Another Day in the Antz Farm

Congratulation to Team SOAK from Australia! The 2008 Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Worldwide Finals Champions! You brought home the (green and) gold!

I am extremely proud of your final achievement! You have achieved a first for Australia! Well done, David Burela (University of Tasmania), Dimaz Pramudya (Swinburne University), Ed Hooper (Melbourne University), Long Zheng (Monash University)!

Related links:

• Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2008 Winners (Microsoft Presspass)
• Australian students win global software competition (ZDNet Australia)
• Team SOAK! (frankarr - an aussie microsoft blogger)
• Aussies win tech prize for saving water (The Australian IT)
• Video of Team SOAK Final Round Presentation (Soapbox) (via MSOZACADEMIC)

PS: Thanks for sending me the sms on your victory!

Team SOAK has exceed all expectation and has made it into the very last round of the worldwide Imagine Cup Software Design. They are in the FINAL 6! Awesome! Well done Ed, Dave, Dimaz and Long!

You even made your own team t-shirts! Way to go!

Related links:

• Let’s Meet our Top Teams! Software Design Team From Australia: SOAK! (2008 Imagine Cup Finals Blog)
• Aussie students close in on Microsoft prize (ZDNet Australia)

Team SOAK (Australia Imagine Cup Software Design representative) is through to the semi-finals of the 2008 Imagine Cup Finals in Paris, France!

This is a FANTASTIC result, the best in three years!

The complete list of teams that made it through the finals are:

* Australia
* Slovakia
* Portugal
* Brazil
* China
* France
* Hungary
* Singapore
* South Africa
* South Korea
* Croatia
* Russia

Courtesy of Roger Lawrence

Windows Vista brought a set of user interfaces updates to the Windows environment. However there are some inconsistencies and legacy user interfaces in the released product. There has not been an easy and transparent way to bring this irks and quirks to Microsoft’s attention. But not until Long Zheng’s UX Taskforce.

Long Zheng, the Windows and good user interface (UI) enthusiast (and all things well-designed) has developed a web site (UX Taskforce, see screen shot below) which allows you to:

a) upload screen shots and report such UI issues on the web site,

b) search for such reports by categories and

c) add your voice and vote for the reports.

This site has been gaining lots of momentum, and has caught the attention of the Windows Experience group and even an article by the Guardian (Windows Vista: Microsoft could learn a few lessons from a gifted student)

Post, view or vote your choice today! This is users’ democracy at its best and now Microsoft is listening and acting on the feedback!

(Long Zheng)

Team SOAK comprise of David Burela (Microsoft Student Partner, University of Tasmania), Long Zheng (Monash University, blogger extraordinaire of istartedsomething.com), Ed “h00ps” Hooper (Star Microsoft Student Partner, University of Melbourne - I recruited this man into the program!) and Dimaz Pramudya (Swinburne University) are the 2008 Australia Imagine Cup winners! The 03 area code (VIC and TAS) won the day!

Australia is the driest continent on earth and the persistent drought has been hitting the farmers and our wallets hard. Team SOAK put their minds together to develop SOAK and address a real environment challenge for Australia.

SOAK is an integrated software and hardware platform with the aspiration of helping farmers achieve sustainable use of their land. This is achieved through the integrated use of environmental sensing, rich visual front ends to display the information to the farmer, and a subsystem which controls farm equipment such as sprinkler systems

Check out Project SOAK: winning Australian Imagine Cup finals (istartedsomething.com) for more details.

Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment and SOAK is spot on! Well done, boys!

PS: It is a pity, there hasn’t been any pictures nor blog updates mentioned about Thur’s Australian Finals from the AU Imagine Cup web site or local Imagine Cup blog since 12 May.

1235 Update: Long Zheng’s article was updated and mentioned the other members of Team SOAK namely, Ed Hooper and Dimaz Pramudya. Guys, time to pick up that old Year 12 French text book.

The 2008 Microsoft Australia Imagine Cup campaign is underway and Nick Ellery has done an awesome job to make this year’s local software design competition prizes pool bigger and even more rewarding ($$$)!

AU participants stand to win 3 months paid job placement in Australia’s leading (IMHO, #1*)  technical consulting and training company - Readify, XBox 360 consoles, and HTC Touch mobile device, copies of Windows Vista and Office 2007. How does an expenses paid trip to Paris, France sound? A stroll down Champs-Elysees, visit the Sacré-Coeur or one of the great Grandes Écoles. Maybe a fun dinner at Buddha Bar and an evening drink at Hotel Costes?

This year’s theme is  the environment. Show us how your next idea can help us to live a more environmentally sound future. Check out the competition page for more details.

* The owner of this blog does not own any shares nor engaged in any commercial engagement with Readify.

Windows Operation System Service Packs Progress Update

• Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 Release Candidate (RC) 1* - Dec 07: Vista SP RC 1 will be avaliable to MSDN/ Technet subscribers.
• Windows Vista SP 1 RTM - Q1 2008
• Windows XP SP3* - Mid Nov 07

* Exisiting SP testers may receive these updates earlier.

Pete Isensee, the XNA Development Manager will be presenting two XNA games development evenings in Sydney (Nov 14) and Melbourne (Nov 16). He will cover XNA, XNA Games Studio and answer your questions on games development on the XNA platform.

Free event but registration is necessary.

Related Links:

• XNA Team Blog,
• Calling all XNA Enthusiasts in Sydney & Melbourne

Nick and his team of MSPs has done an awesome job of organising  Mix in the Campus party across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. There will be presenters from Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, VirtualRealm, Readify, QUT and of course Microsoft. The event will cover topics includng “How-to : start your own dotcom startup?“, “Why you should Popfly?”, “XBOX and Windows Games Development with XNA Games Studio” and “Step Up - the Web Careers“.

You can also stand to win

• Xbox 360 (1 per city, meaning 3 total)
• Project Gotham Racing Hooded Sweats
• Windows Vista Ultimates
• Microsoft LifeCam vx-3000s

For more information and to register , visit http://mixoncampus.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D8659DF1D2B43F7E!138.entry

It’s for students and it’s free!

As developed and emerging economicses moved closer towards a knowledge and services based world, consumers and businesses are increasingly depended on internet applications. These applications underlined by algorithm are used to power and delivered the next wave of services.

The Economist published an interesting article “Business by numbers” (13 Sep 07) on the applications, real world examples and importance of mathematical algorithms behind it all.

Related link: Algorithms and the Economist