Thursday, May 15, 2008
WPF Beyond the Basics: Playing Tricks with the Visual Tree

Subject: 
You must register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=126267 in order to be admitted to the building and attend.
The Visual tree is one of the core concepts of the WPF framework. All things visible in a WPF application are objects from the Visual tree. In this talk I'll give a quick overview of the Visual Tree and then get into interesting ways of manipulating it. We will also look into the styling and templating aspects of visuals. The ideas presented here should be immediately useful to custom-control developers and application developers in general. The session will be very hands-on with cool demos and live coding! The techniques discussed here were used in my blog posts on ElementFlow, GlassWindow, Drag 'n' Drop with attached properties, Genie Effect, etc.

Speaker: 
Pavan Podila
Pavan Podila has worked on a wide variety of UI technologies with current focus on WPF/Silverlight, Flash/Flex and DHTML. He has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Computer Science with specialization in Graphics and Image Processing. He has been working with .Net since 2004 and WPF since 2005. In the past he has worked with Java Swing, Eclipse plugins, AJAX UI frameworks and Trolltech Qt. His primary interests are in 2D/3D Graphics, Data Visualization, UI architecture and computational art. He blogs actively on http://blog.pixelingene.com.

Date: 
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Time: 
Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM

Location:  
Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor

Directions:
B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr
1 to 50th St./Bway
N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Thursday, April 17, 2008
2008 Community Launch: Show Me The Data

Subject: 

You must register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=126827 in order to be admitted to the building and attend.
With the release of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 comes a dizzying array of facilities for storing, querying and presenting data. Between new features in ADO.NET’s core; LINQ; The Entity Framework; new ASP.NET Data source and data bound controls; and the new data binding models in WPF and Silverlight 2, there are now so many new data features, that it presents a bit of a crisis. How are you supposed to learn all of these new technologies, much less continue to use the older ones with mastery? The answer is to understand each of these data access and data binding technologies in the context of the others. Many common concepts exist between these models and many of them can be combined. If you learn the generalities, you'll be able to master the specifics that interest you.
With that in mind, this session will start with a quick look at ADO.NET, typed datasets, Windows Forms and ASP.NET (including ASP.NET AJAX) data binding, and the enhancements to them in Visual Studio 2008. We'll then look at LINQ to DataSets, LINQ To SQL, The Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities and see how to use them with the old binding models. We'll finish with a look at WPF, its rich data binding model and how well it translates to Silverlight 2.0.

Speaker:  Andrew J. Brust
Andrew J. Brust is Chief, New Technology at twentysix New York, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in New York City. Andrew is lead author of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Microsoft Press), serves as Microsoft Regional Director for New York and New Jersey, is a Visual Basic MVP and a member of Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Partner Advisory Council. Andrew is a Vice-Chairman of the New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA), a member of INETA’s Speaker Bureau and is a highly rated speaker at conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally. Often quoted in the technology industry press, Andrew has 20 years' experience programming and consulting in the Financial, Public, Small Business and Not-For-Profit sectors. He can be reached at andrew.brust@26ny.com.

Date:  Thursday, April 17, 2008

Time:  Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:30 PM

Location:   Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor

Directions: B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr
1 to 50th St./Bway
N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Swag List:                                                                                                           

• · 5 NFR Launch Kits, including:
• o NFR, legal copy of Windows Server Enterprise 2008 (64-bit and 32-bit)
• o NFR copy VS 2008 Standard Edition
• o SQL 2008 CTP (64-bit and 32-bit)
• o Voucher for eval-only SQL 2008 Standard, redeemable when SQL 2008 is Generally Available
• · 2 NFR copies Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 with Windows Live Services, including 90-day trial of Windows OneCare
• · 3 vouchers for a free 1 yr subscription to TechNet Plus Direct
• · 1 Windows Server 2008 Application Readiness Resource Kit
• · 1 SQL Server 2008 Technical Readiness Kit
• · 1 .NET Framework 3.5 Developer Resource Kit
• · 2 Copies, Virtualization For Dummies
• · MS learning Solutions 40% off Exam Vouchers

Thursday, March 20, 2008

WPF Meets the iPhone User Interface

You must register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=126266 in order to be admitted to the building and attend.

