DevReach Summary

I just came from DevReach and decided to pour my fresh impressions over my blog.
I liked this year issue more than the previous. I guess the feedback from the previous one was analyzed and used. We had session levels this time, and many folks used it to choose the right topic for them.
I attended to several sessions from level 100 to level 300 (there were not many level 400 and I was not able to attend one). There were many presenters, who participated the last year like Stephen Forte, Carl Franklin,Richard Campbell and some local guys like Branimir, Martin ,Vlado Chalkov , Hristo ,etc. It's good to see known faces.
There were many non-bulgarian attendees and this gave the conference a cosmopolitan soul.
I enjoyed again the simple and informative style of Carl and laughed on the emotional and funny sprint of Steve.
What I was missing again is a mobile dev track. Hey, mobile solutions are not another universe - they are natural extensions of every mission critical business solution!

Anyway, you guys did a great job this year. I already expect the next one.

Here comes some low-quality :-D pictures from my phone's camera:

Random CF.NET links

I was too busy lately in order to blog and read blogs(never do this at home). I had to "read" hundreds of posts, which popped out of my agreggator. I decided to post a bunch of links that came to my attention.

• The compact framework team published a post called:
  Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework 3.5 CTP Released
• Andrew Arnott discusses the WCF features supported by .NET CF on his blog
  via David Kline
• A new community website was launched by OpenNETCF
  Check out the details from Neil's website
• IBM announced support for Windows Mobile in domino 8.01
  via Jason Landgridge's blog
• Here somes a psot about one of my favourite Windows Mobile topics - provisioning
  Marcus Perryman's has a post about the Default GPRS Settings
• Satter Ramblings has a post about controlling iPhone via .NET
  via Peter Nowak's blog
• Steven Pratschner is talking about creating our own GC Heap Viewer for .NET CF
  via Daniel's blog

There were other interesting ones ... stay tuned for more.

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft announced a new product called Microsoft Surface.
The product is a result of a long research on surface computing.


Tom Gibbons said:

It’s a powerful technology that is visually compelling. Surface is a horizontal display on a table-like form factor that morphs from an ordinary table-top into a new, vibrant way to bring connected entertainment and digital content to users. The cool factor is the way you interact with digital content by using your hands to get what you need. Surface provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. Because Surface is essentially housed in a table, it’s easy for individuals or multiple people to gather around it in a way that feels familiar – making collaboration more powerful and fun.

The possibilities behind this technology are endless - I really can't wait to have one of these at home. However, the product will be proposed to hotels, public entertainment venues at first at the cost of few thousand dollars.

Amongst the various technologies behind the scene , the UI is powered by WPF and the .NET Framework. A whole new niche is about to reveal in front of the .NET developer.

Be sure to check out the videos in the Links section, bellow.

Links
Microsoft Surface (Videos)
ScottGu on MS Surface
Tom Gibbons about Microsoft Surface
The Channel 9 version of the story
Robert Burke's Weblog about Microsoft Surface
Another video on Ted.com
Video on Popular mechanics