.NET Community
Logan Gray (@intensetech) of Intense Tech Inc (www.intensetech.com) gave the first of three presentations tonight. Focusing on Windows Home Server, Logan tried really hard to convince everyone that this is the next technology purchase they need to make. Find an example ready-built HP EX487 hardware chassis for under $500 on Amazon.com. The entire point is to backup and protect your important data files, photographs, and music.
Abbey Gwayambadde (@ophedian) talked about home automation and about how much things have changed since the X10 home automation presentations we saw a few years ago. Common targets for automation include lighting, audio and video distribution, HVAC, irrigation, security, and even automobiles! Companies such as Insteon and Zigbee have begun producing reliable and high quality components. Check out the components and software from mControl at http://www.embeddedautomation.com/ for a complete picture of how cool this can be.
Jim Wooley (@LinqKinq) from http://www.thinqlinq.com/ was the third batter in the lineup, presenting about the scalability considerations of Linq. Revealing coding techniques such as proper ordering of a simple Linq query to improve performance by orders of magnitude. For example:
Dim Ordered1 = (from num in randnums
order by num
where num <10).ToList
Total time: > 6,000,000 ticks
Dim Ordered1 = (from num in randnums
where num <10
order by num).ToList
Total time: > 188,000 ticks
Additional scalability and performance considerations include multi-threaded and even multi-cluster server processing centric programming with AsParallel and DryadLinq.
At tonight’s Atlanta SharePoint User Group (#atlspug), Darrin Bishop (@bishopd) introduced us to the Microsoft developer guidance for SharePoint 2010 developers developed by the Patterns and Practices group. For the uninitiated, this is a fantastic set of guidance and reference applications such as guidance around data storage and a reference logging application.
Darrin started out with an explanation of how to appropriately create executable code by understanding SharePoint’s execution models. For example, we discussed how to create a sandbox solution which executes a workflow, something which is not normally allowed in a sandbox solution.
After understanding a bit more about execution models, Darrin turned to data models and tried to impart some guidance around data storage, classification, and access. The example we investigated was how list relationships worked, including lookup columns, projected columns and the referential integrity considerations.
After a quick tour through data model approaches, Darrin covered the client side object model and the different considerations for application development. Topics covered included batching of communications and call-back methods, building locally executing web parts which use client side OM approaches to asynchronously retrieve data.
The application foundations section of the presentation covered unit testing, service locator, logging, and application settings management. Unit testing specifically introduced the Microsoft Research project Pex and Moles. While Darrin only spent a small amount of time talking about the service locator pattern and the architectural implications of dependency injection, I personally went off on a tangent researching it in a bit more detail and as a result I completely missed his coverage of application settings management.
All of the above covered the slide deck, which will eventually be available on the Atlanta SharePoint User Group site for download. We spent the second half of the meeting buried in code, demonstrating all of the aforementioned practices and application blocks.
Microsoft is driving around the US and Canada in a giant tour bus to advertise Windows 7 and Office 2010. The bus is coming to Atlanta on June 4th (we’re the last stop on the tour) and everyone should come out to see what they have to say. Check the website to get details on the agenda
MicrosoftBusTour.com
Last night we had about 60 people at the Atlanta MS Pros user group listening to Jim Wooley talk about the migration path developers currently using Linq to SQL might use to move to the Entity Framework. Jim has some deep history with Ling, including being the coauthor of the Manning Press book Linq in Action.
After the informative meeting, nearly 20 of us wandered over to the local Miller’s Ale House to continue our socializing over beer and enormous mounds of the Ale House’s famous Chicken Nacho’s
Don Browning from Turner Broadcasting came out of the fun buildings which bring you the Cartoon Network (and those other channels) to talk to the group about the new architecture features of Visual Studio 2010. Those changes include:
- 6 new designers
- case model – a visual view of user stories (including dependencies) backed to TFS (2008 or 2010) work items
- class diagram – UML class designer NOT tied to code so you can make changes without messing up code
- activity diagram – looks like a flowchart to show logic
- sequence diagram – across a given span of time, what objects get used or come into play
- component diagram – helps you define service interactions
- Layer diagram
- architect explorer – architectural view of code supporting class view and solution view
- model explorer – model elements that are reusable are listed in the model explorer, which is a repository model of elements
- code analysis visualizations – a static analysis turned graphical including graph mode, force directed mode, and matrix mode.
- Integration with TFS – supports the storage of model elements in TFS and can be tied to work items.
The talk was clearly popular as we had a huge turnout at about 65 people!
Home - Atlanta SharePoint User Group
Come hear Tom Scott talk about “SharePoint Infrastructure Planning and Considerations” and Michael Lotter talk about “Building Browser Based InfoPath Forms for the Enterprise”
Next INETA:Career Webcast - June 4, 2009, 6:00 PM ET - Unlocking the hidden value of your organization through people, technology and innovation...
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.
