Last week I announced the MSDN “Metro” Roadshow coming to the NY & NJ metro areas in November & December. While I think we have one of the finest roadshow tours here in the tri-state area, I thought I’d let you know about the other MSDN Roadshow events that will be going on up and down the US east coast. My team at Microsoft is hosting 5 different Roadshow series in different major cities on the east coast.
Visit http://www.msdnevents.com to register for any of the roadshows. Alternatively, you can click through on the links to each one to learn more about the varying topics that will be covered on each tour. Check them out below:
 | MSDN “Northeast” Roadshow – Piloted by Chris Bowen & Jim O’Neil
Cities & Dates: - 11/10/2009 – Burlington, VT
- 11/12/2009 – Albany, NY
- 11/13/2009 – Rochester, NY
- 12/3/2009 – Farmington, CT
- 12/8/2009 – Waltham, MA
- 12/9/2009 – Providence, RI
- 12/15/2009 – Augusta, ME
|
 | MSDN “Metro” Roadshow – Piloted by Peter Laudati & Asli Bilgin
Cities & Dates: - 11/12/2009 – Parsippany, NJ
- 12/10/2009 – East Windsor, NJ
- 12/15/2009 – New York, NY
|
 | MSDN “Mid-Atlantic” Roadshow – Piloted by G. Andrew Duthie, Dani Diaz, and Dave Isbitski
Cities & Dates: - 11/12/2009 – Pittsburgh, Pa
- 12/1/2009 – Harrisburg, Pa
- 12/3/2009 – Reston, Va
- 12/8/2009 – Roanoke, Va
- 12/10/2009 – Malvern, Pa
|
 | MSDN “Southern Fried” Roadshow – Piloted by Brian Hitney & Glen Gordon
Cities & Dates: - 11/4/2009 – Greensboro, NC
- 11/5/2009 – Raleigh, NC
- 11/6/2009 – Columbia, SC
- 12/8/2009 – Atlanta, GA
- 12/9/2009 – Montgomery, AL
|
 | MSDN “Tiki Hut” Roadshow – Piloted by Joe Healy & Russ Fustino
Cities & Dates: - 11/30/2009 – Tampa, FL
- 12/2/2009 – Fort Lauderdale, FL
- 12/14/2009 – Orlando, FL
|
A little PDC update from my teammate Chris Bowen from up in New England…
The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) is November 17-19 in Los Angeles, and will be one of the best ways to get your fill of the latest developer tech:
I went last year (and just confirmed I can make it again this year) and it’s several intense days of conversations and content. You can get an idea of what’s in store by reviewing the session recordings from PDC 2008, available for free.
Birds of a Feather Sessions
The Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions are a great way to connect with other attendees and build from each others’ experiences. ("What is a Birds-of-a-Feather Session?") A number of BOF sessions will be selected and scheduled throughout PDC.
Though some sessions have been scheduled, it’s not too late to propose a session idea of your own! Submissions are open through tomorrow (Friday 10/30) at 5PM PDT.
You can also follow BOF on Twitter.
Free Pre-Conference Windows 7 Bootcamp
The day before PDC (11/16) is an opportunity to attend a number of excellent paid pre-conference workshops on a variety of topics.
You can also sign up for a free Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp that’s open to everyone (not just people attending PDC.)
Other Goings On
$300 Discount Ends Friday, 10/30
There’s a tiny window remaining to register for PDC with a $300 discount. Make sure you register by the end of Friday, 10/30.
-Chris
In this episode guest co-host and Interviewee Dave Crawford of Microsoft UK joins Dmitry to discuss News such as Windows 7, Windows Stores, ZuneHD development, Java Bridge, Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and many more stories. Finally Dave tells us all about the User Experience project role, how development projects can benefit from it and how Developers and Designers need to play nice together.
Related resources and show notes are now hosted directly on the ConnectedShow.com website when you view this episode’s post directly!
