Rich "The Hubbins" Claussen

June Portland Nerd/Geek Dinner

Rich Claussen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:36:00 GMT

Sara Ford is in town for the Open Source Bridge conference. It'll be a great time to show her how much fun visiting Portland is!

If you don't know, among all of the cool geeky things Sara is involved in, she also helps young survivors of Hurricane Katrina with a scholarship program. You can contribute to this directly or by purchasing Sara's book. You can read more about the program here.

What: Portland ~~Nerd~~ Geek Dinner
Where: Old Town Pizza - 226 NW Davis Street
When: Wednesday, June 17, starting around 6:30 PM
Why: Because Open Source Bridge is happening and Sara Ford is in town - Uncle Jimmy Stories*! >

Be There and Be Square!

[* If you want to know what Uncle Jimmy stories are, then be there! It's worth it!]

Taking Team System to the Next Level - A VSTS 2008 Training Event

Rich Claussen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:30:24 GMT

Taking Team System to the Next Level
A VSTS 2008 Training Event

EVENT ABSTRACT
Please join Northwest Cadence for this half-day training event on Visual Studio Team System 2008.

Successful Adoption of VSTS
Are your legacy tools no longer meeting your needs? Is VSS too small for your development team or not well suited to your geographically dispersed team? Have you already moved to TFS to scale up from VSS or another legacy version control tool, but feel like there are features that you're missing? Feel like it should do more? This session will show you have to use Team system to improve the quality of your code and better manage/monitor software development and ease communication between project stakeholders.

Regulatory Compliance: End-to-End Traceability
Some form of traceability or regulatory compliance is commonplace, as is the ever-increasing challenge of managing adherence to regulatory standards. While compliance stretches across many parts of an organization, one of the key points is the software development process. Whether it is SOX, HIPPA, or PCI compliance, regulatory standards require your software development process to provide a secure development environment with traceability from one end through the other.

Metrics for Real Process Improvement
Process improvement without good metrics is like shooting in the dark – it is impossible to aim and difficult to know if you hit your goal. This session will be framed around using a process improvement effort (either formal or informal) to ensure that your Team System implementation is helping you achieve real improvements.

Using Team System to Drive Agile Adoption
Are you struggling to adopt agile? Is there still a fundamental disconnect behind the desires of the dev team to be agile, and the business who wants "business as usual"? This session will focus on using Team System to act as a change agent for adopting agile. We'll cover the features of Team System that support agile, how to handle iterations effectively, and how to use the results of prior iterations to effectively scope future iterations. Finally, we'll specifically address the use of Scrum with Team System, and will share results from an actual implementation to show the gotchas and successes of adoption Agile.

Sneak Peek at VSTS 2010
We'll wrap up our morning with a sneak peek into VSTS 2010 to see what all of the excitement is about!

DATE
Portland, OR – July 16, 2009

TIME
8:30 AM: Registration and Welcome
9:00 AM – noon: Event

LOCATION
Microsoft Corporation
10260 SW Greenburg Rd
Suite 600
Portland, OR 97223

REGISTER
Register online – http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=138856
Register via email – please email: Sue.Ferguson@nwcadence.com

SQLSaturday #12 Portland 2009

Rich Claussen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:03:59 GMT

What is SQLSaturday?

It's a free one day learning event for SQL Server professionals, loosely patterned on the well known Code Camp model, organized by the Portland SQL Server Users Group (pdxSSug).

Date and Location:

SQL Saturday Portland will be held June 6, 2009 at Mt. Hood Community College, 26000 S.E. Stark St., Gresham, Oregon 97030. The event follows the standard conference model. There are 12 sessions across 2 tracks. Most of the sessions will run 60 minutes. Check in will open at 8:00 am and sessions begin at 9:00 am. Lunch will be provided on site, and the day will close out around 5:00 pm. The after event will be held at McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 S.W. Halsey St., Troutdale, OR 97060 beginning right after the last session. Registration is at http://www.sqlsaturday.com

When will the schedule of sessions be posted?

The call for speakers is closed, and the schedule is finalized.

Can I sponsor this event?

