Today Master Chief arrived at Microsoft Belgium. With his height of 2 meters, he's standing in the lobby where he is protecting the ladies of the reception desk. Quite cool. I hope I'll be able to post some pictures of this soon...

If you want to win such a "life size Master Chief", you'll have to attend the "Halo 2 Mission Party" on November 12 in the Ancienne Belgique (Brussels) where you can win one. It is a private event and there's only a number of people that will be able to get in.

Check out the instructions on how to get in at this party by clicking the banner.

Microsoft EMEA (EMEA = Europe, Middle East and Africa) gives you the possibility to order the MSDN Web Developer Kit (shipping and handling costs apply) or to download parts of this kit.

MSDN Web Developer Kit
Flexible, multipurpose and effective: Developing web applications has never been easier than in the .NET environment. We’d like to offer you the chance to evaluate how your development projects could benefit from the unique advantages of .NET through our Web Developer Kit. Read on to find out how...

Here are some direct links:

• Belgium (Flemish)
• Belgium (French)
• The Netherlands
• United Kingdom
• All other countries, visit this page.

Ok, this is probably a little over the edge, but... Happy 49th Birthday, Bill Gates!

It is important for people to know what resources are available to them. Also in the IT industry you'll see that people that know their way around the web, that know some of the peers, have a head-start of others.

One of the side-projects that I've been working on lately was to make developers, system and applications administrators, etc... aware of the technical communities. Yesterday, on the SQL Server Day event, we first brought this little project into the public: a sort of postcard, with a cartoon by the Belgian cartoonist Quirit. This a small version of the cartoon:

We'll distribute this card (and other successors too) on different Microsoft events. But you can also see and download a bigger version of this cartoon on http://www.microsoft.be/communities. Because you live and breath IT, don't you?

So you live and breath IT?
Well then, join Microsoft's technical communities.

You get to share ideas and solutions, you get to pick the brains of other IT fanatics, experts, peers and Microsoft employees. By far the best way to stay ahead of the pack.

http://www.microsoft.be/communities
Live IT. Love IT.

At the end of January 2004, I wrote about Computer Associate's offer for their eTrust EZ Armor antivirus and firewall solution: you can now download and use their software without any charge for one year. CA's software is also included in the recently released Microsoft's Partner Pack for Windows. IMHO, eTrust EZ Armor doesn't have an integrated experience: firewall and anti-virus are just 2 different products that are installed at once. On top of this, I find the user interface of the AV product very basic and not intuitive at all, and the firewall appears just to be a rebranded version of ZoneLabs' excellent free ZoneAlarm firewall.

There are also other anti-virus companies that offer free versions of their software for personal/home/non-commercial use. One of these companies is Alwil with their avast! anti-virus product. The "Home" edition of Alwil's avast anti-virus product can be downloaded freely without any registration. The software is available in several languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Czech, Slovak and Japanese to name a few. (Note that you'll eventually have to register the product before the end of the 60-day trial, but registering doesn't cost you a thing.)

Another company that also offers a free anti-virus solution is Grisoft with their "AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition". This software can also be used without any required payment, but you'll have to register (and give your personal contact details) before you can download the software.

Other anti-virus companies also have several offers on Microsoft's Security @ Home anti-virus page. And of course, visit http://www.microsoft.com/protect (English) or http://www.microsoft.com/belux/protect (Dutch and French) for information on keeping your PC safe and protected.

Luc Van Braekel, a Flemish "A-list blogger" (but blogs in Dutch/Flemish only), has a copy of an English spoken promotional video for Belgium. With everything that's going on, I thought it might be good to be reminded that our government wants us to be proud of our country.

PS. Note the part when a commercial airplane flies over... Tragically ironic.

Robert Scoble says it's time that we get over our fear of weblogging. I find it an interesting read and it will certainly reflect on several statements he makes.

But there is one thing that he seems to forget: we aren't all developers on the Windows/Linux/MacOS OS, Visual Studio, ASP.NET or the .NET Framework, we don't all design Ford cars and we aren't all managers/CxO's of a big corporation. During several talks with people, many told me the same thing: "I don't blog because I don't think I'll have enough interesting material to write about."

Indeed, you'll need to free up some time to blog. And time is just that one thing that we don't have enough of, do we? On the other hand, blogging is also about communicating and building a network, building relationships. Keeping relations alive will always consume time and energy. Having a blog could help you to keep your existing relations but will certainly helps you to meet new people easier. And you'll find that blogging can be fun... And if you don't like it, you can always quit.

