Lazy Developer : TechEd-Developers

TechEd 2007 - A Short Reflection

Jimmy — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:22:00 GMT

The conference is over now and few days after, when I settled all urgent things in work, I can do some reflection. First of all that was my first TechEd so I was very excited and I expected a lot. And I didn't disappointed.

Like someone said during one of the breaks, peoples divide onto two categories - those who were on TechEd and those who didn't. And I think there is some wisdom in that. For sure it was the great experience, not only because of content but also atmosphere, community and place.

I don't want to make this post too long as in fact I don't have anything smart to say. Just want to express how much fun I had there. What are your reflections if you want to share?

TechEd Day 3 & 4: Bus Factor

Jimmy — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:26:29 GMT

I have a quick question for readers. What is "The Bus Factor"? If you know or you think you know please add comment.

In first excitement of the conference I was trying to attend as much sessions as possible. Yesterday I realised that it's not exactly the best way. I might write obvious thing now, so please forgive me. I decided that I'm here not only to see sessions (I can see the recordings later) but to learn, socialise and have fun. So I spent a lot of time yesterday on "ask the experts" section, exhibition. I also decided that speaker is as important as the topic. Following that I went for two Roy's sessions yesterday which gave me so much fun. Conclusion is that conference is not limited to sessions, there are other important going around.

In fact, now after four days I'm a bit tired and overloaded. My brain needs defragmenting. But let's go to sessions I found especially interesting during last two days and what is worth to be downloaded if you missed that.

Unit Testing Tips and Techniques with Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework

That was nice break and a lot of fun. Generally if you want to learn about unit testing this is the must. If you are unit testing already it can be also nice to see that. Roy put some interesting concepts about UI testing, test method naming and so on. Of course the final song is also very important. Hmm, I might suggest him publishing an album.

Continuous Integration With and Without Team System

Yet another Roy's session (yes, I'm his fan), this time about continuous integration. Yet again, if you are new in that topic that's superb place to start with. However, even quite advanced "integrators" will find that useful. I had no idea that Final Builder is so powerful. Did I mention about the song?

Domain Specific Development with Visual Studio DSL

I heard about DLS and I even tried to investigate that but I never had enough time and will. That's why this session really opened my eyes onto great new world. Stuart Kent made very nice and easy introduction into DSL. By very easy I mean that the way how he present the stuff make that pretty hardcore topic very easy. Highly recommended.

SOAP/WS-* and REST Complementary Communication Styles

That was a mind breaking session by David Chappell. I never heard about REST before. It seems to be brilliant idea for some implementations. Everyone who is working with SOA should see that.

That's all for now, it's time to go. I will publish some summary for today and for the whole conference in few days.

TechEd 2007 Day 1: Summary

Jimmy — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:38:39 GMT

The first day gone quickly so there is a few words of summary.

As this is my first TechEd, first impression is very good. Huge number of sessions, topics and advance levels makes making choice sometimes difficult but anyone will find something interesting. Yesterday's session by Roy Osherove was the pearl. Roy, you rocks!

Regarding social side of the event. I'm introvert so it's pretty difficult to socialise for me. However I'm doing my best to speak with people. I would expect more non-formal evening activities but maybe I just can't find them. Nevertheless summary after the first day is "brilliant".

TechEd 2007 Day1: Past, Present and Future

Jimmy — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:54:00 GMT

We all know the past. So let's focus on present and the future. I have only few minutes to write a quick post before next session but there is a few quite exciting news I want to share.

There is a bit of news from keynote presentation just ended.

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework will be released at end of November for MSDN subscribers.
New VS licensing is coming. One of the biggest changes is free access to VS source code. New license grants permission to extend VS to create IDE for other platforms than Microsoft. As an example, IDE for Worl of Warcraft has been presented. Now you can create your WoW using VS2008 including intellisense and full designer. That was just amazing.
PopFly should be available for download today, just as I'm writing that post. With literally few clicks you can create advanced gadgets for Silverlight.

And few keywords from the future:

Visual Studio 10, codename Rosario will be released as CTP this year. Beta release will be available in 2008.
Numbers of other great tools are coming next year: Expression Studio 2, Silverlight vNext and .NET Framework 4.

So, exciting days are coming.

PS. I will try to upload some pictures soon.

TechEd EMEA 2007: Day 1

Jimmy — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:29:00 GMT

So it begins. After spending over six hour on Heathrow airport waiting for delayed plane I finally managed to reach hotel. So I'm here. Welcome Barcelona! In next few days I will try to show some hot thoughts, news and feelings about the TechEd.

Today morning was quiet and calm. It was good idea to be here earlier so I could register myself without any queues. First look for session programme and mmm... that looks good. It's hard to select one session per slot. Meanwhile people are coming. Organisers are expecting about 3500 delegates so it will be busy here soon. Organisation itself looks pretty good. Not everything is ready yet (exhibition hall is still building) but I haven't seen any problems what so ever. Soon we will have lunch and keynote speech by S. Somasegar so I expect something like famous "Developers, Developers, Developers...".

That's all so far. See you soon.