Microsoft’s Elevate America Program (With Audio)
May 14, 2009 by Doug
Filed under Features, News/Events
In February of this year Microsoft announced a new initiative, Elevate America, which will provide up to 2 million people with the technology training. Microsoft has positioned Elevate America as a response to the current economic crisis in partnership with others in the public and private sector.
Elevate America has two main offerings, one available immediately and one that will be provided in partnership with state governments including those of Florida, New York and Washington.
A new online resource, located at http://www.microsoft.com/ElevateAmerica, is available today. This new Web site helps individuals understand what types of technical skills they need for the jobs and opportunities of today and tomorrow, and lists resources to help acquire these skills. The Web site provides access to several Microsoft online training programs, including how to use the Internet, send e-mail and create a résumé, as well as more advanced programs on using specific Microsoft applications.
Click play to hear Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs at Microsoft, speaks with us about Microsoft’s Elevate America Training Program and how to participate.
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Run Time 8:26
Vouchers
For a greater range of training programs and certification exams, Microsoft will also partner with governments, which in turn will make these resources available to their citizens.
Washington State is already one of those partners. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire says that programs such as Elevate America are critical to providing support to Washington families and helping the economy recover.
“At the federal, state and local level, leaders are working together to help start the engine of economic growth. The private sector provides much of the spark needed to jump-start that engine,” Gregoire said. “Elevate America is a great example of Microsoft’s leadership on education and work force development — issues that bring us a step closer to recovery by helping us provide critically important help to our citizens. Washington State is pleased to be one of the first states to partner with Microsoft to provide Elevate America to our residents.”
Microsoft’s Tammara Edgin Speaks to Us About DreamSpark
May 7, 2009 by Doug
Filed under Features, News/Events, PC Software, Software
One of the problems when a high school or college student wants to study for a career in IT or design is the high cost of the software used in those fields. Even if your school has labs for learning, it is not the same as having access to the tools at home on your own time.
Yes, there is open source, but to have solid education to get a job, you need to know more than just the open source tools.
As you can see from the list below Microsoft has made the majority of its tool available to students and teacher who join the program.
Below is an audio interview with Microsoft’s Tammara Edgin who shares with info on how to join and best use the program, why Microsoft is doing it, how Microsoft protects the privacy of those who join the program, and the different career options there are for people in IT.
Microsoft recently expanded the DreamSpark program to include high school students to a program that college students world wide have already be able to join.
Click play to hear Tammara Edgin, an Educational Strategic Account Manager at Microsoft, speaks with us about Microsoft’s DreamSpark Program.
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Run Time 7:36
IT Academy Student Pass
Through the IT Academy Student Pass 5 eLearning tracks are available:
- Web Developer
- Windows Developer
- Database Developer
- Windows Server IT Professional
- Windows Client Professional
Software DreamSpark Offers
Microsoft Developer Tools Included:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008
- Microsoft CCR and DSS Toolkit 2008
- Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0, learn to make games for the Xbox
- XNA Creators Club Academic Edition (12-month free membership)
Microsoft Designer Tools Included:
- Microsoft Expression Studio, including:
- Expression Web
- Expression Blend
- Expression Design
- Expression Media (Silverlight)
Microsoft Platform Software.
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition
- Microsoft Virtual PC
YouSendIt, When Overnight is Too Slow (With Audio)
September 17, 2008 by Doug
Filed under Features, Mac Software, News/Events, PC Software, Software
Click play to hear Ranjith Kumaran, founder of YouSendIt, explain how the service works.
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Run Time 10:17
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While Instant Messing (IM), Blogging, and SMS have become the darlings of the Web 2.0 crowd, and for good reason. E-mail, day in and day out, is still the killer app of the Internet. E-mail is just how most of us make communication happen, regardless of how technical or non-technical we are. It is still a killer app, even with it being one of the first generation Internet apps.
