Geekette's Blogette

Testing the Casino

The July meeting of the Roanoke Valley .NET User Group was one of the best ever! 

During the summer months, user group attendance is usually low.  Therefore, we try to have meetings that are a little less formal and require less preparation for the presenter.  This July we not only had a HIGH ATTENDANCE but we had 100% MEMBER PARTICIPATION during the meeting.

Here's the formula:

• Take the Black Jack Starter Kit
• Add Bugs
• Deliver a brief presentation on Unit Testing in Visual Studio 2008
• Divide the user group into teams.  Each team has
  • Prearranged team leader
  • Laptop with buggy starter kit
  • Projector
• Each team then writes unit tests to try and find the bugs
• Meeting presenters (and bug adders) assist each team and offer guidance as needed
• Give goofy prizes to the team that finds the most bugs

Some additional comments:

• Interestingly enough, each team found the same number of bugs - EVERYONE did a GREAT JOB!!!  We gave goofy prizes o everyone. 
• Some sample bugs added:
  • Comment a line of needed code (like we might do when testing -- and then forget to uncomment)
  • Change the operator of a For loop from "< 0" to "< = 0"
• There was a consistent difference between the VB.NET and C# developers on how to correct a line of code.   VB vs C# note:  The VB developers changed it to: "< = -1"; the C# developers changed it to "< 0"

SPECIAL THANKS to those that helped make this idea work:

• Presenter Will "El Machio" Ashely
• • Why unit test
  • What to unit test
  • How to unit test
• Black Jack Unit Test Workshop with defects added by our own Brian "Cobra Kai" Johnston
  • Starter kit overview
  • Team / projector assignments
  • Team Leaders: Bret Shawn, Tolga Balci and Brian Lanham
  • Identify defects by writing unit tests (each team has a team leader that know a little about Unit Testing and Will is going to be available to assist all teams)
  • Awards from our geek treasure chest

Photos are posted here:

Code with the bugs and Code with Unit test project have been posted here:

This is from the May 2008 RV.NUG newsletter

User Groups and Blogs

Keeping current with technology continues to be a daunting task, especially if your job does not lend itself to tasks that help keep your skills current. One way to benefit from the trials and tribulations of others is via blogs. The blog search engine Technorati indexes over 112 million weblogs. With 112 million blogs from which to choose, how can you determine which blogs to use? More importantly, how can you determine which blogs are reliable?

First let's begin with the local user group. Are there members of your user group with their own blogs? This is a great place to start, because you have the advantage of knowing the blogger. If you don't know the blogger, someone in the user group will. Not only will this give you a reliability factor, you will likely have the opportunity to ask for additional information on posts of interest.

The next logical branch is to look for blogs for other user groups' members you have met (while attending other UG meetings or Code Camps). Once again, you can easily get a reliability factor. You might not see these bloggers as often as your local group, but you're likely to see them on occasion and likely to obtain an email address from them.

So how do you get to the high profile bloggers? You begin with your local user group and ask them which blogs they read on a regular basis. Then ask members from other user groups you know. Better yet, just read their blogs. They are likely to reference other blogs and/or have a blog roll. Then look for the ones that are mentioned most.

I have compiled a list of blogs using the above suggestions myself. If you would like to see which area user group members have blogs or which blogs their members are reading, check out the results on the RV.NUG web site here: RV.NUG Blog Roll.

Help us make this list more complete for the RV.NUG members by submitting your answers to the following questions to the newsletter at mailto:newsletter@rvnug.org

1. What blogs do you read on a regular basis?
2. What blogs do you consider reputable sources of information?
3. If you have a blog, what is the link for your blog?

As always, the more you provide to your user group, the more the user group will provide to you!

This is from the April 2008 RV.NUG Newsletter

RV.NUG -thon event

This June will mark the 4th annual RV.NUG -thon event. Just what is a -thon event? How did it originate? (Okay, perhaps you are more interested in "what it is" than a history lesson).

A -thon event occurs during an RV.NUG monthly meeting. A presentation topic is chosen. However, care is taken to select a topic that can be easily segmented. The 75-90 minute presentation time of the meeting is then broken into five or six 15 minute time slots. Each time slot is filled by a different presenter. One topic that has worked in the past is design patterns. There are many design patterns and in one evening you can hear a presentation on five or six different design patterns.

The RV.NUG is located in a small market area. This has always made it challenging to obtain speakers for monthly meetings. This was even more difficult four years ago when membership was smaller and.NET development was just beginning. The user group had to rely on members for many presentations; however, there was a very limited number of members who were comfortable delivering a 75-90 minute presentation. The solution was to encourage several members to deliver a 15 minute presentation on the same evening. The experienced presenters of the group would work with the -thon presenter; by providing any needed assistance - be it technical, public speaking, slide preparation or encouragement. An added bonus is that the nature of a -thon event also promotes collaboration and networking among members of the user group.

The first event was the Grid-a-thon. There were six presentations on the DataGrid . The presentations began with sessions addressing how to get started with the DataGrid; followed by sessions on using more advanced features of the DataGrid and ending with a couple of sessions on extending the DataGrid functionality with code. All of the presenters were first time presenters. The event was so well received that discussion of next year's -thon topic began before the evening was over.

This year's -thon is titled: Ajax-a-thon. This event will focus on controls provided as part of ASP.NET AJAX and the AJAX Control Toolkit. ASP.NET AJAX was called ATLAS during beta release, and is included in ASP.NET 3.5. You can view the live Toolkit here to see what's included. (NOTE: This paragraph was contributed by Bret Shawn, Vice-President.)

We still have openings for presenters. If you are a first-time presenter or a presenter that's out of practice, we encourage you to take advantage of this low-risk opportunity. If you are looking for motivation to learn more about easy-yet-powerful ways to use AJAX into your web applications, seize this opportunity . (I know I work best with a deadline!) There are several RV.NUG members on standby to help in any way you need (technical or presentation). As an added bonus, it has been repeatedly shown that the person that learns the most from a presentation is the presenter! Don't miss this great opportunity. Contact any officer if you would like more details on being a -thon presenter.

This is a meeting you will not want to miss. It's a great learning and networking opportunity for everyone in attendance. Hope to see you there!