The Microsoft.com website has some nice user guides:

• Getting started in the community
• RSS
• Chats
• Newsgroups
• Starting a user group

And under the user guides, you'll also find Microsoft employee biographies. But no, they don't explain how to "use" the Microsoft employee....

Registration is now open for the following TechNet Evening sessions in September, which will both be held at the NH Hotel in Diegem (near Brussels):

September 15: SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 Update for DBA’s
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is Microsoft’s next-generation data management and analysis software that will deliver increased scalability, availability, and security to enterprise data and analytical applications while making them easier to create, deploy, and manage. The speaker will give an overview of the new features in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for database administration, database availability, scalability, and security.

September 29: Deploying ISA Server 2004
Get an overview of Microsoft Internet Security and Accelerator (ISA) Server 2004, the advanced application layer firewall, VPN, and Web cache solution that enables you to easily maximize existing IT investments by improving network security and performance. This informative session is open to IT Professionals who are familiar with ISA and people who are new to the product.

More information and registration is available on http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technet/events/.

Want to get some developer insights about the recently released Windows XP Service Pack 2? If you rush you can still register for the upcoming Belgian MSDN Evening session on Windows XP Service Pack 2. After an overview of the developer implications of this service pack, you will get some tips and experiences from a developer that tested several applications of his customers on compliance with Windows XP SP2.

There are only a few seats left for this event, so if you plan to attend, do not hesitate to register now!

Update: the session will be redelivered next Wednesday on September 8th at "Living Tomorrow" (a.k.a. "The House Of The Future") in Vilvoorde. There are still seats available: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/msdn/events/#xpsp2redelivery.

Rob Mensching posted an update to the WiX toolset, including many bugfixes.

In this post I share some of the interesting blog posts of the past month that will also appear in the MSDN Belux Flash.

Belgian community

• Jonathan de Halleux is excited about a matrix algebra package for .NET.
• Yves Kerwyn: "SharePoint users might fall in love with Windows Briefcase"
• Christof Claessens blogs about BizTalk Server 2004.
• Christoph De Baene wrote SharpBrowser.
• Jan Tielens: "SharePoint, Code Access Security and the SmartPart"
• Tom van de Kerkhof created a Treeview navigation webpart for Sharepoint, using SmartPart.
• Jonathan de Halleux has created several add-ins for .NET Reflector.
• Find a list of all Belgian and Luxemburger .NET bloggers on MSDN Belux.

From the Microsoft bloggers

• Robert Scoble: "The Express Edition team is blogging".
• Dan Fernandez likes the RSS Screen Saver Starter Kit in C# Express.
• Kent Sharkey blogs about the Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition and the Personal Web Starter Kit.
• Sara Williams shares some thoughts about the MSDN Product Feedback Center.
• Want in-depth BizTalk Server information? Read the BizTalk Core Engine blog.
• Gilles Zunino explains why you should not use the Office Object Model when processing Office documents with BizTalk Server 2004.
• Brian Johnson links to the Platform SDK for Windows XP Service Pack 2 Release Candidate 2.
• Josh Ledgard lists some new Microsoft team blogs.
• Paul Vick has a list of "community-approved" Visual Basic blogs.
• Josh Ledgard kept a diary of a 3 day "Program Manager App Building" on the VSCore team. Read his diary for day 1, day 2 and day 3.
• Chris Brumme talks about the future of the .NET Common Language Runtime in this video interview on Channel9.
• Denis Bauer updated his FileDisassembler for Reflector.
• Fiona Fung: "Beginner's tips on Visual Studio .NET's Find and Replace using Regular Expressions"
• Robert Scoble shares some ways to talk with the Internet Explorer team.
• Laura John links to Jan Tielens' and Fons Sonnemans' SmartPart Webpart.
• Duncan Mackenzie links to an article on drawing a 3D Pie Chart in C#.
• Jonathan Wells refers to a CodeProject article: "Bubble.NET" for Pocket PC.
• Rob Mensching answers questions that Microsoft employees keep asking about his Windows Install XML toolset (WiX).
• Paul Vick discusses For Each and Option Strict.
• Suzanne Cook on how to debug an InvalidCastException.
• Eric Lippert: "What's the Difference between WScript.CreateObject, Server.CreateObject and CreateObject?"

International community

• Find the most interesting blog posts of speakers, attendees and community about Tech•Ed 2004 Europe at http://techedbloggers.net/.
• Dino Esposito wrote an article on TheServerSide.net about developing shell extentions with C#.
• Sam Gentile raves about Code Complete, 2nd Edition.
• Bill McCarthy links to an OPML file of Visual Basic bloggers.
• Eric Gunnerson discusses grouping classes within an assembly.
• Clemens Vasters invites you to download The FABRIQ.
• Ingo Rammer links to a dotnet.tv episode on XML Web services.
• Dana Epp reviews the Visual Studio Team System.
• Alex Campbell extended the ASP.NET Repeater control with a NoData template.
• Steve Maine: "... you can now easily call Web Services via e-mail".
• Rocky Lothka wrote an article on 15Seconds about Data Binding in Windows Forms with the .NET Framework 2.0.
• Maxim V. Karpov wrote an article about partially trusted code.
• Cathi Gero has several tips and tricks for .NET.
• Dino Esposito: "Got Attributes? Be an Attribute-based Programmer, Then"

Ianier Munoz did it again... After his articles on using Managed DirectX 9.0 and C# to write a drum machine for Windows and on porting it to Pocket PC, he now has a new article on writing a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) plug-in for Microsoft's Windows Media Player 9.0 using C#. He certainly knows what Duncan Mackenzie means with "Coding for Fun"...

