So the Microsoft conference was informative. Basically they are releasing a new version of Visual Studio. Visual Studio is the main tool developers use to develop Windows programs and Web Sites, and now Windows Phone 7 apps. It should be fun to use. Of course, like most tools this one costs $10,000 for the enterprise version and $800 for a simple developer version. They love to make things hard to get. That might be the one thing that causes them to fail, unless they are too big to fail.

It is rather interesting being in the company of my fellow geeky developers. I met a guy I had worked with at Realpage years ago. It is a true geek fest. 95% male, 25% socially awkward. So during a presentation someone may blurt out something stupid to the presenter like "only give out a shirt to people who have windows phones". Then another will say,"Or Android, if I am allowed to say that word." Of course we as developers really wanted to see what it could do better than the current version. It seems all the new tools are just the same as the old with additional features. I feel sorry for newbies. They have so much more to learn starting off than I ever did. What I know I learned over 20 years of coding. The one thing Microsoft really kicks but on is their development environment. It is faster and easier to use than any other one out there, like Eclipse for Java and iPhone tools. However, it is their price point that makes it hard to get into. Of course they have learning versions but you can just get your feet wet with it. I wonder what computers would be like if they gave everyone a free version of Visual Studio.

Microsoft is betting heavily on Windows 7 and the new Windows 7 phone. It is their best operating system, but most people do not care about the operating system anymore. Their new phone system looked buggy and clunky. It will fail. All of our apps are now online in the cloud and on our phones. As I was in Walmart the other day I noticed their PC Software is down to only two sections. It is sad that Windows software is becoming a thing of the past, especially given these new interfaces will be smooth and fast. I think it would be great if there was an App Store for Windows 7. A centralized place where you can download huge games and apps for your windows machine. That will bring us all back to the computer. Anyways, it was fun and they gave me a 90 day trial of Visual Studio. I am going to use it to create a Star Trek theme for Homeseer that will control my home. I will put it on all of the touch screens. That is the great thing about coding, if you can dream it, you can do it.