"Professional Developer's Conference." "[T]he definitive developer event focused on the future of the Microsoft platform." That sounds awesome, but is unfortunately paired with the clause "we try to align it to be in front of major platform milestones."

Given a major technology announcement, it's logical that the PDC to, uh, "align in front." A grand unveiling, a couple breathtaking demos, and then getting up to speed as quickly as possible. No doubt.

However, wouldn't it be frigging grand if Microsoft said:

Welcome to PDC 2007. This conference is focused on conceiving, implementing, and delivering value in the form of software services on the Microsoft platform [Ed: Not 'the Windows platform'? Interesting.] You will not see any previously-secret technologies. You may very well learn APIs that are new to you, but they will not be new. Microsoft's very best software developers and managers are going to talk about how to create great applications on and for the Windows platform [Ed: You mean 'the Microsoft platform'?] , using the tools that Microsoft has promised would bring unprecedented levels of ease and power.

• We're going to expain how to architect systems that use MS technologies synergistically
• We're going to break down the processes used by successful teams using MS tools
• We're going to talk about code and performance, and we're not just going to talk best-case scenarios

Wouldn't you look forward to that conference?

(Yeah, it's the pre-sclerotic Software Development Conference but with a Microsoft-specific spin. I don't have any problem with the reality that PDC is a marketing effort.)