The Cleveland Sharepoint Users Group will be meeting this Wednesday, August 27th, at the Cleveland Microsoft Office at 4pm-6:30pm. Bill English, an author and educator focused on SharePoint technologies, will be speaking on "Findability and Taxonomies: Notes from the Field". For more information, check out their website at: http://www.sharepointcleveland.com/.

Also on Wednesday, Corey Haines announced a geek dinner with Chris Woodruff, one of our fellow Tweeps (people from Twitter), starting at
6pm at Great Lakes Brewing Company. All are welcome to attend!

While checking out the GCPCUG C#/VB.NET SIG site, I found out that this month's meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday, August 28th at 6:30-8:30pm. That's right -- it is moved to this Thursday and will not be on Tuesday. Joe Fiorini will be presenting on MVC (Model View Controller). Unfortunately, I am unable to make it since I have other plans I cannot break, but I highly recommend checking this group's meetings out if you have time. They meet up at the Sogeti Auditorium (lower level at Beacon Place) for the meeting, and they typically go out to The Winking Lizard after the meeting. For more information and to reserve your spot, check out their site.

If you happen to know any other Cleveland tech events that you want me to blog about, please drop me an email at sarah at codinggeekette dot com with the event information and I'll include it here.

Labels: Chris Woodruff, Cleveland tech events, Corey Haines, Joe Fiorini, Microsoft, Sharepoint, Sogeti

Over the past year, I've met some people who have been encouraged me into giving presentations and getting involved with the community. The more I talk with them and hang out with them, the more I want to really get back into presenting. Although I've been staying involved with the community the past few months, I haven't been pushing to speak. But now I'm ready to really get back into it.

Cross-Platform? Why?

My presentation roots were started in the Linux community. I co-presented on SAMBA/SWAT - the networking protocol and its web administration tool - at the Toledo Area Linux Users Group. A month or so later, I was part of a team that presented our Java-based coffee vending machine at OOPSLA in Denver. We wrote it in a Windows environment since that was all we had at the time, but Java apps are fairly cross-platform. My last formal presentation at that time was on Squeak, a variation of Smalltalk, running on my Linux box at the time.

But you're a Windows dev...

Just because I develop in one environment doesn't mean that it's the only one I'm familiar with. My Linux days started with Slackware and bounced through a variety of other distros - including Red Hat, Mandrake, Caldera, and Debian. Back in college, I had the joys of working with FreeBSD and OpenBSD. We still have a Linux box at home for one of our file servers - it is running Debian.

My primary operating system nowadays is Windows, but I still follow the Linux world as well.

So where's your next presentation?

I've submitted a talk to Ohio Linux Fest, and I hope to submit talks to Ann Arbor Day of .NET and CodeMash. Also, I was stopped today on my way out of the BA SQL SIG, and there's a chance that I will present for them as well.

Are you going to bring back IronPython?

Yes, I will eventually bring back my IronPython presentation. I need to work on it, and I hope to bring it out for Ann Arbor Day of .NET. After looking at the feedback from Cleveland Day of .NET, some things will change and more content will be added.

So what topics are you presenting on?

In addition to IronPython, I'm working on presentations on social networking for geeks and an overview of a SQL 2008 app that I've been putting together. The geocaching geekette in me looks forward to showing off the SQL 2008 app that I've had planned for awhile.

So stay tuned, as I will update my blog whenever I do find out that I've been accepted to speak at an event.

What: John Stockton, presenting "Consuming Web Services in Silverlight"

Where: Microsoft Office
6050 Oak Tree Blvd
Suite 300
Independence, OH

When: Tuesday, August 12th, 5:45pm-????^*

John has spoken locally at the GCPCUG VB.NET/C# SIG and at Cleveland Day of .NET. He is also co-authoring Silverlight 2 in Action, of which he will be giving a copy away at the meeting. He has accepted an offer with Ascentium in Seattle and will be leaving us, and we are sorry to see such a talented devigner (developer + designer) go. So come out and see John in one of his last Cleveland presentations.

^* The Bennett Adelson SIG meetings are typically scheduled until 7:30pm. But I'm issuing this challenge to my readers who come to these meetings -- come out with us afterwards. And if you have other people who attend these meetings with you, bring them too!

Where: The Winking Lizard, Independence, OH

Even if you don't consume frosty adult beverages, come out for the conversation.

