Gadgeteer introduction

I recently learned of existence of Microsoft Gadgeteer initiative. On paper, it sounded very exciting. Having a practical project in mind, I acquired a FEZ Spider Starter Kit from GHI Electronics. After waiting a few weeks for the back-ordered components, the kit arrived without any problems.

After unpacking it, I followed easy instructions on the GHI's support page, after installing VS 2010 Express (at work), and VS 2010 Pro (at home). With minimal guidance, I set up the first project. Plugging in a button and an LED, it took 5-7 mouse clicks and 14 keyboard presses to end up with:

void ProgramStarted()
{
    button.ButtonPressed += new Button.ButtonEventHandler( button_ButtonPressed );
}

void button_ButtonPressed( Button sender, Button.ButtonState state )
{
    led.TurnWhite();
}

F6 to compile. F5 to deploy. 10-20 seconds later, pushing the button turns on the LED! Holy smokes. This is even more amazing stuff than I hoped.