.net DEvHammer

Events This Week – July 6th, 2009

2009-07-06T21:13:32Z

A belated Happy Independence Day to my U.S. readers!

Here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area…this list includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar, and all events entered in Community Megaphone are also automatically synced to the UGSS event calendar:

CMAP Main Meeting - A Lap Around Silverlight 3 with Pete Brown
Tuesday, July 07, 2009 6:30 PM, Columbia, MD
Exactly two years ago, on 7/7/7, Pete and a coworker flipped the switch on the first managed code Silverlight application ever to go into production. Silverlight sure has come a long way since then. Join us for a lap around the new features in Silverlight 3 ranging from business application development to rich media, validation, navigation and out of browser support, plus a little fun stuff thrown in for grins. If you’re new to Silverlight 3, or new to Silverlight itself, you’ll want to join us for this end-to-end look at Microsoft’s RIA platform. Pete Brown is a Microsoft Silverlight MVP, an INETA speaker, and a RIA Architect for Applied Information Sciences in the Washington, DC area.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

CMAP Geek Lunch
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 11:45 AM, Columbia, MD
For anyone interested in eating lunch with a bunch of "Geeks", we will be meeting at Panera Bread Company this Wednesday, July 8th.
The plan is to be there around 11:45am.
This is a very informal gathering. There is no set time for this to start or end.
Event will be held at Panera in Dobbin Center.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Web Development with Castle Monorail, Active Record and Brail view engine
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 8:00 PM, Online
Have a look at the first popular MVC .Net based web framework. Also will be covering persistence with ActiveRecord, and view templates using Brail. Bonus, will demo a plug-in framework for building CMS like applications. http://www.virtualaltnet.com/
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

SmartClient
Monday, July 13, 2009 6:00 PM, California, MD
A Smart Client is an application that uses local processing, consumes XML Web Services and can be deployed and updated from a centralized server. While the .NET Framework (Windows Forms) and the .NET Compact Framework provide the ability to develop Smart Clients with ease, other technologies can provide smart client applications by utilizing the same architecture. Smart Client is the concept of architecting your application solution into a smart, flexible and convenient platform that utilizes web services for communication.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Capital Area SharePoint User Group July 2009 Meeting
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 6:00 PM, Rockville , MD
SPEAKER: Sahil Malik
TITLE: SharePoint and Silverlight, perfect together
ABSTRACT: Silverlight is one of the most exciting things to come out of Microsoft lately. In this session, Sahil cooks up a practical and interesting completely hands-on demonstration of how to use Silverlight in SharePoint. Not only does he talk of various details of Silverlight, along with proper deployment of Silverlight projects in SharePoint, he also mixes WCF and demonstrates using Silverlight with full access to the SharePoint object model. You should attend if you are interested in either Silverlight, SharePoint, WCF, or any mixture of the above.
BIO: Sahil Malik, the founder and principal of Winsmarts, has been a Microsoft MVP and INETA Speaker for the past many years, author of many books and numerous articles, consultant and trainer who delivers training and talks at conferences internationally.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Hampton Roads .NET Users Group
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 6:30 PM, Chesapeake, VA
Dissecting DevEvents.com: A Look at a Real World .NET MVC Implementation The ASP.NET MVC Framework provides a powerful Model View Controller (MVC) approach to building web applications, and provides separation of concerns, increased testability, control over HTML output, and intuitive URLs. We will start by looking at building a model framework with LINQ to SQL, including validation and model binding. Then, we'll explore a custom generics-based repository and services implementation. Finally, we'll tie it all together with a look at Views and jQuery.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

You can also add your events via the Community Megaphone web service API, which is now live. You can get more information on the API, and how to sign up, at http://www.communitymegaphone.com/API.aspx. You can also email me for more information.

Herding Code: Drag n Drop Debating?

2009-07-01T18:19:00Z

This has to be my favorite podcast description in a long while, and not just because I’m in it. As backstory, Alan Stevens (he of #AlanStevensAvatarWeekend fame, among other things) and I have occasionally had some spirited tussles on twitter about myriad topics including the role of (or in Alan’s opinion the evil of) drag and drop development.

After the most recent of these, Kevin Dente approached Alan and me and asked if we’d like to be on the show and hash things out there. The result is this podcast. Enjoy!

In this corner, Microsoft Developer Evangelist and author, G. Andrew Duthie. In the other corner, C# MVP, ASP Insider and Open Space Technology facilitator, Alan Stevens. This week, G. Andrew Duthie and Alan Stevens bring their recent “Real Software Development vs Microsoft Bubble Development” Twitter debate to Herding Code. It’s all the open and honest, fun-loving, snarky banter without the 140 character limit.