Code camp is coming! Code camp is coming!! The time is NOW to register for the upcoming 3rd annual Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp in Stamford, CT! Looks like a great line up of speakers and sessions! Read on below for the details:
Fairfield / Westchester Code Camp
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
8:00 AM to 6:00 PM
The Fairfield / Westchester User Groups are proud to present our 3rd Annual Fairfield / Westchester Code Camp! As in the past, this event will be held at the University of Connecticut, Stamford Campus.
We will once again hold 24 sessions (75 minutes each) across 4 tracks, given by some of the best regional and local developers, and will include topics such as LINQ, Azure, C# 4.0, PowerShell, F#, SQL Analysis Services, MVC, Silverlight, and so much more!
As usual, we will have giveaways, food, and coffee. More details, and the schedule, will be posted on the Code Camp website as they are solidified.
Please help us spread the word!
Seating is limited and our focus is technology. No Recruiters, please.
As you may have guessed from our prior Code Camp events, it takes the efforts of a lot of people to help run the event smoothly. So, we are looking for your help in running this year's Code Camp.
We're looking for someone to monitor each of the four rooms throughout the day, for technical support, if needed (rare), reminder announcements, and to help direct attendees to other sessions before and after each session.
In addition, we're looking for people to help our existing staff handle the registration desk in the morning, and to help us setup and coordinate the food at breakfast and lunch.
In total, we're looking for about 8 volunteers to help us run this as smoothly as possible. Anyone's help would be greatly appreciated. We will brief you way ahead of time, and we will coordinate with everyone to make sure you get to work the same sessions you want to attend.
If you are able to help out, please email Mark Freedman at Mark@FairfieldWestchester.net. Thanks!
Session Schedule (Last Updated 2009-10-22)
| | Track 1 | Track 2
| Track 3 | Track 4 |
| 8:00 - 8:15 | General Session |
| 8:15 - 8:25 | Break |
| 8:25 - 9:40 | New Debugging Features in Visual Studio 2010
David Douglass | Keeping Pulse on Your Site With ASP.NET 2.0 Health Monitoring
Milan Negovan | Object Creation and Destruction with C#
Edwin Ames | Reporting Services 2008 R2
Sunil Kadimdiwan |
| 9:40 - 9:50 | Break |
| 9:50 - 11:05 | Interactive Media in Ur RIAz with Silverlight!
Peter Laudati | Azure Platform
end-to-end Demo
Dmitry Lyalin & Shrenik Jhaveri | Unit Testing in .NET and Rhino Mocks
Ivan Krivyakov | SQL Server Integration Services 2008 - What Every DB Developer Should Know
Kevin S. Goff |
| 11:05 - 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 - 12:30 | Silverlight 3: Taking Line of Business Applications Out Of The Browser
Evan Hutnick | Why F#?
Richard Minerich | Professional Client-Side Development with Microsoft AJAX Library and jQuery
Milan Negovan | Groove for .NET Developers
(In Stereo)
Supriyo "SB" Chatterjee |
| 12:30 - 1:15 | Lunch |
| 1:15 - 2:30 | WinForms to Silverlight – Making the Switch
John Baird | Introduction to SQL Azure
Chris Rolon | Extending .NET Applications with the Dynamic Language Runtime
John Zablocki | Integrating MDX with the Microsoft BI stack
Kevin S. Goff |
| 2:30 - 2:40 | Break |
| 2:40 - 3:55 | PowerShell Deep Dive
Doug Finke | Custom LINQ Providers
Ben Poserow | Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) .NET Development
Supriyo "SB" Chatterjee | F# for Testing and Analysis
Richard Minerich |
| 3:55 - 4:05 | Break |
| 4:05 - 5:20 | C# 4.0 Language Changes
Chris Rolon | Extending ASP.NET MVC with MVCContrib and Custom Code
John Zablocki | Beginning Mobile Development
John Baird | Preparing your ASP.NET sites for Globalization and Localization
Phil Denoncourt |
| 5:20 - 5:30 | Break |
| 5:30 - 6:00 | General Session |
I’m happy to announce the upcoming Fall 2009 Series of the MSDN Roadshow events for the Tri-State area!
