When PDC 2010 was first announced, it was largely positioned as a cloud computing event. Soon other topics such as Windows Phone 7 and IE 9 were added to the mix, as well as as a framework track. The marketing message at the event was clearly focused on Azure and supporting HTML 5 through IE9. The event included some exciting announcements about new Azure features that are just around the corner, a new release of IE9, and some exciting asynchronous support for languages. There were some other gems, but not quite the volume of big, wide reaching news that we have become accustomed to at PDC.

There were a lot of products and technologies that were not discussed. From the very beginning, the event was very specifically positioned around Azure and cloud.  Now because of some of the tech media coverage of certain statements made by Microsoft management, a lot has been read into what was said and what was not shown, especially around Silverlight. I wish many aspects of what was said was handled differently, but if you take a step back I think it’s pretty easy to see the bigger picture.

HTML 5 will no doubt play a major role in the future of browsing the web, and it’s something we need to put on our radar. The reality today however is that HTML 5 is still a spec being defined, it’s level of support is far ranging, and there are many things that HTML simply will not do. As always, need to too choose the best tool for the job at the right time, knowing that eventually there may be new technologies that we use to do some things. Long before this announcement we were all making choices about when to use html for websites and Silverlight for more advanced application scenarios.

Personally, I’m extremely confident in my learning investment in Silverlight and it’s capabilities to provide long lasting solutions, and extremely excited about using it in the future!

Here are some other voices from the community to consider:

http://blog.galasoft.ch/archive/2010/10/30/my-position-on-the-silverlight-debate.aspx

http://blog.nerdplusart.com/archives/silverlight-and-html5-and-your-future

http://csharperimage.jeremylikness.com/2010/10/so-whats-fuss-about-silverlight.html

http://www.snowball.be/2010/10/31/Silverlight+Will+Stay+Dont+Worry.aspx

http://wildermuth.com/2010/10/30/Post-PDC_HTML5_v_Silverlight_Debate

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It’s that time of year again when the local Microsoft Developer community works together to put on a free day of training known as Code Camp.  This mini-conference attracts a wide variety of speaker from near and far, offering 30+ topics on a variety of topics. The event is free, and provides a great opportunity to learn network with the local software development community. The event is scheduled this fall for Saturday November 6th.

For complete details and registration please visit http://www.codecamp.org

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XNA Games on Windows Phone 7

Description
Chris G. Williams will be presenting 'A Tour of Windows Phone 7 and XNA 4.0'. In this talk, he'll cover what's new in XNA 4.0, especially as it pertains to Windows Phone 7. He'll cover phone features, using the emulator and how to take advantage of the various sensors (like the Accelerometer) and features (MultiTouch, Gestures, etc) in your games. Rumor has it, he may even have a phone with him.

http://www.trinug.org/

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