Linked June 1-3 2008

Steven Hodson of WinExtra posts what he calls the “From the Pipeline” of the best links of the day. That is a nice concept. It will be great to look back on a year from now as a history of what took place. These are my links for June 1-3. Not all brand new content but on my radar. Heard from the noise.

Review: Visual Studio 2008 or not

Logo of MicrosoftImage via Wikipedia

This was going to be a review of Visual Studio 2008. I went to a Launch event today in Charlotte, NC. Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Home Server 2008.

Before I tell you about the day. Let me start by saying I like Microsoft technology. The .Net development platform is AWESOME. Plenty of Microsoft haters exist but I am not one of them. I go to MSDN events very frequently. I went to the VS 2005 launch event. Visual Studio is a great environment. The .NET framework is well thought out and extremely powerful. Silverlight is AWESOME.

Today’s event was TERRIBLE. I mean awful. I spent the afternoon and should have learned all about the 3 new products. I sat through 3 sessions and a 4 minute keynote. I have no idea what is new in Visual Studio 2008.

The powerpoint slides were terrible as well. The whole afternoon was a train wreck.

The first Session was about tighter LINQ integration for ASP.NET. I think?

The second session was about Office development. There was a demo about creating custom ribbons for Office 2007.

The speakers were just plain bad. I know they want to sell software but what is new in Visual Studio 2008? How about 1 non-cluttered powerpoint showing a list of the new features.

I am NOT slamming Microsoft or its products. This was a POORLY designed and implemented developer event designed to market their products. It was a waste of my time.

At all the other events I have been to Glen Gordon has been one of the main speakers. Glen Gordon is a great developer evangelist for Microsoft. He was NOT at todays event and it showed. Wow did it show. The speakers read from a script at times, had no repore with the audience, and presented NO useful information.

I have always enjoyed Microsoft events but will not attend another without some assurance it will be better.

This ends my rant about the WASTE OF FREAKING time event I went to.

Microsoft Mystery & The Intrigue of Innovation

I am intrigued today over Robert Scoble’s latest posting.  He interviewed 2 guys from Microsoft about a new product they are developing.  He was amazed and even shed a tear during the demo.  No details but it should be released by the end of February.  Scoble promised to have a vid up on his new site FastCompany.TV by March 3.

I am not a Microsoft hater and never have been.  If the product is that dramatic as Scoble seems to indicate good for Microsoft.  Despite their faults they have been innovative over the years.  Sometimes that is forgotten.  Scoble points out that a small team created this “mystery project.”

Innovation is exciting and the prospect of something new is intriguing.  Scoble has built my anticipation and I will now daily search Google News for any details.