DevDays Boston was great!
Over 600 nerds attended DevDays Boston. It was great! Thank you to everyone who made it happen. For us New Englanders, that would be Thom Robbins, Cool Carl Franklin, and Patrick Hynds.
I went for the Smart Client Track, with the anticipation of thinking about one thing today: smart clients. Being able to do so with new concepts and possibilities provided by the sessions was a very motivating experience.
A fellow blogger said he was “getting jaded” and was finding little value in attending these events. I found a LOT of value in DevDays Boston.
I DID have a problem with the lunchtime presentations by AMD and fellow corporate sponsors. There were 4 sponsor presenters, but I left after the second 10-minute presentation. I won't slam Microsoft, the organizers, or the individual presenters...except the AMD guy. I mean, GEEEE-zus! Powerpoints of x86-64 cpu schematics and breakouts with RAX, EAX, XMMO, EAX, SSE, GPR, and X87 on the same slide? Presented to people who didn't even ASK to ponder CPU architecture while eating their white box lunches? I mean, how big of a dufus marketing team was behind this guy? I'm thinkin' pretty big.
Whew. Sorry, AMD. I'm a fan, really.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I should slam Microsoft and the organizers. Having sponsor presentations during lunchtime blows. Just because there's fresh thyme leaves on my turkey sandwich and my potato chips are reasonably intact doesn't mean I should be put in a situation to feel obligated to be attentive and courteous to Microsoft sponsors delivering dry presentations about products I have absolutely no interest in. Its demeaning, really.
Back to DevDays Proper....
Big bonus was that Rory Blyth was a presenter for the Smart Client track. I knew he was a New Englander now, but I didn't expect him to be presenting. Good job, Neopoleon!
Below are a couple of pics. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the white cloth covered danish and fruit tables in the hallways. I wasn't thinking...
