Channel 9 videos
Good Channel 9 videos on the future of .NET. I used to have a lot of debate with a friend of mine on .NET vs Java. The outcome of it was, I always learnt what was going in the Java world.
Ask the Expert: Anders Hejlsberg
Software Composability and the Future of Languages
Anders Hejlsberg (the chief architect of C#) talks in the first video about the Java language not getting to innovate a lot because of the Java Community Process where multiple people drag the language in different directions.
.NET languages this year are getting a lot of dynamic language features (Python, Ruby and so on). It makes me curious to see what approach Java is taking. With .NET it's time to start learning new syntax and language features. The new version of these languages are due to be released by the end of this year. My guess is that it will be ready by the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference scheduled for the month of October.