SA Developer .NET

Devs4Devs

CraigN — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:22:20 GMT

Join Microsoft for a jam-packed morning of developer technical sessions at the Microsoft Offices in Bryanston, Johannesburg. We’ve invited developer presenters to come present on their favourite topics. It’s going to be to the point, concise, each presentation limited to 20 minutes. It will be a great learning experience for all of us! And a lot of fun!

For more information see Eben's blog post here and register over here.

MVP InteropAbility Workshop

CraigN — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:14:30 GMT

Ever wondered about the interopability of the Microsoft development products with other platforms like Java and PHP? Come join Microsoft, the community leads, MVPs and your fellow developers for a day workshop in Johannesburg discussing how the objective of being interoperable has now become a reality.

The Microsoft MVPs from South-Africa invite you to come and discuss the world of interoperability in the development environment, exploring how we can integrate and interoperate with other technologies.
The event will allow you to explore new ideas and solutions, collaborating with Microsoft Consultants, Community Leads and Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) from South-Africa who will be giving an independent and vendor agnostic view.
The objective is to become INTEROPaware and INTEROPable, proving that Interoperability is no longer a technology, but a mind set problem … creating one happy technology family.

The workshop is free to attend and is taking place on the 10th of June 2008 at Microsoft's office in Johannesburg. Click here to book your seat early as space is limited.

SQL 2008 - Event Specifically for Developers - Dev Chat

AngelaG — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:17:00 GMT

The focus will be on new and enhanced developer features in SQL Server
2008. The workshop will be co-presented by Peter Willmot and Eben de
Wit. All welcome to attend. Please spread the word amongst your co-workers.

Full registration and event details on
http://dotnet.org.za/eben/archive/2008/02/06/sql-server-2008-jumpstart-devchat.aspx

* Port Elizabeth - 5 March 2008

* East London - 7 March 2008

* Cape Town - 10 March 2008

* Bloemfontein - 11 March 2008

* Johannesburg - 18 March 2008

* Durban - 19 March 2008

February 2008 Newsletter

CraigN — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:16:58 GMT

Its launch time! Yes February 27 marks the start of the HEROES happen {here} launch activities around the country and the world. So what is being launched, well the 2008 wave of Microsoft development and server products namely Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. Register on the local site but make sure you look at the global launch site as it features a wealth of extra content including some test-drive virtual labs that allow you to get stuck right in.

In case you can't make it to one of the local launch events we are planning on running some community launches starting in March. If you are keen to get involved, please get in touch with the Leads.

I'd like to appeal to the entire community, family and friends to come out in support of the CANSA Shavathon this year. To make it a little more interesting we are running a lucky draw competition so we ask you to either blog a photograph of yourself or send us a photograph of your head shaven or coloured. The winner, or winners if enough enter, will be drawn on the 22nd of February. You can read more about it here.

Events on the calendar from now going forward include:

13 Feb - Gauteng - An Overview of XP Embedded
13 Feb - KwaZulu-Natal - What to expect for 2008
16 Feb - All - CANSA Shavathon 2008
20 Feb - Gauteng - Building Custom LINQ Operators (Part 2)
27 Feb - Gauteng - HEROES happen {here} launch
04 Mar - Western Cape - HEROES happen {here} launch
05 Mar - Gauteng - BizTalk User Group meeting
05 Mar - Port Elizabeth - SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart DevChat
07 Mar - East London - SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart DevChat
10 Mar - Western Cape - SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart DevChat
11 Mar - Free State - SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart DevChat
12 Mar - KwaZulu-Natal - HEROES happen {here} launch
18 Mar - Gauteng - SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart DevChat
19 Mar - KwaZulu-Natal - SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart DevChat

For those of you who work with or are interested in BizTalk you might be interested in the new South African BizTalk User Group which has recently been started. According to Ryan Crawcour, the founder, the web site is currently under construction but they are going to be having their 2nd Johannesburg meeting in March.

I'd like to appeal to the community for feedback on the kinds of events that they'd like to see. Do you want more talks, socials or TechReel sessions? How about some in-person hotlabs over the weekend? If you have a moment, share your thoughts on the forum over here. We'd really like to know what you would like and when it would best suit you as we can only guess so much.