Hector Hernandez and Alex Funkhouser of Sherlock Technology Staffing ( http://sherstaff.com ) will present.
Register at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=81190787250 or simply attend the LiveMeeting June 4 at 6 PM ET at https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=43ZWP7&role=attend
If you missed the first two webcasts in this series, recordings of both are available on the INETA Live site ( http://live.ineta.org ).
You don't need talent to succeed, but Everything else Counts...
http://live.ineta.org/Videos/Player.aspx?video=debb517c-5f70-47b3-98c3-421eb667a80e
How to talk to your manager about your career and actually make it happen...
http://live.ineta.org/Videos/Player.aspx?video=9d2a4d7d-69ab-47ae-8a23-aa5fc4e492c6
The second meeting of this new monthly User Group is next Monday. Head over to the Atlanta SharePoint User Group website and join the dozens other individuals who have registered. The meeting topic will focus on the development process and experience and will feature our illustrious leader Mr. Attis discussing how to build a proper development environment. We look forward to seeing you there!
Spring and summer are coming up and what .NET technologist wouldn’t like to steer their children towards a similarly rewarding career as their own? The challenge is, how to get started. Here is where places like Henley’s Haven Workshops come in. Teach your kids about 3D animation and games programming in fun and camp-like settings. Classes are starting soon!
http://henleyworkshops.com/classinfo.html
The following is a description of one of the many classes offered:
Technology Workshop for Kids-
1 hour class, for 12 weeks
$75/month, Pay in full and get a $25 discount.
12 WEEKS INCLUDE: Programming, Create a Video Game, and Web Design
Kids should have basic computer knowledge. Ages 10 and up
Programming Includes:
- Visual Basics for Beginners
- Creating a Project
- The Windows Form Designer
- Writing Visual Basic code
- Compiling, Running and Saving your project
- Errors and Debugging
- Project Files, Properties and Customization
- Data
- Looping
Create a Video Game Includes:
- Backgrounds, Sprites and Images
- Basic sound functions,
- Special effects
- Animated Graphics
- Create your video game
Web Design Includes:
- HTML and JavaScript
- Basic Concepts
- Links
- Body Tags and Lists
- Using Forms
- Cascading Style Sheets
- Create Web Page
- Basic text formatting
- Graphics
- Search Engines and Meta Tags
- Tables
Excellent turn out this past Monday – we probably had around 80 or more people show up to the user group to hear Doug Ware give an introduction to the upcoming Windows 7 operating system and Sergey Barskiy give an introduction to Silverlight.
I’ve been so consumed with work recently that it was great to get out and see all the familiar faces and a bunch of new ones. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the Atlanta MS Pros meeting next week, but everyone should come out to see Keith Rome talk about Asynchronous UI in WPF and Silverlight
This is just a reminder that the Atlanta MDF group is hosting the SQL Saturday event on Saturday, April 25th, 2009. The event is full so I hope everyone that wanted to attend got in.
The event will be a full day of training for SQL Server professionals featuring more than
20 technical sessions covering Business Intelligence, Development, and Database
Administration.
Some of the local sponsors are
Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for ‘SharePoint Saturday’, on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at the Microsoft Office on Sanctuary Pkwy in Alpharetta, GA. 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!
Michael Lotter and Dan Attis are happy to announce that registration is now open. If Atlanta follows the trend as other SharePoint Saturday events registration will fill up quickly. So don't delay and register today.
http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=136991
Lot’s of great talent from Atlanta will be speaking Brendon Schwartz, Doug Ware, Matt Ranlett as well as many more! Some great out of town guests too Joel Oleson and John Holiday
Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for SharePoint Saturday, on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at the Microsoft Office on Sanctuary Pkwy in Alpharetta, GA. 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!
Registration is now open !!!!
We are happy to announce that registration is now open. If Atlanta follows the trend as other SharePoint Saturday events registration will fill up quickly. So don't delay and register today.
Stephen, Ken and I wandered down to the SweetWater Brewery for their weekly tasting event yesterday. I was blown away by how many people came out for this – maybe 200 to 300 people in total.
Stephen and Ken
Backstage tour of the giant brewing tanks
We even witnessed a couple getting engaged
Why is this significant news? While there, with Ken’s help, I managed to secure a donation from Sweetwater Brewery to the Atlanta Code Camp – 1 free keg of beer! This wonderful sweet nectar will be available for all comers to the after Camp dinner
From our friends at Atlanta MDF
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
AtlantaMDF is proud to host the first Atlanta SQLSaturday, on April 25, 2009 at the Microsoft offices in Alpharetta. A lunch fee of $10 covers a full day of training, including a featured presentation by Joe Celko: "Nested Sets Model - Trees & Hierarchies in SQL". Other presenters include Erik Veerman, Andy Warren, Kevin G. Boles, and many more! Seating is limited, so reserve your spot today at http://www.sqlsaturday.com.
For more information, contact Stuart Ainsworth at stuart@codegumbo.com
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