Bob Familiar and I are busting out of our home bases in Massachusetts and taking our long-winded rants and questionable demos on the roads across the Northeast! In the coming weeks, we'll be bringing the latest in developer- and architect-focused content to a town near you.
Join us for a full day of no-fluff deep technical content, plenty of code, 100% guaranteed-to-run demos*, and of course giveaways throughout with a chance to win a Zune at day's end! [* We'll define "run" as we go.]
Roadshow Schedule and Registration
| Rochester, NY | February 27th, 2007 | 8:30am-4:00pm | Click Here to Register! |
| Burlington, VT | March 1st, 2007 | 8:30am-4:00pm | Click Here to Register! |
| Portland, ME | March 6th, 2007 | 8:30am-4:00pm | Click Here to Register! |
| Manchester, NH | March 8th, 2007 | 8:30am-4:00pm | Click Here to Register! |
| Farmington, CT | March 20th, 2007 | 8:30am-4:00pm | Click Here to Register! |
Event Agenda
For this tour, we're focusing on all things .Net Framework 3.0. Here's the agenda:
08:30am – Arrive, check in, grab a nosh and a seat
09:00 – 10:15 – Windows Communication Foundation
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is Microsoft's unified framework for building secure, reliable, transacted, and interoperable distributed applications. Learn how to leverage the new features in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to make a smooth transition to a service-orientation. The capabilities exposed through this new addition to the .NET framework will enable the core building blocks of connected systems such as data & service contracts, security, reliability, administration, and management
10:15 – 10:30 – Take a break and communicate
10:30 – 12:00 – Windows CardSpaces
Windows CardSpace enables users to provide their digital identities in a familiar, secure and easy way. In the physical world we use business cards, credit cards and membership cards. Online with CardSpace we use a variety of virtual cards to identify ourselves, each retrieving data from an identity provider. Don't struggle with usernames and passwords, just choose an information card! This session will delve into the architecture and implementation of CardSpaces.
12:00-01:00 – Grab a lunch and ponder your identity
01:00 – 02:15 –Workflow Foundation
Workflow Foundation (WF), a component of the .NET Framework 3.0, enables you to quickly and reliably implement workflows and business rules in your applications. WF provides a framework for constructing sequential and state-machine based workflows for any .NET application or service and includes tools to effectively manage and modify those workflows. In this session, we'll introduce the major concepts and purpose of WF, demonstrate the creation and maintenance of workflows with Visual Studio 2005, and show the potential uses of workflows within your applications.
02:15-02:30 – Take a break and go with the flow
02:30 – 03:45 – Windows Presentation Foundation
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft’s new strategic User Interface technology designed to provide richer, high-fidelity, applications using an optimized developer/designer workflow. Learn how to leverage the new features in WPF such as XAML to create visually stunning interfaces to enhance capabilities and user experience of your applications.
03:45 – 04:00 – Zune Giveaway
Register using the links in the schedule above. Looking forward to seeing you out on the road!
-Chris
[Cross-posted from
http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen]
[Cross-posted from my new blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen]
Bob Familiar, my Architect Evangelist counterpart in New England, has posted details of upcoming events related to the arcStream initiative:
- December 11th - arcCouncil meeting on "Composite Application Architecture and User Experience"
- January 11th - arcLab session: "Take a lap around .NET 3.0"
- There are also many arcCasts on a variety of subjects coming up as well.
More details and registration can be found at the arcStreamEast.net site.
-Chris
The schedule for Code Camp 6 is
now available. This time around, we're trying a different format
of packing all of the sessions into one day this Saturday (10/21)
instead of the usual full weekend. Registration begins at 8:30
and the sessions will run from 9 AM until 6:15 PM at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA.
I'll be giving a demo-heavy talk, "PowerShell in a Nutshell" (sorry, couldn't resist) in which I'll show how PowerShell can be a great tool for anyone, but especially for .NET developers.
If you haven't registered, you can do so here.
Hope to see you there!
-Chris
I'm late blogging about this, but I'll be speaking at the C# User Group of Greater Boston tomorrow night (November 1st). The meeting starts at 6:30 at Microsoft's Waltham office. Here is the session description:
Avoiding C# Traps and Pitfalls
As any developer knows, there's always more than one way to solve a coding problem. This is certainly true when using .NET and C#, but some approaches are better than others. For example, you probably know to use the Length property to check that a string is empty or that you should use StringBuilder when concatenating many strings. In this talk, we'll go beyond those basics to cover the "gotcha's" lurking in the shadows of C# and the .NET Framework. You'll see plenty of example code showing practices to avoid and your options for avoiding them. Every developer should know about these, but unfortunately, many find out after the fact. This is a good chance to learn from other developers' pains and immediately use these tips to make your applications better.
Hope to see you there!
-Chris
Code Camp IV is just three days away now. Unfortunately, if you haven't already registered, you won't be able to. Response has been so strong that even the waitlist space has been filled.
However, for those of you who will be taking your weekend to come to CC IV, there is a very broad agenda of sessions available. Thom Robbins has posted the traditional "Almost Agenda" (because change is always expected).
