Today, I just got home from a Microsoft event - the launch of the new product wave (Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008) with events entitled “Heroes happen{here}”.

Anyway, after a full day of lectures, it was time for the closing party. Before and after of the finale of the game Guitar Hero for XBOX 360 (I was second ), the crowd was entertained by a band called Rock Partyzani. I already heard them once (Bruc 07) but this time, I had a very rare opportunity of being more or less THE ONLY crowd. There were about 80 people (at the start), and only about 20-30 after the finale. And none of them were close to the stage so it gave me the ideal chance to keep move and scour for opportunities.

Finally, the wait is over. The guys at Microsoft RTMed Visual Studio 2008. Thanks to my MSDN subscription and a heads-up notification from a friend, I downloaded the sucker. It’s installing as I write this. But keep in mind that the installation usually takes about half an hour — and also that I am running the setup as a virtual mounted CD, which means SATA II file transfer speeds :-). I remember times, when we installed Visual Basic 6 and it was an all-night event which included changing CDs in the CD-ROM. Ah, good ol’ days.

The change set is huge, including new tools for Office 2007, an improved HTML/CSS designer, JavaScript Intellisense and (improved) debugger support and more. I can hardly wait to start using it, but unfortunately… I have got to get to work :-). So, I’ll write about how it went when I get back.