Every attendee of the MSDN Event on December 2nd will receive a very cool DVD containing even more cool products that all integrate very nice in Visual Studio .NET 2003. What would you think about:

• A full version of ActiveReports for .NET
• AmberPoint Express
• CodeObject
• DeKlarit
• Sax Communication, Community Edition

And much more... 67 products (full versions, trials and demo's) in total. Great stuff! Register now for the MSDN Event and get your own copy by attending the event: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/msdn/events/msdnevent.mspx.

Of course, you'll also get some great content:

• SQL Server 2000 Notification Services (this is not Reporting Services, for those that might be confused)
• Upcoming Patterns & Practices' Enterprise Library - A Sneak Preview
• Developing applications with Authorization Manager in Windows Server 2003
• Practical real-world examples for using XML features in Office System 2003

Metablogging the InfoPathHelper .NET library from Jelle Druys that adds offline support to InfoPath forms.

My Wix overview article (written in Dutch) for the .NET Magazine is now available for download. Belgians can register for a free subscription to the .NET Magazine at http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/msdn/community/netmagazine/default.mspx. Please note that the magazine is only available in Dutch. (Reason is that it is actually published by our colleagues in The Netherlands, but you'll find many Belgian authors in the magazine too...)

On December 2nd, we will have another MSDN Event for Belgian and Luxemburg. It will take place in Kinepolis, Brussels. IMHO, we have some extremely interesting content; but I guess everyone says that about the events they work on, not?  :) Anyway, we will have sessions on "Enterprise Library", "Using Authorization Manager", "SQL Server Notification Services" and real-world examples of using "XML features in Office".

More information on MSDN Event "Unleashing the Potential of the Microsoft Platform" and registration is available on http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/msdn/events/msdnevent.mspx.

This is what we've been working on the last few weeks:

And finally the website is live at http://www.dev-itprodays.be. Oh, almost forgot to mention that Bill Gates will give the opening keynote!

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.