#VSLive Boston Recap: Key .NET Updates, NUI & Beyond
Visual Studio Live! Boston was a great success. As a local guy, it was a thrill to have the event right here where I live. Any time anyone needed a recommendation for a restaurant or an Irish pub, I was happy to help.
For me, the keynote and general session are always a big draw, and VSLive! Boston was no exception. The event kicked off on Tuesday, June 14 with a lively keynote from Microsoft’s own Jeffrey Fritz, and on Wednesday morning, June 15 there was an equally inspiring and entertaining general session from Tim Huckaby.
Keynote: The Future of .NET
Jeffrey Fritz is the senior program manager for the developers outreach group at Microsoft. He started off the show with a look at where .NET is and where it’s going, as well as a glimpse into some of Microsoft’s other development tools. “.NET has come a long way from a long time ago, and by a long time ago I mean 2014 and 2015,” he says.
The big news is clearly reusable code and running on multiple platforms. Bringing the Windows, Linux and Mac platforms together means helping them use many of the same components, says Fritz. “.NET has been fractured over the last few years, now we’re bringing it together,” says Fritz. “Reusing code used to be a nightmare. Now, whether you’re using .NET Framework, .NET Core or Xamarin, it’s the same runtime components and the same runtime model.”
Fritz described Microsoft’s efforts to make the .NET library easier to use and easier to share across platforms. “We’re turning things around here. We’ll reference the full implementations upon deployment. So you get to master just one library, not just a platform.” He appealed to the Lord of the Rings geeks in the crowd (myself included), calling it, “The .NET library—one library to rule them all.”
Click here read more about Jeffrey Fritz’s keynote session at VSLive! Boston.
General Session: The Current State of NUI
Then on Wednesday, Tim Huckaby took the stage to give us his take on the current state of the natural user interface. Huckaby is the chairman and founder of InterKnowlogy, Actus Interactive Software and VSBLTY. “You may not know us,” he says, “but you’ve used our software.” Huckaby’s companies have built software for such renowned organizations as NASA, Levis, Raytheon, Coca-Cola, ABC, and NBC.
“We now have a NUI—a natural user interface,” he says. This could even lead to thought controlled computers and technology he explains. “Imagine a paralyzed person thinking their way to steering their wheelchair.”
Huckaby recalled Moore’s Law, which is essentially a prediction of technology developing in leaps and bounds. “Computers are currently calculating at the speed of small animals,” he says. “By 2020, they’ll be calculating at the same rate as a human brain. That’s crazy, scary interesting.”
Huckaby finished up with a demo session on 3D cameras, and the software developed to display and analyze video capture. “3D cameras do amazing stuff, and they’re only about $150,” he says. He also says these cameras can be extremely accurate for facial recognition, which makes them well-suited for security applications.
Click here to read more about Tim Huckaby’s general session keynote at VSLive! Boston.
Visit the VSLive! website for more information on our upcoming events!
Posted by Lafe Low on 06/29/2016