Keynote

Antoine Leblond

While the previous day’s keynote had focus on Windows Server 2012, this one was centered around Windows 8 and the new experiences for consumers. So nothing really new there, except for a really impressive live demo I had not seen before: A Windows 8 USB portable installation was booted and during full operation (video playback) the USB device was removed from the PC. After a few seconds, the USB device was connected again and Windows 8 simply resumed. Awesome and brave live demo – I think everyone in the audience was holding their breath. The following applause was well deserved.

IPv6 Bootcamp: Get Up to Speed Quickly

Edward Horley

Brilliant! Key take-aways:

1. IPv4 ONLY networks are not tested by Microsoft anymore. Such environments are basically unsupported.

2. In any modern Windows OS (Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2) IPv6 is on by default and used first. Keep that in mind before deactivating it.

Windows Azure Web Sites: Under the Hood

Craig Kitterman and Nir Mashowski

The session Using Windows Runtime and SDK to build Metro style apps was already full so I attended this one as my second choice. It was not so much the “under the hood / deep dive” I had expected, although the speakers could give answers to a lot of practical questions around web site deployment into azure from the audience.

Harnessing Big Data with Hadoop

Mattew Winkler

I sacrificed my precious lunch break to attend this lunch session but it was really worth it. The session gave a good introduction and overview of Hadoop and how it can be leveraged on Windows and Azure (www.hadooponazure.com).

Visual C++ and the Native Renaissance

Steve Teixeira

For the C++ lovers among us. The session gave a broad overview about C++ development in Visual Studio 12 and the new features that got implemented in the upcoming version.

Also I gave a shot at the MCP certifications offered at TechEd and tried my best at the HTML5 / JS / CSS3 certification. This is still a beta certification, so I will get notified in a few weeks, whether is passed or failed it.