Past Meetings

Wednesday, May 7th 2014 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Steve Maier presented Universal apps for Windows At Microsoft's BUILD conference this year, they announced Universal Projects! Since Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 share the same Windows Runtime, Visual Studio now allows developers to create universal Windows projects that enable developers to build apps that support all Windows devices from a single Visual Studio project and share most of their code. Join us as Steve talks about what this means, how to get started, and how to migrate existing applications so they can run on both platforms. LINKS FROM THE MEETING Publish Windows Contest Best App a Month - Rochester Steve Maier is a Senior Technical Evangelist with Microsoft, based in the Rochester, NY area and specializing in Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows Azure.  An architect and developer with over 21 years in the industry, he joined Microsoft after holding senior technical positions at companies including Kodak, Xerox, and Texas Instruments.  He has coauthored a SQL Server book (with WROX) and has taught game programming at Rochester Institute of Technology where he obtained an M.S. in Software Development and Management and a B.S. in Computer Engineering Technology.  He is the co-founder of AppRochester, a community group focusing on mobile devices. This meeting was sponsored by Microsoft. They will be covering the pizza and soda!   WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Microsoft LifeChat Headset 1 Copy of Ryse: Son of Rome (XBOX ONE) 1 Copy of Minecraft (XBOX 360) 1 USB Flash Drive Courtesy of Telerik 1 copy of DevCraft Complete 1 copy of Kendo UI Mobile Assorted t-shirts and swag

Wednesday, April 2nd 2014 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presents WebGL: 3D in the BrowserWebGL is now supported by all major desktop browsers and an increasing number of mobile browsers, allowing high performance, cross-platform 3D experiences that leverage the GPU. Besides web-based applications, you can also use WebGL to create native apps for Windows 8.1 and other mobile OS's. In this presentation, we'll talk about WebGL basics and then quickly move into available frameworks, centering on BabylonJS for quickly and easily creating 3D scenes, simulations, and games. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including XAML, C#, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Andy is quick to embrace new development technology and has won several awards in programming competitions. He has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Client App Development, and is a member of the Metro Insiders group. This meeting is sponsored by Welch Allyn. They are covering the pizza and soda! WE HAVE SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Microsoft Wedge Mouse 1 copy of Configuring Windows Server 2008 Active Directory (book) 1 copy of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Courtesy of Telerik 1 copy of DevCraft Complete 1 copy of Kendo UI Mobile Assorted t-shirts and swag

Wednesday, February 12th 2014 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Dan Colasanti presented MonoGame Microsoft stopped development of XNA last year and while it can still be used to create Windows Phone 7games that run on Windows Phone 8, XNA can't target WP8-specific APIs.  Even worse, games created with XNA can't be published on the Windows Store or target Xbox One.  Enter MonoGame, a cross-platform open-source C# game-dev library that closely adheres to the XNA API and can be used to publish games for Windows Phone 8, Windows 8/RT, iOS, Android, and various other platforms.  In this session, we will discuss options for creating games on Windows and Windows Phone and will show how to create a 2D game with MonoGame in Visual Studio that runs on both Windows & Windows Phone. Dan Colasanti is the owner of  ImproviSoft LLC, a Microsoft BizSpark Plus Startup company that develops mobile apps, sites, and cloud services.  ImproviSoft released its new Snow Day (WP7 & WP8) game in December and has plans to port it to Windows, iOS, and Android in 2014.  Dan is also the founder of AdStreamer (mobile advertising & marketing) and is now creating AppSyracuse, a collaborative cross-disciplinary app-development group that will engage entrepreneurial people in CNY with an interest in creating great apps and app-businesses.  In August Dan published a CodeProject article on porting the Invasion game from XNA/WP7 to MonoGame/WP8.  Follow Dan on Twitter @DanColasanti or connect with him on LinkedIn. This meeting was sponsored by Welch Allyn. They are covering the pizza and soda! WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Microsoft Wedge Mobile Keyboard 1 copy of Kinect Joy Ride for XBOX 360 1 USB Flash Drive Courtesy of Telerik 1 copy of DevCraft Complete 1 copy of Kendo UI Mobile Assorted t-shirts and swag

Wednesday, December 4th 2013 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Steve Maier, Senior Technical Evangelist at Microsoft presented Azure Mobile Services Windows Azure is a growing platform that tries to help developers to use the services as easily as possible. Azure supports .NET, node.JS, php, java, python, and now mobile platforms. In the Windows Azure Mobile Services (WAMS), they provide a simple way to get a database online and to use it in an iOS, WP8, or even Windows 8 application. This session will go over the basics of WAMS as well as how the basic default services can be enhanced by the developer. Steve Maier is a Senior Technical Evangelist with Microsoft, based in the Rochester, NY area and specializing in Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows Azure.  An architect and developer with over 21 years in the industry, he joined Microsoft after holding senior technical positions at companies including Kodak, Xerox, and Texas Instruments.  He has coauthored a SQL Server book (with WROX) and has taught game programming at Rochester Institute of Technology where he obtained an M.S. in Software Development and Management and a B.S. in Computer Engineering Technology.  He is the co-founder of AppRochester, a community group focusing on mobile devices. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Telerik 1 copy of Kendo UI Mobile 1 copy of DevCraft Complete assorted tshirts and swag Courtesy of Microsoft 1 copy of Windows 8 Pro 1 Wedge Mouse 1 copy of Streets + Trips 1 Kinect Joy Ride (xbox 360) assorted tshirts and swag

Tuesday, October 22nd 2013 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Lee Brandt presented Kendo UI: The HTML5 Developer SwordKendo UI is an HTML5 framework for building stunning UI for both desktop and mobile as well as rich data visualization. It provides everything you need for building sites and apps with JavaScript and HTML. From it's full featured Grid and Scheduler, to it's robust MVVM binding and SPA framework, Kendo UI has you covered no matter what sort of device you are developing for. In this quick session, you will get an introduction to Kendo UI, as well as see the Kendo UI framework in action and learn how you can begin building cross-platform and cross-device sites and apps today. Lee has been programming professionally for more than a decade and currently works as a Project Lead Consultant with AdventureTech. He speaks internationally about software development practices and has mentored teams on improving their approach to lean software development through achieving technical proficiency. He is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, the director of the Kansas City Developer Conference  and serves as the Regional Mentor for .Net user groups in Kansas and Missouri. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of HALO 4 for XBOX 1 Copy of Visual Studio 2010 Pro 1 Copy of Windows 8 Programming (book) Courtesy of Telerik 1 Copy of Kendo UI Mobile 1 Copy of DevCraft Complete Assorted bobbles and swag This meeting is sponsored by Telerik

Wednesday, September 11th 2013 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Andy Beaulieu presented What's New in Windows 8.1 Windows 8.1 is the first major update to the radically redesigned Windows and will be released to the public on October 18th. In this session, we'll learn about the new features in Windows 8.1 for both users and developers of XAML and JavaScript based Windows Store apps. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including XAML, C#, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Andy is quick to embrace new development technology and has won several awards in programming competitions. He has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the Metro Insiders group. He is also involved in the .NET community and is the Group Leader for the Central New York .NET Developers Group. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 XBOX Live 12 Month Gold Membership ($59.99 value)  1 Copy of Professional Windows 8 Programming (book) 1 Copy of The Gunstringer XBOX 360 (Kinect) Game 1 Copy of Under the Hood .NET Memory Management (book) Various t-shirts + bobbles Courtesy of Telerik 1 Copy of Kendo UI Mobile 1 Copy of DevCraft Complete Various t-shirts + bobbles

Wednesday, June 12th 2013 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Chris Bowen presented Windows 8 Hands-On In this workshop you will learn how to develop Windows 8 apps based on well-known web service API's such as Twitter, Meetup, ESPN, EchoNest and data from the World Health Organization WHO. Your app could entertain or even change the world. This workshop is great for students, hobbyists and professional developers who want to learn the basics of app development and publish their first app to the store. This workshop is hands-on, so to get the most out of the event we strongly encourage you to bring your laptop configured with the following: 1.       Mac users only: Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, VirtualBox or VMWare Fusion 2.       Windows 8 (a 90-day evaluation version available here) 3.       Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8 (free)  To publish to the Windows Store you will also need a Windows Store developer account: 1.       If you are a student, use the DreamSpark benefits for a free account 2.       If you are an MSDN Subscriber, use the one-time free account benefit associated with MSDN 3.       Otherwise, the account is $49 per annum, but with your first published app, your cost is covered via the Keep The Cash promotion (subject to Terms and Conditions)! Lastly, for continued learning and access to other programs focused on Windows 8 and Windows Phone development, we highly recommend signing up for the free App Builder program. Chris Bowen (http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen) is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, covering the Northeastern US.  An architect and developer with over 16 years of experience, he joined Microsoft after holding senior positions at companies including Monster.com, VistaPrint, Staples, and IDX Systems, as well as consulting with others.  He is coauthor of "Essential Windows Communication Foundation" and "Professional Visual Studio 2005 Team System" and holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Management Information Systems, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This meeting is sponsored by TEK Systems. They are covering the pizza and soda! WE HAVE SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of Microsoft Streets & Trips with GPS Locator 1 Microsoft Wedge Mobile Keyboard 1 Copy of Windows 8 Pro 1 Copy of C# 5.0 (book) 1 Copy of Pro Windows 8 Programming (book) Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection for .NET Various t-shirts, sport cups

Tuesday, May 14th 2013 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Bob Savelson presented Challenges with business-development interaction: Observations & eDevTECH solutions. DOWNLOAD BOB'S SLIDES In this 60 minute presentation Bob covered: Modern Application Development trends; Why requirements still matter in compressed delivery projects; Some of the impediments being encountered today, including timely, clear and complete collaboration between analysts, developers, testers and business stakeholders; Some approaches to addressing these issues; People, Process, Tools eDev’s Modern Requirements Lifecycle platform, inteGREAT, which is built on top of Microsoft’s award winning Visual Studio ALM platform. “Several years ago we found a company called eDevTECH with a product called InteGREAT. It looked a very capable and promising product so we approached them about partnering with us to turn it into a really terrific formal requirements management tool for TFS. InteGREAT continues to evolve and is now a terrific companion product for business analysts wanting to do formal requirements with their TFS based development/test team. It is also complements well the Agile Requirements capabilities we added in TFS 2012.”Brian Harry - Microsoft Technical Fellow working as the Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server. Bob is a 20 year veteran in Application Lifecycle Management, and its previous naming iterations. He has helped companies around the world solve business problems by discovering current process gaps, applying best practices and facilitating the adoption of technology based productivity solutions. Bob is originally from Montreal and a McGill University graduate. He has held executive positions at NCR, CAI and CGI. His experience ranges from requirements management facilitation to outsourcing of application development, support and infrastructure. He has been working in the requirements space for the past 10 years; as an entrepreneur with his company Digital Mosaic, and now as an executive with eDev Technologies. eDev Technologies, based in Toronto Canada, is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, and a Visual Studio Platinum Partner. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 copy of HALO 4 for XBOX 1 copy of Windows 8 Pro 1 Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000 1 Copy of Programming C# 5.0 Courtesy of Telerik 1 Ultimate Collection for .NET T-Shirts and sports cups

 

Wednesday, April 17th, 2013 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jeffery Hicks presented Advanced PowerShell Scripting There's no doubt that PowerShell's scripting language is an attractive feature. And it doesn't take a lot of effort to get started. Eventually though IT Pros want to create flexible, re-usable tools. PowerShell's scripting language is broad enough to allow IT Pros to create cmdlet-like tools all from a script. PowerShell MVP and co-author of Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches, Jeffery Hicks will explain how to get started creating PowerShell advanced functions. We'll look at adding cmdlet binding, parameter validation, pipeline processing as well as a few best practices. Jeffery Hicks is a Microsoft MVP in Windows PowerShell, Microsoft Certified Trainer and an IT veteran with over 20 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies with an emphasis in automation and efficiency. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff writes the popular Prof. PowerShell column for MPCMag.com, is a regular contributor to the Petri IT Knowledgebase and 4SysOps, and frequent speaker at technology conferences and user groups. If he isn't writing, Jeff is most likely recording training videos for companies like TrainSignal or hanging out in the forums at PowerShell.org. Jeff's latest books are Learn PowerShell 3 in a Month of Lunches, Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches and PowerShell in Depth: An Administrators Guide. You can keep up with Jeff at his blog http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog , on Twitter at twitter.com/jeffhicks and on Google Plus (http:/gplus.to/JeffHicks) Courtesy of Microsoft 1 XBOX Live 12 Month Gold Membership ($60 value) 1 Wedge Mobile Keyboard 1 Copy of Halo 4 for XBOX Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection for .NET some t-shirts and sports cups Courtesy of Intertech Mouse pads, flying monkeys + assorted swag

Thursday, March 28th 2013 at 6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Brian Lagunas, Product Manager, Infragistics presented: WPF for the Real WorldHere you can find a recap of the tour and all the sample code: http://brianlagunas.com/2013/04/01/my-i-90-user-group-tour-buffalo-rochester-and-syracuse-follow-up/ Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is becoming more and more popular as businesses begin to convert their legacy Windows Forms applications and write their new line of business applications using WPF. WPF provides developers with a unified programming model for building rich Windows smart client user experiences that incorporate UI, media, and documents. With WPF, you can create a wide range of both standalone and browser-hosted applications. This session is aimed at giving you the knowledge required to get started writing line of business WPF applications so that you can become a more important asset to your employer. There will be no spinning buttons, no rotating cubes, and no silly or impractical tricks. This session will concentrate on the basic building blocks required to be a successful WPF developer. By the end of this session you will know what XAML is, how to manage layout in your application, define controls in your views, style and template your views, handle events, and manage data with data binding and the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) design pattern. Come join me in this interactive and fun learning experience where you can control the direction of the talk and emphasize what you are most interested in. WE HAVE SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Arc Keyboard 1 copy of "Azure in Action" 1 Umbrella Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection for .NET some t-shirts and sports cups Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection for .NET some t-shirts and sports cups Courtesy of Intertech Mouse pads, flying monkeys + assorted swag

