Yoohoo!

"Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way to say thank you for promoting the spirit of community and improving people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. ... "

About ten years ago, when I was Visual Basic rooky, I was an enthusiastic reader of the Visual Basic Programmers Journal. It was the time I was calculating in months. I was counting the weeks and the days till the next issue. After two or three hours I’ve read the complete magazine. And then I had to wait again for one month… man, that was hard. In the same period I became an Internet connection and discovered Carl & Gary’s Homepage! Do you remember that website? It was the first website dedicated to Visual Basic. Now I could read my ‘Visual Basic food’ on a daily bases. That was a great improvement!
One of the guys behind that page was Carl Franklin (BTW…Who was or is Gary?).  Carl is now, with Richard Campbell, one of the hosts  of the immense popular .NET Rocks! Shows. Last year at TechEd Barcelona, I met Carl Franklin in person. I was one of the guys of the jury of Speaker Idol and Carl and Richard were the hosts of that competition. He is a really nice guy! Today I discovered Carl again… I never knew that Carl is such musical guy. He’s not only very talented in explaining new technology, he’s a profession drummer, pianist, guitar player, bass guitar player and singer. Beside the fact that I want to mention that he created an awesome HD Silverlight video, he produced his own version of Steely Dan’s, Home at Last. In one word amazing! That kind of video’s makes me happy…

 Carl's version of 'Home at Last'

:-))

... Microsoft awarded me for the 2nd time as MVP for Visual Basic! Yes!!

"Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2007 Microsoft® MVP Award!
 
The Microsoft MVP Award is our way of saying thank you and to honor and support the significant contributions you make to communities worldwide. As a recipient of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional award, you join an elite group of technical community leaders from around the world who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing your real world expertise with users and Microsoft.  Microsoft salutes all MVPs for promoting the spirit of community and enhancing people’s lives and the industry’s success everyday.  To learn more about the MVP Program, visit: www.microsoft.com/mvp.

Your extraordinary efforts in Visual Developer - Visual Basic technical communities during the past year are greatly appreciated. ..."

After announcing Dino Esposito, Ingo Rammer and Mark Miller, has also Francesco Balena confirmed to come to Amsterdam to speak on the DevDays 2007. On the blog of Arie Leeuwenstein, a Dutch DPE of Microsoft, you are invited to select your top 3 of sessions/topics which Fransco will give. So... use your voice!

http://blogs.microsoft.nl/blog_arie_leeuwesteijn/archive/2007/02/08/10122.aspx

I'm tagged by my good friend Alex Thissen, so now it's my turn to share some facts about me, that you probably don't want to know....

1. Since the age of 14, I'm really a big fan of computers. The first computer I bought, was a Commodore VIC 20. In the weekends and holidays I worked very hard in cafetaria, to earn that *big* amount of money. Finally I had enough and I took the train to a bigger city with a computer shop. The shopowner asked me if I needed a datarecorder too... "Ehh... A what? Duh....". He said: "Without a datarecorder, nothing will be stored. So, actually a computer is worthless.."
   I took the first train back, without a computer or datarecorder. First I had to work for a couple of weeks to spare for the additional part..... :-((
2. During my study I started a software development company, named Obisoft. But after my study I worked for about 5 years in a non-technical environment: I was teacher at a couple of elementary schools. I really loved to last three years when I worked on the St. Joris shool in Lichtenvoorde.
3. After 10 years active for the Dutch Visual Basic Group, I decided to start, with my fellow Willem van den Broek, a new community VBcentral.nl. After a year, we are quitte successful.. we have already more the 1.000.000 pagevies and about 1600 registered members.
4. I like playing golf on our local golfcourse 'de Voortwisch' or in a local indoor golfcentre Hole in 1.
5. I'm married with Miranda (6-6-96)  and we have two beautiful kids: Marenne (8) and Yorick (almost 6). Since a couple of months Yorick wins the most of the times when we are playing Midtown Madness on the X-Box.. :-((
   
   

 I tag Damir Tomicic, Dennis Vroegop, Sander Gerz, Jackie Goldstein en Arie Leeuwesteijn.
 
 Blog-Tag: A game for Virtual Party

I wish you all a merry X-mas and a happy new year! As special gesture I've prepared a little dance for you. See the link below... :-))

 My special dance for you

Yesterday I have booked my flight to the MVP Summit in March 2007 in Seattle.... That means that I've decided to visit this event!! As a first year MVP I don't know exactly what to expect from this event. I was a bit in doubt to go. But after a chat with Sander Gerz, I decided to go. He is a C# MVP and also board member of INETA Europe. He runs in the Netherlands with Dennis Vroegop (also a C# MVP) the .NET User Group (dotNed.nl). They both decided to stay a couple of days longer to do some sightseeing. And, unfortunately for them, I will join them :-).
The plan for after the MVP Summit is to rent a car, do some sightseeing in neighbourhood of Seattle and then drive to Vancouver in Canada. We will fly back from Vancouver to Amsterdam. I'm really looking forward to this trip!

 Microsoft MVP Summit
 Seattle, site, maps and some pictures
 Vancouver, site and a nice promo video

Welcome back! After almost one year of not blogging, I've decided to start over again. To serve a bigger audience I will not blog in my native language Dutch, but from now in English. Perhaps I can find this way a person who wants to read this stuff ;-)

Stay tuned for upcoming news!