Fred Mastropasqua

This weekend I attended the Orlando .Net Code Camp, 2010.  It was really good and I’m glad I went.  I even won a book, Professional ASP.NET 4 in C# and VB in a raffle drawing; I never win stuff :) I want to say thanks Microsoft!

Silverlight Animations 101

by Henry Lee from www.newagesolution.net

My first class of the day. This was a good class for me, because I wanted to know more about Silverlight animation. Granted some of it I already knew from using Blend and recently developing a business tool in SL, such as the VisualStateManager, but other little things I picked up were nice to knows and stuff I would like to dive into more later when I have time.

Behavior Driven Development (BDD)

by Sean Chambers, files at http://github.com/schambers/orlandocodecamp2010
http://www.lostechies.com/blogs/sean_chambers/

This was a great class in learning a new way of thinking and testing.  Developing test cases and application requirements from the outside in. Similar to GWT (Given When Then). I got a lot of good info from this on BDD vs TDD.  A neat tool that was mentioned was SpecUnit which reads your BDD and generates a cool Html document from it.  Also, due to the nature of Ruby on Rails, there is a good book on BDD for Ruby. Though it’s for Ruby, the theory is the same. It was recommended. The RSpec Book.  The method was developed by Dan North.

Some tools mentioned were CruiseControl.Net, Resharper or Coderush templates and Autokey Bdd.

Successfully Running Your Own Business

by Paul Swengler

Good class for someone that’s never run or had a business before. I thought I’d get something out of it, but unfortunately I already knew all the info. Went over a lot of basics and obvious that people overlook.

WCF RIA Services

by John McFetridge http://jmcfetridge.blogspot.com/

I’m sorry John, but I had to walk out of the class. I just couldn’t sit in there anymore.  I’ve already developed SL apps talking with WCF but not with RIA or Entities or Domain Service. However, this class was way to fast and just all over the place that it hurt my head and I had to leave. Best thing I got out of it was Saurabh Pant’s weblog.

From there I went into a jQuery class halfway in, but already knew the material.

Introduction to Azure and SQL Azure

by Joe Healy http://dfwiki.devfish.net

Now, this was a great class. Great and better understanding of Azure since the first time I sat in on it, when it was still fresh out the womb at Microsoft.  Makes so much sense for small companies or even large ones to have tools developed that can be scaled to fit sudden bursts and spikes in traffic for a fraction of the cost if you were to house your own sever farm. SQL for Azure has come a long way as well and it was exciting to see it in action.  There’s also the free pricing model for small apps and testing.

I got a lot of information out of this class. Some things I want to look up for later is Jeff Bernes’ case study as he in Tampa like myself.   Jim Zimmermon and the Tampbay.net group.  Using Bizspark or Website Spark to get access to the MSDN and 8 months of Azure for free.

Note, need to use SQL Manager R2 with Azure and also I want to look more into SQL 2008 Geospacing. 

Local SQL to SQL Azure and SQL Azure to local SQL tool, SQLAzureMW at codeplex.

Understanding Lambda’s in .Net

by Scott Dorman at http://geekswithblogs.net/sdorman/

This was about Lambda expressions in C#. Was good but since I mainly develop in VB.Net, just made me a little jealous :p

Design for Developers

by Diane Leeper at http://www.dianeleeper.com/ and blog at http://www.42stars.com/blog/

This was another great class where I walked away with a lot of information on design. She gave out 5 rules.

#1 – Alignment & Grid
#2 – Focus
#3 – Art
#4 – Pictionary
#5 – Community

I won’t dive into those and take away her thunder but it will help me remember. Some books that were recommended.  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, also The Back of the Napkin, which is more up my alley.

Some community links she gave out..

http://abduzeedo.com/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
http://www.visitmix.com/
http://2009.max.adobe.com/online/
http://videos.visitmix.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox

The End

And that about wraps it up.  Also, came across Russ there who does Silverlight training. http://www.russtoolshed.net/

They say it will all be on Channel9 soon at msdn.

Developer Tools, Education, Travel, Web Tools, Training & Learning CodeCamp

I’ve put together, from the Microsoft Site a Step-By-Step plan for getting certifications by Microsoft in the areas of .Net 3.5 Development, Team Foundation Server, Sharepoint and SQL 2008.

I’ve listed in order that you need to study and take exams that makes the most sense. The links go back to the Microsoft site Training/Certification pages.  This list is to make it easy.  Just follow it down and you study the book or e-learning class, then you take the listed exam and you get the listed certification.

.Net Framework, Developer Tools, ASP.NET, Programming, Microsoft, Visual Studio, Education microsoft certifications, education