Tag Archives: Talk

Scottish Developers – Upcoming Events in 2011

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Scottish Developers

It’s good to be back organising events again, things have been rather slow of late but we are starting to get the wheels in motion and I have just sent out my first newsletter as Chairman of Scottish Developers. There are a couple of things on the horizon event wise and we are working on getting more organised.

What’s new in ASP.NET MVC 2.0 & 3.0

Note: The session is now full and a waitlist is in operation, if you are interested, register for the event and you will be notified if a ticket becomes available.

I will be delivering this talk in January at Glasgow Caledonian University as the first of our event next year. I delivered the initial version of this talk at DDD Southwest last year in Bristol and have since revised it to include the new features being introduced in ASP.NET MVC 3.0.

Topics covered include (but not limited to)

  • Razor
  • Model-Validator Providers
  • Optional URL Parameters
  • Template / HTML Helper improvements
  • Improved Dependency Injection / Inversion of Control integration
  • NuGet Package Manager
  • Additions and updates to MVC Attributes
  • Visual Studio integration improvements
  • Breaking changes from MVC 1.0/2.0
  • Pros and cons to MVC
  • To upgrade or not to upgrade (or simply, Advice)

I will also be starting a new blog series focusing on the new features of ASP.NET MVC in short, bite-sized posts. In addition, this talk has been submitted to DDD 9 (not that I am in anyway suggestion you should vote for it ;) ).

We are meeting in Room M402 on the 4th floor of the George Moore Building at Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0BA.

After the meeting we normally retire to the back bar at Waxy O’Connor’s

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! Day 9 (DDD 9)

The jewel in the crown of the DDD calendar, the (roughly) annual national conference held at Microsoft’s campus in Reading is rapidly approaching. Session voting is currently open so get your votes in as the voting period closes on Christmas Eve (24th December).

DDD, now into it’s 9th incarnation, has a strong history of fantastic speakers and excellent talks, this year is shaping up to be no different with talks submitted by everyone from community veterans to DDD newcomers. Having organised DDD Scotland last year along side Colin Mackay and Craig Murphy I know how much goes into making one of these events happen and I once more take my hat off to Craig, Phil Winstanley (and his faithful servant Dave Sussman), Ian Cooper and Zi Makki for the amazing work and dedication they put into making DDD happen.

Session voting is currently open however it closes at midnight tonight so this is your last chance to have your say! Head over to the DDD 9 site now to cast your votes.

Registration for the big day opens on January 4th at 13:37 and tickets will go fast so be ready. The hashtag on the day will be #ddd9.

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! Day Scotland 2011 (DDD Scotland 2011)

Planning is well under way for next year’s DDD Scotland which will be held at the usual venue, Glasgow Caledonian University, on Saturday 7th May 2011. We are in the process of putting the website live and the call of speakers will be going out very soon so get those abstracts and bios ready!

Putting on an event like DDD Scotland needs cold hard cash so we can keep the event free and open to all and so we are asking for companies to come forward again this year and put their hands in their pockets for us. DDD Scotland is a prime opportunity to get your brand in front of around 200 industry professionals and with a number of sponsorship options available, we can help your company reach out to a very active and passionate development community.

If you are interested, please get in touch by contacting us at support [at] scottishdevelopers [dot] com.

For more information on Scottish Developers and for the latest news, events and job openings from across Scotland check out http://www.scottishdevelopers.com.

It’s been an eventful year and I can already see that 2011 will be even busier, I think a retrospective post is in order after Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone, have a great time and don’t let the cold weather get you down too much ;)

Scottish Developers – Upcoming Events

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Wow, I haven’t actually posted anything this year so I feel it is time to fix that with an update from Scottish Developers. Oh and this is also the first post using a new theme (well, new for my blog anyway). I am starting to tire of WordPress so am seriously considering writing my own site in ASP.NET 4.0 / MVC 2 just to play with things. Anyway, here are the upcoming events on the Scottish Developer’s calendar.

March

  • Wednesday 16th, Dundee – Web Application Testing With Selenium
    I will be doing a final run of my introductory talk on testing web applications using Selenium at the University of Dundee. There are still places available for this talk so please see the registration page for more details.
  • Thursday 25th, Glasgow – Guathon!
    Geek celebrity Scott Guthrie (Scott Gu), vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, will be spending an entire day in Glasgow talking on Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0 and Silverlight 3.0. Places are limited for this event so head over to the Guathon page and get registered asap!
  • Friday 26th, Edinburgh – Geek Dinner
    We will be taking an evening off from the code and presentations at the end of the month while reflecting on the teaching of The Gu from the previous day. At present we don’t have a restaurant in mind for this yet but we are open to suggestions. Since we need to get an idea of numbers for the dinner, if you are interested in joining us please make sure you register first.

April

  • Wednesday 14th, Edinburgh – Introduction to SOLID
    Chris Canal will be providing an introduction to SOLID and how it can be used to build more maintainable software which reacts better to change. There are still places available for this talk so please see the registration page for more details.
  • Monday 19th, Edinburgh & Tuesday 20th, Glasgow – Jesse Liberty
    Silverlight guru Jesse Liberty will be speaking for us in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Details for this should be available soon, keep an eye out on the Scottish Developers blog for updates.
  • Wednesday 28th, Dundee - SSL/TLS – Just when you thought it was safe to return
    If you are interested in internet security this is a talk you wont want to miss. Arron Finnon will be explaining why SSL/TLS is not as secure as we believe and will be pointing out the vulnerabilities with this very commonly used security technology. There are still places available for this talk so please see the registration page for more details.

