2010-03-01T13:34:44.3630000Z Gloucester .NET User Group http://www.gl-net.org.uk/ Jimmy S admin@gl-net.org.uk http://www.gl-net.org.uk/ /Events/DotNetDevNet_February <h2>Summary</h2><p>A Lap Around Workflow Foundation and What's New In Workflow Foundation 4 with John McLoughlin</p><p>Windows Workflow Foundation is coming of age. It is included in Microsoft technologies beyond just the .NET Framework including notably SharePoint. If you looked at Windows Workflow Foundation when it first came out and found it clunky and awkward now is a good time to take another look.</p> <h2>Abstract</h2> <p><b>A Lap Around Workflow Foundation</b><br /> So you've heard of WF, and seen the pretty pictures.&nbsp; But what's it all about?&nbsp; We'll delve into the misty depths of the Windows Workflow Foundation and answers some of the question plaguing developers minds. What is WF? What's it for?</p> <p><b>What's New In Workflow Foundation 4.0</b><br /> WF 4.0 was announced at PDC 08, and includes some very sexy new features.&nbsp; We'll take a spin through some of the new features and see how WF has evolved.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>I work as a Technical Architect based out of Southampton and have been cutting code for over 10 years. Starting off in the Defence Industry playing with Fast Jets and RADAR, I soon got bored with the leisurely pace of technology change and the rigid development (20 year old technology considered risky!) and moved into the commercial sector. After a quick stab at Java, I moved into the .Net world and have never looked back. I specialise in C#, Winforms and Distributed Systems, with a keen interest in the patterns and practices of Software Development and the technologies we all use. You'll often see me lurking around at various MSDN and Community events.</p> <h2>More details</h2> <p>Event is organised by DotNetDevNet Group from Bristol. For more details visit <a href="http://www.dotnetdevnet.com/">http://www.dotnetdevnet.com</a></p><h2>Location</h2>UWE (University of the West of England), Frenchay, Bristol - Room 2q49 (in Q block) 2009-02-12T14:56:05.5370000 /Events/DotNetDevNet_March <h2>Summary</h2><p>Introduction to Microsoft SQL Data Services with Eric Nelson</p><h2>Abstract</h2> <p>Microsoft&reg; SQL Data Services (SDS) offers highly scalable and Internet-facing distributed database services in the cloud for storing and processing relational queries. SDS can help you develop and provision new applications quickly with REST and SOAP based web protocols. The services are built on robust SQL Server database and Windows Server technologies, providing high availability and security. This session will look at what SDS delivers today, how to take advantage of it in your own applications and what the future may hold.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>After many years of developing on UNIX/RDBMS (and being able to get mortgages) Eric joined Microsoft in 1996 as a Technical Evangelist (and stopped being able to get mortgages due to his new 'unusual job title' in the words of his bank manager). He has spent most of his time working with ISVs to help them architect solutions which make use of the latest Microsoft technologies - from the beta of ASP 1.0 through to ASP.NET, from MTS to WCF/WF and from the beta of SQL Server 6.5 through to SQL Server 2008. Along the way he has met lots of smart and fun developers - and been completely stumped by many of their questions! In July 2008 he switched role from an Application Architect to a Developer Evangelist in the Developer and Platform Group. Currently Eric&rsquo;s interests include digging into LINQ to Entities, ADO.NET Data Services and switching from C# to Visual Basic development. At home, he battles rat infestations, comes second to the family dog and uses any spare moments he has after 10pm to team up and play online with and against friends - keep an eye out for 'erknel' and say 'hi'.</p> <h2>More details</h2> <p>Event is organised by DotNetDevNet Group from Bristol. For more details visit <a href="http://www.dotnetdevnet.com/">http://www.dotnetdevnet.com/</a></p><h2>Location</h2><p>UWE (University of the West of England), Frenchay, Bristol - Room 2q49 (in Q block)</p> 2009-02-12T14:56:21.1930000 /Events/GLnet_February <h2>Summary</h2><p>The GL.net kick start meeting&nbsp;with two exciting sessions: 'What's New In&nbsp;C# 4' by Guy Smith-Ferrier and 'Sockets In Silverlight 2' by Paul Jackson.</p><h2>What's New In C# 4?