BOF's are open to Conference Attendees only unless otherwise noted.

XP War
Joshua Kerievsky
Monday, March 14, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
XP War is a fast-paced, educational XP card game based on an old card game called War. In this game, participants struggle to win the most XP Playing Cards. XP War is an excellent way to learn more about XP, including the problems that real-world XP teams face and common solutions to those problems. Come and enjoy this highly interactive game, which will be refereed by the game's creator, Joshua Kerievsky.

Preparing for Indigo
Juval Lowy
Monday, March 14, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Indigo is the next generation application connectivity and services from Microsoft, superseding the variety of .NET connectivity solutions available today: ASMX web services, Remoting and Enterprise Services. Since the .NET debus some five years ago, all three technologies have been inundated in either hype or misconceptions. Come discuss with Juval Lowy, a software legend and Indigo insider how to best prepare for Indigo, and what Indigo means for your career, business, and the industry as a whole.

Effective XML
Elliotte Rusty Harold
Monday, March 14, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Get to know fellow XML developers while discussing your experiences with XML. Which APIs produce code that's smooth like silk and which APIs produce code that's smooth like burlap? Which tools are worth their weight in gold-pressed platinum and which ones are worth their weight in AOL CDs? Come learn which techniques are working for your colleagues and which aren't.

Microsoft vs. Sun Solutions: Balancing Business and Technology Needs
Burke Cox
Monday, March 14, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Developers are commonly faced with having to integrate disparate platforms, put in place via executive decision. Technical experts can debate the engineering merits of software platforms such as .NET or J2EE for days at end, but analysts predict that in a few years over 80% of development environments will encompass both platforms. The reason for the integrated environments lie in the cost, risk, and corporate strategy – all factors that may not be visible in the IT shop. In this BOF we will examine the competing platforms both in terms of the business models that drive the relationships with Sun and Microsoft and the technology strengths. It highlights the impact of the open source community and evaluates the risk of outgrowing a technology selection. You will be armed with a new perspective on technology choices as well as tips on how to better integrate these two platforms for better business and technical results.

Software Patterns and the Web
Ward Cunningham, Microsoft Patterns and Practices Group
Monday, March 14, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Open to both Conference and Expo attendees
The world's first wiki was founded as a software pattern repository. The world of software, the world of patterns, and the world of wiki webs has changed a lot since then. In this BOF Ward Cunningham, the Architect of PatternShare.org, solicits your ideas about how this next generation pattern repository can become an even more valuable resource than the first.

Microsoft Roundtable
All Microsoft speakers
Monday, March 14, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Open to both Conference and Expo attendees
Don't you wish you could tell Microsoft a thing or two? Here's your opportunity to give Microsoft some advice. We want to hear what we're doing right and wrong and how we can help make developers lives easier. This lively and interactive session with top Microsoft employees promises to be the BOF that you won't want to miss!

Mobile Computing Application Design - Challenges and Possible Solutions
Mike Pearce, Staff Software Engineer – Intel Corporation
Thursday, March 17, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Open to both Conference and Expo attendees
Mobile solutions are becoming much more common place these days, but with limited system resources, applications must be smarter on utilizing these resources. End users are unwilling anymore to accept generic pop-up error messages that indicate a page cannot be displayed or the system is being shutdown as a result of loss of power. Applications should be designed with mobility in mind, rather than as an after-thought. Come with your questions, we'll discuss application issues specific to mobile computing and evaluate solutions.

Visual C++ BOF
Kang Su Gatlin
Thursday, March 17, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Open to both Conference and Expo attendees
As managed platforms that support garbage collection become more popular -- C++ has been largely left out of the equation. The C++/CLI standard was introduced to bring the power, syntax, and idioms of C++ to managed platforms. This, of course, has been attempted before, with less than stellar results. What makes this attempt any different? Can C++ really maintain its power and flexibility while moving to a managed platform?
In this BOF we'll discuss the difficulties of getting C++ to work with the services provided by the CLI, and maybe most importantly -- is C++ still C++ after melding with C++/CLI or is it just a faint shadow of it's former self?

Java.Net Roundtable
Daniel Steinberg
Thursday, March 17, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
java.net publishes a new front page all but two weekdays a year. Much of what we do is to highlight activity on other sites, host blogs, forums, and projects. In this editor's roundtable, we have invited book, magazine, and website editors to discuss how to get your Java based content published.

MDA
Stephen Mellor
Thursday, March 17, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
MDA is an emerging set of standards from the Object Management Group (OMG) for model-driven development that is generating buzz because of the promise of making software--in the form of models--assets rather than expenses. Join us for a discussion on the ideas on MDA, proposed and existing standards, progress being made in modeling, and, especially, rotten tomato throwing.

Rest vs. SOAP
Michele Bustamante, Christian Gross, Chris Haddad, Elliotte Rusty Harold and Ted Neward
Thursday, March 17, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
The year is 2004 and the Internet has established itself as the defacto network communication tool, for good or bad. The human to human communication using email and Web has also established itself. What is still in flux are computer to computer communications. Specifically the question is if SOAP, REST or maybe some other protocol will solve the computer to computer communications problem. Come join us at this BOF to discuss (and debate!) the merits of SOAP, REST or some other protocol.

Multithreading in C++: Past, Present, and (possible) Future
David Abrahams, Andrei Alexandrescu, Chuck Allison & Scott Meyers
Thursday, March 17, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
C++ is routinely used for building multithreaded applications. Unfortunately, programming multithreaded applications of any kind in C++ remains a black art. Properties critical for reliable, efficient, and correct multithreaded execution are left unspecified. The C++ standard has no provision for threads and as such multithreaded C++ code is notoriously unportable. Superstition, myths, bad advice, and "hey, it worked for me" stories are rampant. During this BOF, we will discuss what works and what doesn't in today's multithreaded C++ world; how the advent of newer, aggressively-optimizing compilers compound difficulties; and what is being done about adding threads to standard C++.