OK - it's official. I'm announcing the:
2004 Semi-Annual One-Time-Only Neopoleon.com "Get Your Grubby Little Hands On a Copy of VS.NET 2003 Special Edition" Contest
This is your (yes! your!) chance to win a copy of the new flavor of Visual Studio.NET 2003 (a $749.00 value) which includes:
- Windows Server 2003 - Licensed for development and test
- SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition
- Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office
- MCAD/MCSE training eBooks
- A voucher for 50% off a certification test
I predict (yes! I!) that, in the near future, only LOSERS and DRUG LORDS will be working without this kick-ass product.
Official Contest Rules
1. If you work for Microsoft, then you may not enter. Sorry (hey - you get this crap for free already!).
2. If you like mushrooms and/or squash, then I think you're weird, but you can still enter. Also, I don't like pork, but you might, and I guess that's OK.
3. One entry per person. If you submit multiple entries (and I'll have fancy-shmancy TECHNOLOGICAL CRIME DETECTORS in place to watch this), I'll totally disqualify you. If you "accidentally" submit more than one entry, then you may contact me, fess up, and I'll set everything straight (honesty pays, you lying BASTARD).
4. If you tell your friends about Neopoleon.com, then you're cool. This isn't actually a rule, but it should be.
5. These rules are subject to change whenever it suits my fancy.
Official Contest Instructions
There will be three (3) questions that you will have to answer in order to complete your contest entry.
The form that you'll need in order to provide the answers to these three (3) questions will be posted to this site on Friday, October 15th, 2004.
One question will be posted on Monday, October 11, 2004.
One question will be posted on Wednesday, October 13, 2004.
One question will be posted on Friday, October 15, 2004.
All forms with correct answers will be entered into a drawing. One (1) winner will be selected from this pool of entrants at random.
The drawing will take place on Friday, October 22nd, 2004. The winner will be notified by email and embarrassed publicly by way of announcement on this site.
Other Official Contest Hoobydoo
In putting this contest together, my main goal was to raise awareness of the MSDN Events team of which I constitute one small part. This means that the contest questions will be focused on information related to my team.
If you think this is basically just a marketing ploy, then you can BET YOUR ASS IT IS. Hell, YEAH.
Our team doesn't have access to the traditional marketing means that some other teams have, so we have to be "creative." It even said that on the job application. It was like all, "You have to be creative." I was like all, "Crap."
So, as you work through this, some of you might get the feeling that there's an agenda behind this contest. While there definitely is, this thing was my idea, and nobody at Microsoft is pushing me to do it. I am operating for my team, but independently of The Machine. I know what it's like to be a developer exposed to marketing, and I want to be really up front with all of you that that's basically what this is.
However, somebody is still going to win some cool software, and if all goes well, it's going to be a hell of a lot easier for me to hold contests like this in the future. Nothing would please me more, as I have a few thousand people (YOU) to thank for the success of this stupid site, and it'd be nice to be able to give back occasionally.
That's it
Yeah. Like, wait until Monday and stuff.
Oh, and tell your friends about this. It will lower your chances of winning, but if a whole bunch of people enter this contest, then I might get a bigger bonus at the end of the year or something.
If you do decide that you want to tell your friends, the easiest way will be with this banner - just copy and paste the HTML to get this to show up on your site:


Thanks (you freeloading scumbuckets).
After Blog Mint [?] :
Rick has emerged from a blogging hiatus with one fabulously strong post on what to do when you discover that your wife is cheating on you, and then follows up with a new series called "Hey Mort" in which he's taken it upon himself to solve the world's problems. Check out the first one here, the second one here, and the third (and also my favorite) here.
Very good stuff.