Kevin kicks off the show by announcing our two fighters. Ding. Ding.

Alan throws the first punch – He likes Herding Code because it’s about real software development rather than development in the Microsoft bubble. It’s about the tool users rather than the tool builders and it’s about honest feedback.

Andrew jabs back – He likes the stories from the trenches but he feels more credit must be given to the folks at Microsoft who are doing the right thing. In other words, don’t always assume the worst and snark about it.

Scott K keeps both fighters on their toes – First taking jabs at Alan because some DevDiv developers dogfood Microsoft’s stuff (e.g. Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0) and then lands a sucker punch on Andrew noting Entity Framework is developing in the dark. Who could have seen that punch coming?

The fight continues with talk about general disgust in drag and drop demos, the role of the Developer Evangelist, Microsoft’s goals and constraints, and the need for candid feedback.

If you missed the Twitter exchange, you will definitely want to listen in as The Alan Stevens vs G. Andrew Duthie Debate continues this week on Herding Code.

Herding Code 52: The Alan Stevens and G. Andrew Duthie Debate Continues! | Herding Code

Microsoft Local Impact

2009-06-29T15:54:00Z

This is both a cool use of Silverlight, as well as a great resource for understanding what Microsoft is doing or has done in your local community and/or in communities like yours around the world:

Events This Week – June 29th, 2009

2009-06-29T11:41:00Z

IoC and Dip through Castle Windsor
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 8:00 PM, Online
Ever wonder what acronyms like IoC and Dip mean? If you know what they mean do you wonder why anyone would use them in code? This talk aims to deal primarily with those two questions through the use of Castle Windsor IoC container. Intermediate level C# material with a couple of more advanced demos at the end for fun and pleasure. http://www.virtualaltnet.com/
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

You can also add your events via the new Community Megaphone web service API, which is now live. You can get more information on the API, and how to sign up, at http://www.communitymegaphone.com/API.aspx. You can also email me for more information.

Events This Week – June 23rd, 2009

2009-06-23T16:10:00Z

You can tell it’s summer, as things are a little slower than usual, but there’s still lots to do if you’re a geek…

CMAP .NET Essentials
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 7:00 PM, Columbia, MD
The CMAP .NET Essentials SIG implements a complete ASP.NET application from the requirements all the way to the final deployment. In this last session of the season, we will analyze several ways to pass data between the DAL and the Presentation layers and provide several code examples for implementations.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Frederick .NET User Group June Meeting
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:30 PM, Frederick, MD
Intro Topic: Intro to Mesh and Windows Live Framework with John Blumenauer. Developers can now utilize the Microsoft Live Framework to implement applications that consume Live Services data that span devices and the web. In this session, John will provide a brief overview of the platform architecture, explain the goals of the technology and discuss the three main types of applications supported by the Live Framework.
Main Topic: Advanced Techniques for Everyday Development - Building a basic text messaging system using Behavior Driven Development with Mock Objects with Edwin Ames
Description: Confused by the new techniques coming from the Alt.Net crowd? Does writing unit-test code seem like, well… more work? Don’t know the difference between a mock and a fake and not sure why you should care? We’ll use simple examples to introduce and show the value of test and behavior driven development. Once you have a basic understanding we’ll move on to a more realistic business problem. You’ll see an analysis of the business problem and the resulting executable behavioral specification. We’ll end by looking at implementation issues and you’ll see how mocks and fakes fit into the process. When we’re finished you’ll be aware of a basic toolbox: NUnit, TestDriven.Net, Moq and a set of techniques to make everyday coding easier.
Speaker Bio: Edwin has been developing software for 10+ years. He has written solutions for many industries including Corporate Relocation and Insurance. He is a regular speaker at DotNet events. His technical interests include design patterns and development methodologies.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

Nerd Dinner Tonight in Reston, VA - CANCELLED

2009-06-17T15:12:25Z

UPDATE: Just got word from Shawn that due to low RSVP count, he’s cancelling the Nerd Dinner tonight. Sorry, folks.

~~Shawn Wildermuth~~ ~~is in town, and will be hosting a nerd dinner tonight:~~

~~I am in Washington, DC doing a~~ ~~Silverlight Tour~~ ~~stop and I am having a little get-together out in Reston, VA. If you want to come by and have dinner, drinks and conversation, please RSVP at the NerdDinner.com site:~~

~~http://nerddinner.com/633~~

~~The dinner will be held at~~ ~~American Tap Room~~:

~~1811 Library St.~~

~~Reston, VA 20190~~

Shawn Wildermuth - Join me in DC for a Nerd Dinner Tonight!

BizSpark Program Networking Opportunity

2009-06-16T17:17:00Z

As part of the BizSpark program, Microsoft provides periodic networking opportunities with local startups, community sponsors (aka Network Partners), and Microsoft staff.

