The seminar was Fantastic, with a capital 'F'. Not even Mr. Fantastic can be so Fantastic (with a capital 'F'). As expected, more people pulled out, and only 5 of us actually went there. I was caught in a minor traffic jam, nothing to shout about. I parked my car in Sunway Pyramid and took the lift up to the 10th floor. When the doors opened I was greeted to a sight of more than 800 IT people mingling about and registering themselves. From that point onwards I knew I wouldn't regret coming.
I saw Jackson and Edy and we waited until 9.30am, when the crew ushered us in by tinkling a bell and holding up a sign that signalled us to follow them. And like stupid cows, we did. We entered Hall 3 of the conference centre and we took a seat around the middle. Two large projection screens were set up on either side and the main stage was in between them.
The keynote speeches began shortly after, and I was impressed by all the new 'innovations' that Microsoft came up with. I say 'innovations' because some things were not invented by them, just repackaged. But still, it is one damn pretty package.
The highlight of my day was of course the preview of Windows Vista. For those of us who were too lazy to install a Beta version of it, it was a real treat. We were awed by the awesome graphical effects that are integral to the whole Windows package. Even Minesweeper got a huge face-lift! I really can't wait to see what the rest of the OS has in store for me. However, I'll probably need to get a new laptop for Vista as my current one won't even come close to fulfilling its minimum requirements. Sigh...
The other sessions were really good as well. I learned about all the great things that Microsoft has incorporated into their Visual Studio 2005 Team System development suite (what a mouthful!). But the best thing was, I understood most of what they were saying. All the jargons like test classes, eXtreme Programming, agile methodology, etc. actually became no big deal! If I were to listen to them a year ago I would have walked out confused, but now I can walk out enlightened.
The sessions were really packed, and by 4.30pm I was getting tired. Coincidentally, the current session is about ASP.net 2.0, which was the only thing there that I knew nothing about, so I walked out and took a nap on the couch. I was hoping to take 40 winks, but by the 20th wink, Jackson woke me up. Apparently, the rest were also bored and we all decided to leave.
Although we didn't stay till the end, I had no regrets going there. My story at Sunway Pyramid is far from over, however. (To be continued...)
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