Category: User Groups

Alabama Code Camp with Speaker Idol

Update: Due to a scheduling conflict, the date of the Alabama Code Camp has been pushed back to January 31st. We apologize for the inconvenience but hope the extra time will make it easier for everyone to plan to attend.

The next Alabama Code Camp will be Saturday January 17th 31st, 2009 in Montgomery Alabama. Call for speakers is open, so check back to the site soon for registration, session schedule, and more.

Also at this event we’ll be having the Alabama Speaker Idol contest. The object of this contest is to encourage new speakers to step up to the Code Camp level. During lunch we’ll be giving new speakers each five minutes to do a presentation. The detailed rules are below, but the big news is the grand prize: a 1 year MSDN Premium Subscription!

Update: Registration for the event is now open, you can register at http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=134437

Alabama Speaker Idol Rules

1. Presentations are targeted to be five minutes in length, presentations can vary from 4:50 to 5:10 without penalty. Presentations under 4:50 or over 5:10 will be penalized.

2. As the object of the contest is to encourage new speakers, professional speakers, MVPs, and speakers at previous code camps are not eligible. However, someone may participate and also be a speaker at the Jan. 17th 31st, 2009 code camp as long as this is their first time speaking at a code camp.

3. In addition to length, speakers will also be judged on clarity, technical accuracy and content.

4. In addition to the judges, code camp attendees and other members of the pubic may be in the audience during presentations.

5. Judges will be composed of attending MVPs and other notable attendees. As with most of these things, scoring is largely subjective. The result of the judges is final. No whining, crying, or complaining.

6. To participate in the contest you must e-mail your name, title of your presentation, and contact cell number (just in case) to arcanecode@gmail.com with Alabama Speaker Idol in the subject header. All submissions must be received by noon, central standard time, Friday January 16th 30th. (edit to reflect date change)

7. Due to time restrictions, the contest will be limited to 15 participants. In the event more than 15 submissions are received, 15 contestants will be randomly drawn from the pool of submissions. All others will be placed on the stand by list. In the event of a no show on the day of the contest, we will randomly draw a replacement speaker from the standby list.

8. The order of the speakers will be drawn at random just before the presentations begin. All presentations will take place during lunch at the code camp.

9. The winner will be announced at the end of the code camp day.

10. These rules may be amended as the Code Camp Committee deems fit in order to facilitate a more orderly, better code camp.

How to be a more marketable software developer

On Thursday I am presenting a quick talk at the Internet Professional Society of Alabama. This is part of an event called Idea Spark, where multiple individuals give five minute talks. I thought it’d be fun to steer away from the normal tech talks and talk about something near and dear to all of our hearts: money!

My talk will give a few quick points on some basic, inexpensive things you can do to make yourself more valuable, and thus command a larger salary in the marketplace. I can testify these things work, having done them myself. However it’s not with out a lot of sweat equity. You’ll need to invest a fair amount of time to achieve success, but everything worth doing is worth taking the time to do right.

Here’s the slide deck in PDF format: how-to-be-a-more-marketable-software-developer

I have to give thanks and much credit to Doug Turnure, a content architect for Microsoft. He first gave a very similar presentation some time back and was gracious enough to share the slides. I took them, did some rearranging, trimming, and additions to achieve this current version which is a blend of his thoughts and mine.

I hope you find the talk and the slides valuable as you give yourself the edge in this competitive marketplace.

BSDA – BUG.NET Christmas Party

It’s party time! The Birmingham Software Developers Association and the Birmingham .Net Users Group are joining forces to throw a holiday blast. The event will take place Tuesday, December 2nd 6:00 pm at Richard’s BBQ and Grill on Acton Road, just off Interstate 459. This is a family friendly event, spouses and children are encouraged to attend. We promise to keep the geek talk to a minimum.

The clubs want to extend an invitation to all user groups in the Birmingham community. No matter what your group we’d like to extend a special invite to all to attend. Rumor has it there will be some swell door prizes and swag to give away.

Please be aware the event is BYOW! Bring Your Own Wallet. Each family will be responsible for it’s own bill. Not to worry though, Richard’s rates are very reasonable, and they have a wide variety of food to pick from. In addition to BBQ they have a nice meat and three selection, and some of the best burgers you ever put in your mouth.

Please RSVP to altechevents@gmail.com by close of business Monday, November 30th with how many will be attending so we can give the restaurant a semi-accurate count. Look forward to seeing you all then!

SQL Saturday Orlando Full Text Searching Session

On October 25th, 2008 I presented “Getting Started with SQL Server 2008 Full Text Searching” at SQL Saturday in Orlando. First off, I want to apologize to the attendees for taking so long to get this material posted. But I can finally reveal what has been sucking up my spare time lately!

I, along with other MVP’s have been working on something called the SQL Server 2008 MVP book project. Many SQL MVP’s, myself included, volunteered to write one or more chapters for the book. Once published, all proceeds will go to charity. I’m very excited at the opportunity to contribute the chapter on Full Text Searching, which I submitted today. I’ll keep you posted as things progress.

