For those who can't make it to TechEd 2004, or for those that can, and cannot get enough from it, the Dutch .NET usergroup is having a meeting with the C# and VB.NET product teams this evening.

That right, that's Wednesday evening from 19.00 till.... 20.45 exactly. For those who don't want to miss a single minute of the semi-finals (the Netherlands vs Portugal), there's a big screen at the hotel where the meeting is held. It's at the Holiday Inn hotel near the RAI.

You can still register, even if it's just for us to know how many people will be coming.

Just a small comment on the first day. Actually, Monday was the first day, since I attended the pre-conference sessions as well. Not all of them naturally, but mainly the patterns and practices guides. Most of the stuff presented was interesting, but I expected more from it. The session on Shadowfax was one list of things after another. It was hard to keep concentrated on the content. My mind drifted away more than once.

The problem with being at the ATE stands (for Tablet PC if you did not know) is that you have to be there for 3 hours. The start and end times usually overlap more than one session (sometimes three) and so you miss out on quite a bit. On the other hand, it's great fun to be there and meet people that I know from previous conferences (or work, Clemens) but also new ones that are either MVP or hang around the ATE stand. This makes it more into a networking event. I guess I'll have to play the DVD that will be available for the sessions.

I've posted a few pictures already. Here's a preview:

Here's a good article on using Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, without a Tablet PC. My initial reaction was: a Tablet PC is more than a PC with handwriting recognition, so why use this as an alternative? But the final thoughts in this article made me realize that it is indeed a viable alternative to buying, or using, the “real thing“. In some scenarios that is.

Most Tablet PC's are designed to be lightweight, have a long battery life, and of course have a panel display that you can write on. However, in this form, it's not the best platform to do development. I have a 1400x1050 screen, but it's 12 inches. There's no internal DVD drive and, as with all laptops, a mouse is replaced by a touchpad. Sure, you can hook up a better display and all other kinds of stuff, but where's your portability then, he?

So when I'm doing normal development stuff, it's in “laptop mode” (it's ok, even with the smaller screen, because of the higher resolution). Doing Ink-based development, however, is awkward, since I would have to write on the screen which is in front of me. Anyway, back to the article. The author suggests that you buy a graphics tablet (like the Wacom Intuos2) and hook it up to your development machine. After you install Windows XP Tablet PC Edition (available if you are a MSDN subscriber), you're good to go.

I doubt if this will become mainstream usage for Tablet PC software, but for Tablet PC developers and people who want to try before they buy, it's a good suggestion.

So TechEd Europe is just a couple of days from now. I volunteered to be at the Ask-The-Experts area:

“As a part of the Exhibition Hall, experts will be available on the Microsoft Ask the Experts Pavilion to answer your technical and support questions. A key benefit of Microsoft Tech·Ed 2004 Europe, this is your chance to spend face-to-face time with technical experts. Ask product questions, follow up on points raised at sessions you've attended, and meet directly with speakers, Microsoft product support service engineers, program managers, product managers, MCTs, and MVPs.”

My schedule for the week just came in, and I'll be around the Tablet PC corner, every afternoon (roughly between 14.00 and 17.00). If you have any questions on Tablet PC's, especially concerning development, please drop by. Or better yet, e-mail me the question now, so I can prepare ;-)

See you at TechEd.

TechEd Europe is coming up in a couple of weeks, and so is the next DotNed usergroup meeting. What's the relevance you may ask, considering we have a usergroup meeting every month? Well, because of TechEd this time we had a chance to schedule two, yes two, well-known speakers that offered to do a session at our usergroup meeting. It's Juval Löwy and Ingo Rammer. I doubt that they need an introduction, so I won't give you any.

If you're interested in attending, register here (in Dutch). To accomodate for the speakers, the meeting will be held on Monday, June 28th. If you can't make it to TechEd Europe, this is the next best thing, and it's free of course. 

In order to post news items on my website (DevTips.NET) I browse the web, read the blogs and occasionally visit .netWire. According the homepage, it's supposed to be THE resource for Microsoft .NET. Appearantly, there's no more news since the latest posting is dated March 25, 2004. Does anyone know if the siteowners gave up?