But sometimes words are not enough! So we turn to tools like PowerPoint, Visio, Photoshop, Acrobat, etc to share our thoughts and needs in the rich ways videos, drawings, sounds and pictures let us. But when it comes time to send them most mail systems limit your to attachments of 10 megabytes (MB), 5MB, even 2MB in some cases. Even when you can send the file, the receiver’s mail system could block it because the attachment is larger than they allow. Not much fun when you just want to get the job done.
What is It?
This is where YouSendIt comes into play. YouSendIt’s basic file transfer service lets you send files up to 100 MB for free.
Their premium services have three paid plans, and let you send files up to 2 gigabytes (GB) in size. Paid accounts also offer certified delivery and password protection as options. Business accounts can set up their own branded file uploading service with YouSendIt technology, where their customers may not even know YouSendIt is the backbone of the service. This is a great option over running an FTP server. Plus, paid YouSendIt accounts can track how often each file has been downloaded. Great way to check to see if everyone on a mail list is on the same page when it comes to a project.
For an extra fee with the Pro, Business Plus and Corporate Suite paid plans, SiteDrop can be added. SiteDrop lets your customers and colleagues send files to you via your website.
The recipient of the file does not need to download any software; does not need to get a YouSendIt account; they just click the link in the mail they receive from YouSendIt to be taken to a webpage to download the file.
The recipient for the file will receive a link from YouSendIT that takes them to the YouSendIt site and allows them to download the file you sent. They have 7 days to retrieve the file or YouSendIt sends it packing.
So, how do I use it?
Option One
- Go to the home page of YouSendIt
- Enter the recipient’s email address
- Enter your email address, subject and a note in the body
- Attach the file you wish to send
- Hit The Send Button
Option Two
Install YouSendIt Express, a software client for Mac or Windows. It lets you send and receive files right from your desktop. Plus it has the advantage of being 25% faster at uploading than the web method and offers resumable uploading – if there is a network interruption.
Option Three
YouSendIt has plug-ins from Outlook, Acrobat, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, CorelDraw X3, Aperture, iPhoto and PaperPort 11. This lets you send your files within the application you are using to create them.
The Outlook plug-in is very useful for even the small business users since it does not require any changes or additions on the Exchange server (mail server) to work. This is great because many small and medium size businesses are using hosted Exchange from their ISP, cable company, or dedicated mail hosting services.
Ok, So what the verdict?
YouSendIt is a great service that is easy to use. But it does have a few places where it could improve.
It would be nice if the free version could be a little more generous, a 100MB limit is getting very tight these days. In the near future they should also think about upping the limit for the paid account or offer another paid plan that has a larger limit than 2GB. With having a Final Cut Plugin and the world moving High Def video, it is not hard to make a video daily (rough draft) that goes over 2GB is size.
This is a competitive market and YouSendIt blogs and gives its customers easy options to send they feedback and feature requests, so they should grow the service to meet the demand people have now and the future. If you need to deliver, track and control access to large files and want to save money by not using overnight shipping or the lost time of dealing with FTP with non-tech savvy clients, YourSendIt is a solution worth considering.
Join the Mail List for a Chance to Win an 8GB SDHC Card
September 12, 2008 by Doug
Filed under Cell Phones, Features, Gadgets, MP3 Players
From now until September 30, 2008, anyone over the age of 13 living in the US who joins the Takes on Tech Mail List will be put into a drawing for an 8GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra MicroSDHC Card with Reader.
Yes, a full 8-gigabytes of free storage for your cell phone, such as a T-Mobile Dash, or digital audio players, such as Sansa c200. That is room for 2000 songs! And Don’t worry the picture is above is a blow up of the card, Micro SHHC memory is very small in size. ;)
You can join the mail list on the right side of the home page or the right side of any of the individual post pages.
Contest Ends at 11:59 p.m Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) September 30, 2008 Go here for the full official rules of the contest.
Sansa™ and Mobile Ultra™ are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation. SanDisk is not a participant in or sponsor of this contest.