Wednesday, February 13th 2013 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Andy Beaulieu presented Windows 8 Chalk Talk   IMPORTANT LINKS FROM THE MEETING Generation App - Your Road to Windows 8 Sign up now and you'll receive the tools, help, and support you need to get your Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 apps developed Generation App - Ultimate Experience Free Windows Store Registration and a copy of HALO 4 for your first app and a chance to win and XBOX w/Kinect. AppCampus Get funding for your next great Windows Phone app idea. Tech Affiliate Sweepstakes Create an app and enter a monthly drawing for $1000, $500, or $250. This was an informal discussion on all things Windows 8 (and Windows Phone 8)! App Development using XAML App Development using JavaScript Windows Phone 8 - what's new Windows Store Monetization Certification Process Windows 8 Hardware WinRT Windows Phone 8 - multi-targeting Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including XAML, C#, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Andy is quick to embrace new development technology and has won several awards in programming competitions. He has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the Metro Insiders group. He is also involved in the .NET community and is the Group Leader for the Central New York .NET Developers Group. WE HAVE SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 copy of "Windows 8 Apps" (book) 1 copy of "Head First HTML5 Programming" (book) Various t-shirts and trinkets Courtesy of Telerik 2 copies of Ultimate Collection for .NET Various t-shirts and trinkets Courtesy of Intertech $10 Dominos Pizza Gift Card Various trinkets - mouse pads, pens, monkeys

Saturday, December 1st 2012  8:30 AM - 4:30 PM Syracuse University Life Sciences Building

Windows 8 Firestarter! Attend several sessions and learn all about Windows 8 development including tools, monetization, and cloud data! SEATING IS LIMITED. REGISTER NOW! Registration 8:30 AM to 9:00 AM Sessions 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM Come and learn about Windows 8 and the developer opportunity it represents. Technical sessions by several experts will cover the Windows Store, development tools, libraries, and monetization. Lucky winners will walk away with some nice swag as well! EVENT SCHEDULE 8:30am—9:00am        Registration               Register in the atrium for the event. 9:00am—9:55am        Developing Windows Store apps using XAML                    Andy Beaulieu  This session will give an introduction to Windows Store app development using C# and XAML. We’ll look at project structure and how to leverage the project templates and sample data to quickly create data-driven apps. 10:00am—10:55am    Developing Windows Store apps using JavaScript                Chris Bowen  This session will give an introduction to Windows Store app development using JavaScript and HTML5. 11:00am—11:55am    Creating Casual Games in JavaScript and HTML5               Chris Bowen  In this session we will learn about the different languages and frameworks we can use to create casual games for the Windows Store using JavaScript. 12:00pm—12:30pm    Lunch  Join us for pizza and soda in the atrium. 12:30pm—1:25pm      Windows Store App Product DevelopmentRichard Nalezynski  With the release of several new Windows Platforms, it can be both exciting and overwhelming to get an app from an idea to the Windows Store. In this talk we'll look at some design strategies as well as some common user experience scenarios and patterns that can help with the process of developing your app. 1:25pm—2:25pm       Getting Started with Azure Mobile Services and Windows 8 Steve Maier  Windows Azure is a growing platform that tries to help developers to use the services as easily as possible.  Azure supports .NET, node.JS, php, java, python, and now mobile platforms.  In the Windows Azure Mobile Services (WAMS), they provide a simple way to get a database online and to use it in an iOS, WP8, or even Windows 8 application.  This session will go over the basics of WAMS as well as how the basic default services can be enhanced by the developer.  2:30pm—3:25pm       Developing Windows 8 Games with DirectX                      Dan Colasanti  While Microsoft has released higher level APIs for creating games in recent years, DirectX & C++ remains the technology of choice for creating high performance games on Windows, XBox, and now even Windows Phone. This introductory session will demonstrate Windows 8 DirectX game samples and cover the basics of developing DirectX games for Windows 8 including the integration of XAML interop.  3:30pm—4:25pm      Monetizing Windows Store Apps                                    Dan Colasanti  With the Windows 8 launch, there has never been a better time for developers to create apps and earn money from them. This session will discuss existing options for monetizing Windows Store apps and will present AdStreamer's real-world mobile advertising SDK that's currently in development and will be released for Windows Store apps in 2013.

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Stephen Ritchie presented Automated testing: “Overcoming the Obstacles, Pitfalls, and Dangers of Unit Testing” Have you ever bumped into a wall with your automated tests? Many developers bump into various roadblocks and hurdles when writing test code. Are your test methods starting to fail because the code-under-test uses DateTime.Now? Are your automated integration tests failing because the database they integrate with keeps changing? Do you have an explosion of test methods, with the ratio of test code to code-under-test way too high? Is your effort to refactor and improve code overwhelmed by the time it takes to rewrite all those failing unit tests? This presentation is about clearing away automated testing obstacles, avoiding common pitfalls, and staying away from dangerous practices. Stephen Ritchie is the author of Pro .NET Best Practices (http://www.apress.com/9781430240235). He has been writing software professionally for over 20 years. He works as a software development consultant at Excella Consulting in the Washington, D.C. area. His passion for following best practices has taught him to appreciate the value of experience, practical know-how, and continuous learning. Stephen is the .NET best practices steward at Excella Consulting, working with .NET project teams to facilitate and sort out the helpful practices from the unhelpful ones, the practicable from the impracticable, and the "sounds good" from the "it really is good" practices and principles. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Apress 3 copies of "Pro .NET Best Practices" by Stephen Ritchie 5 (eBook) copies of "Pro .NET Best Practices" by Stephen Ritchie 40% off coupon code for "Pro .NET Best Practices" by Stephen Ritchie Courtesy of Infragistics NetAdvantage Ultimate Subscription (valued $1800) NetAdvantage for Windows Phone Subscriptions(valued $995) Courtesy of Syncfusion 1 copy of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise Edition (valued $1995)

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012 6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

James VanDusen presented DotNetNukeJames VanDusen, CEO of ICTG, LLC, will catch us up on what's new with Dotnetnuke, the popular web content platform. WE HAVE SWAG 1 copy of Web Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (book/training kit) 1 copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 1 copy of VS 2010 Pro Assorted t-shirts and other swag

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012   6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Andy Beaulieu presented Windows 8 Launch ! That's right, Windows 8 has released! We'll talk about Windows Store app development - the artist formerly known as Metro. We'll learn about the different development options including XAML/C# and HTML/JavaScript. And we'll use a real-world app, one of the first on the Windows Store, to demonstrate development, deployment, metrics and reporting. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including XAML, C#, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Andy was quick to embrace Windows 8 development, and his Physamajig app was one of the first apps available on the Windows Store and a winner in Microsoft's First Apps Contest. He has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the Metro Insiders group. He is also involved in the .NET community and is the Group Leader for the Central New York .NET Developers Group. WE HAVE SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Microsoft Arc Mouse 1 Forza Motorsport Xbox 360 game 1 copy of HTML5 step by step 1 copy of Expression Studio 4 1 copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 2 XBOX Live 1600 Point Cards ($20 value each) Assorted T-shirts and trinkets

Thursday, June 28th, 2012 6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Mike Bluestein presented: Cross-platform Mobile Development with Mono and MonoTouch This talk will present an introduction to both MonoTouch and Mono for Android. We'll talk about what each product offers, show the development experience and discuss strategies for cross platform code reuse. Bio: Michael Bluestein is a technical writer for Xamarin and author of the book Learning MonoTouch. A former Principal Software Engineer at Dassault Systèmes Solidworks Corporation, he has developed software professionally since the early 1990s. Xamarin's mission is to make it fast, easy and fun to build great mobile apps. Xamarin's cross-platform mobile app development software allows .NET programmers to use their existing skills and tooling to cut app development and operation time and costs by sharing code for apps running on iOS, Android and Windows phones, tablets and embedded devices. For more information visit http://xamarin.com. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 copy of Expression Studio 4 Web Professional 1 XBOX Live 4000 Point Card ($50 value) 1 XBOX Live 1600 Point Card ($20 value) 1 Microsoft Arc Mouse 1 book Windows Communication Foundation 4 1 book Programming Razor 1 book Programming HTML5 Applications 1 Microsoft Travel Bag

Thursday, May 31st, 2012 6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Dani Diaz presented: Mobile Cloud + Intro to the Async Framework MoCloud: Useful Cloud Patterns for Mobile Developers If you want to spicy up a resume with the latest tech scene buzz words, I can’t think of two better ones than “mobility” and “cloud”. We all know that both of these technologies will play a big role in the future of our industry. In this session, I will outline several popular design patterns for building powerful and scalable mobile applications. While all of the patterns shown are “cloud provider” independent, I will concentrate on Windows Azure using iOS, Android and Windows Phone as the mobile clients. Introduction To The Async FrameworkAsynchronous programing has been available to .Net developers since version 1. It is a technique use to maintain responsiveness of thread and not blocking it while an operation is being performed. Asynchrony preserves responsiveness while synchronous call blocks, until the result is returned. However the current async patterns available to ..net developers makes developer do funny things to your app code. In this session I will introduce the new Async framework available to Windows Phone, Windows 8 and .Net v.Next Bio Dani Diaz (@DaniDiaz), is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist where he helps developers understand Microsoft’s product offerings and strategy. His main focus area is Windows Phone development. Prior to Microsoft, he lead a team of mobile developers for a large consulting company in Philadelphia. He is active in the Philly geek scene and plays around with many different technologies in his spare time. We had lots of swag! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 XBOX LIVE Gold Membership ($60 value) 1 Microsoft Duffel Bag 1 User Community Laptop Bag 1 Copy of Visual Studio 2010 Professional Assorted swag, hats, and trinkets Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik JustCode + Tshirt

Thursday, April 5th, 2012 6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Jim O'Neil presented: Playing Games in the Cloud By now you’ve heard about Windows Azure, Microsoft’s Cloud Computing platform, but perhaps you haven’t yet kicked the tires and tried it out yourself. Well, here’s your chance. With this session on the RockPaperAzure Challenge, you’ll get an overview of the Windows Azure Platform an`d have a chance to try it out in a fun (and potentially profitable) way – by playing a variation of the playground favorite - Rock, Paper, Scissors - in the cloud! For the session, bring your laptop (Windows Vista or Windows 7)* and 1. Install Visual Studio 2010 Pro (or higher) or Visual Web Developer Express 2010 (a free download) 2. Install the Windows Azure SDK http://bit.ly/xP56oP 3. Provision a no-risk, free 90-day Windows Azure trial account (http://bit.ly/xrUXU2) – here’s a screencast walkthrough: (http://bit.ly/yaboao) And we’ll cover the rest at the meeting. There’s a Kinect, Visual Studio 2010 license, and a $50 Best Buy gift card up for grabs – so get ready to Rock (PaperAzure)! *If you don’t have Windows Vista or Windows 7, don’t let that stop you from coming! You’ll still be able to participate, we just may buddy you up with someone! Jim O'Neil is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist for the Northeast District, including New England and Upstate New York. He joined Microsoft in April 2008 after nearly twelve years at Sybase as a support engineer, sales consultant, and evangelist for developer tools including PowerBuilder, DataWindow .NET, and EAServer (a J2EE application server). Jim is an MCPD and co-authored two books and multiple articles on application development using PowerBuilder. Prior to Sybase, he worked as a software engineer for MITRE and BDM International, Inc., developing prototypes and simulations for various DoD organizations. WE HAVE LOTS OF SWAG... Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Kinect 1 Visual Studio 2010 License 1 $50 Best Buy Gift Card

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Steve Maier presented: Using Kinect in Windows Apps With the changing human interaction of newer technology such as the Surface or the Kinect, the old interfaces are changing. Microsoft is releasing a Windows version of the Kinect for desktop usage on Feb 1st. Microsoft has a beta SDK to talk to the Kinect using Winforms and WPF apps. In this meeting, this SDK will be discussed and demos for using the camera, depth sensor, skeleton detection, and audio support will be shown. Steve Maier is a Principal Software Engineer at Infimed and leading the team for their next generation product. He holds multiple .NET and SQL Server certifications and co-authored a SQL Server book. He has also used DirectX and Direct3D for multiple medical applications as well as game engines.. This meeting was sponsored by ISSI. They covered the pizza and soda! WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG... Courtesy of Microsoft1 Copy of HTML5 and CSS3 by Brian Hogan Assorted Community Swag Courtesy of Telerik 1 Copy of Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 Copy of Telerik JustCode + T-Shirt + Goodies 1 Copy of Telerik JustMock + T-Shirt + Goodies

Wednesday, February 1st 2012    6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Gary Davis presented Design and UsabilityThe usability, work-flow and visual design of your apps shouldn't be afterthoughts. Despite all your beautifully written code, the UI is the only thing most users will ever see of your app and it's how they will judge it's quality. Gary Davis will present a quick overview of design and usability principles to keep in mind while designing your next app. He will then lead the group in a visual-design and usability critique of some apps in development. Gary Davis started his career as an Industrial Designer which taught him to design products from a human perspective. Since the mid 90s he has focused entirely on software User Interaction Design for companies like Xerox, Kodak and currently for Dell. Located in Rochester, NY, Gary has done everything from designing hundreds of icons to simplifying once complex workflows. This meeting is sponsored by Welch Allyn. They are covering the pizza and soda! WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of HALO REACH for XBOX 360 1 Copy of Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Ultimate 1 Copy of HTML5 and CSS3 (book) Courtesy of Telerik 1 Copy of Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 Copy of Telerik JustCode + T-Shirt + Goodies 1 Copy of Telerik JustMock + T-Shirt + Goodies

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011   6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Andy Beaulieu presented: Windows 8 Metro Development Windows 8 represents Microsoft's first official entry into the tablet space, and the Metro UI is how developers deliver unique multitouch experiences to this new platform. In this presentation, we'll look at the Platform and Tools for Windows 8 App development, learn about WinRT - the OOP replacement for Win32, and talk about what this means for traditional .NET developers.  Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and WindowsForms. Andy has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders group. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of HTML5 and CSS3 Assorted Mugs and swag Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 "Get Addicted" Swag Bag with T-Shirt, laptop sticker, and either a JustCode or JustMock license