Formerly known as ‘The MSDN Suburban Roadshow’, the team has changed its name to more accurately reflect where their travels are taking them these days. Join New York/New Jersey Developer Evangelists Peter Laudati and Asli Bilgin as they once again bring you an afternoon of cutting edge presentations and demos to boost your development productivity and skills.
Learn about Silverlight’s options for Data Access and Networking, a fun and exciting look at the latest on Microsoft’s Mobility platform, and end the day with new Windows 7 features for Developers.
Free admission and a chance to score some surprise giveaways to boot!
Reservations are required, and seating is limited. Register today to reserve your seat.
Agenda:
Data Access and Network Options in Silverlight
Wondering about the most effective way of getting data into your Silverlight application? Trying to sort out the different options available? Then this session is for you. We’ll open up with an overview of the different networking and data access techniques available in Silverlight. Then, we’ll dive into examples of using each of these technologies, and along the way we’ll also examine the role these technologies play in other .NET applications. Finally, we’ll show you the Sample Data feature in Expression Blend 3, and the best method for transitioning from Sample Data to production data in your applications.
Windows Phone and Windows Live
Interested in the latest enhancements on the Microsoft mobility platform? We’ll end the day with a sneak peak for developers and consumers alike at the new Microsoft mobility platform, including integration with Windows Live services.
Enhancing Developer Productivity with the new Window7 features
Targeted at developers who are new to Windows7, we will focus on demonstrations highlighting the latest and greatest features of the Windows operating system, to emphasize how you can develop applications more productively. We will cover Snap, Shake, Libraries, Problem Recover, and the use of HomeGroups as they pertain to software development, as well as tips and tricks to optimize your applications on the Windows7 operating system.
Here’s the schedule with registration links:
| REGISTER NOW – Space is limited! |
|
| Location | Date & Time | Registration |
| North Jersey - Set Focus 4 Century Drive
Parsippany, NJ 07054 | November 12, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Click here to Register Or call 877.673.8368
With Event ID: 1032429497 |
| Central Jersey - Infragistics Headquarters 50 Millstone Rd
Building 100
East Windsor, NJ 08520
| December 10, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Click here to Register Or call 877.673.8368
With Event ID: 1032429514 |
| Microsoft New York Office 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10104 | December 15, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Click here to Register Or call 877.673.8368
With Event ID: 1032429515 |
In this episode, guest Claudio Caldato joins Peter to discuss interoperability at Microsoft and how his team is working to make Windows Azure cloud services more accessible to PHP developers. Claudio provides us details on the PHP Toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services. Guest host G. Andrew Duthie joins Peter to discuss Office Starter 2010, the wonders of VHDs, Red Hat & Microsoft interoperability, the ASP.NET MVC Firestarter, and “Are we really smarter than you?”.
Related Resources:
Claudio Caldato & Interoperability at Microsoft:
Office Starter 2010
The Wonder of VHDs
Microsoft & Red Hat Interoperability
MS Patterns & Practices Identity Guide
ASP.NET MVC Stuff
Are We Smarter Than You? – More on Duct Tape Programming!
G. Andrew Duthie
This week, guest Joe Stagner joins Peter to discuss the future of ASP.NET, what it means to be the Misfit Geek at Microsoft, what Plan 9 means for web developers and some comparisons to PHP. Dmitry and Peter discuss the news with Windows Azure management, Courier tablet rumors, the new Website Spark program, and duct tape programming.
(Due to some technical glitches that were resolved through the use of duct tape, we’re bringing you episode 17 a week later than we planned to, hope you enjoy it and sorry for the delay)
Related Resources:
A second bit of news from Fairfield/Westchester .NET today…
Unfortunately, the Microsoft Event site was in maintenance when we first sent out this announcement to the UG mailing list. That event link is not valid! It incorrectly states that the event is closed.
Please note the new link, below.
Thanks.
Fairfield / Westchester .NET User Group Meeting
Thursday, October 1, 2009, 6:00 to 9:00
Inversion of Control (IoC) and Dependency Injection (DI) - Milan Negovan
Inversion of Control is a most fundamental yet least understood concept of software development. In this presentation, we’ll walk through several real-life examples of how an IoC container makes code more expressive, testable and maintainable.
