Meetings
The Maine Developer Network aims to organize at least one meeting per month.
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| Visual Studio 2008 Community Launch Event, July 9th, 2008 | (6/23/2008) |
It took a little while, but we're ready to rumble. The Main Developer Network is organizing
the Visual Studio 2008 Community Launch Event. A whole afternoon of sessions all about
the recently released Visual Studio 2008. We've got the following sessions lined up:
The Business Analyst Perspective
by Shawn Robichaud
The focus for this session is on requirements gathering and techniques to help capture
and manage requirements throughout the lifecycle. The session explains some of the
challenges associated with deciding precisely what to build and it presents techniques
for capturing and evolving requirements to ensure that requirements stay current throughout
the software development lifecycle. [40 min.]
Value-up software development
by Shawn Robichaud
This session introduces the notion of value-up software development. It compares and
contrasts core value-up principles and practices with conventional work-down approaches.
The latter have proved over the years, largely ineffectual for team-based software
development and are part of the reason why only 30% of software projects succeed.
[40 min.]
Enabling Offline with SQL Server Compact and Sync Services for ADO.NET
by Scott Woodruff
Synchronization Services allows you to maintain a local, synchronizable copy of your
data regardless of connection reliability or availability. This session will introduce
synchronization services and how you can build applications that use the services.
[75 min.]
LINQ and LINQ to SQL
by Mark Blomsma
The number one topic requested at our previous meeting: LINQ and LINQ to SQL. This
session will take a close look at one the biggest additions to the C# and VB.NET language:
LINQ and LINQ to SQL. How does Language INtegrated Query work, what are lambda expressions
and expression trees and how do they get translated into SQL statement? [75 min.]
The session will be held at:
State of Maine Offices
Harlow Building
First floor conference room
18 Elkins Ave
Augusta
We'll start at 12:30 and plan to finish by 17:00. Please use the Register form on
the website to RSVP: http://www.maine-devnet.org/Home/SignUpForEvent.aspx.
 (Click image to add event to your calendar)
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| VTEC organizes free SQL Server 2005 Seminar | (5/9/2008) |
SQL 2005 Performance Tuning and Optimization/SQL Server 2005 High Availability
Seminar>
Seating is limited!
You must RSVP to Tricia Richardson at TRICHARDSON@VTEC.ORG by
5pm Thursday May 1st.
When:
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Time:
1-4pm
Where:
VTEC Education Center 50 Foden Road South Portland, Maine 04106
Questions: Contact Tricia
Richardson 207.775.0244 ext 3038 or via email at trichardson@vtec.org
Agenda:
SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning and Optimization
Every installation of SQL Server will need to be tuned at some point. Many DBAs
don’t have the time or the experience to affectively troubleshoot and tune a
poorly performing SQL Server. In this session, we will share with you the tools
that Microsoft Premier Support technicians use to gather and analyze data used to
pinpoint performance issues. One of the issues most DBAs have when troubleshooting
performance is that there are so many pieces to the puzzle. Is it hardware,
database design, or poorly written queries?? We’ll discuss real world
scenarios and case studies from the field and show you step by step how to identify
performance problems.
SQL Server 2005 High Availability
In this session, we will discuss the many features of SQL Server 2005 that directly
affect high availability to keep your mission critical data safe. You need to
protect against hardware failures, data corruption, connectivity failures and site
isolation. We’ll take the confusion out of the all the options and help
you decide which high availability option works best for your needs.
Microsoft Presenter: Shaun Beane, who taught at VTEC, before getting
snagged by Microsoft
Shaun is currently working at Microsoft as a Premier Field Engineer. He works
with enterprise level customers to help maintain, troubleshoot and tune installations
of SQL Server. He also provides onsite in-depth training for SQL Server, including,
Reporting Services and Integration Services. He’ll be sharing real world
experience during these two sessions to help you become a better DBA.
|
| VTEC organizes free SQL Server 2005 Seminar | (4/29/2008) |
SQL 2005 Performance Tuning and Optimization/SQL Server 2005 High Availability
Seminar>
Seating is limited!
You must RSVP to Tricia Richardson at TRICHARDSON@VTEC.ORG by
5pm Thursday May 1st.
