SSW Update - Microsoft is onto something here! |
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[the cutting edge ]
G'day Developers!
I’ve just come back from Build 2012 where we have seen the fruits of Microsoft’s work over
the last few years being Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and of course most importantly the
Surface.
I was lucky enough to be in the front row so I
got to see things up close.
We now have devices from phones, tablets, work PCs and servers all with the same Metro (don't
tell me to call it Modern UI please) tiled user interface.
What that means for users is that they have the same *one* user experience.
What that means for developers is that we have the simplest way to build apps that go across
these 3 devices.
I have been using the Surface RT for a number of weeks now.
First let me tell you about opening it. I got my 8 year old daughter (Ruby Cogan) to open it
and she had herself up and running without any help. Within 7 minutes she was able to unbox
it, connect to Wi-Fi, find and install her first game without one word of guidance from me.
The only thing that took her a little bit of time to find was the search by swiping from the
right (I do already love that every app has a consistent contextual search). It was only
around half an hour before she was completely used to swiping up and down.
Ruby did not know about and therefore did not find the kickstand (although with the amount of
advertising you are going to see, I doubt it will be a problem for you guys).
The thing that really excited her, which surprised me, was when she saw My Computer, she got
excited “Wow!” and ran to get her USB to copy her sisters video to the desktop.
The Surface has been well received. There has only been one complaint mentioned and that was
regarding the touch cover splitting on the corner for some users. I like the touch keyboard
and the way it clicks in (although I am half expecting to start hearing a lot of problems
with the hardware and those contacts not working reliably). I also love getting Alt+Tab
functionality
back.
I still want the built in mail client to be better, but it is great to finally be able to
edit a Word, Excel or OneNote document.
I am amazed how good the split screen is so you can be reading email while continuing to
watch that movie.
One thing developers need to be aware of when building apps, is to consider the size for the
different resolutions in particular when an application is snapped. On the Surface, the snap
view divides the screen up into ¼ and ¾, but this will be different on different devices
(actually the snap view is always 342 pixels) so you really need to get into responsive
designing. For a good user experience, keep the left snap view for reading, not interactive
stuff like filling in forms.
The great thing for developers is the way you test. With Visual Studio 2012, the emulator
simulates the Surface perfectly.
The brand new app store obviously has anorexia, but since it is the easiest platform to build
apps for (significantly easier than building an iOS app, which has given us all fun and
games for the last couple of years), that is not going to last long.
Now developers, you have 2 ways to write apps, XAML plus C# or HTML plus JavaScript (plus
WinJS) (I'm not counting the other 2 ways which are XAML plus C++ or DirectX plus C++).
Currently in our office, there is a slight lean towards XAML.
Figure: Do you design your app to render in the split screen?
Microsoft is on to something here! Are you going to buy a Surface for Christmas?(Add a
comment on my blog)
Adam Cogan, SSW
Got a comment for Adam?
Email
Adam
Adam's
blog
@Adamcogan
Below we have 10 exciting events for you to choose from.
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*NEW* LightSwitch Webinar
The pros and cons of using LightSwitch to speed up your development
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Free Webinar
Wednesday 28th November 2012
11.00am - 12.00pm AEDT
Cost: No Charge
Add to my calendar
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Presented by Andrew Coates and Mehmet Ozdemir
LightSwitch will help developers create prototypes of applications with just a few clicks, but can it
assist you to build your next Windows, Web or mobile app in record time?
Webinar Objectives
This webinar will explain:
- Why you should use LightSwitch
- The benefits and the possible pitfalls
- What LightSwitch is about
- It’s place in the Microsoft development ecosystem
- How developers can take advantage of LightSwitch to combine corporate data to quickly develop
applications
We will also be looking at the LightSwitch HTML Client Preview and the latest version can be used to
develop pure HTML LightSwitch apps.
There will be lots of time and Q&A at the end.
Online Webinar 28 NOVEMBER 2012 |
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*NEW* Mastering Scrum - Webinar
The common pitfalls and how to overcome them
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Free Webinar
Thursday 29th November 2012
11.00am - 12.00pm AEDT
Cost: No Charge
Add to my calendar
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Presented by Marlon Marescia and Gerard Beckerleg
Scrum is easy to learn but hard to master. The Scrum Guide teaches you the rules of engagement to
start using Scrum, but doesn’t give you the strategy to overcome the challenges that may arise.
In this webinar Gerard and Marlon will visit some common pitfalls and look at practical solutions to
overcome each.
SSW has been using and training other development teams in agile processes for over 10 years.
