Wanna be a MSP, the process is out (again)

The new selection process for this academic year(2010-2011) has been announced. Please visit the application information page for more details

If you are passionate about technology and looking for a unique opportunity to share that talent, we are looking for you! Motivated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree students specializing in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths or Design who will graduate after May 2011 are invited to apply for the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Program.

In exchange for sharing your knowledge and participating in fun activities on your campus, you will get a whole host of benefits, the chance to connect with like-minded people and gain real-world experience to add to your résumé.

Collaborate ... Innovate ... Celebrate!

Overview of the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Program

The new selection process for this year (2010-2011) has been launched and comprises various rounds to be undertaken by all candidates

Round 1:

All students who wish to participate in the MSP Selection 2010 have to register, as a first step, on www.surveymonkey.com/s/mspselection2010. If you have already registered, you don’t need to re-register

Round 2 and other details:-

All candidates will have to download the document located at http://cid-8c56e61304a3b41f.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/MSP^_Selection^_2010^_Handbook^_Final.pdf. Next steps and details on subsequent rounds have been listed in the document. Please go through the details very carefully and submit the requirements well within the deadlines to avoid rejection due to late submission. Deadline for submission for Round 2 is 15^th August, 2010. All relevant details are in the document that you have to download from the above mentioned location.

Eligibility

To consider applying for the MSP Program, you must be:

• Over 17 years of age.


• Studying a full-time course at an officially recognized University/College in India.


• Bachelor's/Master's Degree student who will complete the course during or after May 2011.

Competencies

A good MSP is one who has the following basic qualities:

· Technical competencies

o Passionate about software

o Quick learner

o Respected by peers

· Community-building competencies

o Enthusiastic about technology

o High level of social activity, both online & offline

o Can organize college and city-level events

· Fundamental competencies

o Passionate about Microsoft

o Confident & outgoing

o Good rapport with faculty

o Willing to share knowledge & eager to uplift self and peers

Responsibilities

Your short term goals will include:

· Conduct at least 1 technical session per month in a Student Tech Club.

· Participate and drive entries for Imagine Cup

· Maintain a technology-related blog

Your long term goals will include:

· Promote and build your city-level Microsoft Student User Group

· Organize city-level events like Academic Developers’ Conference (DevCon)

· Deploy &/or maintain Live@Edu for your college

· Encourage students to leverage ELMS downloads if your college subscribes to MSDN AA

· Mentor other MSPs

Benefits

As an MSP, a host of benefits are available:

• Welcome letter


• Exclusive MSP events conducted by Microsoft


• MSDN subscription


• Rewards & Recognition for top performers


• Networking opportunities


• Technical training & resources


• Microsoft events


• Interactions with MVPs & Microsoft Employees


• Internship & Recruitment announcements for top-performers

For more details

Contact:

Vedant Arora

Microsoft Student Partner
Amity School of Engineering & Technology

Ph No : 9999893681

Email : vedant.arora@student-partners.com

Is that the Chain we want to Grab?

Google, Microsoft and Apple appear to be playing a game of musical chairs, with Google taking the "dark side" throne away from Microsoft and Microsoft stealing the innovation perch from Apple. Where does that leave Apple? Perhaps it's the one still looking for its place when the music stops.

This past week, two rather interesting events got me thinking about how Apple , Google  and Microsoft  seem to be changing places. Microsoft announced Windows Phone Series 7, and Google announced Buzz (also known as "Buzz Kill") into the market.

Microsoft kind of pulled an Apple with this, in that it stepped away from the field and created something distinctly different, potentially more capable, and much more interesting than the products it has been competing with. (Oh, and it looks like it is a complete offering this time).
With Buzz, Google tossed out a turd of a product that was unfinished -- and privacy concerns forced it to stop forcing it on its customers. The label "arrogant" has now officially passed from Microsoft to Google.
These things are my main focus this week. I'll close with my product of the week: an electric bed warmer/cooler that is based on the same technology used to keep race car drivers cool.