</h2> <p><b>Abstract:</b> At PDC 2008 Microsoft unveiled C# 4 and all of the new features within. So now we start the roller-coaster of catch up all over again as we desperately struggle to keep up with what's new and why we should be interested in the latest flashy feature. In this session we will look at dynamically typed objects, optional and named parameters, type embedding, type equivalence, loose type coupling and more. In addition if we have time we will look at the &quot;compiler as a service&quot; feature to be released after C# 4.</p> <p><b>Bio:</b> Guy is an MVP in ASP.NET. He is the author of &quot;.NET Internationalization&quot; published by Addison-Wesley (<a href="http://www.dotneti18n.com/">http://www.dotneti18n.com</a>). He is a Microsoft Certified Professional developer, author, trainer and speaker, has spoken at many European and US conferences, is the winner of the NxtGen Best Presentation 2006/2007, has been voted best speaker three times and is an INETA Speaker. He runs The .NET Developer Network (<a href="http://www.dotnetdevnet.com/">http://www.dotnetdevnet.com</a>), a free .NET user group in the South West of England. He is the author of C#/.NET courseware and much of the official Borland courseware including courses on COM and ADO. He has written over 50 articles for numerous magazines, has co-authored an application development book and is the author of the ADO chapter of &quot;Mastering Delphi 6&quot;. You can read his blog at <a href="http://www.guysmithferrier.com.Sockets">http://www.guysmithferrier.com.</a></p> <h2>Sockets In Silverlight 2</h2> <p><b>Abstract:</b> A live coding session building a TCP sockets based Silverlight application, touching on all the aspects required to get the smallest sockets application up and running.</p> <p><b>Bio:</b> Paul is a Principal Technologist at CM Group Ltd., where he creates developer-focused courseware and technical content. Prior to this, Paul has held various development roles over the last 15 years ranging from Software Engineer to Technical Architect. He has extensive development experience using many programming languages and methodologies now specializing in the .NET Framework and XAML based technologies. For more information about Paul please see Paul's blog: <a href="http://compilewith.net">http://compilewith.net</a> or his LinkedIn profile.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Royal George Hotel, Birdlip, GL4 8JH (<a href="http://www.theroyalgeorge-hotel.com">www.theroyalgeorge-hotel.com</a>)</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome<br /> 6:40pm - Presentation 1: What's New In C# 4 by Guy Smith-Ferrier<br /> 7:40pm - Break<br /> 8:00pm - Presentation 2: Sockets In Silverlight 2 by Paul Jackson<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> <h2>Sponsor</h2> <p>The meeting&nbsp;is sponsored by:<br /> <a title="MessageLabs - Now Part of Symantec" target="_blank" href="http://www.messagelabs.com/"><img alt="" src="http://www.gl-net.org.uk/CMSTemplates/GLnet/Images/ml_logo.png" /></a></p> 2009-03-09T09:26:32.5870000 /Events/GLnet_March <h2>Summary</h2><p>This month we will be talking about LINQ with Marc Gravell and WCF security with Chris Seary.</p><h2>Express Yourself</h2> <p><b>Abstract:</b> One of the core concepts that makes LINQ work is the &quot;Expression&quot; class - a versatile API for describing our intent without writing regular methods. In this session we will look at how we can use Expression ourselves, both with LINQ, and to optimize our regular day-to-day code.</p> <p>In particular, we'll look at writing our own LINQ queries by hand (and why we might want to do this), and using Expression as a lightweight compiler, avoiding the pain of Reflection.Emit.</p> <p>We'll also take a quick look at what might be available in .NET 4.0.</p> <p><b>Bio:</b> Marc has spent the last decade working for RM (the UK's largest provider of IT to the education market), writing software on the Microsoft platform, in particular .NET. A keen community contributor via forums (most noticeably of late Stack Overflow), community projects (protobuf-net, HyperDescriptor, MiscUtil [with Jon Skeet]), and user groups (NxtGenUG); Marc was awarded the MVP award (Visual C#) in 2008.</p> <h2>Real World Application Security</h2> <p><b>Abstract:</b> This presentation is based on security audits of a large, enterpise web applications. The applications often had security problems to solve, due to security being left until late in the development process. The talk covers many of the issues of integrating your application into a secure enterprise. A variety of developer tools will be discussed, particularly WCF and SQL Server 2008.</p> <p><b>Bio:</b> Chris is a government security advisor and a UK MVP in Developer Security. He works full time securing applications for government and the financial sector. He writes articles on security, and gives presentations to user groups and academia.