Hi Reader,

Today is in-fact MSBLOG’s third birthday-Where have the years gone?

It seems that I write this post every year on this very date and reminisce of past times.
The sad fact of the matter is that everyone has moved on now it seems.
Here’s what some of the best people I have known are up to these days:

• -Zack is now studying at Kent University (studying Computer Science at the very home of Bluejay-a Java compiler used by many first year CS students around the world). Zack is also blogging for ZDNET (http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration/) where he keeps tabs on the technology world from a student’s point of view.
• -Andre N has just landed an internship with Google (Congrats)-He starts on the 8th as a developer
• -Jabez is in his final year at College
• -I am in my 2nd to last year of college-I am a Microsoft Student Partner for MSDNAA and I work for IBM.
• -Joseph is studying at College
• -Patrick E is still working for Microsoft in a permanent position and frequently travels the world
• -Dennis has started his own company in Germany as a consultant
• -As for the others, sorry, I don’t particularly know what you do full time but they’re excelling in their chosen IT field.

Although the blog is not updated all that often, we will defiantly put on the odd post here and there.

Happy Birthday MSBLOG,  Thanks for reading

Patrick Squire

Its a cold horrible day here in New Zealand (winters on its way! )…
Whilst sitting in the college comp labs I stumbled across a really cool video from Microsoft that they are pushing out to undergrad students here.

This video, with its really catchy tune did infact brighten up my day. I know it’s only an ad about software but in a way I can relate to it somehow-a normal geeky guys, Digital lifestyle!

The video is usually shown at Microsoft’s events and apparently usually generates quite a good responce.
Most Microsoft products featured in this video, including Windows Mobile, Zune, XBOX 360, and Windows Media Center fall under the Entertainment & Devices (E&D) division at Microsoft….
…And that’s what the videos all about here at my college-recruitment and the Come work here message…

 …One day!

On a side note I realize this blog has been dead for a while, but ill post anything when I get the time

Zumobi, the mobile startup spun off from Microsoft Research, has launched its first beta. The Zumobi lets you access, enjoy, and share web-based content on your mobile phone in an innovative, new way. The Zumobi software presents a unique way to access content, with a grid of sixteen tiles that you can zoom in and out of, and the tiles acting as widgets that display web-based content.
Currently, mobile browsing goes something like this…

1. 1. Either you navigate through a list of web sites pre-loaded on your phone, navigate through static bookmarks, or maybe even attempt to type in a long URL with your thumbs. Ugh.

   2. Now that you’ve chosen your content, wait while it loads. And wait. And wait.

   3. Ok, site loaded. Read a few lines and scroll down. Scroll down. Scroll down, deeper into the abyss searching for what you wanted buried somewhere in all that content. Tedious. Often frustrating.

   4. Rinse, repeat.

Ultimately, it’s an underwhelming experience.

Enter Zumobi. Beta Launch Video On YouTube

They are also recruiting Beta Users, To participate in the Zumobi Beta you’ll need the following:
Zumobi Tiles create a solution through which advertising and marketing communications are highly contextual and personalized.

• A U.S.A. mobile phone number
• A data plan with your mobile phone service provider (we strongly recommend this be an unlimited data plan)
• A mobile phone running Windows Mobile 5 or 6

While Zumobi is compatible with most phones running Windows Mobile 5 or 6, we have certified and recommend the following devices for optimal performance:

• Motorola Q
• Samsung Blackjack 1.0
• HTC Dash
• HTC Touch

Of course, you are also welcome to download and test Zumobi on other Windows Mobile 5 or 6 phones, but we have not fully certified these phones yet and cannot guarantee an optimal experience. Additional certified phones will be added frequently, so please check our website for the most current list of devices.

Today, Microsoft Live Labs is announcing the Volta technology preview, a developer toolset for building multi-tier web applications using existing and familiar tools, techniques and patterns. Volta’s declarative tier-splitting enables developers to postpone architectural decisions about distribution until the last possible responsible moment. Also, thanks to a shared programming model across multiple-tiers, Volta enables new end-to-end profiling and testing for higher levels of application performance, robustness, and reliability. Using the declarative tier-splitting, developers can refine architectural decisions based on this profiling data. This saves time and costs associated with manual refactoring. In effect, Volta extends the .NET platform to further enable the development of software+services applications, using existing and familiar tools and techniques.

You architect and build your application as a .NET client application, assigning the portions of the application that run on the server tier and client tier late in the development process. You can target either web browsers or the CLR as clients and Volta handles the complexities of tier-splitting. The compiler creates cross-browser JavaScript for the client tier, web services for the server tier, and all communication, serialization, synchronization, security, and other boilerplate code to tie the tiers together. In effect, Volta offers a best-effort experience in multiple environments without requiring tailoring of the application.