That's all for this month folks, its going to be a bumper month and we look forward to seeing you. Hopefully I'll manage to get next month's newsletter out closer to the beginning of the month. If you have any suggestions, comments or feedback of any kind, please drop a note in the Site Feedback forum.

The Microsoft 2008 Launch Wave

AngelaG — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:45:00 GMT

The South African launch event of Windows Server® 2008, Visual Studio® 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2008 is happening in March. Exciting Stuff!!

Facebook/Silverlight Workshop

AngelaG — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:34:00 GMT

Facebook/Silverlight Workshop

Microsoft and Mentez (www.mentez.com) will be holding two evening workshops on Facebook/Silverlight development.

We have the pleasure of inviting all developers interested in Facebook applications and using Silverlight to enhance these applications even further. The workshop will present best practices, and the infrastructure and technology required to develop the best Facebook/Silverlight applications.

Speakers for the night include Juan Franco, CEO of Mentez coming from Miami; Jason Hoffman, CTO of Joyent, a company based in San Francisco that host more than 4,000 Facebook applications; Eben De Wit from Microsoft South Africa; Armand du Plessis from Agilisto South Africa, and Joey da Silva, an Online Business & Web Technology 'Fundi'. Tyler Reed from Younique South Africa will be leading a Q&A session with a panel of experts at the end of the event.

Johannesburg

15 January 2008, 18:00-22:00
Microsoft Offices in Bryanston

Cape Town

17 January 2008, 18:00-22:00
Microsoft Offices in Mowbray

To register, follow the respective links above. Click on "Request Invitation" in the Facebook event information to request you seat.

Attendance is free.

Seats are limited, so book now!

January 2008 Newsletter

CraigN — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:17:39 GMT

Wow, its 2008 already. Happy New Year! What happened to 2007? It seems to have flown past at a blazing fast rate. Hopefully 2008 doesn't just swoosh past like 2007 otherwise we won't get anything done. The community has been rather quiet over the last month or so, I blame the end of year deadline rush and the crazy festive season.

It is with sadness that I have to announce that Andre Odendaal (aka Fengol/Mailowl) has stepped down as lead of the Gauteng chapter of SA Developer .NET. We would like to thank him for his years of commitment and dedication to the site and the community and wish him every success in his future endeavours. Malcolm Wilkinson (djbiggles) will be returning from his extended leave of absence to take over his duties.

At the end of February Microsoft will be launching Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 and apparently South Africa will be launching before the USA for the first time ever. Yes, the Johannesburg launch is scheduled for the 27th of Feb, the same date as the US launch in Los Angeles. However due to the nature of time-zones our launch party will be before the US.

A couple of users have now asked me if there is a feed for the forums posts. Well I searched the site and eventually found that there actually is, although its not visible anywhere on the site as yet. So add this feed if you'd like to add a feed to your feed reader so you can see all new posts that are made.

The events on the calendar so far include:

09 Jan - Gauteng - Building Custom LINQ Operators
15 Jan - Gauteng - Facebook App Camp 2008
17 Jan - Western Cape - Facebook App Camp 2008
27 Feb - Gauteng - Launch party
04 Mar - Western Cape - Launch party
12 Mar - KwaZulu-Natal - Launch party

If you are in the Johannesburg area make sure you come to Andre van Rensburg's talk this Wednesday where he will explore one aspect of LINQ (Language Integrated Query) extensibility to alter the language to better suit a specific domain. His most recent talk was a huge success and I predict this one will be one you must not miss.

Last year the first Facebook Developers Garage was held and proved highly successful. If you are interested in developing applications for the social networking market or possibly have an idea for an application, why not attend the Facebook App Camp 2008 in Joburg or Cape Town where you can learn and share ideas.

Till next month, happy coding.

Facebook App could win you R40 000! Interested?

AngelaG — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:59:00 GMT

Facebook has become the most frequently visited web site in South Africa. And as you may already know, developers can build their own Facebook applications for the platform.

Mentez has launched a competition in South Africa in search of the best Facebook application. There are five Mentez-sponsored prizes, the winning prize being R40 000.

Microsoft has now joined in the competition with the intention of showing the value of using Silverlight to improve the end-user experience of Facebook applications even further. Microsoft is sponsoring an XBox 360 Games Console and games bundle for the best Facebook application using Silverlight, over and above the Mentez prizes.

So, what are you waiting for? Registrations close 22 December 2007.

Go register at www.mentez.com and tell everyone you know who may be interested in winning R40 000!

Visual Studio 2008 Jumpstart DevChat

AngelaG — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:37:00 GMT

Visual Studio 2008 Jumpstart DevChat

How many days before Christmas? Just enough to do another round of DevChats

This time round we're doing the event in every major city in South Africa. That is Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, East London, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. I know you have deadlines to meet before Christmas. Yet, don't miss out on this DevChat. We will be introducing you to a lot of the fabulous features in Visual Studio 2008 - releasing in the next few months.

Smaller cities

Bloemfontein - 12 Nov 07

East London - 14 Nov 07

Port Elizabeth - 16 Nov 07

Larger cities

Johannesburg - 19 Nov 07

Durban - 20 Nov 07

Cape Town - 22 Nov 07

Space is limited! Book your seat today!

ReSharper License giveaways

Fengol — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:50:00 GMT

JetBrains has kindly approached SA Developer .NET with an offer to give away free ReSharper Personal Licenses as prizes at our local meetings. ReSharper is a Visual Studio plugin which "brings unrivalled code analysis, a superior unit testing solution with multiple unit test sessions, Go to Symbol navigation, a handy To-do Explorer, and many other features".

To win yourself a Personal License you'll have to attend your local community meeting so watch the Event forums for upcoming events.

October 2007 Newsletter

CraigN — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:02:00 GMT

Based on feedback from the community it seems that the monthly newsletter has not been reaching all members due to a possible bug in Community Server's mass e-mail functionality. This is rather sad so I've cooked up a new scheme this month and subscribed all members to receive e-mails when a new post is made on the Announcements blog on the site. This should hopefully work. If you however don't wish to receive announcements like this newsletter via e-mail you can unsubscribe from it here. If you prefer you can subscribe to the RSS 2.0 or Atom 1.0 feeds for the announcements blog.

It seems that the developers in Bloemfontein, East London and Port Elizabeth really enjoyed the DevChat sessions held in September. The sessions included Silverlight, the new developer features in IIS7 and the Threat Analysis and Modeling Tool from Microsoft.

Eben de Wit, Developer Advisor at Microsoft South Africa, had the following to say regarding the events, "Overall, I'm very satisfied with the outcome. We'll be back. We've started the planning phase for the next DevChat in November. It'll most likely focus on the new features in Visual Studio 2008".

Generally October is a quiet month as a result of Tech-Ed, but this month sure looks busy. Here is what we have on the cards so far:

04 Oct - Gauteng - Using Windows PowerShell
06 Oct - Gauteng - Dinner with Angela Gerber
10 Oct - Gauteng - Using an object database in your next .NET application
10 Oct - Western Cape - Cubana social
17 Oct - KwaZulu-Natal - Know your tools
17 Oct - Western Cape - OBA Part 2
20 Oct - Gauteng - Dinner with Willie Roberts
21 Oct - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
22 Oct - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
23 Oct - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
24 Oct - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
25 Oct - Gauteng - Inside track on Windows Live
27 Oct - KwaZulu-Natal - Ster Kinekor social

Unfortunately the MSDN Community Distribution CDs have been a little hard to get hold of lately. It seems that they are really popular and that the gremlins in the postal service were out to get us. Don't despair, together with Microsoft South Africa we have managed to get hold of the missing CDs and had them duplicated professionally. So get hold of your agent for a free copy of this exciting content.

If you are going to be at Tech-Ed this year take a moment and come have a chat in the community lounge.

September 2007 Newsletter

CraigN — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:32:00 GMT

I should start this months newsletter off with a correction and an apology. Firstly I incorrectly listed Peter Willmot as an MVP for Visual C# which was a copy and paste error and he is actually a SQL Server MVP. The apology is for me being slack and not getting an August newsletter out. So this month its a bumper one.

