Our November meeting will be held on Tuesday November 11th, 2008 6pm at Justin Brands.

Our October meeting will be held on Tuesday October 21st, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Our September meeting will be held on Tuesday September 16th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Our August meeting will be held on Tuesday August 19th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Jef Newsom will be presenting: Behavior-Driven Development

August Meeting Sponsor
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit http://www.teksystems.com/

Behavior-Driven Development
For those who have chosen to adopt it, test-driven development has proven to radically change how they think about designing and developing software. However, many people struggle with the application of the technique, and some people actively refuse to adopt it, often due merely to the semantics. It is common to hear:

Testing? That's what QA is for!
How can I know what to test until I've written it?
Should I create one test class per class? One test class per method? One test class per, um, ...

Behavior-driven development attempts to remove these impediments by changing the vocabulary from one of verification to one of specification, and it clarifies the goal - to focus on behavior. By driving applications from user stories to scenarios, and from scenarios to contexts and specifications, behavior-driven development promises to optimize the creation and delivery of value to your stakeholders.

Jef will facilitate a conversation with you about behavior-driven development. We'll discuss your challenges with TDD and BDD, we'll demonstrate applying BDD to solve a real-world problem, and then we'll speculate on the next evolution beyond BDD to further improve the fidelity of the craft.

Speaker Bio
Jef is a believer, husband, father, and a co-founder of Improving Enterprises, Inc., a Dallas-based consultancy providing Learning Solutions, Certified Consulting, and Rural-Sourced Development. He is honored to be among the first 70 people awarded the Microsoft Certified Architect Certification, and he is a proud Microsoft MVP for C#.

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Our July meeting will be held on Tuesday July 15th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Roger Guess will be presenting: Silverlight 2 In the Cloud: Exploring a cloud based application with Silverlight

July Meeting Sponsor
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit http://www.teksystems.com/

Silverlight 2 In the Cloud: Exploring a cloud based application with Silverlight
We will explore needs such as authentication, scalability, network socket support, and cloud based storage as a means to support a Silverlight 2 game.

Speaker Bio
Roger Guess is a senior developer and consultant with over eleven years of software development experience (twelve if you count Logo on the TI9941) and seven years in professional services and consulting. Roger specializes in .net web application architecture and development using technologies including C#, ASP.NET, Silverlight and SQL Server. Be sure to follow his new site www.SilverlightAddict.com to keep current with the latest news and resources on Silverlight.

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Our June meeting will be held on Tuesday June 17th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

David Yancey will be presenting: Dynamic Data Controls:  A Look Inside

June Meeting Sponsor
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit http://www.teksystems.com/

Dynamic Data Controls:  A Look Inside
Taking a look into Dynamic Data Controls, included in VS 2008 SP1, we are going to look at the setting up a site with the wizard, template pages/controls, and finally customization.

Speaker Bio
David Yancey started building his first website in 1995 and has been developing websites since.  While specializing in Microsoft Technologies, including VB/VB.Net, ASP/ASP.NET, and SQL Server, David is also well versed in XML technologies having helped define XML Schema for the automotive sales industries while consulting with BMW.  More recently David, has been concentrating on MVP Design pattern, TDD, Agile and Scrum while at his current employer ThinkCash.  He stays active in the .NET community as a regular contributor on ASP.Net forums, Fort Worth .NET User Group, and Blogging on new technologies such as LINQ and Dynamic Data Controls.

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Our May meeting will be held on Tuesday May 20th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Daniel Egan will be presenting: LINQ to the Enterprise

May Meeting Sponsors
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit http://www.teksystems.com/

Thank you to INETA for sponsoring our speaker this month!

LINQ to the Enterprise
To the untrained eye, LINQ may seem like a brand new technology but it has actually been over 7 years in the making. In this session we will uncover where LINQ came from and why you need to pay attention to it. (Anders Hejlsberg is the project sponsor) We will discuss what an ORM (Object Relational Mapper ) is and why you want to use one. We will explore the language enhancements that make LINQ possible and then dive into the fundamentals of the LINQ pipeline and language. We will wrap up the session by discussing how you should integrate Linq into your ASP.Net Application ( ie. not in your code behind pages).

Speaker Bio
Daniel N. Egan
President INETA – North America
Microsoft Regional Director
Microsoft MVP ASP/ASP.Net , MCSD, MCT

Over the past twelve years, Daniel has held a variety of positions in the information technology and engineering fields. At Odyssey Consulting Group, a Microsoft Partner,  he serves as President and CEO.

Daniel is very involved in the Developer Community. He is the current President of INETA –North America (The International .Net Association) which helps to support more than 250 .Net user groups in North America. Prior to his current term as President, he served on the INETA board of Directors as the VP of Technology.  In addition to volunteering on a national level,  he has founded and served as a leader in two .Net User Groups in the Southern California area (SoCalDotNet and LACSharp) as well as being on the board of directors of two other. As an active member of the community, he helps run two Code Camps in the Southern California area bringing free .Net training to over 2000 developers each year.

Daniel has been awarded a Microsoft MVP in ASP/ASP.Net and has also been honored as a Microsoft Regional Director. He currently holds an MCSD, and MCT and is a member of the .Net Insiders for the Southern California Region.

In addition to the Board of Directors for INETA, Daniel also serves on the .Net Advisory Boards of both California State University Fullerton (CSUF) and the University of California San Diego(UCSD). He has taught a .Net Certification course at CSUF for 7 years and enjoys teaching new developers all about .Net technologies.

Daniel is a frequent speaker and conference presenter at conferences like MIX and SDWest and travels the country speaking at user groups as a member of the INETA Speakers Bureau. He  has written several articles in addition to being the author of Building Websites With VB.Net and DotNetNuke 3.0.  and a new upcoming title from Wrox on ASP.Net Design Patterns.

To find out more about Daniel, visit  his blog, Dot Net Doc (http://www.dotnetdoc.com/), a .NET developer resource website

Daniel can be reached at degan@ocgpros.com

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We have some GREAT PRIZES to give out at our VS.NET 2008 Launch Party on 4/22/08:

• 2 "Heroes Hapen {here} Launch Kits:
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
• Visual Studio Standard Edition
• SQL Server 2008 CTP5
• NFR voucher for SQL Server 2008 Standard redeemable when SQL Server 2008 has RTM’d and is Generally Available (GA)
• 1 Vista Ultimate w/SP 1
• 1 Office Professional 2007
• 1 Infragistics netAdvantage for .NET w/Subscription
• 1 Voucher for a 1yr Free subscription to TechNet Plus Direct (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/bb404693.aspx#see)
• 1 .NET Framework 3.5 Developer Resource Kit
• 40% off TechNet Plus Subscriptions (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/bb404693.aspx#see) for All attendees
• 1 Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Pro
• 1 Microsoft Fingerprint Reader
• ASP.NETPRO Magazines
• CODE Magazines
  

Don't forget to RSVP at www.codezone.com (instructions) to earn yourself an extra prize ticket!

Our April meeting will be held on Tuesday April 22nd, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Our very own FWDNUG VP Cory Smith and member Roger Guess will be presenting on LINQ and SilverLight respectively.  Along with these two great presentations - we will be handing out many great prizes - including copies of VS.NET 2008!!

April Meeting Sponsor
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit www.teksystems.com

Speaker Bios:

Cory Smith
Cory Smith is the founder of XboxFriends.com, maintains a .NET related blog at AddressOf.com and is very active in the .NET community.   His community involvement includes: Vice President of the Fort Worth .NET Users Group, VBInsider Member, Microsoft MVP, and member of the South Central District Developer Guidance Council.   A veteran developer (professionally writing software for over 15 years) working on projects ranging anywhere from major e-commerce sites such as RadioShack.com and InterstateBatteries.com to applications that are at the heart and soul of over 4600 radio stations around the world.  His work history includes working for Tandy/RadioShack, Rare Medium, Inc., Electric Works Corp., Scott Studios Corp. and Shiny Stone Digital.

Roger Guess

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Our March meeting will be held on Tuesday March 18th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Craig Bowes will be presenting: O/R Mapping Patterns and Tools

March Meeting Sponsor
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit www.teksystems.com

O/R Mapping Patterns and Tools
Developers are given two different and seemingly contradictory sets of best practices--one is to store all their data in a normalized, relational database such as Sql Server, and the other is to program using good object orientation and design patterns.  This contradiction is typically referred to as impedance mismatch and presents a very real problem for programmers.  However there are many patterns and tools that can help to solve this problem and allow good OO design as well as a normalized database.  This is called O/R Mapping.   We'll discuss many questions related to O/R Mapping.  Should we do O/R Mapping ourselves or use a third party tool such as NHibernate or Microsoft's upcoming Entity Framework?  What are the existing ORM tools out there and what are the pros and cons of using such tools?  We'll look at O/R Mapping design patterns that have been around for a long time such as DataMapper and Repository as well as the current hype around the ActiveRecord pattern, popularized by Ruby on Rails and the Castle Project. See what O/R Mapping is all about and whether its a good fit for your shop.

Speaker Bio
Craig is currently the Lead Application Developer in Fort Worth, Texas for The Enilon Group, a web development firm. He started his love of programming in the 3rd grade using BASIC on the Commodoore PET, and professionally for the past 8 years. He has written several articles for ASPToday.com and co-authored the book "Beginning Web Programming using VB.NET and Visual Studio .NET".   He has focused his career primarily on C#, ASP.NET and Sql Server but also has dabbled in WinForms, Java, Ruby, Coldfusion and MySQL.   Besides programming, Craig is best known for his cooking and his somewhat offbeat sense of humor.

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Our February meeting will be held on Tuesday February 19th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Jake Good will be presenting: A Play-date with Rails and .NET

February Meeting Sponsor
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit www.teksystems.com

A Play-date with Rails and .NET
The new kid on the block of web platforms is Ruby on Rails. We've heard about it, dabbled in it, and might have considered using it in some our solutions… but one of the hesitations comes from integration. How will it work with existing data? How will it work with existing .NET applications and libraries? The answers are out there ... and this discussion will lead you to examples on how you can do integration (both ways) between Ruby on Rails and .Net. You'll see how you can easily invoke / publish web services, databases, and libraries between the two. Come check out what all the hype is about and expand your toolbox to help provide better solutions to your problems.

Speaker Bio
Jake is a senior consultant for Inetium that has been consulting / developing software in the Twin Cities for nearly 4 years. Just recently relocated to Fort Worth, TX. My development experience has been primarily focused on smart client development and mobile development and social networking. I've been working on a large social networking site (www.yfly.com) that has reached over 200,000 users and the recently popular www.drop.io. My interests for software development include: bioinformatics, genetics, .Net (C#), Ruby on Rails, Erlang, and mostly scientific stuff, but I dabble in just about everything!

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If you haven't already - please take the time to create an account at our new website (www.fwdnug.com) and at codezone.com and RSVP for our January meeting.  You can reach our event listing at Codezone here: http://www.codezone.com/UGEventsList.CodezoneCom?ActiveID=2532 

Prizes for tomorrow's meeting will be:

• Windows Vista Business
• Telerik ASP.NET RadControl suite with 1 Year Subscription and Source Code
• Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 with 1 Year Subscription
• ComponentOne Reports for .NET Full Version
• Several .NET Books and T-Shirts
  

As usual - we'll have plenty of FREE ASP.NET Pro and CODE Magazines to give away for all attendees!  We also have 40 Visual Studio Express Edition DVD's to hand out.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Our January meeting will be held on Tuesday January 15th, 2008 at 6pm at Justin Brands.

Ben Scheirman will be presenting: ASP.NET MVC - "Save the developer, Save the World"

January Meeting Sponsor
TEKsystems® provides technology execution services, helping businesses deploy high-caliber IT and communications expertise under a range of delivery options including Staffing Services, Team Services, Workforce Management Services, and Component Services. Ranked by IT Services Business Report as the nation’s top IT staffing firm, we’ve become a billion-dollar services company by continually building on what we do best—blending superior client service with an unrivaled ability to source and manage IT and communications talent, resulting in successful technology executions. Our offerings address a wide array of applications, infrastructure, and communications needs including technology deployment services, enterprise software support services, and asset management services. Our commitment to customer service has also led to the development of market specializations as a further way to put our expertise to work efficiently and creatively. To find out more, visit www.teksystems.com

ASP.NET MVC - "Save the developer, Save the World"
Have you ever tried to unit test your web applications?  Have you ever wanted to have cleaner urls, cleaner, standards-compliant HTML?  What about accessible, unobtrusive Javascript?  With ASP.NET WebForms all of these things have been difficult.  Not impossible, but difficult.  Come learn about the upcoming ASP.NET MVC framework and see how it addresses these concerns.  Model-View-Controller is a widely respected pattern for developing web applications, and it gives us the freedom to have complete control over our URLs, HTML (DOM element ID's), and allows us to easily unit test our controllers.  Come take a look at the next paradigm in .NET web development!

Speaker Bio
Ben Scheirman is a Principal Consultant with Sogeti. He studied computer science at the University of Houston and is a Certified ScrumMaster & Microsoft Certified Solution Developer.  He enjoys speaking and blogging about agile development topics in .NET.  Read his blog online at http://www.flux88.com.

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