Tech·Ed 2007

Tech·Ed 2007 Images

Scott Dorman — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:39:35 GMT

I have finally put up my pictures from Tech·Ed 2007. Since I forgot to bring my digital camera with me, these were taken on my cell phone so the quality isn't that great.

Back from Tech·Ed 2007

Scott Dorman — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 13:48:04 GMT

Going from one extreme to another can be just a bit disconcerting. After spending a week in Alaska where I was almost completely disconnected from the world, I went straight into Tech·Ed 2007.

If you weren't able to attend, make sure to check out Virtual Tech·Ed. You will find the keynote and some podcasts relating to some of the sessions. Things are about a week behind and there are a lot of podcasts queued up to be made available on the site, so keep checking back.

I can't say that there was a main technology focus this year, but there was a big presence for Microsoft Forefront, Silverlight, Office 2007, Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and the .NET 3.0 technologies.

There have been a lot of posts complaining about different things from the conference, so I'm not going to go repeat what everyone else has said. I'm also not going to say one way or the other if I agree with everything that was said.

As a result of my Birds of a Feather session (which I think went very well...I should know my evaluation scores sometime next week), I will be starting a regular series of posts on code standards and styles. Be sure to check it out.

Also, I'll be posting pictures from both Tech·Ed and Alaska very shortly. The Tech·Ed pictures will be on my blog. I haven't decided where the Alaska pictures will live as there are about 1400 of them.

BOF11 - Thanks for attending!

Scott Dorman — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:40:47 GMT

I want to thank everyone who attended my Birds of a Feather session at Tech·Ed 2007. There were about 100 people that showed up and I think we had a good discussion on what code style and standards mean and why they are important.

What surprised me the most about the session was the amount of interest. As a result, I will be posting regular blog entries on this topic under the "Code Styles & Standards" category in my blog. I will also be reviewing the past code standards documents I have written and creating an updated document.

I am also planning on submitting this as a session topic for the upcoming Tampa Code Camp, so if you missed the Birds of a Feather session (or want to continue the discussion) and are able to go to the Code Camp, be sure to check it out.

If you have any specific questions or issues relating to code styles and standards, please get in touch with me through my blog.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell

Scott Dorman — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:29:48 GMT

Microsoft announced a scaled down version of Visual Studio 2008 called the Visual Studio Shell. The Visual Studio Shell, which will be in beta sometime this summer, is designed to allow developers to bundle Visual Studio functionality into their own products and will integrate languages such as Fortran, Cobol, Ruby, and PHP. The Visual Studio Shell will be free and will ship with Visual Studio 2008.

There are two different "modes" that can be used when integrating Visual Studio Shell: integrated and isolated. The integrated mode is built upon the existing Visual Studio Premier Partner Edition 2005 while the isolated mode allows partners and developers to build products on top of Visual Studio (integrating their product directly into Visual Studio) including the ability to customize the application so it doesn't necessarily look like Visual Studio.

"Acropolis" Community Technology Preview

Scott Dorman — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:21:13 GMT

One of the new technologies being announced at Tech·Ed is "Acropolis". If you have previously used the Microsoft Composite UI Application B lock (CAB) or the Smart Client Software Factory (SCSF), the announcement of the Acropolis should be very exciting news.

Acropolis is a replacement technology for both CAB and SCSF and takes the things that were good about both of these and the lessons learned and adds the following:

Full .NET support by being an integrated part of the .NET client framework and will be a fully supported product.
Full support for a WPF front end, including support for features such as transitions, themes, and view switching.
Full design time support in Visual Studio.

Tech·Ed Keynote

Scott Dorman — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:00:58 GMT

I finally have some free time tonight from all of the activities at Tech·Ed 2007, so I wanted to take some time to summarize what I've seen and done so far. To start with, I was able to get a front-row seat for the Keynote on Monday morning.

The keynote started out with a short "movie" showing Bob Muglia going back in time with Christopher Lloyd reprising his role as "Doc" Brown from the "Back to the Future" movies. The theme to the video was to try and show how Microsoft has sometimes fallen short in delivering on it's "vision" for developers and IT staff.

