OPO Runtime... again?

When I first started programming my OPO runtime I was doing it as a proof of concept, except with some of the cool support and interest from people I have finally decided to rewrite it properly. Also after being given some technical documentation about how OPO was structured and its internals helped! So its started, hopefully will mean faster execution, nicer code layout if you want the source (at the moment its horrid Hacky code).

If your interested then in PSION's or OPO then keep checking here for any updates. If you look to the image on the right as well... finally I've added a decent amount of comments to explain what stuff is doing.

Office Ultimate... the ultimate steal

Well its that time again when students are returning to University, some with new PC's and Laptops however most of those do not come with Office... So what are all those poor little students going to do? Well, Microsoft has came to the rescue with an absolutely amazing new deal called 'The Ultimate Steal' and I can understand why with the amazing prices they are selling Office at.

So what is the deal anyway? Well Office Ultimate normally retails at £599 however on the Microsoft Ultimate Steal website you can buy it for only £38.95... thats a saving of £560.05 !!

Well if your interested head over to http://www.theultimatesteal.co.uk/ however I guess some may think its a fraud website so just for you to make sure there is a section about it on the main Microsoft website that you can read here: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/buy/universityoffertandc/default.mspx

Have fun!

All MIX'd up DAY 1

Well I have just returned from MIX UK yesterday, and I bring back with me the most almighty of swag, Microsoft branded socks... Microsocks if you will. Well ok I got some other stuff as well but I couldn't stop laughing at the socks.

So MIX UK 07! It ran between the 11th and 12th of September in London and featured some of the top Microsoft people talking about what they are developing at the moment and a sneak peek into the future.

After finding my way around London in the rush hour... I've never seen that many people ever, I finally found the Congress Centre where it was held and slipped into the Keynote, the Keynote talked about some of the cool new technologies and what to expect at the event... a lot it seemed, most of the Keynote was held by Scott Guthrie and talked about Silverlight which I came to see was an absolutely amazing technology.

So after the keynote I met up with the other MSP I was with; Dominic Green, and we went to the first talk of the day on the developer track about Silverlight and how to build Silverlight enabled applications, again this was held by Scott Guthrie and seemed to be virtually full, this seemed to be a pattern with most of his talks... Now Silverlight is an amazing technology from Microsoft and if you haven't heard of it then I suggest that you go and find out about it. Scott showed how easy it is to build a web based application using it and showed how its becoming more and more intergrated with Visual Studio 2008; still in beta if your wondering.

Now most of MIX I would have to say was aimed at Web Based applications, and how Microsoft technology enables their quick creation and deployment. Technologies like Silverlight, Windows Live and also the Silverlight streaming server are great examples of this.

In the afternoon we watched how Windows Live services are able to create dynamic content for websites and how the Windows Live login method enables personal content from Windows Live to be added to your website... pretty neat stuff.

In the end we had a talk based around 'Cloud vs Client', should applications be Web based or Desktop based or can there exist a better hybrid of the two. It was great to see some of the smartest minds on the subject have their say and talk about their experiences.

So after the end of day one, coming away with a few bits of swag we headed out to Tas, a nice restaurant and had a few beers and discussed... with about 40 other developers and Microsoft workers some of the stuff we saw that day and our own backgrounds.

Off to MIX in the morning!

Well only a few hours to MIX UK 07, its looking to be a great event and the schedule looks amazing. With some great speakers that Microsoft is providing and hopefully I'll get to interview some of them.

If your at the event and you see two students with a tripod and video camera that's most likely me and my colleague Dominic who will be doing interviews and just general filming for Microsoft's channel Channel 8.

Already we have an interview with Scott Guthrie, who leads quite a few of the Microsoft's development teams over in the states, and is a big name in IIS, WPF and Silverlight so look out for us as hopefully it will be a great interview amongst all the great interviews we will be doing.

Once everything is over and I'm back home if you check out the next issue of Microsoft's Student Zine newsletter there will hopefully be an article by me about MIX 07.

Well apart from that, check back soon for some more updates on MIX and now I'm off to bed as I've got a 5am start! Though will be worth it.