To receive your promo code, go to The Microsoft Store Student Promo page, enter your school email address, and click Submit. It’s that easy! You can use your discount code on PCs, Surface tablets, software, and accessories.

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Episode 11 of the TechEd Countdown Show is now online. This is the LAST show! Rick (@RicksterCDN) and Joey (@JoeySnow) recorded this show at TechEd North America in New Orleans last week. In this episode they talk about opportunities for in-person activities in Madrid at TechEd Europe.

• TechEd Europe dual keynotes (North America keynote was the best in several years. I’m curious what they’re going to cover in two.)
• Country Drinks
• Ask the Experts
• Hands On Labs
• and more…

I’m a bit envious of the folks going to TechEd Europe because our event is over for another year and theirs is almost here. I’m really envious of the people who were in New Orleans and are also going to Europe. That’s a lot of TechEd in one month.

My offer to let someone send me to Madrid to live tweet the event still stands. Anyone?

You can always find The TechEd Countdown Show over at Channel 9, but why not just watch it here? Enjoy!

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In addition to a quick trip to Denver for work this week, I’ve also added in a couple of conferences along with TechEd. The latest edition of the Microsoft’s UC-focused conference, MEC 2014, will be in Austin next year. I attended the last two MECs in 2002 and 2012 and really enjoyed its return last year. The only problem is, I may not be working with Exchange when the next MEC rolls around.

We’re planning on moving our faculty and staff into the Office 365 tenant managed by the central IT organization. If that happens as I expect, I’ll be out of the Exchange and Lync business, at least from an infrastructure side, and that’s where I want to be. Because of that change, I had not given much thought to going to MEC again. After this year’s TechEd, however, I’ve decided that I do want to attend. I spent a lot of time over the last week with UC people, and it drove home to me that I don’t want to lose the connection to that community or to the technology. I may not be involved with UC in my current position, but you never know what’s on the horizon. I don’t have approval to attend at the moment, but I’m confident I can work something out. If you’re going to MEC, count on seeing me in Austin, one way or the other.

I also added the Windows in Higher Education Conference that is held on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. This is a very small conference, open to any higher education IT staff. The conference itself has a minimal cost, so the only real expenses are travel-related. It is a great opportunity to be on campus and see presentations from both Microsoft and your peers. Again I don’t have approval to attend, but because the costs are so low compared to other events, I expect I will get approval for this one as well.

I’m hoping that my travel plans will intersect with some of my friends and followers at some point. If you notice a trip where we’re in the same city, let me know. I would love to meet up!

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We will be convening in Houston, Texas, May 12-15.

TechEd 2014 Houston TX. #thekrewe #mateched twitter.com/hoorge/status/…

— Harjit Dhaliwal (@hoorge) June 2, 2013

TechEd 2014 will be the first time TechEd has been held in Houston and the third time in Texas (Dallas in 1999 and 2003). This will also be the first TechEd in May since Atlanta in 2011.

WPC 2013 will be in Houston next month. I wonder if Microsoft made a package deal for the two years back-to-back.

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It is actually more accurate to say that the link to the picture for the bridge cam is live. The image itself is not being refreshed. My guess is they were testing the cam and the link and then turned it off. We’ll have to keep an eye on it to see when it updates again.

I’ve updated my Princess Cruises webcam page to include Royal’s bridge cam. It is a great page to bookmark if you want to keep an eye on all the ships in the Princess Cruises fleet.

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Episode 10 of the TechEd Countdown Show is now online. This is the LAST show before TechEd North America! The next time you see Rick (@RicksterCDN) and Joey (@JoeySnow) will be in New Orleans. Today they’re focusing on certification and opportunities for training at TechEd with special guest Melissa Bathum from Microsoft Learning.

Melissa announced that there will be two free beta exams for SharePoint at TechEd. Only 500 spots will be available. Pre-registration will be open in about a week.

Joey mentioned that they will be shooting the next Countdown Show (for TechEd Europe) down in New Orleans. Live “studio” audience for that taping?

