User Groups

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!

[AgileIndy] Effective Retrospectives

Early last week my wife and I had an exchange that went something like this:

Esther: Did you know that AgileIndy is meeting on Tuesday evening?
Me: [blank stare]
Me: [silence]
Me: I didn’t know there was an AgileIndy!

Naturally I was a bit surprised (and proud) that she knew about a local software development group that I’d never heard of so i asked how she found out about it.  It turns out that she had been looking for some local events on Meetup and AgileIndy was one of the featured groups.

This “discovery” was very timely since I’m transitioning to a new team that’s going to be more agile than our teams have traditionally been.  Despite having read a few books and attending a few events like Cincinnati Day of Agile I’m still very new to it so I hopped onto the site, found their page and after reading a bit about it I decided I should go.

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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

June Speaking Engagement – IndyNDA

I’ll be speaking at the 126th meeting of IndyNDA. In this session I’ll cover Parallel Programming in .NET 4 and as a bonus show some of the features included in the Visual Studio Async CTP.  I hope to see you there!

Date/Time:
6/9/2011 6:00 PM
(5:30 registration)

Location:
Management Information Disciplines, LLC
9800 Association Court
Indianapolis, IN 46280
[Map]

Be sure the check the IndyNDA site for full logistics and other information.

Indy TFS Discussion Resources

Thanks to everyone that came out to Indy TFS on December 8.  I hope everyone that attended found some value in it.

A few people asked for the list of resources I gave at the end of the session so without further ado:

Enjoy!

December Indy TFS Meeting

Mark your calendar for the second meeting of the Indy TFS user group on December 8, 2010.  I will be presenting some tips for improving the TFS version control experience.  In particular we’ll examine enhancing version control with the TFS Power Tools, replacing the default compare and merge tools, tracking changesets, and integrating some project management features into the version control workflow.

Location

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

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

Register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=151824.

Upcoming Events in Indianapolis

There are a few interesting software development related events coming up in Indianapolis over the next few weeks.

 

Indy TFS User Group

Date/Time:
10/13/2010 6:30 PM

Location:
Microsoft Corporation
500 E. 96th St.
Suite 460
Indianapolis, IN 46240
[Map]

Web Site:
https://www.clicktoattend.com/ invitation.aspx?code=151376

The first meeting of the Indianapolis TFS User Group will feature Paul Hacker introducing many of the Application Lifecycle Management tools in Visual Studio 2010.

I’ve been reading Professional Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio 2010 and am pretty excited about many of the features.  I hope to use this session to expand upon what is included in the book.

This event is free to attend.  Follow the link to the right to register.

IndyNDA

Date/Time:
10/14/2010 6:00 PM

Location:
Management Information Disciplines, LLC
9800 Association Court
Indianapolis, IN 46280
[Map]

Web Site:
http://indynda.org/

The October IndyNDA meeting will be presented by the group’s president, Dave Leininger.  Dave will be discussing ways to graphically represent complex relationships in data.

Three special interest groups (SIGs) also meet immediately following the main event.  The SIGs were on hiatus last month so I’ll be giving my introduction to dynamic programming in C# talk this month.

IndyNDA meetings are free to attend thanks to the sponsors.  No registration is required.  Regular attendees should note the new location.

Indy GiveCamp

Date/Time:
11/5/2010 – 11/7/2010

Location:
Management Information Disciplines, LLC
9800 Association Court
Indianapolis, IN 46280
[Map]

Web Site:
http://www.indygivecamp.org/

“Indy GiveCamp is a weekend-long collaboration between local developers, designers, database administrators, and non-profits. It is an opportunity for the technical community to celebrate and express gratitude for the contributions of these organizations by contributing code and technical know-how directly towards the needs of the groups.”

I can’t be participate in this year’s event due to prior family commitments but I’ve heard enough good things about the GiveCamp events in other cities to know that it’s a great cause.  There is still a need for volunteers so if you can spare the weekend please volunteer.  One of 18 charities will thank you for it.

IndyNDA – Windows Phone 7 Application Platform

This month’s IndyNDA meeting is tomorrow, September 9, 2010. Come hear Bill Steele from Microsoft speak about the Windows Phone 7 Application Platform.

Following the main meeting the three special interest groups (SIGs) will meet.

ASP.NET SIG: Continuing work on an ongoing MVC knowledge base application.

C# SIG: I’ll be presenting an introduction to dynamic programming in C#.

SharePoint SIG: Topic to be determined.

Registration opens at 5:30 PM and thanks to our sponsors food and drinks are provided until 6:00.  I hope to see you there.

Location:

Nine Parkwood Crossing
5th Floor Conference Room
900 EAST 96TH STREET
Indianapolis, IN 46240