California State University - Fullerton, CA - January 26, 2008 Day # 1
The registration to the event started at around 8:00 AM. I really intended to go to the registration way ahead of most of the attendees (about 700 people according to Keith). So I thought showing up at 15 minutes before 8:00 AM would fulfill that intention. To my surprise, hundreds of people were already lining up to be registered (FREE Registration, sweet!). The main reason why I really wanted to show up early was for the freebies. I really wanted to have that "C# in a Nutshell" book but I was unsuccessful! Keith got a copy of the C# book published by Microsoft. Anyhow, I got two free books and two magazines (yes, read that F-R-E-E!):
"6 Microsoft Office Business Applications For Office Sharepoint Server 2007"
"So that's how: Timesaver, Breakthroughs, & Everyday Genius for 2007 Microsoft Office System"
(The 2 magazines I got were the "Code" and "ASP.Net Pro")
Honestly the only sessions that I have some knowledge of were the SQL Sessions. I attended the "SQL Server Analysis Services" & "Delivering Data Using SQL Server Reporting Services". I had the opportunity to work on some Development ventures in my old company which exposed me to SQL Server and these services. I was kind of exposed also to the Sharepoint Server but attending a session about Sharepoint 2007 is almost alien to me. Sharepoint has really evolved in three years!
It is such a privilege to be able to attend Paul Sherrif's sessions! I have to admit that I was almost listening to him with almost pure ignorance; despite that, I can really appreciate Paul's sessions on "Data Controls in ASP.NET 3.5" and "Testing .NET Apps for the Real World". Let me make this clear, guys, that I am still in my infancy (or prior to that) as far as programming is concerned. So do not expect me to write posts about these .NET sessions that I attended.
The presentation of Lynn Langit about "Data Mining with SQL Server/Excel 2007" has me struck with awe on the Data Mining capability of Excel 2007, specially on Business Analysis. And I am really surprised to hear from a Microsoft insider, such as Lynn, that the "Largest database out there in the real world is not SQL Server [or Oracle for that matter], but Excel." I never looked at Excel that way. I used to believe that Excel as a business tool will go down with history with the advent of products such as Reporting and Analysis Services and their integration to the SQL Server (and all other products provided by other vendors and all other third-party products out there that deal with the same business requirements). That mindset about Excel is gone now. Today, I have learned to respect Excel.
Posted
01-26-2008 6:27 PM
by
marl