Random .NET Ramblings

This last Tuesday I had the pleasure of giving a talk to the San Diego ASP.NET group about developing a web site for mobile clients. The talk did not have a lot of code but we did look at the difference of how simple HTML renders vs. using the Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit. I should have pointed to the asp.net web site for it?s mobile support http://www.asp.net/mobile/ as there is some good resources there including a good article from Scott Hansleman ?Mobile Web Sites with ASP.NET MVC and the Mobile Browser Definition File? from his MIX09 talk.

If you were there I hope you enjoyed the talk and I look forward to giving more in the future!

Last night I was able to present to the San Diego ASP.NET Users Group about Visual Studio 2010 and after some difficulties in downloading the Beta 2 the day before I was able to show the latest Beta.

On the cool factor I think the editor Zoom was a hit and many of the new debug features were also a big hit. If you were there let me know what your best feature you saw was. There was just not enough time to go through everything, I did not get to show some of the cool demos around ASP.NET and site deployment. I have posted my slides to SildeShare and embedded to below but for more information checkout The 10-4 Show on Channel9 and the VS 2010 / .NET Framework 4.0 Training Kit.

This is an update to my last years list of SoCal user groups, like last year I wanted to have a resource that people can go to get an idea of what Microsoft Developer focused user groups are in Southern California so I have updated the list with the best information I can find. Again I do not clam this is the holistic but I hope that others will comment about other groups.

And again this list is not in any type of order! If I have any of this incorrect or you have a group you think that should be listed please comment on this post or email me woodyp-at-microsoft dot com.

San Luis Obispo .NET User Group
http://www.slodotnet.org/

Central California .Net User Group
http://www.centralcaldotnet.com/

Santa Barbara .NET Developer Group
http://www.sbdotnetug.org/

Inland Empire .NET User's Group
http://www.iedotnetug.org/

San Gabriel Valley .NET Developers Group
http://www.sgvdotnet.org/

LA C# Developers Group
http://www.lacsharp.org/

LA Fox
http://www.lafox.org/

Los Angeles SQL Server Professionals Group
http://www.sql.la/

Los Angeles .NET Developers Group
http://www.ladotnet.org/

Los Angeles Connected Systems User Group - CS-UG.org
http://cs-ug.org/

Orange County .NET Server Users Group
http://www.ocnsug.org/

Southern California .Net Architecture Users Group
http://www.SoCalDotNetArchitecture.org/

Orange County C# Developers Group
http://www.occsharp.org/

Southern California .NET Developers Group
http://www.socaldotnet.org/

Orange County Visual Basic .Net Usergroup
http://www.ocvbug.org/

SoCal DotNetNuke Users Group
http://www.socaldug.org/

Orange County FoxPro Developers Group
http://www.ocfox.org/

Orange County Internet User Group
http://www.ociug.org/

Orange County Connected Systems SIG
http://www.ocdotnet.org/

San Diego .NET User Group
http://www.sandiegodotnet.com/

San Diego .NET Developers Group
http://www.sddotnetdg.org/

San Diego SQL Server Users Group
http://www.sdsqlug.org/

San Diego .NET User Group ASP.NET SIG
http://asp.sig.webpublishing.com/

San Diego Connected Systems SIG
http://www.sandiegodotnet.com/ConnectedSystemsSIG/

XP San Diego
http://www.xpsd.org/

The FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego
http://www.foxdevsd.org/

Hawaii .Net
http://hawaiidotnet.org/

Community TJ.NET
http://www.tjnet.org

That's right the Code Trip is coming to Southern California we will be doing some fun events while the bus is here. The bus will be coming from Phoenix to San Diego on the 24th some time in the early evening. We will be keeping the bus at my families winery in Rancho Bernardo (Bernardo Winery) where it will stay  until about 4:30p on the 25th where it will be heading to the San Diego .NET Users Group meeting in Scripps Ranch Library where we will get to hear from Michele Leroux Bustamente and Jon Galloway on SilverLight and WCF. We will have Pizza and a bunch of giveaways!

That night we will be driving to Irvine and staying at the Hyatt next to the Microsoft Office where we will have the next event on the 26th. We will hear from John Bowen about the iZooFari project and David Robinson about SQL Server Data Services. This event is being sponsored by speakTECH!

On the 27th the Code Trip is earning it's pay! We have three event we will be at:

Cal State Fullerton
USC
LA Geek Dinner

At each we will have different things going on so any of them will be a good place to catch us!

On the 28th we have a special party at RedBull planed we will hear again from David Robinson and we will see some cool SilverLight applications but mostly we will be socializing and getting to know other developers in SoCal. Space is quite limited so please register soon!

And finally we will be stopping at Cuesta Community College in San Luis Obispo where we will speak to a few classes and have a community meeting as well.

I hope if you are in SoCal you can make one or more of these events I am sure you will see some new stuff and have a bunch of fun!

An updated list of user groups. While I don't think there will ever be a holistic list of user groups in Southern California as this is a moving target I hope to post a list like this about once a quarter or so. This is a list of Microsoft Developer focused user groups that I know if.

I hope all of the groups on this list are registered on codezone.com so that can be more of a central place to get a holistic list. By the way the nice thing about codezone.com is that there are some (but there needs to be more) non-MS focused groups listed there as well.

If you know of any other groups in SoCal please let me know.

Central California .Net User Group  http://www.centralcaldotnet.com/
San Luis Obispo .NET User Group http://www.slodotnet.org/
Community TJ.NET    http://www.tjnet.org
Hawaii Dot Net Users Group  http://www.hawaiidotnet.org/
Inland Empire .NET User's Group http://www.iedotnetug.org/
LA C# Developers Group  http://www.lacsharp.org/
Los Angeles .NET Developers Group   http://www.ladotnet.org/
Los Angeles SQL Server Professionals Group  http://www.sql.la/
Orange County .NET User Group   http://www.ocdotnet.org
Orange County C# Developers Group   http://www.occsharp.org/
San Diego .NET Developers Group http://sddotnetdg.org/
San Diego .NET User Group   http://www.sandiegodotnet.com/
San Diego SQL Server Users Group    http://sdsqlug.org/
San Gabriel Valley .NET Developers Group    http://www.sgvdotnet.org/
Santa Barbara .NET Developer Group  http://www.sbdotnetug.org
SoCal DotNetNuke Users Group    http://www.socaldug.org/
South Bay .NET User Group   http://southbaynet.org/
Southern California .Net Architecture Users Group   http://www.SoCalDotNetArchitecture.org
Southern California .Net Developer's Group  http://www.socaldotnet.org/
LA Fox  http://www.lafox.org
Orange County FoxPro Developers Group   http://www.ocfox.org/
The FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego  http://www.foxdevsd.org/

Southern California SharePoint User Group August Meeting

The Southern California SharePoint User Group is created as a free resource for the purpose of exchanging ideas and information related to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and related technologies.  Our meetings cover topics on Microsoft Office in general, and SharePoint in particular, that are of interest to Application Developers, Business Information Workers and System Engineers. 

In short, we encompass all aspects of Microsoft Office Server 2007.  The group is run exclusively by volunteers.  Our meetings are designed specifically to provide information that is of practical benefit to developers of any level of knowledge, from novice to expert.  Each meeting is normally structured with two presentations for a greater variety of information.  We also attempt to help with specific problems and questions outside of the main presentations in a one-on-one meeting with a knowledgeable volunteer. 

Meetings are held on the 3rd Wednesday of every month starting at 6:30 pm, and ending at 9:00 pm. 

Agenda for the August 15th meeting:

The August meeting is a special joint meeting of the San Diego SQL Server user Group and the Southern California SharePoint User Group featuring Bill Vaughn

Time
6:30 - 7:00 pm      Arrival, User Group Announcements, Networking, Pizza
7:00 - 7:50 pm      Part 1 of Bill's presentation
7:50 - 8:00 pm      Break
8:00 - 8:50 pm      Part 2 of Bill's presentation

The meeting will be held at the San Diego Microsoft Office:
9255 Towne Center Drive
Suite 400
San Diego, CA 92121

I get asked quite often for a holistic list of user groups in Southern California so I have compiled the list of Microsoft Developer focused user groups that I know if. Do not came this is the holistic but I hope that others will comment about other groups.

