Well it's eight o'clock in Boise, Idaho.
I'll find my limo driver. Mister, take us to the show.
— What's Your Name, Lynyrd Skynyrd

Flying in to Boise means getting to see the beautiful surrounding mountains from the air. Boise is situated in a valley basin with mountains all around it. With the winter snow on them they are simply stunning. And the view from the ground isn't bad either.

I got in Friday in time for the presenter party with food, drink, familiar faces, and an agile exercise of replacing the schedule in the attendee packs. Scott Hanselman was in the house, fresh in from MIX08, with his laptop out on the bar evangelizing to the bartender. It was a nice, warm welcome to town.

Boise Code Camp had all appearances of a great success. Scuttlebutt has it that the final attendance at the door was around 375. Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! Boise has just raised the bar for code camps in the northwest. You guys rock.

My talk, The New Programming Model — C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5, was well received. I had 300 slides and a ten minute demo in 60 minutes, and not a single bullet point anywhere. Okay, some slides only had one or three words on them. I got some great feedback on the talk, thanks campers!

I am not going to post my slides since the format leans so heavily on the delivery. And even compressed that is a pretty hefty download. Instead, I am announcing here that I'll be working with a friend at Microsoft to record the session as a series of short videos for your nerd viewing pleasure. We plan to get the first ones in the can this week, and we may need another week or two on production and working out hosting. Watch the blog for details.

In the meantime, here are some great starting points for digging deeper into C# 2.0 and 3.0 features.

• What’s New in the C# 2.0 Language and Compiler, MSDN Library
• Overview of C# 3.0, MSDN Library
• Create Elegant Code With Anonymous Methods, Iterators, And Partial Classes, Juval Löwy, MSDN Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 3

Inspiration for the presentation format came from Dick Hardt's keynote address at OSCON 2005 on Identity 2.0; and he, in turn, was inspired by the lectures of law prof  Lawrence Lessig.

I enjoyed the other sessions that I went to at camp. I am only disappointed that the laws of physics prevented me from being in two sessions at the same time. Mark Miller of Devexpress got crazy passionate about creating great UX for two solid hours, but I had to duck out after the first one to go give my talk.

The afters party was a nice affair, and we toured the fabled and swank Code Trip bus. So that's how rock stars tour! I'll be meeting up with the Code Trip crew again when they hit Portland on April 10 for the PADNUG MIX-A-LOT, and then as they make wind up their tour in Seattle for the Microsoft MVP Summit.

A great big note of appreciation goes to this year's camp director, David Starr, and to his personal support team and lovely wife, Eleanor Starr. Thanks also to Chris Brandsma, chief session wrangler, and Richard Hundhausen for fine hospitality. Congratulations to everyone on a superlative code camp!

I was downloading something from Microsoft today, when I was asked if I want to see the Beta version of the new Microsoft Download Center. Using Silverlight. Oooh, shiny. Take me there now.

Better UX is just part of the new Download Center, but that improvements here are long overdue. I like the dynamic bits to browse downloads and callouts for individual downloads. A whole lot easier on the eye and rich information to drill down through. After all, when you want to download some software, how much hide-and-seek navigation ("Nope, this isn't the one I want.") and synthesizing information in your head ("Oh, you mean this goes with that?") is the average Jane willing to tolerate? This I know: after she gets used to this site, her tolerance for clumsy and clunky will go way down.

The downloads by category pages are also far better organized. This shot shows slick Silverlight action revealing details of item and a Download button that takes you to the download page. I would like to be spoiled like this in more applications.

So far, so good.

Check it out. If you've got some feedback for the team, let them know.

Had enough, or don't like it? Locate the Exit beta link in the upper right corner.

If you're going to TechEd Developer 2008, June 3–6, then the time is now to propose a Birds-of-a-Feather session for the conference.

Get involved

I volunteer with INETA as co-chair of the Birds-of-a-Feather track at TechEd Developers 2008, and I encourage you to get involved and give back to the professional community by leading a Birds-of-a-Feather session. "Birds of a what?" I hear you ask.

Okay, imagine you're at a conference with, say, about 10,000 of your closest geek buddies. And you know that somewhere among the teaming multitudes there must be two or three dozen people who share your passion about that special topic that is near and dear to your heart. How do you find each other, connect, and exchange ideas? You hold a Birds-of-a-Feather session, that's how.

A Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) session is an open discussion, not a presentation or lecture. No slides or demos allowed. Let's just sit down and talk. And after many hours of conference breakout sessions with talking heads in darkened rooms, it is truly refreshing to turn the lights on and talk together as peers.

BOF sessions are community driven. The topics are proposed by you, selected by you, moderated by you, and attended by you — you the conference attendees, you the professional community. BOFs are about what you want to discuss, separate from the conference agenda and sponsors.

This is your chance to facilitate a discussion with others at the conference who share your passion about your topic. You don't need to be a recognized expert or rock star, just have an understanding and keen interest in the topic, and be willing to moderate a session. Moderating a BOF is also a great way to get your name out in the community.

Critical acclaim

Over the past several years, INETA, Culminis (our sister organization on the IT Professional side of the house), and the entire community have stepped forward to make the BOF sessions a valuable and vital part of TechEd. And Microsoft has matched our enthusiasm with their commitment. BoF sessions now run concurrent with the conference breakout sessions throughout the day. Microsoft hosts an All-BOF evening catered with food and drink and plenty of BOF sessions. And BOF sessions have been integrated in the conference materials and online scheduling system. Last year, hundreds of people participated in the BOFs. Together we have achieved great things.

Jon Flanders of Pluralsight rates Birds-of-a-Feather sessions among the three best things at TechEd last year.

Get involved now!

These essential conversations cannot happen without you proposing and leading BOFs that are important to you.

Please propose a Birds-of-a-Feather session for TechEd Developers 2008. We are seeking your BoF proposals by March 19, 2008.

Yes, there are two TechEd North America 2008 conferences

If you haven't heard, Microsoft is dividing the immensely popular TechEd into two separate conferences — TechEd Developers , June 3–6, 2008, and TechEd IT Professionals, June 10–13, 2008 — in Orlando, Florida. Here are some links to help you find your way to the BOFs in each conference

TechEd Developer, June 3–6, 2008 — Conference home | TechEd Community Page | BOF Proposals | BOF Community Sponsor is INETA

TechEd IT Professional, June 10–13, 2008 — Conference home | TechEd Community Page | BOF Proposals | BOF Community Sponsor is Culminis

I've got my tickets in hand and I am heading to beautiful Idaho this Saturday, 8 March 2008, for Boise Code Camp 2008. I attended last year's edition, and it was a first-class event all the way. This year there will be 63 sessions (including mine) and 46 presenters, along with lunch and dinner packed in a day. And like code camps everywhere, it is always free. If you are anywhere near the area, it is not too late to register to attend.

My session, a Lawrence Lessig-style romp through everything new in C#, is at 3:30 PM.

The New Programming Model — C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5

Microsoft has been working hard on changing how we write and think about code for years. Many .NET developers today still work with C# 1.0 on .NET 1.1 — or use newer versions but don't know about or use many of the new features. C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5 have been released, so let's look at what's changed. In this lightning-fast session we'll cover virtually every new feature of C# and the CLR added since 2003. That way you can make smart decisions about which technologies to pursue without getting lost or feeling overwhelmed. Fasten your seatbelts, we're going for a ride!

The day concludes with a party with the Code Trip crew. I met Jason last night for microbrews and he was filling my head with all the cool stuff they've got going on with the trip and the bus. They're picking up the bus in Las Vegas tomorrow, winging through Salt Lake City, and will be in Boise on Saturday. I want a stem to stern tour of this magic bus.

Welcome to my new blog, Visual Stuart .NET. My old blog was getting rather, well, old, and some of the material was rather dated. I determined it was worth more to you, gentle reader, to pull the plug on the past, than spend time preserving a few modest gems.

Knowledge does not keep any better than fish.
— Alfred North Whitehead, 1929

Besides, there is a whole new word to explore. Last week was the world wide launch of Microsoft's project Orcas, comprised of .NET 3.5, Visual Studio 2008, C# 3.0, and Windows Server 2008. There's more to come, such as the .NET 3.5 SP 1 with ASP.NET MVC and the ADO.NET Entity Framework, and SQL Server 2008 expected in August 2008.

So let's get started in the tradition of all beginnings since Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.

using System;

namespace VisualStuart
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main( string[] args )
    {
      Console.WriteLine( "Hello, world!" );
    }
  }
}

Deep cleansing breath in. Hold. And exhale. Excellent. Let's begin.