So I got a little bit inspired the other day after watching Scott Hanselman’s Web Deployment Made Awesome: If You're Using XCopy, You're Doing It Wrong from MIX10. With a perfect candidate ASP.NET 3.5 web app and VS2010 RC I dived in and generated Web.Release.config and Web.Debug.config files then went to publish. Unfortunately it didn’t all go to plan and all I got was this particularly uninformative error:

The "TransformXml" task failed unexpectedly.
System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: The URI is empty.
   at System.Uri.CreateThis(String uri, Boolean dontEscape, UriKind uriKind)
   at System.Uri..ctor(String uriString)
   at Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.TransformXml.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskExecutionHost.Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.ITaskExecutionHost.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskBuilder.ExecuteInstantiatedTask(ITaskExecutionHost taskExecutionHost, TaskLoggingContext taskLoggingContext, TaskHost taskHost, ItemBucket bucket, TaskExecutionMode howToExecuteTask, Boolean& taskResult)

Another year, another MIX conference in Vegas and another three days of reading all the news from afar. Fortunately the Twitter age doesn’t leave those of us on the other side of the world completely isolated and there has been some really interesting news shared by those on the ground in the US.

Here’s a summary of what I found interesting and what I see is significant for the technologies involved. It’s by no means a comprehensive review – one look at the sessions list will confirm that – but it’s what jumped out and got me excited.

It’s a hot summer day in Perth over on the western seaboard of Australia and the local pub is packed with patrons downing cold beers. You’re in your shiny new Ferrari – red, of course – and come cruising past the pub in full view of the enthralled audience. As any red-blooded, testosterone fuelled Aussie bloke would do, you give the Italian thoroughbred a full redline launch to the delight of the crowd. Right up until you run into the street sign: