If you are a lucky MSDN Universal subscriber then you can get Expression Encoder (released yesterday with Silverlight 1.0) for free. How ?

Juts use the key you have for Expression Studio delivered on MSDN Subscriber Downloads, on the page Subscription Product Keys.

Jon made a great post about easier VPN usage.

Easier VPN connections from a Windows desktop - Jon Galloway

Silverlight is now available in final release 1.0, you might download it right now.

The bonus part is the application developed by my brother Mathieu for Discovery Channel shows up on the Silverlight website as one of the show case.