I always enjoy Code Camp and have signed up to give two presentations and a chalk talk, all on Sunday:
Presentation (Level 200) - Practical Software Development with Visual Studio Team System
This demonstration-heavy session, for software developers, answers the question "What's this Team System thing and how does it affect me?" We'll begin with a very quick overview of Team System, then devote the bulk of time to walkthroughs of the features most relevant to software developers. You'll see how integrated unit testing will make your code more reliable and maintainable, how static code analysis will help identify problems in your code and how profiling can identify performance bottlenecks - before your users do. However, because the reality of software engineering is that developers are often called upon to conduct testing, we'll also cover the extensive web and load testing features of Team System. Along the way, you'll see how Team Foundation works to integrate these activities, storing code, collecting data and generating reports.
Presentation (Level 200) - What's new in the .NET Framework 2.0?
November will see the release of the next version of the .NET Framework. In this session, we'll focus on improvements made to the Base Class Library itself. New classes and namespaces are available to make your job easier and many changes have been made to existing classes as well. Support for 64-bit applications, compression, threading, DPAPI, FTP and many other improvements to networking and threading will be introduced. You'll also see how new features and changes to System.Security improve support for developing secure applications. Even our old friends System.IO.Console, System.GC and many base System types have new powers to inspire applause and tears of joy.
Chalk Talk (Level 300) - Effective Development Practices in .NET
Back for its third Code Camp, this interactive peer discussion focuses on development practices, from design to coding and deployment. Specific topics are driven by participants but are always relevant to .NET development best practices. Past talks have included Enterprise Library, successfully implementing development standards, code reviews, unit testing, SOA, practices sharing, performance analysis, class reuse, code management, useful tools, resources for training/education and more. What’s worked for you and, equally important, what has not? Having trouble implementing a specific practice in your organization? Looking for tips on what tools might make your development life easier? This session has been well-attended at previous Code Camps and is a great chance to pick the collective brains of other experienced .NET developers.
Hope to see you there!
-Chris
Here's the current batch of upcoming sessions,
meetings and events coming up for those of us lucky enough to live in
New England!
-Chris
P.S. Can anyone tell me why CommunityServer is insisting upon
reformatting my TABLE tags to remove the borders (and other settings)?
| July 26 |
CT .NET User Group
6:00
- 7:00 PM - "Career Night! Leading companies will provide insights
into the .NET employment market and how to improve your resume and
interviewing skills. Bring copies of your resume for review!"
7:00
- 8:00 PM - "Aaron Junod on 'Creating and monitoring a reliable, and
repeatable automated build with open source .net tools.' Using tools
like Nant, NUnit, and CruiseControl.net, Aaron will describe how teams
can automate many redundant tasks required to build and deploy
releases, while ensuring quality by running and reporting on unit tests
in real time. We will also cover some of the tools coming with
Visual Studio 2005 that may serve as replacements."
|
| July 27 |
Boston Code Brew
6:00 - 8:00 PM - Indigo Study Group
|
| August 4 |
New England Visual Basic Professionals
6:15 - 8:30 PM - Robert Hurlbut - "VB.Net 2.0 Language Changes. What's coming in the next version of Visual Basic."
|
| August 8 |
VT .NET User Group
Mike Soulia - .NET Newbie Session: "ADO.NET (in 1.1) Introduction"
Julie Lerman - "What's New in ADO.NET 2.0"
|
| August 11 |
Beantown .NET User Group
5:30 - 7:30 PM - Thom Robbins - "Visual Studio Team System"
|
| August 18 |
NH .NET User Group
Michael Stiefel - Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
|
| September 13 |
MSDN Events - Providence, RI
1:00 - 5:00 PM - "Rule the Web with ASP.NET 2.0"
Sessions:
- "Developing Compelling User Interfaces with Ease in ASP.NET 2.0"
- "Data Access with ADO.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET 2.0"
- "Building High Performance Applications with ASP.NET 2.0"
|
| September 14 |
Boston .NET User Group
5:00 - 6:15 PM - Technology Study Group
6:30
- 8:30 PM - Adam Machanic - "Adam will discuss the use of the .NET CLR
in SQL Server 2005 from the perspective of an application developer.
What are its capabilities, what architectural considerations are
necessary for a application to make the best use, and design tips.
Additional details on the presentation will be posted soon."
|
| September 15 |
MSDN Events - Burlington, MA
[Same event as the one listed above for 9/13 in Providence.]
|
| September 24-25 |
Code Camp 4: Developers Gone Wild
"Are
you a developer interested in improving your .NET skills? Then this is
the event to attend. Code Camp 4: Developers Gone Wild promises to be
both bigger and better than anything we have done before. This free two
day seminar is designed as a series of intensive code related demos and
technical sessions to guide the developer to the next skill level. The
continuing goal of the Code Camps is to provide an intensive developer
to developer learning experience that is fun and technically
stimulating. The focus is on delivering programming information and
sample code that can be used immediately. All training, slides, manuals
and demo code is provided free!"
Register here |
Let's hope we don't get too much snow for this weekend's (sold-out**) Code Camp III!
Thom has announced that Microsoft will conduct hands-on labs at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) on Saturday from 1-5. Seating is limited and you can sign up for these when you arrive at Code Camp on Saturday morning. The MTC is about a mile drive from the Jones Road offices.
He also sends word that the final agenda is ready (and probably won't change.) The session descriptions are online as well.
I wanted to have more time to see other peoples' sessions, so I've cut back from