CodeMash V2.0.1.2

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 10:45 AM

Location: Nile

Abstract: All of us who use Castle Windsor IoC Container know how easy is to configure and use. But registering classes and interfaces is just the tip of the iceberg with Windsor. Have you ever wonder how to start using Aspect Oriented Programming in your code? Well if you are using Windsor, you already could! Without any setup! What about creating factories that just wrap Windsor functionality? What if I told you that you don't need to write those classes, Windsor can do it for you! Join me for a session in which we will explore together Windsor facilities (like Startable, TypedFactory and Nhibernate, etc) and AOP functionality provided out of the box!

Presented By: Amir Barylko

About the Speaker: Amir Barylko started his career in 1994 working for IBM as a senior developer while he was finishing his Masters degree in computer science. Since then he worked as team leader and architect for the past 15 years. Having started with languages like C++ and Java he spent many years coding in C# and training other developers in topics such domain modeling, abstractions, patterns, automation, dependency injection, testing, etc. Being an incurable geek, always thirsty for knowledge, his passion for technology moved him towards Ruby on Rails a few years ago, becoming an advocate of RoR web development. Also following he's teaching passion he did his first RoR training a year ago, and recently a TDD training with great reviews. Amir is a rare combination of high technical skills, lots of experience in a wide range of platforms, exceptional presentation skills and great sense of humor. His presentations are always rich in content and fun to attend.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Nile

Abstract: SignalR, an asynchronous signaling library, is one of the new tricks in the Microsoft web stack. Think about the possibilities available to you in a browser when you've got constant, server-initiated conversations and real-time responsiveness from within the web browser (like chat, stock updates, publish/subscribe implementations, and so on). Brady Gaster will introduce you to SignalR and will walk through the process of setting up an MVC 3.0 application to work with SignalR using both it's Hub and Connection methodologies. From the server-side implementation of each, up through the jQuery code that allows for the web content to respond to server activity, and a brief investigation into the code SignalR dynamically creates to proxy the calls will be topics covered during this session.

Presented By: Brady Gaster

About the Speaker: Brady Gaster is a Windows Azure Technical Evangelist who works for Microsoft. Brady has been working with .NET for over a decade in numerous settings - government, education, consulting, gaming, and mobile, hosting, and most recently, the cloud. Brady's core competencies include web API development and integration, middleware development, TDD, service orientation, and continuous integration. His most recent endeavors include Windows Azure, playing around with the Kinect, SignalR, AOP, Netduino, Orchard CMS, Behavior Driven Development.

Technology/Platform: Mobile

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Nile

Abstract: Android has made mobile development easy and accessible to thousands of developers, but what makes the best Android developers stand out? This discussion covers the tips and tricks that professional Android developers use to make featured apps.

Presented By: Michael Pardo

About the Speaker: Michael Pardo is a software engineer working on Android apps at Mobiata, now a subsidiary of Expedia. He has been working as a developer for over eight years. Most of that time was spent writing web apps using C#. Now he spends most of his time writing Android apps. He also writes an active record style ORM for Android called ActiveAndroid. ActiveAndroid allows you to easily persist objects to SQLite databases in Android. Prior to Mobiata, Michael has worked for Web Ascender, WhitePages, Artemis Solutions, and MC Squared.

Technology/Platform: Mobile

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:50 PM

Location: Nile

Abstract: Most useful applications require persistent storage. Most persistent storage requires a database. Android offers several local storage options: preferences, files, and a database. Here, Android developers who are past "Hello World" and familiar with SQL will get a head start for easy database interactions. We will create and use a schema in the supported SQLite database, check its contents in the debugger, and explore its limitations. After this session, budding Android developers will know what to do with all that mobile data.

Presented By: Ted Neward & Jessica Kerr

About the Speaker: Ted Neward is an Architectural Consultant with Neduesic, LLC, specializing in high-scale enterprise systems, working with clients ranging in size from Fortune 500 corporations to small 10-person shops. He is an authority in Java and .NET technologies, particularly in the areas of Java/.NET integration (both in-process and via integration tools like Web services), back-end enterprise software systems, and virtual machine/execution engine plumbing.    Jessica Kerr has programmed for twelve years at companies large and small. An expert in Java and back-end services, she is branching out into F# and Android development, writing articles for developerFusion.net and presenting to other consultants. Jessica is a resident of St. Louis, a consultant at Daugherty Business Systems, and a mother of two crazy nuts.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Salon G

Abstract: By now you will have heard many introductory talks on the subject of F#, now it’s time to take things a stage further. In this presentation we’ll have look at how I use F#. We’ll see examples of F# used to calculate values for some of the metrics that are important in my line of work. By the end of this session you will have a clearer understanding of how to use F# in your own projects.

Presented By: Gary Short

About the Speaker: Gary Short has 20+ years experience as a software developer and architect, working in sectors as diverse as banking, pharmaceuticals and utilities. Currently he is a Developer Evangelist for DevExpress. His interests lie in architecture, especially Technical Debt and Refactoring, as well as data mining and business intelligence.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 9:45 AM

Location: Salon E

Abstract: Traditional async programming models produce convoluted and hard to follow code. They rely on callbacks, developer created state machines, thread marshalling and other jargon we’d rather not look at every day. That led developers to prefer synchronous APIs whenever they were available. No more. C# 5 contains new features that enable you to write async programs that are much more clear and easy to comprehend.You’ll learn how to move up the abstraction layer and spend more of your valuable time expressing what you want done, rather than concentrating on the mechanics of asynchronous programming techniques. You’’ll also learn several techniques to maximaze the responsiveness of programs that use async APIs. WIth C# 5,the compiler sprinkles pixie dust on your code and it just works asynchronously. Once you’ve learned what Async features offer for you, you should learn how the pixie dust is implemented by attending Jon Skeet’s talk “Async from the inside”

Presented By: Bill Wagner

About the Speaker: Bill Wagner, SRT Solutions co-founder, is 25-year veteran of the software industry. He’s a recognized expert in software design and engineering, specializing in C#, .NET and the Azure platform. He serves as Michigan’s Regional Director for Microsoft and is a multi-year winner of Microsoft’s MVP award. An internationally recognized author, Bill authored the bestselling Effective C#, now in its 2nd edition, and its follow-up, More Effective C#. He also currently writes a column on the Microsoft C# Developer Center. Recently, Bill was awarded the Emerging Technology Leader Award by Automation Alley, Michigan’s largest technology consortium. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Technology/Platform: Other Languages

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Indigo Bay

Abstract: When validating a piece of hardware instead of a piece of software, mocking and unit tests don’t help. Instead, a test framework needs to be primarily geared toward external instrument control, automated data collection, and mathematical analysis. Using Python, we’ll demonstrate an easy to use framework containing tests that configure DMMs and function generators, gather data from devices under test, then perform FFTs, phase analysis, and other data processing. We’ll also talk about a few issues that become much more significant in hardware analysis, such as adding randomness to tests while preserving repeatability, and generating highly combinatorial, device-specific tests on the fly. Finally, we’ll show the framework in action with a live test of a switch/measure system. Ben Fitzpatrick will be acting as demo minion and hardware wrangler.

Presented By: Barbara Jones

About the Speaker: Barbara Jones is a software engineer in the test & measurement industry, developing instrument drivers, tests, and data acquisition software in C++ and Python. She has been committed to promoting diversity in technical communities since she joined the CWRU section of the Society of Women Engineers. If she claims to be the inspiration for Mattel’s Computer Engineer Barbie, she’s lying... her degree is in Computer Science.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Salon D

Abstract: BDD has been embraced by many as the solution to "TDD drag" - helping developers keep focused on the business value of the software they create while at the same time covering their code with tests. This has been a challenge with .NET - the tools haven't been that expressive. Many .NET developers who want to do BDD turn to tools from other languages with a better history of BDD development, like Ruby’s RSpec. While such solutions work, wouldn’t it be nice to keep all the code for your domain solution and the tests in the .NET framework? Well you can and I’ll show you how.

