Microsoft Australia have a programming contest out right now – with (at the time of writing) 173 hours and three minutes remaining. There’s a nice bevy of prizes.

The challenge is to make something modern out of something retro – or even implement something retro using new tech.

My first thought was a modern .NET Commodore 64 emulator – but then I came across Sharp-64 – written two years ago by a fellow Australian. I pondered briefly whether a C64 emulator Vista sidebar gadget would be feasible but I’ve gone off this train of thought now …

Anyone got an idea for me?? Time is ticking down … and like with most great software, the coding likely isn’t the significant part of the challenge, it’s the big idea!

Hi Coders,

The next Coders Group meeting will be:

Date: 6.00pm Wednesday 1st October 2008
Location: Forsythes IT Training Room – 9 Denison Street, Newcastle West
Cost: FREE!

This month the topic will be the Lua programming language … And how to expand the World of Warcraft.

Lua (Portuguese for “Moon”) is a modern lightweight scripting language. In this talk, you will see the syntax and control structures that make Lua work – and then put it together to write add-ons for possibly the most famous Lua implementation – the engine for the World of Warcraft. Using Lua you can enhance your WoW experience, taking advantage of information happening around you in the world that you might otherwise miss. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how similar it is to familiar and more conventional event-driven programming.

By day, David M Williams is the Chief Information Officer for ResCo Services, a national mining support company. By night, he writes for iTWire and is a level 70 warlock.

For those of you who haven’t been before, the Newcastle Coders Group is a great place to learn about the latest technologies in software development. It’s also a great place to meet your peers in the local area. Everyone is welcome, so bring your friends and colleagues.

It should be a great night.  I hope to see you there.

iTWire: I’ve put doing a lot of counting lately! Here’s my two latest stories: 100 reasons Linux beats Windows and top 5 Linux references in pop-culture. Enjoy!

Update: The “100 reasons” is on the front page of Digg right now! Woot!

iTWire: Kerio, Zimbra, Open-Xchange, Zarafa - what do these words all have in common? Answer – they all beat out SBS.

iTWire: I’ve claimed that Microsoft’s Small Business Server (SBS) is hampered by its built-in limitations. These constraints have been designed in. Why would you opt for SBS when you could have it all using Linux? It’s time to put my money where my mouth is. Here’s what I look for in a Linux-based solution and starting today not one, but five, options to pick from.

And no, I’m not talking about the TV station. Well, maybe it does, but that’s guilt by association.

No, I’m talking about Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS.) Look, truth be told, it exasperates me, much like Microsoft Access exasperates me. And no, this is no mere Microsoft-bashing. Why, I love SQL Server. I love Visual Studio.

The truth is both SBS and Access are accessible to inexperienced consultants and then others – ie me – have to come in and tidy it up when the system inevitably scales beyond what those systems permit.

I wrote a piece on iTWire, “How Linux is keeping Microsoft honest (and why SBS sucks.)” The point wasn’t even really to criticse SBS as such but to show that Windows has been bolstered as a result of the rise of Linux. This is a good thing, competition sharpens vendors. One example is PowerShell – after years of Linux being derided for keeping the real power at the command line instead of a GUI we see Microsoft doing the same thing. I don’t doubt PowerShell was influenced by the BASH shell.

Nevertheless, it was my comments about SBS that drew the most attention from bloggers worldwide. I got a lot of responses. The SBS consultants did themselves no favours; after all they agreed SBS doesn’t let you have trust relationships, you’re limited to one SBS server, you can’t run terminal services on your SBS machine, your user numbers are capped, you’re stuck with 4GB RAM and so on.

What was most interesting though was a Microsoft SBS MVP gave me the real reason why consultants advocate SBS – and it was nothing to do with technology (or price for that matter.)

It all began when I posted on iTWire “Five reasons to upgrade from Windows Vista to Linux.” This made it to the front page of Digg – but was mysteriously pulled soon after

My buddy, Alex Zaharov-Reutt, countered with “Ten reasons to stick with Vista and forget Linux.”

Our colleague, Sam Varghese, doubled this with “20 reasons to shed the Microsoft yoke and use Linux.”

Not to be outdone Alex hit back with “40 reasons to lose Linux and vote Vista.”

Where do you go from here? Well, if you’re Davey Winder you put up “ONE reason why OS X is better than Vista and Linux.”

iTWire: Microsoft launched a new $USD 300 million advertising campaign this month, starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld among others. The marketing types responsible are intending to counter Apple’s successful “I’m a Mac” line, but the slogan picked out is simply on the wrong foot from the start and is thwarted by Linux immediately.

This story appeared on the front page of Digg and presently has 1052 diggs!

iTWire: Google’s Chrome web browser is upon us, with performance already hitting legendary status. Yet, it is presently available only for use on Microsoft Windows systems? What then for us, the Linux user? Here’s how to begin poking around and see what the future looks like.