Lake County .NET Users' Group Helping the .NET developers of Lake County, Illinois

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/836366595

Abstract:
WebMatrix is everything you need to build Web sites using Windows. It includes IIS Developer Express (a development Web server), ASP.NET (a Web framework), and SQL Server Compact (an embedded database). It streamlines Web site development and makes it easy to start Web sites from popular open-source apps. The skills and code you develop with WebMatrix transition seamlessly to Visual Studio and SQL Server. Learn how to use the new MVC engine, Razor, and the WebMatrix IDE.

Bio
Clark Sell - Name a role in the software industry, and Clark has probably played it. He started as a Y2K tester and has since worked as a developer, lead, “build monkey,” solutions architect and product manager. His professional sweet spot however, lies in designing and building software solutions that make life easier – there’s no chance for boredom and constant opportunities for growth. Clark is MCSD certified and received top Microsoft honors with the Circle of Excellence Award. He’s a graduate of Western Illinois University and before joining Microsoft in 2005, he served as a solutions architect at Allstate Insurance Company. As a senior developer evangelist and Visual Studio team system ranger, Clark brings a good dose of humor and a zest for life to the podium. You can hear Clark’s technical musings on “The Smackdown” at DeveloperSmackdown.com and The Thirsty Developer podcast – or find him getting grease under his nails in the garage. Clark’s a muscle car fanatic who’s currently finishing a body-off restoration of his 1970 Chevrolet Camaro. 

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/797275673

Abstract
WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) is most commonly used to query for hard drives, find out what services are running, and other basic Windows functions. But, did you know that you can make your own objects queryable in WMI as well, as well as send custom events? We'll go over how to query machine state with WMI, and then how to instrument your own applications with WMI as well. Finally, I'll show how to make a custom MMC plugin powered with WMI.

Bio:
Nick Schweitzer is a Milwaukee Area Software Consultant with more than 12 years of experience. He is a Senior Consultant at SpiderLogic (http://www.spiderlogic.com) in Milwaukee and has worked with clients ranging from medium size firms, to Fortune 500 companies. He sometimes blogs at The Coding Monkey (http://www.thecodingmonkey.net) and is active on Twitter (@NickSchweitzer).

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/766275952

Abstract:
"The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in .NET that enables greater reuse of applications and components. Using MEF, .NET applications can make the shift from being statically compiled to dynamically composed. If you are building extensible applications, extensible frameworks and application extensions, then MEF is for you." (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mef)

Bio:
Damon Payne is a life-long geek, Microsoft MVP, father, husband, audio/videonut, atheist, philosopher, wine drinker, and short order cook who lives inthe unexplored swamps near Milwaukee. Damon works mostly in the areas ofSmart Client software (including Silverlight, WPF, and Windows Phone 7) ,visual tools, and Solution Architecture; he also does web programming andhas professional interests in parallel programming, agile processes, andrequirements gathering. Damon is currently the Principal Software Architect at Big Hammer Data. Youcan find steady updates and detailed articles at www.damonpayne.com.

Due to a family emergency, the speaker cannot make it, and we need to cancel this event.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/722041646

Abstract

Document generation can be a powerful tool for developing products such as marketing aid or contacts. At the same time it can be challenging to develop applications that give you full control of the Office object model and do not require huge server farms to run. Open XML offers a solution to both of these problems. This talk will give details that will give you a head start using Open XML SDK 2.0 to customer ready PowerPoint and Word documents.

Bio

Tim Murphy is a Technical Specialist at PSC Group, LLC (www.psclistens.com). He has been an IT Consultant for the past eleven years specializing in Microsoft technologies and Software Architecture. Tim is a co-leader of the Chicago Architects Group as well as a contributing author of the book The Definitive Guide to the Microsoft Enterprise Library. Recently he has also spoken at the nPlus1 ArcSummit in Chicago and appeared on the Thirsty Developer podcast.

http://geekswithblogs.net/tmurphy

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/683728049

Abstract

Microsoft Silverlight provides a strong foundation for building Rich Internet Applications (RIA). WCF RIA Services introduced in this further simplify Line of Business (LoB) RIA development. It complements the existing Data Access Layer and presentation components in the .NET framework and Silverlight. They build on the foundation of ASP.NET and codify, evolve and support some of the common patterns in web applications. .NET RIA Services address the complexity of building n-tier applications through framework, tools and services. Framework components support prescriptive patterns for writing application logic and validation so that it can be easily used on the presentation tier. In this talk, we will look at the key aspects of .NET RIA Services preview. We will introduce the challenges of building an n-tier RIA and the approach taken to address the challenges.