On the community front I'd like to congratulate Willie Roberts (Diago) for being appointed Lead of the KwaZulu-Natal chapter for SA Developer .NET. Willie has been a forum moderator since the beginning of 2007 and has been organising community meetings and socials down in Durban for most of the year.

Each year Microsoft South Africa run the Project Firefly Cup locally. The winners go on to represent South Africa in the Imagine Cup. This year was a little different and a team comprising Davide de Caires, Nicholas Goossens, Claudie Ferreira, Grant Lindner and Tarryn Ferreira was chosen from multiple universities to represent South Africa in the Imagine Cup 2007 in Korea.

The team developed and presented a generic education institution management system built using VB.NET, ASP.NET and SQL Server 2005 and a wealth of technologies such as AJAX, biometrics and short message notifications.

The team manager, Ruari Plint, had the following to say, "Ok so South Africa did not make it through this year, better luck next one, BUT considering all the challenges that the South African Team faced leading up it was well noted that they are indeed fantastic ambassadors to South Africa and I am very proud of their commitment and contributions to a most fantastic event."

I don't believe anyone can call this time of year dull, there are so many events going on with Tech-Ed 2007 at Sun City which is already sold out and many more regional events on the go. Take a look at what's currently scheduled:

01 Sep 2007 - Gauteng - Spring Day social
05 Sep 2007 - Western Cape - Social
06 Sep 2007 - Gauteng - TechReel
08 Sep 2007 - Gauteng - Building Data Interfaces for .NET
08 Sep 2007 - KwaZulu-Natal - .NET Framework workshop - What it is
12 Sep 2007 - Gauteng - Type Metadata & Internet Addiction
13 Sep 2007 - Bloemfontein - DevChat
13 Sep 2007 - KwaZulu-Natal - TechReel - The Microsoft website
18 Sep 2007 - East London - DevChat
19 Sep 2007 - Port Elizabeth - DevChat
19 Sep 2007 - Western Cape - Continuous Integration
22 Sep 2007 - KwaZulu-Natal - Ster Kinekor social - Ratatouille
27 Sep 2007 - KwaZulu-Natal - C#, VB.NET and ASP.NET - The Showdown!
21 Oct 2007 - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
22 Oct 2007 - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
23 Oct 2007 - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
24 Oct 2007 - Gauteng - Tech-Ed 2007
25 Oct 2007 - Gauteng - Inside Track on Windows Live

Developers located around the country don't often get to experience the major Microsoft events like DevDays and Tech-Ed, but this year its going to be different. Microsoft will be touring the country every quarter and touching base with developers around the country. The content will be 80% technical and target developers. You can read more about the schedule on Eben de Wit's blog here. Book your seat early to avoid disappointment!

Those that are unable to attend Tech-Ed this year and are going to be in Johannesburg in October are in for a treat. Angus Logan, Senior Product Manager for Windows Live, will share an Inside Track on Windows Live with the communities. Be sure to book your seat early as I'm sure its going to be an enlightening evening.

And with that, let me wish you a fabulous Spring Day tomorrow as our bodies start to thaw from the cold.

New SA Developer .NET Lead - Willie Roberts

Fengol — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:36:00 GMT

Please will you join me in welcoming Willie Roberts (Diago) as a Lead of the KwaZulu-Natal chapter. Willie has been a forum moderator since the beginning of 2007 and has been organising community meetings and socials down in Durban for most of the year. With a new lead in the region be sure to check out the KwaZulu-Natal events forum for all the meetings, socials and events happening down by the coast.

Being a lead is more than just being someone to hand out prizes and free give-aways; it requires a character who can organise and co-ordinate venues, speakers, catering, sponsorship and notifying members, all while continuing their daily job and family life. There is noremuneration for being a lead of SA Developer .NET and Willie Roberts has persistently shown he cares and is passionate about driving the community around him.

Willie Roberts continues the legacy of some excellent leads we've had in Durban.

Imagine Cup Team Coaching

Fengol — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:18:00 GMT

UPDATE: This event has been cancelled.

Come and support the Project Firefly team prepare for the Imagine Cup competition in Korea by sitting in on their dry-run presentation on Monday, 30th July 19:00 - 20:00 at the Microsoft offices in Bryanston, Johannesburg. Microsoft is asking the community to help give the varsity students the exposure and feedback.

