TVUG News and Events

UX Design Essentials Class

Brian Peek — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:09:00 GMT

Everett McKay is hosting another UX Design Essentials class in Burlington this February 13-15. If you are interested, he's knocking off a few bucks for TVUG members, bringing the cost down to $1200. If you're interested in attending, contact Everett through his site and tell him you're from TVUG!

February Meeting, Wednesday Februrary 15th - ASP.NET MVC 3

Brian Peek — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:05:00 GMT

Where: Tyler Technologies, Latham, NY
When: Wednesday February 15th, 2012, 6:30-8:30PM
Who: Joseph Payette, Jr.

Please note we are meeting on Wednesday the 15th instead of Tuesday the 14th!

Topic: ASP.NET MVC 3

ASP.NET MVC gives you a powerful, patterns-based way to build dynamic websites that enables a clean separation of concerns and that gives you full control over markup for enjoyable, agile development. ASP.NET MVC includes many features that enable fast, TDD-friendly development for creating sophisticated applications that use the latest web standards.

Presenter Bio

As co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Greane Tree Technology, Joseph Payette, Jr., leads his team of Agile software developers to create custom, standards-based, web, database, mobile and enterprise software. Joe and his team have enjoyed applying their ingenuity and skill to systems as diverse as a statistical tool for an international drywall manufacturer, a player-ranking system for a leading online gaming platform, a community-building database for technology companies, and a reservations system for New York City nightlife. Joe earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and has many years of experience in all phases of software development, including analysis, architecture, coding and quality control. Joe is expert in technologies such as Ruby on Rails, .NET, PHP, Java, C++, AJAX, MySQL, and MSSQL, but he is always on the lookout for new tools to help Greane Tree Technology communicate more clearly, work more efficiently, and meet customer specifications more elegantly. Joe is an active contributor to area user groups, including the Tech Valley Ruby Brigade, the Tech Valley .NET User Group, the Capital District Linux User Group, and the Capital District Java Developers Network.

January Meeting, Wednesday January 11th - Developing Metro-style Applications in Windows 8

Brian Peek — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:20:00 GMT

Where: Tyler Technologies, Latham, NY
When: Wednesday January 11th, 2012, 6:30-8:30PM
Who: John McConnell

Update: John's session code can be found here.

Please note we are meeting on Wednesday the 11th instead of Tuesday the 10th!

Topic: Developing Metro-style Applications in Windows 8

Microsoft's announcement of Windows 8 represents a major change in the Windows development landscape, with the inclusion of HTML/CSS/JavaScript as first-class development languages for Windows "Metro" applications. This presentation will explore the new Windows 8 architecture and development practices for Metro apps, and will focus on the new Windows Runtime and Windows Javascript libraries, which are central to Metro application development. Come watch John fumble-finger his way to building a Metro style application before your very eyes.

Presenter Bio

John McConnell is currently an Enterprise Architect at Fletcher Allen Health Care, where he has also been a Windows Systems Engineer and ASP.Net web developer since 2001. He also teaches at Champlain College and runs Faster Than Light Technologies, a health-care and technology consulting firm. Prior to working at Fletcher Allen, he worked in Information Technology at companies from the very large (a Fortune 5 company) to the very small (a company of 25 consultants). He has worked in Redmond, WA as part of the Microsoft Exchange development team, and has developed and supported mission-critical WinForms, WPF and ASP.Net web applications for more than twenty years in a variety of industries and disciplines. John lives in Middlesex, VT with his wife and three daughters, two cats he pretends to dislike, and a fat raccoon he would kill if only he could catch the SOB. He lives on twitter at john0831vt and blogs at http://john0831.wordpress.com

December Meeting, Tuesday December 13th - Brian Peek demonstrates the Kinect for Windows SDK

Chris Miller — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:57:00 GMT

Where: Tyler Technologies, Latham, NY
When: Tuesday, December 13th, 2011, 6:30-8:30PM
Who: Brian Peek

Join us as Brian Peek demonstrates the basics of using the Kinect for Windows SDK including: how Kinect works, installing and setting up the Kinect sensor, setting up the development environment, reading camera, depth and skeleton data, understanding what depth data is and how it works, skeletal tracking and working with the Kinect microphone array to record audio and use speech recognition.

Before our presentation, we will be holding our officer elections and soliciting feedback on last month's Q&A session.

Presenter Bio

Brian Peek is an internationally respected cricket player, gourmet chef, and the house DJ for the State Department. His crocheted masks of Steve Buscemi sold out on Etsy in a mere 2 hours. When he is not on tour, he works on stuff for a boutique software company located on the left coast. His recipe for Blue Waffle was highest downloaded recipe on the FoodTV website during all of 2010. He once made Criss Angel cry. This is what happens when he lets someone else post his bio.

November Meeting - Tuesday 11/8/2011 - Open Q&A

Chris Miller — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:38:00 GMT

Where: Tyler Technologies, Latham, NY
When: Tuesday, November 8th, 2011, 6:30-8:30PM
Who: Peter Lanoie

The November meeting will have a change in format. Peter Lanoie will be leading an open Q&A session. Have a question about something .NET related? Stuck on a problem with a project? Bring it in and see if the group can answer or come up with a solution. Any .NET related topic is fair game. Participation is encouraged and will be rewarded. Bring your laptops, we will have Wi-Fi connections available.

Presenter Bio

Peter Lanoie has been a web and .NET developer for the last 11 years and has been working at Cengage Learning for the last 5 years. He is particularly interesting in build systems and process automation. Outside of work he does woodworking and home improvement. He even installed plumbing for an in-house compressed air system. He lives in Clifton Park with his wife and two young children.

His blog can be found at http://www.compiledthoughts.com/ and he can be reached through his twitter account @peterlanoie.

