Microsoft DevDays 2007

This years DevDays we’re great. I had a great time and even got a new hobby out of it!

It all started with the keynote. “Wakker worden met Daan” and Scott Guthrie. Daan held a talk about some problematic situations in Utrecht. I’m born and raised in Utrecht and know of these places he was talking about. Those bikes are a real problem and that stop sign is always working on my nerves! Daan’s talk was funny and got a little bit of a message in it, no idea what It was though. I think it was, go build some old building or so :) After Daan’s talk Scott Guthrie opened this year’s DevDays with a talk about all kinds of Microsoft things and of course SilverLight. Nice demo’s great impression.

The first session I went to was a session about LINQ. A lot of the same info as a LINQ session I saw last year’s DevDays (LINQ 2006 CTP). So nothing really new for me except the VS integration. After that I went to see Scott Guthrie. He gave a session about Visual Studio ‘Orcas’. Great presentation, and Scott is a real good photo model actually. He took all kinds of poses and the camera was loving him :)

The third session I went to was “Practical Team Foundation Server” by Marcel de Vries. A Great session if you ask me. Marcel really pointed out some of practical TFS issues I am dealing with at the moment. The info he gave me is very useful. The last session I went to was “WF en WCF Stateful Services” by Ingo Rammer.

The second day I was looking forward to XNA and Mindstorm. After all ‘serous’ session, Playing with the Xbox 360 and Lego Mind Storm can’t hurt right! So after a good session on WPF by Peter Himschoot, and a very in dep’t WWF session by Marcel de Vries, I went to Rob Miles…. That guy is funny. I think he should consider a career as a Stand-up Comedian :). He even had a little paper with emergency jokes! His talk about XNA and the game “Hot Salad of Death... with cheese” was great and full of practical jokes. It was also the first time I saw a speaker take pictures of the audience, I’m on the right with both hands in the air and blue shirt :). After the session a friend and me immediately bought the book ”XNA Game Programming” by Benjamin Nitschke. A new hobby was born!

After the XNA session I went to the last session of Scott Guthrie, but my mind was with XNA :) Already I was fantasizing about my first game. Again Scott was playing the camera.

Last but not least, Lego Mindstorm. This session was pure fun. Robots on stage, (virtual) robots flying and running each other over. We could even win a Lego Mindstorm box. We all got a number and a robot picked the winning number. My Son is 1,5 years old, I think it’s time for his first Lego pack :)


Overall impression,
The Demo gods where not with the speakers.
The stages we’re warm.
XNA is great. (glad It’s raining)
I always liked Lego!
Got a lot of useful info.
Success!

So I’m of writing my first XNA game!