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011   6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Dan Colasanti presented: Windows Phone 7 Ad-Network Manager Development with XNA Intro to App Monetization with In-App Advertising     - Impressions & eCPM     - Capabilities & Limitations of pubCenter, AdDuplex, and other Ad Networks     - The case for an Ad Network Manager and House Ad Framework   Ad Network Manager Architecture Overview     - Description of ImproviSoft's Ad Network Manager component     - The process of requesting, acquiring, displaying ads and error handling   XML Configuration Files (C# and XML code examples):     - XML serialization & deserialization with C# Generics     - File I/O using isolated storage, the Title Container, and the Web     - Config File Re-Load Schedules   Developing the House Ad Framework (C# and XML code examples):     + Introduction:         - text ads vs banner ads, and ad-frames         - "at startup", "on interval", and "popup" ads     - Serialization of complex types: an XNA "SerializableColor" class     - Dynamically created textures for text ads - "ColorRectangle"     - Creating an ad (button) control using raw touch input     - Banner ads - asynchronous image loading from a URL     - Using a timer to transition between ad frames     - Animating & fading ad-control text within a clipping rectangle     - Handling orientation events     - Getting built-in ad banners (in the TitleContainer) from a House Ad     - Using fonts in XNA Dan Colasanti is the owner of  ImproviSoft LLC, a Microsoft BizSpark Startup company that develops apps for Windows Phone 7.  ImproviSoft has released three games for Windows Phone over the past year:  Ener-Jewels!, Ener-Jewels TGIF!, and Invasion.  Dan is currently developing an Advertising Network Management component for Windows Phone that is expected to be released in October 2011 and hopes to have a new version of Ener-Jewels! released by the end of the year.  He often writes articles about Windows Phone 7 and other topics of interest on The ImproviSoft Blog.  His Twitter handle is @dancolasanti. WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! Courtesy of Improvisoft (4) Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer with Tilt Wheel Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of Parallel Programming with Microsoft .NET Assorted T-shirts and Mugs Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 "Get Addicted" Swag Bag with T-Shirt, laptop sticker, and either a JustCode or JustMock license

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011   6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Steve Maier presented: Mobile + Cloud Development Mobile devices are becoming more and more popular, in all forms, WP7, iPhone, and Android.  Most devices have a limited storage size and computing power.  Cloud computing can help tie into mobile development to allow developers to have huge databases at the disposal of their mobile apps.  Data such as things like FourSquare can be kept in the cloud and used and accessed not only for the mobile devices but other applications as well.  We are going to talk about setting up cloud services and using them with your WP7 or other mobile device for data and even notification services.  Steve Maier is the Principal Software Engineer for InfiMed, Inc developing digital xray software.  He holds 11 Microsoft certifications, from databases, to ASP.NET, to Winforms.  He was used by Microsot Learning as a SME for new college certifications.  Steve has worked on drivers, game engines, databases, websites, client apps,  internal business apps, and has taught college programming courses.  He has co-authored a SQL Server book.  Currently, Steve has 8 iPhone apps in the store and 1 in the Windows Phone 7 store all under the company name YsApps. WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 "Get Addicted" Swag Bag with T-Shirt, laptop sticker, and either a JustCode or JustMock license Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of Parallel Programming with Microsoft .NET Assorted T-shirts and Mugs

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011   6:00 pm New Horizons, East Syracuse NY

Everett McKay presented: Effective Prototyping 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! 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. WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! Courtesy of UX Design Edge 2 Free Passes to UX Design Basics (online) Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 "Get Addicted" Swag Bag with T-Shirt, laptop sticker, and either a JustCode or JustMock license Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Microsoft Arc Mouse 1 Copy of Parallel Programming with Microsoft .NET Assorted T-shirts and Mugs

Saturday, June 11th, 2011   8:00 am - 5:00 pm Syracuse University, Life Sciences Building (directions below)

Windows Phone 7 Firestarter This month we had a full day Windows Phone 7 Event, thanks to joint effort by Microsoft, ImproviSoft, AppRochester, and CNY .NET Dev Group! Dream It. Build It. The power to build smart, visually stunning games and applications is right in your hands with Windows Phone 7. Want to see what’s under the hood?  This full-day series of learning events for developers will take you behind the scenes with an inside look at the philosophy, design language, and the fundamentals of Silverlight and XNA coding for Windows Phone 7. You’ll also see how the Windows Marketplace provides exciting new distribution and monetization opportunities for developers and application publishers. A FULL DAY OF WINDOWS PHONE 7! 8:00 am - 9:00 am RegistrationHave a donut, check in, and mingle. 9:00 am - 9:55 am Building Windows Phone 7 Applications with SilverlightThis session will focus on building Windows Phone 7 applications with Microsoft Silverlight. You’ll see first-hand how to use Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend to develop and debug projects. You’ll also learn about the built-in templates and the many available controls and styles for WP7.  Presenter: Andy Beaulieu 10:00 am - 10:55 am Building Windows Phone 7 Applications using XNAMicrosoft XNA has been a favorite with game developers for many years. Now game developers will be able to harness the power of the XNA framework to create highly immersive and responsive games for Windows Phone 7. We’ll charge full-speed into XNA game development for Windows Phone by reviewing the framework as we develop a 2D action game.  You'll learn how to implement a screen manager, draw graphics & animate them, handle touch & accelerometer input, perform collision detection, and play sound effects & music. Presenter: Dan Colasanti 11:00 am - 11:55 am Windows Phone 7 ServicesGet ready to build more engaging user experiences with Windows Phone 7 and several powerful cloud- and phone-based components. First up is the Microsoft Location Service, which allows you to obtain location information based on GPS, cell and Wi-Fi signals. Next, we’ll cover the Microsoft Push Notification Service, which provides “live” updates for apps running on the device. Presenter: Steve Maier 12:00 pm - 12:25 pm LUNCHPizza and soda. Can't get enough. 12:30 pm - 1:25 pm From Dream to Reality: Building Solid Windows Phone Applications, Part 1Device Integration, clean design, minimalist user interface are all important to build compelling apps, . In this session, you’ll learn how to create the compelling and interactive mobile experiences which users have come to have expect. We will also focus on a solid application architecture that will allows us to enhance and support our apps in an easy and prescriptive way. Presenter: Danilo Diaz 1:30 pm - 2:25 pm From Dream to Reality: Building Solid Windows Phone Applications, Part 2 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm Hackathon and RaffleBring your laptop and ideas and resident experts will help you with your app development. LOTS OF SWAG... 1 Windows Phone - Dell Venue Pro 1 Visual Studio 2010 Professional 5 Windows Phone eco-bags 5 single-slot USB chargers for automobile 12V sockets 25 Windows Phone 7 "Upload Yours" notepads 48 User Group Sweepstakes Cards to get a $99 Marketplace rebate 1 laptop sleeve 12 anti-slip rubber sticker grips Exclusive coupon code for $30 off a Windows Phone at MS Company Store (or online) COURTESY OF INTERTECH... 1 $10 Starbucks Gift Card Flying Monkeys, Mugs and Pens DIRECTIONS TO SU LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING Syracuse University's Life Sciences Building (the newest building on campus, opened 3 years ago) Note that neither Bing or Google maps shows this building (they show the old parking lot where this building now stands). From I81-S, take Exit 18.  While under the overpass, get into the Center Lane. Turn Left onto E. Adams Street at the T intersection from the right-most "left-turn-only" lane.  Turn Right onto Walnut Place and proceed to the end of the road. Turn Left onto Waverly Ave at T intersection in front of Bird Library. Turn Right onto Comstock Ave at the 2nd Light. Turn Right onto University Place at the next intersection. At the Stop sign there is a Guard Post - tell the guard you are going to the Quad 4 Parking Lot. Turn Left onto College Place.  You will see the Life Sciences Building (LSB) and the Center for Science & Technology (CST) on your left. Turn Left into the Quad 4 Parking lot (there is a Parking Attendant here) after passing the LSB and CST. Tell the Parking Attendant that you are going to the Windows Phone Event at the Life Sciences Building. Enter the LSB through the Atrium entrance between the LSB & CST.  Registration will be here. The Auditorium is to the left and down the stairs. Q4 Parking Location & Directions:  http://parking.syr.edu/Parking/display.cfm?content_ID=%23%28%28%21%2C%0A Campus Map: http://parking.syr.edu/Parking/uploads/North%20&%20South%20Campus%2005-2009071509.pdf (right click and select Marquee Zoom to zoom in on QUAD 4 Parking area) Building Photos: [Exterior]  [Aerial]  [Atrium]

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented Silverlight 5 - 3D Made Easy [DOWNLOAD DEMOS] Silverlight 5 Beta 1 was released at MIX11 and includes support for hardware accelerated 3D using an XNA-like API. However, this API is very low level and not easily picked up by many developers. In this talk, we'll learn how to leverage existing open source libraries to more easily create a 3D scene using the new 3D features of Silverlight 5. We'll also add Physics to the scene to provide a highly interactive experience. We'll finish by discussing the future of Silverlight 3D on Windows Phone 7 and how the functionality of both Silverlight and XNA are being merged to create a powerful application framework. WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG... COURTESY OF MICROSOFT 2 Microsoft Community Beverage Cups 1 Copy of Programming Windows Phone 7 by Charles Petzold 1 Microsoft Arc Mouse Some assorted Trinkets COURTESY OF PLURALSIGHT 2 Pluralsight 1-month training passes

Wednesday, April 6th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jeffery Hicks presented PowerShell Scripting Best Practices Scripting with Windows PowerShell is very different than VBScript and thus requires not only a new mind-set, but also a new set of scripting Best Practices. PowerShell MVP, trainer and author, Jeffery Hicks will lay out the do's and don'ts when writing PowerShell scripts. Jeff will demonstrate PowerShell scripting best practices with real-world examples. The goal is for you to make PowerShell scripts easier to develop, easier to maintain, and less bug-prone. Jeffery Hicks is a Microsoft MVP in Windows PowerShell and an IT veteran with almost 20 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff also writes the popular Prof. PowerShell column for MPCMag.com. His latest book is Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell 2.0: TFM 2nd Ed. (SAPIEN Press 2011). You can keep up with Jeff at http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog and twitter.com/jeffhicks. This meeting is sponsored by Syncfusion. They are sponsoring the pizza, soda and 1 license of their Essential Studio Enterprise! WE HAVE SWAG! 1 license of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise ($1,995 value) 1 Microsoft laptop bag 1 Windows Phone carrying case 1 MS User Community travel mug 1 copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration some Assorted Tshirts and trinkets (WP7, etc).

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Dan Colasanti presented Windows Phone 7 Game Development with XNA [DOWNLOAD SLIDES] WP7 games can be made with XNA or Silverlight, using free tools from Microsoft. In this session we'll discuss 2D game development for WP7 using XNA. Examples from Microsoft's XNA Team will be used in this presentation as well as code from the presenter's "Ener-Jewels!" game that is on the Windows Phone Marketplace. Topics will include: • Introduction to XNA • XNA Game Development Framework • 2D Graphics & Text • Sound effects & music • Saving & Loading games • Trial Mode License implementation • User Input and Notifications • High Scores • Going cross platform - WP7, Windows, and XBOX • Current Limitations of XNA for Windows Phone • Getting started with Windows Phone Development with XNA Dan Colasanti owns and directs ImproviSoft LLC, a Microsoft BizSpark Startup company that develops apps for Windows Phone 7 and that released its Ener-Jewels! game in November 2010. Dan holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Clarkson University and M.S degrees in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from Syracuse University, where he was also an Adjunct Instructor from 1999 to 2004. Dan started his career at GE Aerospace as an Embedded Software Engineer on the BSY-2 Submarine Combat System. In the mid '90s he worked on the International Space Station project, and later became a Radar Software Project Engineer at Lockheed Martin. In 2002 Dan started a consulting business, creating E-Commerce solutions and School Information Systems. In 2005 he became the Director of Software Engineering at InfiMed, Inc. and in 2008, the Software Engineering Manager for Magna Powertrain, Inc. in North America. With Magna Powertrain's Engineering Division moving to Michigan in 2010, Dan chose to remain in Syracuse to start-up ImproviSoft LLC. ImproviSoft plans to release three more WP7 apps in 2011 and is currently working on the next release of Ener-Jewels!. WE HAD SWAG! 1 Microsoft Laptop Bag 1 Windows Phone Carrying Case 1 Copy of "Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration Instant Reference" 2 Travel Mugs - Microsoft User Community Several Assorted T-Shirts and Trinkets (Windows Phone, Sharepoint)

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented Windows Phone 7: Monetize your Apps Windows Phone 7 was launched in November 2010, amid a highly competitive mobile environment. In this session we'll discuss how apps are faring in the new Marketplace, and what strategies can be used to monetize apps. We'll discuss how successful Trial Mode versus a Free version of the app can be, and how Ads can be introduced for additional revenue. We'll also look at ways of gathering feedback for improving app quality. Several apps by the developer will be used as real world examples. This meeting was sponsored by ISSI. They covered the pizza and soda! WE HAVE LOTS OF SWAG... COURTESY OF MICROSOFT 1 MSDN Subscription: Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN (valued at $11,899 new, $3,799 renewal !) 2 Microsoft Laptop Bags 1 Copy of SQL Server 2008 Adminstrator's Pocket Consultant 4 Assorted Shirts - Visual Studio 2010, Windows Phone 7, Sharepoint Some assorted WP7 trinkets :)

Wednesday, December 1st 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Steve Maier presented Monotouch Development iPhone development has been a hard thing for many .NET programmers to get into.  Objective-C does not compare to the power and simplicity of C#.  XCode is lacking compared to our dear Visual Studio.  Novell and the Mono team have solved this with MonoTouch.  Now you can use C# to develop iPhone and iPad applications that can be sold in the app store or used as an enterprise app.  Steve Maier is the Principal Software Engineer for InfiMed, Inc developing digital xray software.  He holds 11 Microsoft certifications, from databases, to ASP.NET, to Winforms.  He was used by Microsot Learning as a SME for new college certifications.  Steve has worked on drivers, game engines, databases, websites, client apps,  internal business apps, and has taught college programming courses.  He has co-authored a SQL Server book.  Currently, Steve has 8 iPhone apps in the store and 1 in the Windows Phone 7 store all under the company name YsApps. WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! COURTESY OF MICROSOFT 1 MICROSOFT USER COMMUNITY MUG 5 WINDOWS PHONE T-SHIRTS 5 USB WINDOWS PHONE USB KEYS WINDOWS PHONE DEVICE HOLDERS (A BUNCH) WINDOWS PHONE NO-SLIP E-GRIPS (A BUNCH) VOUCHERS FOR 25% OFF TECHNET SUBSCRIPTIONS

Wednesday, November 3rd 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jim O'Neil presented Title: Dissecting Azure@home Azure@home is a sample application built on the Windows Azure cloud computing infrastructure to contribute to Stanford’s Folding@home project, a 10-year old research effort focused on better understanding how proteins ‘fold’ and ‘misfold’, leading to diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, and some cancers.   In this session, I’ll provide an overview of the Windows Azure capabilities as well as the Azure@home project, then we’ll dissect the implementation of Azure@home to show how portions of the Azure platform – web roles, worker roles, and storage – were used to architect the solution.  All attendees will also receive a 30-day, no-strings-attached trial account to either deploy Azure@home or do their own self-study on the Windows Azure platform. Jim O'Neil is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist for the Northeast District, including New England and Upstate New York.  He joined Microsoft in April 2008 after nearly twelve years at Sybase as a support engineer, sales consultant, and evangelist for developer tools including PowerBuilder, DataWindow .NET, and EAServer (a J2EE application server).  Jim is an MCPD and co-authored two books and multiple articles on application development using PowerBuilder.  Prior to Sybase, he worked as a software engineer for MITRE and BDM International, Inc., developing prototypes and simulations for various DoD organizations. WE HAD SWAG! 1 Copy of Telerik Ultimate Collection  1 License of GrapeCity tools Some GrapeCity T-Shirts Jim brought 1 copy of Office Professional 2010, some bags, books and assorted swag!