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Express By Holiday Inn<br /> GLOUCESTER-SOUTH M5, JCT.12 <br /> TELFORD WAY<br /> GLOUCESTER, GL2 2AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> <h2>Sponsor</h2> <p>The meeting&nbsp;is sponsored by:<br /> <a title="MessageLabs - Now Part of Symantec" target="_blank" href="http://www.messagelabs.com/"><img alt="" src="http://www.gl-net.org.uk/CMSTemplates/GLnet/Images/ml_logo.png" /></a></p> 2009-03-09T09:45:56.4700000 /Events/glnet_april <h2>Summary</h2><p>Sebastien Lambla about agile development going bad and George Adamson with pre-DDD talk about jQuery.</p><h2>When agile goes bad: how to stay calm and move forward</h2> <p><b>Abstract: </b>With applying agile methodologies comes changes in many aspects of delivering software. And with any change will come a time when something fails. How to keep everyone calm? How to provide practical solutions to prevent people from reverting back to non-agile practices at the first roadblock? Through examples gathered from personal experience and the community, we&rsquo;ll explore ways to prevent the boat from sinking at the first spilled glass of water.</p> <p><b>Bio: </b>Sebastien has been a passionate code monkey since his early teens, and has experienced agile first hand, as a developer and as a scrum master, for several years. He&rsquo;s the director of London-based Caffeine IT, a consulting / contracting company, and writes open-source software in his spare time.</p> <h2>Get going with jQuery</h2> <p><b>Abstract: </b>Introduction to the jQuery library and the happiness it can bring. Binding events with unobtrusive javascript; using the css-inspired selector syntax; chaining; visual effects; easy peasy AJAX in just one line; working in harmony with AJAX.Net; Simpler cross-browser, unobtrusive, progressive enhancement with jQuery.</p> <p><b>Bio: </b>The mere mention of jQuery gets George all enthused. He's a contract front-end web developer who's passionate about web dev, usability and js. He has spent many years working on accessible, standards compliant sites with progressive enhancement and unobtrusive javascript. Recent works include sites and web apps for BBC Doctor Who, Nationwide, Waterstones, HMV, and Comet Electricals, with bucketloads of jQuery.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> 2009-05-13T07:40:10.9100000 /Events/glnet_may <h2>Summary</h2><p>Kris Athi with &quot;Introduction to Video Game Development with XNA&quot; and Jimmy Skowronski with &quot;Less Means More With WCF&quot;.</p><h2>Introduction to Video Game Development with XNA</h2> <p><b>Abstract: </b>Video Games are fun. Whether you&rsquo;re playing the latest halo shooter game on the Xbox or just a quick session of good old solitaire these works of art can bring many hours of enjoyment and offer a break from the business of real life.</p> <p>In this session, we&rsquo;ll be exploring the Microsoft game development framework - XNA. This exciting framework aims to democratize game development and make it a fun and enjoyable experience. We will explore what XNA is, what it can do for you and just how simple it can be to create a basic game using the programming skills you already have.</p> <p><b>Bio: </b>Kris Athi is a recent Computer Science graduate and former Microsoft Student Partner. Now working for CM Group, Kris mainly focuses on graphical technologies such as WPF and Silverlight. By night, Kris leads a double life as an avid gamer with a keen interest in video game development.</p> <h2>Less Means More With WCF</h2> <p><b>Abstract: </b>Windows Communication Foundation offers dozens of configuration options which should cover as much various needs as possible. Sometimes however it is better to keep thing simple, especially when we have to ensure interoperability outside .NET world. During the session we will see how to keep WCF simple to ensure that even most weird client will be able to consume our service.</p> <p><b>Bio: </b>Jimmy is the Principal Software Engineer at Symantec SaaS Division in Gloucester. He smoothly moved to .NET 1.1 from Delphi avoiding any contacts with C++ and Visual Basic. After spending a quite few years on web applications he joined MessageLabs and used an opportinity to dive deep into SOA world. Since then Jimmy spends all his time working with web services and SOA architecture and design. As the Principal Software Engineer, Jimmy is now responsible for architecture and delivery of new projects based on web services. He is founder of the Gloucestershire .NET User Group, known as GL.net.