I was actually very surprised at the amount of cheap software you can get from Microsoft. If you look in the right place, and are studying you can actually get a lot of the software for free. It makes sense you get ‘em hooked young and early and hope they are repeat customers for life. Not to dissimilar to other forms of commerce, that I will not get into ;)

Here is what I have found:

Dream Spark
If you’re a current university or high school student, you can download professional Microsoft developer, designer, and gaming software through DreamSpark at no charge. Students (High School and College) get to download software at no charge. DreamSpark enables students to download and use Microsoft tools. It doesn’t matter what classes you’re taking just as long as you’re a current student in a verified, accredited School and use the tools in pursuit of advancing your education in one of these areas.

Windows 7
Looking forward to the upcoming release of Windows 7 but have no desire to pay the retail price ($119). Well the 741 promotion is for you, the upcoming Windows 7 will be made available for $29.99 for qualified students. You will need to hurry once Windows 7 is available, as the offer ends January 3, 2010.

Microsoft Office
Finally, Office 2007 Ultimate edition is currently available for all qualified students. You must have a valid email address at an educational institution ending with the domain suffix .EDU (e.g. ipfreely@usuni.edu). This offer allows you to save a whopping 91% (@ $59.95). Apps included in this office edition include Word, Groove, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, InfoPath, and OneNote. Compare this to the Office Students Edition and the savings become even clearer.

Performance reviews have been, for me, one of the most awkward and stressful times of year. Not because I have performed badly or because of the stresses of salary discussions, it is simply that I have to write candidly and honestly about my own performance over the past year. I have overcome this in years past by compiling a cheat sheet of generic sentences and terms to help describe accomplishments or attributes for myself or other members of my team. I still feel the whole process is a little narcissistic but there is a very real cost associated with how well you present yourself and others during this annual chat.

Of course the review process tends to change with employers  and therefore I need to constantly update the approach in order to stay relevant. So I wanted to add a couple of more examples and phrases that I know will be useful in the future. Most of the following phrases were introduced by a previous manager through a Strength Finders exercise. Our process has now changed so drastically I may need to do this again in a few weeks.

Again this should help with reviews for yourself and other people.

Learning:
- You possess the physical and mental endurance needed to spend hours studying, reading, or researching.
- Your diligence reflects your need to work harder and longer than most people can.
- You set lofty goals for yourself and relentlessly pursue them.
- Driven by your talents, you usually equate education, formal and informal, with understanding more about something today than you understood about it yesterday.
- You might learn best by teaching; if so, seek out opportunities to present to others.
- Your willingness to soak up new ideas can help help others who are intimidated by new rules. This ultimately will calm fears and spur others to action.
- You are not threatened by unfamiliar information, you might excel in a consulting role (either internal or external) in which you are paid to go into new situations and pick up new competencies or languages quickly.
- Look for ways to measure the degree to which you and others feel that your learning needs are being met, to create individualized learning milestones, and to reward achievements in learning.
- Allow yourself to "follow the trail" by scheduling learning sessions during periods of time that will not be interrupted by pressing engagements.

Achiever
- You have a great deal of stamina and work hard. Takes great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
- Driven by your talents, you ordinarily take time and exert extra effort to comprehend what you are reading.
- Taking shortcuts strikes you as unprincipled, thoughtless, and careless.
- You conduct yourself in a proper, ethical, legal, and upright manner to avoid feeling you have done something wrong.
- Instinctively, you routinely contrive innovative ideas. The art of invention stimulates your mind. You likely spring from one original thought to an entirely different one.
- You usually find unique ways to link two or more concepts.
- By nature, you devote your full attention to immediate tasks and challenges.
- Diligence, persistence, and concentration are three of your distinguishing traits.
- Attach timelines and measurement to goals so that effort leads to defined progress and tangible outcomes.
- Continue your education by attaining certifications in your area or specialty in addition to attending conferences and other programs. This will give you even more goals to achieve and will push your existing boundaries of accomplishment.
- You do not require much motivation from others. Take advantage of your self-motivation by setting challenging goals. Set a more demanding goal every time you finish a project.
- Make sure that in your eagerness to do more at work, you do not skimp on quality. Create measurable outcome standards to guarantee that increased productivity is matched by enhanced quality.