Larry Gregory (Sr. Director, US Partner Evangelism) will be in DC and will summarize new resources available to startups and Microsoft platform priorities for the coming 6-12 months.

A key objective for the meeting is to share learning among stakeholders, so come with suggestions on what we all can do better to activate the local entrepreneur ecosystem!

Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP by June 20 to Ashish Jaiman (ashishja@microsoft.com) .

Meeting Logistics:

June 22, 2009

4:30PM – 6:00 PM

Microsoft Technology Center

12012 Sunset Hills Rd.

Reston, VA 20190

Events This Week – June 15th, 2009

2009-06-15T14:02:38Z

Here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area (plus online events you can view from anywhere)…this list includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar, and all events entered in Community Megaphone are also automatically synced to the UGSS event calendar:

Monday, June 15, 2009 1:00 PM: MSDN Freedom Roadshow - Pittsburgh
Join MSDN Freedom Roadshow Evangelists for an afternoon of content for developers and architects, with the amazing ticket price of zero. All attendees will also receive a free Windows 7 Release Candidate DVD (while supplies last)! Register today – seating is limited! Topics include:
• Developing on Microsoft Windows 7: the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services
• What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers
• Making JavaScript Fun Again
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 1:30 PM: Excella Consulting Presents: Secrets of Successful Portal Implementations – Reston, VA
Recommended Audiences: Technology Executives, IT Managers, IT Professionals, Business Executives, Vice Presidents, CEO, IT Directors, Business Managers, Business Owner, Business Professionals, Business Decision Maker, Technical Decision Makers Practical experience indicates that technology has only a small impact on the success of SharePoint solutions; organizational and political (process and people) strategies have a much greater impact and as a result, a comprehensive portal strategy is vital for success. Join portal expert Susan Hanley, co-author of Essential SharePoint 2007: Delivering High-Impact Collaboration Solutions, for an entertaining and informative discussion about how to: . Define optimal, workable collaboration strategies . Build portal and collaboration solutions people want to use . Create a framework for measuring the value of your portal investment . Achieve a balance between culture, process, and technology to successfully implement your portal or collaboration solution. Target Audience: Business and IT Executives responsible for successfully deploying SharePoint solutions * Attendees will receive a free copy of Susan Hanley's book, Essential SharePoint 2007. You can register for the event here: https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=137643
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:00 PM: CloudCamp DC – Reston, VA
CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions . At CloudCamp, you are encouraged to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7:00 PM: Developing DotNetNuke modules that interact with 3rd-party RESTful APIs – Vienna, VA
Abstract: With the proliferation of "Web 2.0" sites and applications, such as Google Maps, Twitter, and Basecamp, has come the ability to programmatically interact with many sites using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that they provide. We'll take a look at developing DotNetNuke modules that communicate with these sites and the creative mashup and integration possibilities that these APIs open up. About the Speaker: Chris Busse is a Managing Partner at MemberPath, LLC in Richmond, VA where he spends his time developing highly customized DotNetNuke sites for membership associations and other nonprofit organizations, as well as consulting with them on a number of other programs such as Raiser's Edge, iMIS, and Avectra.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Thursday, June 18, 2009 6:00 PM: Unlock YOUR potential, by Applying the New Language of Business - CTRL-ALT-DEL your Career – Online
Thursday, June 18 2009 6:00 PM Eastern
Registration: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=75151048818
LiveMeeting: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=K28PJ9&role=attend
Your capacity for change and growth will determine your full potential. The global landscape and a new language of business is now a key differentiator and a competitive weapon you can use to advance your career. The individuals who understand the new global requirements for aligning business and technology and think like "T" thinkers increase their opportunities for job advancement and success. The implications of collaborative innovation are many, the most important being its potential to reshape not just individual enterprises, but whole industries, perhaps even entire economies. Hector believes that you need to invest in yourself in good and bad times. What can you do now to get ready to compete in these challenging economic times? What is the new vocabulary that needs to be part of your resume. You need to have compelling reasons on why you are the right candidate. The resume is your infomercial to landing a job or a promotion. This session will help you unlock your inner capabilities to manifest your career and personal desires/aspirations. It will also provide you with tactics and strategies to increase your chances for career advancement by understanding the new language of business and having your resume reflected.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

