Just a quick update from the meeting this month.  Jeff Certain did a great job presenting on Azure.  He showed some of the gotchas as well as how to get started with some of the latest SQL Azure stuff.  We also really enjoyed the new meeting space at the OTC.  The room is really impressive.  It has a giant main screen as well as two flat panels for the sides of the room.  It also has wireless access for everyone as well as wired connections at each seat!  Please come out in Oct. and check it out.

The food from Robert Half was terrific as well.  We had pasta, salad and breadsticks.  Jason Moyer from Robert Half also gave some great resume writing tips as well as a quick update on the economic status in the IT market.

Below is a link to Jeff's slides and demos from the meeting.  The demo is a quick Winform app that will migrate a current SQL or Access DB to SQL Azure.  His original demo was in VS 2010 Beta only.  I converted to VS 2008 and included it in the zip file below.  I also added support for a couple more datatypes.  Anyway, you need to setup your SQl Azure account to use.  So, go to the Azure site for that first and then fire up this demo to get yout DB out there.  Here is the zip that has the slides and the Demos:

Demo and Slides

Enjoy!

Ben

This meeting will be held at our new home the Team USA Swimming building at the Olympic Training Center. Summer meetings are over so this meeting is at our normal meeting time of 5:30 PM - CLICK here TO GET THE NEW LOCATION AND TIME DETAILS.

Jeff Certain – Introduction to the Azure Services Platform

At the last Professional Developer's Conference (PDC), Microsoft announced their cloud computing initiative – the Azure Services Platform. This platform provides the Windows Azure cloud services operating system with a growing list of service offerings, including .NET services, and SQL Services. Come and discuss this with Jeff as he provides an overview of the basics of cloud computing using the Azure Services Platform, including the overall architecture and the development tools integrated into Visual Studio. We’ll discuss considerations for deployment, including geographic affinity. Jeff will also demonstrate a variety of cloud-based storage techniques, including both Azure local storage and deployment of relational data to SQL Services. We’ll finish with a demonstration of integrating the Parallel Extensions libraries with Azure to develop scalable, high-throughput applications. Learn about how the Azure Services Platform provides many capabilities to anyone ranging from web developers and hobbyists, to corporate developers and software makers – something you, your customers and users will appreciate.

Jeff Certain is a Microsoft MVP in VB.net and a software architect at Colorado Customware, a mid-sized ISV providing computer-assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) and land records management (LRM) solutions to county governments throughout the U.S. He has written for Visual Studio Magazine and has spoken at VS Live on parallel computing. Jeff is also involved in the technical community, leading the Northern Colorado .NET Special Interest Group and the Northern Colorado Software Architects group.

Thanks to Steven Lange for his presentation on Team Foundation Server! It was a very interactive and informative talk. Also thanks to Microsoft for providing the food for the meeting. It was a great meeting.  Steve has already posted his demos and slides here.  Thanks again to Steve.

We wanted to let everyone know that next month’s meeting has been moved to the second Tuesday of the month Sept 8th. We are also back to evening meetings that start at 5:30 PM. If that isn’t enough we are also switching the meeting location to the Olympic Training Center located off of Boulder and Union in Colorado Springs. We will provide more details in a week or two. We just wanted to let you know that there are some changes coming so pay attention to the emails and site updates this month!!!

There are a couple other things from the meeting that need to be mentioned.  First, there is another MSDN event coming to Colorado Springs on Sept 1st.  Here are the details:

• Who: Rob Bagby and Company
• What:
  • Windows 7 for Developers
  • IE8 For Developers
  • Building Business Apps with SL 3
• When: Sept 8th 1:00 - 5:00 PM
• Where: EMC formerly Configuresoft

Follow this link to get more details on the topics and to register for the event.  These events are provided free of charge by Microsoft so let's register and attend to ensure Rob continues to bring these highly beneficial events to our area.

Next, the Yack's have done it again!  They have written and published a book.  This is a jumpstart book for Silverlight designed to get someone that has never used Silverlight up and running quickly.  As usual they are giving members of out group a special code to get the  book for a discount.  Here are the details:

• Ebook for $14.95 (retail is $19.95)
  • Code: SouthColoradoeBook
• Print book for $24.95 (retail is $39.99)
  • Code: SouthColoradoBook

Follow this link to get more details on the content of the book as well as order the book using the discount code.

Have a great day and please check back for updates related to next month's meeting.

This meeting will be held at EMC formerly Configuresoft. This meeting will follow our summer schedule and be held from 11:30 AM - 1:15 PM - see here for more location and time details.

Steven Lange – Team Foundation Server: Today & Tomorrow

Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a pretty big tool, and it’s only getting bigger! In this session, we’ll explore the basics of what TFS does, including version control, work item tracking, automated build, process guidance, and reporting. We’ll also look at some of the major improvements in the pipe for TFS 2010, including build workflow, hierarchical work items, and branch visualization. Join us and discover that TFS goes way beyond simple source control and can speed up your development process.

Steven Lange is a Developer Technology Specialist for Microsoft based in the Denver, CO area. He is an original holder of this role, and has been at Microsoft since 2005. Steve has been working in the fields of software configuration management, requirements management, and application lifecycle management since 1999. As a Developer Technology Specialist, Steve serves as a field expert for Microsoft’s high-end development and application lifecycle management tools, specifically Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server.

We'd like to thank Joe Mayo for taking the time to present to our group on the new features of C# 4.0.  As always it was a great presentation.  Joe has already posted his demos and slides here.  Thanks again to Joe.

We'd also like to thank Matt Bates from TEKSystems for supplying the food and EMC\Configuresoft for letting us use the space.  We really appreciate thier support.

We have finally got around to getting some social networking stuff in place.  So, please join the Facebook group here and follow our Twitter handle here.