Today at Sheraton Hotel Karachi, Microsoft launched their three flagship products(Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 & SQL Server 2008) as part of their 2008 launch wave. I was fortunate enough to witness the biggest launch of Microsoft and am proud to be a part of history.

One of the things I like about such events is the goodies you get for just attending the event so this one was no exceptional: I got free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate and Evaluation copies of all the three newly launched products i.e. Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 & SQL Server 2008.

Here is a short video showing all the items contained in the launch kit (requires Microsoft Silverlight)

Additionally, pictures can also be seen here(Windows Live Spaces) or here(Flickr).

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Don't forget to watch MIX08 keynotes streamed live real time over the internet on Wednesday, March 5th 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time (Wednesday, March 5th 10:30 PM - 01:00 AM Pakistan Standard Time)  and Thursday, March 6th 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Pacific Time (Friday, March 7th 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM Pakistan Standard Time).

Timing for other cities around the world can be found here.

Links for Webcasts:
Ray Ozzie Keynote
Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie will be joined by Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, .NET Developer Division, and Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of the Internet Explorer Team, to demonstrate the latest technologies built for Microsoft's Web platform.
Watch the live Webcast: 100 kbps | 300 kbps | 750 kbps
Steve Ballmer Keynote
Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer will be joined by industry luminary and venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki at Microsoft's MIX08 conference in Las Vegas for a wide-ranging discussion and open-mic Q&A session.
Watch the live Webcast: 100 kbps | 300 kbps | 750 kbps

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Join Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer as he kicks of a series of global events to launch Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. Ballmer will introduce new software and tools designed to help IT professionals and developers make a difference at work and in their communities.

February 27, 2008, 9am-10:30am (Pacific Standard Time)
February 27, 2008, 10pm-11:30pm (Pakistan Standard Time)

• 750kpbs

• 300kbps

• 100kbps

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Your next chance to see Surface in person will be at MIX 08, March 5-7 in Las Vegas. If you're going to be there, come check us out. We'll have some demo tables in the sandbox. We'll also have people from our UX team in some really cool sessions.
Microsoft Surface was at the Sheraton, San Diego today. See photos from the event via the blog link below.

http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/...

Our team was at the Sheraton in San Diego today. They had a great time showing Microsoft Surface to another new audience. \"I\'ve never seen anything like this.\" There\'s a lot of energy when we hold an event and visitors get to experience our cutting edge

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Be a part of history! Sign up for the biggest software launch of 2008:

For other cities and countries, see source 

Source: www.microsoft.com

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Join Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman, and Robbie Bach, President of the Entertainment & Devices Division, along with their surprise guests for the opening keynote of CES 2008. Since Bill Gates first keynoted CES almost 15 years ago, consumer technology has changed dramatically. Listen as Bill Gates and Robbie Bach discuss the impact of the digital decade and the future of connected experiences enabled by Microsoft’s consumer technology.

Sunday, January 6th, 2008 6:30 p.m.
Pacific Standard Time

The webcast URLs are:

• 750k “high quality” webcast stream
• 300k “good quality” webcast stream
• 100k “blob quality” webcast stream

For Microsoft Corp., CES is about joining together with the industry to demonstrate the power of software and its endless possibilities. Microsoft technology is creating new ways for today’s active consumers to connect to each other and be entertained through innovative technology. Today, consumers can access and use information everywhere they go—via their mobile phone, in their car or on their PC. Together with its partners, Microsoft is providing the tools to connect people to online communities, learn, play, and stay in touch easily and quickly.
Explore the latest Microsoft news, experience new product demos and access information on Microsoft technology from across the company, including Microsoft Auto, Zune, Xbox, Windows Vista, Microsoft MediaRoom, MSN, Windows Media Center, Windows Home Server and many more.

For Pakistani Readers:
Bill's keynote will be streamed LIVE from Las Vegas on January 7th, 2008 at 7:30 a.m. (Pakistan Standard Time).

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Imagine a world where technology solves a country’s water shortage, provides a cleaner source of fuel or reduces the demand for energy. Imagine coming up with a concept that could help solve some of the world’s biggest environmental issues and winning big for coming up with the idea. Students interested in saving the environment while earning cash and traveling to great places can get involved by entering the Imagine Cup 2008. Microsoft Corp. has opened registration for the competition, inviting students from the United States and around the world to use their talent, imagination and know-how to address those and other sustainability issues.