The iPhone is one of the most compelling and exciting user interfaces to appear in recent memory, with many innovations that make it a pleasure to use. How can you deliver a similar experience with your .NET WPF applications? In this session you will see how to implement these features in.NET as you watch the iPhone interface recreated (and running on a Windows laptop) using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology with both Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft’s Expression Blend. You will also learn when it’s best to use VS 2008 or Expression Blend for different WPF tasks.

Speaker: 
Kevin McNeish, President and Chief Software Architect, Oak Leaf Enterprises, Inc
Kevin McNeish is a Microsoft .NET MVP, a well-know INETA speaker and trainer throughout North America and Europe including VSLive!, DevTeach, SDC Netherlands, and Advisor DevCon. He is co-author of the book "Professional UML with Visual Studio .NET", author of the book ".NET for Visual FoxPro Developers", authors articles for CoDe magazine and has been interviewed on the .NET Rocks! Internet Radio Show. He is the Chief Software Architect of the MM .NET Framework and spends about half his time on the road training and mentoring companies to build well-designed, high-performance .NET applications.

Date: 
Thursday, March 20, 2008

Time: 
Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM

Location:  
Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor

Directions:
B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr
1 to 50th St./Bway
N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Microsoft will be hosting a Silverlight 1.0 Firestarter event in New York City this month on Saturday, January 26th!   If you missed the Firestarter event Microsoft hosted in the Philly area last month, this is your chance to make up for it.  This day long event is free to anyone who wants to learn about designing and developing with Microsoft Silverlight 1.0.

Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 is a cross platform browser plug-in that enables for easy development of media rich web sites.  For more information, visit http://silverlight.net.

Mark your calendars now for January 26th.   Registration is now open!

REGISTER HERE

Here is the agenda:

8:30 am – 9:00 am - Breakfast

9:00 am - 10:45 am - Keynote

10:45 am – 11:45 am - Microsoft Expression Design Tools

11:45 am  – 12:45 pm - XAML Essentials for Silverlight

12:45 pm – 1:30 pm - Lunch

1:30 pm  – 2:30 pm - Developer Tools for Silverlight

2:30 pm  – 3:30 pm - Media, Markers and More

3:30 pm – 3:45 pm - Break

3:45 pm  – 4:45 pm - Silverlight and AJAX

4:45 pm  – 5:00 pm - Giveaways

Thursday, January 17, 2008
An introduction to Spring.NET

Subject: 
You must register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=122047 in order to be admitted to the building and attend.
Spring.NET is an open source application framework that can help you more easily implement and design loosely coupled application architectures. Loosely coupled architectures bring to the table important advantages such as resiliency to changing requirements, ease in following agile practices such as test driven development, as well as lowering of maintenance costs. The central artifact in Spring.NET that delivers these benefits is the lightweight container – an object factory responsible for the creation, configuration, decoration and assembly of your application components. Building on this base, Spring.NET also provides solutions for other common infrastructure requirements to help increase productivity as well as promote loose coupling. These include support for Aspect Oriented Programming, ASP.NET development, ADO.NET data access, declarative transaction management, portable service abstractions, and integration testing.
The origins of Spring.NET come from the Java world where the Spring Framework has become the de facto standard for enterprise application development. The core concepts in the Spring Framework extend beyond the Java platform and are applicable to .NET. Inasmuch, Spring.NET combines the Spring Framework’s proven arc

Speaker: 
Mark Pollack, Interface21
Dr. Mark Pollack has worked extensively in the financial sector as an architect and developer on various front office trading systems that involved a mixture of Microsoft and Java technologies. Prior to joining Interface21, he was a founding partner at CodeStreet, LLC, an independent software vendor in the financial services industry. In 1991, Mark received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Stony Brook University before continuing on to earn a Ph.D. in Experimental High-Energy Nuclear Physics from the same university in 1997.