Presented By: William Wallace

About the Speaker: William Wallace has been an IT professional since 1981, when he got paid to write software on his Apple II+ with a whopping 16K of memory. He has seen a lot of changes in the past three decades while working in both the private and public sector, writing software in BASIC, Assembly, C/C++, COBOL, Java, JavaScript, Pascal, and C#. In addition to his current day job at the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, he has a thriving freelance consulting business that fills most of his free time. Because of all his time spent standing under the Waterfall, he is a committed Agile evangelist, earning both an Executive Certificate in Agile from the John Cook School of Business and a Scrum Master certification from the Scrum Alliance. He loves to learn and teach technology, and is currently working his way through the maze of Microsoft certifications.

Technology/Platform: JavaScript

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Aloeswood / Leopardwood

Abstract: It's time to write client side code we can love every bit as much as our server side code. After years of missteps and bad ideas, things are finally taking shape to let us do it. Coffeescript provides a beautiful syntax for writing javascript that causes the noise to fade away and our intent to shine through. Backbone.js gives us an elegant MVC framework that provides just enough structure and guides our client side code towards the kind of clean, reusable codebase we are used to from server side frameworks. Combining these with practices we know work such as Test Driven Development, there's no longer any excuse at all for ugly front end code. In this session I'll share my experience writing real applications this way and show how these excellent technologies fit together.

Presented By: Chris Nelson

About the Speaker: Chris Nelson is a software developer who hails from the fair city of Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been developing web applications for about 15 years and is passionate about finding better ways to do it. He's spoken at most of the major and ruby and java conferences and is an advocate for ways to develop software that actually work (sometimes referred to as Agile).

Technology/Platform: Ruby

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 11:00 AM

Location: Cypress

Abstract: Welcome to the world of Ruby: where the gems are deep, rough, and rarely documented! No need to fear though, in this presentation you'll learn what a RubyGem is, how they're used in Rails and Ruby applications, and of course, how to make your own. You'll see just how easy it is to share your code with others in the Ruby universe, and why creating packages is a joy instead of a burden thanks to the tools and ecosystem of RubyGems.

Presented By: Nick Quaranto

About the Speaker: Nick is a firm believer in open source software, a proud member of Ruby community, and has been doing web development for as long as he can remember. He cut his teeth on classic ASP and ASP.NET at first, but discovered Ruby on Rails through his university and dove in head first. Nick pretends he's a bassist with famous prog rock bands when not coding.

Technology/Platform: JavaScript

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Salon A

Abstract: Node.js provides a beautiful new platform for building server side applications, which until now has been inaccessible to the Windows developer. Microsoft has been working as a core contributor to the Node project to break this barrier and provide a great Node story on Windows. Come to this talk and we’ll talk about Node.js, why you should care as a windows developer and how you can build node applications both on-premise and in Azure.

Presented By: Glenn Block

About the Speaker: Glenn is a PM at Microsoft working on support for node.js in Windows and Azure. Glenn has a breadth of experience both inside and outside Microsoft developing software solutions for ISVs and the enterprise. Glenn has also been very active in involving folks from the community in the development of software at Microsoft. This has included shipping several products under open source licenses, as well as assisting other teams looking to do so. Glenn is also a frequent speaker at local and international events and user groups. When he's not working and playing with technology, he spends his time with his wife and daughter staying caffeinated in Seattle or exploring the world.

Technology/Platform: Design/UX

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Orange

Abstract: User Experience (UX) can be surprisingly difficult to bring into organizations. This session will give you the facts to back up your convictions. Carol will provide you with clear and convincing responses to tough questions about UX and usability methods. You’ll leave with facts about the Return on Investment (ROI) of UX, how to respond to UX skeptics, and how to turn your entire team into usability evangelists.

Presented By: Carol Smith

About the Speaker: Carol Smith has worked as both an employee and consultant in a wide variety of industries. She has helped businesses through their first usability study, and worked with organizations as they grew their UX practice. Through her business, Midwest Research, LLC, she researches and communicates user needs to clients to help them improve products and also conducts usability tests on websites, software, and consumer products. Carol has a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction and is the Treasurer and Director of Education and Training for UPA International, an organization that promotes usability concepts and techniques worldwide. Carol enjoys spending time with her husband and two young children and runs when she can.

Technology/Platform: Java

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 9:45 AM

Location: Nile

Abstract: Netflix has moved its production services from being completely datacenter-based, to being primarily cloud-based in a little over a year. This talk will briefly explain why we did it and why we chose Amazon's AWS. The talk will then delve into the evolution of our build and deployment architecture, starting with how our orignal monolithic DC-based SQL-tied webapp was built and deployed, and then detailing the evolution of our continuous integration systems which helped prepare us for the cloud move. And finally, it will cover our current full build pipeline and deployment system which keeps us agile in the cloud now by providing quick turnaround, and rapid roll-out and recovery.

Presented By: Carl Quinn

About the Speaker: Carl Quinn has been developing software professionally for 30 years, starting with BASIC on an Apple II, slogging through C/C++ on DOS, Windows and embedded, and finally landing in the Java on Linux world. The one thread through his career has been an inexplicable attraction to developer tools, spending time building them at Borland (C++ & Java IDEs), Sun (Java RAD), Google (Java & C++ build system) and most recently at Netflix (Java build and deployment automation). Carl also co-hosts the Java Posse podcast, the #1 ranked Java technology podcast.

Technology/Platform: Windows 8

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Sagewood / Zebrawood

Abstract: The recent announcement of Windows 8 and the Metro interface has caused a lot of excitement. It has also raised a lot of questions for .NET developers. What’s WinRT? Does this mean that .NET or Silverlight or WPF are going away? Will my existing .NET skills transfer over to this new paradigm? What happens to desktop applications? How do I write Metro style applications? This presentation will answer all these questions and give developers a better idea of where Windows is heading in the future. You will see how to develop Metro style applications using both HTML 5/JavaScript stack as well as with C# with XAML. You’ll see how Metro style applications are fundamentally different from traditional desktop applications and discuss the attributes of a quality Metro style application.

Presented By: James Bender

About the Speaker: James is the Vice President of Technology at Improving Enterprises in Columbus, OH. James has been involved in software development and architecture for 16 years. He has worked as a developer and architect on everything from small, single-user applications to Enterprise-scale, multi-user systems. His specialties are .NET development and architecture, TDD, SOA, WCF, WF, cloud computing, and agile development methodologies. He is an experienced mentor and author. James is a Microsoft MVP. James book "Professional Test Driven Development with C#: Developing Real World Applications with TDD" was release in May of 2011

Technology/Platform: Windows 8

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 11:00 AM

Location: Salon G

Abstract: One of the many new advances in Windows 8 is the ability to create Windows applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In this session, we'll take a look at the Windows 8 technology stack on which these applications run, how HTML/CSS/JS apps actually run, and discuss the implications of the different ways to utilize third party libraries such as jQuery. We'll then migrate an MVC application which utilizes jQuery into a Metro-style application. By the end of this session, you'll have a solid idea of what it means to have a Metro-style application built with web technologies.

Presented By: Rich Dudley

About the Speaker: For an entire decade, Rich inhabited cubicles at several companies in the same office park, eventually leading a team of developers building data warehouses, web-based BI applications and integrating mission critical systems. Today, as a Technical Evangelist for ComponentOne, Rich travels the country sharing new technologies with an eye toward the usefulness of these technologies to the poor souls still in their cubicles. Rich has been working with Azure since the early beta days, with Windows Phone 7 since before you could leave one in a bar, and is co-author of "Microsoft Azure: Enterprise Application Development" from Packt Publishing (http://bit.ly/msazurebook). Follow Rich's blog at http://c1.ms/c1_richd, or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/rj_dudley.