Thursday, June 18, 2009 6:00 PM: Software Plus Services in Azure .NET Services: Integration through ACS, ServiceBus and Workflow – Reston, VA
The presentation is around using the .NET Services Tier to enable security federation, service discovery and routing as well as how to take advantage of workflows in the cloud to perform activity based operations.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Thursday, June 18, 2009 7:00 PM: Richmond, VA DotNetNuke User Group Kick-off Meeting – Richmond, VA
Please join us in creating an active DotNetNuke user community here in Richmond! All experience levels from content managers to module developers are welcome. This meeting will be an organizational meeting and will also include an educational presentation on a topic (TBA) relevant to DotNetNuke. Advanced registration is required by Noon on 6/16, please see website for details or email chrisbusse@gmail.com
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Saturday, June 20, 2009 9:00 AM: Azure Firestarter – Malvern, PA
Join us for a full day of Windows Azure and Azure Services which enable developers to easily create or extend their applications and services. From consumer-targeted applications and social networking web sites to enterprise class applications and services, these services make it easy for you to give your applications and services the most compelling experiences and features. Windows Azure is a full cloud computing environment that allows developers to create sophisticated solutions that run partially or entirely on the cloud.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Sunday, June 21, 2009 9:00 PM: LIDNUG: Sara Ford - Embrace open source with CodePlex – Online
CodePlex is Microsoft’s open source project hosting site.
Launched in May 2006, CodePlex host thousands of open source projects.
CodePlex users can start open source projects with support for source control, bug tracking, wiki pages, downloads, forums, and project statistics.
Additionally, CodePlex supports the widest range of source control clients. This talk explores the top downloaded projects, outlines the CodePlex feature set, and explains how we build the CodePlex software.
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 7:00 PM: CMAP .NET Essentials – Columbia, MD
The CMAP .NET Essentials SIG implements a complete ASP.NET application from the requirements all the way to the final deployment. In this last session of the season, we will analyze several ways to pass data between the DAL and the Presentation layers and provide several code examples for implementations.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

New Community Megaphone Event Tools

2009-06-11T14:16:10Z

As part of my demos for the recent MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow events, I decided to take advantage of some existing resources from Community Megaphone to create examples of what you can do with Web Slices and Accelerators in Internet Explorer 8.

First, I wrapped the Community Megaphone gadget, which provides a compact view of the upcoming events on Community Megaphone that can be filtered by state and/or event type, customized to fit any website theme, and embedded in your own site (get yours here), in a bit of semantic HTML that let’s Internet Explorer 8 know to treat it as a gadget.

If you look at the example to the left, you’ll see that if you hover over the gadget, you now get a light green border and button. When clicked, the button allows you to add the Web Slice to your Favorites bar. Once added, the Web Slice title will turn bold whenever there are new events to be viewed.

Below the gadget in the first image above is a link to the Community Megaphone “Find Events by Keyword” Accelerator. When clicked, this link gives the user a dialog allowing them to install the Accelerator, and optionally make it their default Accelerator for that Accelerator’s category (I’ve checked the checkbox in the image below, it’s unchecked by default):

Once the Accelerator is installed in IE 8, you can highlight a word or phrase on any web page, then click the blue Accelerator button that appears, and hover over the Find Events by Keyword Accelerator for a list of all matching events in the Community Megaphone database:

You can also install this accelerator from the Internet Explorer Add-ons gallery, where you can find lots of interesting Accelerators, Web Slices, and other add-ons for IE.

You can find tons of resources for developing for Internet Explorer at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/default.aspx

as well as specific information for:

Web Slices

Accelerators

Visual Search

Silverlight Firestarter Deck and Links

2009-06-10T20:04:17Z

Thanks to all who attended the Reston Silverlight Firestarter this past Saturday. I hope everyone had as much fun attending as we did organizing and presenting.

Frank has posted his slides and links here, as well as the keynote deck, and pictures from the event.

You can download the slides and code from my Lessons Learned session here.

UPDATE: D’oh! Forgot the links:

Bing Silverlight Map Control CTP

Understanding z-index in Silverlight

Debugging ADO.NET Data Services

UPDATE 2: Pete Brown reminded me that he had already sent me a link to the relevant info for his Silverlight 3 talk, which can be found at this post on his blog. My apologies for the oversight.