Date: 
Thursday, January 17, 2008

Time: 
Reception 6:15 PM , Program 6:30 PM

Location:  
Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor

Directions:
B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr
1 to 50th St./Bway
N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Thursday, December 20, 2007 An Introduction to Scrum
Subject:	You must register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=122285 in order to be admitted to the building and attend. One of the most popular Agile project management and development methods, Scrum is starting to be adopted at major corporations and on very large projects. After an introduction to the basics of Scrum like: the Scrum Master, team, product owner, and burn down, and of course the daily Scrum, Stephen shows many real world applications of the methodology drawn from his own experience as a Scrum Master. Negotiating with the business, estimation, and team dynamics are all discussed as well as how to use Scrum in small organizations, large enterprise environments, and consulting environments. Stephen will also discuss using Scrum with virtual teams and even an offshoring environment. The session will finish with a large Q&A on best practices.
Speaker:	Stephen Forte, Corzen, Inc. Stephen Forte is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and co-founder of Corzen, Inc, a Manhattan (USA) based provider of online market research data for Wall Street Firms. Corzen was recently acquired by Wanted Technologies (TXV: WAN). Stephen is also the Microsoft Regional Director for the NY Metro region and speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on database development including co-authoring Programming SQL Server 2005 (MS Press). Prior to Corzen, Stephen served as the CTO of Zagat Survey in New York City and also was co-founder and CTO of the New York based software consulting firm The Aurora Development Group.
Date:	Thursday, December 20, 2007
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Thursday, November 15, 2007 Silverlight 101: What, Where and How
Subject:	You must register at http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=120984 in order to be admitted to the building and attend. This session will include an overview of Silverlight – What is it? Where did it come from? and how do I develop for it. Topics will include the current state of Web Development (customer expectations, developer view, designer view), Coding with Silverlight (XAML, C#, JavaScript), Silverlight Development Tools (Expression Product Suites/Visual Studio) as well as some live demos/ and hands on coding. Both versions of Silverlight(1.0 & 1.1) will be covered.
Speaker:	David Isbitski, Industry Platform Team, Microsoft David is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft working on the Industry Platform Team covering both Financial Services and Health/Life Sciences Industries. He has over 12 years total IT experience and has been creating enterprise solutions with Microsoft Products since Visual Basic 5. He enjoys talking about technology and has taught full day courses on various Microsoft topics as well as being a presenter at numerous Microsoft Events including MSDN RoadShows, Code Camps and Remix.
Date:	Thursday, November 15, 2007
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Thursday, October 18, 2007 Using Blend and Visual Studio 2005 to Build Distributed WPF Applications
Subject:	This session will provide an overview of the .NET 3.0 framework with special focus paid to Windows Presentation Foundation. The demos will show the new IDE, user controls, and data binding with tiered architecture to demonstrate WPF as a rich user interface technology for developers using Visual Studio or Blend.
Speaker:	Asli Bilgin, Microsoft Platform Strategy team Asli Bilgin is an industry recognized speaker on the latest advancements with Microsoft technologies. She currently serves on Microsoft’s Platform Strategy team for Financial Services. In this role, she advises the leading banking and capital market companies on the best practices for technology strategies. Asli is a well-respected speaker at international technology conferences, and serves as a contributing editor to various technical publications. She recently worked with CNET to host the video series: “At The Whiteboard” – an overview into Microsoft’s latest developer tools including Visual Studio, Visual Studio Team System, and Internet Information Server 7.0. She’s also created and hosted DVD box sets for training series sets covering Visual Studio and ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX with Total Training. Her book “Mastering Database Programming With Visual Basic.NET," (Sybex) has been translated into six languages and serves as the curriculum for college and post-graduate institutions in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, and India.
Date:	Thursday, October 18, 2007
Time:	Reception 6:15 PM , Program 6:30 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Thursday, August 16, 2007 WPF - The Beauty of the Beast