Now in its sixth year, the Imagine Cup challenges students around the globe to imagine a world made better by technology and created by their talent and innovation. More than 100,000 students from 100 countries competed in last year’s Imagine Cup. This year, Microsoft hopes to top that, calling on students to go green, dream big and rise to the challenge to “imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.” After advancing through online, local and regional competitions, finalists will be chosen to compete on the global stage at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Paris next summer. There, students will have a shot at winning more than $180,000 (U.S.) across nine categories.

But the Imagine Cup doesn’t just give students the chance to win money; it also can help kick-start their career. A number of Imagine Cup competitors have gone on to turn their software designs into real-world business realities, including Imagine Cup winner Tu Nguyen of Omaha, Nebraska, who is now the vice president of technology at DocCenter Inc., a Software as a Service (SaaS) content and document management solution provider.

“After the Imagine Cup, things started to click for me because people see the potential in the student,” Nguyen said. “It’s not about the grades anymore. It’s about what the student can imagine and deliver.”

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

September 11, 2007: One last chance to hear Bill Gates speak before he leaves the company he co-founded to head up his humanitarian efforts drew tens of thousands of Microsoft employees to the company's annual meeting at Safeco Field in Seattle late last week.

But garnering the most buzz, according to attendees blogging about Thursday's event, was a demo of Microsoft's revamp to its flagship Web search engine, which is expected to be launched later this month. Additionally, CEO Steve Ballmer's rousing call for Microsoft to be "bold" and incorporate great design into its products -- the strategy that has lifted rival Apple Inc. -- made a big impression.

Others hailed Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's speech on Microsoft's "software+services" vision, and the awarding of a new technical award to the longtime Microsoft engineer who headed up the development of Windows NT among other products.

Mini-Microsoft, the anonymous blog purportedly written by a Microsoft employee, enthused in its typical, half-sarcastic way: "I love this company. I love this company's Company Meeting."

Criticism of the all-day event, which takes place every year at the home field of baseball's Seattle Mariners, included the lack of parody videos as have been presented in the past, and other product demos so boring they inspired employees sitting in the upper decks to rain paper airplanes onto employees sitting at field level.

Estimates of this year's attendance ranged from 20,000 to 35,000.

A Live wire

At the meeting, a new version of Windows Live Search http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/ was shown off. Live Search 2.0 will include better relevance, a larger index, instant answers and other features, attendees said. It's all an attempt to match Google technically and bolster Microsoft's small search-market share.

Microsoft reportedly plans to launch Live Search 2.0 later this month. But Mini-Microsoft called for the company to ship Live Search 2.0 "Now. Right now. Ship it please. Awesome stuff."

Other demos were not as well-received, and some lacked polish. Attendees critiquing those presentations called for greater brevity and more technical info, with fewer dumbed-down sales spiels.

"Some interesting stuff, but each of the speakers could have made their points in about half the time. The demos were particularly bad as there was no good motivation for each," complained one commenter to Mini-Microsoft.

Many external observers were interested in the announcement that Microsoft will begin a new Wi-Fi-enabled commuter bus service to help employees beat Seattle traffic jams.

Microsoft also said it will rent space in a number of Seattle office buildings developed by Microsoft's other co-founder, Paul Allen.

Last year's big external announcement was that Microsoft had donated more than $2.5 billion in cash, goods and employee contributions to charity since 1983.

Microsoft said it had added 12,800 employees worldwide in its most recent fiscal year ending June 30, while losing 8.3% of employees to attrition, according to one attendee report.

One of those new Microsoft employees blogged that the meeting "the weirdest thing ever. More like a rally than a meeting."

He drew an illustration that showed where attendees in matching hats or shirts sat, and that in at least three different locations around SafeCo field, there was "no beer."

Speech, speech

Gates' swan song speech was tepidly received by many attendees, who said it was similar to speeches in the past.

The speech by Ozzie, who replaces Gates as Redmond's chief visionary, received better reviews, though some groused that it lacked specifics.

There was plenty of praise for Ballmer's speech, which attendees said gave a frank scorecard of how Microsoft is doing against competitors such as Apple, IBM, and Google.

Ballmer's "report cards gave me faith that at least at his level, there is no reality distortion," wrote one poster.

Another wrote about Ballmer's speech: "He didn't paint an overly rosy picture which is classic Microsoft self-criticism. It's funny how the outside world doesn't really see that side of the company."

But another poster complained that that the event was too full of "rah-rah" speeches by anonymous executives that failed to give employees a good sense of the company's vision, and how they can help enable that.

