WinHEC Day 1: Ecosystems & Rockstars
I'm home from day one (of three days) at WinHEC in Seattle. Before I dig into the show, I want to explain the title of this post. First off, "ecosystem." I don't know how many times I heard Microsoft people say this word today (way too many) and none of them were referring to plants and animals. It seems to be Microsoft's new way to refer to the entire Windows Vista hardware/software/OS experience. It started in Bill Gates' keynote address, and after that I heard it all over the place. People talked about how drivers affect the ecosystem, how mobile devices interact with the ecosystem, how groupware enhances the system, etc. I get the analogy, but it's a bit much.
Not worse than all the "We're looking for rock stars" t-shirts I saw though. nVidia was giving these out (the back side says "nVidia is hiring") and people were taking them in droves. What I didn't get though was the people wearing them. And not just wearing them, putting them on over the shirts they were already wearing and walking around like that! What the hell? Just because the shirt says "rock star" on it doesn't mean you have to act like you're at a show. Tons of other people were giving out t-shirts, but I didn't see anyone wearing those. I guess programmers just really like nVidia.