B# .NET Blog

As promised, a short report on the first day adventures at TechEd 2006 Developers.

Which session to attend?

The original plan was to take a full day on Windows Workflow Foundation, but I have to admit I only realized part of that mission. When choosing the pre-con I already was in doubt about the level of the WF session, since it's a very very new technology and I did quite some research on it already. No tomato-throwing to the speakers however; I'm sure they've done a great job. So I found myself doing something I won't do normally, switching sessions, to see Kimberly Tripp and Brian Randell on SQL Server 2005 for Developers. As we expect from Kimberly, great technical content, diving deep in the subject once more. Topics covered include:

• Database server installation and configuration (Surface Area Configuration amongst others).
• Optimal Table Structures and Design, as an introduction to Kimberly's two sessions on indexing tomorrow (if you're on the TechEd floor, be sure not to miss these out).
• Optimal Database Structure, talking about the impact of logging, recovery modes, storing BLOBs and different kinds of locking schemes, and not to forget snapshot isolation.
• Guidelines for security.
• Caching and performance analysis with SQL Server Profiler (combining it with the Performance Monitor), the Database Engine Tuning Advisor.
• A brief introduction on DataDude and LINQ.

Lunch

Last year there seemed to be some issues with the lunch at IT Forum 2005 over here in Barcelona but personally I didn't have any problem with it this year. Needless to say, providing food to 3750 people in one hour or so is pretty much of a challenge. On the precon things are still relatively calm, tomorrow the masses will arrive. And next week, the catering folks will have to make wonders happen with 4750 people on the floor.

Ask-the-Experts

No lunch for me tomorrow, since I'll be on Ask-The-Experts (theoretically I could take lunch but I'll make a little report on the second day forenoon adventures on my blog that time) for Windows PowerShell. Here's the complete ATE schedule:

Tuesday: 13:30 to 16:15 and 18:45 to 21:00
Thursday: 10:00 to 13:00

Since there's a little overlap with Speaker Idol (presenting on Thursday between 12:30 and 13:30 at the Speaker Idol Theatre), I'll stick around the ATE booth a bit more on Friday. I'm also happy to be accompagnied by Jeffrey Snover, the father of PowerShell, on Thursday. Jeffrey will be there on Friday as well (not accounting for possible last-minute schedule changes).

What the evening will bring

After the ATE briefing later tonight, I'll be heading to the Tapas Bar Diagonal Mar, to join fellow MVPs visiting TechEd. Great opportunity to put faces to names, get to know folks and spend an evening full of geeky talk :-). I'll try to make it not too late (no promises made however), tomorrow will be a long day, hopefully full of exciting questions.