http://www.vbug.co.uk/ en-gb Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:50:23 GMT http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/July-2008/VBUG-Book-discounts-from-Pearon-Education--30-available.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/July-2008/VBUG-Book-discounts-from-Pearon-Education--30-available.aspx Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:37:03 GMT Click through on the link below to save a massive 30% on a selection of developer titles. This list is updated on a monthly basis. Just what you need for the summer, a good read while on the beach! http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/VBUG-London-Visual-Studio-Extensibility.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/VBUG-London-Visual-Studio-Extensibility.aspx Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:22:03 GMT VBUG London this week delighted in the above presentation by Santosh Benjamin. For those of you not lucky enough to have made it along, Santosh has made his presentation available. To get a copy please just email Christian Mitchell on the address below. Did you know that Santosh was recently awarded MVP status for Biztalk? Check out his blog for more information on him.. http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/VBUGs-Annual-Conference-2008.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/VBUGs-Annual-Conference-2008.aspx Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:01:59 GMT VBUG are pleased to announce that the dates are now set for our Conference 2008! Dates for your diary..? the 4th and 5th November. The place..? Microsoft Campus, Reading Will you be there..? Watch the website for more details ..! http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/Have-you-Xiine-it-Free-digital-magazines.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/Have-you-Xiine-it-Free-digital-magazines.aspx Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:43:26 GMT Experience the next generation in digital reading all for free! Just click on the link below to read CoDe Magazine and other titles. Or go 1 step better and subscriber to the actual CoDe magazine for just £21.00 for the year - delivered straight to your door! Contact VBUG on 01753 649 680 to start your subscription today http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/How-Do-I-Reference-Videos-for-free.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/How-Do-I-Reference-Videos-for-free.aspx Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:44:24 GMT Even if you are not an MSDN subscriber (why not..?! call me for more details!) you should definitely be regularly checking out the MSDN web pages as they contain essential news, features and help. For example did you know about the free How Do I? Videos. These short 10- to 15-minute videos focus on specific tasks and show you how to accomplish them step-by-step using Microsoft products and technologies. Great feature and they are continually added to, so for more details click on the link below. Want to know something that isn’t covered (like for example How do I actually register my MSDN license correctly??!) Email me and let’s make a plea to Microsoft! http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/Choose-the-topic-for-VBUGs-London-July-Technical-Seminar.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/Choose-the-topic-for-VBUGs-London-July-Technical-Seminar.aspx Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:09:26 GMT The choice of topic for July's meeting is going to be put to the popular vote! We are pleased to announce the speaker for the July session will be Sebastien Lambla (http://serialseb.blogspot.com/), and he has a whopping 4 sessions on offer So let's get a bit interactive here, please send your vote from the choice of: 1. Testing your webforms - The MVP model Webforms don’t let themselves be testable easily. Using the Model-View-Presenter pattern, you’ll see how you can turn an existing webforms application and extract the useful code in a testable component, getting rid of the code-behind. 2. Exposing your data in a REST fashion with ado.net data services Ado.net data services, code-named Astoria, is the most REST-y framework Microsoft has worked on to date. Discover how you can expose your data to various clients, leverage it from javascript and from rich clients, and how you can expose your existing code in a REST fashion. 3. Code-first Linq2Sql – How to write the code first and not care about the schema The traditional way to design a database involves sql scripts manually maintained in svn, and trying to keep your ORM in sync with the changes to your database schema. In this session you’ll learn how you can put things around and design your data access code first, and leverage linq2sql and msbuild to never have to care about SQL again. 4. Test-first asp.net development – Use asp.net MVC to build an Ajax website Asp.net MVC is Microsoft’s new web development model implementing the Model-View-Controller pattern. You’ll discover how to write an asp.net MVC application, what are the differences from webforms and how to implement AJAX, and how it will help you test more of your application. To vote just email either 1,2,3 or 4 to christian@vbug.com. Democracy in action..! http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/Developer-Day-7-Call-for-Speakers-Open.