SBC DotNet Weblog

Call For Speakers - The First Hartford CodeCamp (Aug 16th Sat)

c1sbc — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:56:07 GMT

Call for Speakers

CTDOTNET CodeCamp - Hartford CT (Saturday Aug 16th 9AM-5PM)

To be held at New Horizons Computer Learning Center (Bloomfield CT)
http://www.newhorizons.com/content/centerSearchResults.aspx?SiteId=25...

A code camp is a FREE, community-driven, all-day event for developers. Speakers are local or regional developers. Topics are based on community interest. Sessions are original and feature a heavy technical focus (no marketing fluff). We will follow the Spirit of the Codecamp Manifesto as described here -
http://www.thedevcommunity.org/codecamps/manifesto.aspx

We are seeking talented .NET developers to make a presentation or two at the First Hartford CodeCamp on August 16th (Saturday). If you have ever wanted fame (& perhaps fortune) - this is your opportunity! We are giving away one MSDN Premium subscription and other prizes for presenters (judged by evals from attendees).

Each session should be about 90mins in duration and the content should be on developer topics that would be of interest to attending developers. Just about anything in .NET and other Microsoft technologies!

Choose a .NET topic of interest and send a brief abstract or outline, your developer experience, expected audience level, etc or any other questions to ctdotnet@gmail.com

Visit our website: Connecticut .NET Developers Group - www.ctdotnet.org

Free book - Jit N' Run - Best of SimpleTalk - ASP.Net

c1sbc — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:58:13 GMT

A very nice book, courtesy of RedGate (the tools people):

'Jit N' Run - The Best of SimpleTalk - ASP.Net**

Download it here...

**15 articles by esteemed .NET community authors, covering different areas of ASP.NET development, including ASP.NET master pages, AJAX extensions and Silverlight

Enterprise Library 4.0 – May 2008 is out!

c1sbc — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:12:26 GMT

This release of Enterprise Library for .NET 3.5 & VisualStudio 2008 includes the following:

Integration with the Unity Application Block
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) 2.0 support and improved instrumentation
Performance improvements
Pluggable Cache Manager
Visual Studio 2008 support
Bug fixes

Available here...

For SharePoint & Groove Users - Collaborative Solution Survey

c1sbc — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:57:36 GMT

Collaborative Solution Survey

This survey is in support of a graduate-level special project by students at Central Connecticut State University. The purpose of this project is to create a model which evaluates available collaborative solution(s) for their applicability and fit for common tasks in the software development lifecycle.

Please find below a link to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=A63ZF8m5ufzdBdZpyUC6Jg_3d_3d

In the survey, you will find questions regarding: the team that participates in specific collaborative tasks, and the solutions used to support that task. A few questions to gather demographic information about you and your organization are also included. Please fill out the survey as accurately as possible. If any particular part of the survey is inapplicable to you, please use the available options to skip ahead.

We truly appreciate your time in completing this survey. It will be a tremendous help to the success of the project. Please respond to the survey by May 1, 2008. If you're interested to know the results of the survey, leave your contact information in the space provided on the last page of the survey.

Please email any questions or concerns pertaining to this survey to:
collaborativesolutionsurvey@officeliveusers.com

My Office Groove presentation (in stereo)

c1sbc — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:44:00 GMT

In a prior post I had mentioned that I was to present at the CTAUG group meeting (on March 10th @ Microsoft Farmington CT) - entitled: Microsoft Office Groove (In Stereo). It went very well - I was awaiting CTAUG's response and here it is -

Main Presentation: Microsoft's Peer-to-Peer Office collaboration product, 'Groove'.

Microsoft MVP 'SB' Chatterjee (who is acting Director of the Connecticut .NET Developers Group) was our main speaker. SB has been instrumental in bringing Groove to it's current state of development (sic: not quite true albeit I did do some beta testing over the years). Groove makes it easy for teams to work together, communicating peer-to-peer (primarily) over the Internet, no matter their location, time zone, or work hours. A Groove collaboration can be set up quickly and is highly encrypted, making the product ideal for use whenever such features are valuable, for example in natural disaster situations (think FEMA). Groove's peer-to-peer architecture can be more robust than central-server products such as Lotus Notes and SharePoint.

SB's demo was visually stunning. He had two clients/servers running, each separately connected to the internet (using the WiFi capability now provided by Microsoft at our meetings), and with both their screens visible to the audience through the use of side by side projectors. He demonstrated Groove's ability to create and update documents (sketches, pictures, notepad, etc) on one machine and see the changes appear almost instantly on the other machine. Groove uses peer-to-peer communication to keep one or more clients in the workspace synchronized. SB demoed workspace setup, Forms, the SDK, the central role played by the Windows registry, and coordinated everything with a PowerPoint presentation.
Lot's of questions during the entire session.

Professional IronRuby

c1sbc — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:56:18 GMT

Our own Aaron Junod (part of the CTDOTNET crew) is teaming up with Rob Bazinet to write 'Professional IronRuby' (for Wrox publishing). This should be a good piece of work.

I have know Aaron for quite a few years and he is one talented developer and this book should be a good one.

Now we should get him to present IronRuby at the Connecticut .NET Developers Group.

Book Preview: C#3.0 Query Expressions chapter

c1sbc — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:09:38 GMT

Free download of a sample chapter that covers C# 3.0 fundamentals, and provides a full grounding in C# 3.0 Query Expressions.

Download here...

Ray Ozzie's perspective on the future of the Web

c1sbc — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:51:36 GMT

Interesting reading at eWeek..

SharePoint Conference 2008 Highlights (Part 1)

c1sbc — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:31:53 GMT

Jeff Monnette gives a good overview of the SharePoint Conference 2008 highlights in his blog here..

Presenting Groove at CTAUG on March 10th (Monday) at Microsoft Farmington CT.

c1sbc — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:50:26 GMT

My first Groove MVP public presentation on Groove! I'll be presenting at the Connecticut Access User Group on March 10th (Monday) at the Microsoft Farmington CT office.

The topic is 'Microsoft Office Groove 101' - an introduction to Groove and Collaborative Application Development.

Introducing Groove's first MVPs!

c1sbc — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:51:08 GMT

Some write-ups about the new Groove MVPs

(self-included)

:-)

Trinity College Men's Squash Wins 10th Straight National Title

c1sbc — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 01:11:00 GMT

One of my revered Alma Mater - Trinity College, has an incredible men's squash team that has won the National Collegiate Championship in Squash (Potter Trophy) TEN times in row! Simply amazing!

click image for match details

Office Groove is growing - job postings

c1sbc — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:37:15 GMT

The Microsoft Office Groove team is expanding and is looking for a few good people to join them (at Beverly MA) -

job postings here...

Microsoft tops BusinessObjects in Gartner's Business Intelligence Quadrant

c1sbc — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:06:41 GMT

The company makes a surprise leap ahead of Business Objects and Cognos in its ability to execute on BI products and pricing.

[from InformationWeek]

The Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 2008 is published by Gartner Research.

FACEBOOK App: ContactsNearby

c1sbc — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:47:19 GMT

Contacts Nearby (from InSTEDD)

The Contacts Nearby application allows users to discover geographic locations of other people in their extended social network. Social networks or “friend graphs” are increasingly popular on the internet because they enable applications to learn of trust relationship between users. Combine this information with the geographical location of each user and you get a valuable tool in possible emergency situations.

Imagine being on site at an emergency situation. You might have the best aid workers or medical staff within a hand's reach. The Contacts Nearby application lets you see if you have contacts in common and allows you to ask for referrals from mutual contacts. This information can accelerate finding useful contacts in your area and building trust with them.