Just a friendly reminder that tonight the CT dotnet developers group is meeting, and Mauro Cardarelli is presenting on SQL Server 2005 (aka Yukon). More details here.

Sorry for the slow updates. Big blog changes coming soon. Stay tuned.

Come see me give an introduction to asp.net to the Hartford Macromedia User Group on September 15th at 6:00pm.

I'm very much looking forward to giving this presentation. I plan on starting with .net in general giving an overview of the different parts of the framework, and why the CLR is just too cool for words. Then I plan on diving into how to make basic pages, and showing off controls a little, hopefully with some simple ado.net. Please do not expect me to drag a grid on a form :)

The presentation will be about 45-50 minutes, with 10-15 minutes at the end for questions. I'm curious to see what the knowledge level of .net is in the room. I'd love to get to talk a little about the page lifecycle, as well as playing well with web standards in asp.net, but not sure time will permit.

If you have plans on attending, and have any specific questions, please feel free to drop me a line.

Here are the materials from the presentation. Included is the sample app with the 5 build files, as well as the presentation without my company swag.

Here is a list of links for the various tools we discussed.

Thanks everyone for attending last nights ctdotnet presentation. The group first started with a career fair, spearheaded by SB, and it seemed to be quite a hit. SB brought in a few recruiting firms, let them all speak to the group, and then all of the group members took an hour or so to network with the recruiters, and themselves. It seemed to be quite a hit, but I would also love to get some feedback from people in the group that may have liked, or disliked the career fair.

While others were off "careering", I was putting the finishing touches on the presentation. The career fair ended a little late, and then it was my turn. I was quite nervous. My nerves settled a little as I began talking, but I'm sure it was obvious in the beginning. The presentation seemed to go pretty well. I'm anxiously awaiting the results of the evals. We started by talking about build systems in general, and why a development shop may want to investigate one. We then moved on to source control, where we spent alot of time talking about Subversion, as there seemed to be quite an interest in svn. I saw lots of people nodding when I was talking about some of the issues VSS users face. SVN isn't a holy grail, but it can certainly help.

We then moved on to build scripts where I discussed the high level of nant, and then went through a few sample build files, adding various features as we went down the line. We then talked about continuous integration, and I showed off cruise control.net a bit. I was worried about filling up the entire hour at first, but when it was time to go I think we went a little over an hour, and I sped through a lot of things I would have liked to spend more time on. I'm debating doing a more polished version at code camp.

Thanks again to all the attendees, and please feel free to leave career night or presentation feedback here, or any questions you may have in regards to the materials. I will be releasing all the materials from the presentation this week, as well as a long list of links that I used to prepare. If your interested, SB has already posted some pictures here.

Next week I will be giving a presentation to the ctdotnet group on creating a .net build system using open source (or free) tools. I have an hour to talk, so expect things to go pretty quickly. I hope to walk through making a simple app with unit tests, adding it to subversion, building it with nant, and add it to ccnet, leaving breadcrumbs along the way of other things you may want to look at. I will also touch a bit on what is coming in Whidbey that may replace some of the tools I'll be demoing.

For those that don't know, this will be my first presentation. I mean sure, I've talked in front of people many times, but never outside of a business context. Also, the content has never been my responsibility either. This should be interesting :) So if you're in the area, feel free to stop by and watch me ramble. At least if the presentation bombs, the members has a neat career night beforehand ;)

Sept 24th and 25th in Waltham. Be there.

Don't let a long day of BBQ and beer make you miss Richard Hale Shaw speaking on new language features in c# 2.0. This special presentation brought to you by the CT .net developers group is happening next Tuesday, July 5th from 6:00 - 8:00. Richard Hale Shaw is a phenomenally energetic speaker, who really knows his stuff. If you are at all interested in 2.0, and really, who isn't, make sure not to miss this one!

In case you don't get the emails, tonight the CT .net Developers Group will be welcoming Mario Cardinal to speak on Enterprise Application Architecture with Microsoft Enterprise Library. Hope to see you there!

