Head yourself over to http://codecamp.swfldev.net, and hit the Sign In button if you’re at least coming to the event. You’ll need a valid Microsoft Live ID to play, but you can customize your profile information, including the email where you want to receive Code Camp messages, and it doesn’t have to match.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Best idea for a Windows Phone 7 Application (non-corporate owned) for the Marketplace, as voted on by those present at the August Group Meeting (on 8/17/2010, at Ingage Networks, 2210 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples – doors at 6pm, presentation starts at 6:30pm), gets:

• an MSDN Ultimate Subscription
• the last half of Kevin Wolf (@bytemaster)’s presentation devoted to getting you started.

Must be present to win. Can, however, think it up on the fly during the first hour, but do not interrupt Kevin with questions about your idea. And I can tell who’s come to Group, and who’s just there to stack the vote.

Decisions of the President are final.

Follow me beyond the jump for a comprehensive list of design resources that will help you take what you learned at Diane Leeper’s outstanding presentation last Tuesday, and run with it. Plus some of my own.

Enjoy!

John

UX and Design favorites

UX Tools, Reports, and Apps

Art and Visual Brain Food

Enjoy!

Knowing the presentation layer and getting your visual creative on is truly the forgotten tool in your arsenal as a developer. Find out why stuff looks good or bad, and what to do to correct it, and you’re that much further ahead in your career. You can actually stand a good chance of answering some of those crazy recs that expect you to be a super-star at all n tiers of development. You can avoid what I did with the code camp site, in a pure panic. And you can justify your company buying you a license for Photoshop or Expression on the same box that runs Visual Studio and SSMS.

So I hope we don’t get locked out of the third floor again. I hope I have enough time to bring pizza BEFORE the meeting. But most of all, I hope you show up and enjoy what should be an enlightening, interesting presentation.

Yours,
John

Right now, I’m sitting in the Sarasota Community Foundation getting my fill of MVC, AjaxHelpers, jQuery, Telerik Extensions for MVC, Javascripted server-side form validation, and all kinds of other stuff at David Hayden’s Sarasota Web Developer Group. I’m fed, Diet Pepsied, and seeing some of our northern people who occasionally come to Group (especially if we have it anywhere north of Bonita). If this interests you, you should make the trip next month.

Get ready for a week from today, when Joe Healy will pop the lid off of VS2010 in Opening the Tacklebox on VS2010, our VS2010 Launch Event. That goes Tuesday, 5/25, at 6:30pm at Ingage.

Speaking of Scott, his book will also be ready for shelves by the time he hits town in July. Look for Teach Yourself Visual C# 2010 in 24 Hours, by Sams (the 24 hours people), at a bookstore or free book site near you. (In fact, I won in this month’s 101 Free Tech Books drawing, but Scott’s book wasn’t out yet, so I opted for 1224 pages of yummy Wrox Professional Visual Studio 2010 goodness.)

In other news, Group now has a Tax ID. That’s the first step on the way toward making Group self-sustenant with regard to Code Camp fund handling.

It’s been a good day!

Take care,
John

Visual Studio 2010 Community Launch: Opening the Tacklebox on VS2010, by Joe Healy
Ingage Networks Business Center
2210 Vanderbilt Beach Road
Naples, FL 34109
6:30pm – doors open around 6pm

So what, you say.

Well, we just got this notice from Julie Yack over at INETA with the following notice, in type usually reserved for my Facebook discussion threads on controversial topics:

“THIS WILL REPLACE QUARTERLY GROUP KITS for this quarter.”

The article goes on to say absolutely nothing about what that replacement entails, but we’ve done our proscribed action item, which is to hook it up on the Official Community Launch site. So we’re, let’s just say… optimistic.

And we’re not going to predict anything, but it would be a good idea to show up then. And do not forget, I’m still bringing the normal stuff. We’re almost out of books except for the Sharepoint Reporting and some other ones, but we’ve got our normal TekPub, JetBrains, Telerik (including bonus item) stuff, and 101 Free Tech Books chances to get something you really need.

As always, we appreciate your participation in our community.

Thanks,
Dun-dun-dunagan

VS 2010 launches officially April 12th this month, and as in versions past, Microsoft is spreading the word with launch parties throughout the country. Florida’s share of these launch parties are as follows:

In Miami, on April 20th, Life Runs on Code will focus on VS 2010 for Developers from 1-4pm. .Net development, Azure/cloud-based development and WinPhone dev will be touched upon for the afternoon. (The first half of the day in Miami is IT-Pro centric, and is registerable, so ping me if you want that.) This is Tiki-Hut style, featuring Joe Healy, Jim Blizzard and Glen Gordon (Georgia’s DE).

In Orlando, on April 22nd, there will be a full-day Launch event for IT Pros and Developers both. This is more of the traditional launch party format, featuring Joe Healy, G. Andrew Duthie (of Community Megaphone fame) and Jim Blizzard.

Please Note: VS2010 licenses will not be given away at either event, but alternate swag is possible. There also will not be a live stream of either event, but Microsoft is positive that someone will get it recorded and put up somewhere viewable.

Also, jump on the link to the event and sign up with your Live ID if you’re going to either one. Registrations will fill up fast. I still have my MS Lunchbox from Heroes Happen Here, and verily, it rocketh.

I’ve been asked to help bring a big new company down to SW Florida. Why? Because they’re not sure there are enough .Net devs down here to make it work. Sound like a challenge to you?

Remember when we used to have some of our talent run off to Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando, Pensacola, Tally? If this works, they’ll get to complain about us for once, and more importantly, your options get a whole lot brighter.

My goal is that no .Net dev in SW Florida is ever forced to leave here to find a living, or a life.

Second item: I’m hopeful that in the near future, an interesting new sponsor for Group will come on board. Let’s just say that if you’re extremely lucky, you’ll no longer have to settle for whatever books I can come up with – you would pick the book you win. If this sounds good to you, I can get you in to this free lottery, and it helps both of us. Hit me up if you’re interested.

See you on Tax Day!
John