Victoria .NET Developers Association

April 2010 Monthly Meeting

nolanzak — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:07:00 GMT

The Victoria .NET Developer's Association welcomes Tiberiu Covaci from Sweden on Monday, April 19!

Tiberiu started his developer career in 1991, but wasn't until 1994 that he got introduced into the Microsoft world of technologies. He moved from Romania to Sweden 1996, to work as a programmer. Since 2004 he is working as an independent trainer, teaching .NET technologies on all levels, but what he loves most is teaching introductory courses, because it gives him a chance to influence the future .NET programmers. He works closely with Microsoft, both as Subject Matter Expert for the MCPD exams, and Technology Reviewer in the new Microsoft .NET 4.0 courses that are under development. He is a member of the MCT Advisory Council, INETA Speaker, INETA Country Lead for Sweden, and IASA Speaker. After the success he encountered at TechDays 2009 in Sweden he developed a passion for speaking about new technologies, and that made him a very popular speaker at conferences like TechEd, DevReach, TechDays, Öredev, ScanDev and MCT Summit. He is interested in technologies like multi-core programming, ASP.NET, programming languages and trends, and applications security. Whenever he gets the time, he blogs at http://blog.multi-core.net/.
Email: tibi@multi-core.net

Title: Practical Parallel Programming

Description:

After more than 40 years Moore's law is still going strong, and it looks like it will continue to do so for at least ten more years. The problem we face now is that the speed of the processors is not physically possible to increase anymore, so instead the hardware manufacturers decided to give us more processors on the same chip. How this affect us as programmers? The free performance lunch is over, unless we change the way we think and program our applications, and the Question is not IF, but rather WHEN. Luckily, Microsoft realized that already, and with the new Visual Studio 2010 they introduced new technologies like Concurrency Runtime, Task Parallel Library, and Parallel LINQ to help us transition into the world of multi-core programming

Every five to ten years the world of computer programming is facing a new paradigm shift, like GUI, object orientation, or generics. Right now we are facing the paradigm shift of parallel/multi-core computing. Successful research in this area has been done for the past 30 years, but we are still not using the results efficiently. A pattern is a working solution to a recurring problem, and parallel/multi-core programming has its own problems which led to a set of patterns. Come to a session about which patterns exists in the area of parallel/multi-core programming and how they can be used with Visual Studio 2010.

Intended Audience Skill Level: All

Date/Time: Monday, April 19th, 2010 from 6:30-9:30pm (talk starts at 7)

Location: University of Victoria, New Engineering and Computer Science Building, Room ECS660 see map

Registration: Please register for the event. You can also send an email to mailto:event@vicdotnet.org?subject=Apr19Event with the subject heading of "Apr 19th Event"

Thanks, hope to see you there!

$602 Raised for The Mustard Seed Food Bank!

nolanzak — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:20:00 GMT

During the Dec 3rd meeting we had a fundraiser raffle for the Mustard Seed Food Bank. The results of the raffle are in.

We collected $582 in cash and $20 in online donations, for a grand total of 301 tickets sold, and $602 collected for the food bank!

Thank you to everyone who came out, for participating in the raffle and helping us raise a substantial amount of money for this great cause. Have a happy and safe holiday season!

Feb 2010 Monthly Meeting

nolanzak — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:11:00 GMT

The Victoria .NET Developer's Association welcomes Richard Campbell on Thursday Feb 4th!

Richard Campbell has more than 30 years of high-tech experience and is both a Microsoft Regional Director and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). He has consulted with a number of leading North American organizations; Barnes&Noble.com, Dow Chemical, Johnson & Johnson Health Care Services, Reuters, Subaru/Isuzu and the U.S. Air Force. Richard is co-host of the “.NET Rocks!, the Internet Audio Talk Show for .NET Developers” podcast, host of “RunAs Radio, the Internet Audio Talks for IT Professionals” podcast, has been co-authoring of the “Advisor Answers” column on SQL Server for more than ten years.

Title: Moving to Windows 7: Using Code Pack to Improve User Experience

Description:

Spend two hours with an expert learning what makes a good Windows 7 application. See how taskbar jumplists and taskbar previews and controls give your users an intuitive, productive, and fun user experience on Windows 7. Learn about restart and recovery, network awareness, power awareness, and more. Then see how simple it is to leverage a free library from Microsoft and add these features to your application with just a few lines of code. You can even create a single executable that runs fine on older versions of Windows and “lights up” on Windows 7.

