I leave on Friday for Alaska to climb some mountains.

Tech*Ed 2004 is over. :(

I am home and am intstalling all of goodies while sporting my new tee shirts. Got some cool stuff.

The last day saw an arguement over the MVP program vs the RD program. Since I am a member of both, I am going to think about this some and post something up here. I will offend people, not sure who but stay tuned.

Blogs. Sessions. Fellow speakers. Parties. Emails from the office. Drinks at the MSDN Party.

Not too much fun. TechED 2004 rocks.

Our session called From Interoperability to Migration: SQL Server and Linux Databases Working Together which was in Cabana 08 went awesome today. We showed a SQL Server linked Server connecting to an Oracle 10g database running under Red Hat. Enough said.

For all of you that attended, not sure how to get the 2 8gb VPC images to you just yet, but we will find a way. Stay tuned.

I signed many RD Bingo cards. Good luck to everyone.

Day 1 of TechEd is going well.  

You need to play Regional Director Bingo. Get your bingo cards at the RD booth at 49-50. You can also play the Apprentice .NET game for a chance to be Bill Gates’ apprentice (al la Donald Trump). Well maybe not Bill’s but you will get lots of prizes, etc.

Went to my session room at the Cabana area and well there are only about 30 chairs, so come early tomorrow, we have almost 100 people registered for the talk tomorrow on Linux and SQL Server.  

Arrived last night and already got drunk with Clemens, Malek, Kathleen and Richard. I have never seen Richard drunk before!!

At JFK International Airport ready to leave for Tech*ED. It is amazing just how many RDs will be there, it is annually the largest gathering of RDs at any given time.

I am looking forward to the keynotes, my session and several other sessions, including Clemens’ talk where he actually uses SQL Server in transactions and stuff like that. I guess if the Berlin Wall can fall, Clemens can use SQL Sever. :)

Riding out there on the plane with Bill Zack, my Yukon book co-author and co-moderator of the NYC .NET Developers Users Group.

If you have never been to TechED before, one note, this year is sold out (11,000 people!) and just get to everything EARLY to avoid the lines. Also pay close attention to the parties, they are fun too. Remember the social interaction is why we come here. Get out and talk your latest project’s architecture with a complete stranger from Minnesota who you meet on the bus going to the attendee party. That is where the real action is at TechEd. I remember last year on the subway in Barcelona at TechED Europe, there was a 4 way conversation between 4 complete strangers (but we all had the red teched bag) about transactions and error handling and where the business logic goes. I don’t even remember the guys names and I am sure that they don’t remember me (besides being a silly American) but it was the best technical talk of the conference!

Is what Richard Campbell just said to me on the phone. Our Windows client can now talk to our Linux Oracle Server. Our demos will work for Monday. We have some pretty hard core demos.

DATC02  From Interoperability to Migration: SQL Server and Linux Databases Working Together

Last night the NYC .NET Developers Group had our most interesting meeting ever. Brad McCabe from Infragistics did a talk on Tablet PC Development. (Andrew kept asking about the Ink and Stroke objects.)

About ¾ of the way through, the fire alarm went off. There was a fire on the first floor and we all had to evacuate the building via the stairs. (I inhaled a lot of smoke in the lobby, but am a-ok.) So Brad McCabe's smoking HOT tablet PC talk ended with a visit from NYFD engine 24 and ladder 19.

I decided that the show must go on and we did the raffle on the street while the firemen were running into the building.

We will be talking about this one for years.

My pal Tom Howe always seems to be reformatting his computer at conferences the day before he speaks. I always mock him. As I leave for the most important conference of the year, TechED US in San Diego on Saturday, I am reformatting my laptop and reinstalling the OS.

I had some major issues. Boot sector issues (Richard Campbell gave me a few ideas, including messing w/ my BIOS). Video driver problems in XP. WiFi problems in Longhorn. The drive not being NTFS. SHall I go on? I seem to be in for a long night.

Thankfully we are doing our TechED demos off Ricahrd's laptop!! I usually follow my own advice, but the machine really needed a reformat. How many Dell laptops have been to Mt. Everest? I guess like me it just wants to go back.