008 22:49:41 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?p=17#comment-5 (When) will Expression Studio 2 be being added to MSDNAA for download? (When) will Expression Studio 2 be being added to MSDNAA for download?

]]> Comment on ReMIX08 Sydney - Expression Studio 2 is here :) by Australia ReMIX08 Redux | www.nickhodge.com http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/remix08-sydney-expression-studio-2-is-here/#comment-4 Australia ReMIX08 Redux | www.nickhodge.com Sat, 24 May 2008 03:04:37 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?p=17#comment-4 [...] Chris, MSP from UTS: http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/remix08-sydney-expression-studio-2-is-here/ [...] [...] Chris, MSP from UTS: http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/remix08-sydney-expression-studio-2-is-here/ [...]

]]> Comment on Have you heard about itsnotcheating.com.au? It’s been extended! by Have you heard about itsnotcheating.com.au? It’s been extended! http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/have-you-heard-about-itsnotcheatingcomau-its-been-extended/#comment-3 Have you heard about itsnotcheating.com.au? It’s been extended! Sun, 11 May 2008 06:14:46 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/?p=9#comment-3 [...] You can find more of this exciting post by clicking here. [...] [...] You can find more of this exciting post by clicking here. [...]

]]> Comment on Errata: IICT Lecture Information by chris http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/errata-iict-lecture-information/#comment-2 chris Wed, 07 May 2008 01:19:00 +0000 http://www.utsmsp.com/2008/05/errata-iict-lecture-information/#comment-2 woohoo - this event's going to be great ;) woohoo - this event’s going to be great ;)

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