Presentation

Richmond Code Camp

Chris Eargle — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:57:59 GMT

Tomorrow after work, I'm driving to Richmond to speak at the Richmond Code Camp. In the past, I didn't plan out which sessions I would attend. Instead, I just floated to whatever seemed interesting. This time, I'm taking the steps to get the most out of the conference. Here's my schedule.

8:00 - 8:45am - Auditorium - Welcome And Keynote

I'm not a morning guy, particularly after driving 6 hours. However, I'll try to be on time to catch the keynote.

8:45 - 10:00am - Speakers Lounge - Preparation

Before I give a talk, I like to review my material.

10:15 - 11:30am - Room 223 - Introducing MSBuild - Chris Eargle

My talk. I would be disappointed if I wasn't there.

11:30 - 12:30pm - Lunch

Lunch will most likely consist of pizza. Were you aware that researchers have discovered that people who eat pizza at least once a week are at a lower risk for certain cancers?

12:30 - 1:45pm - Room 220 - Guerilla SOA on WCF - Joshua Graham

I love SOA, and I love WCF. I'm not so sure about the guerilla part.

2:00 - 3:15pm - Auditorium - How to Give Technical Presentations: 101 - Hal Hayes

Maybe I can learn a few tricks to make my presentations better?

3:30 - 4:45pm - Room 210 - Implementing validation when using the ASP.NET MVC Framework - Roberto Hernandez

I'm curious about the validation techniques used when you don't have postbacks. In a layered application, I use UI validation only to provide a better user experience. I would expect true validation to occur in the business or service layer.

5:00 - 5:30pm - Auditorium - Wrap Up and Prizes

The fun part. I haven't won an Xbox 360 yet.

MSDN Event in Columbia

Chris Eargle — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:54:52 GMT

Tomorrow, Russ Fustino will be speaking at an MSDN event in Columbia. It's the only MSDN event in South Carolina this quarter. So, if you're around tomorrow be sure to attend!

C# 3.0 Presentation

Chris Eargle — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:47:36 GMT

The examples I showed in my C# 3.0 presentation were based on the examples provided in the Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit. The source code for the new features in C# 3.0 are located, by default, in C:\VS2008TrainingKit\Labs\WhatsNewC#. There are other great labs in this kit as well.

Building Web Apps
Building WPF Apps
CardSpace
Client Application Services
Dynamic Sites
Intro to ASP.NET Ajax
JSON
LINQ to SQL
Silverlight Monster Factory
LINQ in VB9
VSTO (Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, Word)
Windows Communication Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation
What's New in VB9
Workflow Services
WPF Data Binding

That's an exhausting list of material to learn!

Of course, code alone doesn't give you a lot of information. Here are the topics I touched upon with links to MSDN.

C# 2.0

· Partial Types

· Aliases

· Static Classes

· Property Access Modifiers

· Generics

· Nullable Types

· Null coalescing operator

· yield

· Delegates

o Inference

o Covariance/Contravariance

o Anonymous methods

C# 3.0

· Auto-Implemented Properties

· Object and Collection Initializers

· Implicitly typed variables

· LINQ

Augusta Meeting Tonight

Chris Eargle — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:01:59 GMT

I am presenting on new language features in C# 3.0 at the inaugral meeting of the Augusta Developers Guild tonight. It will be nearly devoid of slides, as I've decided the words on the screen will be more of a distraction than anything. So, let's code, lambda!

Sessions Galore

Chris Eargle — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:10:08 GMT

I've been busy since the South Florida Code Camp. I've been promoted to the Architecture Team on the South Carolina Integrated Tax System project, and I've been to two more code camps.

The speaker list was already full when I tried to get in on the Raleigh Code Camp. I was still able to do a session on Continuous Integration due to another speaker's VM crashing. I had very few attendees since it wasn't advertised. However, as long as I have one person interested in the topic then I'm good to go.

Last weekend I did two sessions at the Roanoke Code Camp. The Design Principles presentation went very well, with enough crowd participation to keep it interesting. The Continuous Integration session went smoothly, but the crowd was somewhat quiet. Afterwards, one of the attendees told me that he thought it was a follow-up to the Design Principles session (apparently confusing MSBuild with Building Software). So, it's possible the crowd was quiet because they had no background in what I was presenting on. This was exacerbated by the fact I was in the same room.

From now on, if I'm going to do multiple sessions I will try to do related topics (design or agile processes) or request to be in different rooms.

This coming Wednesday I will be presenting on Continuous Integration at the Triangle .Net User Group in Raleigh. I've currently been running two 30 minute modules: 1) MSBuild, 2) CI / Cruise Control.NET. I will put together a new module this weekend so I can fill out the time more appropriately for a user group meeting. I'll probably take it back to fleshing out the build process with running more tests and integrating the generated reports into CruiseControl.NET.

After next week, I will have done 8 sessions at 6 events in 5 locations. It's still early in the year so perhaps I should set my goal to 20 locations instead of 20 events? When do you want me to come to Charleston, Lou?

South Florida Code Camp

Chris Eargle — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:29:08 GMT

I'm leaving soon to make the third stop on my 2008 presentation tour! Okay, it's not like I'm doing a world tour or something, but I do plan on presenting at 20 different in-person events this year. The travel expenses are coming out of my own pocket, so I expect to keep it along the eastern seaboard (US).

I hope to see everyone tomorrow at the South Florida Code Camp. I'm doing the Design Principles session in the Architecture room. Unfortunately, I'll be arriving too late in Miami to make it to the speaker reception tonight. I didn't realize they were doing that or I would have tried to catch an earlier flight.

Larry Port will be doing a Continuous Integration presentation (I submitted one, but I guess he got in first). I plan on seeing his take on everything in case it inspires some ideas for my own CI presentation. I'm kind of curious about his focus on NAnt though. I prefer MSBuild. Here's one reason why: If I want to upgrade my project to .NET 3.5, MSBuild already works because MSBuild is part of the .NET Framework. NAnt's 3.5 support is still in beta. Here's another reason: you still have to call MSBuild from NAnt to build the project. Oh, you can call devenv, but then you've installed unnecessary software on the build server (a big no-no). Perhaps NAnt buys you something that MSBuild doesn't, but I won't know until I ask.

Philly Code Camp!

Chris Eargle — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:16:36 GMT

This weekend is the Philly Code Camp, and I will be presenting on Continuous Integration. It appears that I will have to endure a 22 degree Fahrenheit temperature differential... at least it will feel like winter for a change.

One thing I found surprising when making plans is that you have to pay to use the Interstate. What is up with that? They built a toll road in South Carolina a few years ago, and virtually no one uses it. Do people really pay to use roads up north? I was tempted to avoid highways just so I wouldn't have to pay.

I've never been to Philadelphia before, so it promises to be an exciting trip! I really won't have time to take it all in, but there has to be something to do to kill the time on Sunday before my flight. I'll try to remember my camera!

Presentation at SC Code Camp

Chris Eargle — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:19:27 GMT

I will be presenting on Continuous Integration & MSBuild at the SC Code Camp. This will be the first time I've presented at a Code Camp. In fact, it will be the second time I've done a technical presentation. The first was the past Tuesday in Florence. This has been quite a big step for me.

The odd thing is that I'm in the "Smart Client" track. I guess they ran out of room in "Tools and Framework." My presentation will be during Session 5, 2:35 - 3:40. If you make it, be sure to say hi.