Scot Alt.Net Blogs

Joe Wright has kindly offered to run a Coding Dojo for us on the 1st of October at the Dell Corp. building starting at 7pm.  Due to the nature of the evening, there are only 10 spots available.

A Coding Dojo is a coding session centred around a programming challenge. The challenge is small in scope and allow programmers of varying skill levels to meet as equals. To learn, to teach, to repeat, to understand, to laugh and to grow as software developers.

Do you want to become a better software developer?
Then you’d better come and practice!

Do you think you are you good at some programming technique?
Find out how much better you’ll become by having to explain your code to others!

Do you want your code to do more than barely work?
Together we’ll make code that is:

• extensively tested (to ensure quality and confidence)
• readable (so that others can continue your work)
• refactored (the only means to fight code-rot)
• communicating your design well (to ensure extendibility)

What will the challenge be?
http://code.joejag.com/coding-dojo-converting-between-different-numeral-systems/

Location
Dell Corporation Limited,
City Park,
368 Alexandra Parade,
Glasgow,
G31 3AU

View On Google Maps

After the Dojo we will retire to Beer Cafe, Merchant City Square – View On Google Maps

On the 25th of September Scot Alt.Net group will be running an AltNet Beers night with Sebastien Lambla. The event will be held in top bar of Uisge Beatha on woodlands road starting at about 7pm.

Sebastian has been running these events successfully in London for the past year and is now taking it on the road with his Alternative Network.

AltNet Beers is an hour-long time boxed open conference style session where the subjects being discussed will be chosen by the attendants. And of course all this in a pub environment, fuelled with just enough beer to make everybody participate.

Registration is optional, feel free to just come along on the night.

Google Maps

When/Where

Glasgow on 10th November at 18:30

The Talk

Testing is a fundamental part of the development process regardless of how you approach it however GUI’s have always been trickier to test and web based UI’s are some of the hardest. JavaScript, AJAX and browser compatibility are all things that make web UI functionality quite difficult and time consuming to test. Enter Selenium, a web application testing framework which makes the creation and automation of complex web user interface tests a joy.

This session will introduce you to Selenium and explain the core features of the framework before showing you, through live ASP.NET MVC demonstrations, how it can be harnessed in your own web development.

The Speaker

Andy Gibson is an Information Systems Developer for Rockstar North with a background in web application development including ASP.NET MVC, PHP and jQuery. He is always on the lookout for new technologies to play with and loves to learn what he can about things especially in the web development arena.

Keen to give back to the community, Andy has spoken at a number of community events including Developer! Developer! Developer! Scotland and is currently the Tayside Events Coordinator for Scottish Developers.

In his spare time (not that he has much), Andy enjoys table top wargamming, keeping up with the computer gaming industry and drinking malt scotch.

The Venue

We are meeting in Room M402 on the 4th Floor of the George Moore Building at Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0BA

You can find more information and book your spot here.

When/Where

Edinburgh: Thursday 24th September, 2009 at 19:00

The Talk

Everybody seems to rediscover the MVC model, and new frameworks seem to appear all the time. Most of those hide the richness of the web. Come discover OpenRasta, a very opinionated framework that help you write MVC-style web applications and data services, using a unified API.

The Speaker

Sebastien Lambla runs Caffeine IT, a .net consultancy / contracting company helping the good people of London adopt new technologies, new processes, new methodologies and in general anything that’s new and shiny. Specializing in cutting-edge tools, from REST architectures to occasionally connected rich clients, Sebastien has been developing with .net since 2000. An out and proud restafarian, Sebastien is the creator and maintainer of the OpenRasta project.

The Venue

We are meeting at the offices of Sinclair Knight Merz, 160 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ

You can find more information and book your spot here.

When

Dundee: Wednesday, 23rd September, 2009 @ 19:00

The Talk

With applying agile methodologies comes changes in many aspects of delivering software. And with any change will come a time when something fails. How to convince the undecided? How to keep everyone calm? How to provide practical solutions to prevent people from reverting back to non-agile practices at the first roadblock? Through examples gathered from personal experience and the community, we’ll explore ways to prevent the boat from sinking at the first spilled glass of water.

The Speaker

Sebastien Lambla is a developer passionate about all things agile. Through years of facilitating the move to agility, be it Scrum, Lean or XP, Sebastien has helped teams deliver better software. A seasoned speaker, Sebastien also delivers training sessions in Europe, and organizes the local alt.net events in London, a community focused on self-improvement.

A developer at heart, Sebastien has created Caffeine IT, an consulting and contracting company specializing in Microsoft technologies. From REST architectures to rich disconnected clients, Caffeine IT has been helping companies develop their products and empower their teams, with a focus on quality. Caffeine IT is also the main sponsor of the open-source OpenRasta REST framework for Microsoft platforms.

The Venue

We are meeting in the Queen Mother Building at Dundee University. After the meeting we normally retire to the bar at Laing’s.

You can find more information and book your spot here.