Registration for NYC .NET Code Camp v4 is officially open! Camp is on Saturday March 6th and we will have many tracks and scores of talks for you to choose from as well as food, prizes, and time to socialize and meet with the speakers.
Attendance is free but we have a limited number of seats available on a first-come, first-serve basis. This event is expected to sell-out quickly so if you'd like to attend please complete your registration now at http://codecampnyc.eventbrite.com
In this episode, guest Stephen Bohlen joins Peter to discuss the Agile software development methodology. Stephen talks about what it means to be agile, how agile can improve the software development process, and what boiling molasses may portend for the future of “software engineering”.
Also, guest host Andrew Brust joins us for a review of the shiny new toys shown at CES in Las Vegas, NV. Andrew shares his thoughts and observations at CES on Android, slates, tablets, 3D TV, Internet TV, and more.
Show Notes & Resources
Items Discussed During the News & Banter with Peter & Andrew:
Andrew reports from CES
3D & Internet Connected TVs
Android
Slates & Tablets, Oh My!
Items Discussed During the Stephen Bohlen Interview:
Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for ‘SharePoint Saturday’, on Saturday, January 30th, 2010. SharePoint Saturday will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics.
SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!
SharePoint Saturday is by SharePoint professionals for SharePoint professionals...
The primary focus is on delivering quality information on all aspects of SharePoint. The event itself is free as well as all slides, CD’s and demo code. SharePoint Saturdays are one day events and are being held in several cities through out the year.
More information can be found at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org.
The news has trickled out over the past week on Twitter… (can’t stop the spread of AWESOME news in the digital world we live in J)… but I’m excited to publicly introduce two new additions to the NY/NJ/CT area Microsoft evangelism team: Rachel Appel and Bob Hunt!
Rachel Appel will be joining Microsoft as our newest Developer Evangelist here in the NY metro area. Bob Hunt has also joined the local Microsoft evangelism team as our new IT Pro Evangelist here in the NY metro area.
A few tidbits on Rachel…
Rachel has been working as a mentor, instructor, software developer, architect and DBA for nearly 20 years. During her career, Rachel has worked with a variety of languages, technologies and systems and has contributed to projects of all sizes including large scale enterprise applications at some of the world’s leading companies.
Rachel is the Vice President of the .Net Valley user group, as well as a leader and regular speaker in the Philly.NET and Central Penn.NET user groups of Pennsylvania. She can also be found speaking at code camps, user groups, community events and conferences across the country.
Rachel’s expertise lies within developing solutions that align business and technology using the Microsoft .NET family of products, particularly ASP.NET & SQL Server. She is also an ASP.NET MVP, ASPInsider and holds the Microsoft Certified Trainer, MCAD & MCSD certifications. She is also a member of the INETA speakers bureau.
In her new role, Rachel will be partnering with me in supporting the local Microsoft community, as well as focusing on driving satisfaction and product adoption with developers throughout the area. Rachel will relocating to the New York City area soon from northeastern Pennsylvania.
Today, January 18th, is Rachel’s first day on board! I’m sure she’ll be “drinking from the fire hose” most of this week and getting set up. You can reach her online now at http://rachelappel.com/ or follow her on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/rachelappel
A few tidbits on Bob…
Bob has over 18 years of IT industry experience with a major emphasis on Microsoft technologies, including over 14 years of experience with Microsoft Exchange. Bob was recently a Unified Communications Technology Specialist for the NY Metro District for the past 5 years where he has worked with customers across all verticals to help them realize potential of Microsoft Unified Communications Technologies. In this role Bob has been an Exchange Insider and has was recognized as a “Top Gun” Exchange Insider by the Exchange Product Group.
Prior to Microsoft, Bob spent almost 10 years in the partner community at several locally and nationally managed Systems Integration partners where he built and lead a number of Active Directory and Exchange IT consulting practices in the NY Metro area. As a partner, Bob was also an author of multiple chapters of the Microsoft Press Title “Microsoft Exchange 2000 Resource Kit.”