Responsibility
- People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.
- By nature, you experience pangs of remorse when you realize you failed to do something you promised to do.
- It’s very likely that you are comfortable being open and honest about who you are. Often you intentionally avoid people who are less than truthful.
- You prefer to spend time with individuals who speak as candidly as you do about their strengths, shortcomings, hopes, disappointments, failures, or successes.
- Driven by your talents, you are determined to be victorious. As much as you yearn to be "number one," you know cheating is unacceptable.
- Instinctively, you yearn to be given additional duties. You expect to be held accountable for your productivity, profit, behavior, comments, and actions.
- Align yourself with others who share your sense of responsibility. You will flourish when working with people who share your determination to get things done.
- You are instinctively responsible and so it might sometimes be difficult to refuse opportunities. For this reason, you must be selective. Ask for more responsibility in only the areas that matter most to you.
- You naturally take ownership of every project you are involved in. Make sure that your capacity to own does not keep you from sharing responsibility.
- Allow others the opportunity to experience the challenges of ownership. In doing so, you will contribute to their growth and development.
- Learn to manage your Responsibility talents by considering whether you really are the person who should be handling a particular issue.
- Defer to your existing responsibilities and goals before undertaking additional burdens, as you may end up skimping on quality if you have too many tasks or competing demands.
- Partner with someone especially talented in Discipline or Focus. This person can help you stay on track and prevent you from becoming overloaded.

Intellection
- People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.
- Instinctively, you enjoy reading, but you refrain from accepting information on its face value, that is, its seeming worth or truth. Typically you examine ideas, suggestions, or facts from a variety of angles.
- Chances are good that you might make great strides mentally when you have opportunities to exchange ideas, theories, or concepts with people whose thinking stimulates your own.
- You may delight in accumulating unusual insights. You are eager to test them during conversations with other intelligent individuals.
- By nature, you enjoy reading as long as you can savor each sentence and consider each idea.
- Because of your strengths, you enjoy the act of reading. You value the information you acquire in the process.
- Consider beginning or continuing your studies in philosophy, literature, or psychology. You will always enjoy subjects that stimulate your thinking. List your ideas in a log or diary.
- Deliberately build relationships with people you consider to be "big thinkers." Their example will inspire you to focus your own thinking.
- You are at your best when you have the time to follow an intellectual trail and see where it leads. Get involved on the front end of projects and initiatives, rather than jumping in at the execution stage.
- Engaging people in intellectual and philosophical debate is one way that you make sense of things. This is not the case for everyone.
- Be sure to channel your provocative questions to those who similarly enjoy the give and take of debate.
- Find people who like to talk about the same issues you do. Organize a discussion group that addresses your subjects of interest.
- Encourage people around you to use their full intellectual capital by reframing questions for them and by engaging them in dialogue. At the same time, realize that there will be some who find this intimidating and who need time to reflect before being put on the spot.

After arriving at Las Vegas airport I remember being really impressed by the ample places I could charge my laptop and even my USB devices for free. In recent memory it took quite a lot of skill and patient preparation to be in the right seat at the right time to get the only outlet near your gate. Now it seems everyone has a laptop notebook and the airports have responded accordingly.

Imagine my surprise as I was walking though the terminal to see the Charge Carte beckoning to me…

A singular device with almost every type of charging cable available to cater for the person who rushed out and forgot their charger. You now have the option to get a quick charge for the most popular devices (includes Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, LG, Kyocera, Blackberry, Palm, Siemens, Sony-Ericcson, Nextel, iPod and iPhone).

Sounds like a good idea … until you see the price Charge Carte is charging ;)

I really believe cell phones will continue to play a much larger role in our daily financial lives, one example I experienced this week was the use of SMS to determine the balance of a prepaid debit card from Alltel. Having used a prepaid debit card in the past it is always a pain to get the latest balance details. You have to either make a call and quote all the numbers or you go online and register at yet another website.

With Alltel you are able to send a text from the your phone and get a balance text back within seconds. I think this is uber cool, I also believe that banks and their associated card vendors should offer something similar. You could potentially use this for credit cards and debit cards. The only real caveat being that you would have to define which cell phone numbers can request balance information. Some of the obvious security concerns could be overcome by establishing a secret PIN that you text, this could be setup during an online banking session.

