Chicago Code Camp 2014 is coming on April 26!

Chicago Code Camp 2014 is coming again on April 26 at College of Lake County. This is the 6th CCC. Find all the details on the website:

http://www.chicagocodecamp.com

I've found this to be a magical event in the past - 200 developers enjoying an all day, free event, on Saturday (usually no work conflict), with 30 diverse sessions from volunteer speakers... Makes you love our profession!

Chicago Code Camp 2012

This Saturday, we had another successful Chicago Code Camp at the CLC campus. About 400 signed up, and we estimate about 180-200 showed up based on sign-in logs. It was a "free" event thanks to our dozen sponsors and 30+ speakers. The courtyard was filled with impromptu developer discussions. Our morning registration and lunch lines flew  with almost no wait time. All around it was a wonderful event. I'm always honored to be a part of such an event.

Presenting at SDC on Build Servers and Metrics

UPDATE: Download PowerPoint Here

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I'll be presenting at the Software Development Community (SDC) on Sunday, April 1st on Build Servers and Metrics. The SDC meets in Oakbrook.

http://www.meetup.com/SoftDev/events/43412322/

ALM tooling: Empowering teams with build servers and metrics
Everyone knows that automated builds are a good thing, but many teams don't leverage them fully because it's hard to get started. Tim will go over practical techniques and concepts for automating builds with TFS and MSbuild. Once you have an automated build, there are dozens of steps you can hook into it, such as metrics. Tim will walk through several core metrics, including line count, code churn, duplication, complexity, and test code coverage, as well as the concepts and pitfalls for adopting these within a team.

Chicago Code Camp is coming May 19

The fourth Chicago Code Camp is coming to CLC on May 19:

http://www.chicagocodecamp.com/

You can register here:

http://chicagocodecamp2012.eventbrite.com

Chicago Code Camp is a free, one day conference on Saturday May 19th, for developers of all skill levels and interests with multiple sessions running side-by-side throughout the day.

31 User Groups in the Midwest

Clark Sell did a great series on the various user groups in the Midwest. He provided a helpful recap here:

http://csell.net/2011/12/31/31-days-of-community-my-recap/

Here's the link for our Lake County .Net Users Group (LCNUG).

There's over a dozen groups in Illinois alone.  There's something for everyone. Given the benefits of such groups (meeting dedicated peers face to face, hearing from expert presenters, etc…), check it out.

Presentation: An Introduction to Practical Unit Testing

I had the opportunity to speak at the LCNUG yesterday about one of my favorite topics - unit testing.

DOWNLOAD: PowerPoint and code samples

For convenience, here are some of the links from the PowerPoint:

Database "Unit Testing"

·         http://massdatahandler.codeplex.com

·         http://dotnet.sys-con.com/node/315042

IOC

·         http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ListOfNETDependencyInjectionContainersIOC.aspx

·         http://timross.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/creating-a-simple-ioc-container/

Upcoming talk: July 14 - An introduction to practical unit testing

[UPDATE] - slides at: http://www.timstall.com/2011/07/presentation-introduction-to-practical.html

I'll be presenting at the Lake County .Net Users Group this Thursday, July 14, on An Introduction to Practical Unit Testing.

Unit testing is one of those buzzwords that every developer hears about, but relatively few projects actually do in a way that adds value. Many developers view unit tests as some "tax" imposed by management. This session will show how to start using unit tests to add immediate value, as well as dispel several common myths and abuses of unit testing. It will explain how unit tests fit with other types of automated tests (integration, functional, UI, performance), as well as how unit tests are but one technique in a developers' tool belt to craft better code.

This is intended as a basic 101-level session.

Chicago Code Camp 2011 success

I was thrilled to participate in the 2011 Chicago Code Camp. We had about 300 people show up on Saturday to CLC, with 35 speakers, many volunteers, and a full day of learning and networking. Thanks to a dozen sponsors, the event was free to the public. This is the third year we've had a CCC, and it keeps getting better.

It really is a privilege to be part of such a community.

Chicago Code Camp 2011 is coming in May!

The Chicago Code Camp (CCC) returns on Saturday, May 14, 2011. This has been very successful in the past (2010, 2009).
I think the 10 reasons to attend the 2009 CCC still apply, including the great content, and it's free.
Check out the CCC site: http://www.chicagocodecamp.com/

Chicago Code Camp this Saturday

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/chicago_code_camp_this_saturday.htm]

This Saturday is the 2010 Chicago Code Camp (Last year's rocked!) For those who have a passion for coding, this is the event for you!

 

LCNUG - Visual Programming Language with Robotics Studio

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/lcnug__visual_programming_language_with_robotics_studio.htm]

Last night, Lance Larson, president of the Madison .NET User Group, presented at LCNUG on Visual Programming Language (VPL) with Robotics Studio. It was an active presentation - he even had robots moving around the room!

Two things that really got my attention:

• VPL applies to more than just robots. Many businesses continually hit the problem "how can I have a non-technical person still get technical things done?" For example, they'd like a business analyst program a workflow or rules engine without needing to actually code. Many workflow-related products provide some kind of drag & drop interface (like making a flowchart in Visio) to effectively write a program, but such an interface is difficult to build. It gets especially complicated when you have variables, conditions, looping, etc... Microsoft's VPL is powerful, and I wonder if it will be reused for their workflow products too.
• Being surrounded by software, it's refreshing to see the hardware part of engineering - like physical robots that follow programming instructions.

Thanks Lance!

LCNUG - Sept 24 - C# 4.0

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/lcnug__sept_24__c_40.htm]

Mike Stall (MSFT) will present on the new features in C# 4.0, including named and optional parameters, dynamic support, scripting, office interop and No-PIA (Primary-Interop-Assemblies) support.

This is a great event for those interested in C# 4.0.

Chicago Code Camp - reflections

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/chicago_code_camp__reflections.htm]

This weekend the LCNUG and Alt.Net groups hosted a very successful Chicago Code Camp at the College of Lake County in IL. We had about 150 people, 30 speakers, and a lot of knowledge transfer. I was privileged to be part of the group that helped facilitate it. We're in the process of trying to put speaker ppts and code samples up on the website.

Some misc reflections:

How did we make that massively awesome code camp website? We maintained it in ASP.Net, used xml files for the abstracts and speaker bios, and then had an automatic tool take screen scrapes of all the generated aspx pages. This saved the results as html files, which could then easily be xcopy-deployed to any FTP server without worrying about a backend data store or server-side support.

Did you have enough volunteers? I think in the end yes. People stepped up at the spur of the moment. I especially was impressed with how easy it was to move tables when you have 150 people. For lunch and cleanup, we needed to transport a lot of tables and boxes, and random people kept jumping in to help. What a great community!

Sounds great, but too bad I missed it. While we hope to get the ppt  slides up soon, also consider checking out the blogs of the speakers. Even if the blog isn't explicitly listed, you can probably find it by googling the speaker name and adding the ".net" or "developer" keyword to the search.

What's next? Stay in touch with the Chicagoland community. Perhaps subscribe to some of the speaker blogs, or visit the LCNUG, ALT.Net, or any of the other user groups.

See also: 10 Reasons to attend the Chicago Code Camp, Sessions up.

10 Reasons to attend the Chicago Code Camp

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/10_reasons_to_attend_the_chicago_code_camp.htm]

The LCNUG and Alt.Net groups are hosting a Chicago Code Camp on Saturday, May 30th, at College of Lake County (CLC) in the Northwest suburbs. If you're a passionate developer looking to grow, this is exactly the kind of event you want to consider.

1. 33 cutting-edge sessions across a wide spectrum of topics and developer communities.
2. Presentations by industry leaders, MVPs, experiences developers, and tech leads.
3. Networks with perhaps 200 local developers, which always results in great discussions with your peers.
4. It's free!
5. Tons of swag.
6. Get to ask face-to-face questions with real experts.
7. A full day of sessions - so don't skip out just because you can only make the morning or afternoon.
8. See what new technologies could add value to your development projects.
9. Lots of hands-on code, not just fluffy power points about ivory tower theories.
10. You will be a better developer for having gone.

We're also looking for volunteers. Consider helping out, it's a great way to get involved.

Chicago Code Camp sessions and agenda are up

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/chicago_code_camp_sessions_and_agenda_are_up.htm]

The Chicago Code Camp (at CLC in Grays Lake, IL), which will be May 30 (Saturday), has the speakers, sessions, and agenda up.

It's all all-star cast, including several MVPs.

• Sessions
• Speakers
• Agenda

There's a huge variety, including TDD everything (even TDD for JavaScript and the iPhone!), UI, backend, many non-.Net platforms, and much more!

Chicago Code Camp website is live

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/chicago_code_camp_website_is_live.htm]

The LCNUG and ALT.Net groups are pleased to present the Chicago Code Camp on May 30th at College of Lake County. We've got the website up, and it will continually add more details there.

So far, we're expecting a broad range of talks from many different speakers.

As a reminder, this is a free event.

(Previous: First code camp announcement)

Silverlight Tour in Chicago

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/silverlight_tour_in_chicago.htm]

For those interested in Silverlight, there is a Silverlight tour that will be offering classes in Chicago. You can find more details at: http://silverlight-tour.com/. I'm told that this is the first training that is teaching Silverlight 3. While this is not a free event, it may be well worth the cost if you're a Silverlight fan.

Hat tip from Shawn Wildermuth.

Chicago Code Camp on Saturday, May 30th

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/chicago_code_camp_on_saturday_may_30th.htm]

"The ChicagoAlt.Net group and Lake County .Net UG would like to officially announce the Chicago Code Camp which is slated to come to College of Lake County on May 30th..." (hat tip: http://devlicio.us/blogs/derik_whittaker/archive/2009/03/05/chicago-code-camp-coming-may-30th.aspx)

LCNUG: CodeSmith

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/lcnug_codesmith.htm]

We had our 9th LCNUG meeting yesterday. Dan Souk of Centric Consulting presented on CodeSmith, a topic near and dear to my heart:

• Using CodeSmith to create your own Domain-Specific-Language
• Code Generation templates act as your Documentation
• CodeSmith CodeGeneration: Super XSLT
• CodeSmith: Beyond Just Generation - Doing Simple Data Analysis
• Codesmith: Code Generation v. Refactoring
• Batch code generation with CodeSmith Console

Almost 20 people showed up, including several new folks. It's exciting to see the LCNUG continually grow.

LCNUG: NHibernate

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/lcnug_nhibernate.htm]

Yesterday, Robert Dusek and Hudson Akridge of GFX presented on NHibernate, which is a powerful way to persist data. The meeting was a big success - we had our largest turnout - about 20 people. There was a lot of good dialogue both before and after the presentation. We also announced the progress on the new LCNUG website, including our flourishing job board (6 jobs from 3 different companies so far).