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented Windows Phone 7 Launch! The launch of Windows Phone 7 is imminent! Still don't have an app ready for the marketplace? No worries. In this session, we will create a FUN Silverlight app for WP7 using Expression Blend for design and Visual Studio for development. We'll learn how we can monetize our creation using advertising and the marketplace. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and WindowsForms. Andy has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders group. This meeting was sponsored by Microsoft. They are covering the Pizza, Soda, and swag! WE HAD SWAG! 3 certificates for 30 Days of Free TekPub 1 Copy of Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 License of GrapeCity tools Some GrapeCity T-Shirts

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jeffery Hicks presented PowerShell at Work: Background Jobs Exposed DOWNLOAD DEMOS + SLIDES Windows PowerShell 2.0  offers a number of enhancements over the original release. One of them, background jobs, can fundamentally change the way you interact with the shell and ultimately your administrative scripting projects. In this session I'll explain what it takes to put PowerShell 's jobs to work for you. I'll demonstrate how to set up jobs both locally and remotely. You'll learn how to monitor job progress, how to retrieve job results and how to troubleshoot job failures. This will be a demo-heavy session, but don't worry. Jeff will make a transcript of his PowerShell session and all code samples available. Bio: Jeffery Hicks (MCSE,MCSA,MCT) is a Microsoft MVP in Windows PowerShell and an IT veteran with almost 20 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT consultant specializing in Windows server technologies. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff is a columnist for MCPMag.com. He has co-authored or authored several books, courseware, and training videos on administrative scripting and automation. His latest book (co-written with Don Jones)  is Windows PowerShell 2.0: TFM (SAPIEN Press 2010). Jeff is a moderator at ScriptingAnswers.com, a subject matter expert at TheExpertsCommunity.com and a frequent contributor to many scripting-related forums.  You can follow Jeff  at  jdhitsolutions.com/blog and twitter.com/jeffhicks. WE HAD SWAG! 1 MSDN Subscription with MS Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate! 3 certificates for 30 Days of Free TekPub 1 Copy of Telerik Ultimate Collection 1 Copy of Pro C# 2008

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Everett McKay presented UI is Communication DOWNLOAD THE SLIDES You are a developer working on a project that needs a good user interface to be successful. But there’s a problem: you aren’t an experienced UI designer and nobody else on your team is either. You are doing the best you can, but you know could do better. If only you knew more about UI design to help your team make better decisions… If this sounds familiar, come to our August 11th meeting where Everett McKay will present UI is Communication. In this talk, Everett will present the fundamentals of UI design from the point of view of effective communication. UI design is ultimately all about communicating to users, both in terms of what you say and how you say it. If you can explain how to perform a task to someone in person in a way that’s clear and concise, you can apply those same communication techniques to present the task to users using the language of UI. This talk will help you apply UI design skills that you didn’t know you had. The talk will focus on UI design principles, process, and techniques. There will be several practical examples where you can apply what you have learned to real UI design problems. Everett McKay is the principal of UX Design Edge, a user experience design consulting and training firm specializing in helping non-designers based in St. Albans, Vermont. 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. This meeting was sponsored by Microsoft. They are covering the Pizza, Soda, and swag! We had LOTS OF SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 MSDN Subscription w/Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate (that's right, a FULL MSDN Subscription!!!) 1 Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 7000 1 Copy of Microsoft Application Architecture Guide 2nd Ed. Lots of T-Shirts Courtesy of Telerik 1 Telerik Ultimate Collection Courtesy of TekPub 6 Trial Codes (30 Days) of TekPub Courtesy of GrapeCity 1 License of GrapeCity tools Courtesy of DiscountASP.NET DiscountASP.NET is offering 6 months free hosting to members of CNY .NET Developers! See here for details.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented Windows Phone 7 Development in Silverlight Using Visual Studio 2010 This session will show how we can use Visual Studio 2010 to develop applications for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices using Silverlight. We'll look at using multitargeting to create both a Web and Phone solution using a single code base. We'll also talk about the Windows Phone device capabilities and Microsoft's Marketplace. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and WindowsForms. Andy has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders group. This meeting was sponsored by Microsoft. They are covering the Pizza, Soda, and swag!  We had lots of swag! 1 USB Drive w/all the content for Windows Phone 7 Dev 2 Windows Phone T-Shirts 2 Visual Studio T-Shirts 2 Mobile Hardware Cases Laptop Stickers, Tattoos and assorted goodies Evaluation copies of Visual Studio 2010 and Windows Server 2008 1 Copy of DXperience by Devexpress ($1299 value) 1 Copy of Telerik Justcode ($249 value)

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jeffery Hicks presented Windows PowerShell 2.0: A Developer Introduction This presentation will introduce you to the wonderful world of Windows PowerShell, with a goal of helping you understand what it is and how it’s used, who its primary audience is, and what you as a developer can expect to do with it. Windows PowerShell does have specific appeal to a broad range of users, with features designed for very entry-level users as well as more advanced features intended for experienced professionals, so we’ll briefly look at its entire scope. The presentation will include plenty of demonstrations starting with a look at how Windows PowerShell works as an interactive command-line shell. We’ll move on to looking at the shell’s ability to act as a scripting environment, and cover the entire scope of its scripting ecosystem. As a developer, you’ll find that scripts can be a powerful way to use the shell, and understanding the scope of its scripting capabilities will help you choose exactly the right features for the task at hand. The session will wrap up with a demonstration of one of the most interesting features of the shell: its ability to act as a sort of “immediate window” for the .NET Framework – a great way to test and prototype code that you’re writing in Visual Studio. Finally, I’ll give you an overview of how to develop for the shell itself – extending the shell with your own commands, and hosting the shell inside your .NET applications to leverage the shell’s capabilities. Bio: Jeffery Hicks (MCSE,MCSA,MCT) is a Microsoft MVP in Windows PowerShell and an IT veteran with almost 20 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT consultant specializing in Windows server technologies. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff is a columnist for MCPMag.com. He has co-authored or authored several books, courseware, and training videos on administrative scripting and automation. His latest book (co-written with Don Jones)  is Windows PowerShell 2.0: TFM (SAPIEN Press 2010). Jeff is a moderator at ScriptingAnswers.com, a subject matter expert at TheExpertsCommunity.com and a frequent contributor to many scripting-related forums.  You can follow Jeff  at  jdhitsolutions.com/blog and twitter.com/jeffhicks. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of TekPub 1 (1-Year) Subscription to TekPub 4 (30-Day) Subscriptions to TekPub Courtesy of Telerik 1 Copy of Telerik Premium Collection for .NET ($1299 value) Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of Windows 7 Step by Step (book) 1 Copy of Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360) This meeting is sponsored by Telerik -They are covering the cost of the pizza and soda, and also some swag!

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andrei Vieru presented jQuery + ASP.NETView the Video part 1 http://www.viddler.com/explore/avieru/videos/4/ part 2 http://www.viddler.com/explore/avieru/videos/5/ jQuery is a lightweight open source JavaScript framework that has become one of the most popular libraries on the web used by Google, Amazon, Intel, IBM, Dell, Twitter and many others. Over a year ago Microsoft decided to join other happy jQuery users and made the cross-browser framework part of the official development platform. jQuery is now shipping with VS 2010, including intellisense support, and has full Microsoft backing. We will explore how jQuery simplifies client side javascript development. We'll also look at how jQuery can help you simplify adding interactivity to your new and existing web applications by going over real world examples. Find out how to leverage a companion UI widget and effects library - jQueryUI, as well as rich jQuery plug-in ecosystem. Andrei Vieru is professional software developer with over 10 years of experience developing web and windows applications on .NET platform. He's developed in various environments in organizations of all sizes - from a 3 man start up to a mid-size corporation to a large government contractor. Most recently working for Xclaim Software, he’s practicing agile development which focuses on Domain Driven Design and integration of Open Source tools. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition 1 Copy of "Writing Secure Code" by Howard and LeBlanc 1 Copy of Office Standard Edition 2007 Some Windows Azure T-Shirts and Hats Courtesy of TekPub 4 (30-day) Subscription Coupons 1 (1-year) Subscription Coupon

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Rik Bardrof presented Generics & Functional Programming View the Videopart 1 http://www.viddler.com/explore/avieru/videos/1/ part 2 http://www.viddler.com/explore/avieru/videos/2/ part 3 http://www.viddler.com/explore/avieru/videos/3/ Generics in .Net allow developers to define type-safe classes and data structures that will work with a broad range of types. Building generic objects results in significant performance boost and higher quality code through the reuse of processing algorithms without needing type-specific code. Functional programming in .Net also provides the potential for code reuse, reduced bugs, and increase robustness. In this session we will combine the two technologies to demonstrate how we as developers can expand our solution engineering tool set. Rik Bardrof is a senior software developer for Xclaim Software, located in Central New York. He has a widely varied background in computer science with experience ranging from systems maintenance through application development (lot’s of stuff in between). Currently he’s practicing agile development in a .Net shop which focuses heavily on Domain Driven Design, Test Driven Design, and integration of Open Source tools. We had SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 copy of Office Standard 2007 1 copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 2 copies (books) of Developing Service-Oriented AJAX Applications Missed the last meeting? We still have some kewl mugs courtesy of Tek Systems.

Wednesday, February 24th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jim O'Neil presented Microsoft Codename "Dallas" At PDC 2009, Microsoft announced "Dallas", a Data-as-a-Service offering that leverages the Windows Azure cloud computing platform. "Dallas" makes well-known and vetted public and commercial data sets from entities such as the Associated Press and Data.gov available to the development and data analysis communities. This session explores getting started with "Dallas" and accessing its data sets programmatically and via Excel 2010's PowerPivot feature. Jim O'Neil is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist for the Northeast District, including New England and Upstate New York.  He joined Microsoft in April 2008 after nearly twelve years at Sybase as a support engineer, sales consultant, and evangelist for developer tools including PowerBuilder, DataWindow .NET, and EAServer (a J2EE application server).  Jim is an MCPD and co-authored two books and multiple articles on application development using PowerBuilder.  Prior to Sybase, he worked as a software engineer for MITRE and BDM International, Inc., developing prototypes and simulations for various DoD organizations.   This meeting was sponsored  by Tek Systems. They covered the pizza, soda, and some bonus swag! We had lots of SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft 1 Microsoft Arc Mouse 1 copy of Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 by Dino Esposito 1 copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 1 copy of Office Standard 2007 1 copy of Introducing Silverlight 3 by Laurence Moroney 1 copy of Developing Service Oriented AJAX Applications by Daniel Larson Courtesy of Intertech Flying Monkeys (no really), A Rubiks Cube, and other goodies

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented Line of Business Apps with Silverlight 4[download slides + demos] We'll look at the great new features coming to Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010 for Line of Business Application Development. We'll see how RIA Services and Cider Designer support make Silverlight 4 a first class application platform in VS2010. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and WindowsForms. Andy has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders group. This meeting was sponsored by Intertech (providing some nice swag) and Telerik (providing the Pizza and Soda and swag!) WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! COURTESY OF TELERIK 1 Telerik Premium Collection for .NET ($1299 Value!) COURTESY OF INTERTECH 1 Free Class Entrollment Certificate (Value up to $2495)! 1 $50 Barnes and Noble Gift Certificate Various Mugs, Pens and Swag COURTESY OF MICROSOFT 1 Copy of Office Project Standard 2007 1 Microsoft Arc Mouse 1 Copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 1 Copy of Office Standard 2007 2 XBOX 360 Games: Halo3 and PGR4 2 Copies of Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 3 by L. Moroney

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

David Stevenson presented LINQ to XML LINQ To XML vs. XmlReader, XSLT, MSXML, XPath Functional Creation                 XDocument, XDeclaration, XElement, XAttribute classes                 XProcessingInstruction, XComment, XText, XCData classes Loading or Parsing XML Documents Explicit XElement and XAttribute Operators (direct casting) Namespaces - XNamespace and XName classes The large XML File problem - XStreamingElement class                 C# Yield statement review                 Deferred Execution and Lazy Evaluation                 Chaining Queries                 Intermediate Materialization Using XSLT with LINQ To XML Validate using Schemas XML Queries                 Grouping data Modifying XML Trees                 Add, Modify, Remove                 XML Tree Transformation Serialization (Output) David Stevenson is currently working at Data PAC Mailing Systems in Webster, New York as a Senior Software Engineer developing bulk mailing systems for the direct mail industry in Visual Studio 2008, using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), ADO.NET and LINQ. David has over 27 years of software development experience, ranging from long distance cable data base system, process control systems, developing a web based content management system and a trouble ticketing system for a major satellite radio provider. An occasional speaker for Visual Developers of Upstate New York in Rochester, David has presented on topics including Windows Script Host, C#, VB.NET, ADO.NET, Object Oriented JavaScript and LINQ.  WE HAD SWAG! COURTESY OF MICROSOFT 2 XBOX 360 Games 1 Copy of Office Ultimate (software) 1 Copy of Programming SQL Server 2008 (book)

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Chris Bowen presented “What’s New in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0” Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 are on their way, bringing many new options and features for productivity and creating effective applications.  In this talk, we’ll take a turbo tour of the key features currently in Beta 2, both at the language level and in Visual Studio itself so you’ll have a head start on things when they’re released. Chris Bowen (http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen) is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, covering the Northeastern US.  An architect and developer with over 16 years of experience, he joined Microsoft after holding senior positions at companies including Monster.com, VistaPrint, Staples, and IDX Systems, as well as consulting with others.  He is coauthor of "Essential Windows Communication Foundation" and "Professional Visual Studio 2005 Team System" and holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Management Information Systems, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. WE HAD SWAG! This meeting's swag was on Chris - he brought a "fascinating array of books and software!" Pizza and Soda courtesy of Microsoft User Group Support Services.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented: Behaviors in Silverlight 3. GET THE DEMOS, SLIDES, and VIDEO Overview: Behaviors allow you to add interactivity to your Silverlight applications without writing any code. Want to add drag/drop functionality to an element in XAML? Just add in a DragDropBehavior. Want Physics applied to your elements? Just drop in Physics Behaviors! In this session we'll first look at how well Expression Blend 3 supports Behaviors at design time, then we'll see how to write our own Behaviors, Triggers and Actions.  Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and WindowsForms. Andy has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Silverlight, and is a member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders group. This meeting was sponsored by Telerik -They covered the cost of the pizza and soda, and also some swag! We had swag! 1 Copy of Telerik Premium Collection for .NET ($1299 value!) 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 2009 A 1-Year Subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Michael Coles presented: SQL 2008 Integrated Full-Text Search, Filestream and .NET. LINKS FROM MICHAELS' TALK: SLIDES on Integrated Full Text Search SLIDES on New Developer Features http://www.apress.com, Downloads section, "Pro Full-Text Search in SQL Server 2008" = setup scripts for iFTS_Books sample database to demonstrate iFTS and FILESTREAM http://www.codeplex.com/Irony = Irony.net grammar parser; useful for creating your own search interface http://www.sergeantsql.com = My blog http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Full-Text+Search+(2008)/64248/ = Article about creating a search engine-style interface for IFTS Overview: * New Integrated Full-Text Search (iFTS) in SQL Server 2008 - full-text search is highly integrated with the SQL Server query engine in SQL Server 2008. This makes administration easier, improves performance significantly, and increases scalability. * The new filestream data type attribute in SQL Server 2008 - takes advantage of Windows NTFS transactions and streaming to improve performance and provide greater manageability for binary large object (BLOB) data. * SQL Server 2008 provides several new dynamic management views and functions, and new catalog views, to make full-text search processing fully transparent to developers. * We'll demonstrate how to quickly and easily create a Google-style search interface in C# to search your SQL Server 2008 iFTS-enabled databases.   Michael Coles is a Microsoft MVP (SQL) with over 15 years' experience designing and administering SQL Server databases. A prolific writer on all aspects of SQL Server, particularly on the expert use of T-SQL, Michael has written dozens of published articles and several books including Pro SQL Server 2008 XML, Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide, and Accelerated SQL Server 2008. Currently he is contributing chapters to a Microsoft MVP charity book project and working on a project to detail SQL Server 2008 encryption technology. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio and TraininingSpot: - A 1-Year subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET - A 1-Year subscription to TrainingSpot.com Courtesy of Infragistics - 1 Copy of NetAdvantage for .NET 2009 Vol 1

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Chris Meredith presented: Learn how to leverage your .NET skills to create Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) using Microsoft Silverlight 3. Description: In this session you will learn how Silverlight can be used to create rich interactive applications for the web. The session begins by explaining the different parts that make up a Silverlight application and demonstrates how to create an application. After that, the session shifts to a real world example which demonstrates how to create an online store catalog. Throughout the creation of the online store catalog application, the primary focus will be on the latest Silverlight technologies including page layout and adding controls using XAML, data binding using Microsoft LINQ, and customizing our controls using styles and templates.  This session will give you a clear understanding of what Silverlight is and how to leverage these new technologies to create cutting edge RIA’s that end users will enjoy using for years to come. Chris Meredith manages all aspects of ComponentOne’s development tool product line in his role as project manager. During his tenure with ComponentOne he has worked in IT, customer engagement, and sales. Chris is a well traveled speaker and is known for his technical presentations on topics such as Microsoft Silverlight, ASP.NET, and Windows Forms. Chris is an author of many whitepapers, which provide Microsoft Visual Studio developers solutions through the use of third party controls. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of ComponentOne - 1 Copy of ComponentOne Studio for Silverlight - Mouse Pad Paper Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio and TraininingSpot: - A 1-Year subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET - A 1-Year subscription to TrainingSpot.com Courtesy of Infragistics - 1 Copy of NetAdvantage for .NET 2009 Vol 1

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Markus Egger presented "The State of .NET Technologies"  What is the state of .NET today? Which of the many .NET technologies have gained traction? Which ones can you ignore for now? What is new in .NET 3.5 and the coming .NET 4.0? What other Microsoft technologies should you include in your development efforts? This event is It is designed for developers as well as (IT) decision makers. Specific prior knowledge is not required. Topics will include the following: ·         Silverlight 2.0 and 3.0 ·         WPF and Visual Styles ·         Expression Blend 3 ·         Microsoft Surface ·         Windows Azure and Cloud Services ·         WCF ·         SOA Markus Egger is the President and CSA of EPS Software Corp. and its associated brands and companies, such as CODE Magazine, CODE Online, Xiine, Tower 48, EPS Austria GmbH, JockTock, and others. EPS is a custom software development and consulting firm located in Houston, Texas (USA) and Salzburg (Austria). He specializes in consulting for advanced business applications built on the Microsoft platform. EPS does most of its development using Microsoft Visual Studio (.NET) and SQL Server (among other technologies). EPS has worked on numerous software projects for Fortune 500 companies including Philip Morris, NEC, Qualcomm, Shell and Microsoft. Markus has also worked on campus as a contractor for the Microsoft Visual Studio team. Markus is an international speaker having presented sessions at numerous conferences including a number of conferences in North America, Europe, and South America. Markus has written numerous articles for publications including CODE Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Visual Studio Magazine, ASP.NET Pro Magazine, FoxPro Advisor, Fuchs, FoxTalk and Microsoft Office & Database Journal. Markus is the publisher of CoDe Magazine, a .NET publication focusing in technologies such as .NET and Web Development. Markus has written a book about Advanced Object Oriented Programming. Markus also received the Microsoft MVP Award (consecutively, from 1996 to 2009, making him one of the longest-running MVPs) for his contributions to the developer community. Markus has also been named a "Tablet PC Influential Developer", ( a.k.a. "Tablet PC Guru"), an honor Microsoft awarded to the 10 most influential developers in the worldwide Tablet PC market. Visual LandPro, one of the applications Markus was in charge of, was nominated for the Microsoft Excellence Awards three times. You can contact Markus via email (megger@eps-software.com) or visit him online (www.eps-software.com and www.MarkusEgger.com). This meeting was sponsored by INETA. They covered the pizza and soda, as well as Markus' visit. WE HAD SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft/Codezone: 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Copy of Silverlight Animation by Jeff Paries Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio and TraininingSpot: A 1-Year subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET A 1-Year subscription to TrainingSpot.com ...and some assorted magazines and goodies

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Kathleen Dollard presented "Your Application in Pieces – MEF and MAF (300 level)"  Decoupling portions of your application has tremendous payback during both development and maintenance. Your application becomes more testable and flexible and can more easily evolve to meet changing demands. Decoupling your application also allows a new level of partnership with external groups because you can safely incorporate their code in your application without recompiling or releasing source code. Microsoft has exposed different provider models in many areas of the framework and libraries, and this year has moved toward consolidating its efforts at decoupling with the Managed Extensibility Framework, or MEF. This tool differs from an IoC container because its focused directly at simplifying the extension of applications and focuses at extensibility, discover, and composition. The underlying engine can support Microsoft efforts like Visual Studio and your own applications. MEF comes up short when you encounter isolation and versioning issues, such as wanting that external code to run in its own AppDomain. The Managed Add-In Framework, or MAF, focuses on these problems and the significant complexity they bring with System.AddIn namespace of .NET 3.5. You’ll learn more about architecting applications in pieces and the sweet spot of using MEF and MEF together. You’ll leave ready to evaluate the role of MEF and MAF in your applications. Kathleen Dollard is a consultant, author, trainer, and speaker. She’s been a Microsoft MVP for over ten years and has spoken about .NET in 28 states and 5 countries. She’s written dozens of articles including the “Ask Kathleen” column in Visual Studio Magazine. She also wrote “Code Generation in Microsoft .NET” (Apress). Her passion is helping programmers be smarter in how they develop by learning to better use .NET languages, libraries and platforms. She works with WPF, WF, as well as core technologies including System.AddIn. She’s currently creating template infrastructure for code generation using VB XML literals. After working on the problem of capturing business intent in metadata and test definitions for years, she’s working with industry improvements in these areas. She’s also working on full life cycle improvements, such as unit testing, better debugging and static analysis (FxCop). When not working, she enjoys woodworking, snowshoeing, and kayaking depending on the outdoor temperature. This meeting was sponsored by INETA. They covered the pizza and soda, as well as Kathleen's visit. WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft/Codezone:1 Copy of Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2 Copies of Windows Vista Ultimate Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio and TraininingSpot: A 1-Year subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET A 1-Year subscription to TrainingSpot.com 1 Copy of Pro ADO.NET Data Services

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Abraham Sultan presented "Software+Services Applications via .NET 3.5, Sql Server & SaaSGrid" [DOWNLOAD SLIDES + DEMO] Software+Services applications require unique architectural approaches to solve many specific issues like multi-tenancy, transaction metering, and high availability. Understanding architectural pitfalls and designing to focus on a cloud based delivery model are key in successfully moving business applications to the cloud. The talk will focus on application architecture discussion for cloud deployed business applications, and how cloud runtimes like Apprenda’s SaaSGrid can help. The talk will also take a hands on walkthrough on leveraging Windows Communication Foundation, Sql Server, LINQ and ASP.NET to build cloud applications on top of the SaaSGrid cloud runtime.                                                                     This meeting was be sponsored by Aprrenda. They covered the pizza and soda, and Abe's visit! Abraham Sultan, Vice President of Engineering, Co-founder, Aprrenda Abraham focuses on coordinating engineering efforts and making technology choices. Previously, Abraham worked at SaaS vendor Informz and held a role as Director of Java Development at Eden Communications. Prior to that, he worked at SUNY as a lead engineer on a finance application that supported 40,000 users distributed across approximately 50 SUNY campuses. Abraham holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG Courtesy of Microsoft/Codezone:1 Microsoft Fingerprint Reader 1 Copy of Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 1 Copy of Inside SharePoint Services 3.0 1 Copy of C# 2008 Step by Step Some assorted t-shirts and trinkets Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio and TraininingSpot: A 1-Year subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET A 1-Year subscription to TrainingSpot.com Courtesy of Infragistics: 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET (+1 year subscription)

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented: "Silverlight Design and Animation"    [DOWNLOAD SLIDES, DEMOS, LINKS]        Get on your black turtlenecks and berets, and leave your pocket protectors at home! We're going to learn how we can use Silverlight and Expression Blend to create unique and highly interactive web experiences. We'll start by showing the ins and outs of Expression Blend, then look at the details of XAML, Storyboards, code-driven animation, and even how to add Physics to your animations.                             Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer and trainer with over 15 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and WindowsForms. Andy has been awarded a Microsoft MVP Award for Client Application Development, and is a member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders group. He is also involved in the .NET community and is the Group Leader for the Central New York .NET Developers Group, as well as the INETA Membership Mentor for much of the Northeastern United States.                                                                                       This meeting was sponsored by Welch Allyn. They covered the pizza and soda! WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG Courtesy of Microsoft/Codezone:1 Microsoft LifeCam VX-7000 1 Copy of Microsoft Office Standard 2007 1 Copy of Programming Visual C# 2008: The Language 1 Copy of Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: Step by Step 1 Copy of Introducing Microsoft LINQ Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio and TraininingSpot: A 1-Year subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET A 1-Year subscription to TrainingSpot.com Courtesy of Infragistics: 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET (+1 year subscription) Courtesy of SyncFusion: 1 Copy of SyncFusion Essential Grid ($595 value)

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jim O'Neil, Microsoft Developer Evangelist, presented: "Developing Applications Using Data Services"           In the near future, applications will be developed using a combination of custom application code and online building block services, including data-centric services. In this session we discuss advancements in the Microsoft development platform and online service interfaces to enable seamless interaction with data services both on-premises (e.g., ADO.NET Data Services Framework over on-premises SQL Server) and in the cloud (e.g., SQL Server Data Services). Learn how you can leverage existing know-how related to LINQ (Language Integrated Query), data access APIs, data-binding, and more when building applications using online data. Jim O'Neil is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist for the Northeast District, including New England and Upstate New York.  He joined Microsoft in April 2008 after nearly twelve years at Sybase as a support engineer, sales consultant, and evangelist for developer tools including PowerBuilder, DataWindow .NET, and EAServer (a J2EE application server).  Jim is an MCPD and co-authored two books and multiple articles on application development using PowerBuilder.  Prior to Sybase, he worked as a software engineer for MITRE and BDM International, Inc., developing prototypes and simulations for various DoD organizations.                                                                                       This meeting was sponsored by Welch Allyn. They covered the pizza and soda! WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! Courtesy of Microsoft/Codezone:3 Copies of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Copy of ASP.NET 3.5 Step by Step 1 Copy of WCF Step by Step 1 Copy of Introducting Microsoft LINQ Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio and TraininingSpot: A 1-Year subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET A 1-Year subscription to TrainingSpot.com Courtesy of LogicNP Software: A 1-Developer License of Shell MegaPack.Net ($299 value) Courtesy of Infragistics: 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET (+1 year subscription)

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jim Spignardo of New Horizons presented: Introduction to Server Virtualization This session will start with a general introduction to server virtualization, and then focus specifically on Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology. Topics will include: Introduction to Server Virtualization Uses of virtualization Configuring Hyper-V: Virtual machines, virtual networks, virtual hard drives. Jim Spignardo is a full-time employee of New Horizons of Syracuse where he has been the lead instructor for technical training since the franchise opened its doors.   In the past three years he has managed the Mentored Learning program, an innovative learning program pioneered by New Horizons. This meeting was sponsored by Tek Systems! We had some great SWAG 1 Server Virtualization Resource DVD courtesy of New Horizons Syracuse 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Copy of Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 2 1 Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 2008 1 one-year Subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio.Net 1 one-year Subscription to TrainingSpot Courtesy of TrainingSpot.com 1 Microsoft Travel Mug

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

David Stevenson of Data PAC Mailing Systems presented: LINQ To SQL and the Object/Relational Designer   The Presentation focused on using the Object/Relational Designer tool in Visual Studio 2008 to demo LINQ To SQL. Topics covered: Object/Relational Designer Entity Pane Methods Pane DataContext class Create LINQ to SQL Classes Mapped to Tables and Views Create DataContext Methods Mapped to Stored Procedures and Functions Assign Stored Procedures to Perform Updates, Inserts, and Deletes Changing the Return Type of a DataContext Method Adding Column and Row Update Validation to a DataContext partial class Configuring Entity Class Inheritance by Using the O/R Designer Associations Between Entities SQLMetal David Stevenson is currently working at Data PAC Mailing Systems in Webster, New York as a Senior Software Engineer developing bulk mailing systems for the direct mail industry in Visual Studio 2008, using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), ADO.NET and LINQ. David has over 27 years of software development experience, ranging from long distance cable data base system, process control systems, developing a web based content management system and a trouble ticketing system for a major satellite radio provider. An occasional speaker for Visual Developers of Upstate New York in Rochester, David has presented on topics including Windows Script Host, C#, VB.NET, ADO.NET, Object Oriented JavaScript and LINQ.  WE HAD SOME GREAT SWAG! 1 Microsoft LifeCam VX-7000 Courtesy of Codezone/INETA 1 copy of Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Courtesy of Codezone/INETA 1 copy of Programming Microsoft LINQ Courtesy of Codezone/INETA 1 copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 2008 Courtesy of Infragistics A one-year Subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET Courtesy of LearnVisualStudio.Net A one-year Subscription to TrainingSpot Courtesy of TrainingSpot.com

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Paul Sheriff presented: Architecting ASP.NET 3.5 Applications Putting together an ASP.NET Application so that it is easy to maintain, easy to change the look and feel of, and is flexible can be a real challenge these days. In this seminar you will learn how to take advantage of Master Pages, Themes, Skins and CSS for building the front end UI. In addition, you will be exposed to other concepts like the use of Providers for maximum flexibility in dealing with exceptions and configuration management. You will also see an example of using N-Tier LINQ to SQL classes. You will Learn 1. Creating maintainable Master Pages 2. The appropriate use of Themes, Skins and CSS 3. Effective exception management 4. Flexible configuration management using the Provider model 5. N-Tier LINQ to SQL Testing .NET 3.5 Applications in the Real World Everyone knows that they should be writing better test cases for their applications, but how many of us really do it? In VS.NET 2008 testing is an integrated part of the development environment. So there is no longer any reason to avoid not doing test driven development and automated unit testing. In this seminar you will learn how to architect your applications to make testing quicker and easier. You will learn to use the tools in VS.NET 2008 to help you do the testing. You will Learn 1. How to architect for test driven development 2. Creating test cases 3. Using the VS.NET 2008 testing tools. Paul D. Sheriff is the President of PDSA, Inc. (www.pdsa.com), a Microsoft Partner in Southern California. Paul acts as the Microsoft Regional Director for Southern California assisting the local Microsoft offices with several of their events each year and being an evangalist for them. Paul has authored several books, webcasts, videos and articles on .NET, SQL Server and SharePoint. Paul can be reached via email at PSheriff@pdsa.com or at Paul Sheriff's Inner Circle (www.PaulSheriffInnerCircle.com). This meeting was sponsored by INETA. We had some great swag to give away! Two (2) Free vConfernce Passes courtesy of Bits on the Wire, Inc. [SEE A VIDEO INTRO] One (1) TechEd 2008 Conference DVD Set ($195 value) One (1) one-year Subscription to LearnVisualStudio.NET One (1) one-year Subscription to TrainingSpot Three (3) Infragistics T-Shirts One (1) one-year Subscription to Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Gary Depue and Melody Branigan of Summit Software presented: Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications Summit Software will perform a sample integration of Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications version 2.0. In this technical presentation, we focus on providing an end-to-end walk-through of the integration process, leveraging Summit's integration expertise and utilizing the tools available to assist with a successful integration of Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0. As part of the discussion, learn how integration has been significantly improved in the 2.0 version of Visual Studio Tools for Applications. Gary Depue, Lead Developer Gary started his career in computer engineering with microprocessor-based digital hardware design, before progressing to embedded systems programming, then to Windows programming. He began working as a software engineer for Summit Software in 1998, contributing to the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) software development kit (SDK) and helping independent software vendors (ISVs) integrate VBA. Today, Garys integration efforts are aimed at assisting ISVs integrate Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA). Melody Branigan, Software Engineer Melody is an integral part of the Summits VSTA integration support team.  She joined Summit in 2007 and works closely with ISVs on their integration of VSTA into their applications. Webucator sponsored this meeting. They covered the pizza and soda as well as some swag. Webucator provides Silverlight training and SharePoint training in addition to training on many other Microsoft technologies We had some great swag! A Cup full of Candy for each attendee courtesy of Webucator (who are also supplying Pizza and Soda) 1 MSDN Premium Team Suite Subscription (MSRP $10,939!) courtesy of Integral Thought & Memory A 1-year subscription to LeanVisualStudio.NET courtesy of LearnVisualStudio.NET A 1-year subscription to Infragistics NetAdvantage courtesy of Infragistics.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Rik Bardrof presented: OO Design Patterns In this session we will be examining three object oriented design patterns and their interaction; the patterns are Model View Presenter, Separated Interface, and Inversion of Control. A solid understanding of object oriented design patterns provides leverage of the power of .Net in the creation of maintainable and extensible solutions. The combination of these three particular patterns helps to remove complexity and provides an excellent foundation for unit testing. While the demos will be in C# they are applicable to and reproducible in VB.Net.  Rik Bardrof is a senior software developer for Xclaim Software, located in Central New York. He has a widely varied background in computer science with experience ranging from systems maintenance through application development (lot’s of stuff in between). Currently he’s practicing agile development in a .Net shop which focuses heavily on Domain Driven Design, Test Driven Design, and integration of Open Source tools. His earnest hope is to one day become a Jedi of OO Patterns.                                                                  Xclaim This meeting was sponsored by Xclaim Software, who covered the pizza and soda! We had some great SWAG, Courtesy of Codezone and Infragistics: SOFTWARE: 1 Copy of Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition 1 Copy of Office Ultimate 2007 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage 2008 BOOKS: 1 Copy of "Professional LINQ" 1 Copy of "Windows SharePoint Services 3.0" 1 Copy of "6 Office Business Applications for Office SharePoint" ... and some cool T-shirts...

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented: Silverlight 2 for Data Applications Silverlight 2 holds great promise for building data-centric applications that are more robust and capable than their AJAX cousins. This session will give a quick start to creating Line of Business type applications using Silverlight 2. We will use WCF and LINQ to SQL for the Web Service and Data Access Layer, and Silverlight 2 data controls to build the UI. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer with over 10 years of experience building applications for Windows and the Web. Located in Syracuse, New York, he is well versed in many Microsoft technologies including Silverlight, ASP.NET, ADO.NET and WindowsForms. Andy has worked on many applications for the financial, medical, and scientific communities and is a member of the WPF and Silverlight Insiders group. He is also involved in the .NET community and is the Group Leader for the Central New York .NET Developers Group, as well as the INETA Membership Mentor for much of the Northeastern United States.                                                                                       This meeting was sponsored by Welch Allyn. They covered the pizza and soda! WE HAD LOTS OF SWAG! Courtesy of our Microsoft Launch Event: Five (5) Heroes Happen Here Launch Kits, each containing:      Windows Server 2008      Visual Studio Standard Edition      SQL Server 2008 CTP5      1 Voucher for SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition Two (2) Windows Vista Ultimate with Windows Live Services Three (3) Vouchers for a 1-year subscription to TechNet Plus One (1) Windows Server 2008 Application Readiness Kit A Bunch of Microsoft Learning Solutions 40% Off Exam Vouchers One (1) SQL Server 2008 Technical Readiness Kit One (1) .NET Framework 3.5 Developer Resource Kit 40% Off TechNet Plus Subscriptions for All Attendees Courtesy of Infragistics: Two (2) Copies of NetAdvantage for .NET 2008 Two (2) Infragistics T-Shirts

Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Chris Bowen, our friendly neighborhood Developer Evangelist, presented: "Shall We Play a Game?" - An Introduction to Game Development with XNA Like games, but don't know much about how they're created? Fear not! XNA is a game development platform based on the .NET Framework that helps to make developing 2D and 3D games for Windows and Xbox easy. Using the free XNA Game Studio 2.0, you can put those same C# skills that pay the bills by day to creating your own games by night (or whenever you'd like.) We'll introduce XNA, show you around the XNA world, then create a simple 2D game from scratch to give you a feel for the mechanics of XNA. This session requires no game development experience, only a passion for gaming and coding! Chris Bowen (http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen) is Developer Evangelist for Microsoft's Northeast district.  An experienced software architect and engineer, Chris joined Microsoft after holding senior positions at companies such as Monster.com, VistaPrint, Staples, and IDX Systems and consulting on web presence and eCommerce projects with others.  He is coauthor of "Professional Visual Studio 2005 Team System" by WROX and specializes in application architecture and building highly-scalable transactional web systems.  He holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Management Information Systems, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.                                                                                    This meeting was sponsored by ISSI. We had some great swag!   Courtesy of Codezone/Microsoft: 1 Microsoft LiveCam NX-6000 1 Copy of Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Courtesy of Infragistics: 1 NetAdvantage for .NET License

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

This was our Community Launch Event for Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008! We had two mini-talks at this meeting: Matthew Roche - What's New in SQL Server 2008Andy Beaulieu - What's New in Visual Studio 2008 This meeting is being sponsored by New Horizons of Syracuse. They will be covering the Pizza and Soda! We had some great swag!   Courtesy of New Horizons Syracuse: 1 Microsoft Zune 1 Coupon for 20% off your next Microsoft Technical Class Courtesy of Codezone/Microsoft: 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Copy of Programming Web Forms Courtesy of Wintellect: 1 Conference Pass to Devscovery New York 2008 ($900) Value! 5 Wintellect T-Shirts

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Kevin Murray presented Dynamic Code Compilation using .NET [DOWNLOAD KEVIN'S PRESENTATION MATERIALS] Kevin will discuss techniques for managing background processes using .NET scripting. The .NET platform contains the code compilers for the .Net languages, so it's possible to use VB.Net, C# etc as a scripting language by compiling source code on the fly from within any .Net application. A sample VB.Net application demonstrates several scripting approaches plus the mechanics of compilation, execution and sharing data between "statically" and dynamically compiled code. A second sample implements a simple command line driven scripting host. The discussion will then turn to using dynamic code compilation to intellegently manage background processes stressing high reliability and flexibility. An actual multi-component production application (which runs a server farm among other things) is used as the basis for discussion. Demonstrated will be the Script Editor component that allows users to create a bank of routines stored as VB.NET source in a SQL database. The Job Builder component allows users to sequence stored routines and control program flow providing extremely flexible automation capability. A behind the scenes code writer writes the executable source code for the job on the fly. Dynamically compiled jobs run in a framework that manages program flow, errors, logging, record keeping and provides a large library of common functions. The discussion will end with the intellegent scheduler component which implements feedback and control, dynamic management of the schedule and other advanced techniques. Kevin is the Manager of Software Development for Dumac of East Syracuse.. Dumac is the master dealer for Panasonic, NCR and other Point of sales devices in the Northeast Region. This meeting was sponsored by Welch Allyn, who will be covering the pizza and soda! WE HAD SOME GREAT SWAG: 1 Microsoft Wireless Desktop Pro 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage 1 Copy of Inside T-SQL Programming 1 2GB USB Key with Expression Studio Goodies

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Rik Bardrof presented NHibernate Rik will provide an overview of the Active Record and Object Model patterns and where NHibernate fits in. The discussion will be followed by a demo of an application using NHibernate as the backend data store. The remainder of the evening will consist of questions and answers on incorporating NHibernate into existing applications. Rik Bardrof is a senior software developer for Xclaim Software, located in Central New York. He has a widely varied background in computer science with experience ranging from systems maintenance through application development (lot’s of stuff in between). Currently he’s practicing agile development in a .Net shop which focuses heavily on Domain Driven Design, Test Driven Design, and integration of Open Source tools. His earnest hope is to one day become a Jedi of OO Patterns. This meeting was sponsored by Tek Systems - they covered the Pizza and Soda! We also had some great swag: Tek Systems gave away mugs filled with tasty treats! 1 Copy of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2005 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Matthew Roche presented SQL Server Integration Services [View Matthew's Blog Entry regarding the talk & Book Recommendations] In this session Matthew will provide a guided tour of SQL Server Integration Services, covering core features such as Control Flow, Data Flow, Package Configurations and Property Expressions and core tools such as Business Intelligence Development Studio and DTEXEC. The focus will be on getting the most out of SSIS as an ETL platform, with lots of demos and time for Q&A. Matthew Roche is a data architect with systems management innovator Configuresoft, Inc., and is also Chief Software Architect of Integral Thought & Memory, a BI-focused consultancy. Matthew has worked with Microsoft SQL Server since the mid 90s, starting with SQL Server 6.0 and 6.5, and has been falling deeper and deeper in love with SQL Server with each passing year. As a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Matthew has taught hundreds of database administrators and database developers how to better utilize SQL Server’s capabilities. As a software developer and architect, Matthew has built dozens of applications that use the SQL Server platform. Matthew has been using SQL Server 2005 since its early beta days and has been learning SQL Server 2008 since June of this year. Matthew’s current focus is on the SQL Server Business Intelligence stack, specifically SQL Server Integration Services. This meeting ws sponsored by Welch Allyn - they covered the Pizza and Soda! We also had some great swag from Codezone/Microsoft: 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Microsoft Wireless Desktop Pro 1 Copy of Windows Workflow Foundation: Step by Step And from Infragistics: 1 Copy of Infragistics NetAdvantage 2007