I was reading some source code recently and saw the word 'updation' used in a sentence (as in 'Failure in Updation of this product'). I paused for a moment ... that *almost* sounded ok, but clearly this is a an egregious error!

While Dictionary.com suggests that the word is somewhat valid, my preferred sites of Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionary do not seem to agree. I should do the needful and perform a search and replace ;)

Unfortunately I am the only person in our group from the Dublin office, its like working from home except there are a lot of people around. This does means that I spend a lot of time on the phone for conference meetings, training sessions, one on one calls, you name it and I am on the phone communicating it. In order to help navigate this phone support I have been given a nice headset that allows me to keep my hands free while I spend my 2 hours per day (average) on the phone.

One thing that is beginning to really grate my nerves during meetings is the lack of awareness, on the side of the speaker\trainer, of microphone placement. Usually conferences I am involved with go well, right up until the question and answer session. It usually goes like this:

SPEAKER: "... I hope that was helpful to you guys. Are there any questions at this point? ... yes ... you in the back."
VOICE 1: "mumble ... mumble ... mumble ... mumble ... and ... mumble ... mumble ... mumble?"
SPEAKER: "Good question and the answer is yes, yes we should!"

Aaaaahhhh! I am left helpless, having no idea what the question was, and only occasionally can I discern the nature of the question from the answer. It is starting to get really old! In small groups this is not an issue, but large groups tend to consume the thoughts of the speaker and we phone prisoners get no joy.

So what is the solution? The main moderator\speaker should always repeat the question for people that are at a distance from the phone. For example:

SPEAKER: "... I hope that was helpful to you guys. Are there any questions at this point? ... yes ... you in the back."
VOICE 1: "mumble ... mumble ... mumble ... mumble ... and ... mumble ... mumble ... mumble?"
SPEAKER: "So the question was 'Should we be preparing for next quarter and the following year?'. The answer is yes, yes we should!"

By simply repeating the question you easily ensure everyone knows where the conversation is headed. Just simple common sense.

I am going to treat myself to the best restaurant east of the Mississippi ... Taco Bell ;)

I understand nothing is really free, and in fact the cost of this Java runtime update would probably be staggering in terms of total man hours to produce. I am forced to wonder how much Google pay Sun to bootstrap an additional installation into the process? what is that cost?

I love the irony of an installation that has a popup screen that I cannot stop, advertising its own ability to 'Block annoying pop-up ads' ;)

I was trapped in a meeting recently I was forced to endure a barrage of buzz words and statements that really grate my nerves. Here is an extended list of my least favorite:

• giving 110%
• Overcoming silo's
• integration
• 80 for the 20
• bandwidth

This list could go on and on...

I have just had my first glimpse of the WorldWide Telescope demo and I must say I am impressed! The WorldWide Telescope is a new product of Microsoft Research and it has apparently taken images from the worlds best telescopes and linked them in a seamless homogenous view of the universe.

I always love looking up into the sky when I am away from the intrusive lights of the big city, the number of viewable stars seems to grow exponentially. Now is my chance to see everything without having to leave the comforts of my own home. The demo kind of reminded me how impressive I thought Google Earth was when it was released, this figures to be so much more.

I am eager for the release in early spring, seeing the viewable universe up close will be a delight! Consider downloading a high def version of the demo you will not regret it!

Every year or so I really get worried about how much I am saving, or indeed how much I am spending and I tend to go crazy checking Microsoft Money or whatever analysis tool I can get my hands on.

As most employees no longer have access to fixed retirements sponsored by their employer we are generally reliant upon 401k's and other retirement packages to help us figure out what to save. The problem is that with all these calculators is that you really do not know what your rate of return will actually be; you never know how long you will live and to a lesser degree you may not know what your income may be from year to year.

Calculating retirement funds for me always becomes a year to year affair, and so I try to find graphically appealing calculators to help in my decision making.

MSNBC has a good flash based calculator that I really like! no visible post back when you hit calculate.

You can mess with the numbers and figure out at what point your earnings from interest is more than you estimate you will spend...

Now that is the magic number!

Found this interesting body battery calculator. I guess now we know what the machines were after in the Matrix ... maybe they should have just used hydro electric power?!?!

