(Excuse me while I venture into the more technical side of my life for this entry...)

I love what Microsoft is doing with Visual Studio 2005. First of all, they're offering six different Express Editions:

The Visual Studio Express editions expand the Visual Studio product line to include lightweight, easy to use and easy to learn tools for hobbyist, novice, and student developers who want to build dynamic Windows applications and Web sites.

I'm building the next version of Running-Log.com on the Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. On Wednesday, I walked a co-worker through the steps of creating a database-driven website with it. We did it without writing a single line of code. That's amazing, and I'm still excited about it 48 hours later.

But there's more. MSDN is offering a video series for "absolute beginners". If you're interested in programming, but have no idea where to start then this is it.

But there's more. MSDN is also offering a 14 part video series on building dynamic websites using the new version of ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. I'm sending this link to the previously-mentioned co-worker.

But there's more. There's a new Coding4Fun section of MSDN. It's got information about game development, how to build a pwersonal web site, how to use Amazon and Google's web services, and much more.

But there's more. Visual Studio 2005 is hands-down the best development environment I've ever used. I'm working much quicker and more efficient than ever before.

It's amazing to me how far these tools have come in the eight years that I've been programming. I really wish I had all of this back in '98. Fortunately, anyone who is starting now does.

(Note: all videos are done by LearnVisualStudio.net. If you're a more experienced developer, I'd suggest checking the main site out. I'm a former subscriber, and was fairly happy with the videos offered there.)