Events This Week – June 8th, 2009

2009-06-08T16:59:16Z

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 6:00 PM: Hampton Roads .NET Users Group
Parallel Extensions for .NET The manycore revolution started several years ago. Striving to conserve power while meeting the ever-growing demand for performance, chip manufacturers have been focusing on adding more computing cores to their packaging instead of ratcheting up the clock speeds. You've seen this for yourself. Almost every $800 laptop now has two computing cores. Soon, four cores will be commonplace on desktop computers. By 2013, the average software application is expected to have access to 8 or more processors whether it’s running in the cloud, in your server farm or on the desktop. The key to taking advantage of this new infrastructure is multi-threading. But multi-threading is hard because you have to deal with ugly things like mutexes, monitors, semaphores and other locking mechanisms. Not only is it difficult to understand but multithreaded code is usually very difficult to debug, test and maintain with confidence. What if there was a better way to take advantage of the manycore revolution? What if concurrent programming were baked into the platform so that anyone could do multithreading and do it well? Microsoft has a vision for that. They have been busy building a technology stack that makes so-called concurrent programming much simpler than it has been in the past. Really impressive performance gains are available using just a few lines of code. Best of all, the average developer can do this because there are no mutexes, no semaphores and no locks required. None of that craziness! During this highly interactive session, Kevin Hazzard will show you how you can leverage the Parallel Extensions for .NET to do some truly amazing things. Every developer will get something valuable from this session, no matter how experienced they are.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 6:00 PM: Capital Area SharePoint User Group June 2009 Meeting
SPEAKER: Ashish Jaiman
TOPIC: Silverlight
ABSTRACT: Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows. You will be able to create apps (RIA) using Silverlight having Richly compelling experiences Real relevance for business Interop with ASP.NET and AJAX This talk will focus on Silverlight 2 and how you can create compelling RIAs using Silverlight 2, we will look at the next generation of Silverlight 3, features, controls and much more. Bio: Ashish is an ISV Architect Evangelist with Microsoft, managing ISVs in the Mid-Atlantic area. In his role he drives and accelerates the adoption of new (mostly pre release) technologies and tools with in the ISV community. He focuses on SQL 2008, VS 2008, Win2008, Net3.5 and web based technologies. Ashish has over twelve years of experience in designing and developing enterprise software, bringing technical solutions to business problems and consistently delivered high quality software on time and on budget. Before joining Microsoft he has worked with small startups. His blog can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/ajaiman Ashish Jaiman can be reached at ashishja (at) microsoft.com.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 6:30 PM: RockNUG Release 3.0 - Something a little different to celebrate our second birthday and first major release of the year -- a coding competition. Bring your laptop, if you want to participate, or just show up if you want to watch the sweat and the bytes fly. It is a deceptively simple competition in the spirit of the Boulders contest. No major coding required, all that is required is a logical mind and a desire to crush the competition into a pile of smoldering RAM. Our most generous sponsor Aetea has arranged for some great swag for the winner. We'll start out the evening with the bot basics and some demonstrations. But even if you arrive late, we'll have instructions and sample code you can use to get started whenever you arrive. Even if you don't want to code, there will be plenty of giveaways, awesome food, and other fun. You might even learn something.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 7:00 PM: DC ALT.NET - BDD with Evan Light
The June 2009 meeting of DC ALT.NET will be held on June 10th, 2009 from 7-9PM. This month, we are going to be talking Behavior Driven Development (BDD) with Evan Light. Evan is passionate about BDD and has presented at Scotland on Rails among others on the subject. We have moved up the usual meeting time to June 10th due to the proximity to RubyNation as to accommodate his schedule. The talk will revolve around three points: * The Whys of BDD * How to BDD * BDD Anti-Patterns This will be a great introduction for those who are unfamiliar and better yet to explore in a language such as Ruby.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Friday, June 12, 2009 1:00 PM: MSDN Freedom Roadshow - Malvern
Join MSDN Freedom Roadshow Evangelists for an afternoon of content for developers and architects, with the amazing ticket price of zero. All attendees will also receive a free Windows 7 Release Candidate DVD (while supplies last)! Register today – seating is limited! Topics include: • Developing on Microsoft Windows 7: the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services • What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers • Making JavaScript Fun Again
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Monday, June 15, 2009 1:00 PM: MSDN Freedom Roadshow - Pittsburgh - Join MSDN Freedom Roadshow Evangelists for an afternoon of content for developers and architects, with the amazing ticket price of zero. All attendees will also receive a free Windows 7 Release Candidate DVD (while supplies last)! Register today – seating is limited! Topics include: • Developing on Microsoft Windows 7: the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services • What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers • Making JavaScript Fun Again
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:00 PM: CloudCamp DC
CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions . At CloudCamp, you are encouraged to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

MSDN Roadshow Slide Decks

2009-06-06T17:55:23Z

Thanks to everyone who came out for our MSDN Roadshow stops in Reston and Richmond this week. As promised, here are the decks that we presented on Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 for developers.

Windows 7 for Developers

Internet Explorer 8 for Developers

I also mentioned a post on my blog that provides syntax for using the IE 8 X-UA-COMPATIBLE tag as an HTTP Header, and you can find that post here.

I’ll post a note here when we have dates and locations for the next set of MSDN Roadshow events, and will also post them on Community Megaphone.

Reminder: Reston, VA MSDN Roadshow Today!