Completely Free Personals from JustSayHi

Places like YouTube and Yahoo Video provide more than just the ability to show off home video bloopers and people getting immortalized by doing silly things. They are also provide a rich set of instructional videos for the weekend home improvement warrior.

Yesterday I was forced to replace our mail box and was looking for instructions on how to complete the task on the web, however, every time I found a to do list my eyes glazed over and I could not concentrate :P It was then that I stumbled across this step-by-step video that saved my postal life.

To be sure they took a non to subtle opportunity to advertise the company they worked for, but it seemed like a small price to pay to actually watch someone complete the task that I was completely clueless on. I could then decide, based on what I saw, whether to continue or pay someone to help.

I think a video search of instruction videos will now precede all my DIY tasks!

Having family members with diabetes is no fun at all, in fact I am sure most of us know people with diabetes. I will be making my donation forthwith!

I love PBS, and they have a great 3 hour Physics mini series (nothing mini about) available online called The Elegant Universe. It really puts into perspective the roles of some of the great physicists such as Newton, Maxwell, Einstein and Bohr and show how they helped unveil the secrets of the physical universe.

If you have little or no idea about String theory, Quantum Mechanics, General theory of relativity this is an excellent starting point. This is a well paced and interesting series of videos with wonderful eye candy!

"We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic." - David Russell

I was once, in my youth, a lover of outdoor activities. My favorite was mountain biking. These guys have set the bar a little too high even for the most daring among us.

I was never this good ... not even close. These are some wonderful pictures that I thought I would share. No idea who these guys are but I hope they made it home!

There is a web site dedicated to this crazy trail blazing bikers. Check it out!

"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd." - Miguel de Cervantes

I was sent an email today that briefly described a job that I thought might be useful for a close friend. This email contained basic information on the job description, location, pay etc ... normal job listing kinda stuff. As I use Gmail email I was given a couple of ads suggesting that I also go for a job or two, and a Map this option.

At first I thought this was useful and harmless enough, until I started to look at the fact that Google was looking into my email and trying to take out information that was relevant to anything it owns. This might be fine as a long as it did not store that kind of information permanently?!

Wrong! Google is storing it ... in fact it stores every single query I have done in Google Search History. Imagine my surprise as I was able to review every query I have run in Google since January of this year. Which coincidentally was the time that I decided to sign up for more Google services. The definition of free email service has just changed for me.

They do provide you with the ability to pause and even switch off the service I am just wondering if they will still be collecting the data somewhere. I did not realize that I need to assume someone else is actually capable of reading my emails, searches, and spreadsheets. Google is still the darling of the press but I think, just one mistake with this kind of information could be quite bad on public relations. AOL is still reeling from its little information snafu.

I worked for a company, that shall remain unnamed, that had specific database naming standards. The standards were strict, as they should be, and I stayed with the company over four almost five years and the naming conventions are now immersed in my SQL conscience.

For example all tables in the database had to be prefixed with a 't' (Why? no one knew but we did it, and there was very little benefit in changing it), so I would begin every SQL select with: "select * from tWhatever"

This is wonderful and harmless until I came to my new place of work in which I do not have to worry about the 't' or the 'idb' or anything else like that. Unfortunately my fingers just cannot seem to break the habit and 'select * from' does not seem complete without the 't'.

The online video world appears to have room for one more player as Microsoft puts the new Soapbox up against YouTube. Currently this service is in beta and is by invite only. I suspect this service will eventually be integrated with the other Windows Live service offerings.

I find that the video service is even more difficult to navigate than the blog world (the cream does not always rise). With a blog all the search engines can look directly at the content and so my searches are easy and effective. With the video world you rely on tags and the comments of others, which are often misleading. I personally will not be signing up for this service. I find that the camera adds 10 pounds to you anyway, and I do not need that kind of help.

I have used Excel for years, for things like totals, creating graphs, even organizing projects. I am just not seeing why that would be useful on the web. So I ask myself (and I will ask Google if they are listening) Why Google Spreadsheets?

When no one appears interested in shared calendars that should have surely been signal enough that not every single popular application for the desktop will need a Web 2.0 counterpart. I am curious just how much money Google has to waste, but considering the share price right now It is a lot more than I have ;)

It may be that they really have identified a space on the web that needed filling. However, I think it is more accurate to suggest that they are the first big player to take a shot at Microsoft's money maker. Is Microsoft scared? Is MS now shaking in their Office boots? Not yet ... but soon ... I think the quicker Microsoft starts to push it Office Live offerings the better.