October Meeting - Tuesday 10/4/2011 - Introduction to OData

Brian Peek — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:27:00 GMT

Where: Tyler Technologies, Latham, NY
When: Tuesday, October 4th, 2011, 6:30-8:30PM
Who: Victor Castro

Due to some scheduling conflicts, we will be holding our October meeting one week early. We hope you can attend!

OData, Open Data Protocol, is a web protocol for querying and updating data over HTTP using open web standards. In this session we will go over the details of how OData facilitates the consumption and publication of data. We will explain OData syntax and definitions. In the end we'll go over how to get started writing your OData service and how to consume open services in your own applications.

Presenter Bio

Victor has 10+ years of experience as software architect and developing web applications across multiple industries; from customer facing applications to B2B system integration and data warehousing. In the last few years Victor has focused his energy in the e-Commerce domain and has been recognized in the Microsoft Commerce Server community with a Microsoft MVP award. Victor is an early adopter of technologies and is always looking for innovation while improving business efficiency through software. Victor is currently the Director of E-Commerce at The Vermont Teddy Bear Company (www.vermontteddybear.com) and its sister companies (www.pajamagram.com and www.calyxflowers.com). Prior to that, Victor was the VP of Development at a boutique consulting firm focused in providing E-Commerce services to Internet Retailer's top 500 companies. His blog can be found at www.victorocastro.com and he welcomes comments/questions at vcastro@gmail.com or through his twitter account @vcastro (twitter.com/vcastro).

Techapalooza 2011, Thursday Sept 22 at RPI's EMPAC

Chris Miller — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:20:00 GMT

Techapalooza is back! Tech Valley's premier event technology professionals will be held this year from 5-9 on Thursday Sept 22 at RPI's EMPAC. You can sign up and get the details at http://www.techapalooza.org/.

Pre-registration is required. Registration is $10 and you will receive a free drink ticket at the door. The first 100 attendees the night of the event will receive an official Techapalooza t-shirt. Free parking will be available in the parking garage. Also check out the Techapalooza Mobile app. Written in Flex, it runs on both iOS and Android devices. TVUG will have a booth - stop by and say hello, hope to see you all there!

We are also looking for volunteers to help man the TVUG booth for part of the time.

September Meeting, Tuesday 9/13/2011- Lessons learned after implementing Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010

Chris Miller — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:12:00 GMT

Where: Tyler Technologies, Latham, NY
When: Tuesday, September 13th, 2011, 6:30-8:30PM
Who: Geoff Brooks

WERCS recently finished a year-long project implementing Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 for all developers and testers. This presentation will discuss the lessons learned about adopting the TFS platform in a mid-sized software shop.

Presenter Bio:

Geoff is Chief Software Architect at The WERCS Ltd. In Latham, NY and has been with The WERCS for 16 years.

WERCS (Worldwide Environmental Regulatory Compliance Systems) markets software and services to industrial customers to advance their Global Regulatory Compliance and Sustainability efforts.

Geoff has participated in the evolution of WERCS from COBOL to Access 2.0 to Visual Basic 6 and finally (?) to ASP.NET and currently oversees the development and testing teams based in Latham, Mexico and India.

Vermont Code Camp, September 10th, 2011

Chris Miller — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:53:00 GMT

Vermont Code Camp 2011 will be held on Saturday, September 10, 2011 8am–6pm at Kalkin Hall on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, VT. This will be the third annual Vermont Code Camp.

Last year, 125 local nerds participated in the 2010 edition of Vermont Code Camp. Four rooms provided concurrent sessions on .NET, PHP, Ruby, Python, and more throughout the day. Two of the rooms had .NET topics and another had sessions on free/open source software. There was a fourth room where developers were introduced to various technologies that they may not use every day. Check back for details about Vermont Code Camp 2011 or follow them on Twitter.

Attendees and presenters from TVUG would be welcome. Visit http://vtcodecamp.org/ for more details

Summer meeting - Monday, August 8th - Effective UX Prototyping with Everett McKay

Chris Miller — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:23:00 GMT

Where: Tyler Technologies, Latham, NY
When: Monday, August 8th, 2011, 6:30-8:30PM
Who: Everett McKay

Software prototyping is an important UX design skill that many people “just do” but effective prototyping requires crucial knowledge and practices that aren’t obvious. In this talk, Everett will explain prototyping and its goals, compare prototyping to sketching, and explore the different types of prototyping. He will then characterize effective prototyping and explain why those characteristics are so important.

Everett will review several commonly available prototyping tools (including SketchFlow), and evaluate their pros and cons. He will conclude by working through some examples so that you can see effective prototyping in practice.

If you or your team is prototyping now or considering prototyping in the future, this talk is for you!

Presenter Bio:

Everett McKay is the principal of UX Design Edge, a user experience design training and consulting firm specializing in helping non-designers based in St. Albans, Vermont.

UX Design Edge's flagship course is UX Design Essentials Workshop, a two-day onsite course where your team members can improve their UX design skills "by doing" by redesigning your own app or site, and User Experience Design Basics, a three-hour online training course that covers the essential, practical skills non-designers need to get started in UI design. Everett is now working on UX Design for Silverlight, a public two-day course that gives Silverlight developers the essentials they need to know about UX design.

Previously, Everett was a program manager at Microsoft for nearly 10 years. He was on the Windows 7 and Windows Vista teams, and was responsible for managing, writing, and driving the Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines. This role enabled Everett to develop expertise across a wide range of user experience specialties and act as an in-house consultant to help teams across the company do their best work.

Please Note:

Tyler Technologies has moved to a new facility, down the road from the previous location.

Tyler Technologies
2nd Floor
23 British American Blvd
Latham, NY 12110

The slide deck that Everett used for this presentation has been posted on his blog. You can download it from here.