Neowin provides some good coverage of today’s keynote at TechEd–including this Back the Future spoof video where Microsoft pokes fun at previous keynotes that focused on “visions” that didn’t come to life.
The keynote sounds like it was OK, but I’m too cheap and I guess I don’t have enough of a sense of humor to appreciate the effort that went into the “Back to the Future” spoof. That’s just me. And personally, I disagree with the theme of the video anyway–that it’s best not to talk about the “vision” thing. Again, that’s probably just me. I’m the kind of developer that keeps my eye on the horizon and I’m encouraged and inspired when I see others are too. Now as to the grandiose product ideas that were out ahead of engineering, that’s another issue. Calling it a “vision” problem misses the point as to what actually happened to several of these projects.
And finally, compare two TechEd conferences: One where a prototype Surface Computing device is available to touch and tryout–and possibly even where a programming contest for the Surface Computing device is run–and a version of TechEd that sticks to talking about today’s product releases. I know which one I’d walk across deserts to get to.