Observations from VSLive! San Francisco 2008

I recently (OK, 10 days ago) returned from my annual pilgrimage to San Francisco, to speak at the main VSLive conference.  My presentations this year are described here.

I'd like to share with you two observations / surprises from this conference:

(1) It is well known that I am a pretty big fan of DataSets - but I realize that it is not necessarily the most popular position to take.  At VSLive, I gave 2 sessions on DataSets (Intermediate and Advanced).  Image my surprise (if not shock and horror) when I realized that there were at least 2 or 3 other sessions covering much of the same content on DataSets.  Could DataSets be making a comeback...?

(2) In one of my DataSet sessions, I asked the audience how many of them were developing with VB vs. C#.  While one would expect a high percentage of VB developers in a data-centric session, I was still surprised that the audience was easily at least 80% VB developers.  Could VB be making a comeback...?