In his new role Bob will be partnering with Rachel & I in supporting the local Microsoft community, with a focus on driving satisfaction and product adoption with IT professionals. If your interest is in things like Windows Server, Windows client, SharePoint and related core infrastructure technologies, then Bob is someone you’ll want in your contact list!
Bob officially started his new role on January 1st. Bob lives in Westchester, NY, and is married with 3 children. In his miniscule spare time he enjoys camping and travelling to warm, sunny and fun places with the family. Bob is also a basketball coach and Board Member at Westchester Arc.
Some of you may be wondering “where are you going Peter”? I’m not going anywhere. The NY Metro area has a LOT of developers! I’m looking forward to working together with Rachel to be able to excite even more folks in the area about Microsoft’s developer technologies!
Please join me in welcoming Rachel & Bob to the NY/NJ/CT Microsoft evangelism team!
Thanks to all of the people who attended the NJ Agile Firestarter in December at the Microsoft offices in Iselin, NJ! The Firestarter was a successful event, and feedback from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive!
I’ve never seen as many folks take the time to write handwritten comments on evaluation forms at an event before. The event speakers thank you for that valuable information!
I want to say thanks to all of the Agile Firestarter speakers: Stephen Bohlen, Jess Chadwick, Todd Snyder, and Sara Chipps. Without them, this event wouldn’t have been possible! All of these speakers volunteered their personal time and effort to help organize this event and put the content together.
Speaking of the content, I’m happy to announce that some of the content is now available online. The event was not recorded, however, slides & code samples (where available) have been posted below.
NJ Agile Firestarter Content
Stay tuned and check out my interview with Stephen Bohlen on Agile methodologies coming up the Connected Show later this week!
The NYC developer community is proud to announce the 4th (sort of annual) Code Camp to be held on Saturday, March 6, 2010, from 8:00 AM until 6:30 PM. It will take place at the Manhattan Microsoft office on 6th Avenue across the street from Radio City Music Hall. We’d love for you to submit a session.
We have our call for speakers open from now until February 5th.
To apply for a speaking slot, first please register as a speaker here: http://tinyurl.com/nycspeaker
Then with the email address you registered with on our speaker page, please add as many abstracts as you like here: http://tinyurl.com/nycsession
Submit on anything you like in the .NET space, there is no central “theme” to our Code Camp except .NET development!
Unfortunately we can’t afford to pay any T&E, but we will stuff you with lots of pizza and soda!
Via Sanjay Jain…
With several successful Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Weeks (Azure Atlanta, Win7 Boston, Win7 Reston, CRM Reston, CRM Boston, Win 7 Irvine, Mobility Mountain View,), we are pleased to announce Microsoft BizSpark Camp for Windows Azure in New York, NY during 28–29 January 2010. Based upon your feedback we have made several changes including offering cash prize, compressed time commitment, and much more. We hope you're tapping into the growing BizSpark community.
The current economic downturn is putting many entrepreneurs under increasing pressure, making it critical to find new resources and ways to reduce costs and inefficiencies. Microsoft BizSparkCamp for Windows Azure is designed to offer following assistance to entrepreneurs. · Chance to win cash prize of $5000
· Nomination for BizSpark One (an invitation only program) for high potential startups
· Learn and build new applications in the cloud or use interoperable services that run on Microsoft infrastructure to extend and enhance your existing applications with help of on-site advisors
· Get entrepreneurs coaching from a panel of industry experts
· Generate marketing buzz for your brand
· Create opportunity to be highlighted at upcoming launch
We are inviting nominations from BizSpark Startups interested in Windows Azure Platform that target one or more of the following:
The Microsoft BizSparkCamp for Windows Azure will be held at Microsoft Technology Center, New York, NY from Thu 1/28/2010 to Fri 1/29/2010. This event consists of ½ day of training, 1 day of active prototype/development time, and ½ day for packaging/finishing and reporting out to a panel of judges for various prizes.
This event is a no-fee event (plan your own travel expenses) and each team can bring 3 participants (1 business and 1 – 2 developer). It is required to have at least 1 developer as part of your team.
