Chris Roland » Events

devLINK 2010 (a week later)

Chris Roland — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:34:51 +0000

devLINK (http://devlink.net) is one of the best conferences around. This was my second time around and from my perspective, it was better than last year. Here are the sessions I attended and what I remember one week later.

Opening Keynote: The Future of Software Applications
Tim Huckaby did a great job creating a vision of the near future and made me wonder how I can apply natural interfaces in my solutions. There were times during the keynote I was lost because he was clicking around looking for the next video to show, but overall it was a great message. The one thing I kept thinking about was, how do natural interfaces apply to me and internal business applications. So I posted an open space, which I will go over later down.

Kanban to Cash: Stolen Ideas for a Beautiful Process
Even though I was in the wrong room, thinking it was a different session, I stayed anyway. I’m glad I did, because Lee Brandt did an awesome job with this talk. He went over how he does Kanban, TDD and BDD. I was cool to see how features were broken down into stories and then translated to specs in NSpec. It just re-enforces the fact I need to spend more time doing outside-in development.

A Dynamic World Demands Dynamic SQL
This was a good talk and Jeremiah Peschka knows his $%^&. One of the issues I have is, I spend most of my time with NHibernate between me and SQL Server. So, the talk left me wanting to know more about how to bring the ORM world and SQL world together in harmony. I ran into Jeremiah later on during the conference and we had an awesome conversation about DBAs and developers. Specifically how they interact and what can be done to bring them together. The #1 thing you can do is, communicate more . We also went over ways to use an ORM and still keep SQL happy. I’m hoping either Jeremiah or someone else does a talk on bridging the gap between DBAs and developers, SQL and ORMs.

Better Contracts, Better Code
If there is one session I took back and applied immediately, it was this one. I wish I knew about Microsoft Code Contracts a lot sooner and it’s odd I don’t hear about them in the community. Code Contracts are like unit testing, you can’t imagine how you lived without them. I’m still scratching the surface right now as I use them, I’m looking forward to digging deeper into how they can be applied. This can easily be seen as the “hammer and nail” mindset, but I think of it’s more like, “why wasn’t I using them before”. Oh yeah, Kevin Hazzard did a super awesome with this session (Yeah I used super). I was engaged the entire time and the demos were clear and effective.

What the Math Geeks Don’t Want You to Know about F#
Another awesome Kevin Hazzard session. If you have the chance to see him talk, do it. I’ve been digging into F# for the last year off and on. This session went over a lot of topics I’ve gone over, but it was great to hear his view. He is the first person I’ve heard explain currying, were I got it immediately. I’ve read about currying and I always have to re-read it to refresh my memory. After this session, I think it finally sunk in. The one take away from this session is, functional programming is the future of programming. Well, at least until the next thing that comes along.

EF 4.0, Restoring the Confidence
Based on the session description, I thought this was going to be a different kind of talk and I was looking forward to getting insight into how Entity Framework made a come back and what features made that happen. What the session turned into for me was, an overview of Entity Framework and the basics on how to use it. It was a good session by Jim Wooley, I just thought it was going to be a different talk. The good thing is, I needed to see an intro session on EF and this definitely helped.

Advanced NHibernate Tips and Tricks
The one take away, Phil Japikse hates bugs. Seriously, this was an awesome session and Phil knows his stuff. I learned a ton of things I’m looking forward to implementing. If you use NHibernate, definitely see this session if you have the chance. Phil had a real world example that helped me understand how I can apply what he was talking about, today. What’s interesting, he was the second speaker to mention NSpec during their talk, I need to check it out.

Open Spaces: Natural interfaces and business applications
So, this was the open space session I posted. What I thought was going to be a talk between one other person and me, if I was lucky, turned into a really great session with a handful of people. When I arrived there were two guys chillin from the previous session and while waiting for people to show up, we started talking about natural interfaces. Before I knew it, more people showed up and even one guy who was behind a plant thing who was listening in on the conversation, joined in. This conversation really helped me see immediately that natural interfaces can be used to solve business problems, beyond a 3D image of an organ. I will do a post very soon with the notes from the session.

Real World Entity Framework
If there is anyone you want to talk about Entity Framework with, it’s Dane Morgridge. This session was a deeper dive into EF than the previous session and it was great to see more of a real world example into using it. Since Dane has used EF since the beginning of time, everyone had questions on how they would apply it to their scenario. This helped convince me, it’s time to start looking at EF as a possible replacement to NHibernate.

