My photos from TechEd are finally online. I planned to upload them each day, but without my camera cable, I was stuck. I could have used IR and beam them one by one, but that takes forever. To avoid this problem in the future, I ordered a USB media card reader last night.
Here’s a sneak peak of me and Shamu. Check out the online album for the rest of the photos.
A researcher in the UK, Professor Paul Sharpe or Kings College London, has had success growing new teeth in mice using stem cells. The college has formed a company, Odontis Ltd, to commercialize Dr. Sharpe’s research.
This is fascinating research and demonstrates the potential uses of stem cells to regenerate missing or damaged body parts. What I find interesting though, are comments by some dentists in news groups. Several maintained that, despite the predictions that this kind of advance would make dentures obsolete, they expect that people would continue to opt for dentures. They claim that with costs similar to the cost of an implant, only those with higher incomes would opt for the treatment. People with lower incomes would stick with dentures because of the lower cost.
The real question is how insurance companies would cover this treatment. Even at the same cost as an implant, the additional benefits of having a real tooth vs. an artificial tooth might be enough for an insurance company to cover a greater percentage of the cost. It all depends on what the actuaries come up with.
Of course it is all moot until they prove this can be done successfully in humans.
Another TechEd has come and gone. This was my second TechEd and third Microsoft conference overall. MEC 2002 was my first, which happened to be the final year for that gathering, its content being included in TechEd the following year. Overall it was a great conference in a great location. I only wish I had more opportunity to see the city and its sights. I guess it just gives me more incentive to take that long-planned California vacation next year.
The highlight of the conference for me was probably… Jessica Simpson. No, not really. The highlight was the cabana concept. There are some bugs to be worked out, but all of them were use to the location and not the concept. I think it was a good idea to have near the CommNet, since that is the big meeting place, but maybe a bit more distance would help to cut down on the noise. I hope people took advantage of this opportunity to talk one-on-one with the product experts from Microsoft.
I thought the CommNet location was great as well. A little less ambient light would have been nice, but having the CommNet so centrally located between breakout rooms was welcome. If I recall in Dallas, the CommNet was way on one end and it wasn’t convenient to pop in and complete a session evaluation or check email.
Having a Pocket PC with ActiveSync and a wireless card worked great for checking email. I rarely used the laptop I brought with me during the day. I may have used a laptop more if I had a HP Compaq Tablet PC like all of the HP people seemed to be carrying. Of all the Tablet designs I’ve seen, these really are slick. I’m getting tired of waiting for Dell to release their own Tablet PC.
Food was better this year than in Dallas. I talked to some people who had different opinions, but I thought everything was pretty tasty, especially when you consider how hard it is to prepare really good food for 11,000 people at a time. I heard somebody wish that there was a burger bar or something similar if you just wanted something like that as an alternative to the entree selections. I’m sure that would be popular.
The social events I attended were fun and let me avoid spending any money on meals on all but one night. It would have been nice to sample more San Diego restaurants, but it is hard to pass up free food. The Zoo event would have been more fun if it had been earlier in the day since most of the animals were already inside, but there really isn’t any way around that.
So , aside from my inability to win any drawings for Pocket PCs or Xbox consoles, it was a great week. I can’t wait for TechEd 2005 in Orlando!
The final day. Because I had an afternoon flight, I only had time to attend two sessions:
I left the second session halfway through to get my luggage and hop on the bus. I remember waiting in long lines for a bus in Dallas last year, so I wanted to be sure and get on one of the first ones leaving. It probably wasn’t as big a deal this year since the airport is only 10-15 minutes from the convention center.
The airport wasn’t as crowded as I would have expected for the start of the Memorial Day weekend. My opinion changed, however, once I cleared security and entered the gate area. Several gates arranged in a circle , the center of which is a bar and dining area, made for a very crowded arrangement. Southwest’s boarding system where people line up in three lines, didn’t help as the lines wound around the seating area. I managed to get some lunch, and the flights themselves were uneventful. Finally made it home around 8:30 PM CDT. Dinner at CPK, and home to see the puppy.
The flight home was uneventful. We actually arrived a bit earlier than scheduled on both segments.