Subject:	You must register at http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=120204 in order to be admitted to the building and attend. The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is the user interface subsystem of the .NET 3.0 Framework. Its architecture requires you to rethink how to design and develop in the presentation layer. In this presentation we will explore the exciting new UI framework, learn what capabilities it has, and examine some tools used in WPF development.
Speaker:	Josh Smith, New York Times (TimesReader Team) Josh Smith has been developing desktop applications in C# since the .NET Framework was first released. He was awarded the Microsoft MVP and CodeProject MVP titles in 2007 for his work in the WPF community. Josh has been a WPF fanatic since it was in pre-beta, and has helped share his enthusiasm for WPF with others via CodeProject articles and blog posts. He worked for a couple of years at Infragistics, as a developer in their Windows Forms Development Lab. During that time he became deeply interested in user interface technologies and design. After that he had a brief stint as a software consultant in the financial services industry, but found that it did not tickle his fancy. He did, however, have the rare opportunity to create a WPF application for the Elite Model Management agency, which was shown in a video at the Microsoft Windows Vista launch events. Josh is currently working for the New York Times on their fantastic Times Reader application, which uses WPF for the presentation layer. You can visit his WPF blog at http://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com
Date:	Thursday, August 16, 2007
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Thursday, July 19, 2007 Distributed Caching: Essential Lessons
Subject:	In this presentation, we will cover application development considerations for maximum scalable performance and reliability in clustered .NET environments. This presentation focuses on improving scalability and scalable performance of applications through the use of clustered caching and data grids to reliably share live data among clustered application nodes, providing transparent fail-over as a key element of uninterrupted operation and reduced load on the database tier as a key element of scalability. We will also discuss how you can simply improve performance and scalability of the existing ASP.NET applications by storing session state in a data grid. The presentation will focus on: Caching Topologies: the limitations, trade-offs and benefits Cache aside, read/write through and write behind architectures, where and when to use Use cases and a topology quiz Scaling ASP.NET web applications The 12 essential lessons
Speaker:	Aleksandar Seovic, Managing Director, Solutions for Human Capital, Inc. Aleksandar Seovic is a Managing Director at Solutions for Human Capital, Inc. – a software development company specializing in enterprise document and content management. He has lead development effort on a number of engagements for Fortune 500 corporations, mostly in pharmaceutical and financial services industries, and has worked in the architect role on both .NET and J2EE projects. Most recently, Aleks took part in the design and implementation of Oracle Coherence for .NET, a client library that allows applications written in any .NET language to access data and services provided by Oracle Coherence data grid. Aleks is also a co-lead for Spring.NET, an open source framework for enterprise application development, and a lead developer for Web, AOP and Services modules of the framework. Aleks can be reached at aleks@s4hc.com.
Date:	Thursday, July 19, 2007
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Office 2007 Open XML Format
Subject:	You must register at http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=118567 in order to be admitted to the building and attend. Open XML is the default document format for the upcoming Office 2007 system. This presentation explores the motivation and design consideration of the new format. It also analyzes the architecture and the conceptual framework of Open XML. This new format opens doors to a huge number of opportunities for developers regardless the development tool or targeted platform. Package API from the new .NET Framework 3.0 is used as an example to demonstrate how to programmatically read/write Open XML documents without resorting to Microsoft Office COM API.
Speaker:	Dr. Hai Ning, Senior Software Architect, Tallán Inc Hai Ning has over 10 years of software development experience, with MCST(BizTalk & SQL2005), MCSD.NET, MCDBA and SCJP certifications. Dr. Ning graduated from MIT with a PhD in Information Technology. His blog can be found at http://www.hyperbina.com/blog. Hai's firm, Tallán (http://www.tallan.com), is a Hartford-based Microsoft Certified Gold Partner.
Date:	Thursday, May 17, 2007
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

