JrzyShr Dev Guy

MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow Kick-Off Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the kick-off of the MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow in Parsippany, NJ!  Bill Zack and I are excited to spend the afternoon talking with folks about Windows Azure, Microsoft’s new cloud computing platform, and Silverlight 2 application development.  You can read more about the “Suburban” Roadshow in my original post on it here.

This just in… we’ve added a new date in East Windsor, NJ courtesy of our host, Infragistics!  This stop will be the same day as the Central NJ .NET user group.  So, if you register for our East Windsor stop, you actually get a full day of content as you can stick around for a third session from 6-8pm!  See the Central NJ .NET website for meeting details.  They will be covering the ASP.NET MVC framework in December.

Also, our date in Stamford, CT has been post-poned until December 10th.  Here are the updated links:

Thanks to Infragistics for hosting us in at their headquarters in beautiful central New Jersey!

As the world leader in user interface development tools, Infragistics empowers developers to build and style immersive user experiences and rich data visualization in line of business applications across all platforms — Windows Forms, WPF, ASP.NET, Silverlight and JSF.

We understand it isn't enough to make great products so we supply a range of value-added services including UI testing tools, support, training and consulting services.

Announcing Microsoft BizSpark for Early Stage Start-Ups

Yesterday, Microsoft announced a new program for startup companies called “Microsoft BizSpark”.  My colleague Anand Iyer out on the west coast in San Francisco has all the details on his blog here.  The official BizSpark site is here.  Lots of other resources and information for startups is can be found at the Microsoft Startup Zone.

“Ignition” – New York City – November 11, 2008

To celebrate the announcement of the BizSpark program, we are hosting a series of “Ignition” events to help get the word out across the US.  Myself and others from the Microsoft BizSpark team will be at the NY Tech Meetup on Tuesday, November 11th to unveil BizSpark to the New York start up community.  Afterwards, there will be a networking event at One Little West 12 in the meat packing district from 8pm-10pm.

The spirit of entrepreneurialism is what drives all of us to innovate and excel. Economics aside, there is no better time than now to pursue that next big idea. This is your time to shine and we want to celebrate you, your vision and help you succeed.

Microsoft StartupZone and The TechSet, present "Ignition", an event to commemorate the launch of Microsoft BizSpark, a new program for those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem to help startups flourish. Join Stephanie Agresta, Brian Solis, the BizSpark team and partners for a networking event from 8-10pm with free hors d'oeuvres and drinks. Plus, you will have the opportunity to meet some of the most influential technologists around. All attendees can participate in a "twitter raffle" to win an XBox 360 Elite. flourish. Join Stephanie Agresta, Brian Solis, the BizSpark team and partners for a networking event from

To get in on “Ignition” New York City, REGISTER HERE for free at Eventbrite.  If you’re involved in a start-up in the New York area, you’ll want to be there Tuesday night!

Microsoft BizSpark in the News

BizSpark sure sparked a lot of press yesterday.  Check out some of the stories here:

• Microsoft BizSpark Embraces Startups With Free Software, Services – Tech Crunch
• BizSpark Program Targets Startups – Port 25
• Microsoft Launches BizSpark Program For Startups – Don Dodge
• Microsoft Launches Effort to Spark Startups – Daryl K Taft – eWeek
• Microsoft Offers Free Software For Start-Ups – Ina Fried
• Microsoft Offers Startups Software And Cloud Services For (Almost) Free – Mary Jo Foley
• Microsoft’s BizSpark Initiative Offers Free Servers and Software To Startups – Venture Beat
• Microsoft’s Smart Cloud Catch-Up Plan: Three Years of Free Software – Silicon Alley Insider
• With Eye On Future, Microsoft Offers Startups Freebies – Giga Om

BizSpark greatly reduces the barrier to entry for startups who choose to use the Microsoft platform to build their application or service. It will be exciting to see what types of innovations this program will help unleash out there!

MSDN Developer Conference - New York City on January 20th

The nature of software development is radically changing... Are you ready?

Cloud computing, Software plus services, Windows Azure, SQL Services, Live Services, Windows 7,  Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0 Framework, etc, etc….  Did you miss all of the news coming out of the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles last month? Or, maybe you caught some of it, but were so overwhelmed by the fire hose of information, you weren’t able to digest it all?  (My brain is STILL on overload from all the new technology announcements & demos.)

Have no fear, if you weren’t able to make it to the PDC, now is your opportunity to learn about all of the latest developer technologies from Microsoft in a city near you!  A fantastic series of one-day conferences is coming to 11 cities across the US.  The MSDN Developer Conference features 12 sessions in three tracks:

1. Cloud Services
   
   Use Windows Azure, Live Mesh, and more to create apps that bridge the gaps between PC, Web, and phone

2. Client and Presentation
   
   See the state of the art and future plans for ASP.NET 4.0, WPF, and Silverlight
   

3. Tools, Languages and Framework
   
   Learn about Visual Studio 2010, Language Futures, Oslo, and Parallel Programming

Think of this as the greatest hits of PDC coming to you!

A full day of content for $99.  And of course some nice giveaways as well.

New York City’s Turn

As one of the 11 cities in the series, our local event will be in New York City on January 20th at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.  I'm the "event lead" for New York, so let me know if you have any questions.

We have a great line-up of speakers on tap for New York, including:

• Bill Zack
• Don Demsak
• Todd Snyder
• Jess Chadwick
• Sajee Mathew
• Allan Da Costa Pinto
• Dmitry Lyalin
• And more to be announced soon!

The Sessions

Check out the session line up…

Registration

Registration is now open, and a nice deal for $99.

Not from the tri-state area?  Register for a city near you…

Online Community

Find our tag cloud under #MSDNDevCon. Join the buzz!

 MSDN Social
 Facebook - Join the group
Twitter - follow the feed
Flickr - post your MDC pictures
del.icio.us - share your bookmarks
Twemes - global twitter tags

This is going to be a great series of events.  I can’t wait to see all of you in NYC!

November 2008 Area User Group Meetings

Welcome to November. The leaves are peaking, the Jets and Giants are having decent seasons so far, and the countdown is on to Thanksgiving. I probably sound like a broken record every time I say “it’s an exciting time to be a Microsoft developer,” but I have to be honest - I really mean it.

I just got back from the Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference out in Los Angeles last week. My brain is on overload still trying to digest all of the new technology announcements Microsoft made.  The announcements made at that conference are some of the most exciting ones since .NET was first introduced back around the turn of the century!

Windows Azure, Windows 7, Office Web, Live Services, Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, etc. If you haven’t caught the details on these yet, check out my link posts from the PDC here and here.

Before I get to the user group listing for this month, let me tell you about some other events going on in the tri-state area that you may be interested in:

MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow

Now that these PDC announcements have all been made public, Bill Zack and I are excited to finally be able to talk to all of you about them. We’re going to be giving folks in the tri-state area several opportunities to come out and learn about all of the new technologies.  First up, our MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow series kicks off November 10 in Stamford, CT. We’ve got stops in Parsippany, NJ on November 13, and NYC on December 15. Stops are being planned for East Windsor, NJ and Long Island, as well. For more details and registration information, see this post.

MSDN Developer Conference

If you missed the PDC, we’re bringing the best of the PDC to the east coast via the MSDN Developer Conference. The MSDN Developer Conference will be coming to New York on January 20. If you can’t make it to NYC on that date, it’s also visiting the following east coast cities: Boston, Reston, VA, Atlanta, and Orlando. The MSDN Developer Conference is going to be a full-day, three-track event with 12 of the best sessions from the PDC. I’ll have more information about this event here on my blog as it gets closer.  In the meantime, get the details and registration information here.

Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp is Coming!

That’s right. The Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp is coming to Stamford, CT on Saturday, November 8. This is your last chance to sign up and register.

Never heard of a code camp before? Code camps are free full-day events that take place on a Saturday. They are like a mini technology conference, usually with multiple tracks, and multiple breakout sessions throughout the day. Code camps are organized for the community by the community. That means that they are completely volunteer-driven events. See the Web site for details on speaking and registration.

Rumors are also brewing that NYC may have its own code camp being planned for early 2009.

NYC Mobile Camp 3 – Saturday, November 15, 2008

Are you into mobile development? iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Nokia? MobileCampNYC3 is coming on November 15. Microsoft is proud to host this open community event in their New York office. MobileCampNYC3 is an open-space event, similar to the BarCamp events that have taken place all over the world. See the Web site for details and registration.

MSDN Event & Long Island .NET User Group – November 6, 2008

MSDN Events is visiting Long Island on November 6 at the Marriott Hotel in Islandia, NY. On the agenda with this series of live events is SQL Server 2008 for Developers, Office Development with VSTO, and Silverlight 2.0 Development. The event is from 1:00 – 5:00 P.M., but you should stick around for the Long Island .NET User Group meeting in the evening. The user group will be meeting from 5:30 P.M. - 8:30 P.M. at the Marriott immediately following the MSDN Event. Visit MSDN Events for details and registration.

Wow! As I said, it’s an exciting time to be a Microsoft developer. Visit the PDC website to catch up on all the new technology announcements, but take advantage of the local events that bring the information to you close to home. This includes your local community user groups! There are over 25 groups in our metro area. These are all free opportunities to come out and network with your peers after work, eat free pizza, and learn about new technologies from experts in the field.

Here’s the user group listing for November 2008:

New Jersey

New York

Connecticut

 Pennsylvania

Delaware

Microsoft PDC 2008 Update - Day 2

Today is day 3 of the PDC in Los Angeles, but I thought I'd give you some highlights from yesterday for those of you that may be following along from home.  The big news on Day 2 was all about Windows 7.  Steven Sinofsky debuted Windows 7 on stage during the morning keynote.  The audience got a chance to see the new UI features, and here lots of new details about the upcoming OS.  Also revealed at the keynote by Scott Guthrie and others was Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET 4.0 Framework.

Here's some link love to some of the big news announcements for you to read:

Windows 7 Coverage:

• Paul Thurrott's coverage
• Gizmodo's coverage with screenshots
• Ed Bott's coverage.  And his screenshots.
• Charlie Owen on Windows Media Center in Windows 7
• Arts Technica - First look at Windows 7 User Interface
• Engadget on Tablet PC features from Windows 7
• Mary Jo Foley - What's coming for Business Users

Office is coming to the web:

• Arts Technica - Microsoft Office Comes to the Browser
• Microsoft to 'webify' Office

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0

• A Lap around VSTS 2010
• Get .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010

Chris Koenig, my colleague from the Dallas area, has a good summary of Day 2 at the PDC on his blog too.

If you want to keep up with the keynotes line by line... (yes, even after the fact), a group of press folks that regularly cover Microsoft have been doing some "group" live-blogging.  Mary Jo Foley, Paul Thurrott, Ed Bott, Long Zheng, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren, Todd Bishop, and Kip Kniskern are all participating.  You can find that link here: Live blogging PDC Keynote Day 2- Windows 7, Live Mesh and more

Microsoft PDC 2008 Update - Day 1

Hello everyone from sunny southern California!  I'm out here with a bunch of my Microsoft peers and others from the local developer community from back east attending the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. As I wake up to sunny skies in the 70s and 80s, I hear that it's actually SNOWING in Jersey?!  How did this happen?! 

Anyway, I wanted to provide you all with an update on some of the big announcements made out here yesterday.  The keynote and breakout sessions were great.  I also had fun hanging out at the Open Space area at PDC.  Looks like there are some good conversations scheduled for the Open Space today! Others have written plenty about the news from PDC, so I'll mostly link out here. In case you missed it:

• Windows Azure announced as Microsoft's "cloud OS"
• Windows Live ID to support Open ID
• "Geneva" Claims Based Access Platform - Wow! CardSpace was just the beginning.  This is the whole standards-based kit & kaboodle that will help bring the next generation of identity management and federated identity home!  This was probably not the biggest announcement at PDC, but it sure captured my excitement.  Read the white papers at the link above to MSDN.
• MS Surface SDK opened - I'm looking for better information on the SDK, but essentially the Surface API is a modified version of WPF! So you can bring your WPF skills to the table. (pun intended. :)
• WCF REST Starter Kit Released on CodePlex
• Netflix offers movies on Mac via Silverlight! - Okay... not from PDC, but still a cool announcement nonetheless.

Stay tuned for more updates from PDC later this week!

Lots of NY/NJ/CT area developer events still to go in October!

October is in full swing right now.  The leaves are changing colors, and I’m even starting to hear the first of the annoying leaf blowers blow.  There’s so much going on, I thought I’d provide a little mid-month update to my regular monthly user group posting. 

The countdown to the Microsoft PDC is on!   Only 5 days left until Microsoft pulls back the curtain to unveil the details of its cloud services platform, the new Windows 7, and the .NET 4.0 Framework!   I’m leaving for LA this Saturday and I can’t wait.  If you’re not able to make it, follow the news at www.microsoftpdc.com.  All of the announcements, and likely the keynotes will be posted online.

Most of us have our own various sources of information on how we keep up with all the tech news coming out of Redmond. My blog keeps you in touch with what’s going on in the local Microsoft developer community, but you also might want to check out the MSDN Flash Newsletter.  The MSDN Flash Newsletter is a bi-weekly newsletter with all the news from Redmond. However, my colleague Bill Zack and I recently started adding our own local flavor to it! 

That’s right, if you get the MSDN Flash newsletter and have your location set to New Jersey, New York, or Southern Connecticut, you will see an update from us in each newsletter.  For more information on how you can subscribe to the MSDN Flash Newsletter, OR to customize your existing subscription to the tri-state area, MSDN Flash Newsletter site on MSDN.

Speaking of the tri-state area, there’s a LOT going on around our area!  Congratulations goes out to Jess Chadwick of Infragistics for recently receiving the Microsoft MVP award!  Jess has been an active member of the local .NET developer community and is the leader of the Central Jersey .NET user group which meets at Infragistic’s office in East Windsor, NJ.  Jess also was one of the main contributors at the ASP.NET MVC Fire Starter event in NYC earlier this year.

MSDN Events visited Stamford, CT on October 2^nd.  There are two more stops coming up on this quarter’s tour: November 5th in Waterbury, CT and November 6th in Islandia, NY (Long Island).  On the agenda with this series of live events is SQL Server 2008 for Developers, Office Development with VSTO, and Silverlight 2.0 Development.  Visit www.msdnevents.com for details and registration.

On October 4^th, the NJ SQL user group hosted a Business Intelligence event at the Microsoft offices in Iselin, NJ.  Over 65 folks came together for a great learning experience courtesy of speakers Mark Kromer and Kevin Goff.  Thanks to both Mark & Kevin, as well as Melissa “SQL Diva” Demsak for organizing this fantastic free event.  You can see more details about the event, as well as links to the content here.

If you missed the Silverlight 2 Fire Starter in NYC in September, the content has now been posted here.  Planning is currently underway for future Fire Starter events in our area.

Finally, don’t forget about your local community user groups!  There are over 25 groups in our metro area!  These are all free opportunities to come out and mingle with your peers after work, eat free pizza, and learn about new technologies from experts in the field.  Like all of the other events I’ve mentioned, I keep a monthly listing of who’s speaking on which topics at all of the area user groups up on my blog. 

There are still several groups that have meetings left this month, including:

• NYC .NET Meetup (10/21) – open panel discussion
• NYC Alt.NET (10/22) – Project Management Techniques (Agile, XP, Scrum, Lean, etc)
• NYC SQL (10/23) – SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Enhancements
• NYC VSTS (10/28) – Source Control Management – Leo Vildosola, InCycle Software
• NYC IASA group (10/28) - The International Association of Software Architects (IASA) meeting will focus on Software as a Service, Software + Services and Microsoft Cloud Services.  It will be presented by Keith Pijanowski, Microsoft Platform Strategy Advisor and Bill Zack, Microsoft Architect Evangelist. For further information see http://www.iasahome.org/web/newyork .  To register for the meeting contact wzack@microsoft.com.

NOTE: The IASA meeting was previously scheduled for October 21^st, but was moved to the 28^th due to scheduling conflicts. 

And if you’ve missed some of my most recent back to back posts, don’t forget about some of the great events coming up next month in November:

• Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp – 11/8
• MobileCampNYC3 – 11/15
• MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow series

Wow!  That’s a LOT of stuff going on locally! If you have an event going on in the local community and want a shout out, you can always contact me through the E-Mail link at the top of the page to let me know.

Mobile Camp NYC 3 – November 15th, 2008

Is that a rocket in your pocket?  Or just a powerful new mobile computing device?  I can’t believe all of the new mobile devices coming out.  Competition surely is fierce. It’s hard to believe these pocket rockets have more computing power than the full fledged desktop computers of just 10 years ago!  It’s such an exciting scene to be following…  and that’s just as a USER.  If you’re a developer, there’s so much to take in.

Are you in to mobile development?  iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android, Nokia?  MobileCampNYC3 is coming on November 15^th.  Microsoft is proud to host this open community event in their New York office.  MobileCampNYC3 is an open-space event, similar to the BarCamp events that have taken place all over the world.  For details and registration, see the website at: http://barcamp.org/MobileCampNYC3

From the MobileCampNYC3 website:

What is a MobileCamp?

A BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. Check out the TheRulesOfBarCamp to learn what to expect.

