First my best wishes to you all over the place visiting this blog and site. The number of visits as well as the time spent reading was really incredible in 2009 and all I can hope for 2010 is to be equally good or better.
I was also pleased to see my MVP status renewed for another year. I’d like to thank my MVP Lead Martine T for her nearly real-time support, Prasad G for the great chat and collaboration and Jose B (and his team of course) for the excellent work they delivered last year.
Besides this I’d like to sincerely congratulate two other MVP for their nomination : First, a newcomer named Tonino Bruno, who’s also a very good friend and part-time colleague. He’s, with his mates, the active hand behind the Belgian MS Exchange User Group http://www.proexchange.be/. Congrats Toni and remember you owe me a beer now ;) Second, I’d like to congratulate a “serial” French MVP (7 times nominated!) named JC Bellamy not only knowledgeable regarding Windows but also continuously reinventing the French vocabulary related to IT;)
Now for a Silly Little FAQ, since I got these questions numerous times, time to reply has come, at least as seriously as possible ;)
Q: Where does the sentence “Happy is the one who could enter the secret causes of things” come from?
A: This is the direct translation of the French sentence present on a large pillar in the entrance of the University of Guernon (France), a fictional school depicted in the move “The Crimson Rivers”. It totally reflects my (compulsive?) willingness to understand the bits and bytes therefore never being satisfied with the marketing or technical “claims”, very fashionable nowadays. Note: although I picked up this sentence, needless to say I strongly disagree with the philosophy in place in the at Guernon ;). I am not the one to shout louder, I prefer to say it right because real facts mean real safety.
Q: Where is Anthony, what is he doing?
A: At home or at work, doing fine! No seriously, although we started this blog together, he also has to deal with other personal and professional challenges keeping him away from this online activity, though I am not totally desperate about having some contributions from him coming one day ;)
Q: Who is reading the blog, what are the readers looking for and where are they from?
A: Who: I have very few names to give out ;) but mostly IT people of course!
A: What: mostly hands-on problem-solving information, although I got a lot of positive feedback from more pro-active posts
A: Where: everywhere, but with more than 50% located in North America
Q: Why ain’t you talking about movie anymore?
A: Things tend to change, I prefer not to confuse the audience too much with cinema-related content and focus on more on technique. Besides this, No I did not particularly like Cameron’s Avatar, which indeed blew my senses out but miserably failed in touching my soul. Did all talented story tellers definitely leave Hollywood?
Q: What about the long-time promised posts on Federated Search, people-picker and so on?
A: Still coming (but not as soon as I promised I’m afraid)
Marc