You can always find The TechEd Countdown Show over at Channel 9, but why not just watch it here? Enjoy!

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Carnival Cruise Lines recently started to block adding their webcam images to outside web pages. That meant that visitors to my Carnival Cruise Lines Webcam Page no longer were able to view the ships’ webcams on a single web page.

Webcam Image – Before	Webcam Image – After

I really can’t complain. The images are theirs, and websites prefer to have viewers eyes looking at their site and not on someone else’s. As someone who loves to cruise and enjoys looking at ship webcams, being able to go to one page to see several cams is much simpler and more efficient than having to open a separate page for each ship. Hopefully Carnival and other cruise lines will take note and provide a one-page view of their cam-equipped fleet.

Until then, feel free to visit the my other cruise ship webcam pages, and if you want to check out the Carnival cams, you can still use my Carnival Cruise Lines page as a launch page for the Carnival webcam pages. Click on the ship photos to view the webcam, page for that ship.

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Last night we booked a 10-day Canada & New England cruise on Princess Cruises’ Ruby Princess (Voyage R439). We start the cruise with an overnight onboard in Quebec City, and leave the following night. We make our way east to ports in Quebec, PEI, and Nova Scotia. Then we head down to Bar Harbor, Boston, and disembark in New York.

This cruise will be our first Canada & New England cruise, and is one we’ve wanted to do for some time. We plan on arriving in Quebec City a few days early so that we can relax before our cruise and enjoy the city. My great-grandfather, Alcid Germain, was born in Saint-Gabriel in Quebec, but unfortunately it isn’t close enough to include a visit this time. That will have to wait for a future trip.

We’ve sailed on Ruby’s sister ship Emerald Princess before, so we know what to expect onboard. After our cruise on Royal Princess later this year, we may be a bit spoiled, but I’m sure we’ll feel at home on Ruby pretty quickly. Only 498 days to go…

In case you’re looking to book a cruise and don’t have an agent with whom you normally work, let me recommend Simon Duvall. Simon is one of the hosts for the weekly Cruise Chat on Twitter. We’ve booked our last couple cruises with him.

Here is our complete itinerary if you’re interested.

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Episode 9 of the TechEd Countdown Show is now ready for your viewing pleasure! Rick (@RicksterCDN) and Joey (@JoeySnow) take us on a tour through the TechExpo at TechEd North America in New Orleans. Sorry TechEd Europe attendees, this episode is all North America.

The topics they cover in this episode are:

• Exhibitors at the TechExpo. (List of companies at the TechExpo with both numbers)
• TechEd sponsors. (List of sponsors with booth numbers)
• Special shout-out to Splunk (booth 228) and Thycotic (booth 1903).

You can always find The TechEd Countdown Show over at Channel 9, but why not just watch it here? Enjoy!

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Episode 8 of the TechEd Countdown Show is now ready for your viewing pleasure! Rick (@RicksterCDN) and Joey (@JoeySnow) are in the Green Screen studio for this show which means Special Effects! You’ve never seen beignets so large!

The topics they cover in this episode are:

• TechEd North America Foundation Session list
• Details on the Microsoft Store at TechEd North America
• Windows Phone App for Channel 9 events

They point out something I didn’t realize about the stores. There are two separate stores. The conference store will be the same as we’ve come to expect from earlier TechEd conferences. This store is where you can buy books, Microsoft clothes, and other Microsoft-branded items. The Microsoft Store will be a pop-up store where you can buy the same gear you will find in a regular Microsoft retail store.

The Windows Phone App is available now in the store. Look for Ch9 Events. This is a Channel 9 branded version of the EventBoard app that was already in the store. You will be prompted to setup an Eventboard account, and once you have that you will be directed to the Channel 9 site to link your Channel 9 account with Eventboard. Once you do that, you’re ready to go add your conference and start working with this very handy app. If you’re not using Windows Phone, check the app store for your device of choice for Ch9 Events.

You can always find The TechEd Countdown Show over at Channel 9, but why not just watch it here? Enjoy!

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