Read this if you're planning on doing the day 2 assignment for the developer launch

As you may already know, our UK developer launch event is held over 2 days, with day 1 a series of technical tracks and day 2 a technical code-writing exercise where you'll build a working application using Windows Vista or Office 2007 (or both if you want).

In order to make sure as many people as possible can take part in the launch, we're running both days online as well.

If you're interested in taking part in the code-writing exercise online (and you actually have a month to do this, from Jan 20th for Feb 19th), it's worth setting up your environment ahead of time and making sure you have all of the necessary software.

My colleague Mike Ormond, who has been intimately involved in designing the exercise for day 2, has posted a blog entry re what you'll need.

For people who are attending physically at our Thames Valley Park offices, we'll have machines prebuilt and configured for you so Mike's post only applies if you're taking part online.

If you don't know about our launch activities, visit the launch website at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/launch2007/dev/ to find out more.