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Mike Amundsen presented Programming The Internet - Why HTTP Rocks You can download Mike's Demos HERE. HTML, XML, Javascript, ASP.NET, C#, SQL Server - building web applications can get pretty involved. But the secret to building dependable, scalable web apps lies not in any of the typical technologies or buzzwords, but in an oft-forgotten, sometimes maligned aspect of the Internet - HTTP programming. It's HTTP programming that makes web applications from companies like Google, Yahoo, and others so successful. In this talk, you'll learn how the designers of the HTTP protocol envisioned the way Internet programming would work. You'll learn the four parts of every HTTP message; the power of HTTP methods (and why they are so often ignored); the importance of Content Types and Status Codes; and how to control how other servers on the Internet find and store your content. Finally, you'll learn how easy it can be to use ASP.NET to build programs that take full advantage of HTTP's power and scalability.If you want to build web apps that rock, you want to become an HTTP programmer. Mike Amundsen is a Deep Training instructor and the founder of eraserver.net, a .NET hosting company. An internationally known author and lecturer, Mike Amundsen travels throughout the United States and Europe speaking and teaching on a wide range of topics including .NET, the Internet, team development & leadership, and other subjects. He has more than a dozen books to his credit. His most popular titles are ASP.NET for Developers, Teach Yourself Database Programming with Visual Basic in 21 Days, 3rd Ed., and Using Visual InterDev. Mike is a member of the International .NET Association (INETA) Speakers Bureau. This was an INETA sponsored event. They covered the pizza, soda, and Mike's visit! We also had some great swag!! 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Microsoft LiveCam NX-6000 1 Copy of Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Query Tuning & Optimization And from Infragistics: 2 Copies of Infragistics NetAdvantage 2007

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

David Laribee and Rik Bardrof presented Ping-Pong Pairing You Got Served: Ping-Pong Pairing Pair Programming is a central method of a high-functioning Agile team. It amplifies Test-Driven Development (TDD) and promotes Collective Code Ownership. Despite the numerous benefits, installing Pair Programming often fails with first attempts perceived as frustrating for more experienced developers and flat-out boring for the non-coding partner. Wouldn't it be great if pair programming was easy, engaging, and (dare to dream) fun?! Enter Ping Pong Pairing (PPP)! Join Dave Laribee and Rik Bardrof for a match of PPP. Serving the rules of the game, Rik and Dave will start a long volley of TDD and share key tips for putting a little backspin on your solutions! David Laribee is President of Xclaim Software, an ISV offering document, claim, and policy management software for the commercial property and casualty insurance industry. He has 10+ years experience designing, developing, and architecting enterprise applications with Microsoft technologies. David has worked with the .NET Framework since the zero-day in internal IT, product development, and rapid prototyping contexts across a wide variety of industries. He writes about agile practices, software architecture, and the business of software on his blog at http://laribee.com/. This meeting was sponsored by ISSI! We also had a bunch of swag courtesy of Microsoft and Codezone! 1 Copy of Microsoft Expression Web 1 Copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 1 Microsoft Fingerprint Reader Plus a bunch of Microsoft Press books!!

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented Playing with Silverlight 1.1 Silverlight 1.1 allows for the creation of Rich Internet Applications which are much more robust, capable, and maintainable than their AJAX cousins. We'll talk about how to quickly get started with Silverlight and Expression Blend and we'll look at some interesting game code and mashups. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer with over 10 years of experience in creating web and Windows applications. He has worked on many software projects in the financial and health care industries, and as a trainer for several companies and training centers, and holds MCT, MCSD.NET and MCSD certifications. This meeting was sponsored by Telerik. They will be covering the pizza, soda and had really cool t-shirts to give away at the meeting!! We had lots of swag to give away! 1 copy of Infragistics .NET 2007 with 1 year subscription ($995 value!) 1 copy of Telerik r.a.d. Controls single developer ($799 value!) A big load of assorted swag (t-shirts, backpacks, etc) courtesy of Integral Thought and Memory 1 copy of Debugging .NET 2.0 Applications courtesy of Codezone 1 copy of Applications = Code + Markup courtesy of Codezone Some assorted mugs and other stuff

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Alex Keh from Oracle presented New .NET Features for Oracle Database 11g This session provided details and in depth demos of the new .NET features for Oracle developers. New Oracle Data Provider for .NET features include user-defined data types/objects and ASP.NET providers. New features for the Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .NET consist of native integration with Visual Studio 2005, including Server Explorer, Data Sources Window, and Query Builder; automatic code generation capabilities for ASP.NET; and the ability to manage and version control SQL and PL/SQL scripts. Here are some links from Alex's Demos: Demo Source Code Oracle by Example: Building ASP.NET Web Applications with ODT Oracle by Example: Building .NET Applications Using ODT Oracle by Example: Debugging Oracle PL/SQL from Visual Studio Alex Keh is a principal product manager at Oracle.  He focuses on Oracle data access and database integration with .NET and Windows.  He's spoken previously at many Microsoft and Oracle events, including Microsoft TechEd, Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, VSLive!, and Oracle OpenWorld. This meeting was sponsored by Oracle. Oracle covered the pizza and soda, as well as our speaker's visit. They also gave away an iPod at the meeting! We had LOTS of SWAG!!! 1 iPod courtesy of Oracle! 1 copy of Infragistics .NET 2007 with 1 year subscription ($995 value!) 1 copy of Telerik r.a.d. Controls single developer ($799 value!) 1 copy of ComponentOne Studio Enterprise ($999 value!) plus hats and Trial Disks from ComponentOne A big load of assorted swag (t-shirts, backpacks, etc) courtesy of Integral Thought and Memory.

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Les Pinter presented "WinForms User Controls" Les Pinter is the most recognized name in the world of Visual FoxPro. Author of 6 books, he has also published a monthly newsletter, The Pinter FoxPro Letter (more recently Les Pinter's Database Journal), for over 10 years. He is a speaker at national and international conferences in the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Spain and Russia and is a member of the INETA Speakers' Bureau; currently scheduled to speak at user groups in Argentina, Colombia and Peru, with talks under development in Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico. This was an INETA Sponsored Event. INETA covered the pizza and soda, as well as our speaker's visit. We hadsome great giveaways: Courtesy of Microsoft and Codezone: 1 Copy of Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 1 Copy of "Programming ASP.NET 2.0 Applications" 1 Copy of "Programming SQL Server 2005"    ... and 1 license of Telerik r.a.d.controls Single Developer Subscription ... and 1 license of Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 2007

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Chris Bowen, Microsoft Developer Evangelist, presented “A Developer’s Introduction to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)” Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft’s new strategic User Interface technology designed to provide richer, high-fidelity, applications using an optimized developer/designer workflow.  Learn how to leverage the new features in WPF such as eXtensible Application Markup Language (XAML) to create visually stunning interfaces to enhance capabilities and user experience of your applications.   We’ll also talk about the WPF subset codenamed “WPF/E” used to create cross-browser and cross-OS applications.” Chris Bowen (http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen) is Developer Evangelist for Microsoft's Northeast district.  An experienced software architect and engineer, Chris joined Microsoft after holding senior positions at companies such as Monster.com, VistaPrint, Staples, and IDX Systems and consulting on web presence and eCommerce projects with others.  He is coauthor of "Professional Visual Studio 2005 Team System" by WROX and specializes in application architecture and building highly-scalable transactional web systems.  He holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Management Information Systems, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. And we had some great giveaways... We gave away 1 copy of DevForce Professional framework ($3000 value) including 1 year support from IdeaBlade! ..and 1 license of Telerik r.a.d.controls Single Developer Subscription ... and Chris brought 2 copies of APPLICATIONS=CODE+MARKUP and 1 copy of VS Professional to give away!

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Craig Frey of Cornell University presented LINQ  LINQ is the biggest addition to the next version of Visual Studio (Orcas) and the .Net framework (version 3.5). LINQ adds query and set based operations to C# and VB. In this presentation we'll talk about LINQ, how we got here, why now, and most importantly how does it work. I'll also demonstrate how you can take the samples provided by Microsoft and get them to work in your own application. About the speakerCraig became an MCSE, MCSD, and MCT about ten years ago and taught the Microsoft curriculum for SQL Server, VB programming, and web development in Burlington, VT. He then switched to becoming a full time SQL developer, also teaching a full slate of CISSP security courses. Craig is now employed by Cornell University as a developer using Oracle, Cold Fusion, Java and .Net. His language of choice is C# and can now say with authority that SQL Server is better than Oracle.   We had some great giveaways! 1 license of Telerik r.a.d.controls Single Developer Subscription Several books to give away from APress (but you must submit a short review!!!) Pro VS 2005 Reporting Using SQL Server and Crystal Reports Foundations of Security Beginning VB 2005 Databases Beginning C# 2005 Databases and everyone got copies of the latest asp.net PRO magazine. PLUS TWO COPIES OF OFFICE 2007 courtesy of Microsoft MSDN Events!

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Tom Kopcik, PTSI , presented “Row-level Versioning in SQL Server 2005“  DOWNLOAD THE SLIDE DECK HERE Row-level versioning is a powerful new technology in SQL Server 2005 that supports concurrent access to multiple versions of a specific row of data. It is the underlying technology that supports a number of new database features including snapshot isolation. Existing features such as triggers have also been reengineered to utilize the row-versioning infrastructure. Database snapshots, while using a different underlying infrastructure, provide another way to have alternate views of data. This presentation will explore the internals of the row-versioning technology, help developers utilize the related new features, and help administrators understand the performance issues raised by this new technology. We talked about: Underlying row-level versioning internals Snapshot Isolation Triggers under row-level versioning Tempdb and performance considerations  Database snapshots Tom is the founder of Pineland Technology Solutions, Inc., a software engineering and training company in the Syracuse area. Using 20+ years of software development and training experience, Tom delivers custom software applications and training throughout Upstate New York and beyond. He holds MCT, MCSD, MCSD.NET, MCDBA SQL Server 2000, and MCITP SQL server 2005 certifications and has been working with Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 since PDC 2003. This meeting was sponsored by Croop-LaFrance. They supplyied the pizza and soda.

Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Greg Smalter presented “WPF Overview“  Greg Smalter graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology before co-founding Red Stapler Software, LLC; a company specialized in providing web applications to small businesses in order to automate their workflow.  Greg enjoys giving talks throughout the northeast on data access, validation, and web application frameworks.  He has also consulted for the Air Force Research Labs and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.. ... And we will raffled off some great SWAG courtesy of Microsoft Community Launch... 4 copies of Windows Vista Business Edition!! 3 Exam Vouchers good for your next Microsoft Certification Exam! Assorted Vista key chains, pens and trinkets We also gave away a large set of Geek T-shirts courtesy of Integral Thought & Memory

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented “ASP.NET AJAX“ With ASP.NET AJAX (codename "Atlas"), developers can quickly create web applications with richer, more responsive UI's and more efficient client-server communication. This introduction to ASP.NET AJAX will explore many of the available features and controls and how to build both Server-Centric and Client-Centric AJAX applications using the framework. We'll also explore add-on tools that can greatly ease development using any AJAX framework. Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer with over 10 years of experience in creating web and Windows applications. He has worked on many software projects in the financial and health care industries, and as a trainer for several companies and training centers, and holds MCT, MCSD.NET and MCSD certifications.   This meeting was sponsored by Telerik. They will supplied the Pizza, Soda, and 1 license of r.a.d.controls Single Developer Subscription ... And we also gave away ... 1 copy of "Accelerated C# 2005" by Trey Nash, courtesy of APress. 1 copy of "Foundations of WF" by Brian Myers, courtesy of APress. 2 Discs containing every asp.net PRO Magazine in digital form from 2002-2005. Plus everyone gets a free copy of the latest issue and a card good for a free 6 month subscription!

Tuesday, December 5th, 2006   1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Regal Cinema Theater, Carousel Mall

MSDN EVENT Susan Wisowaty was in town to present the following sessions: Session 1: Take Control of the Database Development Lifecycle with Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals Session 2: Windows Workflow Foundation ExposedSession 3: Create Cutting-Edge Web Designs with Expression Web   .NET PUB CLUB Microsoft in conjunction with our friendly neighborhood Developer Community Champion sponsored a .NET Pub Club immediately following the show at UNO Chicago Grill.

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

David Laribee presented "CAB and the Smart Client Software Factory" View Session Materials Microsoft Pattern & Practices Team’s Composite UI Application Block (CAB) and Smart Client Software Factory (SCSF) ease the development of modular, extensible, and maintainable smart clients. Starting with a general, theoretical overview of smart clients, we’ll quickly move into a deep examination of CAB centered on working code. We’ll dig into the anatomy of CAB/SCSF, uncovering some key design patterns used in the toolset: Model-View-Presenter, Publish-Subscribe, and Dependency Injection. Throughout the talk we’ll share best practices and consider design decisions for achieving modularity and extensibility in your own smart clients with the CAB/SCSF tools and guidance. By the end of the tour, those new to CAB should find their learning curves greatly reduced. Intermediate-to-advanced CAB hackers will take away some hard fought tips-toward and tricks-to taking their composite smart clients and plug-in architectures to the next level. David Laribee is President of Xclaim Software, an ISV offering document, claim, and policy management software for the commercial property and casualty insurance industry. He has 10+ years experience designing, developing, and architecting enterprise applications with Microsoft technologies. David has worked with the .NET Framework since the zero-day in internal IT, product development, and rapid prototyping contexts across a wide variety of industries. He writes about agile practices, software architecture, and the business of software on his blog at http://laribee.com/.   This meeting will was sponsored by Tek Systems. They provided pizza, soda, and some great swag! ... And we also gave away ... 1 copy of Telerik R.A.D. Controls Single Developer   $799 value

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Greg Smalter presented "Data Access Layers through Code Generation" Download the slides and sample project Data access is often a tedious and error-prone part of an application.  Greg will demonstrate the automatically generated data access layer his company built to address common problems encountered by all applications, but especially web apps.  He’ll also discuss the properties that any good data access layer should have, and compare the benefits of other data access layers that the audience has an interest in.  There will inevitably be some discussion of code generation and its benefits in general. Greg Smalter graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology before co-founding Red Stapler Software, LLC; a company specialized in providing web applications to small businesses in order to automate their workflow.  Greg enjoys giving talks throughout the northeast on data access, validation, and web application frameworks.  He has also consulted for the Air Force Research Labs and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.. This meeting was sponsored by Adecco Technical. They provided pizza and soda! ... And we had the following swag! ... 1 copy of Telerik R.A.D. Controls Single Developer   $799 value 1 copy of FarPoint Spread Windows Forms $899 value 1 Box-o-Swag donated by Integral Thought & Memory

