Archive for February, 2008

Microsoft gives development software free to (some) students

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 20/2/2008
in Microsoft
. 7 Comments

Microsoft announced a program called DreamSpark recently. DreamSpark is a program to give over $2,000 worth of Microsoft development software to students free!

The free software available to students includes:

  • Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
  • Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
  • XNA Game Studio 2.0
  • 12-month free membership in the XNA Creators Club
  • Expression Studio, which includes Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design and Expression Media
  • SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
  • Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
  • Sql Server Developer Edition
  • Virtual PC 2007
  • Visual Basic 2005
  • Visual C++ 2005
  • Visual C# 2005
  • Visual J# 2005 and
  • Visual Web Developer 2005

This is a clever ploy by Microsoft to get students used to full-featured, integrated, rich IDEs at an early age, however, I think they need to make this program available at an even earlier age.

By the time most programmers to-be enroll in a university they have already selected their favourite development platform and the free development tools available to pre-university students are the very Free and Open Source development environments that Microsoft are trying to kill off with this initiative.

For now, DreamSpark is being rolled out in 11 countries (United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium).

Anyone from Microsoft Ireland care to comment on when DreamSpark will be available in here?

Fancy becoming Telekinetic?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 20/2/2008
in Gadgets and hardware
. 1 Comment

The BBC are reporting today that a US/Australian firm Emotiv has developed a headset which:

reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and control the game dynamically

This is the headset in action:

The headset is due to go on sale later this year for around $299.

I wonder though if there are more worthwhile uses of this technology. I’m thinking particularly of applications for people with disabilities…

Yahoo! indirectly upping the cost of acquisition for Microsoft?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 20/2/2008
in Microsoft and yahoo
. 0 Comments

Microsoft made an offer of $44.6bn for Yahoo! recently which Yahoo! rejected saying it “substantially undervalues” the company (personally I think it waaaaay overvalued Yahoo! and Microsoft caught a lucky break that the offer was spurned).

The New York Times is reporting today though that Microsoft are determined to follow through on this.

However, both the New York Times and News.com have published a story today that Yahoo! have offered golden parachute to all its remaining employees (it terminated around 1,000 of its 14,000 employees in the last week).

According to the News.com report, the package:

will kick into effect should that employee lose his job within two years after a new owner takes over, should she get terminated without cause, or if the employee decides it’s time to leave for “good reason.”

…The golden parachute also includes health and dental coverage for the length of employees’ severance awards, as well as reimbursement of outplacement services up to two years, or a maximum of $15,000, depending on job title

In any significant merger there are necessarily layoffs (particularly of people with similar job functions) - this seems like a cynical ploy on Yahoo!s part to up the price indirectly for Microsoft while grabbing some goodwill headlines at the same time.

LCD TV sales surpass CRT for first time in Q4 07

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 20/2/2008
in Technology and hardware
. 10 Comments

I read a report this morning which said that in the fourth quarter of ‘07, sales of LCD TV’s passed CRT for the first time:

LCD TVs captured a 47% share of the global TV market, which reached 60.8 million units in the fourth quarter of the year. CRT TVs held a 46% share while RPTVs and plasma display panel (PDP) TVs are estimated at 7%.

The only thing which surprised me about this report was the fact that 46% of people are still buying CRT’s! With the imminent move to HDTV, why would anyone investing in a TV now buy one that will be hopelessly out of date in a few short years (not to mention the far larger footprint of CRTs)?

Microsoft Wireless Laser Keyboard 6000 not very wireless!

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 20/2/2008
in Microsoft and hardware
. 15 Comments

I bought a Microsoft Wireless Laser Keyboard 6000 V2.0 a few weeks back because I needed an ergonomic keyboard (was suffering from an RSI) and went wireless to avoid cable clutter.

However, I have had lots of issues with the reception on the wireless devices. They report poor signal quality when 2-3 centimeters apart!

Low signal quality?

How hard can it be to get a keyboard and mouse working wirelessly? Apple have been doing this properly for ages. Of course Apple use Bluetooth instead of some bloody proprietary wired dongle which doesn’t work, takes up a USB port and adds a large cable to your desktop!

If only Apple did an ergonomic keyboard…

I was bemused then to note today that Microsoft are bringing out the Wireless Laser Keyboard 7000. It has a glass border around the keyboard to maintain the Vista Aero branding.

I only hope they remember to get the wireless part functioning this time!

Irish govt appoints “Internet Czar”

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 19/2/2008
in Broadband
. 7 Comments

I read in the irish Independent this morning that the Irish Govt has appointed an “Internet Czar” - someone to keep us all safe on the Internet.

John Laffan is due to take up his role as the director of the Office for Internet Safety (OIS) next month.

Justice Minister Brian Lenihan said that Mr Laffan would help to develop programmes and policies designed to make the internet a safer place.

Phew! I feel so relieved now.

In fairness to the Government, people often criticise them for a lack of foresight and for not planning ahead. In this case, with Ireland having one of the most expensive, slowest and lowest uptake of broadband in the OECD the government is obviously planning for a time when the Irish people have Internet access.

Good on them, I say. But wait, this is yet another position with no authority:

Although it will have no power to fine internet service providers, Mr Lenihan said that he would not hesitate to provide the OIS with “legislative teeth” if necessary.

Why bother create the position, if it is a powerless one? What a waste. Again.

Never mind the health system, or the total lack of any investment in ICT in education (or the total lack of investment in education), as long as Bertie stops the tribunals asking searching questions and we have an Internet Czar, all will be well in the world.

With any luck they will soon appoint a Book Czar to make books safe for us too. Some people like that awful Roddy Doyle use terrible language in their books. And what about a People Czar? Don’t the government know that all over the world there are people walking around completely naked under their clothes?

We need to keep the children safe.

What cretin came up with this silly idea?

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