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> 2009-07-07T08:04:49.4400000 /Events/glnet_june <h2>Summary</h2><p>Eric Nelson, on Windows Azure and SQL Data Services.</p><h2>Developing and deploying your first Cloud Service with Windows Azure</h2> <p>In this session you will hear about the key problems that cloud computing is solving and an overview of the Microsoft cloud computing initiatives. We will take a tour of the capabilities of the Microsoft cloud platform by building and running a simple service. The sample service highlights some of the features of the platform including service management, storage and an integrated developer experience.</p> <h2>SQL Data Services</h2> <p>SDS enables the storage of relational data in the cloud as part of the Microsoft Azure Services Platform which is expected to go live by the end of 2009. This session will look at the similarities and differences between SDS and traditional on premise relational databases and investigate how to take advantage of SDS in your own applications.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>After many years of developing on UNIX/RDBMS (and being able to get mortgages) Eric joined Microsoft in 1996 as a Technical Evangelist (and stopped being able to get mortgages due to his new 'unusual job title' in the words of his bank manager). He has spent most of his time working with ISVs to help them architect solutions which make use of the latest Microsoft technologies - from the beta of ASP 1.0 through to ASP.NET, from MTS to WCF/WF and from the beta of SQL Server 6.5 through to SQL Server 2008. Along the way he has met lots of smart and fun developers - and been completely stumped by many of their questions! In July 2008 he switched role from an Application Architect to a Developer Evangelist in the Developer and Platform Group. Currently Eric&rsquo;s interests include digging into LINQ to Entities, ADO.NET Data Services and switching from C# to Visual Basic development. At home, he battles rat infestations, comes second to the family dog and uses any spare moments he has after 10pm to team up and play online with and against friends - keep an eye out for 'erknel' and say 'hi'.</p> <p><a href="http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/Default.aspx">http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/Default.aspx</a></p> <p><a href="http://twitter.com/ericnel">http://twitter.com/ericnel</a></p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> 2009-07-07T08:04:57.0630000 /Events/july <h2>Summary</h2><p>The fight between MVC and WebForms. Phil Winstanley will stand ground defending old crap against attack launched by Gavin Osborn with forces of new MVC rubbish. Phil seems to be on lost position but the force is still&nbsp;strong in him.</p><h2>ASP.Net MVC Explored</h2> <p><b>Abstract: </b>Back at MIX '09 Phil Haack and team released ASP.Net MVC - A framework that offers an alternative to Web Forms for developing ASP.Net web applications.<br /> Gavin Osborn introduces you to the MVC pattern and then dives into the code to show you how you can take advantage of ASP.Net MVC and the benefits it can bring to your projects. Opinions on ASP.Net MVC are divided in the developer community - why not pop along and join the debate!</p> <p><b>Bio: </b>Gavin has spent his entire career working on the Microsoft web technology stack. Starting out in the days of classic ASP he quickly moved onto Microsoft's new ASP.Net platform and C#. Gavin joined Dot Net Solutions 2 years ago and since then has been predominantly focusing on ASP.Net, Silverlight, MOSS and recently Windows Azure. Over the last year Gavin has helped to lead the Vista Squad User Group [http://vistasquad.co.uk] and is active in the UK developer community taking part in events such as Microsoft UK Challenge [http://ukchallenge,co.uk].</p> <h2>ASP.NET - WebForms are the Future, ignore this MVC rubbish</h2> <p><b>Abstract: </b>There has been much hype recently about MVC, frankly, it's a load of rubbish. WebForms are fantastic and they do the job just as well as MVC, in some way much better! In this Session we'll explore getting the best from WebForms and ASP.NET in general following best practices built up over many years experience of using them. If you're confused by the whole MVC vs WebForms argument come along to this session and join the debate - it should be rather heated!</p> <p><b>Bio: </b>Phil Winstanley provides solutions to situations which have complex technical requirements involving data manipulation. His expertise is internationally acclaimed and he is prominent in the network of specialists in this field, being a member of the Microsoft MVP programme since 2002 and a member of the ASP Insiders since its inception.