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Julie Lerman presented Advanced Data Access Patterns with ADO.NET 2.0 Most demos and samples for ADO.NET deal with small amounts of data and simplistic functions. This session will take a look at how to design and code your data layer for dealing with real-world, high-end, data-intensive applications. We’ll look at some advanced patterns for handling more sophisticated scenarios such as updating huge amounts of data, leveraging middle-tier caching for heavy traffic Web sites, and an inmemory query processor that the ADO.NET team has built that we can use today. Much of what will be shown will leverage features of ADO.NET 2.0 as well as some of the performance improvements that have been made to the internals. Julia Lerman is an independent consultant who has been designing and writing software applications for 20 years. She lives in Vermont where she runs the Vermont.NET User Group. Julia is well known in the .NET community as an INETA Board member, Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider and prolific blogger. She is a frequent presenter at DevConnections, DevTeach and other conferences as well as writing articles for MSDN Magazine, CoDe Magazine and other well known technical publications. You can read Julia's blog at thedatafarm.com/blog. This meeting was sponsored by INETA  - They supplied the pizza and soda, as well as funding Julie's visit!      We had some great giveaways! 1 copy of Telerik R.A.D. Controls Single Developer   $799 value 1 copy of FarPoint Spread Web Forms $899 value 1 Box-o-Swag donated by Integral Thought & Memory

Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Sam Gentile presented "Service-Oriented Architecture with WCF" The term Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) has become ubiquitous in our industry. Unfortunately, that has led to massive hype that makes it difficult to understand and distinguish the real value of adapting SOA principles.  The current definition also suffers from technology-centric views that are based on the technology environment in use today. Sam will concentrate on the Design Patterns that distinguish Service-Orientatation and how to apply them to your designs. Upon these principles, we look at their real-world implementation in WCF ("Indigo") and using WCF for real world demos. Sam Gentile is internationally known and recognized for his comprehensive expert Microsoft and .NET knowledge, and has been acknowledged by Microsoft as an Solutions Architect MVP. Sam is also an INETA Speaker, having delivered .NET training to user groups and companies all over the world. Sam is employed by a major international firm as an Agile Software Architect and Team Lead. His team utilizes full Agile practices as well as WinFX technologies like WCF, and WinFX to rapidly deliver business value. Sam has delivered over ten .NET based solutions into the market as well as provided expertise for a number of companies such as Microsoft, Adesso Systems, BCGI, Groove and Pacific Mindworks. This meeting was sponsored by INETA who sponsored pizzaand soda as well as Sam's visit.   We hadlots of SWAG - courtesy of Microsoft, INETA, and its sponsors! 7 Copies of "Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System" MSDN Events Resource DVD's AppDev Training DVD's Coupons for dotfuscator licenses T-shirts from Wintellect and Telerik A Full Version License for ComponentOne Reports for .NET

Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Jacob Cynamon , Microsoft Developer Community Champion for Illinois/Indiana/Wisconsin, presented “Overview of the Enterprise Library 2.0“ Jacob joined Microsoft in 2003 as a Developer Evangelist in the Industry Solutions group and became a DCC shortly thereafter. He's already hosted 74 in-person events and 25 webcasts for the Midwest community. Jacob is a self-proclaimed C# developer, but dabbles in other languages, from VB .NET and C++ to the more esoteric tongues, including Scheme and Pascal. His favorite development project? Working with a crack coding team to develop a wedding photographer robot, which ultimately became part of the Emerging Technology event at SIGGRAPH 2002. In his downtime, Jacob co-produced a film short that was aired at the 2003 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase and earned him recognition on the (somewhat) exclusive IMDB.com. He has received less formal praise for playing the 'nose whistle' - a little-known natural talent. In addition to a great presentation, Jacob brought along some great swag: some t-shirts and a Pocket PC to give away!!

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Tom Kopcik, PTSI , presented “Developing Mobile Applications with the .NET Compact Framework – A Case Study” Tom's Slide Deck is available here.Visual Studio and the .NET Compact Framework provide a powerful environment in which to develop Smart Device/Mobile Applications. This session will utilize a Pocket PC application recently developed for a regional food distributor as a case study to discuss mobile application development with the Compact Framework. The application was initially designed to automate the order-taking phase of the supply-chain for customers with tightly controlled product lists.  Before the initial release was deployed, a company acquisition required that the application be extended to support UPC scanning of a much wider number of products. We will talk about:  Application Requirements/Challenges  Solution Architecture Compact Framework Development Concepts Compact Framework Development Best Practices – be prepared to share your experiences! What’s New in the Compact Framework 2.0  Tom is the founder of Pineland Technology Solutions, Inc., a software engineering and training company in the Syracuse area.  Using 20+ years of software development and training experience, Tom delivers custom software applications and training throughout Upstate New York and beyond. He holds MCT, MCSD, MCSD.NET, and MCDBA SQL Server 2000 certifications and has been working with Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 since PDC 2003.

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

We hosted a "Chalk Talk" type session for this meeting.  Andy Beaulieu presented a sneak peak of Atlas, and there are notes from this meeting here A couple of attendees had sent in questions that were discussed, and we used the following list of subjects to generate more conversation. Code Generation Hosting Providers AJAX/Atlas Documentation (ndoc, xml comments)... Dotnetnuke Developer Resources - Websites, podcasts, etc. Upgrading VB6 to .NET Component Suites - Dev Express, Infragistics, Telerik... Application Blocks – Updater, Security, Data Access… Reporting Tools - Crystal, ActiveReports, .NET 2.0 Reports... Test-Driven Development Transaction Management ClickOnce Deployment We had SWAG: Some .NET T-Shirts, and copies of VS2005/SQL2005 from the Ready to Launch tour.

Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Susan Wisowaty, Microsoft Developer Community Champion, presented “Web Application Development with ASP.NET 2.0“ Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0 combine to form a rich platform for building, testing and deploying state-of-the-art Web applications. This session highlights ASP.NET 2.0's most compelling new features, from data source controls and master pages to membership and role management services – features that can reduce the amount of "plumbing" code required to create a typical Web site by up to 70%. This session also showcases the all-new Web development interface in Visual Studio 2005 that speeds the development process, while offering a rich design-time experience and seamless integration with the Visual Studio 2005 Team System.  We’ll build a complete Web application including: • Designing and using a master page in an ASP.NET 2.0 application • Working with declarative data sources • Creating typed datasets and table adapters • Using data binding with objects • Working with new data controls including GridView and DetailsView • Managing authentication and authorization for an ASP.NET application • Working with the new login controls and the membership API • Managing user specific data with Profiles • Using SiteMap data and Navigation controls Susan has more than 15 years experience as an application developer, database administrator and instructor. Throughout most of her career, Susan has been an independent consultant specializing in identifying core business needs and translating them into required technical deliverables. Susan lives in Burlington, Vermont with her husband and three sons and keeps them all busy with skiing and motocross racing. Thanks to Susan for giving away 2 MS Press books, T-Shirts, and Event DVD's! We also gave away 2 copies each of ReSharper and dotTrace from JetBrains! Everyone received a kewl Ajax t-shirt from Dart showing their PowerWeb Controls

Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Matthew Roche  presented “SQLCLR Integration in SQL Server 2005“ download the presentation slide deck The common language runtime (CLR) is the heart of the Microsoft .NET Framework and provides the execution environment for all .NET Framework code. The CLR provides various functions and services required for program execution, including just-in-time (JIT) compilation, allocating and managing memory, enforcing type safety, exception handling, thread management, and security. With the CLR hosted in Microsoft SQL Server, database developers can author stored procedures, triggers, user-defined functions, user-defined types, and user-defined aggregates in managed code, extending the capabilities of the database. Because managed code compiles to native code prior to execution, you can achieve significant performance increases in some scenarios. In this session Matthew will discuss the architecture of SQL Server CLR integration, the creation and use of managed objects and assemblies in the database and best practices for programming SQL Server 2005. Matthew is the founder and Chief Software Architect of Matthew Roche Software, a small consultancy based in Syracuse, New York. Using 10+ years of training experience and 20+ years of software development experience, Matthew delivers blended solutions of consulting, training and mentoring to his clients throughout Upstate New York and beyond. Matthew has been developing software using SQL Server since 1996, using the .NET Framework since 2000 and has been immersed in SQL Server 2005 since the first public beta release. In addition to serving as hands-on lab proctor for SQL Server 2005 database development at Microsoft's TechEd 2005 conference in Orlando and Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles, Matthew has contributed to numerous Microsoft Certified Professional exams and Microsoft Official Curriculum courses on SQL Server 2005 and .NET 2.0 Framework development. He spends most of his time building secure, high-performance applications for his clients, while working with the clients’ development teams to also build secure, high-performance .NET developers. This meeting was sponsored by Welch Allyn - with Pizza, Soda, Cookies and some really kewl water bottles! We also gave away copies of ReSharper and dotTrace from JetBrains!

Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Kate Gregory presented “Windows Forms: Deploying Applications with ClickOnce: Advanced Topics“ Kate Gregory is a founding partner of Gregory Consulting Limited. She has over two decades of scientific and engineering programming experience in a variety of programming languages including Fortran, PL/I, C++, Java, Visual Basic, and C#. In 1989 Kate finally started using the Internet, after hearing about it for years from friends who were already addicted. In early 1995 Kate co-authored a book on Usenet for Que, kicking off a writing career that now covers well over ten books on programming and related topics including XML, most recently Microsoft Visual C++ .Net 2003 Kick Start . She is also a standup instructor , teaching Microsoft .NET, XML, C++ programming, Object Oriented concepts, and UML for several training companies and selected clients. Kate's outstanding energy and knowledge of her subject matter have put her teaching in high demand around the world. This meeting was sponsored by INETA ... we had plenty of free pizza and caffeinated beverages for all. We gave several books away from Addison Wesley  and Kate brought two bonus books to give away.

Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Dale Williams presented "The Borland Developer Studio 2006 (aka DeXter)"  Borland Developer Studio (BDS) is the only integrated development environment (IDE) that includes support for Delphi (both Windows and .NET), C, C++, C# and ASP.NET applications within a single environment.  Users will also be able to speed development with support for reverse engineering, rapid prototyping, and advanced IDE integration with UML modeling, requirements management, version control, bug tracking, and team collaboration. Borland's unique enterprise framework, Enterprise Core Objects (ECO) III, helps make design-driven development a reality with its model-powered framework, especially useful when building Web Services, ASP.NET, and Windows Form-based database applications.   Dale Williams is a professional software engineer with 20 years of experience in developing application solutions.  Since starting with dBase II, he has worked on software projects across various industries.  Dale is currently a Senior Applications Programmer Analyst with a manufacturer of valves & hydraulic controls for the energy & airline industries. This meeting was sponsored by Borland We gave away the following stuff! 1 Copy of Borland Developer Studio 2006, Enterprise ($3500 value) *1 Copy of Borland Developer Studio 2006, Professional ($1100 value)25% Off Coupons for Everyone, good for 2005Some Various Borland-branded BONUS SWAG!AND TWO TITLES TO GIVE AWAY FROM APRESS!Pro Scalable .NET 2.0 Application Designs Beginning Object-Oriented Programming with VB 2005

Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu presented “Using RAD Tools for N-Tier Development in VS2005“ View the Article (with link to sample code) Download the Powerpoint Visual Studio 2005 provides great advances in its RAD tools and designers, making it possible to create functional applications with very little code. However, many of the new tools and designers are targeted towards creating 2-Tier applications where presentation, business, and data access logic are bundled into a single tier. This approach is bad for many reasons including scalability and reusability of business logic components. This presentation will describe how the new RAD tools in Visual Studio 2005 can be used to develop N-Tier applications.  Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer with over 10 years of experience in creating web and Windows applications. He has worked on many software projects in the financial and health care industries, and as a trainer for several companies and training centers, and holds MCT, MCSD.NET, MCSD, and MCAD certifications. This meeting was sponsored by Ajilon Consulting Ajilon provided PIZZA and SODA and the following great Microsoft/.NET branded SWAG: a .NET Backpack, Microsoft T-Shirts, and Microsoft Clicker Candy (we also gave away 2 books from Addison-Wesley)

Wednesday, October 5th, 2005 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Julie Lerman , Vermont.NET User Group Leader, Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider Julie presented “What's New in ADO.NET 2.0“ Download the Powerpoint (ppt, 118kb) Download the Demo Code (zip, 104kb) Julia Lerman is an independent consultant who has been designing and writing software applications for 20 years. She lives in Vermont where she runs the Vermont.NET User Group. Julia is well known in the .NET community as an INETA Board member, Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider and prolific blogger. She is a frequent presenter at DevConnections, DevTeach and other conferences as well as writing articles for MSDN Magazine, CoDe Magazine and other well known technical publications. You can read Julia's blog at thedatafarm.com/blog. C.R. Fletcher was our sponsor. They supplied pizza and some very nice swag - a cooler, wine opener, and mugs! We also gave away some great books from Addison-Wesley, and more copies of: Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 For Developers,  The Microsoft Platform Ahead,  Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 DVD's, and MSDN Events Developer Resource DVD's.

Wednesday, September 7th 2005 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Thom Robbins, Microsoft Developer Evangelist! Thom's topic was a Visual Studio 2005 Overview. Thom Robbins is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft in New England. He is a frequent speaker at a variety of events including VS Live. Thom is also a regular contributor to various magazines including Visual Studio.Net, .NET Magazine and XML Web Services. He spends his time working with developers in New England. When not writing code he spends his time with wife Denise at their home in New Hampshire. Thom can be reached at trobbins@microsoft.com We had great swag. Everyone received a copy of: the book Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 For Developers the book The Microsoft Platform Ahead a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 on DVD an MSDN Events Developer Resource DVD ... and we raffled off some bonus swag from NaviSite: 5 NaviSite Stressballs 5 NaviSite Monitor Mirrors 5 NaviSite Baseball Hats  5 NaviSite Pens

Wednesday, August 3rd 2005 at 6:00 PM New Horizons, East Syracuse

Andy Beaulieu spoke on “What's New in Visual Studio 2005.“ The presentation explored some productivity enhancements, “no-code“ scenarios, support for Data Access Layer generation, Generics, and more! Andy Beaulieu is a professional software developer with over 10 years of experience in creating web and Windows applications. He has worked on many software projects in the financial and health care industries, and as a trainer for several companies and training centers, and holds MCT, MCSD.NET, MCSD, and MCAD certifications. We had some great swag... a copy of CodeRush and a copy of Refactor!Pro from Developer Express was given away, as well as 14 .NET Books from Addison-Wesley, T-Shirts and Beta2 copies of VS2005! Download the PowerPoint (ppt, 116kb)