| SQL vs NoSQL - A look at non-relational databases | More and more people are attempting to unseat the dominance of the RDBMS. What are the NoSQL databases? Are they a threat? Do they actually work? What do they look like? This session provides some answers and offers a context where non-relational databases fit into the picture. | SQL Server MVP Dave Dustin | 24/06/2010 |
| What is LINQ? | Language Integrated Query is one of the big features of C# and Visual Basic, but it remains unfamiliar to a lot of developers. Come and see what features LINQ provides, how LINQ can simplify working with collections and with XML, and how you can use LINQ to easily work with databases such as SQL Server. Learn how LINQ unifies the way you work with all these different kinds of data... and how you can use the same techniques with other kinds of data as well! | Ivan Towlson from Mindscape | 11/05/2010 |
| MIX10 Community Road Show | With MIX10 around the corner, it’s no better time for Microsoft to get on the road and showcase some of the highlights from this year’s conference held in Las Vegas. Join us at your local Community User Group where we will focus on some of the key highlights including; the future of Mobile™, Silverlight™, Internet Explorer®, Expression®. Ryan Tarak, from Microsoft New Zealand will be travelling all over NZ spreading the good word and also be getting everyone ready for the launch of Visual Studio 2010 by giving the first 30 members at each event a retro Microsoft t-shirt. We will also be providing content from MIX on DVD’s and also the usual pizza, so make sure you block out the date below | RYAN TARAK Developer Advisor, Microsoft | 25/03/2010 |
| VSTS 2010 – What are the roles and where is it going ? | Abstract: VSTS 2010 is the ‘third release’ of Visual Studio Team system – common folklore tells us that means it is the most complete and stable release to date. In terms of stability time will tell but early indications are favourable – in terms of completeness new features for the test and architect roles are a big advance in VSTS 2008. Most smaller development shops don’t have specific architects or testers but the new role tools are still important because lets face it – the roles still need to get done usually by the ‘developer’. So come along and learn what new stuff is available for several roles and how you can leverage it. | Mark Carroll is a founder of aBEAT which is a consultancy specialising in IT architecture and software development support. He is also the user group lead for the Wellington based Visual Studio Team System user group and was with Microsoft for a number of years before he formed aBEAT.
| 12/02/2010 |
| Website Security: Teaching the Good Guys Bad Tricks | You can't fight a war that you don't know you're waging. You can't defend your website against attack unless you know the tricks that the bad guys will use. By the end of this talk you will have an understanding of some of the common attacks, such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Cross-Domain Request Forgery (CDRF), and will have an appreciation of how layering your defenses (defense-in-depth) can help protect you from exploit chaining. The session will also give you some practical tips that you can apply straight away in Visual Studio 2008 to help you build secure websites | | 1/12/2009 |
| Optimising Client-Side Performance To Build Faster Web Sites | Craig will discuss a set of best practices discovered by him and others to improve the client-side performance and user experience of any web site or web-based application using his work as CTO at Xero as a real-world example of what can be achieved. These guidelines focus on the front-end, where 80-90% of the end-user response time is spent, and have been proven to reduce response times in many of the biggest web sites in the world. Craig will explain how to profile an existing site to show how in any optimization effort it's critical to profile current performance to understand where the greatest improvement can be made. He'll then dive into how each guideline works and how it can be applied to any new or existing web application. Front-end improvements typically require less time and resources than back-end performance projects and Craig will show the why, what and how of client-side optimizations that will benefit any developer, IT manager or administrator wanting to improve the performance of their web applications. | Craig Walker, Chief Technology Officer, Xero | 3/11/2009 |
| What's Happening in .NET Languages and Why Should You Care? | Alternative .NET programming languages have been around since the platform first shipped, but they've never got much traction in the real world: Visual Basic and C# still dominate .NET development. But increasingly, new languages are emerging to address new trends and needs. Microsoft is including F# in Visual Studio 2010, shifting its scripting focus towards PowerShell, and backing IronPython and IronRuby on both .NET and Silverlight. So what are these languages, and what other languages are out there? And more important, what place do they have in real world solutions? Come along and see what's happening in .NET languages -- and how it can make a difference to you.
| Ivan Towlson from Mindscape | 6/10/2009 |
| Get ready: What’s coming with .NET 4.0 | In this session John-Daniel Trask will be covering some of the cool new features coming as part of .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. Come and see how .NET 4.0 will make software development easier with parallel programming enhancements, new project types, new languages and improvements to the existing languages. Beyond the core framework, we will be covering new features of Workflow Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation. Come and join John-Daniel to find out how the new features will apply to your software projects. | John-Daniel Trask from Mindscape | 1/09/2009 |
| ASP.net MVC a Deep(er) Dive | The aim of this talk/presentation is to follow on from John-Daniel Trask's talk last year on MVC. A brief overview of MVC and how the framework came to be, and touching on the different parts of the framework followed by: What MVC means to developers, why it's especially applicable in the web 2.0 world. Routing in more depth, how to write your own routes, and what common patters appear (REST routes and resources) Models or some small pointers as to how chose an ORM for use with MVC Views and a brief dip into different view engines. Tips and patterns for controllers. By the end of the talk, hopefully attendies will have enough information to know where to look when getting more active with the MVC framework and will have a good idea of what to avoid when writing MVC applications. | Owen Evans is a software developer with Xero, in his day to day role Owen gets his hands dirty with the MVC framework running the Xero API. | 4/08/2009 |
| Sharepoint Technologies and Architecture | Want to learn more about this thing we call SharePoint. From WSS to MOSS to Forms Server to SharePoint Designer to Visual Studio to the 12 Hive? Come and spend some time with Mark Orange, a local SharePoint MVP from Wellington, who will provide an real world overview of the SharePoint technologies landscape and a introduction to the architecture of SharePoint under the hood. Find out about Site Definitions, Features, Web Content Management, themes and more in this informal session where you can interrupt, ask questions and have a bit of a good old discussion. | Mark Orange
Sharepoint MVP | 9/07/2009 |