Webinar Objectives
In this webinar they will discuss:
- The Daily scrum
- Sprint Planning
- The Sprint Retrospective
- The Sprint Review
- Product owners, scrum masters and development teams
Online Webinar 29 NOVEMBER 2012 |
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3 Day Scrum Training is back! -
Intensive Professional Scrum Developer Course
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Intensive 3-day Professional Scrum Developer course
Cost: $2995 +GST PP
Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Canberra
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Professional Scrum Developer courses teach students how to work in a team, using modern software
engineering practices, to develop
an increment of potentially releasable functionality using a specific technology platform. Students
learn to do so within the Scrum
framework doing iterative incremental development.
Classes are exercise-driven, with students working in self-organizing teams to develop "done"
increments from Product Backlog items.
Course at a Glance
This 3-day Professional Scrum Developer .NET course is a mix of lecture, demonstration, group
discussion, simulation, and hands-on
software development. The bulk of the course will be spent working as a team on a case study
application delivering increments of new
functionality in mini-sprints. Here is the course at a glance:
Note: Scrum fundamentals are not covered in this 3-day course. If you are not experienced with Scrum
fundamentals, the 5
day course is still available.
Scrum either through working on a Scrum Team or through taking part in a Professional Scrum
Foundations course.
Brisbane 14 JAN 2013 |
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Sydney 25 FEB 2013 |
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Adelaide 8 APR 2013 |
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Melbourne 20 MAY 2013 |
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Perth 1 JULY 2013 |
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Canberra 12 AUG 2013 |
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Find out more and Register
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Video: Visual Studio 2012 – Chris Menegay:
Is it worth the dollars?
All the way from Texas, Chris Menegay – an IT Specialist and Entrepreneur (currently working at
Microsoft) – sits down with Adam Cogan to talk about Visual Studio 2012; specifically on whether
Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate is worth the extra dollars.
In this interview, they talk about:
- Chris’s job at Microsoft as a Developer Solutions Specialist
- Why Visual Studio Ultimate is not that expensive
- New tools in Visual Studio 2012
- Intellitrace and Chris’s wishes for more guidance
- Test Manager and how it is for organized companies
- Exploratory Testing
- How Lab Manager is useful for manual and automated testing
- Intellitrace: How bugs should be logged to a build and to a test case, which links back up to a
User Story
Watch
more videos on SSWTV
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Enterprise MVC Apps - 2 part course
Build real world applications from the ground up
Now running!
Enterprise MVC Apps
Cost: $330 +GST
Format: 1 day
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The Model View Controller design pattern has been a proven and effective way of structuring
applications for more than 30 years. In 2007, Microsoft introduced ASP.NET MVC to the world and
since then, the framework has evolved into a mature and powerful way of writing dynamic web sites
and powerful web applications.
ASP.NET MVC provides a great way of structuring your application, ensuring a clean separation of
concerns, easy testability, and ultimate control over markup. It is quickly becoming the go-to
framework for writing .Net web applications.
This 2 part course series will be run at 5 capital cities around Australia.
Enterprise MVC Apps Part I: Going beyond the demos
This course will introduce you to the latest version of ASP.NET MVC version 4. Throughout the course,
attendees will be guided through building a full ASP.NET MVC application from scratch.
Read
more about Enterprise MVC Apps Part I
Perth: Microsoft Facility MON 4 MARCH 2013 |
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Adelaide: Microsoft Facility THU 7 MARCH 2013 |
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Melbourne: Microsoft Facility FRI 8 MARCH 2013 |
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Brisbane: Microsoft Facility TUE 12 MARCH 2013 |
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Sydney: SSW Neutral Bay WED 13 MARCH 2013 |
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Online: Webinar - Only $80 + GST WED 13 MARCH 2013 |
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Enterprise MVC Apps Part II: Maintainability and Testability
In this course will show you the techniques and tools SSW developers use to make MVC Enterprise
ready.
Read
more about Enterprise MVC Apps Part II
Brisbane: Microsoft Facility TUE 20 NOVEMBER 2012 |
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Sydney: SSW Neutral Bay WED 21 NOVEMBER 2012 |
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DDD Brisbane is on again!
Developer Developer Developer
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DDD Brisbane
2 George Street
Brisbane, Queensland 4000
Saturday 1st December 2012
8:00am - 6:00pm (EST)
Cost: $25
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After an extremely successful sell-out event in 2011, DDD Brisbane will be back this year on December
1. With three streams of developer-targeted sessions, coffee, lunch, and heaps of swag and prizes,
it's a day not to be missed. At only $25 a ticket (less for QUT students), it's a bargain as well.
DDD Brisbane is:
- Run on a Weekend, so no need to get time off work
- Open - sessions can be proposed by anyone and the agenda is constructed by delegate votes
- A great place to learn and network
- Only $25! And you get refreshments and lunch, as well as prizes and giveaways
- Run by the community for the community
Don't miss out this year - get your tickets here
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The Australian SharePoint Conference 2013 is on!