Google's Buzz Kill

Through most of the last decade, Microsoft became known for products that were poorly thought out and failed. Among the duds: Mira, a tablet that required a business version of Windows on a networked PC to work in the home; Origami, an unfinished tablet operating system that was prematurely released; and Vista, which was a train wreck of biblical proportions.
Well, this is a new decade, and coming into it we had Google Wave a product that was both unfinished and so weird folks are still trying to figure out what it is for, and Buzz, also unfinished, which apparently has pissed off more people in less time than anything I've seen in recent memory.
It's safe to say that the Bozo (no offense to the deceased clown) award is moving from Microsoft to Google, as Google starts to recreate the same kinds of mistakes. There are a couple of reasons behind this. The first I've seen several times, starting with IBM (NYSE: IBM). What happens is folks who aren't working out at a big declining company find critical jobs in a new up-and-coming company and proceed to repeat the mistakes they made at the older firm in the new one.
I watched the IBM and Digital folks royally screw up Microsoft. Then Microsoft folks left to help royally screw up Netscape, and then they wandered over to Google, and now we have a trifecta.
Number two is Google's hiring practices, which favor men and engineers. They're so bad that Google (and others) are actively trying to conceal their employee mix. I think they know if folks were to realize a company that was trying to do social networking stuff had only engineers and no core of creative types, then confidence in those efforts would fall sharply. However, given how bad Buzz was at its launch, it is hard to imagine how it could have fallen farther any faster.
Number three is Google's apparent belief that anything that is free doesn't need to be very high quality. Looking at Google's offerings -- other than search -- don't they generally feel kind of unfinished and rough?
The new Nexus One, Google's branded phone, came out as a second-generation device, but it felt like a beta, given how rough it was around the edges. Granted, that phone isn't free, but Google gives away its Android OS to OEMs who then apparently have to finish it. Without the OEM, it's not much good.
The idea that if it's free, then it doesn't have to be good is both common and wrong. Whether it is Wave, Buzz, Google Apps, Gears, or Android, people expect finished products and adequate quality. Free or not, folks just don't want crap.
In effect, Google is repeating many of the mistakes

Windows Phone Series 2: Is Microsoft becoming Apple?

Not exactly -- but it seems that the only problem most folks are having with this new platform is the name, which in acronym form would be "WPS," or "Whoops." I'm not sure I'd want my product to be called "the Whoops phone," but then I'm also pretty sure I wouldn't want my product named after a feminine hygiene product like the "iPad." Every time I hear that name I think of the Mad TV iPad sketch.
What Apple did with the iPhone and iPod was to not emulate anyone else (well maybe the LG Prada a little with the iPhone) and step around them with something new, innovative and different. It also established a higher level of control over the entire user experience with both offerings, which now assure Apple's revenue, profit and market valuation.
With the WPS 2 platform, Microsoft isn't copying Apple or anyone else, but it is using a blend of good ideas from inside and outside the company. For instance, it is being very aggressive on the hardware specification to assure consistency of the experience and reliability of the result.
This should result in a better user experience than either Google or the old Microsoft Mobile platform enjoyed, as well as more phone variety than either RIM or Apple currently offers. There are clear tradeoffs, but this is clearly a differentiated approach.
In terms of UI, Microsoft rethought moving even farther away from the Windows interface than either Google or Apple has done so far (though I'll bet those two vendors now rethink their own approach) and combined animation with large icons to create clickable interfaces that are informative and not static.
Rather than turning multitasking off like Apple does (except for phone features) -- or all the way on, like Google -- Microsoft is allowing it only where it makes sense for the application. This allows for a potentially more useful device than the iPhone and a potentially higher-performing one than the Android phones, which can get bogged down by too many running applications.
In short, this is a product that feels more like something Apple would launch then Microsoft, and I hope it is a sign of things to come from that company.

By Rob Enderle
TechNewsWorld 

Google Buzz : We've had a lot buzzes lately

Google's new Gmail-based social network, Buzz, is raising hackles among security experts who see it as fertile new ground for propagators of malware and spam. "In the industry's haste to create the next 'Big Thing' for users," said Authenware President Tom Helou, "what results is a one-stop-shop for even amateur hackers to create an imitation identity and get access to sensitive information."

