Stefan Barrett

Nearly over. For last session attending a talk on c++ apps in windows metro. When I came to TechEd I didn't think I would attend so many sessions on c++, but somehow this has proved more interesting this year. While .net 4.5 is interesting, been playing with it for a while now, so not a ton of surprises. Of course, i still want it at work, but who knows how long that will take - so will just have to use it at home. Once I get the licensing sorted out. So expensive. I've been pleasantly surprised with windows 8, and will be trying that out, and at least that is covered on technet. While the weather has not always been perfect during TechEd's, this is the worst I've seen it so far - it's wet outside. Next years conference in new Orleans should be interesting, well out of the conference itself that is. I do like conferences where it's held within the city itself, unlike Orlando where there isn't really anything here.

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Miss when TechEd was 5 days long!, it's Thursday already and we are on the last day. The snacks haven't appeared, but more developer sessions have. Having access to online schedule is very important, since the new sessions are usually the more interesting ones. On the whole, I think the wifi network has been worse this year - more blank spots, and more areas where performance is bad. I do think its funny that I get better reception on my iPad than my phones (iPad & Nokia/Microsoft). There seems to be less areas for people to plug in their own laptops this year - I do wonder, since more and more people have smart phones, and since most of the attendees are from America, perhaps they are not using the wifi - but rather their own phone provider. If I was in Japan, I would probably do the same. About to attend a session on F#, something which is probably going to be important for me over the next year.

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Have only got 2 more days in Orlando before returning home to Japan. On Friday going out shopping, with the string yen/weak dollar I can hopefully find many interesting things, once I've cracked how to get around with no car. Returning to Japan, i've got to get me involved in the user groups over there, got to be some for people who don't speak much Japanese. I really hate jet lag.

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The content has got more useful for me as a developer, and I've now seen 2 things which I think will make a big difference: Fake in vs2012 - allows me to stub or fake out libraries making unit testing easier/possible. C++ AMP & auto - auto might get me to start using c++ again (it makes code like for each much nicer/easier to write), while AMP is something I want to play with (moves the processing onto the GPU) The food got a little better, while there was less sign of the snacks.

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Disclaimer: probably going to next years TechEd.  (but not 100% sure) As with most TechEd's, this is not one of the best - but it's not bad.  Some impressions so far: The food is not bad, through perhaps not as much choice as in previous years.  The snacks, while a bit limited, are at least available.  The alumni lounge is ok, through perhaps not as good as last years.  Wifi is a bit worse than previous years - not really working in the big room, and a bit sporadic in the rest of the building. The device seems to make a big difference - the iPad seems to connect the easiest, while the iPhone & Lumia 800 are really struggling.  The real problem is the content - not as developer focused as in previous years.  This shows up in a number of different ways, for example while there is a visual studio booth, there is not much sign of anybody from the language teams.  This is one of few TechEd's where I don't feel very surprised about anything - seen most of the developer stuff in previews. One example where I was surprised was the pre-conf on c++ - its been years since I did any c++, but based on that session perhaps I should start again. While there are sessions, I'm not finding my schedule very challenged. For each time-slot there only seems to 1, or rarely 2, interesting sessions.  The focus seems to be on windows 8, Azure and the phone, which while interesting (might give win8 a go), are not enough. 

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c++ is catching up with c#.

might actually be worth to Start using std, now they've added auto - which is the same as var in c#

 

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Tomorrow am returning home, to Tokyo. Atlanta has been fun, but it does seem like city where you need a car or seriously figure out the metro. Next years TechEd is in Orlando, I like the convention centre, but it seems to in the middle of nowhere. In Tokyo, I live close to middle of city, with plenty to do everywhere. It's funny, when I was living in England, my passport lasted 10 years, but in 4 years in Japan I've filled up the passport with all the trips, exploring Asia. Actually happy going home, but still suffering from the jet lag from coming over - now I have a week of jet lag back home. Got to explore the TechEd in Tokyo, but suspect I wil still be coming to the US, regardless of how boring I sometimes find the cities - the important thing is the convention itself, through Last years conference in New Orleans was fun.

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Next years TechEd will be in Orlando, with registration starting around 24th. Planning on going, but do wonder how it will go. This year have not gone to as many 400 level events, nor has there been as many 'famous' speakers. Perhaps they are holding off till PDC - got to make this years one, missed last year due to being too busy. The content has been good, with some talk of VS vNext - which I want now. One of the main focuses seems to be on simplifying the developer experience. They will have a search box to find commands in the VS - ha ha. One really good thing; the project files are compatible between VS2010 and vNext Have seen a new product VS LightSwitch (currently beta2), must learn more - not because I really want to use it, but can think of several People who could use this.