This session will drill in to the features provided by Windows 7 and how to add them to your application using the Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework. Samples in both Visual Basic and C# will cover shell integration (taskbar, previews, and more), restart and recovery, power awareness and more. Learn how to add your own tasks to a jumplist taskbar, to recover from a reboot or a crash without losing any user data, and to modify your application’s behavior to conserve battery power. When you leave this session you’ll be ready to transform the user experience your application provides and take full advantage of Windows 7.

Intended Audience Skill Level: All

Date/Time: Thursday, Feb 4th, 2009 from 6:30-9:30pm (talk starts at 7)

Location: University of Victoria, New Engineering and Computer Science Building, Room ECS108 see map

Registration: Please register for the event. Note that the different registration process is different from our usual process.

Thanks, hope to see you there!

Dec 2009 Food Bank Raffle

nolanzak — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:37:00 GMT

[UPDATE] We also have a Microsoft Technet Subscription to give away.

The Food Bank fundraising raffle is ON, after our meeting this Thursday Dec 3rd!

The Victoria .NET Dev Association, the Victoria IT Pro group, and the Victoria Sharepoint group are all meeting on the same night and participating in the raffle. So far we have a bunch of leftover swag for prizes including Windows 7, Visual Studio 2008, Office 2007, and a good collection of misc t-shirts, books, hardware and other software (including XBOX360 games).

In addition, we've had someone donate a 5-inch USB lava lamp to include in the raffle (Thanks Ian!). If you'd like to contribute, either let us know or bring it with you to the meetings on Thursday.

Last time we did this, we raised $171 plus 2-3 dozen cans of food for the food bank:

http://www.vicdotnet.org/Content/Receipt_MustardSeedDonationDec06_2006.jpg

If you want, you can also make a donation directly to the foodbank in-person or online here: http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s32135. Just bring your receipt to the meeting and we will give you raffle tickets for your donated amount.

A couple of notes:

- We will be capping the maximum number of draw tickets at 10 per person (tickets will be 1 for $2).

- We are not taking food donations this time, only because last time there was too many and we had problems getting them all to the food bank.

Please pass the word, we hope to get a great turnout and raise a good chunk of change for a good cause.

October 2009 Meeting - New Sharepoint Group

nolanzak — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:46:00 GMT

I lieu of a meeting this month, we are hosting the first meeting of the new Sharepoint User Group!

Here's a blurb about the meeting tonight, from the website:

"On Thursday, October 1st the Victoria SharePoint Users Group hosts its first event. We will kick things
off with two talks. As it is our first event, it makes sense to start with a 'SharePoint 101' which will be
presented by Gerry Brimacombe of Sector Learning Solutions. Once Gerry has laid the groundwork,
Sean Wallbridge of itgroove will drill into SharePoint Document Libraries, demonstrating what they are,
how they work and how you can get more out of them."

Please check out the website and RSVP for the meeting if you plan to come:

http://www.meetup.com/vSharePoint/

Hope to see you there!

Devteach contest winners

nolanzak — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:50:00 GMT

Here are the winners of the recent DevTeach contest. The free DevTeach pass was drawn from everyone who sent an email naming why DevTeach appealed to them. The copy of Expression Web 2 was given to the person who gave the best reason "Why" a particular session appealed to them.

Devon from Clover Point Cartographics won the draw for the free registration, and Steve from OA Solutions won the free copy of Microsoft Expression Web 2.

Steve won for the description of his most appealing session at DevTeach:

"
Unfortunately, wittisicms and pithy comments escape me this afternoon, and, after numerous attempts at humour in an attempt to differentiate myself from the rest of the entrants, I have given up.

So, here is my completely straight-laced no-attempt-at-humour entry into the contest. While many courses look interesting, the one that catches my eye is:

'Are Agile and Domain Modeling Frenemies?'

For a couple of reasons. Firstly, anything that uses hip cool lingo like 'frenemies' has to be good, perhaps that coolness will rub off on me. Secondly, there seems to be a potential of conflict in this session, and, after far too many Rambo movies, I crave conflict. And there are also going to be some models. Hopefully swimsuit models. While I am not sure what domain the models are from, I am pretty open minded, any session that combines agile models and domain models competing sounds fantastic! Sign me up!
"

Well done Steve, it's too bad you gave up on humour so early. Think of how funny it could have been. Your prize is in the mail.

Finally, if you haven't already, take a look at the DevTeach sessions again. There are some excellent learning opportunities to take advantage of at DevTeach, if you can make it you won't be disappointed.

