User Group Stuff

Upcoming BRDNUG / BRAG meetings in Baton Rouge

Stacy Vicknair — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:12:06 GMT

We got a couple upcoming meetings for software developers in the Baton Rouge area that are going to be a great amount of fun and learning (what, together? Nahhh…)

BRDNUG Meeting: Tomorrow, Oct 21 2009

Brian Sullivan from the Shreveport area will be coming down to speak on NHibernate with Fluent NHibernate. Should be a great meeting, I’m very sadly missing it.

Agenda
5:45 pm - 6:15 pm:
General Introduction/Food and Drinks

6:15 pm - 7:15 pm:
Brian will speak on NHibernate with Fluent NHibernate

7:20 pm - until:
Open forum for questions

Raffle and Giveaways

Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Windows Vista Ultimate
Several Books

http://www.brdnug.org/events_view.aspx?eventid=35

BRAG Lunch: November 3 2009

Mike Huguet will be starting us off on Repository and Unit of Work, and we’ll see where we go from there. This meeting is open for all aspiring or current software architects, so feel free to join us no matter what level.

http://brag110309.eventbrite.com/

Technorati Tags: BRDNUG,BRAG

Instant Presentations, Just Add Presenter.

Stacy Vicknair — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:47:42 GMT

.NET University has a variety of presentations available for download, including code examples and videos. Use the materials to learn or to present at your next DNUG meeting ;)

The presentations cover a variety of different topics, so if you’ve already got a presentation planned and you just want to compare, be sure to check’em out. All the popular topics like Silverlight, WPF, WCF, LINQ, and ASP.NET MVC are covered.

Instant presentations, just add presenter.

http://www.dotnet-u.com

Technorati Tags: DNUG,.net,presentations,.net university,dotnet-u

Baton Rouge Architecture Group Lunch - Oct 6th

Stacy Vicknair — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:10:23 GMT

If you are in the Baton Rouge area there is a new event for you to attend! Intended for aspiring and current software architects, the BRAG Lunch is a place for an informal gathering to talk about what works and doesn’t work in real life. Our first meeting is going to start off on the Service Locator pattern mediated by Lance Dunnehoo and we’ll see where we go from there!

I hope to see you guys there, and you can find out the granular details at our EventBrite page. If you plan on attending, please give us a message at the google group thread on the BRDNUG about the lunch.

Technorati Tags: BRAG,Lunch,Architecture

Baton Rouge SQL / .NET Saturday Coming August 1, 2009!

Stacy Vicknair — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:40:11 GMT

On August 1^st the Baton Rouge Area SQL Server and .Net user groups are hosting an all day free SQL Server and .Net training event! Attendees will have chances to win great prizes! What more could a SQL Server and .Net Professional ask for? If this sounds good to you then don’t miss your opportunity to attend SQL Saturday! #17, the largest FREE training event dedicated exclusively to SQL Server, .Net, Development and Business Intelligence to hit Baton Rouge. Registration is required.

For more information and to register visit:

http://sqlsaturday.com/eventhome.aspx?eventid=21

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED!!!

What:

An all day FREE training event with SQL Server and .Net sessions spread out over three tracks of Business Intelligence, Database Administration, SQL Development, and .Net.

When:

Saturday, August 1, 2009. Attendee check-in will begin at 8:00am until 8:45am with opening comments from 8:45am to 9:00am and the first sessions beginning at 9:15am. A full list of session tracks and schedule is available.

Where:

Louisiana State University, College of Engineering

3304 Patrick F. Taylor Hall

Baton Rouge, La. 70803

We've posted a Google map on the Location page, but just in case here is the location and text directions!

Link to directions: http://www.eng.lsu.edu/misc/directions.html

Technorati Tags: SQLSaturday,BRDNUG

Baton Rouge .NET User Group’s Speaker Idol! Registration open through the 26th!

Stacy Vicknair — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:13:05 GMT

Baton Rouge’s first Speaker Idol is going to take place on Wednesday, June 24th!

5 speakers
15 minutes
Grueling judges
Great prizes!

View the flyer or check out the Google group for more information and how to be a part of the action! If you’re interested, you can shoot me a message and I’ll get you in touch with the right people ;)

Technorati Tags: brdnug,speakeridol

April BRDNUG Meeting: C# 4.0 New Features

Stacy Vicknair — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:13:21 GMT

April .Net User Group Meeting

location:

At Lamar Advertising

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
5:45 PM - 8:00 PM

Anyone for a virtual dojo?

Stacy Vicknair — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:14:26 GMT

I was thinking today and had a crazy idea about a virtual / completely online coding dojo. So follow me here for my “virtual tour” of what I’m thinking:

Friday rolls around, and you’re excited. Tonight marks the release of the latest project in the Virtual F# Dojo. You check the VF#D blog and find out the latest project is KataBowling. A simple enough program to write, and you’ve been looking for a reason to explore the power of F#, so you dive in.

Once you’ve got your example working, you check it into the forums by starting your solution thread and you explain what and why of your code. Maybe you decided to parse a specific way or otherwise did something you think is unique.

Saturday, you’ve got a decent working example going, so you decide to visit the Second Life event on Microsoft Island to see how others are taking the challenge. You sign in and meet up in time for the optional VF#D meeting and chat with some other smart people about how the program works, how it would compare to XYZ language, and how others did it. There are a couple people who came around to get some code help, you check back on the forums to find their help thread and see what the issue is and help them out.

At the end of the day, you’re feeling great because you’ve accomplished something. Nothing major, but you made a nice little application, you’ve learned something from those around you, and you’ve helped a fellow developer. On top of it all, you did it right from your home, and you’ve still got plenty of time to find out more about that “soccer” thing where people run aimlessly trying to kick round objects called “balls” into nets (credit to Joel on that one…)

So here’s my question. Does this sound like a decent idea to anyone? It would be a free form endeavor that you participate in as little or as much as you’d like, and in the virtual way of your choice, even though the majority would be forum driven.