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> <h2>Chose The Side</h2> <p>Two great speakers will be trying to convince you to their case. Whis side are you? Please go <a href="meeting6_form.aspx">here</a> and fill this simple form. Much appreciated.</p> <p>You will have to log in to access the form.</p> 2009-08-04T05:28:38.2800000 /Events/august <h2>Summary</h2><p>Workflow Foundation 4 with John McLoughlin</p><h2>Abstract</h2> <p>WF 4.0 was announced at PDC 08 and now the Visual Studio 2010 Beta has arrived! We'll take a spin through some of the new features including rehosting the new WPF based designer and theming Activities with WPF, and see how WF has evolved.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>I work as a Technical Consultant based out of Southampton and have been cutting code for over 10 years. Starting off in the Defence Industry playing with Fast Jets and RADAR, I soon got bored with the leisurely pace of technology change and the rigid development (20 year old technology considered risky!) and moved into the commercial sector. After a quick stab at Java, I moved into the .Net world and have never looked back. I specialise in C#, Winforms and Distributed Systems, with a keen interest in the patterns and practices of Software Development and the technologies we all use. You'll often see me lurking around at various MSDN and Community events.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part&nbsp;2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2009-08-03T04:29:06.3400000 /Events/september09 <h2>Summary</h2><p>Refactoring, design patterns and development practices. That and more will happen on this meeting with Gary Short, an excellent developer and truly amazing speaker. Come along if you want to know everything about refactoring and see how to apply design patterns in the real-world solutions.</p><h2>Refactoring &ndash; Everything you Wanted to Know but were Afraid to Ask?</h2> <p>Refactoring is a skill all modern developers need. We will take a deep dive into refactoring; starting with defining &quot;technical debt&quot; and how that problem is solved by refactoring, before going on to look at common refactoring tasks. We&rsquo;ll finish by looking at how tooling can help us with these tasks and examining some more advanced &quot;refactoring to patterns&quot; topics.</p> <h2>My Favourite Design Patterns</h2> <p>To achieve the best solution to a design problem requires expert knowledge. Expert knowledge takes time, collaboration and dedication to acquire.<br /> This session will enable you to leave having gleaned some of that expert knowledge from the speaker's 18 years in the software industry. We will define the term &quot;design pattern&quot;, explore its method of application, and we will work through some real-world and pan-industry examples that you can expect to encounter during the software development process.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>Gary Short works for Developer Express as the Technical Evangelist on the frameworks team. He has a deep interest in technical architecture, especially in the areas of technical debt and refactoring. Gary is a C# MVP and gives presentations at user groups and conferences throughout the UK.<br /> As well as C#, Gary also has an interest in dynamic languages such as Smalltalk, Ruby and Python as well as iPhone development using Objective-C.<br /> Check out Gary's blog <a target="_blank" href="http://garyshortblog.wordpress.com/">here</a>.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins<br /> 6:40pm - Main Presentation 1<br /> 7:30pm - Break<br /> 7:40pm - Main Presentation 2<br /> 8:30pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2009-09-04T08:18:55.6830000 /Events/october09 <h2>Summary</h2><p>The October belongs to Richard Costall and Silverlight 3. Richard know technology and knows how to talk about it so be assured, this will be a great evening.</p><h2>Abstract</h2> <p>Released in July 2009, Silverlight 3 is packed full of features, helping RIA developers in Styling, Graphics, Animations, Media and much more. In this session Richard will go through these, and other features, in a demo packed show sure to have a wow factor!</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>Richard Costall (MVP, MCSD.NET) has over 22 years development experience and works for 1st Software, a Microsoft Gold Partner, and the UK's leading software solution for Financial Adviser and Intermediaries, designing and implementing IFA applications in the financial services sector. Previously specializing in VB, XML/XSLT, COM, ASP and MSMQ, Richard now lives and breathes the awesome world of .Net and in particular ASP.NET and Silverlight 3.0. Richard spent 5 1/2 years as the Midlands regional coordinator for VBUG (Visual Basic User Group) before co-founding NxtGenUG, the innovative UK user group for Microsoft Technologies.