May 2009 Monthly Meeting

nolanzak — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:03:00 GMT

On Thursday May 21st the Victoria .NET Developers Association welcomes Paul Litwin from Seattle WA. Paul will be combining two seperate Reporting Services talks into one long talk. Stay as long as you are interested.

Paul Litwin is a developer specializing in ASP, ASP.NET, C#, Visual Basic, SQL Server, and related technologies. Paul is a programming manager with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He is also the owner of Deep Training, a developer-owned training company specializing in .NET developer training (www.deeptraining.com). Paul is the conference chair of Microsoft ASP.NET Connections, a Microsoft MVP, an ASP.NET Insider, and a member of the INETA Speakers Bureau.

Title: The Reporting Services Mega Show

Description:
Part 1: Designing Reports with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Microsoft has overhauled SQL Server Reporting Services for the 2008 release of SQL Server. Gone are the separate table and matrix regions, replaced by the Tablix region. Much has been improved, including visualization and the exporting report results to CSV, Excel, and now Word. Come to this session to hear all about designing reports with the latest and greatest version of Reporting Services.

Part 2: Programming SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

In this session, you’ll learn how to programmatically manipulate SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) and integrate SSRS into your ASP.NET applications by employing URL Access, Report Viewer controls, and the Reporting Services Web Services.

Intended Audience Skill Level: Intermediate Reporting Services

Date/Time: Thursday, May 21st, 2009 from 6:30-9:30pm (talk starts at 7)

Location: University of Victoria, New Engineering and Computer Science Building, Room ECS116 see map

Registration: Please register for the event. You can also send an email to event@vicdotnet.org with the subject heading of "May 21 Event"

See you there!

Career talk at Camosun - Wed Mar 4th @ 3:30

nolanzak — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:47:00 GMT

Just a quick heads-up that I will be doing a 90 minute career presentation with the computer programming students at Camosun college this Wednesday March 4th from 3:30pm - 5:00pm.

This is the 2nd time for this session, the first time had great feedback and ended up going late. The session follows more of a Q&A format rather than a canned talk. Among other things, we discussed topics like:

- Continuing with academia, how far do you go?

- A career as a developer and that that means

- Different career paths, from user interface designer to database warehouse builder to game developer

- What skills are important, and what skills are not

- The value of co-op programs

- Job searching & the job market in Victoria (and elsewhere)

- Building a resume and what employers are looking for

- Differences between government and private sector jobs

- What a typical entry level developer might do at a job

- Networking

- Getting involved in associations like the .NET Developer Association

If you want to participate, the friendly folks at Camosun are welcoming anyone who wants to come. Feel free to pass this note on to anyone you know that may be interested.

The details are:

- Date: This Wednesday, March 4th

- Location: Camosun Interurban Campus, Trades and Tech Building, Room 181

- Time: 3:30pm - 5:00pm

The Trades and Tech Building is Building #16 on this map of Interurban Campus:

http://camosun.ca/about/campus-maps.html#iu

Sorry for the late notice, but as usual feel free to email me directly for questions or more info.

Thanks, hope to see you there.

Nolan

Nolan.Zak@vicdotnet.org

50% off DevTeach Vancouver Registration

nolanzak — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:58:17 GMT

Here's an offer anyone who might be thinking about going to DevTeach Vancouver at the beginning of June (8th to the 12th). Jean-Rene Roy, the organizer of the conference, has offered 50% off the ~ $1200 registration cost to the first 30 people who register with the following code: DEVT50OFFVAN

Also, the registration need to be done prior to Feb 10th.

If you've never been to a DevTeach conference, you don't know what you're missing. This is easily the top .NET developer-focused conference in Canada. They get big name speakers presenting on the latest and greatest of technologies. As well, the setup for the conference is such that the speakers are much more accessible than any other conference I've been to. So not only will you be able to hear familiar luminaries, but you'll also get the ability to speak with them one-on-one. A great deal at full price, this becomes an incredible opportunity at half-price. So if you were just thinking of going, let this offer make your mind up for you.

Feel free to ping me personally if you want to find out more info about DevTeach in general.

$171 plus food raised for The Mustard Seed Food Bank

nolanzak — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:04:00 GMT

The MSDN Premium Subscription raffle draw raised $171 plus about a dozen cans of food for the Mustard Seed food bank! See the official donation receipt here: http://www.vicdotnet.org/Content/Receipt_MustardSeedDonationDec06_2006.jpg...(read more)