Category Archives: Events

Presenting the Scala Koans with Bruce Eckel in Detroit

I was thrilled when David McKinnon of the Detroit Java User Group invited me to present the Scala Koans in Detroit on May 31. The timing worked out perfectly for Bruce Eckel to be in town, so I asked him to join me. Bruce and I are working on an introductory Scala book together, and the Koans are a great way to learn Scala as well. The koans are self-paced exercises. You can do them from home, but in our experience in presenting them at StrangeLoop, CodeMash, and 1DevDay, the group atmosphere offers an additional facet for learning. Other participants ask questions and contribute ideas, providing a unique experience at each event.

Join us on the 5th floor of the newly renovated Madison Building, 1555 Broadway, in Detroit on May 31 from 9 am – 4 pm (lunch provided).

You can register at http://detroitscala.eventbrite.com/. Early bird pricing is in effect until April 30 and regular registration runs through May 25. Hope to see you there!

 

Ann Arbor .NET group: Kinect with your Computer

Ben Barefield will present “Be the input — Kinect with your Computer” on Wednesday, March 14 at the Ann Arbor .NET Developer Group meeting. The meeting is free and open to the public. Pizza will be provided (please donate to help cover the cost for the food). The meeting starts at 6 pm, and is held at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. The building is at the corner of Fifth Ave and Washington, entrance is from Fifth. Take the elevator (or the stairs) to the 2nd floor.

Agile Groupies at SRT (next week)

Once upon a time (last week), the Agile Groupies thought that they were going to be able to do 2 meetings in 2 weeks, both at SRT’s offices. One meeting would be held on Tuesday, March 13 and the second would be held on Tuesday, March 20.

Unfortunately, the speaker for this week had to postpone his talk (I’m sure it will be re-scheduled) but you can still meet with the Agile Groupies this month. Next Tuesday, Lyudmila Mishra and Anil Varre will be talking about Continuous Delivery. Join the Agile Groupies at 6 pm for dinner (pitch in for food). The meeting will be held at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

SRT Solutions is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington in downtown Ann Arbor, and access is from Fifth. Take the elevator (or the stairs) to the 2nd floor.  The closest parking structure is at Fourth and William garage, convenient if you can’t find street parking.

Lotsa mobile this week in Ann Arbor

The Ann Arbor Computer Society holds its September meeting on Wednesday, September 7. Ann Marie Manzitti will be presenting, “2D Gaming on Android – An introduction to libgdx”. The meeting will be held at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Avenue, Suite 200 in downtown Ann Arbor (at the corner of Fifth Ave and Washington). It starts at 6 pm, and is free and open to the public.

If iPad development is more your thing, go to the Thursday September 8 meeting of the Ann Arbor CocoaHeads, where Chris Adamson will speak on CoreMIDI. CoreMIDI implements the MIDI signaling protocol for virtual and physical musical instruments, and integrates with Core Audio. See what happens when we connect a Rock Band 3 keyboard, a MIDI cable, and an iPad with the Camera Connection Kit. The meeting will be held at SRT Solutions (see address above). Free pizza (compliments of Arbor Moon Software) at 6:30, with the main meeting starting at 7.

Scala Koans Workshop at Strange Loop Conference in St. Louis in September

Wow, that’s a lot of S’s.

Join Daniel Hinojosa, Joel Neely, and I for Scala Koans at the Strange Loop conference in St. Louis on September 18. The Scala Koans, inspired by the Ruby Koans, were previously presented at CodeMash 2011 and the Java Posse Roundup 2011. We solicited feedback at both of these events, and we’re adding to them, incorporating some of your suggestions as well.

I’m excited to be attending Strange Loop.  Alex Miller has done a great job, starting it in 2009 and growing it every year since. My friend and co-presenter for the Scala Koans, Joel Neely, attended last year and had high praise for the conference. I’ve already signed for another workshop in the afternoon of September 18, and I’m looking forward to seeing the full schedule!

Programming Summer Camp in Colorado, July 25-29

I went to summer camp orientation over the weekend for my elementary school aged children. I muttered to my husband afterward that I thought that the camp should organize a week for the parents. Sailing, swimming, lacrosse, soccer, archery … what’s not to like?

And then, I was reminded that I am going to camp this year too. Programming Summer Camp. A camp for grown-ups! It’s in Crested Butte, CO (which is in the mountains of Colorado and gorgeous!). Like my kids’ camp, it’s a day camp. Without family commitments, most of the folks will have some time in the evenings to hang out as well. In conferences that I have attended previously in Crested Butte, the attendees tend to hang out from early morning til late night, going back to their hotels or B&B’s or shared houses only to sleep.

The camp is set up to support “campsites” proposed by participants. I’m going to be involved with one of the 3 tents at the Scala campsite. Attendees are free to propose campsites of their own or join one that has already formed. (Note that we’re not talking about real “tents” here; this is not a rustic summer camp … it’s held indoors). The price ($200) was set super low, to cover costs only, with profit going to charitable organizations. Your travel to Crested Butte and lodging will be the majority of your expense.

While we’ll be working on programming topics during the days and into the evening, what is summer camp without some time for the great outdoors.  Mountain biking and hiking are amazing in the mountains during the summer, and groups will surely form. In fact, there’s time built into the conference for such activities. I’m looking forward to biking the legendary 401 trail, often described as the best trail in CO:  “At the top there are spectacular views, to the east you can see the Maroon Bells. From here, the scenery can’t be beat… start the narrow singletrack downhill through fields of wildflowers and aspen groves. There are about two more steady climbs after the long downhill back to your car, take your time and enjoy the views!”

I biked part of it once before, and I’m looking forward to tackling it once more. Without the thunderstorm this time!

Sometimes folks worry that events like this might be low on the learning, high on the play factor. I’ll counter that. I’ve been to many conferences and I have never learned more than at these interactive events. Yes, people head off to go hiking and mountain biking, but when they’re in the learning part, they’re truly engaged (and energized). It’s a great experience.

And so yes, the “parents” get to go to camp too. To register, sign the release form and it will take you to the registration. Yes, every self-respecting camp should have a release form!

See you in Colorado!

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!