Category Archives: Technology

AACS meeting tonight: still on

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.
 

Mike Cohn on Transitioning to Agile

Barry Hawkins attended a talk given by Mike Cohn at Agile Atlanta.  Barry's summary is on his blog, and well worth a read.  The topic was transitioning to agile.  This was one of the questions that was given a lot of air time recently at CodeMash, where Barry was on the Wednesday night panel.  I especially liked the characterizations of the Patterns of Agile Adoption.

I always enjoy talking to Barry (and reading his blog). I've learned a lot from him in the 2 years since we first met at Bruce Eckel's Programming the New Web conference in Crested Butte, CO.

Attracting a younger crowd to user group meetings

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 at AACS on Wednesday

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.

 

Snow day: lightning talks canceled

We're canceling lightning talks for today.  The roads weren't too bad coming in, but I did get stuck trying to go up a hill (had to back down).

Working at a coffee shop this morning, I really appreciate having an office.  The light was dim, the chairs were uncomfortable, and the internet wasn't working (OK, so the MAIN problem is that the internet wasn't working).  I headed off to the library, where I knew I couldn't use my cell phone but I could at least send email, only to find that they don't open until noon on Fridays.  D'oh.  I had forgotten that.  So I slowly drove to the office and will leave early this afternoon, since sleet is in the forecast as well.
 

We'll see all of you in two weeks.

 

Installing Scala plugin for Eclipse 3.3

I don't recall having a problem installing the Scala plugin on my old (Windows) laptop, but I got a new one and started migrating things over this week.  In order to get the Scala plugin to install, I had to install the Eclipse plugin development environment. I was happy to have found this blog post, which explained what to do to get around the error ("org.eclipse.pde.runtime is missing").  So I guess I must have either had 3.2 installed on that machine (it's been upgraded to 3.3 now), or I had a more complete install. All's well now, whew!
 

Lightning Talks tomorrow 2/1/08 … weather permitting

The weather forecast is for lots of snow, but if the forecast is wrong, then we'll have lightning talks.

Nate (our intern) is planning to talk about what he's learned about Google checkout.  I had him doing a research project for event registration.  He coded up a PHP script to manage it, and checked in the code.  I can't wait to hear his talk.

Chris is planning to talk about a project he did using XNA.

I don't know who else will be there, but I'll continue with another segment on Scala.  Bill will certainly do something.

Lightning talks are free and open to the public.  So if the weather is decent, we'll go from 3-5 pm.  See you there.

 

C# Jam early bird deadline is tomorrow …

Bruce Eckel has put together another Jam event for the Ann Arbor area.  This one is on C#, and will feature authors Jamie King (who is co-authoring a book with Bruce on C#) and Bill Wagner (who is working on "More Effective C#" as a follow-on to his previous 2 C# books). 

Here's "What is a Jam" from Bruce's registration page:

 

A software jam is a lab-based workshop experience, where you can:

  • Decide if you want to work on your own projects or work on the supplied programming exercises.

  • Work alone or in a group.

  • Set your own pace, so that you can "go deep" in areas that are important to you.

  • Get guidance from an instructor, as needed.

Although the format is different than what you may be used to, we've found that people seem to learn a lot more than they do in traditional seminars.

I have to agree.  I've attended several Jam events and found them to be great learning experiences.  Bruce is going to come if attendance warrants an assistant.  Jamie and Bill are the experts (but, of course, Bruce is no slouch either).

If you're planning to attend, sign up by tomorrow or miss the early bird deadline.  http://www.mindviewinc.com/Conferences/CSharp3Jam/Index.php

 

Bruce Eckel blogs about CodeMash …

Bruce Eckel blogged about CodeMash and the reward of community-based conferences.   I'm glad that he and many others have reported a positive experience at CodeMash.  It really does make all of the work in organizing such an event seem more worthwhile.  I have to admit that about a month before the event, it's easy to sit back and think, "Sheesh! Maybe we should have some professionals do this instead!".  But, when it comes down to it, I think that developers know what other developers want to see in a conference and if we strive for that, the conference will continue to be successful.  As Bruce pointed out, for CodeMash, it's not about making a profit.  In fact, having the added stress of HAVING to make a profit would be unthinkable.  Heck, we're stressed just trying to make sure that we don't lose our shirts and we're thrilled that the community has embraced the conference!  And, it's a conference that *I* want to attend, and the people that I know want to attend. So yeah, it's worth it.

Coincidentally, just today I ran across a post on the Java Posse google group from a Posse listener who missed CodeMash and was hoping that there was another event coming up with the same talks and same speakers.  I'm sorry (and pleased, at the same time!) to say, "Nope!  It's a one of a kind event."  He promises that we'll see him at CodeMash in '09.  Cool.