Last night Michael Stiefel from Reliable Software presented on Securing Service Oriented Architecture with WSE 2 to the CT .net Developers group. Being in the midst of some major SOA/SO research, this presentation was very timely for me. Micheal's presentation was a great mix of high level concepts, and actual digging through WSE code. He is a very energetic speaker, who was extremely knowledgeable on the topic of SOA.

I really appreciated his vendor neutral/realistic approach to SOA, since much of the material you find on SOA is perched high up on the ivory tower. He had too many good quotes to list them all, but one of my favorite quotes from the evening came when he was discussing the migration path to indigo. "We automate what we did yesterday to create solutions for tomorrow". Classic, and that quote alone has changed some of my thoughts on the service design we are working on right now.

Thank you Michael for presenting to our local group, and if you get a chance to see him present, I would not miss the chance. I know I won't be.

Man am I excited for this one. Richard Hale Shaw is coming to CT on July 5th for a special CT .net Developers Group presentation. RHS will be presenting on new language features in c# 2.0. If you have never seen him speak, you have to come, as he is a fantastic and engaging speaker. Thanks SBC and RHS for setting this up!

I picked this up from one of the Boston area blogs, I forget which one though since there are so many of them. Although not really related to .net in CT, it's certainly close enough to post. The Western Mass .net SAPS (Software Architects and Programmers) is a local .net usergroup in based in North Hampton. I had no idea they were up there, and hope to find time to get to some of their meetings. The next meeting sound very good, Steve Hawley speaking on reflection, and automating unit testing, and its being held on June 1st at 6:00 PM.

My employer is looking to hire a biztalk/.net developer. This is a great chance to get into a small, growing company in a very interesting healthcare related market niche. The position is for a biztalk 2004 developer, with .net experience. We don't really expect to find someone as versed in Biztalk 2004 as we need, though, so the position is open to anyone with .net skills who would want to learn Biztalk, and shows great initiative. The position is in the Hartford CT area. Please contact tranqy at g mail dot com for more details.

Position Description:
Responsible for developing and maintaining our BizTalk 2004 environment as well as performing maintenance development tasks in support of the business.

Requirements:

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 3 years proven Application Development experience
• Knowledge of the C# Development Language (VB.Net and ASP.Net as well but not required)
• Strong communication and problem-solving skills
• Ability to manage multiple projects as our business grows
• Excels at communicating via printed material, on the telephone and over electronic services.
• Is self-managed, takes initiative, and can manage customer expectations for support services.
• BizTalk Experience preferred (BTS2004 preferred but BTS2002 ok)

• Responsible for the development and support of our BizTalk environment
• Support Evolutions reporting and development teams by assisting in development of BizTalk maps and orchestrations
• Responsible for maintenance development duties in support of the business
• Work closely with the Technical Operations group to assist in new customer implementations
• Participate in the review, selection and implementation of new technologies
• Work with multi-departmental teams regarding technology and operational issues
• Perform related duties as assigned

Things are rolling with the new CT .net developers group. There is a new community server site, where we invite you to participate in the forums, or request to be setup with a blog. I am going to start cross posting over there soon also. We are also discussing putting together a code brew group, so if your interested make sure to stop by the forums and send in your suggestions. If your local make sure to check back often, our community is only as good as we make it.

Also noticed last night that Bill Hollis is going to be speaking on smart clients down at the Uconn .net users group in Stamford April 6th. Quite a hike for me, but I would love to make it down there to hear him speak.

Don't forget, there is an MSDN event this week in Rocky Hill. Sessions are :

I'm most looking forward to the Team System intro, but the forensics session on asp.net piqued my interest too. See ya there! Link

Big things are happening in our little state.  As noted over on SBC DotNet Weblog, the CT .net developers group has launched a new site!  Check it out here. 

Even better then the new site, Feb 22nd Christopher Bowen, Senior Architect for Monster.com will be coming to speak on Agile Development with Visual Studio 2005.  Like there could be much of a better reason to brave the cold.