Events This Week – May 9th, 2011

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Here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area, as well as webcasts of interest…this list includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar:

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to the Rock Paper Azure Challenge (Level 100)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 1:00 PM, Online
Get ready to play Rock, Paper, Scissors with a few twists! Your East Coast Cloud Guys, Brian Hitney, Peter Laudati and Jim O’Neil will introduce you to the newest version of the schoolyard game – played in the Windows Azure cloud (for weekly prizes!). In this hour long webcast, we’ll introduce you to the format of the game including an overview of how Windows Azure is behind it all.
We’ll quickly get you up to speed on downloading and deploying your own Microsoft Visual Studio "Bot Lab" project so you can get started coding your very own "bot" to battle against the competition. You’ll see how your bot ranks against other players on the live leaderboard and learn how to make adjustments before the final weekly round on Fridays.
Ah, we did say "Rock, Paper, Scissors with a few twists". This version introduces two additional moves – Dynamite and Water Balloons – to make the game less random, fun to code and a lot more interesting. Be sure to tune in to the webcast so you can get strategies on increasing your chances to be the Ruler of Roshambo in the cloud. Already in the game? Join the Friday pre-tournament webcast for tips and tricks on building your killer Bot.
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HRNUG :: May 2011 :: Silverlight 5
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 6:00 PM, Virginia Beach, VA
In December, Scott Guthrie announced Silverlight 5 at the Silverlight firestarter in Redmond. At MIX11 in April, we released the first beta. Silverlight 5 includes features for business, visualization, games (especially 3d and low-latency sound) and more. Join us for a lap through key Silverlight 5 features in the beta, and bring your questions!
Pete Brown is a Senior Program Manager with Microsoft, leading the Developer Community team (the Community Ninja Team as we’re known internally), as well as a former Microsoft Silverlight MVP, INETA speaker, and RIA Architect. Pete's focus at Microsoft is the community around client application development (WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone, Surface, Windows Forms, C++, Native Windows API and more). Pete is also the author of Silverlight 4 in Action, published by Manning Publications.
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Practical MVVM
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 6:30 PM, Rockville, MD
Provides an introduction to MVVM with a focus towards real world implementation. Primary topics of discussion include ViewModel to View relationships, ViewModel design patterns, Binding strategies, and Commands.
Joel Cochran is an Expression Blend MVP, an INETA Community Champion, and a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) in Windows Forms and WPF. He has been developing in C# since 2003 and is a Blend fanatic and self-proclaimed "Blend Evangelist". A frequent speaker at User Groups and Code Camps, he enjoys teaching and writing about .NET and other topics. You can find him online at https://www.developingfor.net or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/joelcochran. Joel has served as the Director of Operations for Stonewall Technologies, Inc., an ISV, in Staunton, VA, since 2000.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

TFS Training Series [Free]: Planning and Executing Manual Tests with Visual Studio Test Professional 2010
Thursday, May 12, 2011 12:00 PM, Online
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 makes a real impact on software quality. It’s an integrated testing solution that delivers a complete plan-test-track workflow. It allows the user to quickly identify quality-related bugs and easily report them with rich, actionable information. In this session, we'll review test planning and manual testing with Visual Studio Test Professional 2010.
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MSDN Webcast: Rock Paper Azure Challenge Tips and Tricks (Level 100)
Friday, May 13, 2011 10:30 AM, Online
In this open mike session, join Brian, Peter and Jim for some last minute strategy pointers as well as a recap of the competition seen during practice rounds contest participants have played during the week. It's a great chance to ask questions on the nuances of the game and perhaps get just a bit of an edge on your competition right before you submit the final version of your "bot" for the week's prize round.
Not in the game yet? Join the weekly Tuesday webcast for an introduction to Windows Azure and the Rock Paper Azure Challenge.
To learn more and get started visit: https://www.rockpaperazure.com
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Good C# Habits can Encourage Bad JavaScript Habits
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 6:30 PM, Washington, DC
It seems that far too many people come to jQuery thinking that their previous C# knowledge will help them be successful at client-side scripting. In many cases, you can be successful with this approach, however, the more JavaScript you write you will inevitably find yourself uncovering strange bugs because you didn't take time to learn JavaScript properly.
This session is targeted for developers that use jQuery, but haven’t invested adequate time to learn some of the foundational JavaScript concepts that differ from C#. If you would like to avoid some of these common mistakes when moving from C#, then please join me as I try to explain some of the differences.
Some of the topics that will be discussed in this session are:
• Having Variables & Functions in Global Scope
• Not Declaring Arrays & Objects Correctly
• Not Understanding False-y Values
• Not Testing & Setting Default Values Correctly
• Using the Wrong Comparison Operators
• Not Using the for…in Statement Correctly
• Misunderstanding Scope in JavaScript
• Not Knowing Variable and Function Hoisting
• Not Using Closures Correctly or at All
Since jQuery is a library that is built with JavaScript and used alongside JavaScript, it is important that you, as a developer, understand what you are doing. jQuery helps alleviate many of the DOM frustrations that you may have, but you should still take time to be proficient as a JavaScript developer. By doing so, it will increase your jQuery code quality, make it more efficient, and easier to maintain.
Speaker Bio:
Elijah is a Christian and a family man. He develops at appendTo as a System Architect providing corporate jQuery support, training, and consulting. He is an ASP.NET MVP, ASPInsider, and specializes in ASP.NET MVC and jQuery development. He is passionate about pushing the boundaries of front-end development.
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Unleash the power of F#
Thursday, May 19, 2011 6:30 PM, Arlington, VA
F# Functional Programming will allow you to write less code and be more productive at the same time.
Learn these basic concepts of Functional Programming:
1. Declarative Programming v.s Imperative Programming
2. What v.s How style
3. Immutability
Learn how you can write less code for some of your most used Design Pattern based class libraries.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

You can also add your events via the Community Megaphone web service API, which is now live. You can get more information on the API, and how to sign up, at https://www.communitymegaphone.com/API.aspx. You can also email me for more information.