Technology/Platform: Mobile

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Nile

Abstract: Monotouch, from Xamarin, is a set of libraries and tools that enable a software developer familiar with Microsoft technologies and C# to target mobile devices on the iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android platforms. In this talk, you will see how ALPHCE, Inc. took a family of health-diagnostic questionnaires that had been developed for the Windows desktop, and brought it to the iPad. This required architectural changes, rethinking of user interface, and brought along the inevitable pains experienced at the bleeding edge of new technologies. This is a technical talk, with plenty of source code and demonstrations.

Presented By: Brian Schuth

About the Speaker: Twenty years ago Brian Schuth put his philosophy degree in the closet, started work as a software developer, and never looked back. Working in a polyglot of languages, from m4 and perl to Javascript, C# and Ruby, he has created software primarily for the health research and epidemiology. An advocate and evolving practioner of Agile practices, he is currently an independent contractor, working wherever the next gig takes him. He spends most of his time in Eastport, Maine, his adopted home town, where he explores Agile practices in theatrical direction when not sitting in front of his keyboard.

Technology/Platform: Windows 8

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Salon G

Abstract: Windows 8 is coming and there is a brand new kid in town called Windows Runtime (WinRT) to build applications. In this session we are going to look at what it takes to port an existing SilverLight application to run natively in the Metro interface within Windows 8. We'll be using a real world production application written in SilverLight that has Facebook and Twitter features (in other words this is not some contrived demo example). We'll walk through what's missing, what didn't work, what was hard, what was easy, what is painful and what is awesome. After leaving this session developers will have a real world benchmark of what it is going to take to port existing SilverLight applications to Windows 8 and WinRT.

Presented By: Keith Elder

About the Speaker: Keith Elder is the co-host of the popular online technology podcast Deep Fried Bytes. He is also a Director of Software Engineering at Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest online mortgage lender based in Detroit, MI and is the founder of the Hattiesburg, MS .Net User Group called Hub City NUG. Keith is an experienced technologist, systems administrator, software engineer, speaker, trainer and all around geek. As an experienced educator, trainer and speaker he has logged thousands of hours in front of the classroom teaching students of varying ages from the 6th grade to the college level. He has trained countless developers from various business sectors ranging from top auto manufactures, fortune 500 companies and Universities. As a Microsoft MVP he speaks throughout the United States at major technical conferences, Code Camps, and .Net User Groups. Keith’s ability to explain complex topics with a friendly common sense southern attitude make him a highly regarded speaker at technical conferences. You can read more about Keith’s interests, hobbies, rants and raves on his blog at http://keithelder.net/.

Technology/Platform: Other Languages

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 10:45 AM

Location: Salon E

Abstract: ClojureScript has changed the game for JavaScript developers. It's not a small step forward, It's a rocket ship to another dimension. If you're writing JavaScript heavy applications, you owe it to yourself to peek into it's inevitable future. Join Clojure/core's Aaron Bedra as he steps through the ideas behind ClojureScript and demonstrates how to start using it on your applications. Aaron will build a basic web service, then move on to building the front end without ever leaving the Clojure language. You'll watch in amazement as you begin to ponder such things as "why did I ever bother with JSON", and "wow, I didn't realize how much I lost while switching programming contexts". You will walk away from this talk armed with the things you need to get started writing your own ClojureScript code. Warning, side effects may include euphoria and unexplained oubursts of joy.

Presented By: Aaron Bedra

About the Speaker: Aaron Bedra is a member of Clojure/core and a developer at Relevance, Inc. where he spends his time as a tech lead, speaker and author. He is a frequent contributor to the Clojure language and its supporting libraries as well as an active member of the Clojure community. Aaron is the co-author of Programming Clojure, 2nd Edition

Technology/Platform: Software Process

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Salon D

Abstract: Software marches forward; each new piece is better than the last! Not quite... it's a bit more subtle than that. There are patterns in the history of our industry: each tool or practice is a reaction to something before it. There is also a pattern in our responses: many considered structured programming and the relational model too restrictive for "practical" work in their early days. Likewise, C, Java, and Ruby were all "too slow for practical work" when they began rising to popularity. By paying attention to the patterns in our history, and to our responses, we can better understand both the history and our current tools' place in it. Maybe we can even answer the big question: what might the next "too slow for practical work" tool be?

Presented By: Gary Bernhardt

About the Speaker: Gary Bernhardt is a creator and destroyer of software compelled to understand both sides of heated software debates: Vim and Emacs; Python and Ruby; Git and Mercurial. He runs Destroy All Software, which publishes advanced screencasts for serious developers covering Unix, Ruby, OO design, and TDD.

Technology/Platform: Software Process

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Indigo Bay

Abstract: Continuous Integration has become a proven practice for improving software quality by ensuring that the codebase is _integrated_ (validated, compiled, and unit tested) on a _continuous_ (on check-in or scheduled) basis. It’s a great first step on the road to quality production code, but it’s just that: a first step. Beyond the gates of continuous integration lies a path filled with quality quagmires, from countless configuration files to database script disasters to deployment automation. While many developers will shrug their shoulders and say that it’s not their problem, the true professionals will not only take an interest in how their code makes it through production, but advocate for an end product that reflects the quality of their work. In this technology-neutral talk, we’ll explore how to take the foundation laid by continuous integration all the way through production, discuss how to deal with both the technical challenges and the people challenges (management, operations, etc), and show how a single developer can make a huge impact on the software development organization.

Presented By: Alex Papadimoulis

About the Speaker: Alex Papadimoulis is the founder and editor of The Daily WTF, a leading how-not to guide for developing software. Residing in Berea, Ohio, he is a software engineer at Inedo, which helps software developers automate their build-deploy-release process with BuildMaster.

Technology/Platform: JavaScript

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Salon E

Abstract: CoffeeScript—that "little language" that compiles to JavaScript—has become something of a big deal in recent months. Is it all just hype, or does CoffeeScript really deliver on its promise to give us JavaScript without the bad parts? In this session, and with the aid of several Hollywood and pop-culture clichés, Brandon will provide a zero to working overview of CoffeeScript: how to get it, how to learn it and how to start using it in your projects.

Presented By: Brandon Satrom

About the Speaker: Brandon is a web evangelist for Microsoft, based in Austin, TX. A unapologetic lover of the web, Brandon loves to talk about HTML, JavaScript, CSS, open source and whatever new shiny tool or technology (like CoffeeScript) has distracted him from that other thing he was working on. Brandon loves writing and speaking and loves hanging out with and learning from other passionate developers, both online and in person.

Technology/Platform: Other Languages

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Salon H

Abstract: This talk is about global interpreter locks, CPU bound threads, thrashing, scaling to multiple boxes, and generally having fun handling millions of requests. We will talk about everything from why you might want a threaded server and when you need async. I'll briefly introduce the threading module, the multiprocessing module, the queue module, gevent, zmq, and talk about how we use *all* of this stuff to manage thousands of activities a second.

Presented By: Mark Ramm

About the Speaker: Mark Ramm has been solving problems with Python for over a decade, and has been hacking on python web libraries and frameworks for much of that time. Right now, he's working to try to help SourceForge.net recapture it's mojo. In his free time he's written books, magazine articles, a bunch of code, and a quite few tweets.  

Technology/Platform: Mobile

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:50 PM

Location: Zambezi

Abstract: Just because you're coding Mobile applications doesn't mean that you can't take advantage of the benefits Continuous Integration (CI). Come to this session and learn all about CI on both the iPhone and Android platforms. Learn the difference between Hudson and Jenkins, all about headless emulators, as well as the best tools to use for unit testing, functional testing and beta app deployment of your mobile apps.

Presented By: Godfrey Nolan

About the Speaker: Godfrey Nolan is founder and president of RIIS and author of Decompiling Java. Godfrey specializes in requirements capture using visualization tools such as iRise and Balsamiq and requirement management tools such as ReqPro and CaliberRM primarily in the Detroit Metro area and is currently using executable requirements at a couple of clients in the automotive and telecommunications space.

Technology/Platform: Ruby

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Salon D

Abstract: Configuring development, staging and production environments from scratch can be and extremely boring and time consuming task that only grows as your company grows. Chef is a tool that helps you deal with configuring any number of environments that can be as easy as a single click. In this talk I will show the basics of starting out with Chef and talk about my experiences of creating Chef scripts for both Linux and Windows environments that make it a breeze to scale your infrastructure, or just rebuild your development environment when you delete that all important system file.

Presented By: Colin Gemmell

About the Speaker: Colin Gemmell is Web/Application Developer from Glasgow, Scotland. He has gained a wide range of experience in his time as a developer working on everything from enterprise applications to small promotional web-sites. Starting out first Borland Delphi before graduating to .NET he made the jump to Ruby on Rails and hasn’t yet looked back. A constant presence in the in the Glasgow tech community Colin has spoken a numerous programming and tech events and conferences covering the length and breadth of the UK. He also current runs the Glasgow Ruby User Group.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Salon H

Abstract: At its heart, much of Domain-Driven Design is all about object-oriented design. The challenge with elegant designs is that they all start out ugly. But our domain objects don't need to stay as anemic, data-centric property bags. With a small set of well-honed refactoring techniques, we can turn an ugly domain model into a wicked domain model, where our business objects respect boundaries, take our commands, and never, ever find themselves in a bad state.

Presented By: Jimmy Bogard

About the Speaker: Jimmy oversees the technical design and architecture of solutions delivered, evaluating potential technologies and increasing awareness of technologies on the horizon. Jimmy has delivered solutions ranging from shrink-wrapped products to enterprise e-commerce applications for Fortune 100 customers. He is also a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and is an active member in the .NET community, leading open source projects, giving technical presentations, and facilitating technical book clubs. Jimmy is a member of the ASPInsiders group, the C# Insiders group, and received the "Microsoft Most Valuable Professional" (MVP) award for ASP.NET in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:50 PM

Location: Indigo Bay

Abstract: How do you deploy database changes with your web application today? Are you still rolling scripts by hand to move your database from one version to the next? In this session we will take a look at how to manage database schema changes in your web application through exploring the change lifecycle. We will take first version application and walk through the upgrade process showing you the tools and techniques needed to keep your schema changes reliable and consistent.

Presented By: Colin Bowern

About the Speaker: Colin Bowern is a solutions architect and coach focused on the advancement of organizational goals through pragmatic technology investments. His work spans music, financial, public sector, and technology industries including start-up and multi-national organizations like Microsoft, Bank of Montreal, and officialCOMMUNITY. Colin engages teams and executive management to boost productivity and drive innovation using user-centric design and promoting craftsmanship in software engineering. Recognized by the community for interactive contributions in public speaking, community building, and writing, Colin has been awarded a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional designation for ASP.NET/IIS for the past several years. His work appears across books, forums, and web casts. You can find out more about Colin on the web at ColinBowern.com.

Technology/Platform: Mobile

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 11:00 AM

Location: Nile

Abstract: Storing, retrieving, and querying data in a mobile application raises some interesting problems. Most applications don’t just deal with data locally, but also have to interact with a central data store. How do you deal with these issues when your application is running on a device that can often times be disconnected? In this session we will explore these problems and solutions using examples in Windows Phone 7. We will also look at a few open source libraries that you can use in your applications to get up and running quickly.

Presented By: Jeff Fansler

About the Speaker: Jeff Fansler is the Founder and President of Fanzoo Technology, Inc. He is also a father, hockey player, home brewer, major geek, and enjoys long walks in his office with a picture of the beach on the monitor. Jeff’s career has been focused on bringing the benefits of software and the internet to a wide range of business needs. Jeff started Fanzoo Technology, Inc. in 2006 and has helped several clients design, develop, and support products and custom line of business applications. Throughout his career he has learned a lot about the business of software but more than anything, he has learned that there is always more to learn and that everyone has something to contribute.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Salon G

Abstract: You have started developing applications that take advantage of today’s multi-core processors. Come learn how to take your parallel programming skills to the next level. This session will focus on design patterns in parallel programming. Come learn about Parallel Loops, Fork/Join, Producer/Consumer, Map/Reduce and other design patterns used in parallel programming.

Presented By: Michael Slade

About the Speaker: Michael Slade is an Applications Programmer – Lead with Progressive Insurance. Prior to joining Progressive, he was a senior software engineer with ABB, where he spent 12 years building real-time, highly concurrent Windows applications to help ABB customers automate their chemical, power, and manufacturing plants.

Technology/Platform: Mobile

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 10:45 AM

Location: Zambezi

Abstract: This talk will cover architecting and implementing an Enterprise Mobile App. The development will be done using OpenMobster, an open source platform for mobilizing cloud services. It will involve writing a Sync App. It will cover how to write the Cloud side channels to expose the Enterprise backend. Then on the device side this data will be available for access in offline mode. As the data changes on one device, the Sync Engine will automatically push it to the Cloud and other devices using that piece of data. You will also learn how to use the cross platform Java API for performing Push. Push is the mechanism used by the Cloud to notify the device of some change that may have occurred on the Cloud. The Java API abstracts the low-level details of Push associated with iPhone and Android.

Presented By: Sohil Shah

About the Speaker: I am currently the Chief Engineer at OpenMobster. OpenMobster is an open source platform for mobilizing Cloud services. It consists of a very efficient sync platform to store Cloud data locally on the device and then keeping it in sync with the Cloud and your other devices. A short definition would be 'iCloud for the Enterprise'. Before OpenMobster I worked on JBoss Portal as a senior software engineer at Red Hat. My duties involved architecting and implementing the Portal infrastructure on the CMS and Security side. I have spoken multiple times at JBoss World on the topic of Single Sign On.

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Rosewood

Abstract: Harry Potter's movies may be done, but you can still test your coding skills with this exercise. Your task is to implement a discounting algorithm that ensures customers receive the correct price when they purchase several Harry Potter books. Be warned, this one is trickier than it first appears. Work on your own or with another developer in your language of choice. Bring a laptop with your tools, or pair up with someone else on their machine.

Presented By: NimblePros

About the Speaker: NimblePros is an agile software studio located in Hudson, Ohio. NimblePros focuses primarily on Microsoft technologies with an emphasis on software quality and craftsmanship. In addition to consulting services, NimblePros provides software tools Nitriq and Atomiq, software auditing services, and online training in partnership with Pluralsight On-Demand. NimblePros also runs the Northeast Ohio Software Craftsmanship group, HudsonSC.com, which meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:50 PM

Location: Salon E

Abstract: C# 4.0 introduces the Dynamic keyword. The team said it was to add better support for COM, yet we’ve already seen its usage extend to ASP.NET MVC 3 and other scenarios. The truth of the matter is, when it comes to working with things such as XML and JSON, dynamic types can really enhance productivity. If you’re a fan of static typed languages and whether or not you like dynamic languages, come to this session and learn to love the new dynamic keyword. We’ll see how you can really gain productivity and flexibility when using it appropriately. Used in quite a few OSS projects already, dynamic really has changed the scenery when it comes to writing applications in C#.

Presented By: Hadi Hariri

About the Speaker: Hadi Hariri is a developer, speaker, podcaster and Technical Evangelist at JetBrains. His passions include software architecture and web development. Book author and frequent contributor to developer publications, Hadi has been speaking at industry events for over a decade. He is based in Spain where he lives with his wife and two sons, and runs the .NET Malaga User Group. He is also an ASP.NET MVP and ASP.NET Insider.

Technology/Platform: Design/UX

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Orange

Abstract: Getting user feedback on your progress is key to making successful interfaces and it doesn’t have to take months. In this session you will learn how setting up regular usability tests can allow you to save time doing the studies and without sacrificing quality. In this session you will learn strategies and techniques that can be used for making traditional and remote usability testing methods easier to plan and conduct. We will cover usability testing from planning through analysis, and ways to provide useful and usable recommendations to the team. This session will cover the following topics: • Planning tips and tricks • Recruiting methods • Note taking and managing observers • Specific tips for methods (Traditional, Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE) • Specific tips for locations (in-person, on-site, remote) • Brief review of software • Analysis • Sharing your findings • Making usable recommendations

Presented By: Carol Smith

About the Speaker: Carol Smith has extensive experience conducting usability studies remotely, in the lab and in the field. Through her business, Midwest Research, LLC, she researches and communicates user needs to clients to help them improve products and also conducts usability tests on websites, software, and consumer products. Carol has a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction and is the Treasurer and Director of Education and Training for UPA International, an organization that promotes usability concepts and techniques worldwide. Carol enjoys spending time with her husband and two young children and runs when she can.

Technology/Platform: Design/UX

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:50 PM

Location: Orange

Abstract: We spend much of our time collecting and analyzing data. That data is only useful if it can be displayed in a meaningful, understandable way. Yale professor Edward Tufte presented many ideas on how to effectively present data to an audience or end user. In this session, I will explain some of Tufte's most important guidelines about data visualization and how you can apply those guidelines to your own data. You will learn what to include, what to remove, and what to avoid in your charts, graphs, maps and other images that represent data.

Presented By: David Giard

About the Speaker: David Giard has been developing solutions using Microsoft technologies since 1993. He is a Microsoft MVP; an INETA mentor; and the President of the Great Lakes Area .Net User Group. David has presented at many of the conferences and user groups around the Midwest. He is a recovering certification addict and holds an MCTS, MCSD, MCSE, and MCDBA, as well as a BS and an MBA. He is the host and producer of the mildly popular online TV show Technology and Friends. You can read his latest thoughts at www.DavidGiard.com. David lives in Michigan with his two teenage sons.

Technology/Platform: Java

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 11:00 AM

Location: Salon H

Abstract: FindBugs is a static analysis tool that finds coding mistakes in Java programs. It is widely popular, with more than a million downloads. In a student involving hundreds of engineers at Google, the issues identified by FindBugs were evaluated as should fix or must fix issues 81% of the time. However, many projects and developers use FindBugs on an ad-hoc basis, with individual developers running FindBugs sporadically. Some projects use FindBugs as part of their continuous build system, but find themselves unsure of the return on their investment and wondering if there might be a more effective way to use FindBugs. When first applying FindBugs is a large project and seeing hundreds or thousands of issues, others simply give up on using FindBugs. I'll briefly review FindBugs, and describe techniques for cost-effective integration of FindBugs into the software development process for medium to huge software projects, with a focus on new features available in FindBugs 2.0. Topics include how to customize FindBugs to prioritize and filter issues important to your project, how to store bug data in a cloud so that everyone working on the project shares information about when the issue was first seen and whether people think the issue is important to fix, and ways to use annotations to help FindBugs detect even more errors in your code.

Presented By: Bill Pugh

About the Speaker: Professor at Univ. of Maryland, inventor of Skip Lists, lead on FindBugs, 6 time JavaOne Rock Star, one of the puzzling type-it brothers, and part time fire eater.

Technology/Platform: Other Languages

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Salon E

Abstract: Would you like to build massively parallel, distributed, fault-tolerant, cross-platform, easily maintainable systems with less code and look cool doing it? If so, the opensource programming language Erlang has some real sweet spots for you. If you're unfamiliar with Erlang you may be surprised to learn how battle tested it is: Facebook's chat backend, CouchDB, RabbitMQ, GitHub's backend and Amazon's SimpleDB are all written in Erlang, and every phone call you make is likely helped along by some Erlang somewhere. So how does a functional programming language with Prolog and telecom roots solve so many of the big problems that Enterprisey languages famously stink at? What's so darn special about Erlang? What are the pieces and the tools? What does it look like? How do I (as a C# developer) even get started with Erlang?

Presented By: Bryan Hunter

About the Speaker: Bryan Hunter is a geek, a founding partner of Firefly Logic and the president of the Nashville .NET User Group. Bryan is obsessed with Lean, functional programming (Erlang, C# and F#), CQRS and Caliburn.Micro. He has been speaking on each of these subjects tirelessly for years at meetups, bars, user groups, bars, regional conferences and bars. You can say hi to Bryan on Twitter (@bryan_hunter), read his blog at http://codeswamp.com, and see what Firefly Logic is all about here: http://fireflylogic.com

Technology/Platform: Ruby

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Cypress

Abstract: We'll illustrate how much a RESTful architecture buys you when building a Rails application with respect to topics such as: reduced application code, clean client-side interaction, cacheability and scalability, and crafting great public APIs. If you haven't looked at the theory of REST in detail or just need a refresher, we'll cover the essence of the theory as a means of illustrating just how low-friction this approach makes building web applications with rich client experiences. This talk will feature examples and code in Ruby on Rails on the server and Backbone.js on the client, but the ideas are applicable to the design of any web application.

Presented By: Matt Yoho

About the Speaker: Matt Yoho is a developer and agile enthusiast with a love for Ruby and the web who works for EdgeCase, LLC in Columbus, OH. He is a supporter of the Software Craftsmanship movement and is the Apprenticeship coordinator at EdgeCase. He likes comic books, karaoke, Free Software, and sweet potato fries. He is one fairly hep cat.

Technology/Platform: Java

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:50 PM

Location: Sagewood / Zebrawood

Abstract: Functional programming is in the air. The most common question in java programmers mind is whether it is useful and possible to do functional programming(FP) in Java ? I will start of with a quote from Timothy Budd, “Research results from the psychology of programming indicate that expertise in programming is far more strongly related to the number of different programming styles understood by individual than it is the number of years of experience in programming.” So FP will help you to become a better Java developer. And the good news is FP is language agnostic. Its a style that you learn and can use in almost all programming languages. Outline of the presentation - Introduction to FP with examples written in Java - Why FP is important to learn and explain the benefits of FP in enterprise software development - Overview of the FP libraries available in Java (functionaljava, lambdaj etc)

Presented By: Nilanjan Raychaudhuri

About the Speaker: I am Nilanjan Raychaudhuri working for Livingsocial. Previously worked in companies like Pillar technology and Thoughtworks. I have managed and developed software solutions for more than 12 years and specializing in integrated multi-tiered web and server applications. I am known for hard work, well-tested code, and clean OO design. I believe in high-discipline agile methodologies, customer focus, simple tools applied elegantly, and continuous improvement. I believe I am almost unique among programmers having strong skills with both databases and objects together. I have a passion for the elimination of duplication in design, code, data, and most of all – effort. I write software for a living. But since I enjoy creating things and solving problems, I also write software on my pastime. I am currently working on scala-webmachine (restful resource framework). In past I worked on other open source projects like Panopticode, scala-inline and autotest4j. When I am not working on projects I play with functional programming and DSL. Currently writing a book on Scala programming language called “Scala in Action” from Manning publication.

Technology/Platform: Design/UX

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Orange

Abstract: This session will be a hands-on walk through of the latest responsive and adaptive web design techniques. Attendees will walk away with a working knowledge of how to implement a responsive front-end on their sites. Particular attention will be given to ensuring that sites are built responsibly (for example, proper image sizes are served to the device). Additionally, the session will cover techniques that can be used on the server in combination with client-side technologies to offer a more seamless user experience. Specific topics covered: - fluid grids - flexible media (images/video/...) - media queries - polyfills - useful resources - effective testing Because this topic is so new, the specifics will certainly change as we approach the conference date. Never fear, I'll make sure that the content presented is fresh and current as well as easy to understand and applicable.