Bio

Chris Woodruff or Woody to friends has a degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University College of Engineering. Woody has been developing and architecting software solutions for almost 15 years and has worked in many different platforms and tools. He is a community leader helping such events as Day of .NET Ann Arbor, West Michigan Day of .NET and CodeMash. As a speaker and podcaster, Woody has spoken and discussed topics from databases to open source. He is a Microsoft MVP in Data Platform Development.

Woody is the co-host of the popular podcast Deep Fried Bytes and blogs at www.cloudsocket.com. He is the President of the West Michigan .NET User Group, an INETA Membership mentor for Michigan and Ohio and also is a co-founder of nPlus1.com site.

Woody has worked in many industries through the years including medical, manufacturing, publishing, promotion execution and automotive. He has experience with starting and running new ventures from his past work with technology startups.

 
http://www.chriswoodruff.com

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/644297110

ABSTRACT
Did you miss the Microsoft MIX 2010 conference?  Well let’s have a fun chat about MIX.  With so much stuff covered in those 72 hours, it’s just impossible to try and cover it all in less than 2 hours. If you’re looking for slides then this isn’t the session for you.  We are going to take a technology tour for a few of the technologies that were making all the buzz on the floors of the MIX conference.

· Introduction to MEF
· ASP.NET MVC
· OData
· Silverlight 4
· Windows Phone 7 Series
· IE9

As if that wasn’t good enough, I have a Zune HD to give away.

BIO: Clark Sell 
http://csell.net
Microsoft | Senior Developer Evangelist

Name a role in the software industry, and Clark has probably played it. He started as a Y2K tester and has since worked as a developer, lead, “build monkey,” solutions architect and product manager. His professional sweet spot however, lies in designing and building software solutions that make life easier – there’s no chance for boredom and constant opportunities for growth. Clark is MCSD certified and received top Microsoft honors with the Circle of Excellence Award. He’s a graduate of Western Illinois University and before joining Microsoft in 2005, he served as a solutions architect at Allstate Insurance Company. As a senior developer evangelist and Visual Studio team system ranger, Clark brings a good dose of humor and a zest for life to the podium. You can hear Clark’s technical musings on “The Smackdown” at DeveloperSmackdown.com and The Thirsty Developer podcast – or find him getting grease under his nails in the garage. Clark’s a muscle car fanatic who’s currently finishing a body-off restoration of his 1970 Chevrolet Camaro. 

Sorry-- this month's meeting has been cancelled. Our presenter wound up getting a really bad flu bug and had to cancel. Our apologies for the late notice.

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/523035413

Ruby and Rake isn't just for Rubyinst or Alphageeks anymore. Albacore.NET makes setting up a build automation stack for .NET amazingly easy. Using the Albacore.NET Rake tasks it's never been easier to handle database migrations, build automation, test execution and continuous integration.

BIO: Mike Hall
http://www.just3ws.com

REGISTER AT: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/481208307

Abstract:

F#, a new functional programming language from Microsoft Research, is making its debut in Visual Studio 2010. What is it, why should developers care about "yet another language", and why would my boss care? Learn what F# is, how it works, and what problems it solves.

Learn why there is a good chance that, as a .NET developer, functional programming will be part of your future.

Bio:

Aaron Erickson is a technology writer, enthusiast, and practitioner based out of Chicago, IL.  His life's work is to help convert the human intellectual capital into results for companies that empower both the knowledge workers who produce software, and the people for whom that software is designed to serve.  He frequently speaks at events such as TechEd, VSLive, and .NET user groups - with a goal of furthering the exchange of ideas - be they technology contributions - or observations about the technology consulting business.  He is the author of the book, "The Nomadic Developer", a career guide for technology consultants.  In his spare time he likes to buy random ingredients at the store and have "iron chef" night with his wife, play video games with his kids, and on occasion – spend time on Lord of The Rings Online or XBOX Live.  He also cuts a mean axe on Rock Band.

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/456336916

What is the Windows Azure Platform? How can I take advantage of the Windows Azure Platform to scale my applications? We will answer these questions and more as we dive into the parts of the Windows Azure Platform and why it is the best cloud computing platform for .NET developers. We will discuss how to take advantage of Web and Worker roles to expose your application to your customers and to scale your computing power with a flip of a switch. We will also dive into the storage options found in the Windows Azure Platform including Table, Blob, Queues and the recently announced SQL Azure.