When:
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Time: 1-4pm
Where:
VTEC Education Center 50 Foden Road South Portland, Maine 04106
Questions: Contact Tricia
Richardson 207.775.0244 ext 3038 or via email at trichardson@vtec.org
Agenda:
SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning and Optimization
Every installation of SQL Server will need to be tuned at some point. Many DBAs
don’t have the time or the experience to affectively troubleshoot and tune a poorly
performing SQL Server. In this session, we will share with you the tools that
Microsoft Premier Support technicians use to gather and analyze data used to pinpoint
performance issues. One of the issues most DBAs have when troubleshooting performance
is that there are so many pieces to the puzzle. Is it hardware, database design,
or poorly written queries?? We’ll discuss real world scenarios and case studies
from the field and show you step by step how to identify performance problems.
SQL Server 2005 High Availability
In this session, we will discuss the many features of SQL Server 2005 that directly
affect high availability to keep your mission critical data safe. You need to
protect against hardware failures, data corruption, connectivity failures and site
isolation. We’ll take the confusion out of the all the options and help you
decide which high availability option works best for your needs.
Microsoft Presenter: Shaun Beane, who taught at VTEC, before getting
snagged by Microsoft
Shaun is currently working at Microsoft as a Premier Field Engineer. He works
with enterprise level customers to help maintain, troubleshoot and tune installations
of SQL Server. He also provides onsite in-depth training for SQL Server, including,
Reporting Services and Integration Services. He’ll be sharing real world experience
during these two sessions to help you become a better DBA.
|
| Geek Lunch on the 22nd of April - Introduction to LINQ & Language Improvements in C# 3.0/VB 9 | (4/25/2008) |
Our lunch meeting with Chris Bowen as a speaker was well attended and the feedback
on the evaluation forms indicates, very well received.
Chris did a session: Introduction to LINQ & Language Improvements in C#
3.0/VB 9
LINQ (Language Integrated Query) is a unified approach for querying data using coding
syntax that remains consistent regardless of the data source. It WILL change the way
you work as a developer and architect and this session will help you on your way to
using it effectively. To understand how LINQ works, we'll first navigate the new features
of C# 3.0 and VB 9.0 that enable LINQ functionality. Then, we'll dive into .NET 3.5
and Visual Studio 2008 to explore the various realms of LINQ: Datasets, XML, Database/SQL,
in-memory objects, and more. By the end of this session, you'll have a solid understanding
of how LINQ works and what it can do for your applications.
Download the slides here:
The_Strongest_LINQ.ppt
(2.43 MB)
|
| User group meeting 29th of February 2008 : Introduction to Unit Test, Test-Driven Development and Mock Objects | (2/29/2008) |
Russ Nemhauser presented on unit testing and test-driven development, using mock objects.
Original info:
Topic
An introduction to Unit Test, Test-Driven Development and Mock Objects As software
development projects grow over the course of months and years, it can be increasingly
difficult to manage quality and consistency. With the help of Visual Studio 2005,
Test-Driven Development (TDD) can be used with very little effort to insure constant,
high-quality code is written during the lifetime of your projects. In addition, you'll
see how to create and use mock objects to logically separate development efforts on
different tiers of your application to prevent blocking issues.
Speaker
Speaker will be Russ Nemhauser.
Russ Nemhauser is a Microsoft ASP.NET MVP and a Microsoft Certified Professional,
and has served as an Architect, Developer, Team Leader, and Project Manager over the
past several years. His projects have included enterprise applications, online commerce
sites, and corporate intranets for Wall Street, Universal Studios, Microsoft, Seagram,
and others. Russ actively participates in the development community, speaking at several
conferences and user groups each year. He also writes for several technical magazines
and industry web sites.
Location and Time
The meeting will be held on Friday the 29th of February 2008 at Thomas College in
Waterville, ME.
The meeting will start at 3:30pm and finish at 6:00pm.
Address:
Thomas College
Stickney Room in the Student Center
180 West River Road,
Waterville, Maine 04901
RSVP
Please let us know you're coming. Send me an e-mail or sign
up using this page
on Facebook.
|
| Meeting 29th of November 2007 | (10/10/2007) |
On Thursday the 29th of November 2007 at Thomas College in Waterville, ME, we had
two presenters: Shawn Robichaud and Mark Blomsma.
A look at Microsoft Acropolis
by Shawn Robichaud.
