Dave's Blog

Last year I posted about a deal Microsoft were running for students to get Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 for cheap. If you missed this deal then there is an even better one going now.

You can get Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for only £38.95, that really is a steal since you are saving around 91% on the estimated retail price. But not only that, you will have the added bonus of getting a FREE upgrade to Office 2010 when it becomes available.

The Office Ultimate 2007 package includes the following:

• Access 2007
• Excel 2007
• Groove 2007
• InfoPath 2007
• OneNote 2007
• Outlook 2007
• Powerpoint 2007
• Publisher 2007
• Word 2007

This offer is available on orders placed between 5th March and 30th September 2010.

You can order from:

• www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-uk/default.aspx – UK & N.Ireland
• www.microsoft.ie/ultimatesteal – Republic of Ireland (€52)

When you are placing your order you can input your email address in the reminder field and when Office 2010 is available for download you will be emailed. Details are located on the main page.

I found this video that we were shown during our induction at Microsoft about what it is like to work there. I think it sums it up pretty well.

Back in November I got to go to TechEd Europe 2009 in Berlin. I was one of four Irish Microsoft Student Partners chosen to go.

This was the first time I had ever been to a conference like this so I wasn’t sure what to expect, although I knew it would be a great experience after hearing stories from Student Partners who went in previous years.

The conference was running for a week and we were over for the entire thing. I attended some fantastic sessions with speakers who are well known within their field. Some of the great sessions I attended included one by Scott Cate about Visual Studio tips and tricks. This was a session full of little shortcuts that you can use in Visual Studio and some tips on how you can essentially improve your productivity and I plan on following up with a blog post showing some of those I find most useful.

Another great sessions I attended was one by Kate Gregory about using the Windows API code pack to develop applications that use some of the new features of Windows 7 such as the task bar. Again, I will follow up on this with a blog post.

Another of my favourite sessions was one by Rafal Lukawiecki about cryptography. It was a very interesting session and he was a fantastic speaker, I would’ve liked to have attended more of his sessions.

I learnt a lot at the sessions I attended and it will be very useful to me in the future.

However, the trip wasn’t only about attending these sessions, it was also about getting to meet up with other Microsoft Student Partners from all over Europe. I certainly enjoyed getting to meet and speak with others. Here we are in our ‘family’ photo (click to zoom):

I also enjoyed getting to see some of Berlin, a city I have always wanted to see. We were very lucky to be there the week of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall and attended the event where they knocked over dominoes in place of the wall.

Thanks Microsoft for sending me, it was a fantastic week full of experiences. I learnt a lot and got to spend time with some really great people.

Here is a video of the week (photo album: click here) :

As some of you may know, I am the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) for my university. On Friday I found out I am one of the top four MSPs in Ireland and will be sent to the TechEd conference in Berlin next Sunday for the week.

This should be a fantastic conference showcasing the latest and greatest technologies and I can’t wait to get out there.

I’ve always wanted to see Berlin so it should be a good trip, with the added bonus of being there for the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. We should be attending a ‘Festival of Freedom’ being held at the Brandenburg Gate on the Monday night which will be amazing to be at.

This has certainly shaped up to be a big year for me, I thought after getting home from America things would start to slow down, but obviously not! I’m not complaining, though

Microsoft have another very good deal on at the minute for students, along with the Office Enterprise 2007 deal I talked about in the previous post, students can now get Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional for only £30.

Windows 7 is the latest operating system in the Windows series and it has many improvements over previous editions. Some of the main improvements include:

• It is faster and more reliable
• Longer battery life
• Uses less disc space
• Less mouse clicks
• Easy to browse the web
• Easy to connect
• Jump lists – this helps keep your desktop clutter free and allows you to find files quickly

This amazing deal is available for a limited time from:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/studentoffer

Screenshot source: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/desktop.aspx