If you need approval from a spouse or other significant other, talk with them now and explain to them that it's going out with a group of geeks, talking about all things geeky and some non-geeky talk too! It's meeting fellow developers in the area, seeing what they're about. It's networking with others, as you never know who you'll be there and who you can meet. From learning new things to maybe getting help with a problem that you are experiencing with your code, you'd be surprised what you could gain from being there.

So August 12th - see you there!

Labels: .NET SIG, John Stockton, Silverlight

Oh the craziness we geeks go through for people and charities that we care about! So James Avery and Mike Eaton are at it again, and hilarities will ensue down at CodeStock. I'm a bit bummed that I can't be there to experience this in person, but I'm looking forward to the pictures.

James made a shirt for Mike to wear during his presentation down there, and many people are donating money that will go to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Mike has all the donating details in his blog post.

The stunts geeks will go through to raise money! Go check it out!

Labels: Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, James Avery, Mike Eaton

CodeMash is looking for speakers for their 2009 conference.

What is CodeMash?

CodeMash is a conference for developers of all platforms to come together and exchange their knowledge, no matter what their choice of language may be. As they say on their site:

CodeMash is all about cross-domain, cross-discipline communication.

The 2009 conference is January 7-9, 2009 and will be held at Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio.

What do people speak on?

Past presentations included...

• Introduction to Scala


• DSLs in Static & Dynamic Languages


• Putting the Fun into Functional with F#


• Introducing Groovy


• Ruby: Testing Mandatory


• Sharepoint Services: My life with "Kate" MOSS 2007


• RESTful Web Services


• Crash, Smash, Kaboom Course in Python

These are just a few of last year's presentations. Check out the 2008 sessions to get an idea of what types of topics are presented at CodeMash.

The 2009 Tracks include...

• Rich Clients


• Web Frameworks


• Dev Processes and Methodologies


• Architecture and Design


• Languages

If you want to present at CodeMash, keep in mind that their deadline for submissions is October 22nd. Whether you're new to presentations or a veteran, they're looking to put together a mix, so submit your presentation details today!

What's this we hear about you and CodeMash?

My buddy Russ has gone to it the past two years, and he's enjoyed it both years. I didn't know about it the first year (as I was still out of the realms of influence then), but I missed this year's CodeMash due to bad timing (and other lame reasons) of my own.

Some of my friends also have gone to CodeMash and constantly remind me that I missed this year's event. So I will be at next year's event, to see just what it is that I've missed.

Labels: CodeMash

What happens when you take a big company with an operating system that many of us complain about and get them together with people who've only heard the complaints and never given the operating system a fair chance? Introducing the "Mojave Experiment"...

Microsoft decided to take people who've never touched Vista and introduce them to their next OS, codenamed "Mojave". What the participants don't know is that "Mojave" is really Vista.

When I heard about the project, I originally thought of the Mac Switch ads. Take ordinary people, get a reaction, and use it as a marketing technique. After seeing the site, I can definitely say that it still conjures up memories of the Switch ads. Although the Mojave participants don't compare to Ellen Feiss, I think the experiment as a whole could be a viable marketing attempt. Will Microsoft run ads to generate traffic to the Mojave site? I think it could give Mojave Vista some good publicity, which it deserves.

The gamer in me approves Vista - my games run nicely on it. The developer in me approves Vista - I've got Visual Studio 2008, SQL 2008 CTP, and Silverlight 2 beta 2 all playing nicely on it. I don't like some features - like I think the User Access Control is a bit annoying. But I've found quirks in all the operating systems I've used - Windows 3.x, Slackware, Red Hat, Debian, Windows 9x, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and now Windows Vista. Some quirks are definitely workable. For as much as I complain about it, though, when I reinstalled the OS on my laptop, I stuck with Vista.

Go check out the Mojave Experiment and see what people who hear our complaints think once they've experienced some of its features firsthand.

Labels: Microsoft, Mojave Experiment

While reading Rhonda Tipton's weekly link post, I came across a link to Chris Woodruff's Call for Twitter Book Review Day.

Have you read any good books lately? Are you currently enjoying one? On this Wednesday, July 30th, make sure to post a review of something you've recently read or are reading to Twitter so that @cwoodruff can see what fellow Tweeps are reading.

Labels: Twitter Book Review Day