My blog has been moved to: http://technoblogy.spaces.live.com/ 

Please click the link to go there. The TechEd pictures are there aswel.

It's over.

Last night I took a flight back home to Brussels from Barcelona. It was really great.

Yesterday afternoon I saw a session given by Mr Rafal Lukawiecki on encryption. It was very interesting, but a bit heavy for a Friday evening. Mr Lukawiecki is the director of Project Botticelli. They have 3 main areas of expertise: the ongoing study of programming models (e. g. Microsoft .NET), project management of large software developments or infrastructure deployments using recognised methodologies and frameworks, and security with stress on cryptography.

I also took some pictures, and uploaded them. See my wonderfull photography skill here (note the sarcasm).

I aslo got some local news. On the 9th of December my school (Erasmushogeschool Brussel (Dutch & English) ) is having it's 9th ICT-day. It's an information event for teachers, educators, ICT-co-ordinators,... You can visit the web site here (Dutch) or an overview of the sessions here (Dutch). Registrations are open from the 23rd of October.

Day 2 at the Tech.Ed event in Barcelona was great. I saw some great sessions this morning. The first one was about powershell and the second one was on the XNA-framework. I hope to play more with the XNA framework and the game designer. More info about this, and the presenter of the XNA session Rob Miles will follow later (hopefully tomorrow).

Also, Bart De Smet won the Speaker Idol competition! So, congratulations Bart.




Rob Miles giving his XNA session

Hello all from the Convention Centre here in Barcelona.

This morning I saw a session on building ASP.NET AJAX applictions. It was given by Fritz Onion. It was very interesting to see all the tools that were available to develop/debug ASP.NET AJAX applications. I will probably start to do some more technical posts (instead of just refering to blogs/websites). So please check my blog regularly for some more technical content.

Later on I'll be checking out a presentation about "hidden treasures" in .NET. This will be held by Dave McMahon and Richard Costall. And after that probably one about the bet practices for designing secure distributed .NET applications.

And please check out my photo gallery for some photos from the Tech.Ed event, here in Barcelona.

From the netfx3-website:

The .NET Framework 3.0 has officially been released!  You can download the .NET Framework 3.0 components here:

• .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components
• Windows SDK for Vista and the .NET Framework 3.0 
• Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation)
• Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), November 2006 CTP

Note, if you are using Windows Vista the .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components are installed by default.

You can check the full post here. Also, be sure to uninstall previous CTP-versions of the framework. To do this properly, Microsoft has released a tool to help you with this.

 

There are some videos on YouTube of what you can do with Microsoft XNA. There is a video of some red blood cells (Quad Tree Collision) and one of an improved particle engine for the bullets. You can see more demo's here.

I would like to talk to you about Channel 9.

It's a great community website with loads of webcasts (not only tutorials, but also interviews, shows, technical overview,...) about new technologies. It also has wikis, forums and a playground.

On the playground there are virtual labs, a sandbox, a CTP-finder (very handy for finding the latest CTP of products such as Windows Vista and the .NET framework 3.0 parts).  There is also a page called "Clipster". Here you can select parts of webcasts shown on Channel 9, and you can save them here. Very handy for when you just need 2 minutes of a 90-minute tutorial :)

So, Channel 9 is definitely worth checking out.

From the website:

Tech·Ed: Developers - The Virtual Side offers those who can't attend the event, an opportunity to share in the action. Watch interviews with top experts, listen to podcasts, learn from featured sessions and much more.

There are already some videos there such as Ex-FBI Agent on Cyber Terrorism. You can also meet Paul Foster, the host of "The virtual side". You can find Paul's blog here.

Since the 1st of November the Beta 2 of the XNA Framework and XNA Game Studio Express have been released. More information and downloads can be found here. Tutorials on XNA can be found here. The site offers video tutorials about XNA. The XNA Game Studio Express forums can be found here.

Also interesting to read is Tom Miller's blog. He is a developer on the DirectX team at Microsoft. He blogs about DirectX, XNA (both the framework and the Game Studio) and game development in general (e.g.: developing for Xbox)

Today there was a meeting at the Microsoft-offices in Belgium. Walter Stiers, the academic program manager in Belgium, told us about what to expect in Barcelona. Next to the administrative things, we (= the belgian MSP's) got some information about the MSP-program.

