Gee, I almost forgot one session I attended:
Booyah! Designing and Developing Line-of-Business Applications That SIZZLE
Once again a nice demo, concentrating on the specific problems and challenges you encounter when you develop 3D applications. Nathan designed beautiful glass tubes which are filled with data. I loved his mention that in WPF, he is actually working with materials and textures. When he says that, I get the impression that his working is actually sculpting 3D objects. I think that software programming is a very artistic activity, And I think that this is true with WPF even more than with any other technology I used before.
Also very interesting: When you want a 3D application, you need to understand 3D. This is not just a matter of adding 3D support to a 2D application. You have to think in 3d from the start, and that includes the requirement stage too. What is 3D adding to your project? How can you use 3D to actually express something? I think that an example of a bad use of 3D is the Excel pie charts. I mean, what does it bring to your graph? Nothing. If anything, it makes it more confusing for the user, because it adds an information, but it's an empty information. So really, use 3D wisely.
Now in Chicago
After Vegas, I made the trip to our headquarters in the Chicago suburb Buffalo Grove. Staying there 2 days gave me the occasion to catch up with my colleagues and to try to give them some of the excitement that I have been feeling these last days. Anyway, I am flying back tonight and will reach home tomorrow morning. I hope I'll get some sleep on the plane, well, maybe. We'll see :-)
It was a great trip, and I am happy I had also the occasion to spend a few hours in Chicago downtown. I made a lot of pictures, I will try to post them today before I fly, not sure if that'll work out.