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Microsoft TechEd 2008
Developer Week
Introduction:
This years Microsoft TechEd Conference was split up into two sections. One section focused mainly for Developers and the other aimed towards IT Professionals. This was the first Microsoft decided to split it up into two sections, each more focused towards a specific group of attendees. Microsoft originally planned for there to be roughly four thousand attendees at the conference, but a total of just over six thousand showed up - a 50% increase of what they originally expected.
Key Note:
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The Key Note this year was kicked off by Bill Gates. He started by giving a brief introduction of what Microsoft TechEd 2008 would encompass. He then introduced three top officals from microsoft to go into more detail on various topics.
First among the three was S. Somsegar, who gave a breif introduction on Silverlight 2 beta 2. S. Somsegar went into the various types of rich interfaces that you can put together and how easy they are to create with the new silverlight. As an example of one of these rich environments, he gave a brief overview of Crossfader. Crossfader is a social networking application that can be used to share web content, and could be music, videos, or even pictures. Trying to achieve an interactive user experience, they introduced an interactive virtual conveyer belt with several tiles containing various web content. You can also watch the clip of S. Somsegar giving the speech of crossfader from footage taken from this years Microsoft TechEd.
Dave Campbell from the Data Storage Platform Division gave a brief overview of the new SQL Server 2008 software. Dave gave a good example of SQL Server 2008 by using an online company which allows bloggers and other people to contribute content and become freelance journalists. He had someone take a picture from the audience and within minutes they had it uploaded and logged on the site as if it were part of the TechEd 2008 conference. You can also watch the clip of Dave Campbell giving his speech of SQL Server 2008 from footage taked from this years Microsoft TechEd.
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Bill Gates took the stage again and gave a small peek into the future of Application Development, a noticable trend that has been coming around in the last few years of modeling. As a result, Microsoft is creating a model driven development platform, code name Oslo. You can also watch the clip of Dave Campbell giving his speech of SQL Server 2008 from footage taken at this years Microsoft TechEd.
Last but not least was Tandy Trower, the General Manager from the Robotics Group. Probably the most interesting part of Key Note was when we saw a small robot come on stage being controlled by an XBox 360 controller. What made the robot interesting was that it was being balanced on two wheels and was able to move around freely without falling over or anything. The robot came rolling out with some type of document in its hand which he then handed to Bill Gates. After Gates opened it, it turned out to be a certificate for a lifetime subscription to XBox Live, which can be seen in the picture below. You can also watch the clip of the Ballmer Bot taking the stage from footage taken at this years Microsoft TechEd.
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Also, feel free to watch the entire Key Note below. Just as a warning, it is just under an hour and a half long. Note: that the embedded video requires Silverlight to be installed, which works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
Real Time Pricing: