Code Camp Auckland 2009 - Development | SQL | Security

I’m speaking at Code Camp, presenting on Microsoft Certifications during lunch. Here is the blurb from Kirk Jackson:

Code Camp is less than two weeks away!

If you want to catch some free sessions on the state-of-the-art in .NET development, SQL Server and developer security then sign up for Code Camp Auckland 2009 now.

Code Camps are non-profit, and organised by members of the local developer community. This year the Auckland Code Camp is the day before TechEd (Sunday 13 September), so we've managed to nab a few great speakers on their day off to present to us.

It's the biggest Code Camp ever - over 14 hours of sessions across 3 streams from 10am till 5pm:

Development...

• What's Happening in C# 4.0 and .NET Languages and Why Should You Care?
• Behaviour Driven Development
• Domain Specific Languages
• Silverlight with Prism
• .NET on the iPhone
• Becoming Certified
• Lightning Talks
• and more!

The latest and greatest in development topics, by the people that know!

SQL Server?

• SQL Server Virtualisation Best Practices and Recommendations
• SQL Server Analysis Services and Gemini
• Query Optimization and Query Tuning
• Understanding SQL Server Indexing
• SQL Server Maintenance

Training and guidance from the best SQL trainers in the industry!

Security!

• Secure Development Lifecycle and Threat Modelling workshop
• Secure Coding Practices

We are lucky to have Michael Howard, author of Writing Secure Code and 24 Deadly Sins of Software Security giving a free workshop for developers, architects and team leads on Threat Modelling and the Secure Development Lifecycle. This will be followed by a session on how to write secure .NET code.

Auckland has never seen such an awesome free event!

Presenters that are offering their time include Greg Low, Nicholas Dritsas and Auckland's Alex Henderson of Architecture Chat fame.

To cover the costs of the event, we have the help of our generous sponsors: Microsoft, Datacom, Intergen, INETA and Xero.

All that's left for you to do is to visit the website for more details, and sign up now!

See you there on Sunday 13 September,

What on Earth have I been up to?

I’ve been busy:

Date	Title	Venue
02-Apr-09	WebCast: Intro to ORM for DBAs	PASS USA
16-Apr-09	What’s New in Microsoft SQL Services	Wellington SQL Users
30-Apr-09	Microsoft Certifications	Auckland SQL Users
14-May-09	How To: Design and Develop Applications to Ensure Quality	VUW
26-May-09	How To: Design and Develop Applications to Ensure Quality	Ellerslie .NET Users
14-Jun-09	Microsoft Sync Framework	NZ .NET Code Camp, Porirua
18-Jun-09	Microsoft Sync Framework	Wellington SQL Users
15-Jul-09	How To: Design and Develop Applications to Ensure Quality	Wellington .NET Users
30-Jul-09	Microsoft Sync Framework	Auckland SQL Users & Ellerslie .NET Users
04-Aug-09	Creation: Why I Believe	Malakai’s Care Group, Wellington Elim
20-Aug-09	How To: Design and Develop Applications to Ensure Quality	Software Quality NZ
13-Sep-09	Microsoft Certifications	NZ .NET Code Camp, Auckland
29-Sep-09	Creation: Why I Believe	Jeannie’s Care Group, Wellington Elim

I’m available for bookings!

I have moved my Blog!

Old Site: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/JamesHip/

New Site: http://JamesHip.blogspot.com/

Reason: I can now use Windows Live Writer to write my blogs, instead of manually creating an html page in Microsoft Visual Studio!  Also, the formatting was being automatically changed, thus rendering my final output almost illegible.

Method: I had to move each item manually!  I discovered how to make my past blogs appear as though they were written on their original post date, but I couldn’t make the comments appear that way.  It took me 7 days to do it, because there was 7 pages of blogs to move over; each page was about 20 blogs.

Result: This will be my final entry at GeekZone.  Thanks, Mauricio, for being a great service when I needed you.

Delivered my Quality Presentation Again

This time to the Wellington Dot Net Users Group.
See previous post for link to slides.
Another good discussion ensued.
This time I demoed FxCop.  That went well.
I think next time (if there is one) I would also demo the Testing framework.

Feedback on my presentation style: was good, but I need to "own" the subject a bit more.  Instead of being deferential to either the material or the audience, I need to project confidence in the stuff I know.

The Microsoft Sync Framework

I gave a presentation at the NZ .NET Code Camp at Whitireia Polytech, Porirua on Sunday 14 June 2009.