2009-06-02T11:25:00Z

Today at 1pm (welcome time 12:30pm), you can join me and my colleague Zhiming Xue for an afternoon of what’s new for developers in Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8.

If you haven’t yet, you can register for the event here. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone!

Events This Week – June 1st, 2009

2009-06-01T13:21:42Z

June already? How did that happen? Well, before summer gets into full swing, take advantage of some great free opportunities to fill your head with great technical info…note in particular that we’re running two MSDN Roadshows this week in Mid-Atlantic, one in Reston, VA tomorrow (6/2), and another in Richmond, VA on Thursday (6/4). We’ll be covering everything you ever wanted to know for developers on Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7, so you don’t want to miss this…and every attendee will get a DVD copy of the Windows 7 Release Candidate (we’ve got both x86 and x64 flavors), and we’ll have some nice books and prizes to raffle as well.

And if you haven’t had a chance to start delving into the wonderful world of Silverlight yet, this Saturday is your chance to get a jump start on learning. We’re hosting a Silverlight Firestarter in our Reston, VA office which features two of our area’s top experts on Silverlight, Pete Brown and Frank La Vigne (both of whom are currently working on Silverlight books), as well as yours truly providing a “lessons learned” look at Silverlight from the web developer’s perspective.

Without further ado, here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area (plus online events you can view from anywhere)…this list includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar, and all events entered in Community Megaphone are also automatically synced to the UGSS event calendar:

Monday, June 01, 2009 9:00 AM: XAMLfest Online
Are you excited about WPF but concerned about the learning curve? Have you seen Silverlight but don’t know where to get started? Or are you curious about how tools like Expression Blend help designers and developers deliver great user experiences together? If so, join us at XamlFest!
XAMLfest Online is a five day event delivered through both live sessions and recorded training. It is intended for people in designer or developer rols - or both!
[ Event Details | Add To Calendar ]

Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:00 PM: MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow - Reston
Join MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow Evangelists for an afternoon of content for developers and architects, with the amazing ticket price of zero. All attendees will also receive a free Windows 7 Release Candidate DVD (while supplies last)! Register today – seating is limited! Topics include: • Developing on Microsoft Windows 7: the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services • What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Tuesday, June 02, 2009 6:30 PM: Ft Lauderdale Online: Entity Framework Core Concepts - Julie Lerman - www.thedatafarm.com
06/02/2009 - 6:30 PM Online / Live Meeting - Entity Framework is an important part of Microsoft key strategy for data access going forward. This introductory session will provide you with a basic understanding of why Entity Framework exists, how it can be used in your applications today and what to expect in future versions of the product. This no-potholes-barred session will ensure that you not only have an understanding of value of EF and the EDM, but also a road map of some of the pitfalls you will encounter as you face the current version and EF4 in VS2010. Note that this session will be provide more concept than code. Julie Lerman is an independent consultant and .NET Mentor who has been designing and writing software applications for over 20 years. Julie is currently writing "Programming Entity Framework" for O'Reilly press (pub. date October 2008). Julie is well known in the .NET community as a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider and INETA Speaker. She is a prolific blogger, a frequent presenter at technical conferences around the world and author of articles in well-known technical publications. Julie lives in Vermont where she runs the Vermont.NET User Group, is a board member of the Vermont Software Developers Alliance, and a member of the Champlain College Software Engineering Advisory Board. Julie is the author of O'Reilly's "Programming Entity Framework" (pub. date October 2008). You can read Julie’s blogs at www.thedatafarm.com/blog and blogs.devsource.com/devlife. If you want to buy the book and help Julie, please use this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FProgramming-Entity-Framework-Julia-Lerman%2Fdp%2F059652028X&tag=thdafa-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325.
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009 6:30 PM: CMAP June Main Meeting - Dissecting DevEvents.com: A Look at a Real World .NET MVC
The ASP.NET MVC Framework provides a powerful Model View Controller (MVC) approach to building web applications, and provides separation of concerns, increased testability, control over HTML output, and intuitive URLs. We will start by looking at building a model framework with LINQ to SQL, including validation and model binding. Then, we'll explore a custom generics-based repository and services implementation. Finally, we'll tie it all together with a look at Views and jQuery. Steve Andrews is a Team System MVP and INETA speaker, and has been working as a developer for more than 9 years. During this time, he has designed and developed applications in such widely varying areas as trust accounting, medical information management, supply chain management, and retail systems. Steve is also a MCTS, ICSOO, and community fanatic.
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Thursday, June 04, 2009 1:00 PM: MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow - Richmond
Join MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow Evangelists for an afternoon of content for developers and architects, with the amazing ticket price of zero. All attendees will also receive a free Windows 7 Release Candidate DVD (while supplies last)! Register today – seating is limited! Topics include: • Developing on Microsoft Windows 7: the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services • What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers
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Thursday, June 04, 2009 6:00 PM: Unlocking the hidden value of your organization through people, technology and innovation....
Thursday, June 4 2009 6:00 PM Eastern
Registration: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=81190787250
LiveMeeting: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=43ZWP7&role=attend
The implications of collaborative innovation are many—the most important being its potential to reshape not just individual enterprises, but whole industries, perhaps even entire economies. Hector believes in investing in innovation in good and bad times. This session covers the alignment of business and technology to create a flexible environment that fosters innovation without permission. How do we get the most out of your employees and how does the employee get the most out of management. Its a WIN-WIN proposition. This session will provide insights on how to unlock all of the assets that are hidden in an organization. i.e. technical, communications, services, experiences, and most important the employees capabilities and desires. Unlocking thought leadership and innovation is at the heart of this presentation.
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Thursday, June 04, 2009 6:00 PM: RVNUG: Annual -thon event
Join us for our annual -thon event. This year we will be exploring different methodologies. We will have 5 short presentations (each on a different way to build software applications) followed by a panel discussion. Don't miss the opportunity to hear 5 experts in one night! FREE Pizza as always plus FREE swag for all attendees.
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Saturday, June 06, 2009 8:30 AM: Silverlight FireStarter DC
A Silverlight FireStarter is a one-day event providing developers and designers information on the concept behind Silverlight as a technology, what tools are useful in development and the knowledge in order to start building their own applications. Learn: •About Silverlight 3 •Expression Blend •Silverlight for Business Apps •Much, much more
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Events This Week – Memorial Day Edition – May 25th, 2009