Presented By: Ben Callahan

About the Speaker: President of Sparkbox and Founding Partner of FORGE, Ben is a thought leader on front-end development sharing his ideas about the web on the Sparkbox Foundry and industry blogs like Smashing Magazine. His leadership at Sparkbox has driven the organization to be a leading provider of responsive web design and he continues to push for better user experiences outside the context of specific devices.

Technology/Platform: Ruby

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 10:45 AM

Location: Cypress

Abstract: Rong is a client-server Pong implementation written in Ruby that hopes to take a whack at your office productivity. Though Pong itself is a relatively uncomplex game, it allows a variety of interesting game programming problems to be explored when constructing the game in a robust manner as a client-server application. We'll talk through the structure of the implementation, the involved libraries, including libraries supporting 2-D game development in Ruby, and the techniques involved in creating a responsive network-based game.

Presented By: Matt Yoho

About the Speaker: Matt Yoho is a developer and agile enthusiast with a love for Ruby and the web who works for EdgeCase, LLC in Columbus, OH. He is a supporter of the Software Craftsmanship movement and is the Apprenticeship coordinator at EdgeCase. He likes comic books, karaoke, Free Software, and sweet potato fries. He is one fairly hep cat.

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Salon H

Abstract: Please select from the following options – 1) Ruby 2) Java 3) Python 4) Node.js 5) Clojure 6) All of the above If presented with the above quiz, Heroku would pick #6. Heroku provides a fully managed cloud platform that lets you develop in any of the above languages (with more on the way). With no servers, routers, load balancers etc. to manage, you’re free to focus entirely on your code. With Heroku, you can scale your application up or down with a single command, deploy your code with a simple git push command and monitor your application logs and status in real time. Interested in finding out more? Come join us for an introduction to Heroku and see how you can develop your next application in the cloud. We promise – no more quizzes. Just some code and some command lines.

Presented By: Sandeep Bhanot

About the Speaker: Sandeep Bhanot is a Developer Evangelist at Salesforce.com. In a prior incarnation (he is Indian after all), he was an Enterprise Architect and SOA Consultant. As a Developer Evangelist at Salesforce.com, he helps spread the gospel of the Cloud and Heroku.

Technology/Platform: Java

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Aloeswood / Leopardwood

Abstract: The Java SE 7 release is the result of nearly five years of industry-wide development involving open review, weekly builds and extensive collaboration between Oracle engineers and members of the worldwide Java community via the OpenJDK project. Over the past year the OpenJDK community has continued to grow, including the addition of major vendors such as IBM and Apple. In June Oracle announced that the Java SE 7 Reference Implementation will be based entirely on the OpenJDK open source code. The Java SE 7 release includes new features such as small language changes for improved developer productivity, a new Filesystem API, support for asynchronous I/O, a new fork/join framework for multicore performance, improved support for dynamic and script languages, updates to security, internationalization and web standards and much more. In this session, we'll provide an overview of the these new features and highlight the major improvements.

Presented By: Scott Seighman

About the Speaker: Scott Seighman is a Principal Sales Consultant with Oracle where his primary focus is architecting open solutions that span the computing landscape, from embedded devices to cloud architectures. Based in Cleveland, Scott is tasked with cultivating the technical staffs within Oracle's Partner community through training, workshops, webinars, product evaluations, and demos. Prior to joining Oracle, Scott spent 12 years with Sun Microsystems as a systems engineer, promoting Java technologies (ME, SE, EE) throughout the Midwest.

Technology/Platform: Java

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Aloeswood / Leopardwood

Abstract: JavaFX 2.0 is the next version of a revolutionary rich client platform for developing immersive desktop applications. One of the new features in JavaFX 2.0 is a set of pure Java APIs that can be used from any JVM language, opening up tremendous possibilities. This presentation demonstrates the potential of using JavaFX 2.0 together with alternative languages such as Groovy and Scala. It also will showcase the successor to JavaFX Script, Visage, a DSL with features specifically targeted at helping create clean UIs.

Presented By: Stephen Chin

About the Speaker: Stephen Chin is a technical expert in RIA technologies, and Chief Agile Methodologist at GXS. He coauthored the Apress Pro JavaFX Platform title, which is the leading technical reference for JavaFX, and is lead author of the Pro Android Flash title. In addition, Stephen runs the very successful Silicon Valley JavaFX User Group, which has hundreds of members and tens of thousands of online viewers, and also is co-organizer for the Flash on Devices User Group. Finally, he is a Java Champion, chair of the OSCON Java conference, and an internationally recognized speaker featured at Devoxx, Jazoon, and JavaOne, where he received a Rock Star Award. Stephen can be followed on twitter @steveonjava and reached via his blog: http://steveonjava.com/

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 12:30 PM

Location: Keynote Dining Hall

Abstract: If you are developing software and getting paid for it, software process is part of your life. Even the absence of a defined process is a process of sorts. For over forty years the world of software development has been churning through forms of process, with each successor disclaiming the validity of its forebears to the cheers of those liberated from the oppressive chains of process past. But if the latest acclaimed process is the answer, why do so many groups slough off what seemed to be working well a scant few years ago in favor of yet another choice? Furthermore, the time between process changes gets shorter and shorter. Waterfall reigned for ages, then RUP, then Scrum and XP, and now Lean/Kanban, each enjoying successively shorter seasons of favor as the de facto choice. Process is but a framework to facilitate the collaboration of a group of people to produce a desired outcome. It is not a substitute for culture, technical excellence, discipline, and product strategy. In this keynote, Barry emphasizes the need to continue thinking critically about the processes and practices we embrace, accounting for the context in which they exist, and the importance of reflection and refinement at both the organizational and personal levels

Presented By: Barry Hawkins

About the Speaker: Prior to his career in software, Barry Hawkins spent 10 years designing, selling, and delivering turn-key industrial packaging and marking systems into manufacturing plants throughout the southeastern United States. He was responsible for the implementation, maintenance, and support of every system he sold, which was a formative experience that continues to influence his approach to consulting and coaching. Barry has played various roles in his 15 years in the software industry, including lone developer, team lead, director, and Agile coach and mentor. Barry is one of the few native Atlantans, currently specializing in coaching and mentoring for Agile software development in addition to doing contract software development. Over the years, he has developed on multiple platforms, focusing primarily on Microsoft technologies and then Java from 2003 onward. He views technology as a set of tools, and embraces the use of dynamic as well as statically-typed languages, procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming, each having their own strengths in a given problem domain.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Indigo Bay

Abstract: Test Driven Development can be hard. Oh, sure, it's easy to write the standard bank account tests that you see in all of the demos. But what about real life? What about that service that hasn't been developed yet? What if the code you are trying to test doesn't follow Uncle Bob's SOLID principles? I will show you how free mocking tools will brighten your day!

Presented By: Philip Japikse

About the Speaker: An international speaker, Microsoft MVP, MCSD, CSM, and CSP, and a passionate member of the developer community, Phil Japikse has been working with .Net since the first betas, developing software for over 20 years, and heavily involved in the agile community since 2005. Phil works as the Patterns and Practices Evangelist for Telerik (www.telerik.com), and serves as the Lead Director for the Cincinnati .Net User’s Group and the Cincinnati Software Architect Group Phil is also the founder and president of Agile Conferences, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to advancing agile in all aspects of software development. In his spare time, Phil works part-time as a Firefighter/Paramedic, serves as Cub Master for his sons’ Cub Scout Pack, and volunteers for the National Ski Patrol. You can follow Phil on twitter via www.twitter.com/skimedic and read his blog at www.skimedic.com/blog.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Salon A

Abstract: Everyone seems to be working on a game these days. And why not? You can make some great money, have fun building something, and become famous. Many new games, especially casual games, are using the cloud. Not just to reduce their startup costs, but to innovate. Come see how you can build a modern game that uses the cloud to startup and scale. Real world gaming scenarios included.

