That special time of year has finally come: Microsoft is hosting PDC (Professional Developers Conference) at the end of October. For those of you not completely in the know, PDC is where we get to reveal all the cool technologies we've been working on. There are several sessions of particular interst this year this year:

• .NET Framework: Exploring What's New in the Base Class Library for "Whidbey"
  The BCL guys have done a great job of adding a lot of needing functionality to the framework.
• .NET Framework: What's New in System.Xml for "Whidbey" - mfussell
  My boss is giving a talk on what our team has been working on for the past few years.
• Programming "Indigo": Building Services and Connected Applications
  Should be a good overview of what to expect in the web services world
• Introducing "Avalon," the Next Generation of Windows Presentation Services: A Technology Overview
  These guys are doing some cool stuff. 'nuff said
• Visual C# "Whidbey": Language Enhancements
  Some new cool features being added to C#, won't spoil the fun here
• Developing Data Applications for Devices with Microsoft SQL Server"! CE 3.0
  SQL Server running on a smartphone. How much techier can you get :)
• Building Database Applications with SQL Server "Yukon": XQuery, XML Datatype - arpande
  What can I say, shameless plug for a talk I'm giving. The current plan is to go over the XML support in Yukon and how it integrates with client technologies.
• Programming SQL Server "Yukon" Using Managed Code: Building Store Procedures, Functions, and User-Defined Types
  More Yukon goodness/essentials.
• ASP.NET: Overview of ASP.NET "Whidbey"
  Another bread and butter talk. Can't miss this.

Apart from the talk mentioned above, the INETA has agreed to have an XQuery BOF (Birds of a Feather) talk. This will be a great opportunity to have a round table discussion with members of the product team at Microsoft implementing XQuery and with other conference attendees who have an interest in XQuery.

And last, but not least, mfussell (Mark Fussell) has joined the fray of Microsoft bloggers. Mark is responsible for keeping Dare, Joshua, and myself in line, especially when we start coming up with crazy features which would take years to implement. Although wrangling us is already a full time job, he still managed to find time to write a book on the new features of System.Xml. Check it out.