Topic:  Developer’s Overview of Windows Longhorn

Heard about Longhorn? Curious what WinFX, Indigo, WinFS and Avalon are? If so, come hear Chris Sells from the MSDN Longhorn Developer Center (http://msdn.com/longhorn) give a quick overview of Longhorn from the developer’s point of view. 

Speaker:  Chris Sells (Guest Speaker from MSDN)

Chris Sells is a Content Strategist for the MSDN Longhorn Developer Center web site. He's written several books, including Mastering Visual Studio .NET and Windows Forms Programming in C#. More information about Chris, and his various projects, is available at http://www.sellsbrothers.com

Topic:  Automating Web Application Builds and Deployments

Visual Studio.NET turned building and deploying web applications into a few mouse clicks. But what if a developer does not want to click a few mice? While many fancy tools exist to handle this problem, the simplest may be the best – VBScript. In this presentation Tom Fischer will demonstrate how to automate real world web application builds and deployments via scripting. 

Speaker:  Tom Fischer 

Tom Fischer’s professional experience includes work with many of Microsoft’s latest (and oldest) technologies and tools. Tom has written about .NET security and object oriented design. He also holds several certifications, including the .NET MCSD

Topic:  Understanding The Big Picture: Microsoft’s Technology Roadmap 

Come and learn from Intertech Training's Dominic Selly, internationally published author and .NET authority, on the future of .NET.

Whidbey: .Net 2.0

• New language features in VB.Net
• New language features in C# -New features in the Framework Class Library
• Winforms Enhancements
• ASP.Net 2.0 Enhancements

Yukon: SQL Server’s Next Version -Hosting the CLR within SQL Server

• User defined types
• Using managed types within TSQL
• Usage scenarios

Indigo: A Serviced Oriented Architecture 

Speaker:  Dominic Selly from Intertech, Inc.

Before life at Intertech, Dominic was the Technical Architect at Capella University in Minneapolis. Dominic created Capella's .Net practice, bringing their first ASP.Net application into production while the Framework was still in Beta, and playing the central role in creating another half dozen N-tiered .Net applications. Before Capella, Dominic was a Senior Software Engineer at Best Software in Northern Virginia, where he led the data services team working on their next generation Web-based accounting application

Topic:  Building Distributed Applications with .NET Remoting 

Come and learn about .NET Remoting. This talk will introduce the basic concepts of Remoting including the purpose it serves in your architecture, a comparison to DCOM and to Web Services, and some of the mechanics of how to do it. We'll close with a (very abbreviated) peek at Indigo and how you can plan for the future in the coding decisions of today. 

Speaker:  Kate Gregory from INETA Speakers Bureau

Kate is a guest speaker from Toronto, Canada. Her visit to the Twin Cities .NET User Group is generously sponsored by International .NET Association (INETA).

Kate Gregory is the Microsoft Regional Director for Toronto and a founding partner of Gregory Consulting Limited (www.gregcons.com). Based in Peterborough, Ontario, Gregory Consulting provides mentoring, consulting, and development services throughout North America, using the .NET Framework, XML, Web Services, Visual C++, Visual Basic, C#, ASP.NET, Java, and Perl. Migration, conversion, and integration of existing applications are a current focus. Kate is the author of numerous books, most recently Special Edition Using Visual C++ .NET. Kate teaches (and develops courses on) .NET, XML, UML, C++, Java, and the Internet. She has a Visual C++ column at codeguru.com, is an adjunct faculty member at Trent University, serves on numerous advisory boards and has done five cross-country tours for Microsoft Canada in the last year and a half.

Topic:  To MSMQ or Not to MSMQ? 

In this presentation, we will explore fundamentals of MSMQ, .NET APIs for MSMQ, as well as some code snippets. We will also divulge in best practices while developing an MSMQ application, a simple architecture design for an MSMQ application, and how MSMQ can help you build your own custom EAI messaging infrastructure. 

