MSDN Campus Launch
Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Technical
Yesterday, TARC’s Computer Science Society, together with several MSDN Student Ambassadors organized a MSDN “Campus Launch” here. I got the impression that they were “launching” Visual Studio 2005, SQLServer, and BizTalk Server. But boy was I wrong. The programs during that day were only a simple presentation on Visual Web Developer and about Microsoft Connection stuff by MSDN Ambassadors.
In short, it was a disgrace to Microsoft. The event was poorly organized; nothing seemed to go right for them. To top it off, the presenters had lousy English and found it hard to even understand what the heck they were mumbling about. If it wasn’t for the projected screens, I (and all the other attendees) would surely be at a lost.
Let’s put that aside and talk about some Microsoft’s initiatives to promote itself among students. First off, there’s this Microsoft Student Ambassodor thingy and MSDN Connection. Don’t ask me the details about it, but their sole purpose is create awareness about Microsoft technologies, and make it easier for you to learn those technologies.
According to the Student Ambassador site:
Microsoft Student Ambassador is an annual award recognizing college students in the United States who have demonstrated strong technical knowledge of Microsoft developer technologies, and who willingly share that knowledge with fellow students through campus groups, clubs, and online communities.
However, a Microsoft PR fella who turned up during the Campus Launch claimed that Microsoft does not look for language or technical skills in ambassadors. He claims to be looking for anyone with “potential”. What the heck is that supposed to mean? He gives me the impression that being a Student Ambassador is like newbies who went for a boot camp. If all student ambassadors are like that, I really can’t help but to give them little respet. Until this issue is clarified, I doubt I’ll be applying to be a student ambassador myself next year.
Then there’s this Microsoft Academic Alliance program. I don’t know the details, but it’s more or less like getting a educational licence for Microsoft software. It’s cool, except for the fact that at TARC, you need to haul your PC to the college lab, and wait for the staff there to install the software for you. If you happen to format your hard disk, you’ll have to make that trip again. What a wonderful initiative to lure students away for Low Yat Plaza.
As for picking up ASP.Net 2.0, I must confess that I have really little interest in it. The main reason is probably the fact that PHP is a more widely used server-side language, and Wordpress is written with PHP! As a hobbyist, you won’t learn something that you can’t really make use of at the momment right? What could I do with ASP.Net 2.0? There just won’t be that initiative, that enthusiasm to practice what you learned.
The second reason is that I probably won’t be able to catch up with Microsoft’s development cycle. ASP.Net 3 is probably down the pipeline now, with God knows what kinda changes. As a student, I also feel that learning a technology that’s so deeply tied to it’s IDE isn’t a great idea. You gotta code more, and focus on the underlying design and concepts, rather than do “drag-n-drop” development.
Tags: general programming
One Response to “MSDN Campus Launch”
-
Eyrique Says:
April 4th, 2006 at 11:00 pmMy goodness… I cant believe you commented that the launching was poorly organized! Thank goodness I didn’t go for that! Hahaha…
Btw, I’m sure you are gonna do well in this field! Keep up da good work dude! :D