Presented By: Brian Prince

About the Speaker: Brian H. Prince is a Cloud Evangelist for Microsoft. He gets super excited whenever he talks about technology, especially cloud computing, patterns, and practices. His job is to help customers strategically leverage technology, and help them bring their architecture to a super level. In a past life Brian was a part of super startups, super marketing firms, and super consulting firms. Much of his super architecture background includes building super scalable applications, application integration, and award winning web applications. All of them were super. Further, he is a co-founder of the non-profit organization CodeMash (www.codemash.org). He speaks at various international technology conferences. He only wishes his job didn’t require him to say ‘super’ so much. Brian is the co-author of “Azure in Action”, published by Manning Press. Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science and Physics from Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. He is also a zealous gamer. For example, he is a huge fan of Fallout 3, Portal, and pretty much every other game he plays.

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:50 PM

Location: Salon H

Abstract: The fastest query is the one never run - Using Microsoft Server AppFabric Cache you can dramatically improve the performance of your web / enterprise application without investing in big hardware or complicated programming. We'll take a real-world application with performance issues, add AppFabric cache to it to demonstrate the difference even short term caching can make to your application. We'll then walk through how you can make this effortless using code injection. The code samples will be specific to AppFabric and .NET but the concepts and approaches are common to many application platforms.

Presented By: Kendall Miller

About the Speaker: Kendall Miller is one of the founding partners of Gibraltar Software, an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) that develops and markets commercial applications for .NET developers, including: Gibraltar – an application logging and monitoring platform; and VistaDB – a small-footprint, SQL Server-compatible embedded database engine. Both products are used by customers around the world ranging from individual consultants through Fortune 100 companies and governments. Before starting Gibraltar Software, Kendall worked for multiple startups leading their technology development from concept through profitability. In each case, he's focused on translating enterprise-level performance and capabilities down to smaller companies. Using multiple generations of Microsoft technologies over the past 15 years, Kendall is experienced with the details of modern .NET development as well as the challenges that have stayed the same for generations. You can follow his blog at rocksolid.gibraltarsoftware.com or on Twitter (@KendallMiller).

Technology/Platform: JavaScript

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Salon F

Abstract: Is your codebase well organized and easy to maintain? Is your Javascript less so? Disorganized Javascript is expensive. It makes bugs hard find and even harder to fix, leads to new features taking longer to build and causes slow performance in browsers. It has always been difficult to keep Javascript organized. Until now. Backbone.js allows any developer to organize code in a familiar MVC architecture without being a Javascript expert. It uses the best parts of the Javascript language to respond to user interaction and interact with the server. This talk will focus on learning Backbone.js through real code samples from a production application before and after implementing Backbone.js. The audience will leave this talk knowing how to incrementally replace their existing Javascript with Backbone.js.

Presented By: Joe Fiorini

About the Speaker: Joe is a Ruby & Javascript developer, husband and father from Cleveland, Ohio. He works for LeanDog Software where he builds solutions for customers using Ruby on Rails. He has contributed to a number of open source projects including RSpec, Ruby on Rails and GitX. He is currently writing his first screencast on Backbone.js.

Technology/Platform: Windows 8

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Salon G

Abstract: Windows 8 will bring a new style of Windows applications: Metro. Metro style applications bring a new set of issues in writing applications that take full advantage of our computers. When do I use the new Async capabilities of .Net 4.5, and when do I use the Task Parallel Library? What happens when Windows 8 suspends my application when switching to another Metro application? Come learn the answers to these questions and others as we explore parallel programming in Metro applications.

Presented By: Michael Slade

About the Speaker: Michael Slade is an Applications Programmer – Lead with Progressive Insurance. Prior to joining Progressive, he was a senior software engineer with ABB, where he spent 12 years building real-time, highly concurrent Windows applications to help ABB customers automate their chemical, power, and manufacturing plants.

Technology/Platform: Other Languages

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Salon E

Abstract: Programming languages always seem to do some things well but not others: Python punts when it comes to user interfaces, Java’s artificial complexity prevents rapid development and produces tangles, and it will be awhile before we see benefits from C++ concurrency work. The cognitive load of languages and their blind spots increases the cost of experimentation, impeding your ability to fail fast and iterate. If you use a single language to solve your problem, you are binding yourself to the worldview limitations and the mistakes made by the creator of that language. Consider increasing your wiggle room by crossing language boundaries, complementing a language that is powerful in one area with a different language powerful in another. Language hybridization can speed development to quickly discover your real problems, giving you more time to fix them. After making a case for hybridizing your thinking in general, I will present a number of simple examples; first showing the benefits of using other languages with multiprocessing in Python and Actors in Scala, then hybridization creating a Go language JSON-RPC server and a Python client, and finally a Python web server with a web client using CoffeeScript, jQuery and Ajax. All examples are kept small so that the syntax of each new language can be explained.

Presented By: Bruce Eckel

About the Speaker: Bruce Eckel (www.BruceEckel.com) is the author of Thinking in Java (Prentice-Hall, 1998, 2nd Edition, 2000, 3rd Edition, 2003, 4th Edition, 2006), Thinking in C++ (PH 1995; 2nd edition 2000, Volume 2 with Chuck Allison, 2003), C++ Inside & Out (Osborne/McGraw-Hill 1993), and First Steps in Flex (with James Ward, 2008) among others. He's given hundreds of presentations throughout the world, published over 150 articles in numerous magazines, was a founding member of the ANSI/ISO C++ committee and speaks regularly at conferences. He provides public and private training and consulting in programming languages and software system design.

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Salon F

Abstract: A common security mantra is "don't roll your own" - but when developing modern web APIs, this may seem easier said than done. Unlike older, over-specified API protocols, the general concepts which underpin REST APIs do not offer much guidance on security best-practices. Worse still, some techniques that have gained widespread use have been shown to be fundamentally flawed. This session will cover some common classes of mistakes in developing and using secure web APIs, and show how reinventing the wheel can sometimes be dangerous. Along the way, we'll cover problems with authentication and authorization, information leakage, and (im)proper uses of transport-layer security, among others.

Presented By: Adam Goodman

About the Speaker: Adam is a co-founder and Principal Security Engineer at Duo Security, where he and his cohorts work to radically improve the ease-of-use in strong authentication systems. He was previously a founding engineer at Zattoo, Europe's largest live-streaming Internet TV operator, where he led the development of the secure P2P distribution and digital rights management protocols that carried the first live broadcasts of Europe's second-largest pay TV operator over the Internet. Adam also enjoys puns way too much for his own good...

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Location: Salon G

Abstract: In this session we will explore writing an English-based rules engine that allows developers to create domain-specific rules for an application that can be easily understood by anyone. We will use a combination of C# and the DLR (dynamic language runtime) with IronRuby on the .NET platform to create a way to write, manage, and process rules for an application.

Presented By: Keith Elder

About the Speaker: Keith Elder is the co-host of the popular online technology podcast Deep Fried Bytes. He is also a Director of Software Engineering at Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest online mortgage lender based in Detroit, MI and is the founder of the Hattiesburg, MS .Net User Group called Hub City NUG. Keith is an experienced technologist, systems administrator, software engineer, speaker, trainer and all around geek. As an experienced educator, trainer and speaker he has logged thousands of hours in front of the classroom teaching students of varying ages from the 6th grade to the college level. He has trained countless developers from various business sectors ranging from top auto manufactures, fortune 500 companies and Universities. As a Microsoft MVP he speaks throughout the United States at major technical conferences, Code Camps, and .Net User Groups. Keith’s ability to explain complex topics with a friendly common sense southern attitude make him a highly regarded speaker at technical conferences. You can read more about Keith’s interests, hobbies, rants and raves on his blog at http://keithelder.net/.

