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Issue 20
It’s TechEd time, and Angie’s off to Amsterdam. The only problem is that Carl, Denny and Ed are going too....
 Monday
Sometimes life is definitely worth living, and flying business class to Amsterdam with a glass of champagne and four days of TechEd to look forward to is definitely one of those times. Things aren’t completely perfect, as Carl and Denny are two rows behind me, already arguing with a finance sector developer about the purity (or otherwise) of C#. A few months ago I’d have said that Ed’s presence in the seat next to me was even worse, but these days he really is a changed man (well, almost). The icing on the cake, though, is that Penny (bless her) has made ‘a bit of a mess’ of the hotel bookings, with the result that C & D are staying a handy six miles away from me.
Tuesday
Leaving the opening keynote session, Ed and I meet the newly-arrived Dynamic Duo. They start moaning about their hotel, which they describe as ‘a jumped-up Youth Hostel in the middle of nowhere’. Our place, the Renaissance, is rather nice and in the middle of everything, but I keep quiet about it. Then it’s session time, with C&D heading off for COM+ Internals, Ed opting for a basic XML refresher (good boy!) and me choosing Message Queuing. A surprisingly good lunch seems to perk C&D up, but they’re sour again by the mid-afternoon break, and I guess (correctly) that Ed has blabbed about our hotel. I offer them a placatory after-session drink, but they reply, sniffily, that they can’t hang around as they’ve a long way to travel.
Wednesday
After an early-morning helping of COM+ Queued Components, I join the team for a breakout visit to the exhibition hall. Carl and Denny, still grumpy, start an embedded systems argument with a Microsoft technical evangelist. This cheers them up, but then a rather nice young man on a magazine stand gives me (but not them) a free mug, which sets them off again. After that I avoid them until the evening, when we meet up with the other TEL Consortium delegates for drinks in a cafe on the Rembrandtplein. This goes well until it’s time to leave, when C & D ask if anyone wants to share a taxi, and everyone says no thanks because they’re all staying at the Renaissance.
Thursday
Carl and Denny aren’t speaking to me, and Ed’s hooked up with Jurgen the XML fanatic, so I decide to make the most of my freedom with a solo visit to the exhibition. Wandering around the smaller stands, I hear a familiar American voice talking through an e-commerce server demo. Sure enough, it’s Kate, my hated former colleague at InterDesign A, the only person who could possibly sound that smug while obviously knowing so little about her subject. I think about throwing her some technical questions, but settle for a few moments eye-contact instead. She stumbles, I smile, and I move on. The afternoon’s VBA session is a disappointment, and Ed describes the evening party’s star act, Bryan Adams, as ‘more for your generation, Ange’, but despite all that, I know that this really was a perfect day.
Friday
Having sessions the morning after the party is cruel, but there are plenty of takers for the closing keynote, including Carl and Denny who are now speaking to me again. Ed’s up and running too, and determined to squeeze in three more XML sessions before we go - he’s worked the hardest of any of us, and I’ll make sure Mike knows it. Biztalk, .NET, COM+ 1.x and Digital Dashboards are all a bit of a blur at the moment, but from past experience I know they’ll fall into place. At the airport we have a farewell drink with the TEL gang while Carl and Denny try (unsuccessfully) to give their TechEd backpacks away. On the plane, I tell Ed he’s done well, while C & D pick another argument with the finance developer. Then the champagne arrives, and we all drink to TechEd 2001, in Barcelona!
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Issue 20 - Contents
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Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Issue 5
Issue 6
Issue 7
Issue 8
Issue 9
Issue 10
Issue 11
Issue 12
Issue 13
Issue 14
Issue 15
Issue 16
Issue 17
Issue 18
Issue 19
Issue 20
Issue 21
Issue 22
Issue 23
Issue 24
Issue 25
Issue 26
Issue 27
Issue 28
Issue 29
Issue 30
Issue 31
Issue 32
Issue 33
Issue 34
Issue 35
Issue 36
Issue 37
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