"The SA Firefly winning team is preparing for the Imagine Cup finals in Korea.

We want to win! To win, we want to give them enough exposure and feedback on their presentation skills.

Their presentation is about 15 minutes.

The DPE Team at Microsoft will review their presentation. However, we felt the community will also be able to provide valuable feedback and pointers to them.

The meeting should not be any longer than an hour. We value your input.

NOTE: Anyone from the community that you guys feel will be able to contribute, is welcome to attend"

Find more information on Gauteng events forum

July 2007 Newsletter

CraigN — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 06:39:00 GMT

Its hard to believe that half of 2007 has gone by already, it seems like it was summer just a few weeks ago and now the polar bears are knocking on our front doors as its too cold outside.

Microsoft has appointed 4 more MVPs for South Africa, bringing the total up to 14. Congratulations to Ernst Kuschke who has been re-nominated as Visual C# MVP and the new MVPs:

Mario Lionello (Visual Developer - Visual C#)
Arno Nel (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server)
Ayal Rosenberg (Visual Studio - Solutions Architect)
Peter Willmot (Visual Developer - Visual C#).

Last month's REMIX '07 event in Johannesburg was by all accounts a resounding success. The event attracted both web designers and developers and it was a pleasure to see more women in attendance. Microsoft Silverlight was the headline of the show and attendees witnessed how the new Microsoft Expression Studio and Microsoft Visual Studio products enable designers and developers to work together effectively.

The KwaZulu-Natal chapter is looking for a suitable venue for Wednesday night talks in the Musgrave area. If anyone has a suitable venue with a projector please send Diago a private message.

Johannesburg members should look forward to Andre's talk on Silverlight as its a technology that you really should start exploring as I believe the new technology is set to revolutionise web development and increase the user experience expectations of our customers.

Its time for some fun social activities again so we're running a go-karting social at the end of the month. Its on a Sunday and members are encouraged to bring family and friends to come and spend some quality time together with the community. If the weather is suitable we will also have a braai outside.

Next month we've got Armand presenting Ruby on Rails so in preparation my TechReel session will try and introduce members to the Ruby language.

A summary of upcoming events include:

07 July - KwaZulu-Natal - Social
11 July - Gauteng - Silverlight - Using .NET in the client-side browser
18 July - Western Cape - Social
19 July - Gauteng - TechReel
19 July - KwaZulu-Natal - TechReel
21 July - KwaZulu-Natal - Social
28 July - Western Cape - Developing SharePoint Solutions and Office Business Applications (OBA) using .NET
29 July - Gauteng - Social - Go-karting
09 August - Gauteng - TechReel - The Ruby language
15 August - Gauteng - An introduction to Rails - Web development doesn't need to hurt :)

That's all for this month's newsletter folks. If anyone has any feedback on this newsletter or would like to suggest content for future editions, please use the Site Feedback forum on the site.

Want to join the Microsoft community speaker panel?

Fengol — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:35:00 GMT

Want to present topics at large Microsoft events? Eben De Wit, Microsoft Developer Advisor, has put together a guide on joining the Microsoft community speaker panel which you can download from the SA Developer .NET downloads section.

Growing the Speaker Panel 1.2 is a collaboration document from Microsoft and community influencers to establish a transparent and helpful guide for community members who want to grow as a speaker and present at Microsoft events like Dev Days and TechEd. It includes what Microsoft is looking for in a speaker and steps to becoming a presenter for Microsoft.

For more information about becoming a speaker for Microsoft, the speaker panel or any other related queries please email Eben De Wit edewit@microsoft.com

Be the first to know about Tech-Ed 2007

AngelaG — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:53:00 GMT

Be the first to know about Tech-Ed 2007.. Subscribe here:

https://msevents.microsoft.co.za/Teched2007/

Dates: Sunday, 21 October – Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Venue: Sun City

June 2007 Newsletter

CraigN — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:04:47 GMT

While Dev Days 2007 must still happen in the Western Cape at the time of this writing, there has been a good response received from SA Developer .NET members in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng regarding what is probably the largest, free, developer-focused event by Microsoft. Of particular interest this year were the AJAX talks and a lengthy look into the next version of Visual Studio, code-named Orcas. The keynote was particularly long this year as it covered a wide variety of new an interesting technologies coming from Microsoft and they all received a solid sounding applause from the audience.

Microsoft was also kind enough to actively promote SA Developer .NET; asking the leaders of the community to show themselves during the keynote and allowing us to add a pamphlet about our updated web-site and activities to the packs the attendees received when they registered. In all we think it was a worthwhile event to attend this year and we hope you enjoyed it too.

However if you missed Dev Days this year then you will be excited to hear that Microsoft is bringing the renowned MIX event that was held in Las Vegas in May this year to Johannesburg. The event is called REMIX '07 and brings the latest and greatest news from MIX '07 to local web designers, developers and decision-makers. The event will feature a packed day with two tracks focusing on the developers and designers respectively.

A summary of upcoming events include:

05 June - Western Cape - Developer Days 2007
05 June - Western Cape - Developer Days 2007 After Party
13 June - Gauteng - .NET data binding interfaces
14 June - Gauteng - Pirates of Silicon Valley
21 June - Gauteng - TechReel
26 June - Gauteng - REMIX '07
29 June - Gauteng - Social

Do you battle to download and keep up-to-date with all the latest development resources coming out of Microsoft and MSDN? Now you can get a copy of the bi-monthly CD from MSDN Community Distribution agents around the country. Simply look at the agent list and get in contact with one of them and they will be more than happy to give you a copy of the CDs. Currently agents have the February 2007 and April 2007 CDs which include the Visual Studio and SQL Server Express service packs, Microsoft Robotics Studio, ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, XNA Game Studio Express, Windows PowerShell and loads of extra Webcasts and documentation. Agents should have the June 2007 disc available very soon.

That's all for this month's newsletter folks. If anyone has any feedback on this newsletter or would like to suggest content for future editions, please use the Site Feedback forum on the site.

SA Architect book reviews

Fengol — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:10:00 GMT

Willy-Peter Schaub from the SA Architect community would like to ask the SA Developer .NET members for comments and reviews of the 2 books he's written and published which he can use as motivation for his sponsors to publish a third one. He has been kind enough to give out copies of his books as prizes at various partner events and community gatherings and would like some feedback from those who've had an opportunity to read them.

Comments and reviews of either or both his books: .NET Enterprise Solutions - Best Practices for the Connoisseur and .NET Enterprise Solutions - Interoperability for the Connoisseur should be posted on Willy-Peter's blog which will not be made public and kept confidential. SA Developer .NET members are also welcome to download a draft of his 3rd book and submit comments and reviews on it.

Red Five Labs movie screening and competition

Fengol — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:07:00 GMT

I'm happy to tell you about the Red Five Labs invitation to watch "Pirates of Silicon Valley" (unfortunately only in Johannesburg, RSVP required) on the 14th June 2007 and about their competition (available nationwide) to win a LEGO Mindstorms NXT Robotics Kit! Entry into the competition is rather novel in that entrants are required to call a web service to pass their entry details in, and this personally was an added motivation just to enter.

You can get more details about the movie screening on the Gauteng Events forum as well as on the Red Five Labs website.

"The film is about the early days of the PC industry and how Microsoft trumped both Apple and IBM. The story of the successes of both Apple and Microsoft are told from the perspective of Wozniak and Ballmer."

Dev Days 2007 After Party

Fengol — Sat, 26 May 2007 07:30:00 GMT

With Microsoft Dev Days 2007 happening across the country don’t forget to ask your local community leaders where the SA Developer .NET after party is happening after the event. Since you’ve already gotten the day off from your boss to attend the event you might as well take the opportunity to mingle with the other members of the community and discuss and explore the technologies you saw throughout the day.

You can also check out the events forums for the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng to learn beforehand where we’ll all be gathering.

Hope to see you there!