May

  • Saturday 8th May, Glasgow – Developer Day Scotland 2010
    This is a day not to be missed and the highlight of the Scottish Developer’s calendar. Join us for a day of presentations, grok talks and geekery at Glasgow Caledonian University. 20 speakers, 4 rooms and various topics including  jQuery, Defensive Programming, HTML 5, Code Contracts and Silverlight. We are getting close to full for registrations so make sure you don’t miss out and get signed up ASAP. More information can be found on the conference home page.
  • Saturday 8th May, Glasgow – DDD Scotland Geek Dinner
    Come chill out after DDD Scotland and catch up with developers, speakers and the organisers to share stories and experiences over a good meal in the heart of Glasgow (exact venue yet to be decided although we expect to be in the Merchant City area). Afterwards you can retire to a bar or pub to continue conversation or head out to a club to party.

All of this information can be found in a handy iCal format from our Google Calendar.

    Updates: jQuery Talks and Developer Days

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    Haven’t updated in a while so I figured 2 birds with 1 post.

    jQuery Talks

    I would like to say thank you to all of the people who voted for my jQuery Deep Dive session at both Developer Day Scotland and Developer Day Belfast, I will now be speaking at both events. I am still very surprised at how popular the sessions have been so far and I just hope that what I deliver on the days lives up to the expectations.

    Developer Days

    Ok, a bit of an update on these.

    DDD Belfast 4th April 2009 in Belfast
    Web: http://developerdeveloperdeveloper.com/belfast/
    Status: Registration Open

    WebDD ’09 18th April 2009 in Reading
    Web: http://developerdeveloperdeveloper.com/webdd09/Default.aspx
    Status: Registration Opens on Monday 30th March

    DDD Scotland 2nd May 2009 in Glasgow
    Web: http://developerdayscotland.com/main/Default.aspx
    Status: Registration Open

    DDD South West 23rd May 2009 in Somerset
    Web: http://www.dddsouthwest.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
    Status: Registration Open


    The events are getting pretty close now, Belfast is in less than a month so if you plan on attending any of the above, get your registrations in! If you are attending then I hope to see you there :)

    In addition, if you are on Twitter you may wish to follow

    In other news…

    My blog is bothering me. I like WordPress, it has some nifty features that make blogging easier (although I probably should use Live Writer more often) however I still want to roll my own. Why?

    There are a number of reasons:

    1. Because I can (not a good one, but still top of the list)
    2. Because I want to use ASP.NET MVC to build a blog engine
    3. Because I want to demonstrate various technologies all working together
    4. Because I said I would build one

    The problem is time, I still maintain there are never enough hours in the day. Anyway, I have a couple more things to look into and then I will most likely start work. I want it to be an exercise in blogging because I don’t really blog as much as I should on some of my discoveries. Just something else to keep an eye out for.

    And finally

    Graduation is getting ever closer and the date is now set. On 25th of June 2009 I will graduate with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Computing. On June 26th, the first day of the rest of my life will begin (Actually, no, that is a lie, June 26th will most likely be a recovery day from the alcohol consumption of June 25th). I think I should go spin the job wheel and see what I can find ;)

    New Year With jQuery Talks

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    Well, although it is half way though January, Happy New Year. I have not been posting as much as I would like but that should get turned around soon.

    Today saw my first game of Warhammer 40k in 2009 and it very painfully showed me that some of the changes in 5th edition have made Tyranids even harder to play (automatically passing morale checks in a lost combat now kills hormaganuts very effectively, more so than 4th edition), still was a good game and I have some new tricks up my sleeve for next time. For the record: I hate Tau!

    Geekery out of the way, time for some more, er, geekery. I will be giving two talks on jQuery in the coming months which may be of interest to those either in the Tayside area of Scotland or those willing to travel to Edinburgh. These will be my first public talks outside of university and I am excited to see how they turn out since interest thus far has been quite good.

    Abstractjquery

    A new client-side framework has been taking the internet by storm, many have already been mesmerised by the power of such a small javascript library. And “what is the name of this fantastic framework?” I hear you ask, “jQuery” is my reply.

    jQuery is a robust javascript framework with a very small footprint (15kb minified and GZipped) which makes the complicated aspects of javascript very simple. From traversing the Document Object Model to complex AJAX functionality, jQuery can do it all.

    In this session I will introduce you to the basics of jQuery, showing you, through code, how to select and manipulate elements on the page, attach functions to events, implement ajax and more! This is the perfect opportunity to learn about jQuery and how it can make the life of web developer so much easier, allowing you to focus more on building your application!

    Both talks are the same, An Introduction To jQuery, however there are two different venues and dates.

    As with other Scottish Developers events, both sessions are completely free and all are encouraged to come along. If interested, it you be greatly appreciated if you could register for the events using the links above to give us an idea of number.