Visual Studio for £free

In one of those "I can't believe I haven't mentioned it before" moments, I thought I should post about some exciting news: Microsoft (you know them, that company everyone slags off yet still uses all their software...) are giving away Visual Studio Express edition for free, nought, nil, gratis, etc..!

Exciting news for anyone even slightly interested in programming . Hurry fast though - they will only be doing this until November, after that you'll have to buy a copy as usual.

Get yours from http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

There's also lots of tutorials and samples on the site for everyone from novices to experienced developers.

This is, in my opinion a smart move by microsoft - there's no doubt in my mind that our students today do not have anything close to the practical grounding in programming and low-level interaction with a computer that those brought up on the8-bit home computers of the 1970s and 80s had. Perhaps encouraging programming as a hobby and interest will help combat the loss of these vital skills.

Thanks very much, Mr Gates! I'm off to throw out that copy of openoffice !