TechWave 2007 - A few last recommendations

As I've mentioned previously, TechWave 2007 was (IMHO) one of the best TechWave's we've had in years.  Nonetheless, there is always room for improvement.  I've made some specific comments in my previous posts, but there are a few general suggestions that are the most important:

Romu Software

Romu Software updated SmartPaste, SmartJump and SmartScripter to provide support for PowerBuilder 11.

Romu Software

Romu Software added PowerBuilder 11 versions of all of it's software (SmartPaste, SmartJump, SmartScripter).

GdTwain 1.5.0

GdPictures Software announced the release of GdTwain 1.5.0. GdTwain OCX is a TWAIN ActiveX control allow developers to acquire easily image from devices such as scanners and cameras. GdTwain OCX can be used from any 32-bit and 64-bit Windows development environment that can call ActiveX components, including Visual Basic, Realbasic, Visual C++, Delphi, Visual FoxPro, PHP, ASP, IIS, MS Word, Access, Windev, PowerBuilder, Excel, .NET environment like C#, VB.NET and many others. GdTwain OCX works with Microsoft Windows platforms: 98, NT4, ME, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista.

http://www.gdpicture.com/products/gdtwain-ocx-twain-activex-control.php

TechWave 2007 - Wrap up

All in all, this has been one of the best TechWave's I've been at in years. A lot of excitement about the products that I'm particularly interested in, and no major hiccups.

Location

We'll, I'm no big fan of Las Vegas. That being said, the Mandalay Bay was still a great place to hold the event. My only issue with them was the wireless internet. Perhaps they don't normally hold technical conferences with that many users who will be taxing the system. It appears the same main line was shared by the hotel and the conference center as well. When we were in the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, the conference center had a separate line which worked better than the hotel line. At Mandalay Bay neither appeared to work particularly well. In any event, I'm still for moving it somewhere else. If we follow past practice, it should be moving back to the East Coast. I wouldn't mind it staying on the West Coast either, I'm just real tired of Las Vegas.

GdViewer 2.8.3

GDPictures Software announced the release of version 2.8.3 of GdViewer.  GdViewer OCX is a low cost and royalty free Image and PDF Viewer ActiveX control that supports a lot of image format like bmp, tif, tiff, fax, jpg, wmf, gif, animated gif, ico, png, pdf. It can be used from any 32-bit and 64-bit Windows development environment that can call ActiveX components (Access, Visual C++, Visual Basic, Realbasic, Visual Foxpro, Delphi, .Net, MS Access, Windev, PowerBuilder etc.). With Gdviewer you can view, zoom, print, rotate, Define Display Area, zoom on area, play animated gif, display multi pages tiff files, display pdf file (optional), use Defined Zoom in or Zoom out value, use keyboard to scrool image, set antialiasing display mode, etc.

http://www.gdpicture.com/products/gdviewer-ocx-image-viewer-activex.php

TechWave 2007 - Friday

ISUG Enhancements Session

After the Continental Breakfast and the morning education sessions comes the ISUG Enhancements Session. The enhancements suggested during the session include the following. If there was a response from Sybase during the session, it is indicated as a parenthetical after the suggestion.

TechWave 2007 - Miscellaneous

TechWave Forum

Shortly after you registered for TechWave, you were sent an email inviting you to TechWave Forum, a social networking site set up for TechWave. It allows you to create profiles and matches you up with people with similar interests. You can also create groups, and it's supposed to allow file sharing, chatting, meetings, and polls. I created a PowerBuilder group, and although it got 23 members it was the group with the highest membership in the forums. I sent and received a few "introductions", which was basically the equivalent of carrying on an email conversation through the site. I only just now discovered how to do file sharing (within the group), can't see how chatting could be accomplished and it appears that polling was disabled. Jeff Pryslak asked a question in the PowerBuilder group, and only two people responded.

TechWave 2007 - Thursday

Tools Keynote

Once again, the first thing after the Continental Breakfast and the morning education session was the Tools Keynote. The butterfly chart made an appearance and there was some discussion of the evolution of application development. Then came an introduction to the new PowerBuilder 11 features entitled "PowerBuilder 11: Accelerate Your .Net Development". Like the previous keynotes, there is a recorded webcast for this one as well.

TechWave 2007 - Wednesday

Data Management Keynote

First thing Wednesday (after the Continental Breakfast and morning Education Sessions anyway) was the Data Management Keynote. As with the Mobility Keynote Tuesday, there was a Customer Panel afterwards moderated by Irfan Khan and consisting of Chris Crosby (eSpeed), John Belz (Symantec) and Mark Carrington (LoanPerformance). Also similar to the Mobility Keynote on Tuesday, the bulk of the audience slipped out during the Customer Panel. Merv Adrian (Forrester Research) spoke next. By this time we were running up close to lunch, and most of the rest of the audience slipped out. For those that left early, there is a recorded webcast.

It was unfortunate that so many people left, because -- once again -- awards came next. First was the Special Agent 15 awards, won by Paul C. Jackson (Western and Southern Financial Group), Eduardo Serikava (Caixa) and Grigory Kagan (eSpeed). That was followed by the ISUG Journal awards, won by Paul Vero, Buck Woolley, Terry Voth and Breck Carter.

TechWave 2007 - Tuesday Afternoon / Evening

Plenary Session

After lunch came the 'plenary' sessions, one each for databases and development tools, each help concurrently. As you might expect, I went to the development tools presentation. It was rather well attended, although it was obvious over the next few days that a number of the people who would have been interested didn't know that 'plenary' meant it was open to everyone. Quite a few people didn't realize what it was and didn't attend as a result.

That's too bad, because the session, particularly the PowerBuilder "in the lab" features demo, brought back that "wow" factor we've been missing for the last few years. Fortunately, there is a recorded webcast, and the company that did the webcast did a much better job than whoever did it last year.  There was also a recorded webcast of the database plenary session.

TechWave 2007 - Tuesday Morning

Continental Breakfast

Once again a Continental Breakfast was provided Tuesday through Friday mornings. This year they apparently included a breakfast burrito. Good move, although I went out and got my own breakfast supplies and ate before coming down to the conference center. What was more important, at least to me, is that there were plenty of places serving Starbucks coffee on the way to the conference center, including one just outside the opening. There was another just outside the hotel elevators, so I usually just stopped there first.

HTC

Sybase and HTC Corp., the world's leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile-based smart devices, announced the formation of a global alliance. The companies are teaming on strategic business, engineering and marketing initiatives designed to deliver optimized Sybase iAnywhere mobility software on HTC devices. The alliance will focus initially on the management and security components of the Sybase Information Anywhere suite, which provides a platform for enterprise mobility. Sybase will work closely with HTC on product optimization and integration, resulting in stronger Windows Mobile device management and security options for enterprises. Last year, Harris Corporation (HRS) selected Sybase iAnywhere mobile technologies to power the 2010 U.S. Census, the largest-ever mobile software deployment. The 2010 U.S. Census will leverage the company's Information Anywhere mobile database, synchronization and mobile device management technology on HTC devices used by door-to-door census takers.

TechWave 2007 - Monday

Registration

Monday is the day I actually registered. Looks like they saved a little money by reusing some of the materials from last year's TechWave, I seem to remember this one from last year. The bean bag chairs in the registration area (where I assume the wi-fi is available) were a nice touch. The Tech Support Lab is just off the registration area. That's one of the areas where TeamSybase is hanging out. This year they have a separate Alliance lounge for customers who have Alliance support plans. The Tech Support Lab is for the rest of us. Email kiosks are available as well, as in previous TechWaves. This year the publications distribution is done from the first station in the registration area, which is much more convenient than previous years. The entrance to the exhibit hall, which is between the registration area and the wi-fi area, which is next to the Tech Support Lounge. The email kiosks are directly across from the registration area.

TechWave 2007 - Sunday

Officially the only thing going on Sunday was conference registration. However, there is a private TeamSybase/Sybase reception on Sunday evening where, among other things, new TeamSybase members are inducted. This year we added one new member: Roland Smith. Photos of the reception - along with all the other photos I've taken at TechWave - are available at:

http://public.fotki.com/brucearmstrong/techwave/2007/

Join me @ TechWave Forum

ISUG Planning North American PowerBuilder Tour

ISUG is in the early stages of planning a PowerBuilder 11 Tour in the USA and Canada for later in 2007. They are soliciting input from potential attendees. Please take a moment to answer their survey at so that they can ensure that they deliver what is important to you.

http://my.isug.com/index.php?module=survey&op=respond&sid=18