Today I went to Microsoft Launch Event. It was dedicated to the launch of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. I registered for developers’ track and attended three training sessions as well as keynote address.
Here are the sessions I went to:
1. Breakthrough Challenges with Visual Studio 2008
This session was not impressive. The presenter seemed unprepared, and no running code samples were shown. The presentation seems to be very marketing-oriented. The presenter’s demeanor seemed inappropriate, as he kept “begging” for a round of applause almost constantly. I have not learned anything at this session.
2. Reach End-Users with Next Generation Web Applications
This was a good session in my opinion. The presenters were familiar guys that I have meant on numerous occasions at the user group events. The key features that were shown were: Java script debugging and intellisense, various asp extenders object, such as watermark extender, password strength extender, etc… Update panel feature was also demonstrated, although it is not really “new.” Linq was part of presentation. I found it easy to understand conceptually, although I have looked and “played” with Linq already. Presentation overall was good. Split code/preview screen for ASP applications was shown. This feature looked pretty cool.
3. Exploring Business Intelligence and SQL Server 2008
This session I have to admit went over my head a bit. It was oriented toward BI folks though, so the result was not at all unexpected. Ability to predict future results based on existing data I found super cool. This feature actually could be used by itself inside Excel as long as there is SQL server SSAS is running somewhere. Performance Point and Excel applications also looked impressive. I can see why many companies would spend a ton of money on this technology.
4. New guidance documents.
If you would like to review new Microsoft guidance documents, now called Software plus Services blueprints, here are the links: