Announcements

Microsoft BI User Group Meeting (02 Sept 2009)

2009-08-17T08:51:00Z

2 September 2009

Come and share your experiences, both business and technical, at the South African Business Intelligence User Group Meeting.

Customers will be sharing case studies, partners will be showcasing evidence and techies will be giving expert advice and opinions.

Learn, Share, Grow.

Date	Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Venue	Auditorium 2, Microsoft South Africa, 3012 William Nicol Drive , Bryanston
Time	13h00 to 15h30

To register: PLEASE CLICK HERE or
Call 0860 22 55 67

1. Registration
2. Welcome
3. BI Power Hour:
Converse with Industry Specialists on Various BI Products and find out the latest in MS BI innovations
4. Discussion
5. Next Meeting

Site downtime, upgrades and viruses

2009-04-16T17:59:13Z

For those of you that have had issues trying to get to the SA Developer site over the last few weeks the good news is that its all back up and working again.

At the beginning of March we experienced some downtime due to a faulty server power supply. This was brought to our hosting company’s attention and after some troubleshooting and server hard reboots it appears to be stable now.

During March the site also underwent a major software upgrade from a rather out-dated Community Server 2.1 installation to the latest Community Server 2008 release. This upgrade has been a long time in the making and most users I’ve chatted to welcome the new functionality and new updated theme. If you are good at Community Server theme design please get in touch as we are looking for volunteers to assist with developing a unique and fresh site theme.

Today reports started coming in of the site theme looking squished up in Safari and Google Chrome. A quick check revealed an extraneous JavaScript link being inserted into the HTML page. After much hunting and suspecting that Community Server had been compromised, it was tracked down to what looks like two Trojan injections that had slipped past the Trend Micro ServerProtect antivirus that was installed. To mitigate the risk the IIS service was shutdown while the infection was dealt with. Avast Antivirus Server Edition was installed and quickly fixed the infections which had replaced part of the Windows TCP/IP and was injecting the erroneous script tag into the served content as you can see below.

Lets hope that this is the last of the site downtime for a good while now.

What’'s Happening in February

2009-02-09T12:04:00Z

Just a quick heads up on events coming up around the country this month. Remember that all events are free to attend unless otherwise stated.

KwaZulu-Natal:

12th - 18h00 – 20h00 - Gail Shaw - The dirty dozen... 12 Ways to write badly performing T-SQL (RSVP)

Gauteng:

11th - 18h00 – 20h00 – Juval Löwy - Introducing the .NET Service Bus (register)
17th – 18h30 – 20h30 – Inus du Preez - 6 reasons why SQL Server 2008 must run on Windows Server 2008 (RSVP)

Western Cape:

11th - 18h30 – 19h30 – Nicholas Goossens - Entity Framework: A scenic tour (RSVP)

March is going to be a busy month with DevDays ‘09 happening around the country. Watch this space for when the final dates and registration links are announced.

And the winners are…

2009-02-09T08:04:23Z

In December we announced the MSDN Community DVD competition and I’m pleased to announce that the results are in. And the winners are:

Iwan de Beer takes first place winning an Xbox 360 console, a copy of Gears of War and an extra controller. Runners up are Brett Upton and Riccardo Spagni who both take home a Microsoft Goodie Bag. Microsoft will be in contact with you to send you your prizes.

Congratulations to all three of you and good luck next time to everyone else.

MSDN Community DVD competition

2008-12-17T15:03:07Z

SA Developer is running a competition along with this quarter’s MSDN Community Distribution DVD. All you have to do is to grab a free copy of the DVD (containing lots of PDC videos) and complete the quiz (http://sadeveloper.net/MSDNCommunityQuiz200812/). The random draw will take place in the first week of February 2009, and the winners notified the same week. Competition entries close on the 31st of January 2009.

Prizes include:

An Xbox 360 console, a copy of Gears of War and an extra controller
Microsoft Goodie Bag
Microsoft Goodie Bag

You can grab a free copy of the MSDN Community Distribution DVD from the drop points listed on Eben’s blog (http://dotnet.org.za/eben/).

Scott Hanselman events in Johannesburg and Cape Town

2008-12-04T23:46:59Z

Scott Hanselman of Hanselminutes fame will be visiting South Africa in December and the following two events are scheduled:

8th December 2008 – Johannesburg (RSVP here)
17th December 2008 – Cape Town

Scott will be talking about ASP.NET MVC.

Reminder - Talk on the 7th October / AOP with PostSharp

2008-10-03T11:47:00Z

When: 7th October 2008 18:30 - 20:30
Venue: Microsoft Auditorium, Bryanston (directions)
Presenter: Simon Stewart

Originally from PE, Simon Stewart is the chief architect and founder of Broken Keyboards Software in Johannesburg which focuses on custom solutions, training and general consulting.

Broken Keyboards Software has expertise in ORM components including inhouse-designed components, LLBLGen, nHibernate and strongly believe that these should be the starting point for any new development.

Other areas that Broken Keyboards Software has indepth technical knowledge include: .NET, SVG, db4o, Win32 GUI components, usability analysis, plugin frameworks, goal-directed design.

Broken Keyboards Software is a co-founder of SADeveloper, MCP and has is a former C# MVP (2003-2005).

Topic: Aspect Oriented Programming with PostSharp

RSVP: Please RSVP by replying to the post here http://sadeveloper.net/forums/thread/14761.aspx .

Overview:

Aspect Oriented Programming with PostSharp and .NET

AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming) opens the door to several very interesting architecture opportunities and using AOP frameworks like PostSharp, this functionality is easily accessible.
During the 45 minutes, you will be introduced to AOP and be shown several ideas that leverage off the power of AOP.

After this talk you will have a good overview of AOP and enough knowledge to start using it in proof of concept designs.

Technologies covered: PostSharp AOP, C#

Calling all developers in Port Elizabeth

2008-08-13T08:08:23Z

Calling all developers in Port Elizabeth and surrounds. You’ve asked for it in the past and community member Dave Coates has taken up the challenge to get the P.E. development community going.

SA Developer .NET currently does not have a formal chapter in Port Elizabeth but if there is sufficient interest this could be the start of an Eastern Cape chapter. So spread the word and get involved - I’m sure Dave will welcome help from whoever is keen to assist him in getting this initiative going.

To start the ball rolling the first event has been scheduled for Saturday the 6th of September 2008 and will be held at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). The first talk for the day will be on Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) with PostSharp and .NET followed by a talk on Firefox addon development using XUL.

You can see more details for the event as well as RSVP for it by clicking here.

Devs4Devs

2008-05-25T21:22:20Z

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

2008-05-15T13:14:30Z

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

2008-03-05T07:17:00Z

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

2008-02-12T22:16:58Z

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

2008-01-15T14:45:00Z

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

2008-01-15T14:34:00Z

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

2008-01-07T18:17:39Z

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.