VS2010 Beta2, and two loops too

This morning, Visual Studio 2010 Beta2 is available to MSDN subscribers, with general availability to follow later in the week. Also, the new branding for Visual Studio and MSDN has been unveiled. Here’s the new C# logo:

I like the new visual identity a lot! The old four-color infinity has been with Visual Studio for a long time now. The new purple one is asymmetric, which gives it kind of a sense of motion, and it feels much more 2010. It fits with the rest of the brand visuals that we have, such as Silverlight. Plus, MSDN has a new look, and that’s certainly welcome. I now officially work in the purpley/blue division at Microsoft. Eric was years ahead of us.

The Beta2 page is here if you are interested.

I also want to fit some, uh, technical content in this post. Look at this loop:

You can see the twist in the back, and that make me speculate (perhaps incorrectly!) that some people are going to feel compelled to call this thing a Moebius strip. It is not! It’s a regular cylinder. You can tell, because Moebius strips have a boundary that consists of a single loop. This shape has a boundary that consists of two loops, highlighted below in red and green. No Moebius strip here:

I hope the marketing people don’t get mad at me for scrawling all over their pretty assets.