Please join Robert Holmes and select other presenters at an all day event on Saturday, February 24th, from 8:30 to 6:00 PM presenting all aspects of the new SharePoint products, WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. The main focus will be on the new aspects of the product line, however we will start with an introduction to Team Services (WSS), and work up from there, and our goal is for anyone present for the whole day will leave with the knowledge of what is possible with the product, and the ability to sit down and get started on a new implementation of a SharePoint solution, or extend an existing one. You can review the schedule to see what specific areas are of interest to you, or else spend the whole day and learn all there is to learn. You can find the code and slides here: http://www.sharepointguy.com/SharePointCodeCamp07/default.aspx. You can see the content only site, no registration, at: http://www.sharepointguy.com/SharePointCodeCamp07/default.aspx.

CodeCamp is here!

Code Camps are "grass roots" mini application platform developer conferences, free of charge to attendees and open to presenters of all stripes and experience.

Get ready for another Code Camp NYC, to be held at Microsoft's offices in Midtown Manhattan (1290 Avenue of the Americas between 51st/52nd Streets) on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 from 9am - 6pm. This is an all-day event with refreshments served, including a developer's "power lunch" (pizza and soda).

This event is being supported by Microsoft but driven by the community: user group activists, developer "influentials", and enthusiastic volunteers.

Register today.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 Amazon Web Services Presentation: Web-Scale Computing
Subject:	What's possible in a post Web 2.0 world? Innovation continues at a mind-bending pace, and this presentation by Mike Culver from Amazon Web Services will showcase some thought-provoking new directions that Web Services are headed in. The presentation will provide an overview of Amazon Web Services, including a Web Service named Mechanical Turk that allows computers to make requests of people, an online storage service, and more. You’ll also see a C# coding demo that enables you to understand what’s involved when you want to consume one of these services. Amazon spent ten years and over $2 billion developing a world-class technology and content platform that powers Amazon web sites for millions of customers every day. Most people think “Amazon.com" when they hear the word; however developers are excited to learn that there is a separate technology arm of the company, known as Amazon Web Services or AWS. Using AWS, developers can build software applications leveraging the same robust, scalable, and reliable technology that powers Amazon's retail business. AWS has now launched ten services with open APIs for developers to build applications, with the result that over 200,000 developers have registered on Amazon's developer site to create applications based on these services.
Speaker:	Mike Culver, Amazon Web Services Mike Culver joined Amazon Web Services after many years at Microsoft, where he managed a team of developer evangelists who helped launch the .NET Framework. At Amazon, Mike is focused on developer-to-developer engagements and how Web services can be used in new and innovative ways. When not up to his eyeballs in code and technology, Mike can be found at the airport flying his 1947 Luscombe taildragger. In fact, he runs a flying website about General Aviation (www.PopularAviation.com).
Date:	Thursday, February 15, 2007
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

The Call for Speakers for NYC Code Camp II (March 3rd) is here.

No registration up for about 2 more weeks. Stay tuned.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

SQL Server Express for the .NET Developer

Subject:   This presentation, recently presented at VSLive, will get you up and running with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, the latest free version of SQL Server available to use and redistribute with your database applications. Learn how you can leverage features available specifically in the Express edition. We’ll compare Express with the other SQL Server 2005 editions, and describe scenarios that Express is particularly well-suited for. Find out how to handle the configuration of new SQL Server 2005 features, such as CLR integration, in the context of new features available only in Express, such as user instances. Explore features such as dynamic database attachment, security, advanced services and more.

Speaker:   Leonard Lobel, twentysix New York

Leonard Lobel is a Senior Consultant with twentysix New York, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in New York City. Programming since 1979, his experience spans a variety of business domains, including publishing and retail store management. Lenni has served as chief architect and senior developer for various organizations, ranging from small shops to high-profile clients. He is also a consultant and trainer, and has been a contributing editor to Visual Studio Magazine. Lenni is also the lead developer of six of Microsft's Starter Kits and Sample Applications for SQL Server Express Edition.

Date:   Thursday, November 16, 2006  

Time:   Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM  

Location:    Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor 

Directions:  B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr

1 to 50th St./Bway

N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

I will be speaking at the NY Metro SQL Server Users Group on Thursday at 6pm on XQuery in SQL Server. Hope to see you all there.

Topic:	Using XQuery to Retrieve and Manipulate XML Data with SQL Server 2005
Speaker:	Stephen Forte, Microsoft Regional Director
Date:	6:00 PM on October 26, 2006
Place:	Microsoft Office in Manhattan
	The Axa Financial Building
	1290 6th Avenue, NY, NY

Due to new security guidelines at the building, you will have an easier time getting in if you confirm your attendance via email to joelax@dbdirections.com. Otherwise you'll have to wait till someone comes downstairs to sign you in. Also remember to have a photo id with you.