More sponsors are needed to help subsidize the incidental costs of running the event and this is a great event to meet SQL Server professionals or to just give back to the community. If you are interested or want more information, please visit the sponsor page. You can view all of the great sponsors there and it is hoped that most of them will be at the event.

What else can you tell me about the event?

This event is free to anyone that wishes to attend. Check in for the event opens at 8 am.

Be sure to register at http://www.sqlsaturday.com

June PADNUG Meeting - ASP.NET Debugging

Rich Claussen — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:05:52 GMT

Yes, Virginia, there is a PADNUG meeting! I know last weekend's Code Camp still has many heads spinning, but we are now settling back in to the groove. Obviously, mine is!

Join us this evening for a great presentation on debugging ASP.NET applications. I know the majority of us work in ASP.NET, so this should be very useful.

WHAT:	June PADNUG Meeting
WHEN:	Tuesday 06/02/2009 6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium) 6:30 p.m. Presentation ~9:00 p.m. After Words at Gustav's
WHERE:	Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower 10260 SW Greenburg Road Suite 600 Portland, OR 97223
WHO:	Prashant Sinha Prashant Sinha has over more than 11 years of work experience including software development in finite element analysis, telecommunication, investment banking, Check Imaging, Remote Deposit Capture and enterprise services. He has led, consulted and trained developers in software development, performance analysis and production debugging on Microsoft technologies. He has also prepared coursewares on Advanced .NET debugging to conduct debugging workshop. His debugging blog is http://www.debuggingblog.com/
TOPIC:	ASP.NET Debugging A production environment is likely different than the developer's machine. This means that the system's load pattern and timings will be different and it makes reproduction of bugs in test difficult or impossible. Too often, bugs end up in the, "It works on my machine," unreproducable pile. The goal of this presentation is to introduce the audience to tools and techniques to determine the root cause of common production debugging issues. The techniques and tools shown in the demos are based on real production issues. We will discuss the issues and debugging steps required for ASP.NET applications hosted on IIS 6/7. We'll also discuss debugging Silverlight applications on a customer machine when no development environment or source code is available.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea Corporation - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
JetBrains - http://www.jetbrains.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
ORCS Web - http://www.orcsweb.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
SoftSource Consulting - http://www.sftsrc.com/
Rober Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/
SubMain and CodeIt.Right - http://submain.com/codeit.right

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

May PADNUG and Rose City SPIN Meeting - Metrics for Real Process Improvement

Rich Claussen — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:10:54 GMT

We’ve combined this month’s meeting with Rose City Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN)! Many of you may already be attending the Team System Big Event on Tuesday and we are just going to continue the party for our meeting.

Rose City SPIN is a monthly forum for networking, mutual support, and promotion of effective software practices. We exchange practical experiences, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, and war stories about the technical, business, and human facets of software process improvement. The Rose City SPIN serves the software development community of the Portland/Vancouver metro area. Whether you work for a large company or a small one, corporate or self-employed, industrial or academic setting, you are welcome at the Rose City SPIN.

WHAT:	May PADNUG and Rose City SPIN Meeting
WHEN:	Tuesday 05/05/2009 6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium and Pacific NW Software Quality Conf. PNSQC) 7:00 p.m. Presentation ~9:00 p.m. After Words at Gustav's
WHERE:	Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower 10260 SW Greenburg Road Suite 600 Portland, OR 97223
WHO:	Steven Borg Steven Borg, co-founder of Northwest Cadence, is the Visual Studio Team System Practice Lead at Northwest Cadence. In addition to being a Visual Studio Team System MVP, Steve holds several other credentials including MCP, MCSD, MCT and Certified Scrum Master (CSM). Steven has helped hundreds of organizations, both large and small, adopt Team System successfully, improving their software development process, reducing costs, increasing quality and speeding delivery dates. Steven Borg is the Visual Studio Team System Practice Lead at Northwest Cadence, a Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Inner Circle partner focused on helping organizations improve their software development process. He has helped several organizations improve their development process, reducing costs, increasing quality and speeding delivery dates. In addition, he assists the Team System community as a Team System MVP, an author, and a speaker. Visit his blog at NWCadence.com to learn more about process improvement and Team System.
TOPIC:	Metrics for Real Process Improvement Process improvement without adequate metrics is shooting in the dark - you might hit your target, but it's impossible to aim and difficult to determine how close you were to hitting your goal. In this talk we'll look at several candidate metrics that many real world organizations have used to achieve real improvements and get an excellent return on investment in process improvement initiatives. We'll also look at how to collect the right data, including the right steps to identify process changes to collect the right data.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea Corporation - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
JetBrains - http://www.jetbrains.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
ORCS Web - http://www.orcsweb.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
SoftSource Consulting - http://www.sftsrc.com/
SubMain and CodeIt.Right - http://submain.com/codeit.right