Even though the keynote promised to be "vision-free", it did still contain a lot of Microsoft vision for continuing the journey towards their Dynamic IT vision. The keynote spoke to the evolution of IT from a cost center to a profit center, saying the Dynamic IT initiatives will help decrease the traditional 70/30 split. This Dynamic IT vision is part of the 10-year Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), which is now 4 years old.

Despite the vision-speak, there were some very interesting demos showing Microsoft Operations Manager 2007, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 (code-named "Katmai"), BizTalk Server 2006 R2 (to be released in Q3 of 2008), and Visual Studio 2007 (code-named "Orcas").

A few things that came out of the keynote is that the virtualization features of Windows Server 2008 (code-named "Viridian") won't be out until about 6 months after RTM (sometime in late 2007). The other is that development of Office applications has become tremendously easier with VS 2008.

Tech·Ed 2007 Starts

Scott Dorman — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:23:29 GMT

After spending a week in Alaska where I was pretty much isolated and out of touch with the rest of the world, what better way to dive back in to the connected world than spending a week at Tech·Ed 2007.

I missed the early registration on Sunday by 10 minutes, even though the plane landed 1½ hours before early registration ended. Why did I miss it? Standing at baggage claim for just over an hour waiting for the bags to get unloaded.

Despite being jet-lagged from crossing across from one side of North America to the other, I managed to drag myself to the convention center early enough to register and get a front row seat at the keynote.

Assuming I'm able to find some electrical outlets to keep my laptop battery from draining, I'll be blogging about sessions and goings-on throughout the week.

If you're already at Tech·Ed, be sure to check out my Birds of a Feather session (BOF11) on Code Standards at 1:00 PM on Tuesday.

Party with Palermo: Tech·Ed 2007 edition

Scott Dorman — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:41:56 GMT

Even though this is my fourth Tech·Ed, it is the first time I'll be attending the Party with Palermo pre-event party. This sounds like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I'll probably be a little bit late, but I doubt it will take away from festivities. There is an estimated 300 people attending and some great sponsors.

The cover charge is one business card, which will get you in the door and register you for the grand prize drawings. This is free to attend, with free food, drink, and swag.

Glo Lounge: http://www.gloloungeorlando.com/
8967 International Dr, Orlando, FL
(407) 351-0361

June 3, 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM EST

Code Style and Standards: Best Practices?

Scott Dorman — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:35:15 GMT

For those of you who are attending Tech·Ed 2007, be sure to check out my Birds of a Feather session (BOF11) on Code Style and Standards. The session is scheduled for Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 1:00 PM in Room S331 A.

As a teaser to get you to attend, we are going to discuss what code style and standards actually mean and why they are important to you as a developer but also to your company. Yes, we will cover some of the "holy wars" regarding "curly brace placement" and "tab size", but also things like white-space and indenting, comments, and spelling.

Join us for a fun and lively 75 minute discussion on what works and doesn't work when it comes to code style and standards.

Windows Vista Application Compatability Labs

Scott Dorman — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:01:25 GMT

I won't be able to attend these labs as I have other schedule conflicts, but the Windows Vista team is providing two training labs at Tech·Ed 2007. Both labs are free for Tech·Ed attendees, but you must register to reserve your spot.

The first lab is an Instructor led Lab in Room S331-C and is broken up into two 90 minute parts. Part 1 takes an in-depth look at the most common application compatability issues and the ramifications of the new security enhancements in Windows Vista. This covers topics such as User Account Control (UAC), running as Standard User, accessing Administrative Rights, and Administrators running as Standard User. Part 2 is a walk-through of the tools commonly used to diagnose, analyze, and mitigate application compatability issues and covers Application Compatability Toolkit (ACT) 5.0, Standard User Analyzer (SUA), shim infrastructure, and Compatability Administrator.

The second lab is in Room S329, and is the Windows Application Compatability Lab - "Bring Your Own Apps". Microsoft held this lab at last year's Tech·Ed and was very popular. The lab is designed to help you test your application on Windows Vista with the hands-on help of Microsoft Consultants and Engineers. Bring your own applications that are blocked and get Microsoft's help to diagnose the issue, file bugs, and mitigate the blocking issues when possible. Space is very limited for this lab, so you will be served in the order you registered. You must bring your own application with you to test.