It's official.  You can now register for Philly.Net Code Camp 2007.2.

On Sept. 15, 2007 we'll have 25 sessions on .Net related topics.  Check out the web site for more information including a preliminary list of topics and presenters.

Also, check out this blog post for more information on our generous corporate contributors and the prizes that we'll have.

Registration opened last night but remember, last time it filled up in less then a day!  Register now, don't get shut out.

Presenter:  Adrian Peoples, Diamond Technologies

Topic:  Delivering a Hybrid MOSS 2007 Implementation using VS.NET 2005, ASP.NET, C#, Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007, Microsoft Excel 2003, Web Services, and WSS 3.0

Adrian started right off by showing us a live site that demonstrates the proof of concept project that Diamond Technologies created for a client.  The client wanted data entry through Excel 2003, stored it in SQL Server 2005, and accessing the data through MOSS 2007.  In this demo, Adrian showed some interesting techniques for using MOSS.  He showed how the MOSS application creates dynamic sharepoint sites using WSS 3.0.  He demonstrated how to create a .aspx page that will run inside a sharepoint site.

Code Camp Registration is OPEN!

In between sessions, Bill demonstrated how he sets up the meetings on the web site.  He even opened up Code Camp registration during the meeting!

Presenter:  Kevin Goff, Common Ground Solutions

Topic:  LINQ

LINQ is a really exciting new technology.  Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is a new addition to the .Net Framework.  It is built in to VS2008 which is still in Beta.  Kevin suggests running it in a virtual machine only!  He showed 4 of the key types of LINQ:  LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, LINQ to DataSets and LINQ to Objects.  LINQ to SQL allows a programmer to write .Net code in a strongly typed manner and access data in a SQL db.  He used sqlmetal (a cmd line tool) to create objects for him.  It is similar to a strongly typed dataset but it is a class.   The syntax is similar to SQL but still quite different.  LINQ to Objects is really cool.  It allows you to execute "sql like" queries on collections of objects.  Kevin also showed how you can take a LINQ result and load it into a DataSet using reflection.  Since Kevin was running a little late, there wasn't much time to show LINQ to DataSets and XML but he did a quick run through on the basics.

LINQ is pretty cool stuff.  We'll all be using it soon so it is a good idea to start reading up.

Hopefully I'll have Kevin's source code to post soon.

Check out his blog for all sorts of information.

here are some resources that Kevin recommends:

http://thedatafarm.com/blog

http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com 

http://codebetter.com

http://www.linqdev.com/publicportal

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu

Meeting Sponsor: Diamond Technologies... Thanks for the sandwiches and snacks!  

Additional Door Prizes courtesy of:   , Microsoft

(Updated Sept. 5)

Philly.Net is proud to present Code Camp 2007.2 on September 15. 2007 along with our Gold Partners:

Our partner organizations for this event are PhillySharePoint and PSSUG.

Swag/Prize contributors:

Here is a preliminary list of companies that are helping us with Code Camp:

Stay tuned for more information...

* While supplies last

Here's a heads up on two events coming soon.  This is a great opportunity to learn about Silverlight and Expression Studio from three of the local Microsoft Developer Evangelists:  Danilo "Dani" Diaz, G. Andrew Duthie, and Zhiming "Z" Xue.  Check out the links for more information and to register.

Each event has two sessions:

• Building Rich Interactive Applications with Microsoft Silverlight
• Delivering Rich Web Experiences Using Microsoft Expression Studio

Philly.Net is proud to present Code Camp 2007.2 on September 15. 2007

Our partners for this event are PhillySharePoint and PSSUG.

Here is an update on some of the contributions and swag we're getting for Code Camp:

Gold Level:

We are really excited to have two well known companies helping out.

Thanks to their contributions, we'll have great food to eat and excellent prizes!

Swag/Prize contributors:

Here is a preliminary list of companies that are helping us with Code Camp:

As things are finalized, I'll post specific information about the cool prizes we'll be giving out!

I've gotta start by saying I love Vista.  A lot of people I talk to are still scared of Vista but I have really enjoyed using it.  I'm no expert on the features but I did blog about a few that I liked right out of the gate.  Lately,  one thing that makes me crazy is the TrustedInstaller.exe.  First, you should understand that I built my own machine and I guess either my CPU fan or the box itself (or both) must suck.  Because when my CPU is cranking, the fan revs up and rattles the entire box.  It is really annoying!  And because of this, it is obvious to me every time TrustedInstaller.exe is running.  This thing typically runs at 48% of my CPU and lasts for 15 minutes or so.  I don't know why it isn't throttled back a bit, it doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, when I first figured out that TrustedInstaller was the culprit, I did some web searching and found a blog post by Scott Hanselman.  I was really glad that I wasn't the only one suffering, especially someone that I respect like Scott (sorry Scott).  But it validated me, that I wasn't doing something wrong myself. 

Interestingly, when I looked up his blog post today to include it here, I read something that stood out to me:

"When I see things like this, I think "If I worked for Microsoft, fixing this problem could be a HUGE opportunity.""

Posted 5/28/2007 on Scott's Blog

Wow, that is awesome because I remembered another post on Scott's blog from which I quote:

"I'm going to work for Microsoft. There, I said it. I'm going to work for ScottGu's team in the Developer Division."

Posted 7/21/2007 on Scott's Blog

OK, I am pretty sure ScottGu's team isn't responsible for the TrustedInstaller.  But Scott (Hanselman), can you PLEASE walk down the hall and talk to someone!

Here's a cool features of the .Net Framework 2.0 that I think isn't too widely known.

Did you know that you can have a public property but restrict the Set portion of it as Protected?  That gives the developer an extra level of control so that derived classes have the ability to set the property's value but other classes can only get the property's value.  Check out this sample:

    public class BaseClass
    {
        private string _myValue;

        public string MyValue
        {
            get { return _myValue; }
            //NOTE THE SET IS PROTECTED!
            protected set { _myValue = value; }
        }
    }

    public class ExtendedClass : BaseClass
    {
        public void DoSomething()
        {
            MyValue = "some value";
            string s1 = MyValue;
        }
    }
    public class DifferentClass
    {
        public void DoSomething()
        {
            BaseClass b = new BaseClass();
            string s = b.MyValue;
            b.MyValue = "some value";  //THIS GETS A COMPILER ERROR!
        }
    }

You can see that in ExtendedClass I can use the property to GET or SET, but in DifferentClass I can only GET.

Here is the error that Visual Studio reports:

I should mention that Intellisense did not show this error (with the squiggly lines) instantly as it usually does.  I needed to compile the project before Visual Studio recognized something was wrong.  And in case you are wondering...Yes, this feature is included in VB.Net too.  Although I should mention that in VB.Net, Intellisense showed me the error even before I compiled.  Darn, I hate to say nice things about VB.Net.  Here is a VB.Net version:

Public Class BaseClass
    Private _myValue As String

    Public Property MyValue() As String
        Get
            Return _myValue
        End Get
        Protected Set(ByVal Value As String)
            _myValue = Value
        End Set
    End Property
End Class
Public Class ExtendedClass
    Inherits BaseClass

    Sub DoSomething()
        Dim s1 = MyValue  'GET WORKS
        MyValue = "Some Value" 'SET WORKS
    End Sub

End Class
Public Class DifferentClass
    Sub DoSomething()
        Dim b As New BaseClass
        Dim s1 As String
        s1 = b.MyValue  'GET WORKS
        b.MyValue = "Some Value" 'SET GETS A COMPILER ERROR!!!!
    End Sub

End Class

Hopefully this is helpful to you!

While the official announcement hasn't gone out yet, you probably know that Philly.Net is presenting Code Camp 2007.2 on Sept 15.

Swag and Contributions -- I've already started a campaign reaching out to vendors for contributors for swag, not to mention breakfast and lunch.  Code camp is a free event and we rely on the generous donations to pay for our expenses.  If you have any interest in helping out in this way, please contact me.  And if you have any ideas for swag that you'd like to see at Code Camp, please let me know.

Presenters -- Bill hasn't sent out the official call for speakers yet, that will come soon.  But now is a good time to think about what kind of presentation you might do.  We'll need about 25 presentation for Code Camp.

Newsletter -- I just got an email from Mark M regarding starting the newsletter.  It looks like he is trying to get this off the ground.  It will be awesome to have an official Philly.Net newsletter.  Thanks Mark!

See you at the next meeting on August 22.

In May I was tagged by by Pete Laudati.  Well it took me a while but it is time for my response.  Here are 5 things you may not know about me.

1.  I've had a significant career change.  I studied communications in college.  I had big plans to get into TV or Film productions.  Maybe even radio.  Throughout college and a few years afterwards too, I worked as a movie theater manager.  From there I moved on to Sony Pictures in NYC as a film booker and then Clearview Cinemas in NJ  as a film buyer.  As part of my job I got to watch a lot of movies and decide at which of our theatres they would play.  This was a great job with a lot of perks.  I even got to go to several movie premiers and parties in NYC.  But I was always interested in computers and after many years of debate, I made my move in 2000.  I took a significant pay cut but I knew that technology field was booming and I'd make the money up in a few years.  Do I need to remind you what happened next?  The dot-com bust.  Oh well, it took me a little longer to get my salary back up but I have never regretted it.  I love working in technology.  My inner (ok, and outer) geek can really shine.

2.  I love movies.  That helped make my previous career a lot of fun.  I like many different types of movies...comedies, dramas, sci-fi, action, etc.  I'm not really into horror, that stuff freaks me out a bit.  And I am a tough critic too.  I like good character development, a solid plot and many of the other components of a quality film.   Some favorites are Blazing Saddles, Stripes, Fletch, Shawshank Redemtion, the Lord of the Rings series, Star Wars and many more.

3.  I play guitar.  I'm not great, but I love to play and sing too.  I play rhythm guitar and prefer acoustic to electric.  I'll only embarrass myself if I try to play a lead.  I taught myself to play (around age 24) with the help of some friends when I was getting started.  I was in a band named "Ale" for a while.  We played a bunch of parties for friends.   I've written a bunch of songs too.  I enjoy that and people seem to like some of them.  A few bands I like:  The Beatles, REM, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Grateful Dead and much more.

4.  I'm from NJ.  Since I was tagged by Peter and he mentioned NJ a lot in his post, I figured I'd better do the same.  The funny part is after we met we figured that we were from the same home town, Manalapan, only I was in High School a bit earlier then him.  I hate when people bad mouth NJ.  Sure, there are some bad parts and lots of traffic and (I'm sure) some toxic waste, and more then a few body buried in the pine barrens.  But NJ has many great features too.  Lots of farm land with the best tomatoes and corn, beautiful countryside, easy access to two of the best and largest cities in the country (no, not Camden and Newark) and much more.  What really gets me going is when people from Philadelphia (I live in the Philly suburbs now) sit on NJ beaches and bad mouth NJ!  If you don't like it, go home!

5.  I love to be out in nature.  I love camping, hiking, backpacking, biking, skiing, boating, kayaking, exploring, site seeing, relaxing and a bunch of other similar stuff.  My wife and I share that passion and we have had some great times together checking out great, natural places.  This year we took an awesome vacation visiting several national parks

Now it is my time to tag a few people:  Dani Diaz , Steve Andrews, Jeff Deville, and Jeff Caterer (sending the tag up to Canada!)