</p> <p>Richard has written articles for publications such as PCPlus, ASP.NET Pro and International Developer Magazines and also co-authered the Apress title Professional MSMQ. He speaks a local user groups, Microsoft Conferences/Product launches, TechED Europe and the hugely successful DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper Events.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park, Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2009-08-03T10:36:01.8300000 /Events/november09 <h2>Summary</h2><p>The MVC guru, Steven Sanderson, is coming to Gloucester to talk about .... yes, ASP.NET MVC.</p><h2>Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC</h2> <p>Microsoft's new MVC-based web development framework has got the .NET world excited - but what's it like to use? What's wrong with classic ASP.NET, and how does MVC do better or worse?<br /> In this session we build a small application, comparing the development experience with classic ASP.NET. See MVC architecture, clean URLs, domain-driven design (DDD), tight HTML, and simple ajax at work. We'll also make use of the new features coming soon in ASP.NET MVC v2, including strongly-typed UI templating and model validation.</p> <h2>Attacking and Defending an ASP.NET MVC Website</h2> <p>If you're developing for the web, you can't afford to ignore security. In this session we'll consider the attack vectors that apply to all web development platforms - not only ASP.NET MVC - including cross-site request forgery (CSRF), cross-site scripting (XSS), click hijacking, and several others. <br /> After demonstrating each attack in operation, we'll see how to secure our ASP.NET MVC application against it. Plus, we'll consider one or two common security pitfalls that are specific to ASP.NET MVC itself.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>Steven Sanderson is an independent software developer living and working in Bristol, UK. He's sometimes an author or a presenter, but is mainly a programmer with interests in web development, security, and agile principles and practises.<br /> Steve recently wrote Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework (Apress), the best selling and top rated ASP.NET MVC book on Amazon. He's a member of ASPInsiders, and regularly blogs and releases open-source code at http://blog.stevensanderson.com/</p> <h2>&nbsp;</h2> <h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>Location</h2><p><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: rgb(0,0,0); word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11px" class="Apple-style-span">Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park, Gloucester, GL3 4AB</span></span></p><h2>Agenda</h2><p><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: rgb(0,0,0); word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11px" class="Apple-style-span">6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</span></span></p> 2009-10-08T12:23:43.2200000 /Events/april10 <h2>Summary</h2><p>At the beginning was Zermatt, then it evolved into Geneva only to get its final shape az Windows Identity Foundation. Long waiting for many, framework that is going to chnage the world. Well, maybe not that but it's cool and Yossi Dahan&nbsp;will be talking about it.</p><h2>Abstract</h2> <p>In July 2009, Microsoft announced it will shortly be releasing it's &quot;Windows Identity Foundation&quot;, formerly known as the Geneva Framework, formerly known as &quot;Zermatt&quot;. This statement alone demonstrates the problem of identity on the web - different names in different contexts to the same thing; which is the right one? who do you trust? SAML1.1, SAML2, WS-Trust and WS-Federation are some of the most prevailing standards when it comes to identity on the network, but they were not easy to implement. Yossi Dahan will show what it takes to implement federated identity solution based on the Windows Identity Foundation.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>Focusing almost exclusively on business process management and integration solutions, and most specifically on ones using Microsoft&rsquo;s BizTalk Sever, Yossi Dahan has gained extensive experience in these fields by continuously providing high-quality services around the architecture, design and development of BPM and EAI solution as well as providing consultancy services, architecture/code reviews, tutoring and mentoring services.