We also got some information about a program that informs kids (aged 10 to 16) and their parents about the "dangers" of the internet. It's a small book with basic explanations on how to surf the web safely, download media legaly, and so on... (more info can be found in Dutch and in French).

I would like to recommend Bart De Smet's blog to all of you. Bart is a Microsoft MVP and gives lectures about new technologies. His blog has GREAT technical content and you will find a lot of information there.

(click poster for PDF-download)

For more information about the Microsoft Research European PhD Scholarship Programme, you can go to the website.

From the website:

The Microsoft Research European PhD Scholarship Programme recognises and supports exceptional students who show the potential to make an outstanding contribution to science. The programme supports students in computing and those working at the intersection of computing and the sciences.

As from the 15th of November, the invitationals of the Imagine Cup 2007 will start. More info can be found here 

Again, Microsoft offers a chance to learn how to work with new technologies and this in a very stimulating environment. If you are interested in software development, system administration and/or digital arts, you will find the challenge you are looking for with the Imagine Cup. As usual the invitationals and the prices are very interesting. A short overview:

Technology Solutions

Software Design:
 - Teams of maximum 4 individuals
 - 1st price : $25,0000   2nd price: $15,000   3rd price: $10,000

Embedded Development:
 - Teams of maximum 3 to 4 individuals (+ faculty mentor)
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

Web Development:
 - Teams of maximum 4 individuals
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

Skills Challenges

Project Hoshimi - Programming Battle (game programming):
 - Teams of maximum 2 individuals
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

IT Challenge (system administration):
 - Individal competition
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

Algorithm:
 - Individal competition
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

Digital Arts

Photography:
 - Individal competition
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

Short Film:
 - Teams of maximum 4 individuals
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

Interface Design:
 - Teams of maximum 2 individuals
 - 1st price : $8,0000   2nd price: $4,000   3rd price: $3,000

Contestants who reach the finals get a free trip (travel an accomodation) to the finals in Seoul, Korea. If you're interested, please check out the web site.

Hi all,

Again it's been a while since my last post. And again I've got a lot to tell :)

My internship as a web application developer at Dedicated Systems is almost over (6 more weeks to go). It's a lot of fun working there, and I've learned a lot. I already learned a lot about the .NET-framework, and ASP.NET and have the privilege to work on some big projects.

Since Octobre I'm also an MSP (= Microsoft Student Partner) for this school year. I find this very exciting, since it is an opportunity to learn a lot and come in contact with a lot of people all over the world. It will also give me a chance to improve my presentation-skills (if any :) ) by giving presentations about new technologies to students at the Belgian Microsoft Student Council. Again a very cool community to be a part of.

As you can guess by the title, I'm going to Tech.Ed, this year hosted in Barcelona. I'm looking forward on going. Not only for the (probably) huge amount of information about new Microsoft technologies, but also to meet collegues and of course, to see Barcelona. There will be an evening-event especially for MSP's.
So I hope to do more frequent updates on my blog and being an MSP, going to Tech.Ed and this being my final year of college,... are reasons enough to post more often.

hi all,

Again, it's been a while :)

So I passed the exams in June. So i'm going to my final year. As you know (or don't), I major in computer science and minor in multimedia. My final year starts with an internship. I will be doing this at Dedicated Systems. They are specialized in embedded systems. I will do some programming for them, to be used in their internal management systems (web site and such). All coding will be done in C# (.NET 2.0).

I also hope to go to the Microsoft .NET 3.0 event in Brussels in September (25th of September).

Since recently I'm also a member of gotdotnet. I've created a sample and uploaded it. It gives information about the drives on your machine. It's writen in C#. You can download it here.

I'm not much of a frequent blogger appearantly :)

But I got some news! I passed my exams in January (8 exams), which is good and now i'm hoping to do the same for the second semester.

I've been to the "Developer & IT-Pro Days" in Ghent (Belgium). It was very well organized and very interesting. More about this can be found here .

I also found this . Microsoft presents the UMPC (Ultra-mobile PC).

"The Ultra-Mobile PC is a new kind of computer. It combines the power of Windows XP with mobile-ready technologies that make it easy to access and use your software on the go.

With small, lightweight, carry-everywhere hardware designs, you can connect and communicate, accomplish any task anywhere and at any time, and be entertained and informed wherever life takes you."

For more information, see the UMPC website .