So, the PASS conference is in full swing up here in Seattle, and I'm loving it. Others have already given a comprehensive live-blog play-by-play, so I'll skip that. Can I just say that (OMG!) I have met, already, a heap of SQL Server luminaries:
SQLBLOG's own hard-working Adam Machanic (great precon session)
Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp
Kalen Delaney
Brian Knight
Cool "Birds of a Feather" lunch with Peter Ward
Hit a particularly great session on diagnosis of waits by Bob Ward. Or, maybe more accurately it hit me. It was like a bus full of information coming straight at you full speed. Good stuff!
One mind-blowing thing is just how enormous the product family around SQL Server has gotten -- seems like at one time a person could know a fair amount about all of it, but now with SQL Server, CLR, Analysis Services, Integration Services, Notification Services, Service Broker, Entity Framework, Gemini (PowerPivot? That's the best name they could find?) Clustering, Virtualization, Replication, Mirroring, LINQ, PerformancePoint, SharePoint, Excel Services, Azure, ADO.NET Data Services, Master Data ... it's hard even to keep track of what is there, never mind knowing it with any depth!