There are several excellent IoC containers for .NET. We will look into Spring.NET which injects dependencies into stubborn ASP.NET applications, HttpModules, HttpHandlers, WCF services, and more.
Milan is an independent consultant and founder of AspNetResources.com---a blog dedicated to ASP.NET, web standards, and usability. Being an ASP.NET junkie, he takes a radically contrarian stance toward Microsoft’s approaches of building web applications.
Milan is a frequent speaker at user groups and Code Camps. He shuns wholesale conferences due to their high level of noise, marketing hype, and excessive boozing.
Register Now!: https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=141668
On Saturday, November 7th, 2009, from 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM, the Fairfield / Westchester developer community will be holding their third annual Code Camp! Last year’s code camp in Stamford, CT was one of the best yet. I can’t wait for this one. Anyway, the call for speakers is now open. Read on for details about the event and how you can volunteer to present…
The event will be hosted by CITI, a unit of The University of Connecticut School of Business, on the Stamford, CT Campus. The continuing goal of the Code Camps series is to provide an intensive developer-to-developer learning experience that is fun and technically stimulating. The primary focus is on delivering programming information and sample code that can be put to practical use. The event is free.
This is an event by the developer community, for the developer community. The content is original and developed by you. Let's work together to make this event a success.
If you are interested in presenting this year, please fill out the application form. Please submit your ideas for sessions by Friday, October 9th. The topic does not have to be completely .NET specific. Although we may primarily use .NET tools, we're often using other tools these days when they make sense for the job. We have about 20-25, 75 minute slots, so please submit only one or two sessions.
The topic does not have to be completely .NET specific. Although we may primarily use .NET tools, we're often using other tools these days when they make sense for the job. We have about 20-25, 75 minute slots, so please submit only one or two sessions.
Don't forget, this is for developers. We're looking for examples, code, experiences, tips & tricks, sample projects, etc. Less PowerPoint, and more code, examples, and discussion.
You can read all about last year's Code Camp.
Thanks! – Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp Organizers
In this episode, guest Paul Thurrott joins us to discuss Windows Server 2008 R2 and Virtualization. Also Peter and Dmitry discuss the news about Codeplex.org, a new open source software foundation created by Microsoft!
Related Resources:
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Paul Thurrott
- CodePlex Foundation
- Tech Media on the Codeplex Foundation:
- Blog reactions:
In this episode, guest Jon Skeet joins Peter to discuss C# 4 in Depth. Jon takes us deep into the guts of C# 4, including how the new dynamic features work. Guest host Glen Gordon joins Peter to discuss the Windows 7 API Code Pack, LINQ to Bing!, Unit Testing, and .NET Denial of Sleep attacks! Has .NET gotten TOO complex?
Related Resources:
In this episode we talk about recent news including SQL Azure Keys and PHP support, the Death of Live Framework CTP / Virtual Earth ASP.NET control, PHP Bridge for ADO.NET Data Services and recent rumors and news around the ZuneHD. Finally we jump into our Interview with Rob Greenlee. During the Interview we discuss his long career in Podcasting, his work in the Zune Podcast team, how to make podcasts successful and finally the Zune HD.
Related Resources:
We’re back from summer vacation! It’s those lazy hazy days of summer, but so much to discuss. In this episode we talk about Windows 7, PDC 2009, SQL Azure, MSDN Roadshow Events, MVC 2 Preview 1, VS 2010, Channel9 and Microsoft’s recent contribution to the Linux kernel.
Finally we jump into our interview with Blend 3 Program Manager Christian Schormann about SketchFlow prototyping tool in Blend 3. Also we cover many of the new features of Blend 3 itself and discuss how designers can take advantage of this suites features within their existing workflow.
Related Resources:
In this episode Peter and guest co-host Dani Diaz start by discussing the World Wide Partner Conference, Windows 7, Office 2010, Azure Pricing, Windows Mobile Marketplace and much more!
Then we jump into Dmitry’s Interview with Microsoft Program Manager Himadri Sarkar to discuss SQL Compact and how it brings a light database option to devices and now Windows applications.
