Monthly Archives: May 2011

Impromptu Ann Arbor area meetup Wednesday with Java/Scala luminaries

Dick Wall (Java Posse, Locus Development), and Bill Venners (ScalaTest, Artima), and Bruce Eckel (MindView Inc.) are in Ann Arbor this week for Escalate Software Scala training. If you’re interested in joining us for an evening meetup, stop by Cafe Habana after about 7 pm on Wednesday, May 25. Cafe Habana is at 211 E. Washington, Ann Arbor, MI. There’s no agenda; this is just a social event.

Flex User Group to Tackle Building Flex/Air Apps for Custom Electronics

The Flex User Group meets in Lansing tonight, May 19, 2011. The topic of tonight’s meeting is building Flex and AIR applications for custom electronics, like Arduino. Here’s the summary that has me intrigued, from their mailing list:

“We will be going through basic electronic concepts, hooking up an Ardunio Microcontroller to a computer, and interacting with it from a Flex application.  We will be working with LEDs, push buttons, gas sensors, etc. to make a an application that you can not only control with a mouse, but can also interact with physically.”

Sounds like fun. Note that the summer meeting location is different from previous months. They will be meeting at 7 pm at 1345 Engineering on Michigan State’s campus. The room is the northwest-most room in the Engineering Building complex.

Free parking is available a block south in the Communication Arts and Sciences parking ramp (Ramp 5).

Directions are included below. Enjoy!

From Detroit:

  • Take Interstate 96 towards Lansing. Take exit 106B / US-127 NORTH (labeled DOWNTOWN Lansing) for approximately 2.7 miles to exit 9 / Trowbridge Rd. When on Trowbridge Road, continue EAST onto the campus of MSU. Take Trowbridge Road 0.6 miles to the parking garage on your right. Meters are valid only until 6pm. The Engineering Building is one block north of the parking ramp, on the north/east corner of Wilson and Red Cedar.  Enter the building and go to the north/west corner of the building to find room 1345.  The room is right next to the coffee shop.

From Grand Rapids:

  • Take Interstate 96 towards Lansing. Take exit 95 / I-496 (labeled DOWNTOWN Lansing) for approximately 9 miles to exit 9 / Trowbridge Road.. When on Trowbridge Road, continue EAST onto the campus of MSU. Take Trowbridge Road 0.6 miles to the parking garage on your right. Meters are valid only until 6pm. The Engineering Building is one block north of the parking ramp, on the north/east corner of Wilson and Red Cedar.  Enter the building and go to the north/west corner of the building to find room 1345.  The room is right next to the coffee shop.

The night the geeks invade the museum

For the third year, the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum is opening its doors to area geeks and their families. Billed as a giant Science Fair for adults, Tech Twilight offers companies like SRT Solutions the opportunity to show the fun side of being a geek. We get to let our hair down, so to speak, and build something fun that kids and their parents will enjoy while visiting the museum. The event will be held on Saturday, May 21, from 6-9 pm at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum, 220 E. Ann, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

In addition to the individual sponsor exhibits, the museum offers a scavenger hunt for the kids. Kid-friendly refreshments are provided as well.

This is SRT’s second year as a sponsor of the event, and we’ve been looking forward to it since our inaugural appearance last year. Join us! It’s going to be a fun evening for all.

Learn more and purchase tickets for the event at the Tech Twilight site.

Scala training in Ann Arbor next week

If you haven’t already signed up for Scala training with Bill Venners (author of Programming in Scala and ScalaTest) and Dick Wall (Java Posse, Locus Development, Inc.), don’t delay. The first 3 days (May 23-25) will focus on Applied Fundamentals, what you need to effectively use the language for software development. The last 2 days (May 26-27) will focus on more advanced topics. The 2 “sections” are priced separately, with a discount for taking both. Discounts are also available for large groups. You can register at Escalate’s site.

This is a great opportunity for local software developers to get training from experienced trainers who use the language every day. The momentum behind Scala is growing:

  • Scala 2.9 final (stable build) was released last week.
  • Typesafe, a commercial entity was launched and promises to accelerate commercial adoption.
  • The list of companies using Scala is growing, and includes familiar names such as LinkedIn, Twitter, FourSquare, The Guardian, and Siemens.

I’m looking forward to the training class.  Hope you will join us!