Leveraging Client Capabilities with jQuery in Visual Studio and ASP.NET
To be honest, I ended up in this session because the closing keynote was in the same room right after this one. It turned out to be a good session by Robert Boedigheimer. He went over were jQuery would be used and in what cases should the Microsoft AJAX library be used.

Closing Keynote: Iconoclasm
After reading the description of the keynote, I thought this can either be really good or bomb real bad. I came out of the keynote mixed. I think the overall message of the keynote was awesome and mirrors a similar message I’ve heard lately about the creative generation. I think this an important message and it ties in great with the opening keynote by Tim Huckaby.

The way the message was driven home, bugged me. Using outsourcing, Indians, Chinese or whatever as examples of why you should become an Iconoclast, was dated, not cool and ineffective for me. I also think using those examples detracted from the overall message Ted Neward was trying to convey. The other nagging thought in my head was, “great the next ‘thing’”. There is going to be a hoard of individuals in and around the community who are going to be self proclaimed Iconoclasts, yay.

On the other side, it was cool to see examples of group think and how people are influenced. It’s funny to see the examples Ted gave and the real world examples all around. In the end, I came out of the keynote with an interesting perspective on things and I’m really glad I attended.

In conclusion, devLINK 2010 was awesome and if you have a chance to go next year, GO! Seriously, the ROI is insane.

Grand Rapids GiveCamp 2009

Chris Roland — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:12:46 +0000

Time for another GiveCamp. This time it will be in Grand Rapids at the YMCA. I’m looking forward to this event and being able to help non-profits in any way I can. I’ll try and keep the posts coming during the event, you may see a couple 3AM posts, you were warned

The GR GiveCamp organizers setup Assembla for us to use during the event for task tracking, document management, etc. This will be cool, since everyone will be using the same system to track everything.

Well, I’m off.

devLink Day One

Chris Roland — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:06:28 +0000

The first day of devLink started out the night before at 10:30 PM EST. Mike Eaton and I began our trek down through Indiana, Kentucky, a couple truck stops and were finally dumped into Nashville, Tennessee at 5:30 AM CST.

Josh Holmes was awesome by letting Mike and I stay in his room to catch up on some z’s and shower the road grime off.

The next stop in the day was the Community Leadership Summit at Jack’ s BBQ. This was a great way to start devLink, by giving people in the community an outlet on how to grow and nuture the community. The break down was, there were a couple group chosen lightening talks, moved on to open spaces and then a quick presentation on each open space talk. Prizes were given out through out the event, including a chainmail coif. Who doesn’t want chainmail? really, who? Could you imagine a business meeting if you walked in wearing chainmail? Sweet.

After the summit a group of us went to The Melting Pot. Hooooly cow. I kept eating and eating and eating, I had to leave or I would burst. I didn’t want the waitresses to have to clean up, so I stopped. If you are in Nashville and are looking for a place to eat, make sure you go there at least once.

I had so many great hallway conversations and I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend. Oh and I finally got to bed around 1:30 AM.

Ann Arbor, Columbus and Knoxville 2009 GiveCamp links

Chris Roland — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:07:49 +0000

Here is a compilation of links from the Ann Arbor, Columbus and Knoxville 2009 GiveCamps from this weekend. If I missed something or if something is incorrect, shoot me an email or tweet. I ordered everything basically in alphabetical order to protect the innocent.

Pictures
GiveCamp photots by Jason Follas
ann arbor Give Camp 2009
ColumbusGiveCamp2009
Knox Give Camp
Ann Arbor Give Camp 2009
Ann Arbor Give Camp 2009 – Day 1
Ann Arbor Give Camp 2009 – Day 2
Ann Arbor Give Camp 2009 – Day 3
The printer narrowly escaped an Office Space fate – *this* year! #coumbusgivecamp
Doodling on #aagivecamp
This sign for our convenience in case we don’t know how to wash our hands #columbusgivecamp
OH at @givecamp from a charity “technology was the first thing cut from our budget”.
The big screen at #KnoxGiveCamp
I think it’s a pic of Tim at GiveCamp
AgileZen and Balsamiq side by side
#teamtco’s (simplistic) kanban board! #ColumbusGiveCamp
@mjeaton wearing an I – He loves TFS
Opening #aagivecamp
Geekette shirt

Videos
Ann Arbor GiveCamp 2009
Michael Eaton on the Ann Arbor GiveCamp
aagivecamp2 07/19/09 01:36PM
aagivecamp2 07/19/09 01:34PM
aagivecamp2 07/19/09 01:32PM
aagivecamp2 07/18/09 07:02PM
Stand up done. Group photo time.
Ann Arbor Give Camp Sunday morning Stand Up