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So many people have iPhones or iPads this year - in fact, i'm writing this blog on one. The fact that MS also released the tag reader on iTunes shows that they have realised this, explaining why WP7 Is being pushed so strongly at this years TechEd. Every year I bring my laptop to TechEd, but this year have not needed to use it - have been able to do everything on the iPad, which is so much lighter than a laptop or the tablets they gave away a couple of years ago. I wonder how many years it will be until MS recommends that everubody comes with a tablet to get full use out of such conventions.

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Keynote was interesting as usual - and as usual they overran. It did feel a bit rushed, particularly the section on office, where it took took too long to figure out what the speaker was talking about. Nothing really big announced, but the 100,000,000 rows in excel, or 2,000,000,000 rows in VS was interesting.

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Big room, with space for lots of people, but not the biggest teched keynote room they've had. Breakfast was ok, among the better ones they've served up. They are really pushing the myTech*Ed, formally CommNet - I wonder if they've finally got it right. Taken them long enough. At least it worked on day 1 :)

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Looks interesting. Wp7 is based on SL3, bits of SL4 and a bit other. Mango to be based on SL4, later this year.

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First day - silverlight. What can we do

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Left LA yesterday (or was it the day before  - you cross the internation date-line on way back), and was not the most impressed about either UA (who I flew with) or the airport itself.

Arrived about 3 hour early, and went to self service check in - they are obviously saving money by automating as much as possible (yes cheaper flights are nice, but..). Check in started pretty ok, the machines were pretty easy to use, but then the process sloweded. Because of my nationality and destination, an 'agent' had to check the passport. After waiting a little while one of the people who where handling queries, luggage, etc. (est. 1 person per 10 machines, they were busy) came over and informed me that 'agent' would have to check passport (they were just normal mortals) and there was currently no agents around.... By the time 2 'agents' showed up about half a hour later, possible as much as half of the machines had people waiting..

After waiting about 40 minutes, an 'agent' looked at my passport, gave me a ticket and I headed off to passport check.. Only to discover that I had been given the wrong ticket, one for another person who's surname started with the same 3 characters.... Life.. Luckly it only took a couple of minutes to get a replacement ticket - jumped the queue and went straight to the 'agent' who had issued the original.

Went back to passport check/x-ray/etc. only to find a longer queue.. In LA, like some other places in the world, you have to take your shoes off so they can be x-rayed seperatly - and there's not much space to take them off, or put them back on again - everything is as cramped as possible.  And, of course, the x-ray machine broke down just before I went through so we had to wait another 5 minutes while they got it rebooted (not sure of OS). Once through all of that, I discovered that all the delays were not really a problem, since there was very little to do while waiting for flight home - I guess I'm a bit to used to being in international airports which tend to have more shops and restuants as opposed to airports servicing mainly locals.

Ahhh well, it's just another 7 weeks, or so, until I fly again - it's Christmas time again

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Well, that was a fun week but it's nice to be home through got to go into work tomorrow. Might have changed teams while I was away .

It's interesting comparing LA with Tokyo -Toyko has more people and may be bigger, but LA is more spread out. You can walk a lot further in LA without seeing anything than you can in Tokyo.

LA does have a metro but it does not cover much of the city, so assuming you have no car, you switch to metro busses. Part of the problem is how spread out LA is - I don't think I've ever got on a underground train, which for part of its journey travelled above ground; part of the time as a normal train and part of the time as a tram travelling the city streets.

The bus network does seem to cover most of the city, but was a lot more confusing for a tourist  than most undergrounds are.

Compared with Tokyo which has a hugh Metro and JR [main line train system] network. This makes it easy to get around central Tokyo (which is like the entire LA area, but compressed). One point LA's favour was that it was a bit cheaper to buy a daily travel pass ($5, approx 500 yen) through it looked like extra payments might be required in some cases.
Tokyo does have a bus network as well, but never tried it - partly because have never needed to, and partly due to the language. All the metro stations I've seen have signs in English (as well as Japanese of course) - including the station names.

Another difference was not so good; in the week I was there I observed a car crash (bad enough that some liquid was pouring out the front of one of the cars) and saw two people fighting. I also got asked for money a number of times (through to be fair that's happened in every US city I've been to, and used to happen in London as well) and once somebody tried to buy something from me - didn't try to clarify.

Ahh well.. Went to a pizza place in downtown LA where they had some quite acceptable pizzas - apart from the toppings they had a honey wheat dough that produced a very nice base.

Visited Long Beach and walked along the beach for a couple of hours - quite nice.

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