Microsoft is in the process of developing and releasing some exciting new technologies
for developers using the .NET framework. In this session we will learn what Microsoft
has up its sleeve for smart client development by taking a close look at the project
code named “Acropolis”.
Shawn Robichaud is a Programmer Analyst working for the State of Maine, Office
of Information Technology. For the past three years Shawn has been orchestrating a
project involving the State of Maine Department of Agriculture. The project utilizes
Microsoft’s Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005 Technologies to provide field and office
workers alike with a rich smart client application. Shawn has a broad range of programming
experience working for customers in both local and state government. Shawn has also
provided consulting services on projects ranging from automotive sales to medical
transcription. Shawn lives in Augusta with his wife and cat Zorro.
Challenges in .NET architecture and team development
by Mark Blomsma.
In this presentation we take a look at first hand experiences of developing an enterprise
application. Architecture, team development, deployment, coding standards, testing
cycles and QA are all topics that are covered.
Mark Blomsma is a software architect, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and trainer.
Mark is the owner of Develop-One, co-owner of Omnext, instructor for DevelopMentor
and an active community organizer and contributor in the Software Developer Network
and the Maine Developer Network. Mark is a Microsoft MVP; his blog can be found at
http://blog.develop-one.com.
|
| Previous meeting: 4th of October 2007 | (9/13/2007) |
Our meeting on the 4th of October went well inspite of some bad luck. Shawn's car
broke down on the way to the meeting so his session got cancelled last minute. In
his stead Mark Blomsma did an on the spot demo of building a Windows Vista gadget.
Looking at basic development, deployment, security considerations and some other fun
stuff.Chris Rhoda gave a detailed account of the state of the art IT facilities offered
by Thomas College, in particular the technologies around instant messaging and Live
Communications server.
Thanks to Thomas College for providing us with
excellent facilities and Develop-One for
providing drinks and snacks.
|
| April 2007, Chris Bowen: Developing with Windows Communication Foundation | (5/1/2007) |
The weather finally gave us a break and we had our last meeting on the 26th of
April! Chris Bowen presented on Windows Communication Foundation and he did a
great job explaining the material and showing lots of code, explaining how to get
started with WCF.
A great session!
For those who missed the meeting, or those who wish to be included on our mailinglist:
just create an account on this website an you will receive our newsletters and any
other notifications about our meetings.
Download:
wcfintro.zip
|
| February 2007, Mark Blomsma - Dual Session on .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.0 | (2/28/2007) |
On the 27th of February 2007 we had Mark Blomsma from Develop-One do
two sessions. The first session was all about developing about implementing business
logic in .NET 2.0, the second about developing for Windows Vista with .NET 3.0. The
focus here was on WPF and gadgets.
Material from the first session can be found here.
Material from the second session can be found here.
|
| June 2006, Mark Blomsma - Programming Smart Client applications with .NET 2.0 | (6/22/2006) |
On the 22nd of June we had Mark Blomsma from Develop-One as a guest speaker.
Using an application that is close to completion Mark showed how to create a
typed dataset, deliver the data to a client using webservices, consume the service
and asynchronously use the data retrieved to send a newsletter using the .NET mail
classes.
Click below to download the powerpoint:
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| May 2006, Gregg Dunn and Bryan Beatty - Smart Clients and Object Relational Mapping | (5/27/2006) |
 
Gregg Dunn and Bryan Beatty spoke at our meeting on the 22nd of May and shared their
knowledge and insights on DevForce Express and .NET in general with us. Looking
into the inner workings of the solution offered by DevForce they provided some great
insights into the world of distributed applications, Smart Clients and Object Relational
Mapping.
Powerpoints:
DevForce Express is a .NET developer productivity solution for building data-intensive,
web-enabled, client/server applications.
You can download a free version at: http://www.ideablade.com/downloads.html.
If you are still running under .NET 1.1 / VS2003, a free version can be downloaded
at: http://www.ideablade.com/IB%2DLite%5FHome/
Another way to learn more about our DevForce is to browse the IdeaBlade Web
Seminars, which may be found at http://www.ideablade.com/web_seminars.html
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| April 2006, Thom Robbins - Introduction to .NET and ASP.NET 2.0 | (4/15/2006) |
Thom did two presentations for us, one on .NET in general and one that focused on
new features in ASP.NET 2.0. Here are the downloads:
Thom also maintains a blog which can be found at: http://blogs.msdn.com/trobbins
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