I hope all of the groups on this list are registered on codezone.com so that can be more of a central place to get a holistic list. By the way the nice thing about codezone.com is that there are some (but there needs to be more) non-MS focused groups listed there as well and I think it is important for all developers are going on in there overall community.

San Diego .NET User Group
http://www.sandiegodotnet.com/

Orange County .NET Server Users Group
http://www.ocnsug.org/

San Luis Obispo .NET User Group
http://www.slodotnet.org/

Inland Empire .NET User's Group
http://www.iedotnetug.org/

Southern California .Net Architecture Users Group
http://www.SoCalDotNetArchitecture.org/

Orange County C# Developers Group
http://www.occsharp.org/

Hawaii .Net
http://hawaiidotnet.org/

Santa Barbara .NET Developer Group
http://www.sbdotnetug.org/

Southern California .NET Developers Group
http://www.socaldotnet.org/

Los Angeles .NET Developers Group
http://www.ladotnet.org/

Orange County Visual Basic .Net Usergroup
http://www.ocvbug.org/

LA C# Developers Group
http://www.lacsharp.org/

San Diego .NET Developers Group
http://www.sddotnetdg.org/

San Diego SQL Server Users Group
http://www.sdsqlug.org/

Central California .Net User Group
http://www.centralcaldotnet.com/

XP San Diego
http://www.xpsd.org/

LA Fox
http://www.lafox.org/

Los Angeles SQL Server Professionals Group
http://www.sql.la/

SoCal DotNetNuke Users Group
http://www.socaldug.org/

The FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego
http://www.foxdevsd.org/

Orange County FoxPro Developers Group
http://www.ocfox.org/

San Diego .NET User Group ASP.NET SIG
http://asp.sig.webpublishing.com/

Orange County Internet User Group
http://www.ociug.org/

San Gabriel Valley .NET Developers Group
http://www.sgvdotnet.org/

Part of my job is to help the local user group community in SoCal I can't tell you how much time this takes and how different I have to do things for each group. The rub comes when I want to try and get all the groups to do something that would help them and me there is always some groups that decide not to participate. Now don't get me wrong I love my local groups and the leaders are great and after helping run a group for many year before this job I know how much of a pain in the a@@ doing anything extra can be but... (there's always a but) I finally have something I think is so compelling and will only get more so to get all the groups to do something that will make there lives easer and my life as well.

It's CodeZone.com this is not a new site but it finally has functionality that will make managing a user group much better! What is it... well the now people and register as a speaker on CodeZone so user groups can find them. So what dose this mean? If you are interested in speaking at the local user groups go to CodeZone.com and register as a user then once you are logged in you can register as a speaker. Then user group leader will be able to find you and ask you to speaker at there group. In SoCal so far we have 4 people registered as a speaker but we need more!

Let me know what you think of CodeZone.com I work quite closely with the team that created and supports this site and we want to find out how we cam make it even better!

On CodeGuru.com Paul Kimmel has a nice write up of what the value of being an active member of a user group in his article Exploring the Value of .NET Users Groups. I know that I have reaped many rewards from being active in the San Diego user groups and I hope this can convince every developer to get involved.

In the US if you want to find a group close to you go to codezone.com and search for a group. I like codezone.com as it has groups of all types not just the INETA .NET groups.

On Tuesday night of this week I had the opportunity to present to the San Luis Obispo .NET User Group. This is a new .NET focused group in the central coast of California an aria I have only driven through at break neck speeds to get to San Francisco or back home so I was looking forward to seeing a little of the place.

The group is run by Robert Hope who has done a great job of building a community of people who are interested in .NET. The people at the meeting were quite interesting and had some great questions. I presented on the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions and ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. This was the first time I presented anything about ajax and I was impressed how well received it was received. For the demo pillaged the great content that Steve Marx did in blog post Bad AJAX jokes, good AJAX sample I also had a slide deck but it was not much if you want to see it you can get a pdf of it here.

As an aside after the meeting some of us when out for a drink and they suggested a place downtown called Mothers Tavern but a Linsey Lohan movie was being shot downtown and Mothers was rented out for crew catering. But it was quite surreal seeing how many people were just trying to get a look at Linsey Lohan... If you don't offend easily then checkout what Foamy has to say about celebrates. Yes I feel the same way he dose!