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You are invited!
Listen to experts
Learn best practices
Connect with the SharePoint Community
Get answers to your questions
Gain the latest insights!
Cost: $875 +GST
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Got questions for the experts? Just getting started with SharePoint? Need inspiration to move your
project forward? Looking to move on from file share chaos? Ready to learn more about
SharePoint 2010 and 2013? Just want to head along to a great conference?
As a proud bronze sponsor, SSW would like to invite you to attend the SharePoint events of
2013!
Along with other great presenters, Adam will be speaking on some great features you can leverage in
SharePoint 2013.
Your choice of two locations:
Sydney 10 & 11 April
Melbourne 11 & 12 June
These events are designed for anyone who wants to know more about SharePoint - business users, techy
people and executives can mix and mingle with the best SharePoint MVPs, Microsoft
personnel and experts from around the world.
Register now in order to get a spot!
Sydney - The Hilton 10 - 11 APRIL 2013 |
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Melbourne - The Sebel Albert Park 11 - 12 JUNE 2013 |
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Sydney .NET User Group -
The best place to learn .NET for free in Sydney
Implementing Scrum Using Team Foundation Server 2012 - Gerard Beckerleg
Today, 84% of Agile teams are using Scrum. Gerard will guide you through what’s new in TFS 2012,
changes in the Visual Studio Scrum template, how to use the new Agile project management tools, and
many other best practices. He will create and manage a product backlog, forecast and plan work for a
Sprint, and manage the Sprint tasks using the new tools in TFS.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Used to working under pressure, with ten years industry experience, Gerard Beckerleg is from the new
breed of software architects who are able to combine excellent technical skills with great
communication and commercial awareness. Although specialising in Web E-commerce solutions, Gerard
has extensive experience in Microsoft.NET and loves working with C#, MVC, SQL Server, Umbraco, Kendo
UI and SharePoint.
An established and confident speaker and trainer Gerard has delivered numerous courses including
SharePoint 2010 at the University of Technology in Sydney.
To see more details and RSVP, please visit our
Facebook .NET Group, our
LinkedIn .NET Group or our *NEW* Meetup
Group.
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SSW and Telerik NerdDinner
Where nerds meet and eat
SSW and Telerik invite you to join us for pizza at The Oaks. A fantastic opportunity for networking
with peers and sharing thoughts after the Sydney .NET User Group presentation.
Sydney .Net User Group and NerdDinner proudly sponsored by:
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Canberra .NET User Group -
The best place to learn .NET for free in Canberra
Implementing Scrum Using Team Foundation Server 2012 - Gerard Beckerleg
Today, 84% of Agile teams are using Scrum. Gerard will guide you through what’s new in TFS 2012,
changes in the Visual Studio Scrum template, how to use the new Agile project management tools, and
many other best practices. He will create and manage a product backlog, forecast and plan work for a
Sprint, and manage the Sprint tasks using the new tools in TFS.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Used to working under pressure, with ten years industry experience, Gerard Beckerleg is from the new
breed of software architects who are able to combine excellent technical skills with great
communication and commercial awareness. Although specialising in Web E-commerce solutions, Gerard
has extensive experience in Microsoft.NET and loves working with C#, MVC, SQL Server, Umbraco, Kendo
UI and SharePoint.
An established and confident speaker and trainer Gerard has delivered numerous courses including
SharePoint 2010 at the University of Technology in Sydney.
To see more details and RSVP, please visit our
Facebook .NET Group, our
LinkedIn .NET Group or our *NEW* MeetUp
Group
Canberra .Net User Group proudly sponsored by:
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Advertise with SSW
If you would like to advertise your product or service with SSW or would like to
find out more about various advertising opportunities, please email your enquiry
to [email protected]
or call: +61 2 9953 3000.
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November 2012
Employment
SharePoint Developer
Are you looking to establish a career working with the latest software technology for a large
range of great organisations? Do you enjoy managing
your own clients in a fun, fast-paced and dynamic environment?
SSW has been the leading Microsoft technology company in Sydney for 21 years. We require an
enthusiastic SharePoint developer to start ASAP.
Read more and Apply NOW...
Senior Designer
SSW is looking for a highly talented front-end Web Designer who is passionate about creating
great standards-based Web 2.0 sites. This role requires
the understanding of how people behave in certain contexts and how various stimuli and
circumstances can affect individual thought processes in social
and professional situations.
You will be working with both creative designers and the development team in various challenging
projects. This role requires someone who is able to
communicate effectively with both disciplines together with creating aesthetically pleasing
design prototypes, including graphic design, site navigation,
and layout of content.
Read more and Apply NOW...
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