We’re not the first ones to go down this road, Sara Ford is donating the proceeds from her Visual Studio Tips book to supply scholarships for the young folks in the hurricane ravaged town of Waveland MS. I hope you’ll support her efforts as well.

Meanwhile, what you really came for was the links relevant to my talk.

Detailed descriptive material can be found on my blog, ArcaneCode.com, with links to specific posts below.

First off, the slides and sample code can be located at the Code Gallery site I setup specifically for Full Text Searching with SQL Server:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SqlServerFTS

Look on the downloads page to see various projects around SQL Server Full Text Searching. I’ve created one “release” for each of the projects around FTS. Be sure to look on the right side at the various releases in order to see the various projects.

Next, you can get started with the basics by reading these entries on my blog:

Lesson 0 – Getting the Bits to do Full Text Searching in SQL Server 2005
Lesson 1 – The Catalog
Lesson 2 – The Indexes
Lesson 3 – Using SQL
Lesson 4 – Valid Data Types
Lesson 5 – Advanced Searching

After that you’ll be ready for some advanced topics.

Can you hear me now? Checking to see if FTS is installed.
Exploring SQL Servers FullTextCatalogProperty Function
Using the ObjectPropertyEx Function
Using FORMSOF in SQL Server Full Text Searching
Creating Custom Thesaurus Entries in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Full Text Search
Creating and Customizing Noise Words in SQL Server 2005 Full Text Search
Creating and Customizing Noise Words / StopWords in SQL Server 2008 Full Text Search
Advanced Queries for Using SQL Server 2008 Full Text Search StopWords / StopLists

Blog Action Day – Fighting Poverty with Tech

Today is Blog Action Day, a day for bloggers to rally to a cause. This year the cause is poverty. I firmly believe one of the best ways to fight poverty is via education. Since what I know is development technology, I’d like to offer some suggestions and advice for someone aspiring to get into a career as a developer. Assuming someone has access to even a moderately low end computer, there are some great ways to educate yourself about development technologies at no cost, even ways to get development software at no charge that you can put to use to begin making money.

First are the express editions of Microsoft Visual Studio and SQL Server. You can find these at http://www.microsoft.com/Express/.

If you are still in school, Microsoft gives you access to more full featured versions of their development tools through their DreamSpark program. The site has complete instructions on getting your school added if it’s not already.

There are many ways to learn how to use these products. One of the main ways is through podcasts and video training. There are many I listen to, but the ones I’d suggest starting with are DNRTV, DotNetRocks, Channel 9 and Security Now. Other shows are linked to on my links page.

If you want something to help you manage and find other podcasts, consider the Zune software. Even if you can’t afford to purchase a Zune, you can download the Zune software for free and use it to manage and listen to your podcasts. You can go to the marketplace to find and subscribe, for free, to many podcasts. Once subscribed the software will download them automatically for you.

Finally, check out the free educational opportunities available to you at local user groups. Again on my links page you’ll find a list of groups local to my area. At these user groups, most of which are free, you can learn, and more importantly make contact with people in the tech industry. These contacts will be valuable to you as you seek to begin your career. They can tip you off to better paying jobs, prep you on how to look / talk, and more.

Of course, most of the links I’ve provided here revolve around Microsoft technologies. There are also other technologies available, surrounding languages such as Java, Perl, PHP, Ruby and more that are also free to the aspiring developer. Since they are a bit out of my areas of expertise I’d suggest searching the web for what interests you. If you are not sure, check the want ads (both newspaper and on-line) for the skill sets that are in demand in your area.

Using your time to advance your education can give you knowledge with makes your more valuable in the workplace, a proven path to escaping poverty.

October Open Spaces at BSDA

Come join us in October for a very special Birmingham Software Developers Association meeting. We will be having a Open Spaces session, to expose members and visitors to the concept. In Open Spaces, participants place topics for discussion on the board, then the group votes on the topics they’d like to discuss. A moderator moves the discussion along, and when the topic is worked out moves onto the next topic.

Some possible topics might include open source software, imperative versus declarative languages, and more. Any topic is open for debate and discussion, so please come prepared to discuss!

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday October 9th at the New Horizons Training Center in Homewood, AL. Everyone is welcome.

Bug.Net meeting on SQL Server Compact Edition

A few months ago I did a presentation to the Birmingham .Net Users Group (BUG.NET). The subject was SQL Server Compact Edition, in it I discuss both the ‘traditional’ way of accessing a SSCE file as well as using LinqToSQL.

This is a recording of a live presentation, so the audio quality may not be as good as some of the previous presentations I’ve done, it was my first experiment in recording a session live. Let me know how it works for you, I did make every attempt to clean up where I could and ensure the audience was understandable as well.

The wmv is about 76 meg, you can download the wmv directly or watch streaming below.

SQL Saturday – Orlando – October 25th

Just a note for my friends in and near Orlando, I have agreed to come down and speak at the SQL Saturday event on October 25th. Just follow the link and pick SQL Saturday #8 for more details. My presentation will be on Full Text Searching. A big thanks to Andy Warren of End To End Training for inviting me and helping to make this possible.

