I expected that this place would be filled with Java Developers and Experts that I know from conferences and open-source mailing lists. Not so - there's only a handful of guys I know. Here's the list of folks I actually recognize. I apologize to anyone I forgot.
- Ben Galbraith
- Dion Almaer
- Jay Zimmerman
- Matthew Schmidt
- Richard Monson-Haefel
- Rick Ross
After talking with a lot of Microsoftees (including the lady who came up the idea), this whole week seems pretty harmless. They want us to critique their products and strategies and tell them what they're doing wrong. We had fun ragging on some guys tonight about IE7 and TDD. They admitted that the test-driven development we're doing is very interesting to them. With any luck, we'll get to rag on IE7 enough so it's actually better than Firefox.
So far this definitely looks like a wine and dine event. Jay Zimmerman was on my same flight from Denver, so we got to sit around the airport and wait for a ride together. I fully expected a Limo and a guy holding a "Raible" sign. No such luck - it took an hour for a car to show up and we had to call them several times.
We're staying at the Willows Lodge, which is definitely a luxury hotel. It's probably the nicest room I've stayed in outside of Vegas. King size bed, huge jacuzzi, nice stereo (playing when I entered the room). Not only that, but incidentals are covered. That's right folks, apparently we can go get a massage on Microsoft if we like. I'll be testing those waters in short order for sure. I talked with the guys at the front desk, and there's apparently 49 people staying here for this shindig.
The Lodge is out in the country, and right next door to the Red Hook Brewery and the Columbia Winery. 
Update: The wine-ing has begun. I just got a knock on the door with a guy handing me a "present from Microsoft". A box full of crackers, cheese, chocolates and a bottle of wine. Let's hope there's a wine opener in here. Found it.
Update 2: Damn, after looking at the agenda, it doesn't look like there's any time for a massage. The worst part so far? The shuttle leaves for the M$ Campus tomorrow at 6:45 a.m.!