Writing A Complete DSP Plug-in for Windows Media Player 9 in C#
This article shows how to build a complete DSP (Digital Signal Processing) plug-in for Windows Media Player 9 in C#. The accompanying sample code comprises of a Phase Shifter DSP plug-in and a User Interface plug-in for controlling the DSP plug-in parameters in real-time.

Just a few hours ago, the finalists of the Imagine Cup 2004 were announced in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The two Belgian teams were both still in the last final round. In the "Software Design Invitational" the Belgian "New World" team ended on the 5th place and in the "Rendering Invitational" the Belgian "Nautilus" team ended on the 3rd place. Congratulations to all finalists for their accomplishment and a special shout out to 2 the Belgian teams.

Links:
H2Ocean project by the Nautilus team (Charles-Frederik Hollemeersch, Elisabeth Hollemeersch, Wesley De Neve)
New World project (Steve Lanuit, Laurent Mazzapicchi, Pierre Ioannatos)
Belgian Imagine Cup website

Update: Howard Lo has some more results...

Update 2: Microsoft's official press release

Update 3: Channel9 interviewed Microsoft's Imagine Cup team.

Gunther Beersaerts, the famous .NET speaker in Belgium and Luxembourg and Microsoft employee, started a blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/guntherb/.

BrainBench, an online testing website, offers its exams for free till July 14th. Personally I would give more credit to the Microsoft certification, since these are taken in an exam center. But if you want to get some free BrainBench exam certifications, now might be the time to give it at try. They do have some tests about the .NET Framework...

PS. Currently I don't see anything about this on their homepage, but on this page you can see the following statement: "July 1 - July 14 we are opening up the Brainbench library in celebration of our 5 millionth member. All tests will be FREE.".

Strangely enough, no Belgian bloggers (that I am aware of) blogged about some of the announcements at TechEd in Amsterdam yet. They probably had better things to do, like attending sessions, etc. :)

Update: Jelle was the first Belgian to link to these products. Others have just mentioned it. And some Belgian bloggers just aren't in Amsterdam. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that first paragraph... :( That said, here are the links once again:

Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1
Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 will be available on MSDN Subscriber Downloads soon. People without an MSDN Subscription will be able to order the beta for a nominal (small) fee.

MSDN Product Feedback Center
Microsoft's public online bug and suggestion database.

Visual Studio 2005 Express Beta
"The Express products, expanding the Visual Studio product line to include lightweight, easy-to-use, easy-to-learn tools for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and novices who want to build dynamic Windows applications and Web sites."

• Visual Basic 2005 Express
• Visual C# 2005 Express
• Visual C++ 2005 Express
• Visual J# 2005 Express
• Visual Web Dev 2005 Express

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition - Technical Preview
"SQL Server Express is a version of SQL Server 2005 designed for building simple, dynamic applications. SQL Server Express helps developers build robust and reliable applications by providing a powerful database that is also free and easy to use."

Summer Of Express - Worldwide Contest
And if you're interested, you could join the "Summer Of Express" contest at Channel9:
"The Summer of Express contest is a worldwide skill contest where developers are challenged to create “non-business” applications using the newly announced Express products."

A good place to stay up-to-date about TechEd is of course techedbloggers.net, an aggregated feed for the most interesting TechEd posts...

Approximatly one year and a half ago, there were about 3 Belgian .NET bloggers that I knew of. During this period, the list grew up to 21 Belgians and 1 Luxemburger. Not all of them are already listed on the MSDN Belux Bloggers page. If you are a .NET blogger from Belgium or Luxembourg, feel free to drop feedback (see the link at the bottom of the MSDN Belux website) with the URL of your blog and a short description and we will add your blog on that page. Meanwhile, everyone can find the updated Belgian bloggers list on my blog (the web interface).

Imagine Cup is an international contest for students, sponsored by Microsoft. This year there are four invitationals for the contest: software design, rendering, algorithms and short films.

I had the honor to be part of the jury that selected the entry in the "software design" invitational that would go to the worldwide finals in Sao Paolo, Brazil for Belgium. To be honest, we had a difficult task choosing between all the entries. Yes, we were pretty amazed by the quality of the entries of the 3 teams that participated in the Belgian finals for this invitational. The winning team is "New World" of the Haute Ecole Rennequin Sualem. They created a solution to help the treatment of young schizophrenia patients. For this, they collaborated with a psychiatric hospital. You can read a very short statement on their website. Hopefully they'll have a full website up and running soon.

But there is also another Belgian team participating in the worldwide Imagine Cup 2004 finals in Brazil. The Nautilus team will participate in the Rendering invitational. If I'm not mistaking, this team of Ghent University was selected by an online voting. For their entry, the students got their inspiration from the sea (and what is below). You can find their project with some really nice movies on the H2Ocean website.

Please join me in congratulating both teams and wishing them the best for the Imagine Cup 2004 Worldwide Finals on July 4th through 6th.

For the interested ones, a full list of official Press Releases is available at the Imagine Cup website.

Update: The white papers of both projects are available at the official Belgian Imagine Cup website at http://www.microsoft.be/imaginecup.