Related Resources:
We’re coming back for another round of MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow stops throughout the tri-state area in August and September! This time around, I’ll be joined on the roadshow by my new teammate, Asli Bilgin, who is also a Developer Evangelist from NYC.
There’s a tendency for Microsoft (and other other companies) to host live events in NYC as it’s the center of our area. But, we know it can be a pain to take a day off of work and fight the elements to trek into Manhattan. One extra hassle can keep you from improving your skills and learning about the newest technologies. Don’t let that hold you back any longer!
Our Summer 2009 series will be making stops throughout the ‘burbs in Jersey & Long Island. Ironically, we also know that for urbanites in the big city, getting to the ‘burbs can be a major ordeal for you too! Many Manhattan-ites don’t own cars, and the suburbs are not mass transit friendly. So, in fact, we’ll kick off with our rehearsal edition of the “Suburban” Roadshow in NYC!
We are scheduling the “Suburban” roadshow events to occur on the same day as the local user group in most locations. So, if you take a half-day off to join us at the roadshow, you’ll get a full day of content by sticking around for the user group sessions in the evening. The Roadshows run 1pm – 5pm, and most of the user groups will run from 6-8pm.
Here’s the Summer 2009 agenda line up:
1st Down: Tips and Tricks with ASP.NET 4.0
Whether you are coming from classic ASP or previous versions of ASP.NET, this session will help you understand what’s coming in ASP.NET 4.0. We’ll provide tips and tricks on how you can leverage the newest features and design updates with ASP.NET Web Forms and controls. We’ll walk through the top tips for performance, caching, data access, as well as rich user interface creation. We’ll also cover the newest ASP.NET AJAX improvements and cover some tricks to help you take full advantage of all what’s available in ASP.NET 4.0 & Visual Studio 2010.
2nd Down: Dependency Injection/Inversion of Control
Do you hate being tied down? Does your code yearn to be set free? Hate being stuck to a particular database or back-end implementation? Want some flexibility in your design? Then Dependency Injection may be for you!
You’ve probably seen DI/IoC posts and articles all around the Interwebs lately. This design pattern is popular, especially in the Agile and TDD communities. What is it? An official definition of DI is: the process of supplying an external dependency to a software component. We’ll cover the problems this pattern solves and how it works. We’ll also explore samples of the pattern being used by various Inversion of Control containers on the .NET platform, including: Unity, Spring.NET, Structure Map, NInject, and Castle Windsor.
3rd Down - Silverlight 3: Serious for Business!
Silverlight 3 was released to the web in July. That seems so quick after Silverlight 2’s release in late 2008. We’ll explore some of the new features in SL3 & the corresponding Expression 3 tools including: Out of the Browser experience, Sketchflow, advanced media format support, and new controls.
Many of you have seen the spinning rectangle demo in the past. This time we’ll get down to serious business and explore data-binding, and connecting to backend services on both the Microsoft platform and non-Microsoft platforms. If you like what you see here on the Roadshow, be sure to stay tuned for an upcoming Silverlight 3 Firestarter event in the area!
4th Down: Score!
We’ll collect your surveys, and you just might score one of the day’s giveaways. In some locations the event will be followed by a local user group meeting - stay tuned for details at each location.
Here’s the schedule with registration links:
| REGISTER NOW – Space is limited! |
|
| Location | Date & Time | Registration |
| Microsoft New York Office 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10104 | August 20, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Click here to Register Or call 877.673.8368
With Event ID: 1032421449 |
| Long Island - Hofstra University 200 Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY 11549 | September 10, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Click here to Register Or call 877.673.8368
With Event ID: 1032421450 |
| Central Jersey - Infragistics Headquarters 50 Millstone Rd
Building 100
East Windsor, NJ 08520
| September 14, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Click here to Register Or call 877.673.8368
With Event ID: 1032421451 |
| North Jersey - Set Focus 4 Century Drive
Parsippany, NJ 07054 | September 15, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Click here to Register Or call 877.673.8368
With Event ID: 1032421452 |
