CodeGuru Blog - May 2009 Archives

Microsoft gives out more information on their upcoming search engine now called Bing. Dubbed as a "decision engine," Microsoft categorizes results as well as has integrated additional information into results page for various types of searches. You'll be able to shop, find hotels, look for travel options, and do much more in a way that is more conducive to getting to the decisions you need to make quicker. Of course, the best way today to see what Bing will do is to check out the short video (marketing video) that Microsoft has created at http://www.bing.com. You can also wait until June 3rd, when it is expected to go live.It will be interesting to see if Bing does enough to make any inroads to the Google mind presence. It doesn’t seem like Live Search is doing it…

Microsoft is cranking out Silverlight and trying to get to the "magical" third version that seems to be a turning point in adoption for many of their products. Today I was invited to a launch event for Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3 that is taking place on July 10th. Seems like a launch party wouldn't be much of a party if the products weren't actually launching then. As such, for those that recently asked when Silverlight 3 was going to be available, I believe there is now a date you can mark on your calendar!

One of the sessions I attended at Tech Ed 2009 was on developing for mobile devices presented by Nick Landry. It was an interesting session. The most memorable quote from the session was:

If you listened to many of the discussions in the hallways of the LA Convention center during TechEd 2009, you quickly realize that many of the conversations are not on the typical buzz of newly released technologies or cool new technical insights learned in sessions. Rather, the discussions are on trivial things such as the lack of snacks and the number of attendees. Generally the buzz at a Tech Ed, or a other large Microsoft show, is on the cool new announcements or on what is happening with technologies.

At PDC last November, there were lots of Surface machines around the LA Convention Center. For TechEd 2009, there aren't Surface devices all over, but there are a few. The Microsoft Surface is releasing a Service Pack 1 (SP1) update to current Microsoft Surface customers and partners which includes:

This week I'm at Microsoft's Tech Ed. There are keynotes, hundreds of sessions, hands-on labs, exhibitors, and tons of things happening. There is too much to cover it all. A lot of it is available online as well. Over the next few days, I’m going to try to post comments here in my blog on things I've learned or observations. Some will be sniper shots at things (like the Bill Veghte saying people want demos rather than PowerPoint, so they were going to do demos – he said this after 35 minutes of slides….).