Some people argue that VS.NET 2005 should get a Beta 3 before RTM. I disagree: there are CTP builds for the people who want to see progress, and above all:

VS.NET 2005 Beta n IS STILL BETA SOFTWARE

I've had it completely with Microsoft's Hotfix policy for VS.NET 2002/3. This is the most lowest form of support you possibly can get. What's the problem? Well, the (in)famous 'Cannot copy assembly <Referenced Assembly> to file <Current Project Output Folder>\bin\Debug\Release\<Referenced Assembly>.dll. The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process' error.

The thing is, Microsoft already fixed it in October 16th, 2004. That's right, almost 9 months ago. Please see the details of this crappy bug and its fix here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;887818

If you're an ISV, want to become one, or just want something really valuable to read, just go over to Eric Sink's latest entry: http://software.ericsink.com/articles/Game_Afoot.html

No questions necessary, just read it. And again, and again and.. ... and again.

TechEd Europe 2005 is now officially over, it was a great event, I had a wonderful time! . Being on the stand of Ask the Experts was great, and a lot of fun.

Today I met again a lot of interesting people. Too bad I couldn't make it to Roy's sessions (once it was full, the other time it was stress all over here due to a bugfix that needed deployment) so maybe next time, Roy! Besides my daily technical discussions with my good friend Jeroen vd Bos, I met Paul Gielens and Alex Thissen, and we had great in-depth discussions about everything IT. These are the great things of being at TechEd: you can discuss on a high level with people about topics they are specialist in and you want to know more about. . I also had more time to show the new LLBLGen Pro designer in development to Dion Olsthoorn of Macaw.

It was also great to finally meet Ingo Rammer! Too bad we didn't have much time to have a long chat, but nevertheless meeting him in person was great!

TechEd 2005 has been great so far. Met a lot of interesting and nice people, like today for example Andres of DeKlarit, we had a great chat .

Yesterday I met one of my favorite Irish .NET developers, Marcus MacInnes. Great guy, I hope to have another chat with him later this week.

Working on the Ask the Experts area is great too, today a lot more people came to the booths to ask questions. Keep them coming! . Tomorrow is my birthday (35 already!) and I'll attend to 2 sessions only: the panel discussion with Roy Osherove, to finally meet him (I wanted to enter the Chalk and Talk session of Roy but it was full), and the DSL architecture course in the afternoon to see what the DSL capabilities are, as it looks promissing.

The EC has decided the software patent rule won't be finalized, which means that there won't be a ruling for software patents in the EU. Great news!. Read more about it here

I'll be at TechEd Europe 2005 next week in Amsterdam, from Tuesday to Friday, at the Ask The Experts (ATE) stand!

I'll be there on the following date/time:
Tuesday July 5th, 14:00 - 16:30
Wednesday, July 6th, 14:00 - 17:00
Friday, July 8th, 11:00 - 13:15

During the other timeslots, I'll wander around or will be in the MVP / speakers lounge.

If you're visiting TechEd Europe 2005, feel free to drop by and say hi and have a chat . I'll bring a laptop with a pre-beta of LLBLGen Pro's upcoming 1.0.2005.1's designer so you can see a bit of that in action as well if you want to. . Version 1.0.2005.1 of LLBLGen Pro will include inheritance with a visual designer, click here and here for a preview screenshot.

See you there!

Via a blogentry by Jimmy Nilsson I ended up on a plea for dropping the 'I' from interface names by Ingo Lundberg. Interesting read and reasoning, I'd say.