2009-05-25T17:14:50Z

Today is Memorial Day…please remember in your thoughts and prayers all those who have willingly laid down their lives to protect the lives and rights of their fellow men and women.

Here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area (plus online events you can view from anywhere)…this list now includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar, and all events entered in Community Megaphone are also now automatically synced to the UGSS event calendar:

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 7:00 PM: CMAP .NET Essentials
Do not forget the CMAP .NET Essentials session on May 26, 2009 This SIG implements a complete ASP.NET application from the requirements all the way to the final deployment. In this session Randy Hayes, CMAP President and an MVP, who will continue his presentation by focusing on SQL Server Reporting Services and how it is applied to your ASP.NET application.
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 7:00 PM: CapArea .NET - Jonathan Cogley on Test Driven Development with C# and Mocks
Come along to write some real C# code using Test Driven Development and mocks. We will work on a problem and talk through how to identify and isolate dependencies to our logic. This will give you a taste for how the Thycotic team writes code to achieve full testability and high quality.
Jonathan Cogley is the founder and CEO of Thycotic Software - a software development company operating in the Washington DC Metro Area with offices in Dupont Circle. Thycotic has released various .NET projects and APIs including an implementation of Remote Scripting for .NET, a database platform independent data access layer for ISVs and various tools for the Test Driven Developer.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 6:00 PM: Microsoft Developer Dinner for Partners: Microsoft Open Government Data Initiative – Cloud Computing, REST, AJAX, CSS, oh my!
As data becomes both increasingly necessary and readily available in response to demands for transparency, collaboration and participation within government agencies and organizations, methods need to be developed to allow for interaction with that data. To help public sector entities meet these demands, Microsoft announced the Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) on May 7, 2009. OGDI provides an Internet-standards-based approach to house existing public government data in Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, called Windows Azure. The approach makes the data accessible in a programmatic manner that uses open, industry-standard protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs).
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 6:30 PM: Frederick .NET User Group May Meeting
6:30 PM - 7:00 PM - Intro Topic: SQL Server Dynamic Management Views with Jeremy Kadlec
Speaker Bio: Jeremy Kadlec is the CTO @ Edgewood Solutions, where he focuses on core SQL Server Administration and Development needs for organizations on the east coast of the United States. Jeremy has worked to help the SQL Server community by leading both the Northern Virginia SQL Server Users Group and the Baltimore SQL Server Users Group over the last 5+ years. He is a frequent speaker at local user group meetings and national conferences. He is also one of the founders of MSSQLTips.com where he has more than 200 contributions to the community in the form of valuable technical tips. In addition, the community has benefited from his book entitled the Rational Guide to IT Project Management.
7:00 PM - 7:30 PM - Pizza/Social Networking
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - Main Topic: Dissecting DevEvents.com: A Look at a Real World .NET MVC Implementation with Steve Andrews
Main Topic Description: The ASP.NET MVC Framework provides a powerful Model View Controller (MVC) approach to building web applications, and provides separation of concerns, increased testability, control over HTML output, and intuitive URLs. We will start by looking at building a model framework with LINQ to SQL, including validation and model binding. Then, we’ll explore a custom generics-based repository and services implementation. Finally, we’ll tie it all together with a look at Views and jQuery.
Speaker Bio: Steve Andrews is a Team System MVP and INETA NORAM Board Member and Speaker, and has been working as a developer for more than 9 years. During this time, he has designed and developed applications in such widely varying areas as trust accounting, medical information management, supply chain management, and retail systems. Steve is also an MCP, ICSOO, and community fanatic.
8:30 PM - 8:45 PM – RAFFLE!
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 7:00 PM: DC ALT.NET 5/2009
Come along to write some real C# code using Test Driven Development through pairing. The intent of this presentation is to introduce the concept of pair programming in such a way that we all participate in a fishbowl style. We'll cover the basics of how to and how two heads can be better than one!
