PDC 2008 Links
“Anders Hejlsberg Introduces C# 4.0 at PDC 2008”
Eric White: “One of the most interesting parts of the talk is where he introduced the concept of an interface, IDynamicObject. When you write a class that implements this interface, you can write your own code to get or set members. In his talk, he showed a small class that wraps a Dictionary, allowing you to set or get ‘properties’—you are actually setting or getting items in the dictionary.” When Hejlsberg unveiled the keyword dynamic to the PDC audience in “The Future of C#,” the audience broke out in laughter at the playful, audacious brilliance of the move.
Stella Chan is so cute!
Stella Chan: “I graduated from Harvard in 1997 with a Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics and joined Microsoft shortly afterwards.” Her presentation, “SQL Server 2008: Business Intelligence and Data Visualization,” is definitely burned into my collection—but I just have to admit that she is so cute! (Yes, I am well aware of the sexist overtones but, once some female nerds—like Kimberly Tripp—reach a certain level of obvious mastery over mere males, being called “cute” can actually be a welcome compliment…) Hey, Stella, I only have a B.S. in physics so I am already seriously admiring you.
“SQL Server 2008: Beyond Relational”
In “SQL Server 2008: Beyond Relational” Michael Rys introduces (to me) the SPARSE keyword in SQL Server 2008. There is more about this in “SQL Server 2008: Sparse columns and XML COLUMN_SET” at sqlskills.com.
Oslo
Don Box had emerged from his mountain fortress in the Himalayas rocking new George Lucas head-hair styles and kicking obscure, foreign, handmade shoes. He looks like a character in Myst. In “C9 Bytes: Don and Chris explain Oslo in 5 minutes,” I am introduced to “Oslo Developer Center.” I am sure Don and his retinue made an appearance at the PDC in Los Angeles. I would search for him on the PDC 2008 timeline but on my A-level browsers the search functionality is embarrassingly non-functioning.