<br /> Working in software development since 1995, holding several positions - from junior developer to leading development teams in Israel and the UK Yossi has had the chance to take part in numerous successful IT projects - from small, local, projects to large-scale projects on a national level. <br /> Since June 2005 Yossi has been managing Sabra Limited - a UK based company that provides consultancy, design and architecture services to IT projects with significant business processes and/or integration challenges. <br /> More recently, in addition to his involvement with Sabra, Yossi was appointed as PNMsoft UK&rsquo;s Technical Director for EAI &ndash; PNMsoft is a specialist company focusing on Business Process Management and human workflow solutions with clients all over globe; In his role as technical director for EAI Yossi oversees PNMsoft&rsquo;s UK activities in these fields in the UK and Europe</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park, Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2010-02-28T10:47:03.6900000 /Events/december09 <h2>Summary</h2><p>This meeting has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.</p><br /><h2>Location</h2><br /><h2>Agenda</h2><br /> 2009-12-09T03:42:31.1200000 /Events/january10 <h2>Summary</h2><p>File -&gt; New -&gt; WPF Application, An Introduction to WPF (Featuring Shell Integration) by Paul Jackson.</p><h2>Abstract</h2> <p>A practical introduction to developing Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications by using .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010, with an emphasis on the code. In this session we will look at how to build WPF applications by looking at some of the latest patterns and best practices as well as using some of the new shell features available now in Windows 7, including Jump Lists; as well as some features originally introduced with Windows Vista, such as Aero Glass and Task Dialogs. You will see all the actual code you need to write in your applications, whilst keeping a keen eye on the latest design patterns and WPF best practices.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>Paul is a Principal Technologist at CM Group Ltd., where he creates developer-focused courseware and technical content. Prior to this, Paul has held various development roles over the last 15 years ranging from Software Engineer to Technical Architect. He has extensive development experience using many programming languages and methodologies now specializing in the .NET Framework and XAML based technologies. For more information about Paul please see Paul's blog: <a href="http://compilewith.net">http://compilewith.net</a> or his LinkedIn profile.</p> <p><a href="http://compilewith.net/2010/01/glnet-wpf-talk.html">Here</a> is the blog post with book references and presentation slides. The second part of Pauls talk will be in March.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park, Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2010-02-02T06:18:00.5130000 /Events/february2010 <h2>Summary</h2><p>Hyper-V for developers with Liam Westley</p><h2>Abstract</h2> <p>For those new to virtualisation we'll provide an overview of virtualisation and the desktop products currently available for developers. Then we'll explain the differences between those products and Hyper-V and examine the two products for running Hyper-V; Hyper-V Server (free) and Windows Server 2008 (semi-free). Finally we'll demonstrate automation of Hyper-V using the PowerShell library available on CodePlex so that you can automate your testing and integrate Hyper-V in your continuous integration server.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>Liam runs his own company Tiger Computer Services, has created graphics for the BBC Sky At Night, worked on three general elections for Sky News, launched the GMTV web site, created the first interactive television chat system in the UK, and ran the development team behind the software that enabled orange coloured Dutch presenters to sell orange towels on the first live shopping channel in the Netherlands</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park, Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2010-01-14T03:12:17.2000000 /Events/birthday10 <h2>Summary</h2><p>The group started a year ago, on 25th February 2009. To celebrate the group's first birthday we will meet to eat, drink and talk&nbsp;at the&nbsp;T.G.I. Friday's&nbsp;in Cheltenham.<b><br /> </b></p><p>The plan is simple, eat, drink and talk. Some of the last year speakers will visit us again and there will be some attractions too. I'm sure this will be a great evening.