Scot Alt.Net Blogs » Events

mike — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:32:06 +0000

Windows Phone 7 is the new phone from Microsoft which it will launch in October 2010 with big hopes of gaining significant share of the smartphone market.

Developing for Windows phone has a very short learning curve for .NET developers thanks to the supported frameworks (Silverlight and XNA) and the familiar development environment (Visual Studio and Expression Blend). Although it is easy to develop applications on this platform, creating one which provides a good user experience is not so straightforward.

In this talk, Gergely Orosz will demonstrate how to create a simple application for Windows Phone 7, placing particular emphasis on how to bring provide a good WP7-specific user experience. He will also be talking about porting existing applications to WP7. The finished application will be deployed to a WP7 developer device for a demonstration.

Speaker:
Gergely Orosz works for Scott Logic as a financial software developer and has a background in Silverlight and .Net development. He is currently building a few applications for WP7 in his spare time.

Location:
Thanks to Microsoft for providing the location for this event.
7.00pm on Thursday 30th September 2010
Microsoft Edinburgh
Waverley Gate
2-4 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh EH1 3EG

“Silverlight and Flash are evil” discussion

mike — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:17:04 +0000

An evening of polite discussion, beerage and heated debate. Bring your opinions!

Introductions

10 minute talk from Paul Cowan telling us why he thinks Silverlight and Flash are evil

Edit – sadly Paul isn’t able to make it, we will still run the event and make time for the arguments both for and against. His post might be of interest here

10 minute talk from Gergely Orosz telling us why he thinks they are not

Quick questions\answers session on any technical points

Leave for heated debate down the pubWhen?

7pm, Tuesday 29th June 2010

Where?

Offices of ScottLogic, 17 Gayfield Square, Edinburgh EH1 3NX, then the Theatre Royal Bar

Google maps links for the office and the pub

F# Code Retreat

Chris Canal — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:28:27 +0000

Scot Alt.Net and StormId are proud to annouce Scotland’s first [citation required ] F# Code Retreat!

What is a Code Retreat?

The first Code Retreat took place in January 2009 and was created by Patrick Welsh, Nayan Hajratwala and Corey Haines. Their aim was to create a repeatable, day-long event that was focused on practicing the fundamentals of software development.

How it works?

The goal is to tackle a set problem, in pairs, for 45 minutes with a 15 minute retrospective after. Everyone pairs off with someone different and the problem is tackled again.

Do I need to know F#?

Knowing a little will help, but not required.

What do I need?

- Passion
- Laptop
- Visual Studio 2010 (msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/vstudio/bb984878.aspx)

When?

3rd July 2010

Where?

Storm ID Ltd

The Corn Exchange,
35 Constitution Street,
Edinburgh,
EH6 7BS

View on Google Maps

Schedule

0830 – 0900 – Welcome
0900 – 1000 – Introduction to F#
1015 – 1100 – Session #1
1100 – 1115 – Retrospective, break
1130 – 1215 – Session #2
1215 – 1230 – Retrospective, break
1230 – 1330 – Lunch
1330 – 1415 – Session #3
1415 – 1430 – Retrospective, break
1430 – 1515 – Session # 4
1515 – 1530 – Retrospective, break
1530 – 1615 – Session # 5
1615 – 1630 – Retrospective, break
1630 – 1715 – Session # 6
1715 – 1730 – Retrospective, break
1730 – 1800 – Final retrospective on day

An Introduction to Silverlight – Thursday 4th March 2010 at Microsoft, Edinburgh

mike — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:55:17 +0000

Silverlight is the new hot topic within rich internet application development. But what is it exactly? How can it be used with existing .NET web applications? Is it an alternative to Flash in all scenarios?

In this talk Gergely Orosz will be giving a brief overview of what Silverlight is, how it works and what potential it has. He will show how to develop a simple application where he will introduce the key concepts of Silverlight development and highlight the differences and similarities with traditional WinForms/WebForms development.

Speaker:

Gergely Orosz is working for Scott Logic as a financial software developer. He has a background in enterprise content management and web development. He has been using Silverlight since version 1.0 and was awarded 3rd place on the Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals for a solution partially built on Silverlight 2 Beta in 2008.

Location:

Thanks to Microsoft for providing the location for this event

7.30pm on Thursday 4th March 2010

Microsoft Edinburgh
Waverley Gate
2-4 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh EH1 3EG

SQL Injection Attacks and some Tips on How to prevent Them – 4th Feb

colin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:14:34 +0000

In light of some recent events, such as the man who was convicted of stealing
130 million credit card details through a SQL Injection attack, it is
imperative that developers understand what a SQL Injection Attack is, how they
are carried out, and most importantly, how to defend your code against
attack.

In this talk Colin Mackay will demonstrate a SQL Injection Attack on an
application in a controlled environment*. He’ll show you where the vulnerable
code lies and what you can do to harden it.

Although this talk uses C# as the application language and Microsoft SQL
Server 2008 as the database engine many of the concepts and prevention
mechanisms will apply to any application that accesses a database through
SQL.

