Microsoft TechEd Conference Day 3

If there's one thing I've learned with TechEd, it is to always obey your alarm clock when it goes off in the morning. Anyway, some exciting things did happen. After looking at the list of sessions for the day, I figured that most of the day was best spent doing the hands-on labs the Microsoft had. Some of the most hardcore questions related to Windows Phone development were asked at session WPH374-INT, everything from multitasking and how to handle Windows Phone tombstoning properly to how to play swf and flv files. At around 16:45, AT&T held a scavenger hunt for TechEd participants, and I decided to partake in it. It was broken down into missions and every team got a set of missions they had to complete. I was team leader for my team, and a bunch of crazy stuff happened. Some examples included: getting a picture of a team member doing something outrageous and crazy, a drinking race (with beer), making a 20 second how-to video on a topic related to computers, an arm wrestling competition, and doing a little dance. Afterwards, AT&T had food and drinks for us, along with the viewing and voting of most of the pictures and videos that the teams made. It was about 22:00 when I finally made it back to the hotel, and after brushing my teeth and talking to mom and dad for a while, fell asleep without problems.

Microsoft TechEd Conference Day 2: part 1

Last night was a blast. After all the sessions at TechEd were done for the day, I, and many others, attended a Windows Phone 7 hackathon. The goal of this was to give attendees who were new to developing for Windows Phone a "training session" on how to develop programs, starting with the basics, and upload them to the marketplace. Unfortunately, I think I broke Marketplace when I tried to upload my first program for submission. I hope Microsoft can fix this problem as soon as possible so I can submit my programs. At the end, there was a contest for best program (due to time constraints, the program didn't have to be a finished product). I entered my BSA Eagle Tracker program, which (when finished) gives a boy scout working towards Eagle Scout a portable way to track their progress toward achieving Eagle Scout. In the end, I came in third place, losing to a program that shows information from a website about beer (first place) and a program that tracks a pregnant women's path to childbirth (second place). It was after midnight when I finally got back to the hotel.

Because I got back late, I ended up sleeping in late and missing the first round of sessions. Luckily, I was able to make it in time for one of the sessions in the second round I really wanted to attend, "Monty WiFion and the Quest for the Holy Grail of Network Security". In this session, I learned about some of the (wireless) technologies that have come along in recent years, how they can be compromised and hacked, and how to prevent and avoid attacks that may happen with those wireless technologies.

More is coming later, so stay tuned for more. If you were at the hack-a-thon last night, I would like to hear about your experience there (via the comment box) or if you have some other thoughts about TechEd (in general), I would like to hear about that too (in the comment box). While you are at it, consider following me on Twitter as well (Twitter username is "rctechgeek", link is on the side of the page in the "About me" section).

Microsoft TechEd Conference Day 1: part 2

Well, I got through the long keynote address and through some sessions. The big thing with the keynote, and the conference theme somewhat, is integration in the cloud with a multitude of devices, which may not always be running the same operating system. A strong emphasis was placed on Sharepoint as being a central place where workers can collaborate from anywhere. Office365 was included in the whole cloud computing topic as the future focus of Microsoft Office is headed in the direction of being able to work on your documents from your computer, your handheld device, or the web (with the advent of MS Office online).

With all this talk of the cloud and the cloud doing some of the processing that a computer might normally be forced to do, what would happen if multi-player gaming (any category and any genre) used the cloud for some of the processing. Would the internet connection be fast enough to handle it? Could the computer still render the necessary graphics and sound in a decent amount of time? I think that using the cloud to do some of the heavy lifting that a good graphics card for gaming usually does could result in bandwith issues (and as a result, ruin the experience for everyone playing). Maybe I'm wrong on this, but if someone has a solution to this that works, I'll take it.


Questions? Comments? Feel free to give me your 2 cents in the comments box

Microsoft TechEd Conference Day 1: part 1

As part of my Microsoft Student Insider job, I was asked to attend the Microsoft TechEd conference (on twitter, this is www.twitter.com/TechEd_NA). If you do not know what TechEd is, it is a conference geared towards I.T. professionals to learn how to use Microsoft technologies to their fullest potential in their respective businesses and to discuss the use of these technologies. The big theme this year seems to be collaboration and integration along with the cloud. There isn't a whole lot more I can say right now about it, as the just started, but I will be sending more information periodically during every day of the conference, so stay tuned for more.


Short Update: Office 365 integration and more cloud computing stuff will be coming to Mango, the next version of Windows Phone

Update #2 (10:34 EDT): Accelerometer simulation and location simulation during testing is coming to the next version of the Windows Phone SDK, due later this month