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/Developer-Day-7-Call-for-Speakers-Open.aspx Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:29:38 GMT Developer Developer Day returns to Reading on Saturday 22nd November 2008 and the organisers have just opened up the Call For Speakers. If you are interested in speaking and submitting either a short 10 minute Grok Talk, a Full 60 minute Session or maybes even a double session (approx 120 mins) then visit the Call For Speakers URL below and fill in the short form. Developer Day events are great opportunities to gain experience in talking to large audiences and they are very rewarding. VBUG Chairman, Andy Westgarth spoke at DDD5 and found the experience very worthwhile and his key message is to relax and enjoy the experience. It was his first experience of delivering a technical presentation to a large audience and he has since gone on to speak at the VBUG National Conferences and the IMTC Conference in Dublin. At a similar community event, Vice Chairman Tim Leung spoke at the SQLBits conference which attracted over 200 attendees. He also found the experience very rewarding and was very happy to be able to share his technical knowledge amongst peers. His key message is to encourage others to submit sessions and to become involved. http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/New-Chair-and-Vice-Chair-Update--June-2008.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/New-Chair-and-Vice-Chair-Update--June-2008.aspx Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:31:18 GMT There is a new update from Chairman and Vice Chairman, Andy Westgarth and Tim Leung. This months update reviews community events such as Developer Day Scotland, read what one of our members thought of the event, and they look forward to a new evening dinner event running in the Hampshire and Surrey area. http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/NxtGenUG--Fest-08--12th-June-2008--Latest-News.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/June-2008/NxtGenUG--Fest-08--12th-June-2008--Latest-News.aspx Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:29:40 GMT FEST08 the annual NxtGenUG one-day event takes place at Microsoft Reading on Thursday 12th June. As ever it's going to be an action packed day with great content from the likes of Mike Taulty ,Oliver Sturm , Dave Sussman and other top speakers. No doubt there will be bundles of 'swag' and prizes and Pizza somewhere down the line - there always is when the NxtGenUG Boyz are around. There seems to be a few more of them this year with the Cambridge and Southampton crews joining in the mix. So got to http://www.nxtgenug.net/fest08/ for details and to register your place. It's free to all NxtGenUG members and a mere £49.99 to non-members - bargain! Oh and also if you're around the night before there is a G(r)eek dinner to toast Daniel Moth on his way to the states. http://www.nxtgenug.net/ViewEvent.aspx?EventID=140 is the link to signup to." http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/April-2008/VBUG-Peterborough-Coordinator-Finalist-in-the-DesignIT-Competition--Vote-Now.aspx http://www.vbug.co.uk/News/April-2008/VBUG-Peterborough-Coordinator-Finalist-in-the-DesignIT-Competition--Vote-Now.aspx Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:15:14 GMT VBUG Peterborough Coordinator, Jyoti Majithia, recently entered the Microsoft DesignIT Competition and has been selected as one of the five finalists! The DesignIT Competition is run by Microsoft TechNet and has over the last three months invited IT professionals to submit their designs for computer systems that demonstrate creativity as well as tackling real social, human interest problems experienced by charities large and small: such as contributing to the battle to reduce carbon emissions; bringing conservation closer to the people that use technology; opening channels of communication for abused and vulnerable children and identifying new opportunities for disabled people. In so doing have teamed up with four charities: Leonard Cheshire Disability, Global Action Plan, Flora and Fauna International and NSPCC. Jyoti's design is for the Flora and Fauna International Charity and in Jyoti's submission her proposal is for : "Simple in its concept and delivery, development of this solution would allow live information on conservation projects across the globe to be accessible on the web by leveraging the capabilities of mobile networks in emerging markets.Countries where you wouldn’t expect mobile access have more mobile stations than fixed line cables so providing these facilities would not be an obstacle." Voting is now open and will close at 5pm on Friday 11th April 2008. The winning contestant will see their design implemented for the charity of their choice to the sum of £15,000 and the winner will be announced on Monday 14th April 2008.