Speaking

IndySA – March 21, 2013

The March IndySA meeting is this Thursday.  I’m excited for the opportunity to spread around a bit more F# love as this month’s speaker.  If you’re looking for a fun way to fill the evening please join us at the SEP office in Carmel at 5:30 PM.  All of the logistics details are available on the meetup site.

I hope to see you there!

About the Talk

F# Needs Love Too

Originally developed by Microsoft Research, Cambridge, F# is an open-source, functional-first language in the ML family. Despite its lofty position as a first-class Visual Studio language for the past two releases and its cross-platform availability it hasn’t seen widespread adoption in the business world. In this talk we’ll take an introductory look at F#, exploring how its constructs and terse syntax can allow you to write more stable, maintainable code while keeping you focused on the problem rather than the plumbing.

 

GR DevDay
GR DevDay Speaker Badge

GR DevDay Speaker Badge

Last weekend I made the trek up to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the GR DevDay conference.  This was the second time I’d attended this conference but this time was special – it was my first time speaking at a conference!  I was honored to have my talk “F# Needs Love Too” selected and to have been included in line-up of speakers that included some familiar names like Eric Boyd, Jay Harris, Michael Eaton, David Giard, and Jennifer Marsman.

My talk was in the first time slot immediately following the keynote.  Considering I was up against some HTML5 and mobile development talks I was happy to see such interest in F#.  I thought the talk went well and spurred some good conversation.  Thanks to everyone that attended.  Hopefully you were inspired to take a closer look at the language and see how it can change the way you think about writing software.

Having the first time slot gave me the rest of the day to attend other sessions.  The sessions I selected were:

  1. Collaborate: Windows Phone and Windows 8 – Michael Perry
  2. Make Node.js Package. Become Famous. – Jay Harris
  3. Hot Data and Cool Cash – Joe Kunk
  4. Creating apps with high code reuse between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 – Jennifer Marsman

All of the talks were interesting in their own right.  Naturally I was most interested in the two Windows Phone 8/Windows 8 talks and they didn’t disappoint.  The other two sessions weren’t as immediately relevant to me but gave me some stuff to think about.

I’d like to thank the organizers for putting on yet another great conference.  I thought the event was every bit as good as the last one and was happy to be a part of it.

GR DevDay – March 2, 2013

If you’re looking for a great developer conference in the Grand Rapids, MI area I highly recommend checking out GR DevDay. This year the conference is being held on March 2 at Calvin College. The organizers have lined up a  great selection sessions covering a wide range of topics and technologies. Whether you’re developing for the cloud, desktop, or mobile spaces you’ll be sure to find something of interest.

I’m honored to be included among this year’s speakers. If you’re interested in an introduction to F# be sure to check out my session:

F# Needs Love Too!

Originally developed by Microsoft Research, Cambridge, F# is an open-source, functional-first language in the ML family. Despite its lofty position as a first-class Visual Studio language for the past two releases and its cross-platform availability it hasn’t seen widespread adoption in the business world. In this session we’ll take an introductory look at F#, exploring how its constructs and terse syntax can allow you to write more stable, maintainable code while keeping you focused on the problem rather than the plumbing.

I hope to see you there even if you don’t attend my session.
…but please do
…you know you want to!

Faking It Slides Available

Thanks to everyone that attended one of my Microsoft Fakes talks this week. I hope the sessions were beneficial. I just uploaded the slides to SlideShare for you to review at your leisure.

If you attended one of my sessions could do me a quick favor by taking a moment to rate the talk on SpeakerRate?

NUFW (6/12/2012)
IndyNDA (6/14/2012)

Thanks!

Speaking in Fort Wayne

Ok, this should be the last post about speaking engagements for a while ;)  I have something else in the works that’s going to take a lot of my attention for some time (more on that on Friday). 

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be returning to Fort Wayne in June to talk about the Microsoft Fakes framework (formerly the Moles framework).  In this talk I’ll introduce the Fakes framework, discuss the use cases for the different isolation techniques, and show how to take advantage of them in your unit tests.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 12 at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center.  Pizza and drinks will be available at 6:00 with the presentation starting at 6:30.  For more information please check the NUFW site.

Theoris Innovation Series

On April 20, 2012 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM Theoris IT Services is hosting the next installment of its Theoris Innovation Series.  For this event Alex Gheith and I will be discussing many of the modern features of C# including:

  • LINQ
  • Dynamic Programming
  • Parallel Programming (including the upcoming async and await keywords)

This is a free event but please note that space is limited to the first 40 respondents.  For more information, please check the event site.

Speaking in Bloomington

A new .NET User Group has formed at Indiana University and I have the honor of being their first speaker.  Join us on Thursday, April 19 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM in room CG 2061 at the Kelley School of Business in Bloomington.  For this event I’ll be covering Parallel Programming in .NET 4. We may even look at a few examples of the upcoming async and await keywords – time permitting, of course.

Be sure to check the IU .NET User Group page for logistics information including a remote viewing location and streaming information.

I hope you can attend!

IndyNDA – Panel Discussion on Technical Screening

The January IndyNDA meeting is this Thursday!  Join us for a panel discussion on technical screening.  Mark Huebner will moderate the discussion with our panelists including Ed Herceg (Robert Half Technology), Dale Brubaker (Interactive Intelligence), and yours truly.  Audience participation is encouraged.

Some say companies and recruiting firms are using tests based on incorrect assumptions on how developers do their work. C# and jQuery and JavaScript and VB and the .NET framework continue to offer new capabilities. The complexity has generally not been a problem for you because you make liberal use of IntelliSense, online help, books online, reference books, Google searches, and technical online forums. You know how to quickly find information when you can’t remember specific syntax. So, can you pass that technical screening test? Should you need to be tested? Let’s find out

Don’t forget about the C# and JavaScript SIGs after the main event either.  I’m not sure what the JavaScript group is covering but for the C# group Alex Gheith and I will be leading a discussion over a few of the items in chapter 1 of Effective C# by Bill Wagner.

As always registration begins at 5:30 with the main event starting at 6:00.  Thanks to our sponsors food and drink will be provided before the meeting.

Please be aware that our meeting location has changed.  For January and February we’ll be meeting in the 2nd floor conference room in Parkwood 9.  For those that remember when we had meetings in the 5th floor conference room in the same building rest assured, the 2nd floor conference room is better suited to our needs.

I hope to see you there!

October Speaking Engagement – Indy TFS

I’ll be presenting Web performance and load testing in Visual Studio 2010 to the Indy TFS user group on October 5, 2011.  In this talk we’ll explore some of the basic test management capabilities in Visual Studio 2010 before diving in to building and executing both Web performance and load tests.  Some areas we’ll examine include:

  • Test recording tests
  • Parameterizing tests
  • Extraction rules
  • Validation rules
  • Data binding
  • Load test scenarios

Location

Microsoft Office
500 East 96th St
Suite 460
Indianapolis, IN 46240
[Map]

Doors open at 5:30 PM with the meeting starting at 6:00.  Pizza and drinks will be provided.

Register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=157231.

I hope to see you there!

Speaking in Fort Wayne

If you missed my Parallel Programming in .NET 4 talk at IndyNDA on June 9th you now have another chance!  I’ll be giving the same presentation to the .NET Users of Fort Wayne (NUFW) on August 9, 2011 at 6:00 PM. Be sure to check the NUFW site for registration and logistics.

I hope to see you there!

NUFW Logo