This is a list of a few things I've learned so far at PDC05:

  • Don't be late to lunch. (Unless you're really into salads.)
  • People lose all common sense when they see a bin of free t-shirts. Yesterday, one person dropped his dinner plate while reaching for a shirt, but that didn't stop anybody! He knew better than to try and reach down to pick it up.  
  • If the economy can be measured in free t-shirts, then the economy is doing better this year than last year at Tech*Ed. 
  •  "The compiler is an unforgiving mistress." (quoted from Don Box's talk about Indigo)
  • Windows Vista is much better than I thought. While some of the features in Vista are already available to Mac users, Microsoft has really made some great strides in the user experience. And, RSS really is built in everywhere.
  • Microsoft *is* listening. This is perhaps the most important thing I've learned at the conference. Microsoft is really trying to incorporate the things customers want in the next version of their applications, and they are trying to be much more transparent.