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

April PADNUG Meeting - WCF Best Practices with Unit Testing

Rich Claussen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:41:20 GMT

It’s been about a year and a half since Wayne last joined us to teach more about developing with Scrum management. He’s continuing to refine the Agile processes his team is using and will share some of that experience with us.

WHAT:	April PADNUG Meeting
WHEN:	Tuesday 04/07/2009 6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium) 6:30 p.m. Presentation ~9:00 p.m. After Words at Gustav's
WHERE:	Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower 10260 SW Greenburg Road Suite 600 Portland, OR 97223
WHO:	Stuart Celarier Stuart Celarier is Chief Software Architect of Aivea, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Connected Systems. His career spans more than two decades of development, architecture, writing, and training, with a focus on new and emerging technologies. His professional interests include the current and next generations of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), “Oslo” modeling platform, “Dublin” application server extensions, “Geneva” claims framework, .NET Framework 4.0, and Windows Azure. Stuart is co-founder of Portland Code Camp and frequently speaks at .NET user groups, conferences, and community events. He is a member of the Software Association of Oregon’s Development SIG committee. Stuart is an INETA Speaker and has volunteered with INETA since 2003, including co-chairing the community-led Birds-of-a-Feather track at Tech•Ed 2005–2009 and PDC 2005.
TOPIC:	WCF Best Practices with Unit Testing Stuart will present a simple, effective strategy for unit testing Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services — as services rather than as objects — and then use unit tests as a means for exploring several best practices programming with WCF and service-orientation. Topics include understanding the relationship of services and objects, test-driven development (TDD) for services, contract-first service development, consuming services defensively, how exceptions and faults work (or don’t), and more. If you have been using WCF to work with services, this session will help you identify areas where you might improve your practices. And if you are just getting started with WCF, this session will help jumpstart your effort.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea Corporation - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
JetBrains - http://www.jetbrains.com/ Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
ORCS Web - http://www.orcsweb.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
SoftSource Consulting - http://www.sftsrc.com/
SubMain and CodeIt.Right - http://submain.com/codeit.right

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

March PADNUG Meeting – Agile Practices: Kanban

Rich Claussen — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:16:25 GMT

WHAT:	March PADNUG Meeting
WHEN:	Tuesday 03/03/2009 6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium) 6:30 p.m. Presentation ~9:00 p.m. After Words at Gustav's
WHERE:	Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower 10260 SW Greenburg Road Suite 600 Portland, OR 97223
WHO:	Wayne Allen
TOPIC:	Agile Practices: Kanban Wayne will be speaking at the Group about using the using agile techniques for software development with a particular focus on using the Kanban board. He'll be covering different project management approaches to product line development that include: Reduced meetings Clear priorities Minimal multitasking No estimating You can read more at these locations: http://weblogs.asp.net/wallen/archive/2008/02/01/no-more-iterations.aspx http://www.infoq.com/articles/hiranabe-lean-agile-kanban http://www.agilemanagement.net/Articles/Weblog/KanbaninAction.html

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea Corporation - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/Pages/main.aspx
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
SoftSource Consulting - http://www.sftsrc.com/
SubMain and CodeIt.Right - >http://submain.com/codeit.right
JetBrains - http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

January PADNUG Meeting - “Oslo”: Writing a Domain

Rich Claussen — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:06:26 GMT

*** Notice: We are back to Tuesdays now! ***

What a great way to start off 2009. We haven’t seen Chris present at PADNUG for almost five years. We will get to see some of the fruits of that time when Chris shows us the bits from Microsoft’s new model-driven platform called “Oslo”.