Blogs, Web Services and general interoperability have proliferated the use of XML in recent years. With all of that XML out there, there needs to be an easy way to incorporate XML data with SQL Server relational data.

This session will look at how to use XQuery to retrieve and manipulate XML data inside the database. We'll start with a look at the new XML datatype in SQL Server 2005, then the ability to validate with XML Schema (XSD) and then creating XML indexes for use with XQuery statements. After a brief look at the W3C XQuery specification we quickly move to SQL Server’s implementation of XQuery 1.0. We'll incorporate XQuery in SELECT and WHERE clauses to retrieve information as well as see how to manipulate XML data with XQuery DML.

Pizza and refreshment will be served at the meeting, and there will be a drawing for several giveaways.   

Our next meeting is Thursday. Because of security you now have to register for this free event! Register here.

Thursday, October 19, 2006 CAB and the Smart Client Software Factory
Subject:	Microsoft Pattern & Practices Team’s Composite UI Application Block (CAB) and Smart Client Software Factory (SCSF) ease the development of modular, extensible, and maintainable smart clients. Starting with a general, theoretical overview of smart clients, we’ll quickly move into a deep examination of CAB centered on working code. We’ll dig into the anatomy of CAB/SCSF, uncovering some key design patterns used in the toolset: Model-View-Presenter, Publish-Subscribe, and Dependency Injection. Throughout the talk we’ll share best practices and consider design decisions for achieving modularity and extensibility in your own smart clients with the CAB/SCSF tools and guidance. By the end of the tour, those new to CAB should find their learning curves greatly reduced. Intermediate-to-advanced CAB hackers will take away some hard fought tips-toward and tricks-to taking their composite smart clients and plug-in architectures to the next level.
Speaker:	David Laribee, President, Xclaim Software David Laribee is President of Xclaim Software, an ISV offering document, claim, and policy management software for the commercial property and casualty insurance industry. He has 10+ years experience designing, developing, and architecting enterprise applications with Microsoft technologies. David has worked with the .NET Framework since the zero-day in internal IT, product development, and rapid prototyping contexts across a wide variety of industries. He writes about agile practices, software architecture, and the business of software on his blog at http://laribee.com/.
Date:	Thursday, October 19, 2006
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:30 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.

 

Client/Server, N-Tier and SOA: Today and Tomorrow

Join Rocky and Steve in a discussion about the present and future of Microsoft's client/server communication technologies, including Remoting and WCF. Learn whether client/server and n-tier will be replaced by SOA, or whether these architectures can co-exist. Find out how these technologies and concepts apply to you as you build web, Windows client/server and occasionally connected Windows smart client applications. You'll learn about today's options, tomorrow's options and how you can help position yourself to move forward over time.

Speaker: Rockford Lhotka, Magenic Technologies & Steve Lasker, Microsoft Corporation

Rockford Lhotka is the author of the Expert VB 2005 Business Objects and Expert C# 2005 Business Objects books from Apress. He is a contributing author for Visual Studio Magazine and he speaks at major conferences around the world. Rockford is the Principal Technology Evangelist for Magenic Technologies, one of the nation's premiere Microsoft Gold Certified Partners.

Steve Lasker is a Program Manager for Visual Studio at Microsoft. He is responsible for many of the data design time features in Visual Studio. Steve’s team owns the Typed DataSet designer, Data Wizards and the new Data Sources window. His background in broadcast engineering, e-commerce startups, and consulting has taken him through the cycles of client, browser, CE; and with .NET, returned to client-based apps that leverage the Internet as the transport.

Date: Monday, September 11, 2006

Time: Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM

Location: Brooklyn Marriott , 333 Adams Street, Brooklyn , Room/Floor TBD Directions: A/C/F to Jay Street/Borough Hall R to Lawrence Street/MetroTech 2/3/4/5 to Borough Hall