Blog Posts
Organizer looks to expand on successful 2009 Give Camp
Michigan Give Camp in Ann Arbor 2009
Ann Arbor Give Camp 2009
Knoxville Give Camp 2009 – Wrap Up
This One Time, at Columbus GiveCamp…
Columbus Give Camp 2009 == awesome
Retrospective: Give Camp
Michigan Give Camp: Ann Arbor – Follow Up
The geeks give back to those that Give year round
Live Blogging from the 2009 Give Camp
Ann Arbor Give Camp 2009
Upcoming Give Camps on July 17-19: Geek Out for a Good Cause!
Columbus GiveCamp – July 17, 18, 19
Michigan Give Camp to Provide Non-profits with Technical Support During Volunteer Event in Ann Arbor
Columbus and Ann Arbor GiveCamps
One More Week Until Give Camp 2009

In The News
Developer ‘Give Camp’ Returns To Ann Arbor
IT Professionals Camp Out at WCC for Charity

Other Cool Links
http://github.com/ignu/tehnt/network

Twitter Hash Tags Used
#GiveCamp
#AAGiveCamp
#ColumbusGiveCamp
#ColGiveCamp
#CMHGiveCamp
#KnoxGiveCamp

Knoxville GiveCamp 2009 Tweeps (8)*
http://twitter.com/alanstevens
http://twitter.com/archidraca
http://twitter.com/benfarmer
http://twitter.com/devsolo
http://twitter.com/dylanwolf
http://twitter.com/nathanblevins
http://twitter.com/psoplayer
http://twitter.com/vinull

Non-Profit Tweeps (6)*
http://twitter.com/AllAboutAnimals
http://twitter.com/LendAHandorg
http://twitter.com/mstoren11
http://twitter.com/new_org
http://twitter.com/resourcegenesee
http://twitter.com/SEMREO

Sponsor Tweeps (5)*
http://twitter.com/agilezen
http://twitter.com/balsamiqVal
http://twitter.com/betsyweber
http://twitter.com/gabesumner
http://twitter.com/PotBelly

* These counts do not include the ones I missed and the individuals without twitter accounts

Sponsor Links
http://www.agilezen.com
http://www.balsamiq.com
http://www.bottledocker.com
http://www.devexpress.com
http://www.dominos.com
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.oreilly.com
http://www.peiwei.com
http://www.red-gate.com
http://www.srtsolutions.com
http://www.techsmith.com
http://www.telerik.com
http://www.wccnet.edu/
http://www.wrox.com
http://www.verio.com

Non-Profit Project Websites and Links
http://www.lendahelpinghand.org/
hmttp://www.cthaarescue.com/
http://www.workplaceresearchfoundation.org/
http://tehnt.heroku.com/
http://www.ficccs.com/
http://www.alphahouse-ihn.org/
http://www.latinofamilyservices.org/
http://workwith.net/aagivecamp/
http://www.resourcegenesee.org/

Support Links
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfntvqfd_64fwg8xqpt
http://www.code5systems.com/help/fm/FormMaster2008UserGuide.pdf
http://www.lazybackup.net

2nd Annual Michigan Give Camp

Chris Roland — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:28:54 +0000

It’s only a couple weeks until the Michigan Give Camp in Ann Arbor.

I attended the 1st Give Camp in Ann Arbor last year and the Lansing Give Camp earlier this year. I can say without a doubt this is the most rewarding experience you will ever have if you are a developer. You get to spend the entire weekend with other developers, designers and DBAs developing on a project that will benefit not just the non-profit, but the community.

During both Give Camps, I was able to meet new people, speak with others I don’t normally speak to and actually code with them. That’s why I’m excited about the upcoming Michigan Give Camp. I will be able to develop with new individuals and learn a ton from them. When I attended the Lansing Give Camp, I tested out a basic Kanban board after I sat through Tim Wingfield’s (http://twitter.com/timwingfield) Kanban talk and I think the it turned out great. I also learned several web design techniques from David Singer (http://twitter.com/ramaboo).

The Michigan Give Camp will be from July 17th to the 19th at the Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. If you want to get an idea of some of the individuals attending the event, check out this list of tweeps:

http://michigangivecamp.org/cms/annarbor/2009/michigan-give-camp-2009-tweeps/

If you are a developer, designer, DBA or non-profit, please check out the following link for more information:

http://michigangivecamp.org/cms/

To register, go to:

http://michigangivecamp.eventbrite.com/

See you there!