A MobileCamp is a mobile technology themed BarCamp. Its aim is to bring together mobile enthusiasts, explorers and professionals to share the current state and their visions for the future direction of mobility. Topics may include - but are not limited to - mobile gaming, entrepreneurship, social mobility and presence, near field communication, physical hyperlinking, mobile storytelling, the importance of open standards, protocols, and platforms, linux based devices, and mobility on other continents.

Microsoft - New York City Office Location

When

Saturday, 15th of November, 9:15am - 6:00pm Eastern Time
Free after event drinks will be sponsored by Skyhook Wireless at a yet-to-be-decided bar nearby.

Where

Microsoft
1290 Ave of the Americas, Floor #6
New York, NY 10104
*On arrival, please check in with the front desk (photo ID required)

Schedule (tentative)

Below is a general schedule for the day. During the actual event, the day will be broken down into at least 4 tracks (rooms) for people to host a session/talk.  A track specific schedule will be availible at the event.

Participate

Sign Up To Attend MobileCampNYC3!

Interested in attending Mobile Camp? Please register via the form on the MobileCampNYC3 website. Space is limited so sign up early!

Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp 2 – Registration Now Open!

To our south, October 11^th was the Philly.NET Code Camp down in Fort Washington, Pa.  Over 400 people turned out for what was a great learning event with over 50 different technology sessions on various topics!  Never heard of a code camp before?  Code Camps are free full day events that take place on a Saturday.  They are like a mini technology conference, usually with multiple tracks, and multiple breakout sessions throughout the day. 

Code camps are organized “for the community by the community”.  What does that mean?  It means they are completely volunteer driven events!  Who can speak at a code camp?  Anyone!  (That means YOU!)  It’s been a while since we’ve had a code camp in the tri-state area.  However, that’s about to change! 

The Fairfield/Westchester .NET user group is hosting its second Code Camp on Saturday, November 8^th!  Last month, I announced the “call for speakers” at the code camp.  The speaker list is just about filled and Mark, Leo, Louis, and Robert are hashing out the final schedule. In fact, I’m hearing rumors that there may even be some competition for the slots!  Now it’s time to register for the Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp!!!

Register Here

Here are the latest details on the code camp from the organizers…

Things are wild out there: a war, market turmoil, a heated election, a questionable job market, etc.  Fight the urge to curl up in bed at home.  Take control.  Make plans to attend the 2nd annual Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp on Saturday, November 8^th, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, to network and learn!

There are a lot of exciting Microsoft technologies either hitting the market or maturing.  Silverlight 2, SQL Server 2008, the new Cloud Services, IIS 7, MVC, etc.

Help us make this a success.  Email five people you know, about the event, right now.  Step up and give a presentation, by submitting a topic to Speakers@FWCodeCamp.net.  But no matter what, register now by going to https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=132314.  Seating is limited, and food will be served, so reserve your space today!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be providing you with some featured speakers and prizes.  This week:

Bill Zack, author, architect, moderator of the NYC .NET Developer Group, Developer Evangelist (the list goes on and on), will be back from the PDC where there will be a slew of new announcements regarding some important Microsoft initiatives.  Bill will be giving us the down low on a big one: Cloud Services. Microsoft is going head to head with Amazon and Google in a technology that will change the Internet.

Infragistics will be donating 3 licenses for their NetAdvantage for .NET product, valued at $1,195 each.  It’s a comprehensive toolset of UI components for rapidly building and styling commercial class, high performance application interfaces for ASP.NET, Windows Forms, WPF and Silverlight line of business, by providing grids, charts, gauges, ribbon, toolbars, menus, listbars, trees, tabs, explorer bars, editors, UI and more!

Register for the code camp now, to hear Bill speak about the latest from Microsoft, and give yourself a chance to win a license from a company with a sterling reputation for creating great .NET tools for developers.

Thank you for your help.

If you have any questions, you can email us all at Info@FairfieldWestchester.net, or individually at:

• Leo@FairfieldWestchester.net
• Mark@FairfieldWestchester.net
• Louis@FairfieldWestchester.net
• Rob@FairfieldWestchester.net

Leo, Mark, Louis, and Rob
Co-Chairs, Fairfield / Westchester Code Camp

See the F/W Code Camp website for details on session schedule and registration: http://fwcodecamp.net  

Rumors are also brewing that NYC may have its own code camp being planned for early 2009!

Announcing the MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow