Yesterday I arrived in Barcelona for TechEd 2007. I followed already some interesting sessions about LINQ, it brings you closer how you can access data in a more intuitive and more object-oriented way (data = objects). I really like LINQ to SQL, one of the drawbacks, is that it can only be used against a SQL Server database. If you need to target another database and program against a conceptual model (not a 1-1 mapping with your datatable structure and objects) you can have a look at LINQ to Entities.

The session 'Turn Left or Right? How to Best Design Your Web Services Interface' at TechEd was very interesting and pointed issues like versioning, contracts, interfaces, etc.

Christian Weyer from ThinkTecture is currently building a tool called WSContractFirst (WSCF) that can generate code from a contract. Dealing with the "Melted Cheese Effect" is an article on MSDN about this subject and more parts will be published.

I am looking forward to TechEd Amsterdam 2005. No doubt that it will be a great experience and there will be a lot of interesting seminars  given.

And do not forget to register to the BeLux Country Drink!

The second day at TechEd I followed 2 sessions about ASP.NET 2.0 where the speaker demonstrated a lot of nice new controls and features. One of the features I like most (call it a feature or a bug-fix), is that the designer does NOT mess your aspx code anymore, which is a very good thing, I think it was called 'HTML preserve' :).Features like, themes/skins, a tool for deploying your web application, role based management, navigation control, a bunch of login related controls (registration, login, lost your password, etc.), ...

After that there was the Belgian Day which was very well organized and was really fun (I don't have to mention that a lot of people watched the football :)

The first opening key note was very entertaining and refreshing. There was an introduction of the team services in VS.NET, a demo with 3d-glasses on a 64-bit platform, a promising project called SkyServer.org, announce of the Express edition of VS.NET, and many other things.

It's very well organized, everybody at TechEd receives a login where you can check your email, surf on the internet, you receive a bag with a huge set of goodies and documentation, etc.

I just returned from a session of FABRIQ which can be downloaded on GotDotNet and it's a very nice messaging architecture that can be interesting on the project I am currently working on. So, be prepared Tom, Franco and Peter when I come back to Belgium :)

Now we are going to eat something...

greetz from A'dam