Speaker:  Umer Faruq

Umer Faruq from 3D Business Solutions is a senior architect/developer who has been involved in .NET technology since the first beta release of the .NET framework in early 2001. He has architected/developed several .NET middle-ware systems as well as web applications that are running in production today. He is on the steering committee board for the Twin Cities .NET User Group. He participated in a team that won 2nd prize during a nation wide web services competition and has presented at the Web Builder conference in New Orleans in the past.

 Topic:  Developing Multithreaded Applications in Microsoft .NET

One of the best ways to increase the performance of a Microsoft .NET application is to make it multithreaded. It can also be one of the most confusing types of applications to debug. We will discuss some best practices you can use when developing multithreaded applications in .NET. We will also examine problems you may encounter during in the process. We will explore the .NET classes available in the System.Threading namespace including threads, threadpools, mutexes, monitors and more. You will learn what these classes are used for and see them in action as sample code written in both C# and Visual Basic .NET. 

Speaker:  Davin Mickelson, MCT, MCSD.NET, MCSA from Benchmark/NewHorizon Learning 

Davin Mickelson enjoys working with all versions of Microsoft architectures (from "Export C" to .NET assemblies). He especially loves working on the cutting edge of Microsoft technologies and helping others understand and utilize them to their full potential. He has been consulting for over six years and recently became an instructor at Benchmark New Horizons Learning. He has previously taught development courses on Microsoft .NET at the University of Minnesota. Davin has developed software in C/C++/ATL/MFC, Visual Basic, Visual Basic .NET and C# and is currently working on his first .NET book. 
 

Topic:  Building and Leveraging Custom Attributes

Custom Attributes let you extend the assembly metadata so that you can build programs that wrap new behavior around existing program components at runtime. The key: knowing how and when to build Custom Attributes, and where best to apply them. In this presentation, we'll briefly review the basics of Attributes (syntax, CIL representation) and then jump into creating your own Custom Attributes, as well as how to detect and retrieve them via reflection. Finally, you’ll learn how to leverage custom attributes and context interception to implement a new development paradigm called Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP), which can dramatically simplify your application code while still increasing its flexibility. 

Speaker:  Tom Barnaby from Intertech, Inc.  

Tom Barnaby is an instructor and architect at Intertech Training, an enterprise developer training firm. He is the author of several Apress books including "Distributed .NET Programming in C#", "Distributed .NET Programming in VB .NET", and a co-author of a forthcoming book titled "Applied .NET Attributes". With Intertech, Tom has developed courses on Visual Basic .NET, C#, and distributed .NET programming and delivered training for organizations such as Lockheed Martin, 3M, and Microsoft.

Topic:  Building Web User Controls With Standard Validators 

ASP.NET has been around for a couple years now but many people are still unsure of where custom user controls fit in the equation. There is a drastic difference between web user controls and the custom controls that traditional VB and windows forms developers might think of as custom controls. In this presentation, we will briefly discuss what makes web user controls so different from server controls. We will step through two examples of creating controls with a discussion on why we would want to use custom controls and what to look out for when using the controls. Finally, we will show how the standard validators can be leveraged with custom user controls to reduce page development effort.

Speaker:  Joseph White from ILM

Joseph White is currently the chief software product architect at Eden Systems International. He also does consulting work as a .NET mentor and architect through ILM Services. In the past 12 years, Joseph has mentored and guided development teams all over The United States in a wide range of industries. From Universities to the US Navy to HP and IBM, Joseph consistently receives accolades for his ability to help guide software developers to a practical level of understanding in the subject matter he presents.

Topic:  Creating Ink based applications for Tablet PC

This discussion will focus on developing applications to take advantage of the managed ink libraries available with the Tablet PC SDK. In addition this talk will focus on the design consideration that must be taken into account when ink enabling an application. Some of these considerations include usability issues, layout issues, and performance issues.

Jason Beres breaks down writing an n-Tier Windows Forms application demonstrating the uses of Infragistics presentation layer development tools as well as key Microsoft technologies implemented in a true n-tier architecture. This presentation will look at the Tracker reference application and eBook as a real world example using key Microsoft technologies:

Web Services Enhancements WS-Security, allowing secure authentication from the Windows Forms applications

Speaker:  Jason Beres from Infragistics (Guest speaker from New Jersey) 

Jason is the author of "Teach Yourself Visual Studio .NET 2003 in 21 Days" from Sams, the co-author of the "Visual Basic .NET Bible" and the "C# Bible" from Wiley, and a contributor to "SQL Server 2000: The Complete Reference" from Osborne/McGraw-Hill and "ASP.NET @ Work: 10 Enterprise Applications" from Wiley. Jason has recently released "Teach Yourself Visual C# .NET in 21 Days" from Sams.

Topic:  Smart Clients for Developers

We will first explore what the buzzword "Smart Client" software means as the new Microsoft solution architecture and briefly mention the multitude of supporting platforms. Afterward, we will delve into some of the new features at a developer level to explain how we can create this software. Some features that will be covered include: - Intelligent Installation and Deployment - Offline Caching - Code Access Security (CAS) in regards to Smart Clients 

Speaker:  Davin Mickelson from New Horizons

Davin Mickelson enjoys working with all versions of Microsoft architectures (from "Export C" to .NET assemblies). He especially loves working on the cutting edge of Microsoft technologies and helping others understand and utilize them to their full potential. He has been consulting for over six years and recently became an instructor at Benchmark New Horizons Learning. He has previously taught development courses on Microsoft .NET at the University of Minnesota. Davin has developed software in C/C++/ATL/MFC, Visual Basic, Visual Basic .NET and C# and is currently working on his first .NET book.

Topic:  SOA: Procedural Programming Redux or Emergent Technology?

Serivce-oriented architecture is the current fad in our industry, but can it live up to the hype? Services can be viewed as procedures that are called across the network, so is SOA just procedural programming repackaged with XML? Services can also be viewed as a message-based technology, so is SOA just MQ Series or MSMQ brought forward into the Internet world? Or is SOA something that will have a bigger, more sweeping impact on our industry over a period of years or decades? Join industry thought leader Rockford Lhotka in a discussion of SOA as he explores these and other questions about the future of service-orientation. 

Speaker:  Rocky Lhotka

Rockford Lhotka is the author of several books, including the Expert Visual Basic .NET and C# Business Objects books. He is a Microsoft Software Legend, Regional Director, MVP and INETA speaker. He is a columnist for MSDN Online and contributing author for Visual Studio Magazine, and he regularly presents at major conferences around the world - including Microsoft PDC, Tech Ed, VS Live! and VS Connections. He is the Principal Technology Evangelist for Magenic Technologies (www.magenic.com), a company focused on delivering business value through applied technology and one of the nation's premiere Microsoft Gold Certified Partners. For more information go to www.lhotka.net. Certified Partners dedicated to solving today's most challenging business problems using 100% Microsoft tools and technology.

Topic:  Reporting Services Overview

Brief Explanation of the development of Reporting Services - Originally intended for Yukon, released early for SQL Server 2000

• Installation tips - Selecting the proper version
• Demo - Creating a report using the report wizards
• Report Server Administration
• Reporting Services Architecture
• Report Server
• Report Services Web Server
• Report Definition Language
• Create a report from code
• Extending Reporting Services
• Extending Security
• Extending Data Providers

Speaker:  Doug Nelson from SynApp north

Doug provides application development services for several large clients with a primary focus in the forest products industry and industrial health and safety. These applications developed are based on a Sql Server backend database with a web based front-end. I have been doing web development since 1996, transitioning from CGI applications to classic ASP and on to ASP.Net. In addition to the web development, these applications also support WinForms and Pocket PCs. He has extensive experience implementing truly distributed applications involving windows services and message queuing.

Speaker:  None

Topic:  Joint User Group Holiday Party

The Twin Cities .NET User Group has team with the SQL Server user group to bring a social evening of conversation, networking and getting to understand our mutual interests. Microsoft has generously agreed to sponsor this user group holiday party. There won't be any presentation. Instead, we would like to make it a fun event full of activities and networking opportunities.