What Was Covered	Overview of the Microsoft Sync Framework Enabled scenarios, vision, approach Demo: Prerequisites and Installing Synchronizing existing endpoints using the Sync Framework Exposing data as FeedSync compatible RSS and ATOM feeds
The Microsoft Sync Framework	Access to your data on any computer, device, or service across disparate applications.
Slide Presentation	Click here to download the slide show presentation for the Microsoft Sync Framework
Impressions	I was in a story-telling mood yesterday.  I explained that I had just laid my mother to rest, so was interrupted in my preparation.  I sensed sympathy for my situation and no animosity for being under-prepared. In the course of my preparation, I discovered two quite disparate explanations of the Sync Framework from Microsoft.  The first (which I had studiously prepared) was the offline caching and automatic synchronisation that SQL Server enabled via the Compact Edition.  The second (which was rushed) was the manual coding of new providers and their exception rules via the SDK. It ended up be a facilitated discussion (is that lazy of me? or is that being dynamic and confident and adaptable?)  Anyway, questions were asked and answered, so feedback was mainly positive.
Questions	I was asked “Does the provider enable the use of security credentials and/or encryption?” From the material I had presented, it appeared that since the protocol could be specified, that therefore if HTTPS was specified, then encryption would be enabled.  Also, as the providers encapsulated callbacks to handle exceptions such as conflict resolution, it is logical to assume that the providers are completely programmable to handle any security (login) requirements. I promised to look this up.  Here’s the answer: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2e9bec3b-9deb-4620-a955-266e656d8fa4&displaylang=en
About the Presenter	James Hippolite remembers being 15 in the 5th form at Nelson College, when he sat up one night coding a bio-rhythms application on his newly acquired second-hand Apple IIe.  At 3am, he ran into his mother’s bedroom to excitedly inform her he’d successfully finished.  Her measured response allowed him to continue to feel good about coding. James holds Microsoft certification as a Professional Developer (MCPD: Web Developer), IT Professional (MCITP: Database Developer) and Trainer (MCT). He lives in Wellington and is currently employed full time in a large corporate and loving the regular hours that non-consultants enjoy.

MSDN Unplugged Roadshow Wellington

Date/Time

Friday, 5 June 2009 @ 9:am - 12:30pm

Product(s)

Microsoft Expression Blend,Microsoft Silverlight,Windows 7

Audience(s)

Developer

Presenter(s)

Mike Zeff, Nigel Parker

Event Overview

Session 1: Windows 7 for Developers

Windows 7 contains many new features for developers that allow you to create very rich applications for your users, including the ability to touch-enable your own applications. This session will cover how you can take advantage of new Windows 7 features using .NET 3.5 to build rich client applications and we’ll also take a look at what’s coming in .NET 4.0. Presented by ISV Developer Advisor, Mike Zeff.

Session 2: Taking your Web experience to the next level with Silverlight 3

Internet Explorer 8 has been released and Silverlight 3 was announced recently at MIX ‘09. This session will show you how you can take advantage of Silverlight 3 and Expression Blend 3 to create stunning web applications that can run both inside and outside the browser. We’ll also show you how to take advantage of exciting features in IE8 that make your web site more ‘sticky’ for your users. Presented by Web Developer Advisor, Nigel Parker.

Impressions

A good introduction to Multi-Touch programming for Windows 7 using Visual Studio 2010 and XAML.

Matti had a good question: "When with IE8 support HTML5?"  The background to that question is that HTML5 is a new standard everybody else is adopting except Microsoft, because it's a Silverlight killer.  No official answer (from Microsoft) exists.

I advertised next weekend's Code Camp.

I won the web-cam draw!  All-in-all a profitable meeting.

How to: Design and Develop an Application to Ensure its Quality

I gave a presentation last night:

Title

How To: Design and Develop an Application to Ensure its Quality

Audience

Victoria University of Wellington, 3rd year “Software Engineering” students (SWEN 301 = COMP 301)

Attendees

About 30

Date/Time

Thursday 14 May @ 4pm

Slides

Ensuring Quality

Impressions

The first half of my presentation, defining and designing quality, was taken straight out of the book.  Specifically, straight out of the “Analysing Requirements and Defining .NET Solution Architectures” exam.  The second half of my presentation, coding quality, came out of my head and covered training, reviewing and testing.

I could see some heads nodding in agreement as I was speaking, always a good sign.  I could see some heads nodding in weariness, never a good sign.

The question time is always my favourite, because it’s then that I can most accurately gauge whether what I have been saying is “scratching the itch” of the intended audience. 

The first question was along the lines of “great, you’ve told us some more theory, now what about you personally?  What were some of your failures in your career that will help us to avoid pain and embarrassment?”  I won’t record here what I told them in answer, suffice to say it amused them..

The PhD student in the audience had come with slightly different expectations.  I think he was hoping for more concrete examples of measurements and statistics for writing good code.  My rather lame response was that if/when I’m inclined to worry about that kind of thing, then I turn on FxCop to analyse my code for me.

I admitted to being a “lazy coder” in that I enjoy/prefer using objects that I drag onto the page from a toolbox, rather than coding everything by hand.

Definition of terms became important.  I needed to very clearly define “Agile” and “Peer”.  To me, peer programming is not necessarily the Extreme Programming definition of working side-by-side on the same computer.  It just means working as a team on the same project.  To me, Agile just means having many, quick iterations, rather than waterfall software lifecycle methodology.  I hadn’t realised they considered themselves Software Engineers.  To me, there are hardware/network engineers vs. software developers.

Evaluation

Hi James,

Your presentation today was really good. I believe that students love to have you coming from the really world to share your invaluable experience with them. Thank you very much again for your valuable time and your efforts, in particular while you are so busy. I really appreciate it.

Best wishes,
Dr Hui Ma
Lecturer