More importantly, however, I wanted to tell you about the FTW “For The Web” coding competition:

Here’s the deal: Simply code or port a web application onto Windows/IIS or Windows Azure. That’s it, that’s all. All applications that fall into any of the following categories, and are on Windows/IIS or the Windows Azure Cloud are eligible.

• PHP Application (PHP on Windows+IIS or PHP on Windows Azure)
• Windows Azure Cloud Application (Any Language: .Net, PHP, Ruby, Python…)
• Open Government Application (Use of Open Data Catalogues on Windows or Windows Azure on Any Language)

Aside from the chance to win come nice techy hardware, the winner will get bragging rights, and a romantic dinner with Mark from Vanilla^*.

^*Note: Mark will not actually attend or pay for the dinner.