May 2007 Newsletter

CraigN — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:08:00 GMT

How time flies when you are having fun and making progress on those project deadines. In the last few weeks it seems like the winter weather has descended upon most of the country - it sure has made Gauteng a bit chilly.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the team of forum moderators lead by Mario Lionello (MaLio), the include William Brander (CalmYourself), Willie Roberts (Diago), Liam Beeton (fridgi), Ben van Rooyen (manic) and Brady Kelly (ProfK). They are charged with keeping the forums neat and tidy and ensuring that your questions get answered. The moderators will be championing various forums to make sure posts get replied to and are marked as answered if a solution was found thus making searching and filtering a lot easier for the rest of you. Take a moment and view their bios here. If you have any questions about the forums, please do not hesitate to contact them on the forums or drop the moderators list an e-mail, the address is here.

The community membership base has grown consistently since January 2007 with an average of 200 new member registrations per month. The moderators team are definitely having a noticable impact on the forums with forum activity increasing dramatically.

Andre Odendaal (Fengol) gave an informative presentation on Windows CardSpace to the Gauteng chapter and explored two deployment scenarios. His talk was well attended and members learnt a thing or two about Windows CardSpace, Laws of Identity and the identity facet of Web 2.0.

Two of the Cape Town MVPs, Ernst Kushke (ernst) and Hilton Giesenow (HiltonG), presented a combined talk on LINQ (Language Integreated Query) for the event starved masses down around The Mountain. The talk was well attended and it was great to get the members together once again. What would you guys be interested in for the next talk, have your say online.

KwaZulu-Natal had another successful social with members getting together to relax and chat about anything and everything. It was great to meet up with members from the seminars in a social environment and everyone seemed to be have a good time. Mimmo's in Musgrave has really gone out of their way to make SA Developer .NET events hassle free and enjoyable and is set to be the regular social venue.

A summary of upcoming events include:

09 May 2007 - Gauteng - LINQ in Action
09 May 2007 - KwaZulu-Natal - Social
16 May 2007 - Gauteng - SQL Panel Discussion
16 May 2007 - KwaZulu-Natal - Getting into the IT Industry with Microsoft
24 May - KwaZulu-Natal - Developer Days 2007
29 May - Gauteng - Developer Days 2007
29 May - Gauteng - Developer Days 2007 After Party
30 May - KwaZulu-Natal - Introduction into ASP.Net 2.0 Web Data Controls
02 June - KwaZulu-Natal - Social
05 June - Western Cape - Developer Days 2007

The Code Camp that was originally planned for the 12th and 13th of May has unfortunately had to be postponed due to sponsorship issues. We are currently working to finalise new dates for the end of July or early August. I trust that this change will have a positive effect on the Code Camp as it should allow for more planning, better content and more participation from members and sponsors. More details on the format, topics and currently volunteered speakers should be up on the website very soon.

"Explore New Frontiers" is the theme for Developer Days 2007 and aims to introduce the new technology offerings from Microsoft to developers, software architects and software engineers. Sessions this year target Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office, the upcoming release of Visual Studio code-named Orcas, ASP.NET AJAX, IIS7, mobile application devleopment and the much talked about Microsoft Silverlight technology. This is an event that everyone should attend.

Thats all for this month's newletter folks. If anyone has any feedback on this newsletter or would like to suggest content for future editions, please use the Site Feedback forum on the site.

Moderators announced

Fengol — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 06:36:00 GMT

It is with great pleasure that I announce: CalmYourself, Diago, frigi, manic and ProfK as moderators on the SA Developer .NET website. They are charged with keeping the forums neat and tidy and ensuring that your questions get answered. The moderators will be championing various forums to make sure posts get replied to in a timeously manner and they are Marked as Answered if a solution as been found (making searching and filtering a lot easier for the rest of you).

These 5 members have already been helping to answer questions and support the community before the leads put up a notice asking for volunteers and they were obvious choices when a decision had to be made.

Remember that SA Developer .NET is run by volunteers and there is no expected reward or renumeration for any of the work that the leads or moderators do. These 5 members have voluntered their personal time and energy to keep the website running smoothly.

I hope that you will work with them and make the SA Developer .NET website a great, local place to come and ask questions and meet other developers.

April 2007 Newsletter

CraigN — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:02:53 GMT

Its April already and first quarter of 2007 is behind us. This is the second newsletter for 2007 and I must start off with an apology for the duplicate copies of the March newsletter that got sent out, it was an early morning pre-coffee human error.