Technology/Platform: Ruby

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 1:45 PM

Location: Cypress

Abstract: CANCELLED -- Automated tests are a foundation of agile software development. Many experts teach that developers should write unit tests and testers should write higher-level tests. However, many of the practices, such as test-driven development and pair programming, say little about how these practices fit into the development process. Shannon Code (a developer) and Dawn Code (a tester) describe and demonstrate ATDD (acceptance test driven development), from discussing the story to considering it done done. Early in the process they agree on story scope and develop a shared vocabulary. The tester and developer discuss the approach to solving the problem and begin to work out a test approach. Together, they write a series of acceptance tests to pin down the details of how the story will work. These team members agree up front on what will be tested, resulting in more solid production code from the beginning. Come and watch how this process unfolds when supported by an environment that is set up to execute tests and provide feedback and quickly as possible.

Presented By: Dawn Code

About the Speaker: Dawn Code is a software test evangelist who has been working to integrate testers as members of software development teams and improving the working relationships between testers, developers, and everyone else for the past 9 years. When not speaking at testing and agile conferences and user group meetings, she spends her time working in the open source community. She also writes actively, publishing articles and posting to her blog at passionatetester.com

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 3:35 PM

Location: Zambezi

Abstract: The recent break-ins at Sony and Epsilon were partially tracked to web application failures. Not network security problems. Not server misconfiguration. Coding failures. Defects. Does security make it into your unit tests? Do you do security checks as part of your integration testing? Bill will use BackTrack 5 - an industry-standard penetration testing tool - to show some techniques for breaking into your own applications, and making sure no one else does.

Presented By: Bill Sempf

About the Speaker: Hi, my name is Bill Sempf, and I am an enterprise architect. Though I used to hate the term enterprise architect, it is clearly the only thing out there that defines what it is that I do. My breadth of experience includes business and technical analysis, software design, development, testing, server management and maintenance and security. In my 18 years of professional experience I have participated in the creation of well over 200 applications for large and small companies, managed the software infrastructure of two Internet service providers, coded complex software happily in every environment imaginable, and made mainframes talk to cell phones. In short, I make the technology that people are using every play nicely together.

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 11:00 AM

Location: Salon D

Abstract: Have you ever wished that your local development sandbox could look exactly like production, but you've got a mismatch between your local OS and your production OS? And what about the age old "it works on my machine" excuse that quite often stems from differences between developer sandboxes? Many have turned to virtualization, creating a machine image that can be passed around the team. But who manages the template? How do you keep things in sync? In this session, we'll explore Vagrant (http://www.vagrantup.com), an open source tool that allows you to easily create and manage virtual development environments that can be provisioned on demand and "thrown away" when no longer needed. Our agenda will include: * Creating new base OS templates using the Vagrant Veewee plugin * Creating a new development box using Vagrant * Provisioning the box using Puppet * Provisioning the box using Chef * Deploying a simple web application to a multi-box development environment * Packaging and distributing the box within your team

Presented By: Matt Stine

About the Speaker: Matt Stine is a Technical Architect at AutoZone in Memphis, TN. He is an eleven year veteran of the enterprise software and web development industries, with experience spanning the healthcare, biomedical research, e-commerce, and now retail store domains. His current focus is the development and support of an enterprise Java platform supporting 4600+ AutoZone stores. Matt appears frequently on the No Fluff Just Stuff symposium series tour, as well as at other conferences such as JavaOne, SpringOne/2GX, The Rich Web Experience, and The Project Automation Experience. He has served as Agile Zone Leader for DZone, and his articles also appear in GroovyMag and NFJS the Magazine. Matt is also author of the Selenium 2.0 DZone Refcard. Matt is also the founder and past president of the Memphis/Mid-South Java User Group. His current areas of research emphasis include lean/agile software development, continuous delivery, DevOps, and infrastructure as code using tools such as Puppet, Chef and Vagrant.

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 3:00 PM

Location: Various-See Sponsors for details

Abstract: Join our sponsors as they present sessions on cutting edge technologies, methodologies, skills and career development, and a host of other topics. Find details on specific sessions at each sponsor's booth.

Presented By: No Speaker

Technology/Platform: Other

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Friday January 13, 2012 @ 3:00 PM

Location: Various-See Sponsors for details

Abstract: Join our sponsors as they present sessions on cutting edge technologies, methodologies, skills and career development, and a host of other topics. Find details on specific sessions at each sponsor's booth.

Presented By: No Speaker

Technology/Platform: .NET

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 9:45 AM

Location: Orange

Abstract: Oh yes. Building web applications on the Microsoft stack continues to evolve. There’s lots of great tools to leverage but it can be difficult to keep up with all the options. In this technical and fast-paced session, you’ll learn from Scott Hanselman how the pieces fit together. We’ll look at The Next Version of Visual Studio, ASP.NET MVC 4, WebForms 4.5, NuGet, Scaffolding, Web API, SignalR, Entity Framework Code First (Magic Unicorn Edition) plus Migrations, jQuery and lots, lots more. We’ll also see how many times Scott can say “unobtrusive” in a single talk. You’ll leave this session with a clear understanding of the technology options available on the Microsoft Web Stack. What’s changed and why? What direction are we going? Let’s see what we can build in an PowerPoint-free hour with the Microsoft Web Stack of Love. We’ll also talk about how you can use the Next Version of Visual Studio to work on and enhance your existing .NET 2, 3 and 3.5 apps as well. Two weeks of content in one hour. Guaranteed.

Presented By: Scott Hanselman

About the Speaker: My name is Scott Hanselman. I work out of my home office for Microsoft as a Principal Program Manager, aiming to spread good information about developing software, usually on the Microsoft stack. Before this I was the Chief Architect at Corillian Corporation, now a part of Checkfree, for 6+ years. I was also involved in a few Microsoft Developer things for many years like the MVP and RD programs and I'll speak about computers (and other passions) whenever someone will listen.

Technology/Platform: Mobile

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 9:45 AM

Location: Salon G

Abstract: Come learn about the newest features in Windows Phone Mango, including enhanced emulator, Fast Application Switching, Multitasking, Reminders, Background agents, Sensors, Tiles and Local Database.

Presented By: Jesse Liberty

About the Speaker: Jesse Liberty is a Senior Developer-Community Evangelist on the Windows Phone Team. Liberty hosts the popular Yet Another Podcast and his blog is required reading. He is the author of numerous best-selling books, including Programming Reactive Extensions and LINQ and the forthcoming Migrating to Windows Phone. He was a Distinguished Software Engineer at AT&T; Software Architect for PBS and Vice President of Information Technology at Citibank and can be followed on twitter at @JesseLiberty

Technology/Platform: Ruby

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Start Time: Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 9:45 AM

Abstract: Do you always seem to be fixing bugs in your software project? Are you spending more time fixing defects that actually implementing new behavior? If so, this talk is for you. In the mid-90s, Steve Maquire wrote a book that strongly effected the way I developed software. Primarily writing in C and C++ in those years, the struggle to deliver bug free software was especially a challenge. In the book "Writing Solid Code", Steve gives sage advice on the problems of developing large software projects and the challenges that go with making sure your softare actual does what you think it should. Although as Ruby developers we are no longer using C to deliver our large projects, the challenge of writing solid, reliable code is still before us. Based on Maquire's advice and my own years of Ruby experience, this talk will show developers tools, techniques and practices that they can use to improve their software and begin writing solid code.

Presented By: Jim Weirich

About the Speaker: Jim Weirich first learned about computers when his college adviser suggested he take a computer science course: "It will be useful, and you might enjoy it." With those prophetic words, Jim has been developing now for over 25 years, working with everything from crunching rocket launch data on supercomputers to wiring up servos and LEDs on micro-controllers. Currently he loves working in Ruby and Rails as the Chief Scientist at EdgeCase, but you can also find him strumming on his ukulele as time permits.