Rod Johnson/Spring at the Central Ohio Java User Group on January 24

Our friends in Columbus, OH will host Rod Johnson on Thursday, January 24, from 6-8 pm. Rod is the creator of Spring and a hero to many in the J2EE community for giving them an alternative to EJBs.  Rod will discuss new features in Spring 2.5.  If you're ANYWHERE near Columbus, I think it's worth stopping by.  I'm disappointed that I won't be able to make it!  I would definitely venture deep into Buckeye territory for that talk.

Rich Internet Application Jam: Silverlight and Flex

Last week, James Ward (Adobe), Josh Holmes (Microsoft), and Bruce Eckel (well, Bruce Eckel!) conducted a Rich Internet Application Jam at our office. This was NOT a competitive event.  Rather, in the spirit of CodeMash, people came together to learn about competing technologies in a cooperative manner.  Each attendee decided which technologies to explore, and how much time to spend on them.  Most of the attendees were interested in Flex, but Silverlight was represented as well.  And of course, the Jam included discussions of the strengths of each.  It appears that Flex has strong support for controls, yet to be provided in Silverlight.  Silverlight shines in its support of vector graphics, which Flex doesn't currently provide.

I spent some time looking at the AdvancedDataGrid in Flex 3.  One of the attendees had a customer requirement for a lot of grid data, including summaries and rollups.  The advanced data grid supported what he needed to do, using a combination of summary rows and groupings.  On the summary rows, he was able to choose one of five functions that are baked into the advanced data grid: min, max, average, count, and sum.  Nice!  If you're interested in this, note that the documentation is apparently not available in the Flex 3 docs that are downloaded, but is available online.  Sreenivas Ramaswamy's blog has a nice writeup about this control (and others!).

Andy Beaulieu's site has a cool Silverlight demo.  If you enter an address for which there is Virtual Earth data, you can play a game that allows you to destroy UFO's while flying over that address.  Impressive!

Once again, I was impressed by the Jam format.  With Bruce, James, and Josh to help people over any rough spots, attendees were able to work on exercises that interested them, and spend as much time as they needed on any particular task.  I like this better than the typical situation where a class is in lock step for exercises, and individual attendees are either sitting around waiting for someone to finish, or frantically trying to rush through so that everyone else can move on.  And these people were able to focus on using the technology in a way that is meaningful for their purposes, but have the support of an expert right there.

The attendees seemed to enjoy themselves and learn a lot.  I can't wait til our next Jam: it's a C# Jam with Bill Wagner, Jamie King, and Bruce Eckel.  It will be held at our office April 8-11.  Bruce and Jamie are working on a C# book, and Bill's working on his 3rd C# book.  This Jam will focus on C# 3.0 and its new language features.   The early bird deadline for that event is January 31.

 

Day 1 of the RIA Jam … and RIA at Special User Group meeting tomorrow

Today was the first day for the Rich Internet Application Jam, being held at SRT Solutions' offices.  James Ward (Adobe)  and Bruce Eckel are here, working side-by-side with people who are in various stages of learning Flex and Josh Holmes (Microsoft) is here representing Silverlight and working with people interested in that.  The Jam goes through Wednesday.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday January 15), James and Bruce will present a talk, "Connecting Java with Flex using Open Source Blaze".  The discussion will include how Blaze differs from LiveCycle Data Services and perhaps even a little bit of Scala.  You see, James spent some time this past weekend connecting Flex to Scala.  Interesting.

This is a special joint meeting of the Ann Arbor Computer Society and Ann Arbor Java User Group, and will be held at 206 S. Fifth Ave, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.  The meeting starts at 6 pm, and is free and open to the public.  AACS is providing pizza. 

Python Underground, Scala, and Blaze: oh my!

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.
 

 

CodeMash registration deadlines!

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!  

 

Matrin Odersky interview on Scala on the Java Posse

I was just loading up my iPod for my Friday night workout and I was hoping for a new Java Posse podcast.  I'm in the habit of listening to podcasts rather than music while working out.  The time goes quickly and I learn something.  The only downside is that it's not good at ALL for taking notes.  But come on, who takes notes with podcasts anyhow?

So what do I see, but a new episode AND it happens to be an interview with Martin Odersky about Scala!  COOL! 

 So, in the final weeks before my Scala talk at CodeMash, I'm thrilled to see a Scala eBook released and to have this interview come out as well.  Good timing for me.

 Anyhow, so off I go to the basement where we have a Smooth Fitness elliptical.  Having something like this at home is essential, IMO, for parents.  Kids are in bed.  Husband is out finishing up the Christmas shopping (good man!).  If not for the elliptical, I would be in front of the TV … or the computer (oops, wasn't I going?).
 

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.