Who would have thought that the mental offspring of Peter Ritchie and Justice Gray would look so good?  Okay, well, everybody.  People think that writing abstracts is simple stuff, and truthfully it is.  Anyone can slap together a couple of misspelled sentences and say "I have a presentation".  However, it takes something akin to the twelve labors of Hercules to write abstracts so compelling that you would be willing to abandon your own family just to come to TechDays 2009, which is the goal Peter and I set for ourselves when we sat down to write the session descriptions for the Developer Foundations track.  I can't speak to my own intense creative process except to remind you that the journey to my mind's eye is filled with broken bottles and shattered dreams.    However, I do happen to have exclusive footage of Peter Ritchie getting our abstracts ready for TechDays, and it is impressive.


Now I know you are all motivated to strip off your shirts and begin pounding *your* desk with a hammer but I encourage you to at least wait until you have read the abstracts for this track - no piece of furniture is going to stand in your way ever again!!!

The actual official (yes, *official* - I can't believe it either!) description of the track itself is:

Finally, the track that promises to make you not only a better developer but a better person through foundational techniques in object oriented design and advanced features in the .NET framework! Fix almost any piece of ugly code and make it pretty! Learn how to layer an application so you never have to do a version 2.0 rewrite ever again! Find out the secret of real object oriented programming! Discover how to push features like generics, lambdas and LINQ to objects in ways that you never thought you could! Earn more money! Be in demand! Get promoted! Heck, stay employed! This is your future after attending the Developer Foundations track! Warning: if you do not want to be known as the leanest, meanest, software development machine that ever lived, please don't attend this track!



And now, for the sessions:

Session 1: S-O-L-I-D : The Five OO Principles that will Change your Life Forever

Can’t believe you just got passed over at the club - again - because you didn’t know real object orientation? Thought that the sure-fire way to third base was knowing how to write a constructor? Thought you had the evening all figured out because you read an example of Cat inheriting from Animal? Think again. Annoyed by all those homely elitist jerks that still score all the time because people say they are OO masters? Well, it’s time to turn the tables and learn object oriented programming the way real men and women do it - the SOLID way! Quit getting drinks dumped all over you and stand up for yourself by learning the principles that turned others just like you into the buffest, hottest, men and women in the software development industry! Trust us, once you learn what SOLID really means and how to use its previously forbidden techniques you will always be in demand, professionally and more importantly physically! Cohesion, encapsulation, and everyone’s favourite topic - coupling - are just some of the things we’ll talk about as we transform you into the OO powerhouse that no company can possibly refuse! Come to this session and we’ll even throw in a special bonus topic: What’s POCO and why you need to know about it to be hired in the coming decade!

Session 3: Layers, the Secret Language of Architects

Disclaimer: This is not the “here’s your data layer, business layer, UI layer” talk that your father heard 20 years ago at a conference somewhere. However, this is the talk that will launch you into the world of rapid promotions, limousine rides, and champagne parties - the world of the senior developer/IT architect. Tired of slumming it for “the man”? Come to the presentation that will show you how to become “the man”! Seams? Design by contract? Services that aren’t prefixed by “web”? Repositories? Anti-corruption layers? (Gasp!) Domain-Driven Design? Do you know how that guy or girl at your office was able to negotiate foot massages and a daily breakfast buffet into their contract? They knew all of these terms and how to use them to build flexible and maintainable systems - and after attending this presentation so will you!

Session 4: Refactoring for Fun and Profit

Are you ashamed of your application? Does your architecture make you want to go home and weep in the shower? Heck, would it be nice if your application seemed to have architecture? This is the presentation for you! Come see how the art of refactoring can help fix your code, fix your house, and maybe even fix your dog! We’re going to show you how to TAKE CONTROL of your codebase without simply tearing everything down and starting over! There are countless applications with a tangled code-base that are begging for even a semi-talented software developer to come in, work their magic, and become the hero of their organization! If you want to become indispensable to your company, co-workers, family, and friends, come to this session!

and of course, yesterday's:

Session 2: Going from 0 to 100 Dollars per Hour with the .NET You Never Knew