A co-worker of mine has been on me to post an update on my podcast listening. It is very similiar to a previous post so I'll keep it short.

Must listen Group:

HanselMinutes - Still my favorite. Every episode has something to take from it.

Marketplace Takeout - My favorite NPR program condensed for my iPod. (I'm too cheap to purchase the full daily show from audible.com, but I likely wouldn't be able to keep up with them anyway.)

NPR Technology - A weekly take of technology stories from NPR.

Polymorphic Podcast - It is not on par with the 3 above in my mind, but it is not as frequent and I always listen to every show, so it goes here.

The rest:

.NET Rocks - Great show and always well done. If the topic interests me, I listen.

ESPN: PTI - I think I listen to 1 or 2 a month. Not a helpful for much, but it is in my list, so I'm sharing it.

The MicroISV Show - I'm not sure why I keep it in my list. I usually start to listen to each one, but rarely make it over half way through.

This Week in Tech - Entertaining, but long. I listen when the mood hits.

I've been listening to a lot of books recently, but with the amount of driving I'm doing, there is plenty of time to keep up with the podcasts too.

On Friday, Microsoft announced the .NET Framework 3.0. It is a renaming of WinFX and will be shipped with Windows Vista (whenever it actually ships.)

While the renaming makes sense on some levels, it adds confusion on others. The .NET Framework 3.0 version will be comprised of the existing 2.0 components (ASP.NET, ADO.NET, etc) completely unchanged but adding in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPC), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation, and InfoCard (now called Windows CardSpace).

It appears that the 3.0 framework will require the 2.0 framework to be installed (and will install it as part of the installation if need be.) This will be the first framework release that will require a previous version or other bits to be installed. I fear the size of this installation!

The confusion for me starts when I think about Orcas (the next version of .NET). According to Jason Zander, it will likely be called 3.5. Will it need 3 frameworks installed (2.0, 3.0, and 3.5)? What will the new versions of ASP.NET and the other components be called? (Will we care?)

On a sad note, I recently looked at the new developer certification info with a friend from work. The .NET Framework 2.0 exams just got out of beta and already we are talking about the 3.0 Framework. Should we all hold out for the 3.0 exams? :)