In general, Internet security experts become alarmed whenever a new social networking app looks like it is going to become the next big craze. "People already have so much information coming at them online and through their email boxes," said Gerry Egan, vice president of product development at Symantec .The last thing we need is another vehicle to bombard us with spam or malware, he told the E-Commerce Times.
Buzz -- Google's newly introduced social networking application -- is already drawing some boos from security experts, particularly for its default setting.
One of the ways Google hopes to facilitate adoption is by pre-establishing users' social networks with Gmail address books. Buzz seeds the network with email addresses of contacts with whom the user appears to communicate the most.

If the user accepts the default setting, that list becomes available to other Buzz users.

The default setting automatically provides a list of followers comprised of those you chat or email with, Michael Sutton, VP of security research at Zscaler, told the E-Commerce Times.

Cranky Spouses

The privacy risk is obvious.
"Everyone on your network can see who you communicate with," Sutton said. "Google says it takes addresses with whom you've recently had contact with, but we don't know exactly how the algorithm works."
It could be a contact from several months ago, for instance, which could make seeding that person in the network awkward. "I can see a scenario is which someone's network includes an ex-girlfriend -- someone your wife might not appreciate having there."
The potential for spam is also a problem. Spam has become endemic on social networks, Sutton noted -- and Google Buzz, if and when it reaches the same mass as Twitter or Facebook, will likely be similarly inundated.
"The model we have been seeing is that 'someone' posts a Twitter message that contains a link to malware. Certainly the same thing can and likely will develop with Buzz. What I am saying, though, is that Google hasn't created a new security issue with this site because email addresses are so easy for spammers to get anyway. What it has done is roll it out in a way that creates more privacy issues than someone might realize at first."

Still a Danger

While Buzz is unlikely to attract generic bots or spammers, it is possible a spammer would be interested in using it to validate an email address, Mike Geide, senior security researcher at Zscaler, suggested in a blog post.
"As a spammer, one could create a network of Gmail accounts connected to Buzz and follow a large number of users, follow their followers, etc," he wrote. The spammer would then harvest user names for those being followed, and do its best to guess at their email address and start sending test messages. "Once a successful guess has occurred, the email address will then be exposed in the Buzz interface validating that the email address exists and is tied to that user."
Buzz will likely be yet another vulnerable spot on the Internet, said Tom Helou, president and COO of Authenware.
"In the industry's haste to create the next 'Big Thing' for users, our analysis shows that securing the information passed through these sites suffers," he told the E-Commerce Times. "What results is a one-stop-shop for even amateur hackers to create an imitation identity and get access to sensitive information."

Present a Little : The Power Point Competition

Amity Microsoft Tech Club

Brings to You

"Present a Little : The Power Point Competition"

Key Points

• Participation is to be done in teams of 2
• Would consist of 3 rounds
• Round 1 : Submission
• Round 2 : Selected Teams would go to the Question Answer Round, where they will be asked questions based on their presentations.( teams would not be allowed to look at the presentations during the Q & A Session)
• Round 3 : Selected teams would move on to the Final Round, in which they have to present their presentation in front of a jury.
• All teams, reaching round 3 would be given certificates.

The Presentations have to be mailed at the below mentioned Email Addresses by 13/2/10 , 8 PM

For Details Regarding Competition,
Contact
Rahul Jain
rahulindelhi@gmail.com
9873343013

OR

Nipun Jolly
nipunjolly@gmail.com
9868081426

Google With NSA: The Search just got bigger..reallyy!!

Google  has allegedly requested help from the National Security Agency in tracking down hackers who attacked its infrastructure. The development has raised concerns among privacy advocates.

The Washington Post broke the story that Google had turned to the NSA on Thursday, citing anonymous sources.

Security experts and privacy advocates have questioned Google's motives. Some have warned that this could constitute another attack on American citizens' civil liberties. Others say the move is part of a scheme by Google to curry favor with the government as it seeks to get more government contracts.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request and asked for expedited processing with the NSA Thursday. It seeks information on the agency's arrangements with Google on cybersecurity. It is also looking for records regarding the NSA's role in setting security standards for Gmail and other Web-based applications.
Google declined to discuss the issue. "We're not going to comment beyond what we said in our original blog post," spokesperson Jay Nancarrow told TechNewsWorld. "At the time, we said we are working with the relevant U.S. authorities."

What Is Truth?

There is another possible explanation for Google's alleged cozying up to the NSA: that it is looking to get more government contracts. The Internet search giant plans to create a dedicated cloud for government customers in the U.S. It has also launched Google Public Sector, a site with tools and tips for government officials.
Further, Google is penetrating local and state governments. The city of Los Angeles has put all of its 30,000 city workers on Gmail and Google's productivity suite. Other cities in California are also interested, according to reports.
"It's in Google's best interest to get the NSA to investigate the hack, and it's in NSA's best interest to investigate this issue because some of the companies hacked may well be suppliers to NSA," Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET, pointed out.
"When the company that makes your computers gets hacked, that raises security concerns, and in terms of global business, when another country gets an unfair advantage, that could be a bit of a national security concern," Abrams told TechNewsWorld.

The Ongoing Threat

Whether the attack came from China, Taiwan or elsewhere is less of an issue than what it points to -- that cyberattackers are constantly targeting American institutions and corporations.
"Sensitive information is stolen daily from both government and private sector networks, undermining confidence in our information systems and in the very information these systems were intended to convey," Dennis Blair, U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence earlier this week.
Cyberterrorists and cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and we're fighting a losing battle against them, Blair pointed out.
That terrifies Baker. "Some very sophisticated companies haven't been able to prevent attacks by adversaries," he said. "We're living in a world where we can't be sure we can build adequate security to keep people out of our networks, and that's deeply troubling."

Source : ECT News Network

The War has moved to Europe , The 2 Juggernauts Colliding head 2 head

Google has never had to endure much hard, formal EU antitrust scrutiny -- its purchase of DoubleClick two years ago received a relatively painless waive-through. That may soon change, according to Microsoft's top lawyer. Brad Smith said Google's dominant position in the online ad sector will inevitably lead to some hard questions soon, adding that Microsoft has some experience in the EU antitrust game.

Microsoft's top lawyer said Monday that Google will inevitably have to answer questions about its huge market share in selling advertisements linked to results from its search engine.

Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith said the search advertising market has become "the fundamental economic engine for content online" and "the gateway to content on the Internet.

"Whenever you have a company that has more than a 90 percent market share in a key market, it is inevitable that people will have questions to ask. We say that with some experience,"

Butting Heads

Unlike Microsoft, Google has never been formally investigated by the European Union executive and the only EU scrutiny of its advertising business came when it asked regulators to approve its US$3.1 billion purchase of online ad tracker DoubleClick. The EU waved through the deal in March 2008.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier this month that French antitrust regulators should look at Google's dominant position in the online ad sector.
However, the European Commission, which would deal with any Europe-wide competition problem, has said it sees no issue with Google's dominant position in advertising unless there is "any implication or suspicion" that it is abusing its near-monopoly to hike prices or squeeze rivals and suppliers.
Smith confirmed that Microsoft sees Google as a direct rival, saying they were both active in some of the same product markets.
Microsoft trails Google in search, with a European market share of 2 percent.

Microsoft also advocates a federal privacy law in the United States, he said, and is concerned about different laws emerging at state level.

The Power to Bust Hackers

Smith said security concerns may require giving the right to cloud service providers -- such as Microsoft -- to take legal action to sue hackers or others who try to hack into data hosted in "the cloud."
He said Microsoft's vision of cloud computing saw its own proprietary software in use alongside open source programs -- with both using "open formats" to allow different software to work smoothly together.
EU regulators fined Microsoft in 2004 for not providing technical information to rivals that wanted to make software compatible with Microsoft's servers. The company last year promised changes to share some data on its products with others.he most-used Web browser, Internet Explorer, which competes with Google's Chrome and others.


Source : ECT New Network

Managing Disaster like everything else, The MS Way

REDMOND, Wash.--The ground-level conference room in Building 25 doesn't look much different than many others in buildings across Microsoft's sprawling campus.