Legendary, angry, recognized

Meanwhile, Microsoft programming legend Dave Cutler was awarded the new Bill Gates Award, a technical award which one blogger dubbed "the new ultra-supreme award for contributions to Microsoft."

At Digital Equipment Corp., Cutler helped develop the VAX and VMS operating systems. At Microsoft, Cutler directly led the teams building Windows NT, as well as the 64-bit versions of Windows XP Pro and Windows Server 2003 SP. Cutler is now working on Microsoft's Windows Live Platform.

Known as a gruff, no-nonsense boss whose high standards for bug-free code inspired employees to call him both the "greatest programmer/engineer project leader they've ever seen" as well as the "angriest and scariest person they've ever worked for," Cutler received a standing ovation from thousands of employees when he received the award.

Source: ComputerWorld.com

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Today I went to Pearl Continental Hotel Karachi in order to collect my PDC (Pakistan Developer Conference) 2007 delegates ID card & my kit for this Microsoft event. The kit includes following items:

• Microsoft PDC 2007 Bag
• My PDC 2007 Delegates ID card (Student)
• Microsoft PDC 2007 notepad with pen.
• Headphones from INBOX.
• ASUSWORLD (Magazine) Issue #51
• Misc. Brochures & promotional stuff.

I have taken some snaps of the above mentioned items and have uploaded them in Photos section.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Today I attended this years Microsoft Conference for Business Solutions held at Sheraton Hotel, Ballroom "C", Karachi. The "WORKING BETTER TOGETHER" conference was all about Microsoft & its partner's collaboration to work together in order to provide business solutions for their customer companies. The product which was the center of attention was Microsoft Dynamics (a line of software for business made by Microsoft) and its various flavors including AX, GP & CRM.
I along with my friend from Bahria University were the only students present at the event who voluntarily partnered the Microsoft management team to help kick start things. The event was supposed to start at 09:30 AM. We arrived at 09:20 AM(damn traffic in Karachi). Microsoft event manager from BBCL Group Mustafa Ahmed then briefed us about our respected roles. The event then started at around 10:00 AM. In the first half, speakers from various departments delivered their keynotes. Then there was coffee break which was soon followed by second half of the conference in which speakers from Microsoft delivered their keynotes, this was followed by a Q&A session & a lucky draw in which the winner got the retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. The conference ended at around 01:00 PM followed by lunch at the Sheraton Hotel.
All in all, it was a great experience for me. This event not only gave me opportunity to learn about Microsoft Dynamics, but it also allowed me to meet delegates from Microsoft & its partners. 

I took some snaps from the event which I have uploaded in the photos section.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Video: Windows Server 2008

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Microsoft will be hosting this years PDC (Pakistan Developer Conference) in June at Lahore (on June 19 - Avari Lahore Hotel), Islamabad (on June 19 - Serena Hotel) and at Karachi (June 19 & 20 - Pearl Continental Hotel). Registrations for attendees will start from Monday, May 14th 2007. This conference will provide a good inside about all the latest technological developments coming from Microsoft.

Registration Charges:

• Student & Faculty: Rs. 900/= per person
  (Valid Student / Faculty Identification Card is required)
• Professionals: Rs. 1,800/= per person

"Pakistan Developer Conference 2007 is the event that provides a comprehensive technical overview as well as more insight on the latest (both recently released and upcoming) Microsoft development and platform technologies. During Pakistan Developer Conference 2007, there will be sessions that would demonstrate the latest features that were introduced in Windows Vista, Office 2007, Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, BizTalk Server 2006 and how all these technologies can be used to build reliable, secure, high performance applications that can connect people, information, processes and systems together. More than 3,000 technology professionals from across Pakistan are expected to join this event and get the opportunity to meet and interact with top technology experts in the industry and Microsoft team for the duration of the event."

For registrations, visit the official website of Microsoft Pakistan or directly visit the PDC 2007 website. I will be present at this Microsoft event. Hope to see some of you guys there!

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Microsoft is hosting a 72 hours conference between April 30 - May 2 at The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, USA. MIX is Microsoft’s conference for Web designers, developers and decision-makers who make their living at the forefront of the consumer Web. Join the conversation with Microsoft and others on how to harness the latest technologies, unlock new revenue opportunities, reduce development costs and improve customer experience MIX is for cutting-edge Web professionals designing and building next-generation experiences.

Visit MIX07