WordCamp Birmingham – September 27 and 28

WordCamp is coming to town! September 27th and 28th, Saturday and Sunday. You may be aware, my own blog is hosted on WordPress. I like it’s simplicity, ease of use, and low cost. Plus I admit to a bit of nepitism, my brother in law is Dougal, who contributed to WordPress and will be one of the speakers at the upcoming event. Check out their website for all the details, look forward to seeing you there!

MSDN Southern Fried Roadshow Comes To Alabama

bucketsmall Since there are so many events coming to Alabama, we decided to create an uber-post listing them all! MSDN Southern Fried Roadshow – September Edition The MSDN Southern Fried Roadshow is a half day free developer event with a southern flair, where you will learn about some of the latest developments in Microsoft technologies. For September, 2008 the Roadshow will be presented by Architect Evangelist Chad Brooks and Developer Evangelist Glen Gordon. Chad and Glen will be loading up a minivan with lots of goodies, and trying to hit 5 cities in 5 days. We’ll start the morning with a quick update on a variety of developer topics. The we’ll spend the rest of the morning exploring the impact that REST has had on solutions architecture and the Microsoft Technologies that you need to leverage it. Every attendee will receive an MS Press book (while supplies last) as well as pointers to tons of resources for further learning. Register today using the links below. We’re trying to finalize the last cities, so check back for more.

Join our Facebook group! Come join our Facebook group and stay up to date on our travel adventures. Chime in with questions or comments, or just cheer us on. Resources Stay tuned for links, downloads and more about the topics we’ll be presenting on. Agenda Microsoft Developer Update First, we will do a survey of the set of just-released products and how they will impact developers. See what’s new in Windows Server 2008: Hypervisor Technology, IIS7, and others. SQL 2008 is also packed with goodies for Developers; see the geospatial capabilities as well as the LINQ enhancements. And don’t forget the myriad of enhancements that come with the .Net Framework 3.5! REST with WCF, ADO.NET Data Services, and ASP.NET MVC The evolution of the web has seen many changes in patterns and standards for working with services. In a world of AJAX and other lightweight clients, not all services need to be implemented with the bells and whistles that SOAP and its many specifications allow for. And not all services need to be “transport-neutral”. An alternative architectural approach known as REST is well suited for many web-based scenarios. You can implement a RESTful architecture using a variety of current and future Microsoft technologies. But how do you decide which ones are the best choices for your scenarios? These sessions of technical deep dives helps to answer that question. We will examine implementing RESTful services with WCF 3.5, using ADO.NET Data Services, and introduce the ASP.NET MVC framework.

 

MSDN Southern Fried Roadshow MSDN Southern Fried Roadshow

TechMixer University Wrap-Up

I can’t believe it’s been a week already since TechMixer University! Wow what a great time. It was our first year, and the last unofficial total I heard was 426 attendees, plus probably another 75 or so in speakers, vendors, and event volunteers. If you attended, I would love to hear from you, especially about the selection of speakers and subjects since I served as chair of the education committee. Shoot me an e-mail at arcanecode at gmail.com. I’ll keep your feedback confidential, but that feedback (good, bad, or ugly) will help us with next years event.

After the event each volunteer was recognized and presented with nice award. I thought the coolest award tough came from my nine year old daughter Raven. She took one of the leftover flyers, cut it up and made her own newspaper article. Here it is for your enjoyment.

A Huge Success

Thanks again to everyone who participated, speakers, organizers, contributors and sponsors, and most of all the attendees.

Ted Neward goes well with cheesy stuffed burritos

I had quite the adventure last week getting to DevLink. Enroute Thursday night part of the electrical system in my old pickup decided to implode, leaving me stranded on the side of the interstate. I got it towed and had to wait for a friend to come get me (thanks Ben!). The closest place to wait was the Mexican Phone Company (aka Taco Bell). I claimed the booth with the wall outlet, setup my laptop, and settled in for 3 hours of waiting. Naturally there was no wi-fi to be found.

Always looking for opportunities to be productive, I worked on editing a Camtasia video I had recorded recently at a Bug.Net meeting. After a bit I decided to take a break and eat. While munching on a cheesy stuffed burrito I watched some videos I had downloaded from the InformIT site. In the first video Ted Neward talked about functional coding and touches on F#, in the second he dives deeper into F#. Once the videos and my cheesy stuffed burritos were done I returned to editing.

So the next day I got my wife’s van out of the shop (transmission had gone out leaving CodeStock – these conferences are getting expensive!) hopped in and took off once again for DevLink, this time making it just in time to see the last session of the day – none other than a presentation by Ted Neward and Amanda Laucher on F#. And I’ll be dog gone if Ted wasn’t wearing the exact same t-shirt he had one while filming the videos I’d watched. Made the experience that much more surreal. Either that or the cheesy stuffed burritos were haunting me, one of the two.

I did at least get one whole day in at DevLink, still well worth going to. And I’m not just saying that because I won a copy of Vista Ultimate and Master Chiefs decapitated head. Oh and if you are looking to learn a little more on F#, Ted’s got a great article in the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of Code Magazine called F# 101. Good reading.

All in all, despite the vehicular issues DevLink was still a good value and I plan to make it an annual trip.