Thursday, August 16, 2007

Microsoft Student Day 2007

It was that time of the year again.
Having been to this event two years ago, I was quite disappointed with this year's one.
The quality of some of the sessions were very poor. I mean come on, how to make hello world application using visual studio?
The only thing that kept me from leaving the theatre was the prize draw entry form which had to be filled in with answers from the questions at the end of each session.

Fortunately, the session on Mashups turned out to be quite interesting and some of the new technologies Microsoft has been working on were showcased very nicely.
The one I liked the most was PhotoSynth which stitches up huge amounts of similar photos together to create a 3D virtual map of a particular object or location. Very cool indeed.

In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend anyone to go to the Student Day and stay for the whole duration just for the prize draw at the end. (and miss out on all the lectures you have on that day as well)
Just going to the sessions you are interested in and getting the answers to the prize-draw questionnaire off a friend or person next to you is the smartest thing to do :)