Speaker

Colin Angus Mackay is a Software Developer from Edinburgh, now living in Glasgow. He is a Microsoft MVP (C#), and has keen interests in sticking data on maps. He has worked with Microsoft Visual C++ since about Version 2.1. He has been playing with the .NET Framework and C# since it was in beta but has been using it commercially since late 2002. He originally started programming when he was about 9 years old, on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with an amazing 48K memory! Naturally he went for a computing degree. After leaving university he co-founded a company that developed a GIS product but he is now working for an digital agency in Glasgow.

Location

Scottish Developers have been kind enough to help organise a venue for use and have arranged for Equator to let us use their board room. Due to size of the room, we have to limit the available spots to 12. The presentation will take place on the 4th February at 7:30pm.

Equator,
Ground Floor,
Moda, 144 Elliot Street
Glasgow, G3 8EX

Google Maps

DDD8 Open For Voting

Chris Canal — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:14:46 +0000

This years DDD8 has an awesome amount of great sessions, and voting has now opened. Get your votes in now for the sessions you want to see: http://developerdeveloperdeveloper.com/ddd8/Users/VoteForSessions.aspx

What ASP.NET (MVC) Developers can learn from Rails – 4th Feb 2010

Chris Canal — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:45:13 +0000

After years of hearing about just how cool the ruby on rails framework is and being typically cynical about the whole thing I decided to check it out. The image I had of rails was that of a framework adopted by tree hugging, corduroy trouser wearing and long haired hippies. Learning ruby was fun but not entirely dissimilar from C# 3.5 and it is obvious to see the influence that ruby has had on C# 3.5.

It is hard to describe how game changing discovering rails has been for me. The ethos and methodology is expressed in a frictionless development environment that is articulated in each rails project. Convention over configuration is a culture I thought I was practicing in .NET.How wrong I was….

I would like to share my findings and report back to the .NET community of what can be learned from rails and possibly to a lesser extent ruby.

Speaker

Paul was born in bred in Belfast before leaving for the mainland in 2004. He now runs his own business in Glasgow where he hopes to create a developer centric environment that creates great software. He previously spent 4 years working for twentysixlondon, working as a technical architect where he worked mainly on public facing websites such as the Volvo Ocean Race, Waitrose, Closer and Abercrombie And Kent

The Volvo Ocean Race website tracked a round the world yacht race through ten months of race time. During race time, the website was updated with live race and telemetry boat information in as real time as possible.

Before twentysixlondon Paul spent his career working for Fujitsu in Belfast where he worked on numerous government projects.

Paul’s hobbies include Boxing.

Location

Equator,
Ground Floor,
Moda, 144 Elliot Street
Glasgow, G3 8EX

Google Maps

Testing with Pex and QuickCheck – 7th January 2010 @ Microsoft’s offices, Edinburgh

mike — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:12:46 +0000

There are many advantages a robust unit test suite gives to software development but there is an equally wide variety of unit testing technologies. In this talk, we will look at an approach to extending the ‘traditional’ form of unit testing with parameterization as well as specification tests in a functional context. Two testing tools will be used to provide a practical context. Pex is a framework produced by Microsoft Research that enables the creation of parameterized unit tests. These tests allow developers to perform a systematic analysis of the SUT and flush out boundary conditions and exceptional cases that may have otherwise been missed. QuickCheck is a unit testing library originally developed in Haskell that performs random tests within a specification the SUT should satisfy. Test failures are then ‘shrunk’ to provide a minimal example of failure in an effort to minimize debugging.

Speaker

James Lynch is currently working for Storm ID in Edinburgh and has a working background in .Net web development. He has an avid interest in new technologies and finding out what different programming languages have to offer.

Location

Thanks to Microsoft for providing the location for this event

7.30pm on Thursday 7th January 2010

Microsoft Edinburgh
Waverley Gate
2-4 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh EH1 3EG

Developer Day Scotland 2010 – Open For Session Submissions

Chris Canal — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:29:14 +0000

It’s that time of year again and the chaps over at Scottish Developers have started taking session proposals for next years Developer Day Scotland. Make sure you have a look at what has already been submitted, and if there is anything you want to see then let the guys know.

Asp.Net Mvc 2

Chris Canal — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:35:40 +0000

ASP.NET MVC 1 changed the landscape of developing websites on the .NET platform and ASP.NET MVC 2 is bringing even more to the table. Currently preview 2 features productivity increasing additions like an integrated validation framework, richer model meta data and better object view templating support. In this talk we will look at these and the other additions to ASP.NET MVC 2. The presentation will take place on the 3rd December at 7:30pm.

Speaker
Currently working for Edinburgh based Storm Id, Chris Canal has over 7 years of development experience. A great believer is continual–improvement, Chris is constantly looking for new technologies, tools and methodologies that will help in creating robust and maintainable software applications and has become an active member of the Scottish Alt.Net Community to share his findings and ideas with like-minded developers.

Location
Scottish Developers have been kind enough to help organise a venue for use and have arranged for Equator to let us use their board room. Due to size of the room, we have to limit the available spots to 12. The presentation will take place on the 3rd December at 7:30pm.

Equator,
Ground Floor,
Moda, 144 Elliot Street
Glasgow, G3 8EX

Google Maps