Chris Szurgot's Blog

(I would've posted this earlier, but events conspired to distract me)

I recently got back from TechEd 2003, and overall, it was a positive experience. It was my second TechEd (went to 2001 in Atlanta) so I had an idea what to expect (lots of swag, free snacks, free food, lots of sessions to go to...)

Like many other bloggers, I noticed that some of the sessions were mislabled as far as what "level" they were (300 level classes that should've been 200 level, etc) so I spent an hour+ to get a nugget or two out of the session. Some of the sessions didn't do what they purported to do, or ended up seeming like sales pitches for certain products which was a shame, but I found at least two sessions per day that were valuable, so I guess I came out alright there. One of the best sessions I attended was Windows Forms DataBinding. (CurrencyManager has *nothing* to do with money, BTW and the author regrets that naming <grin>)

Being a developer, I naturally sat through the developer sessions, but I hope to listen to some of the SQL and admin session when they finally put the recordings on line (or when I get the DVD, if I do that...)

Managed to pick up quite a few books, both at the bookstore, and on the floor (the Pattern and Practices books were a nice grab), and I bought Secure Coding 2, hoping that might help with some questions I've been having, as well as helping me get a methodology down.

I came back with lots of good ideas for coding, so I'm (obviously) incorporating them into programs I've already written, and some things I've got in progress, so I hope to release some more code in the near future, with better implementations.