Presentation: TweetPlatform choices on the Windows Azure PaaS (it's not just .NET and SQL Server)

In this talk, we'll look at where the Windows Azure platform is at and where it's going. If you thought Azure was just a platform for ASP.NET and SQL Server applications, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. I'll share some examples of projects where I’ve used alternative .NET technologies, the first-class support for Node.js (which includes a full SDK for working with the Azure platform services), and NoSQL solutions like MongoDB and RavenDB. And hopefully some of the über-cool things that are under NDA as I write this abstract will have been made public, so we can talk about those too! Seriously, there's some awesome stuff coming.

Keywords: azure, cloud, node.js, ravendb, mongodb
Target Audience: developers, architects

Presentation: TweetKeynote: Zen and the Art of Software Quality

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a book about Quality; what it is, where it exists, and how we may try to attain it. In this talk, I will use passages from the book to introduce ideas on how we, as software developers, might try to improve the Quality both of the software we create and of ourselves. I'll talk about what "Quality" means in the context of software, how to measure it, and the importance of close interaction with users at all stages of application development.

Keywords: software, quality, attitude, improvement, zen
Target Audience: developers, designers, architects