Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

1. Next HRNUG Meeting

   Posted on July 27th, 2009 by Kevin

   The next meeting of the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group will be on August 11th, 2009.

   We have local speaker JR Thomas giving his presentation entitled “A Trip Around Silverlight 3″.

   Abstract:
   
Silverlight 3 has been released to web a month ago. Come see what new in the platform including RIA .NET Services (Auto WCF proxy generation from your ORM of choice), Animation Easing, Custom Dialogs, and taking your Silverlight app out of the Browser.


   Welcome time starts at 6:00pm! Food and drinks are being provided by Geeks and Gurus! Meeting starts at 6:30pm and last typically until 8:00pm.

   Visit www.hrnug.org for RSVP information!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

2. Keeping Up With Goals: Part II

   Posted on July 23rd, 2009 by Kevin

   Read my first post here.

   My next goal is to try to read more books.  There are several pieces of good advice I’ve picked up in my adult life.  First, you should emulate people you want to be like.  For example, if you want to be wealthy, you should do what wealthy people do and take the advice of wealthy people.  You wouldn’t take wealth building advice from a poor person, would you?  If they knew better, they would be wealthy!  If I want to be a great developer, I should emulate the practices of other great developers.  I feel I’ve been able to surround myself with great developers, and, slowly, I’ve been picking up their habits.  One of these habits is another good piece of advice: successful people are always reading books.

   Of course, books don’t have to be programming related.  I’m interested in building myself as a professional.  That doesn’t necessarily mean a book about learning Entity Framework (although Julie Lerman’s book is sitting on my shelf, just aching for me to open it), ASP.NET MVC, or whatever.  Books about development processes and project management are appealing to me.  Any way I can possibly improve the processes I use in my daily job.

   Currently, I have a backlog of probably 6-8 books I’d like to read.  As soon as I pass my 70-536, I’m going to start reading Code Complete.  Anyone you meet will describe it as the Bible of software development, and I’m sure that reading it would not be a waste of time.  After that, I have The Nomadic Developer to read.

   Additionally, I plan on posting reviews of the books I read.  Writing a report of a book forces you to think about the subject matter at a deeper level.  This will also give me a chance to pose questions to the community.  It’s all about personal progression.

   In the comments, what books do you recommend for professional progression?

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

3. The Vendor/Client Relationship

   Posted on July 21st, 2009 by Kevin

   I’m posting this for future reference.  It hits the point exactly.  Enjoy!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

4. Richmond MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow

   Posted on May 26th, 2009 by Kevin

   Awesome event coming to Richmond on June 4th.  This event is also the same day as the Richmond .NET Users Group, so make it a full geeky day by registering for both events!

   ---

   Thursday, June 04, 2009 1:00 PM – Thursday, June 04, 2009 5:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
   Welcome Time: 12:30 PM
   RSVP Link : http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032415512&amp%3bCulture=en-US
   
   
   Microsoft Richmond Office

   9020 Stony Point Pkwy
   Suite 170 Richmond Virginia 23235
   United States

   
   
   Event Overview

   Session 1: Developing on Microsoft Windows 7

   Building applications that are easy to use, visually appealing, and offer high performance is a challenge that developers face every day. Innovative applications can greatly improve the user experience, empowering companies to differentiate their services and solutions. However, developers are increasingly asked to do more in less time, while also optimizing the power and performance requirements of their applications.

   The Windows 7 platform makes it easy for developers to create engaging, user-friendly applications by providing familiar tools and rich development features that allow them to take advantage of the latest PC capabilities.  In this session we will explore the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services among many other enhancements to the new operating system.
   Session 2: What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers

   With any new browser release, there are two questions of interest to most web developers –
   1. Will this release break my site, and if so, how do I fix it?
   2. What shiny new features does it offer to add value for my visitors?

   In this session, we’ll address both of these questions, first showing how developers and users both benefit from improved standards-based rendering in Internet Explorer 8, and how developers can ensure that their sites will render properly for users using IE8. Additionally, we’ll take a look at some of the new features of Internet Explorer 8 that open up new possibilities for web developers, including Accelerators, Web Slices, and Search Providers, as well as AJAX and DOM improvements. Accelerators are helpers added to the browser that allow users to access your web-based services from anywhere, via a simple right-click on any page. Web Slices allow you to designate parts of your application for the user to consume and keep up-to-date in the browser without having to visit the full site. You can leverage these features to add value to your site and make it easier than ever for users to take advantage of the services and content you have to offer.

   We’ll also look at the new Internet Explorer 8 Developer Tools, which provides you with killer tools for examining and debugging your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, all without ever leaving the page, plus profiling for finding and fixing the performance bottlenecks in your client-side code. The IE 8 Developer Tools also aid in compatibility testing, by allowing you to change the layout and compatibility modes on the fly. Lastly we’ll look at some best practices.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

5. Vids from Richmond Code Camp after party

   Posted on April 26th, 2009 by Kevin

   After a great Code Camp, a bunch of us geeks hung out. Here’s two clips of Alan Stevens (@alanstevens) jamming ‘Time Warp’ and ‘Code Monkey’.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

6. DreamBuildPlay Is Up!

   Posted on April 6th, 2009 by Kevin

   DreamBuildPlay is up, and taking registrations! Best part of the competition is that you get a free 12 month trial to the XNA Creators Club! This allows you to debug your games on your Xbox! Totally worth it even if you’re not serious about the competition.

   http://www.dreambuildplay.com

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

7. HRNUG March Meeting

   Posted on March 3rd, 2009 by Kevin

   Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10th, 2009.

   Welcome Time: 6:00 pm
   Meeting Start: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

   Building Custom Controls for ASP.NET 3.5: Beyond the User Control
   Presenter: JR Thomas (Advanced Health Media LLC)
   Presenter Blog: http://undev.spaces.live.com

   Description: So you built a User Control for every season. But your curious how to build controls that look like some of the ASP.NET controls like Grid View, Wizard, and every ones favorite the Repeater. This talk will cover the how-to and the why behind using Custom Controls, Composite Controls, and Templated Controls.

   Meeting Location

   Antech Systems
   510 Independence Pkwy
   Suite 100
   Cheaspeake, VA 23320

   Please RSVP @ http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=136227
   Visit http://www.hrnug.org for more information and directions!  Hope to see you all there!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

8. Hampton Roads .NET Users Group – First Meeting Success!

   Posted on January 15th, 2009 by Kevin

   The first meeting was a big success! We had over 30 attendees, which is outstanding for a first meeting. It’s amazing to see how big the .NET community really is.

   Lessons learned:
   – Don’t trust Google Maps or Live Maps to get people to your location. Give them step-by-step directions.
   – There is no such thing as enough chairs.
   – 25 ft VGA cables need high refresh rates to work properly.
   – Have a plan B presentation lined up in case the speaker doesn’t/can’t show.

   Guy Hurst was our guinea pig for this sessions, and special thanks to him. He did a awesome job, and we look forward to having him back for another session a few months down the line.

   Next step for the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group is to get a website that can be better used to provide information to the public. I will be the speaker in February. My talk will be on Windows Presentation Foundation, and I’ll show some of the basic concepts that a WinForms developer will have to learn to make the leap.

   I was going to post pictures, but 80% of them are of me and people wouldn’t appreciate that! Sorry!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

9. Testing Windows Live Writer

   Posted on January 7th, 2009 by Kevin

   It looks like Windows Live Writer has this nifty feature to post to a WordPress blog.  Welp, I have a WordPress blog and just downloaded Live Writer.

   Let’s see if this works!