October 1st, 2008
Student Technology Day: what it's all about
It’s not often I can say this but already, I’m surrounded in a room of 300 odd fashion unconscious, sweaty, unattractive idiots. Nevertheless, it’s quite fun listening to some of the banter going around and about the place; some people work as interns at Microsoft, some at IBM and a couple from Google are here. But regardless of who we are and what we do, we’re all UK students from north to south, coast to coast.
Although, what I didn’t expect was the number of female attendees, as many know that computer science is predominantly a male oriented world. It just shows that irrespective of gender, computer scientists and others in technology can come in all shapes and sizes (and some of them are surprisingly hot).
The entrance hall is bustling with people, and the security is surprisingly tight for the Ballmer presence later on in the day. I get some satisfaction out of the thoughts that he’s bumbling around London, trying to work out which way the Tube goes and learning what a “Cockney” sounds like.
There are booths all over the place from Intel to Microsoft Virtualisation, as well as the other usual suspects like Vista booths and people talking about student-related stuff like the Xbox, of course.
10:43
In the auditorium of the event/conference, and only just realised there’s a TechNet event next door as well. The chances of Ballmer being over just to talk to us lay-students is slim to none, so we’ve been overshadowed completely. Bastard.
One important thing that they mentioned during the preamble stuff, is that our generation of students are currently waiting to apply for jobs which haven’t been created yet, using technologies which haven’t even been thought of. Hopefully during the course of the day, I’ll get a better understanding of where Microsoft is heading with their technologies and how they can branch out in the future.
10:51
DreamSpark mentioned, although didn’t mention the lack of thrill around it from the students perspective. At the moment, it’s a guy on stage promising to give students opportunities and possibilities; a bunch of PR guys and girls are here trying to recruit developers to Microsoft, using the Imagine Cup as a perfect example.
Long and team “SOAK” were mentioned too - big up!
Innovation seems to be one of the big words for the day, along with words such as “entrepreneurship” and “start-ups”. From what I’ve heard, it’s about getting the ideas into action and making these things happen. These will no doubt be explained throughout the day, and there’s a really good talk with the guy who set up Huddle.net. If we’re lucky, we might even be able to get a hands-on play with Microsoft Surface at some point too.
11:21
The guy speaking about Live Search was so mind-numbingly boring, I walked out. There was nothing relating to students in that; if anything it was a shameless marketing plug on Microsoft’s behalf to show what Live Search can do, even though Google does it so much better.
Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he studies BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy. His insight into the next-generation is unique and first-hand, sharing his knowledge of the here and now but more so what's next and how to get there.
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