To participate in the BizSpark camp, you must submit your team for nomination to Sanjay or your BizSpark Sponsor. Visit Sanjay’s blog for details on how to submit your nomination by Monday, January 18th, 2010. Nominations will be judged according to the strength of the founding team, originality and creativity of the idea, and ability to leverage Windows Azure Scenarios.
You may want to enroll into Microsoft BizSpark, an exciting new offering that enables software startups to leverage Microsoft development and platform technologies to deliver next generation web and Software + Services applications. For details see here.
No matter what type of web developer you are (ASP.NET, PHP, etc), there’s one task most have in common: Making your site discoverable! I’m talking about making easy for folks to find your web site via the major Internet search engines like Bing, Google, or Yahoo.
Microsoft recently released a new Search Engine Optimization (SEO) toolkit for Internet Information Server (IIS). The toolkit helps Web developers, hosting providers, and Web server administrators to improve their Web site’s relevance in search results by recommending how to make the site content more search engine-friendly.
If you visit the Toolkit site, Scott Hanselman has narrated a short screencast that demonstrates how the tool can be run, and the various types of information it provides for you to act upon. For anyone looking to increase the discoverability of their sites, trying this free tool out seems like a no brainer.
There may even be side benefits to using the tool too! The IIS SEO Toolkit apparently saved Phil Haack’s butt after a catastrophic data loss on his website!
Okay… it’s Friday. While I’m selling out for contests, I thought I might as well share another cool one. The thought of a new 52” HDTV makes me want to try this one out. (I’m still on a 27” tube!) This one comes via Joe Stagner…
Try your hand at PHP on Windows and win a complete 52" HDTV home entertainment system and the opportunity to present your creation to the crowd at php|tek 2010 in Chicago with an all-expenses paid trip!
Have you tried to run PHP on Windows? No?
That's why PHP Architect is hosting the Great PHP on Windows® Contest!
The basics of the contest are simple:
- Write a new application designed to run in PHP on Windows using IIS—or make a significant contribution to an existing open-source project along the same lines
- The best application, selected jointly by a panel of experts and by our readers, will win a grand prize composed of a 52" Digital HD home entertainment system, as well as an all-expenses paid trip to php|tek 2010 in Chicago.
- Runner-up prizes include 2 XBox 360 Ultimate and subscriptions to php|architect.
- Not familiar with Windows? No worries—we have partnered with Applied Innovations to give the first sixty participants absolutely free hosting on a pre-configured virtual machine for the duration of the contest.
- The contest is open to residents of the United States only—but you can still win by voting, no matter where you are.
For more info : http://www.phparch.com/win
I’m not normally one to enter sweepstakes and stuff like that. But I’m guessing this is one where with a little bit of decent documentation for work you may already be doing, you have a shot at winning a free laptop!
The folks over at Codeproject are running a contest to see who can build a great Windows 7 application using Visual Studio 2008 and/or Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. To enter the contest, you essentially submit an article to Codeproject explaining how you built an app for Windows 7 – complete with code.
Articles will be rated by the members of Codeproject. The highest member rated articles will be rated by judges to determine the final winners.
For details on the contest, visit the Windows 7 “Windows @ Work” Article Contest at Codeproject.
In this episode, guest Maarten Balliauw joins Peter to discuss his implementation of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) for PHP and linking (non-pun intended) PHP to Microsoft Office Excel via the PHPExcel project. Maarten is a Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET and a PHP developer.
Also, Dmitry and Peter discuss WinCache for PHP 1.0, Moonlight 2.0, and having a backup strategy.
Show Notes & Resources:
Maarten’s Blog: http://blog.maartenballiauw.be/
Items Discussed During the News & Banter with Peter & Dmitry:
WinCache for PHP 1.0
Ruslan Yakushev’s Blog: http://ruslany.net
Run Multiple Versions of PHP on IIS: http://ruslany.net/2009/12/multiple-php-versions-on-the-same-iis-server/
Microsoft Web Platform Installer: http://www.microsoft.com/web
Moonlight 2.0 Stuff
Bing News
Always Have a Backup Plan!