Here's an example. If it wouldn't have been for blogs, I would probably never have heard of Vasanth Dharmaraj. Just the fact that I remember him while writing this post is remarkable, not? By reading his blog, I got to know some things about him: he's a big Formula 1 adept, he's a Java developer but isn't afraid of doing some things  with .NET either. He has an Xbox. But most of all I got to know him as a person, even though I never met him in real life. Does he blog every day? No, he doesn't. But because I don't have to visit his site (thanks to RSS and an aggregator), I'll be automatically informed when Vasanth writes a new post.

Another example: I wouldn't have known about Peli's (a.k.a. Jonathan de Halleux) Redmond adventure and wouldn't have given him a bottle of champagne if he didn't have his blog. In fact, he even told me that his blog was somehow involved in his recruitment process. And if you read his blog, you'll certainly understand that. Because blogs, he was able to team up with Jamie Cansdale and moved several of his projects into TestDriven.net.

There are plenty more blog related success stories, even here in Belgium. You could check out the list of Belgian & Luxembourger .NET technology bloggers and see how a blog impacts their lives. Now, why don't you give it a try?

Btw, sorry for falling into the marketing trap from time to time. I'll try to work on it.

Was just browsing the MSDN Product Feedback Center and saw the following announcement by Anson Horton (Microsoft):

I'm happy to report that based on your feedback we have decided to implement E&C for C#. It will be first available in the upcoming community tech preview drop. Please let us know what you think!!

More information on Edit and Continue in C# is available on Microsoft's Vice President for the Developer Division Somasegar (a.k.a. Soma).

Scoble, being an anti-smoking activist, will be happy... Yesterday Clemens blogged that he quit smoking five weeks ago. I delayed blogging about it, but in fact I quit smoking 8 weeks ago. That are at least 2 smokers less on this planet!

And it feels great being a non-smoker now. I know, I know, these things are all traditional clichés, but now:

• I don't have to be afraid any longer that I annoy people with the smoke from my cigarettes;
• I can visit friends and don't have to interrupt the visit with a smoking break outside their house;
• I no longer feel uncomfortable when I must follow long meetings without smoking breaks;
• I no longer feel uncomfortable when I only have a few or no cigarettes left;
• I no longer have to be nervous for being a long time without the possibility for smoking (for example, when taking a transatlantic flight);
• I can climb the stairs for more than 1 floor without getting out of breath (as a matter of fact, doing sports is a whole lot easier and more fun now);
• I sleep better and need less sleep;
• ...

I've mentioned him a few times in the post, but does that mean that Scoble got me to quit? No, he didn't. I was feeling uncomfortable about all the reasons that I stated earlier. Maybe people like Scoble and several anti-smoking campaigns helped in amplifying that feeling, but I made the decision on my own. And I'm happy about it.

BTW: I bought "Nicorette Microtabs" (tablet that dissolves under the tongue), just in case the need for nicotine would become to high, but never had to use them. When I felt the need to smoke, the only thing I did was postpone smoking with 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, I would postpone it again. And again. And again... Even after 8 weeks, I still think about smoking from time to time. Yes, my brain even tries to convince me that I miss it. But I'll fight that "devil" inside my brain: I'm happy being a non-smoker now.

I encountered the following while working with Word (see the red circles):

It took me quite some time to find the solution to remove these crop marks or margin marks. Don't think that Word help will help you out. But it appears Microsoft does have a knowledge base article on that subject: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839371. (Thanks to Word MVP Suzanne S. Barnhill and http://www.mcse.ms for the pointer)

Now the "best part" is that these crop marks (or margin marks) automatically appear when you install support for an Asian language. The only way to remove them, is by removing the support for all Asian languages... There will probably be a reason for it, but which one remeans unclear to me. You just have to know.

In the year 2000 I saw him in person for the first time. It was on a Visual Basic developer conference in Orlando, Florida. At that time, I already read several of his articles and 2 of his books, both in the "Hitchhiker's Guide" series. He was THE data access guru; he knew everything about ODBC API’s, DAO, RDO and ADO in combination with SQL Server. Wow, William “Bill” Vaughn certainly impressed me... Well, he's still active and he's still a renowned SQL Server data access expert. And guess what: he's coming to Belgium! Therefore I'm really excited that I can invite you on the Brussels SQL Server Day in Kinepolis (at the Heysel in Brussel). This free event is produced by SQL Server Magazine on October 26. Now, of course, you don’t have to take my word on William's SQL Server expertise. Just check out some of his articles and the books he wrote. To register for this free event or to learn more, visit the Brussels SQL Server Day web site.