What a great deal it was to get that free copy of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL 2005 a year ago during the big launch event! I've used the heck out of my copy during the past year.
For those that scored this offer, did you notice that tucked in the front cover is a voucher to take a developer-oriented MCP exam for free? This is worth like $125. And it expires at the end of this month! Of course making use of this does mean a fair bit of time commitment to study and get prepared. But it's worthwhile if you'd like to crank up the resume a little.
You can get one of these six exams free:
70-431 (SQL 2005)
70-536 (.NET 2.0 application development foundation)
70-551 (Upgrade web developer MCAD to MCPD)
70-552 (Upgrade winforms developer MCAD to MCPD)
70-553 (Upgrade MCSD to MCPD)
70-235 (BizTalk)
Good luck to those going in for an exam!