Dave Bost is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft and co-host of the Thirsty Developer Podcast. Dave has been a Software Developer and Solution Architect for over 15-years. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dave cut his technical teeth working with many Fortune-500 companies as a technical mentor and consultant.

Dave started his technical passion back in the days of the Commodore-64 when he wrote his first assembly-language program that produced a hot-air balloon which sailed across his Commodore 1701 Video Monitor. From there, he was hooked. This led to a Computer Science degree at Northern Illinois University, where he soon started his professional career in the Unix/C world and a short time later, starting his Microsoft developer career. For the past decade, Dave has spent most of his time building web-based applications for the Microsoft platform. As a technologist, Dave doesn’t spend all his time in the Microsoft world as he likes to spend his time dabbling with the latest technologies, tools and movements coming out of the software industry.

Outside of his professional life, Dave enjoys discovering new music with his Zune Pass, defending the universe against 13-year olds on box Live, and playing golf (whenever his wife lets him). You can read Dave’s blog at http://davebost.com/blog or listen to the Thirsty Developer Podcast at http://thirstydeveloper.com.

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/430525714

Abstract:  Mike Stall will present on the new features in C# 4.0, including named and optional parameters, dynamic support, scripting, office interop and No-PIA (Primary-Interop-Assemblies) support.

Bio: Mike Stall is a  Principle Software Developer at Microsoft. He worked on the .NET Runtime (CLR) since before the initial 1.0 version up through 4.0, mainly focusing on the debugging services. He switched to the Visual Studio Languages (VSL) team, which includes the C#, VB, Iron Python, F#, and Iron Ruby. Mike was a cofounder for the “Building Development and Diagnostic Tools for .NET” forum, and has a blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/jmstall.

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/404712506

Microsoft MVP, Anthony Handley will be talking about Expression Blend 3. He’ll cover some of Blend’s newest features and show how SketchFlow can help designers and developers easily create interactive prototypes for desktop and web applications.

Anthony is a User Experience Specialist at Magenic in Chicago where he focuses on rich interactive solutions for the desktop and the web. In the technology community, Anthony evangelizes the value of better designer/developer collaboration and co-created and The Chicago Designers & Developers user group.

uxconfidential.com
cd2ug.org

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/378489071

Abstract:

Quality multi-tier web applications have clear separation between the Presentation, Logic, and Data layers; however, the Presentation (or UI) layer is often a tiny afterthought in the application’s blueprint. Web applications relying heavily on AJAX are especially vulnerable to poor organization, a fact which severely impacts the developer’s ability to maintain and debug their code. ExtJS, a leading JavaScript framework, provides developers with a stable library of objects and widgets which we will use to create a strong UI layer with eye-catching effects.

Speaker Bio: 
Arthur Kay is currently working as Senior Web Developer at GFX International and spends much of his free time completing freelance development work. His expertise includes web technologies like ASP.NET, PHP, JavaScript and AJAX, as well as search engine optimization, online marketing and usability. Arthur studied computer science at Loyola University Chicago, and has been working in web development for more than ten years.

Level: 200

Break free from the shackles in your code by learning how to utilize Dependency Inversion to loosely couple your code.

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/340783292

It is no secret that highly coupled code causes developers pain and suffering every day.  Highly coupled code is hard to maintain, painful to read and darn near impossible to test with any degree of confidence.  Yet knowing these facts developers still insist on writing highly couple code.

In this session we will take a look examples of highly coupled code and lean how we can utilize the Dependency Inversion principle (part of the SOLID principles) to help free your code from these dependencies.  We will do this by evolving an existing codebase which is highly coupled to one which is very loosely coupled.  By the end of this session you will be armed with the ability to spot tightly couple code from a mile away along with the knowledge on how to start breaking free from the shackles of coupled code.

SIGN UP: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/322881748

Join us on April 30th as the MIXITUP! TOUR makes it’s stop at the Lake County .NET Users' Group.

Microsoft MVP, Anthony Handley will offer a roundup of Microsoft’s major announcements from MIX09, which include information about Internet Explorer 8, ASP.NET MVC 1.0, Silverlight 3, Expression Blend 3, WebPI, Azure, and .NET RIA Services.

Anthony is a User Experience Specialist at Magenic in Chicago where he focuses on rich interactive solutions for the desktop and the web. In the technology community, Anthony evangelizes the value of better designer/developer collaboration and co-created and The Chicago Designers & Developers user group.

REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/603671598

ABSTRACT: Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio 2008 enables hobbyists, academics and commercial developers to create robotics applications targeting entertainment, educational, home, commercial, or industrial segments.

This presentation specifically focuses on the Microsoft Visual Programming Language in conjunction with Robotics Studio.

Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL) is an application development environment designed on a graphical dataflow-based programming mode. Rather than series of imperative commands sequentially executed, a dataflow program is more like a series of workers on an assembly line who do their assigned task as the materials arrive. As a result, VPL is well suited to programming a variety of concurrent or distributed processing scenarios.

VPL is targeted for beginning programmers with a basic understanding of concepts like variables and logic. However, VPL is not limited to novices. The compositional nature of the programming language appeals to more advanced programmers for rapid prototyping or code development. In addition, while its toolbox is tailored developing robot applications, the underlying architecture can be applied to other applications. As a result, VPL may appeal to a wide audience of users including students, enthusiasts/hobbyists, as well as professional programmers.

BIO: Lance Larsen ( www.lancelarsen.com )

Lance is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable independent consultant focusing on the latest Microsoft technologies. Lance balances his career, hobbies ( such as Robotics ) and his family life, including raising his two beautiful and way too smart for his own good, 5 and 8 year old daughters.

Always fascinated with Robotics, this has driven him educationally to get his bachelors in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and followed that up with a Masters in Computer Science ( with a focus in Artificial Intelligence ).

Combining both his educational background with Microsoft's Robotic Studio minimally gives him the ability to realize his ambitions to create an unstoppable robotic hoard to take over the world…. errr… sorry was that my outside voice again?

SIGN UP ON: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/300902006

ABSTRACT

We will look at two versions of the snap shot section of a stock market system based on point and figure charting. I want to show how well thought out inheritance and using polymorphism can make the above manageable as well as understandable. Above all else I want us to have some fun doing this.

System one was created with a 2 layered approach using sqldatasource with analysis divided between, the data and the UI layer. Originally, all function and analysis was intended occurred in the data layer. As time went by, this became impractical. In its current form the source code both sql and vb is a “marvel” to behold! As I said lets have fun with it.

System two is a redesign following a design pattern outlined in an article series by Imar Spaanjaars, “N-Layered Web Applications with ASP.NET 3.5”. Included is an interesting method of validation using custom attributes.

BIO: Kurt Schroeder

ABSTRACT

Many developers are familiar with CodeSmith, Eric Smith's template-based code generation engine that has become extremely popular in the last several years. It's a great way to stamp out boilerplate code, and it has templates for many popular frameworks. In this working session - which will be very light on PowerPoint - we'll take a walk through automating code generation usingCodeSmith's API. Starting with an EntityMap, we'll build several layers of a real application (no Northwind stuff here), from stored procedures to DALs to base Business Objects. We'll also take a look at incorporating this into an automated/daily build. Code that writes code - there's nothing like it!

BIO: Dan Souk

Dan has been designing and building custom software for fifteen years on the Microsoft platform for a variety of industries and customers. He has broad experience as a developer, architect and technical PM with large-scale .Net software projects, and believes strongly in the potential for automation of the software development process. After spending much of the last five years on the road, four with Avanade and one with Blackbaud, he is now building an IT consulting business in Chicago with Centric Consulting.

Sign up: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/282141894

ABSTRACT
We'll be introducing NHibernate from the ground up.
The problem of O/R Impedance Mismatching.
The benefits of utilizing a transparent object persistance framework such as NHibernate.
How to get started with NHibernate with an example class library and the mapping files required for NHibernate.
Some best practices regarding persisting and retrieving objects along with code examples.

BIO: Robert Dusek

I began programming in various incarnations of BASIC at a young age, but began my career in IT Operations as a network administrator. About 4 years ago, I stumbled onto .NET in order to solve various development tasks that my employer needed, eventually choosing to transition into C# Software Development full-time. I currently work with Hudson at GFX International building client-facing applications using MVC.Net and NHibernate. Recently Hudson and I along with Ricardo Borges have taken over as maintainers for Ayende’s NHibernate Query Analyzer.

BIO: Hudson Akridge
My early career was as a Database Developer, turning my attention towards .NET the last 3 years. I currently work at GFX Int. as a Corporate Dev writing both internal and external production applications relating to Manufacturing and Client management processes utilizing Alt.NET technologies such as MVC.NET and NHibernate.

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