My other Blog http://spaces.msn.com/members/paullohao

POD CAST from Student Day is coming soon.

 

We are fortunate to have the some fantastic international speakers presenting at Student Day 2005 on Friday 26 August. We are also inviting them to answer your questions through a POD CAST. What is a POD CAST? Well, its basically video and audio footage of an interview with a particular person. But what’s cool about it is that you can just download the audio component without the video if you wish to play it on your personal audio player (whatever that may be). The link to these POD CAST will be published shortly.

 

So, we want your questions!! Let us know what you would like answered and we will ask them for you. Submit a question by posting it here.

 

Here are the international speakers being interviewed:

• Ari Bixhorn – Indigo Product Manager (Microsoft Redmond)
• Tony Goodhew – Visual Tools Product Manager (Microsoft Redmond)
• Betsy Aoki – Community & Collaborative Development (Microsoft Redmond)

 Post your question NOW! And come back for the POD CAST from Student Day 2005!

This week, we have launched the AUT SOSE (Society of Student Engineers) ROBODEMO Robotics Competition with a launch presentation where more than 90 eager engineering students turned up. This competition will give engineering students the tools and resources to design and create some awesome robots. The aim of the competition is to design robots which will either destroy or immobilise your opponent in a "sumo" style competition.

The competition will be held at the Tech.Ed student day event on Friday, 26 August in the SkyCity Theatre in Auckland. We are expecting more than 700 students to attend this event in Auckland this year. There will be a variety of international and local speakers presenting the latest in Microsoft technology, partners talking about graduate recruitement opportunities and plenty more. I've been spending quite a lot of time planning for some surprises on the day, so make sure you're there!

Register to attend the event at:
www.microsoft.co.nz/teched/studentday

For more information about the ROBODEMO competition, check out here: http://www.aut.ac.nz/schools/engineering/society_of_student_engineers_-_sose/news_and_events/ 

Winter is good in sydney, sunny and warm.

Here are some pictures to prove that argument.

Fresh new site for students!

Check out the new student portal before it is opened officially!

www.microsoft.co.nz/students

I would love to hear your feedback about this site. Both the good and bad! This site is designed for students with relevant information and resources.

Check it out today!

Plans and preparation have started for this year’s student day in Auckland. No doubt it will be bigger and better than last year as we anticipate 700 students to attend the event this year at the Sky City Theatre.

 

There are some fantastic speakers lined up including Ari Bixhorn (“Indigo Architecture Overview”) and Tony Goodhew (“Future of games development with Microsoft XNA”). This is just the start! More announcements to come with student day!

 

Registration for student day will open officially on Monday, the 1^st August 2005. In the meantime, visit www.microsoft.co.nz/teched/studentday regularly for updates.

 

Excited?

 

Keep an eye out on campus for the new .NET posters and the new student portal! The new .NET poster draws attention on helping you achieve your “fame & fourtune” – if that is what you’re after. The new student portal will contain information and resources to help you make the most out of time as a student. This portal will be the cornerstone of establishing an open line of communication between the New Zealand academic community and Microsoft. We are keen to hear from all of you and we will let you know how to do that soon!

 

More?

 

If “thinking outside the square” is your thing, then the Visual Studio 2005 Team System Competition is for you! The goal of this competition is to get you to experience the power of this new suite. Did I mention there is more than $100,000 worth of prizes up for grabs? Just a small point that I thought I’d mention. Find out more information at www.microsoft.com/nz/msdn/competition/.

 

Great Stuff!

 

Lately, we’ve been experiencing a drought in good films. That was until I saw two films last week. Batman Begins and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Fantastic action films with great chase sequences in both. I gotta get myself the new batmobile. Please tell me if you see a model of the new batmobile for sale. Great storyline, which is usually lacking in big budget Hollywood flicks. Both films are the type of film that makes you go “dammmn!” when you finished watching it! If you haven’t seen it, go see it!

 

For those of you on holiday, enjoy your break.

 

For those of you working, don’t you wish you were on holiday!!

 

Bye

Hello again!

Good to see you again. We're almost half way through the year and its about now we start wondering what happened to the first six month of 2005? Anyways, i think i have done some exciting stuff in the past 6 months. The one that stood out the most was orientation 2005.

It was close to 4 weeks during FEM & MAR on the road, skipping from one lecture theatre to another, one campus to another across the country. After the first week, you're still pumped and excited about the whole thing. After the third week, to keep things fresh and new, we played a classic game. Just before the presentation, we are given a totally random word and we must use it in our presentation. The catch is to ensure the random word fitted within the presentation seemlessley. Words like "kinky", "yeehaa" and "constipation" were randomly placed the presentaiton. Punishment for not using those words were harsh but humane.

It was great to meet so many of you around the country who were into the IT scene. We were able to learn a whole lot about what you guys wanted. The theme of your responses generally related to free stuff from MS and more free stuff from Xbox. We did get some interesting suggestions on how to make your life easier. Some examples below:

• Drink the volume of the computer to win free stuff!
• A Microsoft Bus.

But thanks for all of you who have responded. Interesting reading for sure, but we will seriously look into some of the suggestions.

Right now, we are in the planning process for the next 12 months. Will keep you up to date with whats coming up soon!

Brand new! - Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 2 DVD is now available in New Zealand. Check out the site and register for your free copy!! http://www.microsoft.com/nz/evaluate/products/vs2005.aspx 

Thanks for dropping by and see you next time!

Hi There,

How are you doing?

As you can probably tell, i have not done this before. Therefore, this is just a test to see if it is actually working. If you're still reading this, you must be really bored.

Anyways, i'm the academic developer evangelist in Microsoft New Zealand. Have been in this position for almost 10 months (wow - time does fly). Life at Microsoft has been exciting and hectic. I'm still finding out new facts and information about this job and company. Information overload is often the name of this game.

Just realised that there is no Spell Check while doing this blog..... You'll probably find that I spell like a 5 yr old... It's in times like these, you realise that you should not take things for granted (ie. Spell check).

I guess i'm going to take this oppourtunity to share with you information about some intersting academic events & programs coming up for 2005!! Come back soon!

Anyways, that is all for now.