</p> <p>We will meet at the&nbsp;T.G.I. Friday's in Cheltenham&nbsp;on Wednesday, 24th of February at 6.30pm.</p> <p>Please send me an email if you want to attend. The deadline for booking is Friday, 15th of February. This is essential to make a reservation.<b><br /> </b></p><h2>Location</h2><p>T.G.I. Friday's in Cheltenham, 374 Gloucester Road</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>Eat, drink and talk from 6.30pm till we will be thrown out of the place.</p> 2010-02-22T03:58:46.3470000 /Events/march10 <h2>Summary</h2><p>File -&gt; New -&gt; WPF Application, An Introduction to WPF Part 2by Paul Jackson.&nbsp;This is the second part of amazing Paul's talk. If you've seen the first one you know you don't want to miss it.</p><h2>Abstract</h2> <p>A practical introduction to developing Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications by using .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010, with an emphasis on the code. In this session we will look at how to build WPF applications by looking at some of the latest patterns and best practices as well as using some of the new shell features available now in Windows 7, including Jump Lists; as well as some features originally introduced with Windows Vista, such as Aero Glass and Task Dialogs. You will see all the actual code you need to write in your applications, whilst keeping a keen eye on the latest design patterns and WPF best practices.</p> <h2>Bio</h2> <p>Paul is a Principal Technologist at CM Group Ltd., where he creates developer-focused courseware and technical content. Prior to this, Paul has held various development roles over the last 15 years ranging from Software Engineer to Technical Architect. He has extensive development experience using many programming languages and methodologies now specializing in the .NET Framework and XAML based technologies. For more information about Paul please see Paul's blog: <a href="http://compilewith.net">http://compilewith.net</a> or his LinkedIn profile.</p> <p><a href="http://compilewith.net/2010/01/glnet-wpf-talk.html">Here</a> is the blog post with book references and presentation slides. The second part of Pauls talk will be in March.</p><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park, Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2010-02-18T08:51:16.3670000 /Events/may10 <h2>Summary</h2><p>Eric Nelson with his last ever Entity Framework in .NET 4 session. If you haven't seen it this is your last chance. Don't miss it!</p><h2><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "> <h2>Abstract</h2> <p>This presentation offers an in-depth discussion demonstrating the new capabilities of the Entity Framework that will ship with Visual Studio 2010. The second release of the Entity Framework focuses on addressing two primary customer scenarios: Domain-Centric application development (TDD/DDD) and the traditional Data-Centric Web application &quot;Forms over Data&quot;. This is an in-depth feature overview covering: N-Tier, T4 Templates, POCO, FKs, Mapping, Metadata, etc..</p> <h2 style="color: rgb(216, 132, 0); font-size: 1em; width: 696px; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">Bio</h2> <p>After many years of developing on UNIX/RDBMS (and being able to get mortgages) Eric joined Microsoft in 1996 as a Technical Evangelist (and stopped being able to get mortgages due to his new 'unusual job title' in the words of his bank manager). He has spent most of his time working with ISVs to help them architect solutions which make use of the latest Microsoft technologies - from the beta of ASP 1.0 through to ASP.NET, from MTS to WCF/WF and from the beta of SQL Server 6.5 through to SQL Server 2008. Along the way he has met lots of smart and fun developers - and been completely stumped by many of their questions! In July 2008 he switched role from an Application Architect to a Developer Evangelist in the Developer and Platform Group. Currently Eric&rsquo;s interests include digging into LINQ to Entities, ADO.NET Data Services and switching from C# to Visual Basic development. At home, he battles rat infestations, comes second to the family dog and uses any spare moments he has after 10pm to team up and play online with and against friends - keep an eye out for 'erknel' and say 'hi'.</p> </span></h2><h2>Location</h2><p>Symantec/MessageLabs<br /> 1240 Lansdowne Court<br /> Gloucester Business Park, Gloucester, GL3 4AB</p><h2>Agenda</h2><p>6:00pm - Doors Open<br /> 6:30pm - Meeting Begins: Welcome and Grok Talk<br /> 7:00pm - Main Presentation - Part 1<br /> 7:50pm - Break<br /> 8:10pm - Main Presentation - Part 2<br /> 9:00pm - Presentation Ends. Retire to bar.</p> 2010-03-01T08:34:44.3630000