Jonathan Bates

LINQ Providers

jonathanbates — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:16:00 GMT

At David Fekke's great LINQ to SQL presentation did raise the question among some attendees about LINQ and other datasources. I came across this today: a list of other LINQ Providers.

JaxDUG August meeting needs a speaker

jonathanbates — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:17:00 GMT

Or does it? At this point, we don't have a speaker or topic for the August 6th meeting. If you have a topic you would like to speak on for 20 to 60 minutes, drop me a note at jonathan.bates@batener.org.

Without a speaker, there is no reason not to meet. Dave Strommer and Bank of America have graciously provided the meeting space and it would seem a shame to waste the meeting. We could still gather together and turn it into an impromptu session, discussing whatever is presented by whomever attends. At each meeting I attend, people bring interesting problems or at least interesting stories.

I hope to see you at the next meeting, whomever the speaker is, whatever the topic turns out to be.

May Office SIG Cancelled

jonathanbates — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:44:00 GMT

Andrew Connell had to cancel the Jacksonville Office Group's meeting for Thursday, May 15th. He's sorry for the notice, but his other duties are interfering with his extra-curriculars for this month.

My theory is that he didn't want to miss the special one-night only re-release of First Blood. Just kidding. Not about the re-release, just Andrew seeing it.

Please keep in mind that JaxDUG needs a speaker for June, so if you have a topic you want to present on for 20 minutes to 2 hours, please get in touch with me.

Followup: JaxDUG May 7th

jonathanbates — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:04:00 GMT

Just wanted to take a moment and thank Bayer White for coming and presenting at the May 7th JaxDUG. And a big thanks to Glenn Adams for bringing the ice!

We are looking for a speaker for June, so if you have a topic you'd like to present on, please don't hesitate to contact me.

JaxJUG Meeting - April 9th

jonathanbates — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:58:00 GMT

The Jacksonville Java Users Group is having their next meeting April 9th at the Availity offices (7406 Fullerton St., Jacksonville, FL 32256) starting at 7pm.

Steve Bristol of less everything and RubyJax will be presenting Ruby On Rails.

Need a speaker for May

jonathanbates — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:32:00 GMT

The JaxDUG May '08 meeting needs a speaker or two. For that matter, there is always a need for speakers. If you have a topic you'd like to take about for some length of time (20 minutes to 2 hours), please get in touch with me.

March 25th Jax Arch SIG Meeting

jonathanbates — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:11:00 GMT

In a previous post, I hinted at a special speaker presenting at the next meeting. Well, that speaker is the first JaxDUG president, David Strommer.

Be sure to come on out and see David present on Business Process Management. All the details can be found here.

Divs/Spans versus Tables versus Ordered Lists?

jonathanbates — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Who would have thoght that there was even another player in the hoary HTML layout wars between <DIV>s-n-<SPAN>s and <TABLES>? It would seem that Ordered Lists isn't going to be anyones chump. I may not completely agree with this guy's point but I think he makes some well reasoned arguements, enough that I may have to retink my next web layout.

PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2008

jonathanbates — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:35:00 GMT

I know alot of people have alot to say about tools to enhance the IDE experience in Visual Studio. Hear is a little more signal to the noise.

PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2008 is released and you can download it here.

Arch SIG Follow-up

jonathanbates — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:27:00 GMT

In case you missed Jeff Barnes last night, you can get the slides and demos for his presentation here. Thanks to Jeff and Bayer White for organizing the group and to everyone that showed up and participated.

Be on the look out for the next meeting, for a special blast-from-the-past speaker.

Lunar Eclipse 2/20/2008

jonathanbates — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:51:00 GMT

While as developers I am willing to bet we spend alot of time inside dealing with the mundane bits of modern business development. I try my best to avoid the Big Blue Room as I tend to find it too brightly lit or just too warm.

But there are those moments that catch you and you are reminded that you are human. A sunset, clouds, fog in the field on an early morning (or very late night, depending how the code turned out). And at those moments, you feel that child-like wonder that you approached all of reality with once. And if that moment is the right moment, it goes beyond that feeling from youth, and takes on a timeless quality and you feel a connection to all that have come before you and looked at the night sky.

So take a moment tonite, go into the Big Black Room, look up and marvel at the clockwork wonders that universe has to serve up.

More InstallFest Follow-up

jonathanbates — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:40:00 GMT

For those that were fortunate enough to attend the Jacksonville Visual Studio InstallFest, be on the look out. I understand that people are starting to be notified of shipment of Visual Studio 2008.

RubyJax and Paired Programming

jonathanbates — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:11:00 GMT

Check out the next RubyJax Meeting, scheduled for February 13th, 6:30p to 8:45p. Get the location details at http://rubyjax.com/2008/2/11/next-meeting-2-13-new-location and the details about the meeting at http://rubyjax.com/2008/1/29/next-rubyjax-pair-programming

Presentation Tips

jonathanbates — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:37:00 GMT

Quite recently, Vinay Ahuja had to cancel his scheduled JAXDUG presentation for February 6th due to injury. While I struggle with trying to find a replacement and/or come up with a topic to deliver myself, I came across some presentation tips on Guy Kawasaki's site. Read the interview Guy does with Garr Reynolds, the author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter).

Follow-up: InstallFest

jonathanbates — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:05:00 GMT

The Visual Studio 2008 InstallFest hit Jacksonville last night. I think it was a great event and gave great exposure to our JaxDUG community. Thanks to two of our SIG leaders, Bayer White (Architecture) and Thomas Bates (ASP.) for coming out and representing.

For those that attended, I want to say congratulations and thanks for coming out. Don't forget to register your software before the end of of the month. In fact, if you happen to be reading this and you havent registered for your full version (which was the whole point of the event), then stop reading and do so now.

I also want to thank the team from Microsoft that brought the software: Joe Healy (keep an eye on his site for the pics, particularly the Orcas Orca), Jeff Barnes, Mark Cerretani, and Jim Blizzard.

And I want to give a very special thanks to JaxDUG members Glenn Adams, Chad Cooper, and Phil Langeberg for giving up their own seats on the list and showing up anyway to support the event.

Update[1/25/2008] Joe has loaded up the pictures. See them at http://www.devfish.net/FullBlogItemView.aspx?BlogId=501