Please shoot me a message or comment if you think this sounds cool or if you think this sounds dumb, or if it doesn’t agree with your definition of a dojo. I’d like to see about getting this started if others seem to like the idea and we can bolster a community for it.

Technorati Tags: Coding dojo,F#,Virtual World Evangelism

February BRDNUG Meeting: WPF Demystified

Stacy Vicknair — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:48:35 GMT

(J. Sawyer from Microsoft always gives a lively presentation. You won’t want to miss this one.)

location:
At Lamar Advertising
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
5:45 PM - 8:15 PM

Sponsored by: S3 Staffing
Presenter(s): J. Sawyer

J Sawyer is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelist team, primarily covering south Texas and Louisiana. He was born and raised in a suburb of Baltimore, MD and discovered a passion for computing and developing software while working his way through college as an English Lit major with a Philosophy minor. Starting his career as an instructor, he earned his MCP and MCSD in 1996, relocating to Houston in 1997 and joined DRT Systems as a consultant. Since he's been in Houston, J has worked on many projects, including eCommerce Web applications, trading applications, exploration and production applications for energy and partner extranets. He was also named MSDN Regional Director for Houston in 1999. Joining Microsoft in 2000 as a consultant, he moved to Evangelism in 2002 where he has been active in bringing the joy that is .NET to developers across the South Central District. When not spreading the word about .NET, J enjoys relaxing with family and can often be found riding his Ninja around Houston and the surrounding areas.

Topic: WPF Demystified

Today's applications need to do more than simply work. They need to draw in the user, and provide a differentiated experience. This means moving beyond battleship gray forms, boxy UIs, and providing a positive user experience. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides powerful capabilities to develop a compelling user interface, the kind that makes an application stand out. In this session, we'll examine the core concepts of WPF such as layout panels, data binding, styles and control templates, and we'll use them to develop an application UI from the ground up.

Agenda
5:45 pm - 6:15 pm: General Introduction/Food and Drinks
6:15 pm - 7:15 pm: J Sawyer will speak on WPF
7:20 pm - until: Open forum for questions

Raffle and Giveaways
Office Ultimate 2007
Infragistics Net Advantage 2008
Halo 3 for X-Box 360
Books

Technorati Tags: BRDNUG,J Sawyer,WPF

January BRDNUG Meeting Next Wednesday: Entity Framework

Stacy Vicknair — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:32:11 GMT

location:
At Lamar Advertising

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
5:45 PM - 8:00 PM

Sponsored by: TBD

Presenter(s): Brett James and Steve Schaneville

Brett is a Senior Development Consultant at Sparkhound, Inc. with over
10 years of software development experience. The last 6 years have
been spent working with .NET technologies for both Web and Windows
applications.

Steve is a Software Development Manager at Amedisys, Inc. His
experience includes 9 years of C++ and C# development in Windows and
Web applications. Currently he is using the Entity Framework as the
data layer for a web-based SOA enterprise application at Amedisys.

Topic: ADO.Net Entity Framework

Brett and Steve will be discussing Microsoft's Entity Framework,
including its advantages and its shortcomings as an application data
layer. As they are using it in a large application that is in active
development, they will discuss some of the issues that have come up
using Entity Framework and how to work around those problems. Finally,
they will hit on Microsoft's roadmap for Entity Framework, as
Microsoft has big plans for it going forward.

The target audience is the intermediate to advanced .NET developer who
has a familiarity with layered application development, particularly
those who have previously worked with other .NET data layer
technologies (such as ADO.NET, DataSets, NHibernate, and Linq to SQL).
After the discussion, the audience will have a feel for what is
possible using the Entity Framework and have a head start toward
deciding whether or not to use it in their next application.

Agenda
5:45 pm - 6:15 pm:
General Introduction/Food and Drinks

6:15 pm - 7:15 pm:
Brett and Steve will speak on ADO.Net Entity Framework

7:20 pm - until:
Open forum for questions

Raffle and Giveaways

* Office SharePoint Designer 2007
* Infragistics Net Advantage 2008
* Halo 3 for X-Box 360
* Books

Technorati Tags: BRDNUG,Entity Framework

MSDN Events coming to Baton Rouge, LA on 01/22/2009!

Stacy Vicknair — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:01:02 GMT

Honestly, my eyes lit up like it was Christmas all over again when I read the updated MSDN Events RSS on my google reader. Some Louisiana love is finally on its way this month, here is the low down:

MSDN EVENTS - AZURE, DEBUGGING AND MOBILITY

SESSIONS INCLUDE

- Demystifying Azure: An Overview of the Azure Services Platform for Developers
- Deepen your Debugging: Tips and Tricks for the Visual Studio 2008 Debugger
- Developing for Windows Mobile Devices

FREE ADMITTANCE

Enhance your coding capabilities with new tools, tips and inside secrets from MSDN Events. We’ll start with an overview of the Azure Services Platform and show you how to take full advantage of the Visual Studio debugger – including fresh techniques to ramp up your problem solving abilities. You’ll also see how developing for a Windows Mobile phone leverages your current coding skills and can make it simple to build, deploy and debug cool new devices. Don’t miss these free, interactive sessions in your local area. Register today!

If you haven’t yet registered or for up-to-date event information, please visit: http://www.msdnevents.com

Venue:
Baton Rouge, LA
TBD

Go to the following link for more info:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032399068

Technorati Tags: MSDN Events,Baton Rouge,Azure,Debugging,Mobility