WHAT:	January PADNUG Meeting
WHEN:	Tuesday 01/06/2009 6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium) 6:30 p.m. Presentation ~9:00 p.m. After Words at Gustav's
WHERE:	Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower 10260 SW Greenburg Road Suite 600 Portland, OR 97223
WHO:	Chris Sells
TOPIC:	“Oslo”: Writing a domain In this talk, we'll see how to pull the pieces of "Oslo" together, MSchema, MGraph and MGrammar, to build an entire application end-to-end, discussing how you build a data-driven runtime that consumes the data in the Repository.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea Corporation - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/Pages/main.aspx
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
SoftSource Consulting - http://www.sftsrc.com/
SubMain and CodeIt.Right - >http://submain.com/codeit.right
JetBrains - http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

December Portland Nerd Dinner - The Finale of 2008!

Rich Claussen — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:19:03 GMT

Here we are at the end of 2008! Another great year has passed and it's time to gather together and remember where we've been and what we've done.

Yes, it's kind of short notice, but we have some out-of-town guests that should be in attendance. Please come out and make them feel welcome!

What: Portland Nerd Dinner
Where: Washington Square Food Court (Second Floor "Food Court"; typically, straight out from Sanrio)
When: Tuesday, December 30, starting around 6:00 PM (vCal link)
Why: Wrap up and recount the year of 2008.

Be There and Be Square!

December PADNUG Meeting - Post-PDC Extravaganza

Rich Claussen — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:35:00 GMT

*** Notice: We are meeting on Thursday this week because we said we would! ***

This will be the last meet of 2008. Boy did that year move too quickly.

WHAT:	December PADNUG Meeting
WHEN:	Thursday 12/04/2008 6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium) 6:30 p.m. Presentation ~9:00 p.m. After Words at Gustav's
WHERE:	Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower 10260 SW Greenburg Road Suite 600 Portland, OR 97223
WHO:	Jason Mauer
TOPIC:	Post-PDC Extravaganza Jason will provide an overview and lead discussion of the technologies introduced at PDC.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea Corporation - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/Pages/main.aspx
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
Robert Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/
SoftSource Consulting - http://www.sftsrc.com/
SubMain and CodeIt.Right - >http://submain.com/codeit.right
JetBrains - http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Portland Nerd Movie - James Bond: Quantum of Solace

Rich Claussen — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:45:54 GMT

It's Nerd Movie time again!

For those who saw Casino Royale, you know that the Bond franchise has really updated their style. From IMDB:

Daniel Craig reprises his role as Ian Fleming's James Bond in Quantum of Solace, the 22nd feature in the 007 film franchise. Fueled by the betrayal of Vesper, the woman he loved, Bond's determination to track down the mastermind behind the sinister organization that blackmailed her takes him to Haiti, where he finds an unlikely ally in the beautiful and feisty Camille (Olga Kurylenko). The trail quickly leads to the ruthless Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), but with the British Government and the CIA working against him, Bond must kill or be killed on his mission to uncover the truth.

As usual, we'll do this at Cinetopia. The movie starts at 3:15PM. If you are under 21, there are showings at 2:00PM and 4:45PM in the Grand Theater, too, though. If this is right for you and you would like to see your fellow nerds, let us know and we can meet up before or after.

Speaking of meeting up, Vinotopia - the restaurant at the theater - is great to bring your special someone to. Consider making that a part of your afternoon/evening.

Consider buying your tickets and arriving early. I'd imagine that there will be a pretty good turnout for this movie.

What: Portland Nerd ~~Dinner~~ Movie
Where: Cinetopia Theaters - 11700 SE 7th St, Vancouver, Washington
When: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 3:15PM Showing in Cinetopia's Living Room Theater
Why: Bond is Back!

Let any and everyone that might be interested know. And of course...

...Be There and Be Square!