BIO - Jonathan Cogley is the founder and CEO of thycotic - a software development company operating in the Washington DC Metro Area with offices in Vienna, Virginia. Jonathan has worked for many interesting companies over the last decade as a software consultant in both the UK and the USA. His company has released various .NET projects and APIs including an implementation of Remote Scripting for .NET, a database platform independent data access layer for ISVs and various tools for the Test Driven Developer. Test Driven Development (TDD) is the cornerstone of the thycotic approach to software development and the company is committed to innovate TDD on the Microsoft .NET platform with new techniques and tools. Jonathan is also a columnist and editor for the popular ASP.NET Web site, ASPAlliance. He is an active member in the developer community and speaks regularly at various .NET User Groups, conferences and code camps across the US. Jonathan is recognized by Microsoft as an MVP for C# and has also been invited to join the select group of the ASPInsiders who have interactions with the product teams at Microsoft.
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:00 PM: MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow
Join MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow Evangelists for an afternoon of content for developers and architects, with the amazing ticket price of zero. All attendees will also receive a free Windows 7 Release Candidate DVD (while supplies last)! Register today – seating is limited! Topics include: • Developing on Microsoft Windows 7: the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services • What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009 6:30 PM: Ft Lauderdale Online: Entity Framework Core Concepts - Julie Lerman - www.thedatafarm.com
06/02/2009 - 6:30 PM Online / Live Meeting - ADO.NET Entity Framework is an important part of Microsoft key strategy for data access going forward. This introductory session will provide you with a basic understanding of why Entity Framework exists, how it can be used in your applications today and what to expect in future versions of the product. This no-potholes-barred session will ensure that you not only have an understanding of value of EF and the EDM, but also a road map of some of the pitfalls you will encounter as you face version 1. Note that this session will be provide more concept than code. Julie Lerman is an independent consultant and .NET Mentor who has been designing and writing software applications for over 20 years. Julie is currently writing "Programming Entity Framework" for O'Reilly press (pub. date October 2008). Julie is well known in the .NET community as a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider and INETA Speaker. She is a prolific blogger, a frequent presenter at technical conferences arounc the world and author of articles in well-known technical publications. Julie lives in Vermont where she runs the Vermont.NET User Group, is a board member of the Vermont Software Developers Alliance, and a member of the Champlain College Software Engineering Advisory Board. Julie is the author of O'Reilly's "Programming Entity Framework" (pub. date October 2008). You can read Julie’s blogs at www.thedatafarm.com/blog and blogs.devsource.com/devlife. If you want to buy the book and help Julie, please use this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FProgramming-Entity-Framework-Julia-Lerman%2Fdp%2F059652028X&tag=thdafa-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325.
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009 6:30 PM: CMAP June Main Meeting - Dissecting DevEvents.com: A Look at a Real World .NET MVC - The ASP.NET MVC Framework provides a powerful Model View Controller (MVC) approach to building web applications, and provides separation of concerns, increased testability, control over HTML output, and intuitive URLs. We will start by looking at building a model framework with LINQ to SQL, including validation and model binding. Then, we'll explore a custom generics-based repository and services implementation. Finally, we'll tie it all together with a look at Views and jQuery. Steve Andrews is a Team System MVP and INETA speaker, and has been working as a developer for more than 9 years. During this time, he has designed and developed applications in such widely varying areas as trust accounting, medical information management, supply chain management, and retail systems. Steve is also a MCTS, ICSOO, and community fanatic.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Thursday, June 04, 2009 1:00 PM: MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow
Join MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow Evangelists for an afternoon of content for developers and architects, with the amazing ticket price of zero. All attendees will also receive a free Windows 7 Release Candidate DVD (while supplies last)! Register today – seating is limited! Topics include: • Developing on Microsoft Windows 7: the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services • What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers
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About Silverlight 3

Expression Blend

Silverlight for Business Apps

Much, much more
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