MVP Summit - Day II

It was cuuckie.  Things started nice and early and we headed over to Microsoft HQ.  I met up with Dan Fergus and Rob Tiffany and after eating breakfast, we headed over to our particular building.  The first part of the day was focused toward hard core embedded development, which, well, lost me.  It was a bit rough b/c I was still a little tired but things eventually picked up.

One thing about MS...what's up with the bathrooms?   The campus was great and accomodations were impressive, unless nature called.  There was one stall in the whole area, and unless you like performing for an audience, it was hard to get any privacy. 

So we sat through this presentation about embedded linux and basically why it sucks.  There were lots of charts and studies but screw all that.. it's overkill.  If I had one extra dollar for everyone I know using embedded linux, I could afford the Two For One Big Buford Combo at Checkers.

Then we got to see Chip Schnarel who stole the whole day (he was the dude who decides when Service Packs/new version etc are being released and what'll be in them).  He was hard to describe but I assure you, he was the coolest.  Throw a little brainy computer geek, a little mad scientist, a little ADD and a good sense of humor and out pops Chip.  His interrogation was pretty brutal at many times, but he made a compelling case for everything he put forth.  I would REALLY like to have a few beers with that dude b/c he'd definitely be a lot of fun.

Next came James Pratt who talking about Magneto.  It wasn't the most exciting topic, but James always is good for an interesting presentation.

So we started to hit the really neat stuff.  Robert OHara described Windows Automotive.  You can sum it up like this 1984 v6.  It was the scariest f-ing thing I've ever seen.  You can put in some parameters and metrics and find out everything, I mean everything about what's happening with your car.   I'm a hard core geek but the only people that should be excited about this stuff is government spooks and divorce attorneys.  Privacy as you know it is over as soon as this stuff is implemented (sure, We'll give you a tiny break on your insurance if you let us track everything you do in your car)..it'll start voluntarily but there will be good 'safety' reasons  to implement it  The good news is that it's going to be hard to get automakers to standardize on this stuff so it won't happen again. So until it does, the vultures/lawyers will have to stick to class action suits, then the divorce and PI guys can have a field day..

Marcus Ash came out next and showed us personal media center.  Summary - really cool Microsoft Version of iPOD.  First generation is a little on the lame side, but still way cool.  Can't do anything programmatic with it for a year or two but if you like taking your media with you...you'll love one of these things

Finally was SPOT.  I have one, it rocks but you can't write code or program the CLR so I'm pouting and not saying anything more.