Last month we decided to put all the newsletter links as a numbered list at the end of the newsletter to cater for members that have opted to receive non-HTML e-mails. Did any of you find this useful or should we stick to HTML formatted e-mails only? We would like you to provide any feedback on this on the Site Feedback forum.

On the events front both the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng chapters have picked up some momentum. In KwaZulu-Natal, Willie Roberts (Diago) has taken the initiative and run a TechReel session in Durban with a whopping turnout of almost 30 people. The response so far has been extremely positive with a keen interest in .NET technologies and we look forward to continued momentum and growth. In Gauteng, a violent storm, with lighting and hail, was not even to deter over a dozen members from attending last month’s session on “Interfaces every developer should know” by Craig Nicholson (CraigN). This short but to the point talk raised some good questions from the audience; and Craig’s style for giving a Microsoft and then “IT Celebrity” quote about an interface, captivated the audience with a deeper meaning. Again, beer and pizza were available to satisfy stomachs while the members satisfied their curiosity especially about details for the next talk on CardSpace.

A summary of upcoming events includes:

11 April - KwaZulu-Natal - Dissecting a Web Application
11 April - Gauteng - Implementing CardSpace into your website
14 April - KwaZulu-Natal - Social
19 April - Gauteng - TechReel
19 April - Western Cape - LINQ Anyone?
20 April - KwaZulu-Natal - Social
25 April - KwaZulu-Natal - Round Table Discussion: What is a Developer?
20 April - Gauteng - Social
12 May - Gauteng - Code Camp
13 May - Gauteng - Code Camp
24 May - KwaZulu-Natal - Developer Days 2007
29 May - Gauteng - Developer Days 2007
29 May - Gauteng - Developer Days 2007 After Party
05 June - Western Cape - Developer Days 2007

Those in the Western Cape should be excited as one of our South African MVPs, Ernst Kuschke (Ernst), is presenting a not to be missed talk on LINQ. In Gauteng we have Andre Odendaal (Fengol) presenting what should be a highly enlightening talk on Windows CardSpace and identity. In KwaZulu-Natal, Willie Roberts (Diago) is presenting a low-level talk on ASP.NET web applications.

People in Joburg should mark off May the 12th and 13th in their calendars as we are planning the first ever SA Developer .NET Code Camp. Its a free community event run over the weekend so you don't need to covince your boss why you should be there. The general theme for the first Code Camp is ASP.NET 2.0 and related technologies. We'll send out more information as we get closer to finalising the speakers and topics.

The SA Developer .NET community is a member of the International .NET Association (INETA) which provides structured, peer-based organizational, educational, and promotional support to the growing worldwide community of Microsoft .NET user groups. INETA invites our members to provide some feedback on the perceptions and usage of products from various software manufacturers through a brief survey. The survey is quick to complete and shouldn't take more than 25 minutes of your time.

From a membership perspective the community has grown by over 200 new members in March resulting in the need for additional forum moderators. A request for volunteer moderators was posted and the list is currently being finalised and will be announced during April.

Thats all for this month's newsletter, I look forward to meeting up with old and new faces at the upcoming events.

Get ready for the first talk in the Western Cape for 2007

Fengol — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 03:56:00 GMT

It's been a slow start to the year for SA Developer .NET in the Western Cape, but there's a hive of activity down by the coast now and the leads have organised their first talk for the year; set for the 19th April 2007 with Ernst Kuschke presenting "LINQ Anyone?". Ernst is an accomplished speaker and a Microsoft C# MVP.

When: 19th April 2007 18:00 - 19:30
Venue: Microsoft, Mowbray, Cape Town (directions)
Presenter: Ernst Kuschke
Topic: LINQ Anyone?
Objective: Find out about the general-purpose query facilities added to the .NET Framework that apply to all sources of information, not just relational or XML data. This facility is called .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ).
RSVP: http://sadeveloper.net/forums/thread/2387.aspx

This should be the start of a prosperous year for the Western Cape chapter with a lot of developer professionals coming out of the wood work or moving down to the area (The seaside air must be agreeing with them) which the leads can encourage to present at their events.

Update: Ruari Plint, the Microsoft MEA MVP Program Manager, will be joining us.