Items Discussed During the Maarten Balliauw Interview:
Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 7:00pm
More than a palindromic number, 12/21 is an evening for drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and special guests at the professional networking event for New York technology.
Our mission is to bring together all aspects of technology and the business of technology in one event. Below are just a sampling of the types of NY Tech Communities involved:
Come rub elbows and connect with colleagues from every segment of NY tech, as we unite the technical and business communities that we're all a part of.
All are invited - CTO/CIO, junior admin, engineer, developer, entrepreneur, manager, author, speaker, media, and business professional.
This, our third groundbreaking event, is co-hosted by Bootup and Girls in Tech (see our 2007 and 2004 events). Microsoft is a sponsor of this party, along with the NYC .NET communities.
Date & Location:
December 21st, 2009 at 7:00PM
Forum, 127 Fourth Avenue
Business casual attire is required.
You MUST RSVP to attend.
For details on the party, visit http://bootup.io/holiday-party
Look forward to seeing folks on Monday night!
Through a combination of the weeks aligning and some schedule shifting for the holidays, all three of the NYC .NET developer focused groups are meeting this week! Each night promises different discussions and different topics. If you’re in the city, be sure to stop by one evening and say “Hello”!
Tuesday 12/15 - NYC .NET Meetup The NYC .NET Meetup meets tonight, 12/15, in the Microsoft offices at 1290 Ave of the Americas. For details, visit the NYC .NET Meetup site. |   |
Wednesday 12/16 - NYC Alt.NET The NYC Alt.NET user group meets Wednesday, 12/16, at the offices of Springsoft/VMWare at 2 Penn Plaza. At Wednesday’s meeting, the group organizers will lead a discussion and recap on the developer news from Microsoft’s recent 2009 Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Ca. For details, visit the group’s site here. |  |
Thursday 12/17 - NYC .NET Developers Group The NYC .NET Developers group meets Thursday, 12/17, in the Microsoft offices at 1290 Ave Of The Americas. At Thursday’s meeting, Bill Zack will be presenting on the Windows Azure platform. Bill has an all new updated overview planned to cover the latest status of the cloud services offered by the Azure platform. For details, visit the group’s site here. |  |
NYC Girl Geek Dinner is hosting their 4th dinner on Friday, December 18th, 2009. Microsoft is happy to be hosting the dinner at their recently renovated facilities in midtown Manhattan. I’ve been invited to speak at the dinner on RIA application development. Check out the details below...
Spread The Word!
4th NYC Girl Geek Dinner & 1 Year Anniversary
When: Friday, December 18, 2009, 6:30-10pm
Where: Microsoft NYC Headquarters, 1290 Avenue of the Americas,
Multi Purpose Room, 6th Floor
Sponsored by: Microsoft
Limited Advance Sale Tickets: $15 (per person)
http://www.ggdnyc.com/?page_id=14
* Purchase your ticket by 12/13 and you’ll receive a GGDNYC coffee mug!
You’re invited to an evening of conversation, inspiration and dinner!
Mix and mingle with other women working in technology.
Dinner, dessert, wine and beverages will be served.
We’ll culminate the evening raffling off not just 3, but 15 great prizes.
The first 50 people to purchase tickets online will receive a gift bag from Microsoft.
Speakers:
Bonnie Halper, Founder of StartupOneStop.com
Sara Chipps, Freelance Developer, GirlDeveloper.com
Peter Laudati, Developer Evangelist, Microsoft
Melek Pulatkonak, President & COO of Hakia.com
The Rules: No female, no entry!
Girl Geek Dinners are for the girls! But it doesn’t mean that men can’t attend, they just have to come as the guest of a female. Here are the rules: If you are male and wish to attend the event then you will need to be invited by a female attending the event. Girls, one date only please! (We want to keep the numbers balanced!) The best way around these rules if you’re a guy who wants to attend? Convince or bribe someone to let you be their date for the dinner.
Last week, I had the privilege of helping to organize and participate at the Microsoft PHP Web Developer Summit in Redmond, Wa. As part of my role as a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft, this is one of the events that gets me most excited about my job.
