I was planning to talk about Scala at the Ann Arbor Java User Group meeting this week, but I'm going to have to cancel. I came down with the flu, and then pneumonia and I'm still coughing too much to be able to do a talk. I'm sure that we will reschedule it for a later date.
If you're in the Ann Arbor area tonight, join locals for an open gathering of Beer and Code. I'm sorry to say that I'm down with the flu and won't be attending, but it looks like fun. Here's the announcement that Winston Tsang sent out:
——————————————————
We're going to have our 1st of what will hopefully become a series of
monthly open gatherings tonight.
So whether you know Java, .NET, Ruby, or just have a sense of
curiosity with all things tech, come and join us at:
Corner Brewery
Tonight – Tuesday
6:30PM-whenever.
Location:
720 Norris Street
Ypsilanti, MI 48198
We're on the corner of Forest and Norris between River and Huron 2
blocks north of Cross Street.
http://neotech.net/ABC/index.php?site=cornerbrewery
Arbor Brewing Company, the sister company to the Corner Brewery, does
not have wi-fi. Neither does Leopold Brothers from what I've seen.
Leopolds is also going away soon (due to rental rate increases).
The Corner Brewery is a great spot. A nice and cozzy open
environment.
A few of us are going to be there to talk, code, etc, including our
remote member from NYC, Dan DeMaggio.
I plan on finishing up the first of my SmgMug apps and catching up
with Dan on all things tech.
Hope to see you there!
-Winston Tsang
The Richard Hale Shaw will present a 1-day MiniCamp on LINQ and C# 3.0 for experienced .NET developers on March 14 from 9 am – 5 pm. This class will be held at SRT Solutions' offices, at 206 S. Fifth Ave, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI.
To attend this course, you should have a minimum of 2 years experience programming C# and the .NET Framework and 1 year programming C# 2.0, or you should have attended the .NET Bootcamp.
Cost of the course:
$350 by February 18 (NOTE: That's Monday!)
$500 by March 7
$600 by March 14, if space is still available
Detailed course information and registration is at http://srtsolutions.com/static/register.php
If you're in town, feel free to show up for lightning talks. Pizza is still expected.
I hope that we're able to rescheule Joe O'Brien for sometime soon. I was really looking forward to his talk.
Joe O'Brien is braving the weather, en route from Columbus up to Ann Arbor for tonight's Ann Arbor Computer Society meeting. Ann Arbor is getting some ice, but evidently the rest of the area seems to be getting snow.
If you're already in Ann Arbor, definitely stop by. I'm, sadly, not going to be able to make it since we got hit pretty hard with snow and ice at my house and I'm pretty much iced in. Having heard Joe speak several times, I'm very disappointed to be missing his talk, and I hope that someone will blog about it!
The meeting is at 6 pm, at 206 S. Fifth, Suite 200, Ann Arbor. AACS provides pizza, free of charge, to all attendees. Meetings are free and open to the public, but only members ($20/year) qualify for door prizes.
The Michigan Python User Group will do some live coding of one or more of the the Code Kata's
from Dave Thomas:
http://codekata.pragprog.com/
The meeting will be held at 206 S. Fifth Ave, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI. It will start around 7 pm.
MichiPUG meetings are free and open to the public.
We had a discussion at the office this afternoon that centered around how to attract a younger group of people to the computer user group meetings. We got several suggestions out of this, but are looking for more ideas.
First of all, WHY do we want to attract a younger crowd? Well, the average age of the groups (Ann Arbor Computer Society, Ann Arbor Dot Net Developer Group, Ann Arbor Java User Group, Michigan Python User Group) is … well … "experienced". We could all benefit from a younger perspective, and the groups could use an infusion of new members. Makes sense to tap the untapped market. Winston Tsang tells me that the Ruby User Group is pretty young, and that's interesting. What are they doing differently, except that it's Ruby? Well, for one thing, the meeting is held on campus. That's interesting, because I initially shyed away from AACS when meetings were held on campus because I thought that it was a student group (it wasn't). I wonder if that would make a difference?
The programming has been pretty "hip" in recent years, and diverse. AADND has been focusing on .NET content, which has left AACS to mainly do "other than .NET". That makes sense.
This month's AACS topic is Domain Specific Languages in Ruby. I think that might attract a younger crowd but I'm not sure. We'll see. Oh yes, and AACS provides free pizza to all attendees, as well.
If you know anyone under the age of 30 that isn't in the habit of attending the user group meetings, can you reach out and explain what they are? Let them know that if they are looking for a job, want to learn more about the industry and/or the Ann Arbor area, or simply want to hang out with other techies for the night, the user groups are a good way to accomplish that. The meeting is at 6 pm.
Hopefully we'll have a big crowd on Wednesday for Joe's talk. And if you can't make it on Wednesday (ahem, or even if you can!), Thursday's MichiPUG (Python user group) meeting will be great as well. The Thursday meeting is at 7 pm.
Both meetings will be at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, Ann Arbor.
Joe O'Brien, of the Columbus Ruby Brigade and EdgeCase, will be in Ann Arbor this week. He's presenting a talk at the Ann Arbor Computer Society – "Domain Specific Languages: Molding Ruby". A summary appears below.
"Ever wondered what all the fuss is about when it comes to DSL's and Ruby? It seems to be all we hear about. This talk will peel away the onion and look at what it is about Ruby that makes it the perfect candidate for creating your own languages. I will show you, through examples, how you can create your own languages without the need for compilers and parsers. We will also cover some real world examples in areas of Banking and Medicine where DSL's have been applied."
Joe spoke at AACS about a year ago, and I was lucky enough to attend. His talks are always interesting. If you can attend, I definitely recommend it.
Location: SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 4810-4
Time: 6:00 pm
Date: Wednesday, February 6
AACS members are free and open to the public. Supporting memberships are available ($20/year), but not required.
We have several free events coming up at SRT.
On Thursday, January 3, at 7 pm is the monthly Michigan Python User Group meeting. Discussions will likely center around a project called Python Underground and I've heard rumors of a discussion of the Rails is a Ghetto blog post by Zed Shaw.
This Friday, January 4, we will hold lightning talks from 3-5. Anyone is welcome to attend (and speak for 10 minute segments). I'll be doing a talk on Scala, a preview of a section of my upcoming CodeMash talk.
On Tuesday, January 15, James Ward (from Adobe) and Bruce Eckel (Java guru) will present "Connecting Java with Flex using Open Source Blaze" for a joint meeting of the Ann Arbor Computer Society/Ann Arbor Java User Group.
And, some for-fee events in the area as well:
CodeMash is, of course, Jan 10-11 (and the evening of the 9th) in Sandusky, OH at the Kalahari Resort and Indoor Water Park. If you are planning to attend, register SOON at $175 for the 2.5 days to avoid the procrastinator fee (of $250).
And the Rich Internet Application Jam will be held at SRT's offices, from January 14-16. Early bird registration goes through January 4, so register before then to save $100 from the $500 fee. Note: the registration fee includes a copy of FlexBuilder.
If you're a CodeMash 07 alum and planning to attend CodeMash v2.0.0.8 Jan 9-11 in Sandusky, OH, I hope you're online today and registering. The alumni discount ($110) expires today.
Regular registration goes through Jan 5 ($175) but then the procrastinator rate of $250 kicks in.
And, the last time I checked (late last week), the Kalahari was "out" of rooms in the CodeMash block, but were still honoring the $88/night (vs. $229) rate. I have no idea how long that will last, or if it's even ongoing.
See you in Sandusky!