Category Archives: Technology

Rich Internet Application Jam at SRT January 14-16

SRT Solutions will be hosting an RIA Jam, with Bruce Eckel, James Ward (Adobe) and Josh Holmes (Microsoft).  This self-paced exploration of rich internet options will give participants the ability to learn about Flex and Silverlight and to talk about JavaFX, which doesn't seem to be quite ready for prime time just yet.

I've done several of the jams that Bruce has organized, and I have found them to be great learning experiences. I'm thrilled that we will be hosting this at our new office in Ann Arbor.  We've been getting inquiries about it already, and since enrollment is limited to 30 participants, it seems prudent to register early (plus, early bird pricing of $400 by Jan 2 versus $500 after that makes registering early wise as well).  Sure, you could learn these technologies on your own, but I've found that learning in a jam session like this helps me stay focused when I get frustrated, and that's proved to be really helpful.

Oh, and Adobe is throwing in a free FlexBuilder license with your paid registration fee.  Nice!

Registration and more information are available on Bruce's site. 

 

A CodeMash song!

OK, the CodeMash Google group is a very cool group of people.  I mentioned yesterday about the Nerdcore reference.  Today, one of the group members (Matthew Williams) has written lyrics for a CodeMash song to the tune of Monster Mash.

Here's a preview:

"Coder Mash"
TTTO: Monster Mash
Words by Matt Williams, 20071204
(Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License)

I was working on my code late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my server's access logs began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise

It did the mash
It did the coder mash
The coder mash
It was a hacker smash
It did the mash
It caught on like a flash
It did the mash
It did the coder mash

[and there's more … and it really does get even funnier)

If you don't come to CodeMash, you will definitely miss out. 

 

 

Nerdcore at CodeMash?

OK, while perusing the CodeMash Google group, I've learned a new term: nerdcore. There is a fairly lengthy thread between some of the attendees who will be organizing a jam session at the conference.  VERY COOL.  But nerdcore?  I had to look it up.  Sheesh.  I'm very amused.  Can't wait to see THIS!

NOTE: The alumni discount rate of $110 expires on 12/15 (as does the discounted block of rooms at the Kalahari Resort), so register SOON if you haven't already.

 See you at CodeMash! 

 

Ann Arbor Tech events this week

It's the first week of the month.  Do my children wonder where their mother is? 

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, Brent Hill of Google will be presenting "Everything you want to know about blogs and RSS". That event will be at the Google office in Ann Arbor at McKinley Towne Center, 5th Floor, 201 S. Division, Ann Arbor, from 5-7 pm.  Registration is required, at www.annarborusa.org.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, Kevin DuBois will be talking about the latest features of Ubuntu Linux, at the Ann Arbor Computer Society meeting.  That meeting will start around 6 pm at the SRT Solutions offices, 206 S. Fifth Ave, Suite 200, Ann Arbor.

On Thursday, Dec. 6, the Michigan Python User Group will meet at SRT Solutions offices to discuss distributed version control systems.  Mercurial and Bazaar NG are written in Python.

All of these events are free.  Hope to see you at one or more!

NOTE: There are NO SRT lightning talks this week.  The only December lightning talks will be NEXT Friday (Dec 16) from 3-5 pm, at SRT Solutions offices.
 

 

Lightning Talks Overview for 11/30/2007

We had a large crowd for lightning talks today (11 people is a good turnout). 

 
Bill Wagner talked about the Halloween problem.

Rick Harding talked about Google SketchUp and how he's using it for laying out his garage.

Bill Heitzeg talked about Javadoc Online and its Eclipse plugin.

Jay Wren talked about NUnit Forms.

I talked about some cool podcasts for staying current with technology (Java Posse, .NET Rocks, IT Conversations, Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders).

Mike Woelmer talked about RegistrationFree COM.

Phil Huhn talked about testing using Team Foundation Server.

We also had a talk on "Vote Early Vote Often" from She Who Will Not Be Named describing how her voter registration got screwed up and she was issued two valid voter registrations.  It highlighted how when there are multiple places where data can be input, duplicate data in databases may not be properly resolved.
 

 

I hope that you'll join us next time.  Because of the holidays, we will only have one set of lightning talks for December, and those will be December 14 from 3-5 pm.  Maybe I'll bring cookies and eggnog!

 

Both Android and Guice at CodeMash!

I'm happy to report that Dick Wall will be speaking on Android as well as Guice at CodeMash.  These should be highly technical talks.  Dick is co-host of the popular Java Posse (http://javaposse.com) podcast and a developer advocate on the Google Developer Programs team.

Dick has already submitted a sample Android application to the Android Developers Blog.  He has also written articles on Testing with Guice and Squeezing More Guice from your Testing with EasyMock.

I'm definitely looking forward to these talks!
 

 

JBoss Seam at the AAJUG on November 27

The Ann Arbor Java Users Group will be meeting on Tuesday, November 27, with David Ward of JBoss speaking on "JBoss Seam and the Red Hat Developer Studio".  Food and networking at 6:30, meeting will start at 7:15.  Zattoo is sponsoring (food and location), so they are asking for RSVPs to jsyang@zattoo.com.   See below.

Zattoo will be serving food and beverages.
Open networking will begin at 6:00 PM, food will be served at 6:30 PM, and the presentation will start at 7:15 PM.
Map to Zattoo:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=zattoo,+Ann+Arbor,+MI&ie=UTF8&ll=42.290644,-83.74835&spn=0.045778,0.097504&z=14&iwloc=A&om=1

Meeting Information:

"JBoss Seam and the Red Hat Developer Studio" – JBoss Seam is a modern enterprise Java application framework, integrating the best practices learned from past frameworks, and innovating in areas where they have been deficient.  Using JBoss Seam, developers are more productive as they leverage Seam's powerful yet simple component model, state management facilities, presentation and business tier integration, and more. The Red Hat Developer Studio (RHDS) is a set of Eclipse-based tools that are pre-configured for JBoss Enterprise Middleware, offering significant time-savings and value to developers.  A summary of JBoss Seam and RHDS features will be presented during this technical session, followed by a detailed demonstration of creating a Seam application using RHDS.

Presenter BIO:

David Ward is a Solutions Architect within the JBoss division of Red Hat. He has over 12 years experience designing and developing enterprise systems across various fields such as online commerce, payroll services, pharmaceutical applications, real estate, printing, document management, inventory management and more.  He has authored numerous Java related articles and whitepapers.  David is a longtime JBoss evangelist and joined Red Hat in October 2006.

We’re at the A2 Tech Fair today

SRT Solutions is recruiting on the University of Michigan campus today.  Eta Kappa Nu, the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science honor society, is hosting a career fair for its students.  We're interested in bringing in both interns and new grads.  We've also brought handouts about events like our lightning talks and the user group meetings in Ann Arbor, many of which are held in our office. We're hoping to include attract a younger crowd to those as well.