I often speak at and deliver technical presentations at both Microsoft & community led events. Most of the time, these are to customers and partners who are already using Microsoft technologies. They are usually interested in learning about the latest developer technologies the company has to offer. (At least this is what I tell myself when folks show up voluntarily to hear me speak :))
However, I view “evangelism” as an essential part of the job of a Developer Evangelist. Evangelism means reaching out to, and speaking with, folks who do not currently use the technologies my company offers, with the goal of getting them to consider adopting these technologies. It’s as simple as that. No hidden agendas. Some have claimed this is evil. I disagree. Strongly!
If I feel there is value in a technology my company offers, I hope to be able to lead folks to it. And if there isn’t value, I try to understand why, and channel feedback back to the product teams as to how value can be added. Corny as it may sound, I feel happiness when the connection between a technology and its value has been made for a potential customer. Especially ones that aren’t already using the technology! It’s why I happily get up and go to work Monday mornings. That, and the fact that it puts food on my family’s table. :) (See Scott Hanselman’s Venn diagram of happiness as a reference.)
Over the past couple of years, Microsoft has been becoming more engaged in the PHP community. I’m proud to have been a part of those efforts.
“WHAT?!” you say. “Peter, PHP is okay and all that… but I thought you’re supposed to be evangelizing ASP.NET as it’s THE best web development platform in the world! In the WORLD!”
Umm… yeah. And I do that. However, the title of my organization at Microsoft is “Developer & Platform Evangelism”. A key word there is “platform”. That platform is Windows. ASP.NET and all of the developer technologies that go along with it are a part of it, and a huge attraction to the Windows platform. (Lend me your ear in person, and I’ll tell you all about it!)
But, there is a developer ecosystem that exists beyond Windows. One popular technology used by developers is PHP. If folks have made a decision to use PHP as their development tool, it’s in Microsoft’s interest for them to run it on the Windows platform. And thus, explains why Microsoft as a whole has been engaging with the PHP community.
PHP runs great on Windows today. That wasn’t always the case historically. By working with the community, adding features to Windows like FastCGI support in IIS 7 and the Web Platform Installer, Microsoft has improved the lot of PHP developers on the Windows platform. Things are not perfect, but they’re a lot better than 2-3 years ago!
One way Microsoft has worked with the PHP community has been to host a Web Developer Summit in Redmond each fall the past few years. This is an invite-only event where we invite about 25 folks from the core PHP and PHP application communities for a few days of tech briefings and feedback discussions with the product teams. This was my 3rd year participating in the event.
So what happened at the summit? On the first day, one of the attendees joked with me that they were on a ‘kool-aid drinking’ junket. Tech briefings can have that effect I suppose. Over the course of the summit, the attendees got to hear tech briefings on the latest versions of products such as IIS, IE, the WebPI, Azure, ASP.NET AJAX, and Powershell. The sessions were good. Water and sugar were mixed. Kool-aid was dispensed.
However, the best parts of the summit (IMHO) were the parts when the product teams weren’t the ones doing the talking. Thankfully, that seemed to happen a lot more during this year’s WDS than in previous years! During, and in between the sessions, the attendees shared their thoughts on the direction Microsoft has been going, as well as where they think the company needs to go in order to provide a better value for PHP developers.
The goal of the summit was not to be a brain-wash camp. It was to help make a connection between Microsoft’s technologies and their value to PHP developers. Attendees did not go home as a member of the borg. But the chips were implanted—er, the seeds of interest were sparked. Relationships were started. New friends were made. Notes were taken, and some of the product teams are already taking them back to the bat cave to act upon. Based on the conversations I had with several of the attendees, the event was a success from their point of view.
Don’t take my word for it. Read what some of them had to say:
If you want to read along for a detailed list of what was discussed, check out Ben Ramsey’s most excellent notes from the summit!
The conversation doesn’t end with the Web Developer Summit. To my new (and old) friends in the PHP community, let’s keep the conduit open! Myself and my peer evangelists (linked US only) around the world are available whenever you want to connect with Microsoft.