It has a window, though most of the view is obscured by a large bush. It has the usual array of outlets and Ethernet jacks, screens, and projectors. During earthquakes and floods, hurricanes and tsunamis, though, this room is ground zero for Microsoft's emergency response effort.
Even then though, it can be hard to tell that somewhere halfway around the world, disaster has struck. That's because Microsoft's disaster team is a virtual one, with much of the action taking place online. Even those working together in Redmond are often glued to their laptops, rather than communicating with nearby colleagues.

"It will look like a bunch of people just sending e-mail," said Claire Bonilla, the senior director of disaster response for Microsoft.

There are about 65 lead members of Microsoft's emergency response effort--and perhaps 160 dedicated people overall--but even at its busiest there might only be fewer than two dozen people in the main disaster response room.
When disaster hits, Bonilla and team activate, reaching out to the nearest Microsoft subsidiary. The company tries to simultaneously make sure its own workers are accounted for, check in with partners and customers, and offer immediate assistance to international aid workers.
The company works with those aid groups to quickly establish a portal called OneResponse, which relief workers can use to coordinate their efforts. That, too is understated, looking like a Web site from a decade ago with little more than a bunch of text links on the main page.
Although it is built on modern SharePoint technology, the design of OneResponse is deliberately spartan, aiming to work on even the poorest of Internet connections--the only kind often available in the wake of natural disaster.
In the case of Haiti, Microsoft's disaster effort was up and running by 6 p.m. on the day of the quake. In addition to conference calls with aid groups, Microsoft had the added insight of Gisli Olafsson, who works in Microsoft's disaster efforts but was quickly on the ground in Haiti as part of his volunteer gig as a member of Iceland's search and rescue team. Olafsson's firsthand knowledge helped give Microsoft an early sense of what the situation was like on the ground.
Microsoft, of course, is far from alone in pitching in during times of disaster. Many companies have offered their cash, services, products, and know-how in the wake of the Haiti quake.
A number of tech companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, and Google are supporters of NetHope, an organization that helps establish emergency, temporary, and permanent communications following a disaster. That has been an especially acute need in Haiti, said NetHope CEO Bill Brindley.

"The communications infrastructure in Haiti has been virtually demolished," said Brindley, whose group has worked to bring in portable satellite units that aid groups can use to provide voice communication and Internet access.

Among those pitching in is San Francisco-based Inveneo, which has specialized in setting up off-the-grid networks in rural Africa. That know-how has come in handy in setting up Wi-Fi in Haiti, which is still without widespread power.
Inveneo CIO Mark Summer, who has been helping set-up portable Wi-Fi units for NetHope, said that the devastation is intense.
"In the hills the damage is significantly less then down in the center of Port-Au-Prince where in it seems that in many areas more then 50 percent of the buildings are gone or beyond repair," he said in an e-mail statement. "We've seen buildings that have had two or three stories and now no higher then 5 feet of the ground--it seems as if walls just turned into sand..."
Each disaster brings its own set of needs and challenges. The fact Haiti was so impoverished even before the quake, plus the fact it struck the capital, has posed a big challenge for aid groups. In the early days, it was a challenge getting supplies into the country, Bonilla said.
"Planes circled for three hours and sometimes had to go back to the Dominican Republic because they couldn't land," Bonilla said.

Keeping aid workers safe is also an issue.

"People are desperate for anything they can do to provide food and water to their families and that can breed security issues," Bonilla said.

By last Thursday afternoon, only Bonilla and one colleague were in the disaster room. One person did wander into the room, though he was looking for one of the many Microsoft partners that occupy the bulk of Building 25's ground floor.
MSNBC streamed in the background, though coverage had switched from Haiti to live footage of a car chase here in the U.S.
"I don't think that classifies as even a minor disaster," Bonilla jokes, going back to her work. As with many responses, Bonilla has been working for 18 to 20 hours a day. Bonilla said her job makes her glad she works in the Seattle area, known for its good coffee. Even that, she said, only carries her so far. "After awhile, caffeine loses its impact," she said. "Then it's just adrenaline."

Source : CNET News