Tag: Microsoft

Contest: Win Windows 8.1 Pro License (Students Only) – Azure Dreamspark Subscription

With few steps, you could win Windows 8.1 Pro (Yes Worth Rs 10,000) for student randomly selected from submission and a Azure subscription for get started with Microsoft Cloud Computing Solution.

So what you have to do is follow

Step 1: Create a Microsoft Account – Go to Outlook.com if you don’t have one.

Microsoft Account is one stop for your 15 GB Free Onedrive Cloud Space, Windows Store, Microsoft Azure, Xbox & even login to Windows Based device, so if you don’t have one, its time to create one.

Step 2: Start Utilizing Microsoft Virtual Academy.

Microsoft Virtual Academy is the best resource for beginners to develop some skills like Application development, Game development, learning C#, Javascript, etc. This step is not compulsory,  still it is best to utilize the free resource Microsoft provide to develop your skills.

Visit htp://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com

Suggested Course to Complete:

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Websites

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Storage and Data

I will be blogging how to use Azure for hosting Websites, and for Mobile Services.

Step 3: Create a Dreamspark Subscription and Activate Azure

Detailed instructions on Creation of account & Activation of Azure Student Offer.

For a net- new user, the flow of activating your Azure Student Offer would be as follows: Create an account -> Get your student status verified -> Activate your account -> Avail the Azure Student offer.

  1. Visit the link here and click on ‘Create Account’ and create your Microsoft login credentials.
  2. After creating the login credentials, login to the site here, and click on ‘Verify your student status’
  3. Select the ‘I can provide documentation’ tab as shown below: azure1  Provide the requested details & get your academic status verified.
  4.  Once you get a confirmation email from the team, please click on the link provided in the email to activate your student account.  (In case you see any error in these step, Contact their support team for immediate activation, It takes upto 2-3 business day)
  5. Once the account is activated, you can activate your Azure account, by following the detailed instructions given here.

Step 4: Take a Screenshot and Mail me!

Login to your azure portal and take a screenshot like this.

To get the details, place your mouse over Your Name at right top corner.

RAShid

Mail the screenshot with your Name, College, and your education details (like course, year) to muhaymin – at – muhaym.in muhaym.in

LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSION IS 15th of September, Don’t wait for last date because dream spark activation takes more than 2-3 days. Follow me in twitter for more updates http://twitter.com/muhaym

I will select random submission as winner and will announce in this blog on 20th September after verification.

I will be blogging about Azure, using Azure Mobile Service in your apps in coming days. If any doubts feel free to ask in the comment section below.

Xhackers Hackathon – The best event I ever attended!

This is the day when I understood the saying “Programmers are machine who turns coffee into software”.

I express my gratitude to Nishanth Anil, Vidya Sagar, Vic, Anubhav, Senthil Kumar, KirtiSagar, Abhishek, Pooran Prasad, Sagar Bhanudas Joshi and all the other Xhackers out there at the event.

I thought of not attending the event till the last night, because of exams at my college. But my partner at XhackNight called me and forced to attend the program, who knew that was for winning something great.

Finally I took a decision, Tirur – Bangalore train, General compartment ticket, traveled in sleeper class (Shared the seat with our friends Jaseel and Ramees).

Reached early morning there at Bangalore, and went to Microsoft R&D Center in no time.

The event started with few Keynotes by Nish, Pooran, etc. As usual they covered about Xamarin, its history and all. The Motivational stuff by Nish at his initial Keynote was awesome. (The only thing I hate about him is he is an Apple fan :P). He was the rock star of the event till afternoon sessions.

Yeaaah! It’s Lunch time, had Fried Rice, etc. (No matter who sponsored it, thanks to them :D).  It was prayer time, started hunting for Prayer area at Microsoft R&D campus, didn’t find, they redirected us to Microsoft Main Building, went there, after a lot of security check-ins, and search finally done with prayer behind the beautiful Badminton court there. (I don’t know whether I can share this secret stuff inside Microsoft Campus Bangalore :P).

Reached late to the afternoon sessions, Nish was handling session on developing app for iOS using Xamarin. (Least interested being a windows phone fan boy :P).

Finally the great guy who ‘stole the show’ came up with his Game development sessions, using CocosSharp and related applications. He was handling the last session, where all the audience were bored like anything, but he started his session by motivating all of us! Thanks Vidya Sagar for that awesome session :).

 

Then the session, we waited for long officially began. The xHackNight.

Me and my team mate Faheem, came up with an idea for helping those who are in search for Blood, and those who are interested to donate. Yes we sketched a blood donation app in my notebook (MicroProcessor Based Designing) which I took for studying. (I knew that I wont, but still!).

Getting fresh ourselves
Getting fresh ourselves

It was like 7 pm, finally we started designing UI, initially targeted for Windows Phone, same time Faheem was designing Android UI. Slowly covered the UI, and some basic stuff in like 4 hours. We had endless fun in between like squeezing into sleeping bag for ‘selfie’, fun in restroom for keeping us awake whole night.

Yes me and Faheem was coding even after midnight. Started doing the backend, Connection to Azure services, and all other features. But when I looked to clock after implement all these, and finalising Windows Phone part, the time

Still no sleep because of Die hard Coding.
Still no sleep because of Die hard Coding.

was 11 PM. I didn’t sleep whole night! First time in my life coding whole night. It was the countless coffee, chocolate milk, espresso, Cappuccino, Lime tea, Cardamon Tea, and all other stuff they had there which made us awake whole night and  finish the works. Thanks Microsoft for sponsoring all those hot drinks.

Coffee Coffe Whole night, thanks Microsoft
Coffee Coffe Whole night, thanks Microsoft

Whole night there was Anubhav, Nish, Senthil who helped me to accomplish the task, I don’t have words to appreciate their helping mentality by not sleeping the whole day 🙂

Finally when we tried to implement the backend to the android UI we designed, our Xamarin started to crash 🙁 . After a lot of research and time wasting, we understood that the Xamarin version and SDK we used was old, we started updating. But the time fixed for Hack was over.

We presented our finished Windows Phone app, and half baked Android app to judges. It’s lunch and judgment time.

Results announced, and YEAAH we won for the best Windows Phone and Azure Implemented app. Thanks Microsoft and Xamarin for Lumia 925!

Our gift Lumia 925 for best Windows and Azure app at hacknight.
Our gift Lumia 925 for best Windows and Azure app at XhackNight.

This might be a long writing, but I just wanted to thank all those Xhackers for attending, helping and collaborating to learn and develop apps.

End Note: I miserably failed in the exam next day, 9/50 :P, but my teacher congratulated me for the achievement at event.