Microsoft sat on its heals with IE6 and firefox is slowly, very very slowly, gaining ground. Asides from the programming object model what really improved between Excel 97 and 2003? I do not remember? Do you?

"The wise man does at once what the fool does finally." - Machiavelli

I have much more appropriate things to blog about ... but this was sent to me by my friends and family back home. I thought it was hilarious!

p.s. I have no political stance to share here, it is just supposed to be funny!

I can only remember as far back as Windows 3.1, when a friend of mine (Harjot Saberwal), introduced me to the world of computing, but here is a comprehensive list from the past 25 years.

I often struggle with finding just the right words during performance reviews, and a previous manager once supplied me with a cheat sheet of Performance Appraisal one liners that would help complete reviews for myself and others. Well I have lost that but I have assembled something similar for my own sanity. I always think it a little egocentric to sit down and really think hard about how I can pat myself on the back, so I hope this helps make the experience a little more comfortable for all.

These comments are based on general section headings but some of them can be used in multiple places.

QUALITY SERVICE:
Exhibits superior Knowledge of job content and requirements.
Proposes recommendations that show breadth and depth of knowledge
Exhibits outstanding skills even in the most difficult job situations
Knowledge and expertise is relied on by others

PROFESSIONAL/TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:
Knows and applies principles, techniques, technology and practices that demonstrate competency in the particular job function.
Achieves, maintains and demonstrates necessary knowledge and skill level to perform currently assigned work responsibilities.
Keeps informed of current developments.
Understands work procedures

JUDGMENT/PROBLEM-SOLVING/DECISION-MAKING:
Collaborates with others to identify strategies for resolution of customer issues
Demonstrates professional, high-service attitude
Monitors customers’ feedback and acts proactively
Communicates to customers and effectively implements resolution strategies
Always willing to go beyond what may be expected to meet the needs of customers
Anticipates future customers’ needs and creates plans to enhance service
Consistently follows up with customers and others to ensure customer satisfaction and proper resolution

TEAMWORK:
Attempts to use logical reasoning in making decisions and solving problems
Judgment is generally sound and reasonable
Decisions are well thought out
Effectively analyzes problems and formulates practical solutions
Exhibits a high degree of decision Making ability
Takes responsibility for consequences and decisions
Finds unique ways to effectively resolve problems
Promotes an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation.
Encourages and supports others.
Provides information, assistance and guidance to others to help them perform their responsibilities.
Volunteers and offers suggestions. Shows courtesy and respect.
Creates a climate for comfortable expression of ideas.
Develops and maintains smooth and effective working relationships with [co-workers], [supervisors], [subordinates] etc
Uses positive methods of interactions with others.
Discusses and explains information with others effectively.
Produces accurate, well-presented and thorough written documents, records and reports.

PLANNING:
Accepts change
Understand the unit’s mission/vision
Develops very good working relationships
Always displays a cooperative attitude and shares knowledge
Effectively adapts to change
Displays a positive attitude towards the mission/vision
Expresses the value of working as a team
Seeks ways to share knowledge or mentor co-workers
Embraces change and helps others to adapt
Demonstrates a total commitment to the mission/vision

INITIATIVE\INDEPENDENCE:
Volunteers for special assignments.
Willingly helps and assists others.
Anticipates needs and takes appropriate steps to meet those needs.
Accepts responsibility and performs responsibilities with limited supervision.
Willingly accepts direction and is open to new ideas.
Demonstrates willingness to learn and grow professionally.
Demonstrates independent thinking and a desire to seek additional challenges.
Can be counted upon to complete duties and responsibilities accurately and on-time.
Utilizes time well and sets appropriate priorities.
Follows through with plans.
Knows when to ask for help when work loads or critical work assignments demand it.
Accepts responsibility and new job assignments.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE:
Exhibits an interest and attempts to improve performance
Duties and responsibilities are regularly met and often exceeded
Projects completed have made measurable improvements to the position and department
Always strives for a high level of performance
Duties and responsibilities are always met and exceeded
Projects completed have provided a significant ...
High level of performance achieved by few