Past Presentations

Presentation Files are here

Thursday September 8, 2011
Mixer @ 6:00pm / Talk @ 6:30pm
Topic:  Data Parsing and Transformation - A Dynamic and Declarative Approach - Mike Andrews

We've all done it before - parse a file, transform it into a class or generic type for manipulation and then push it elsewhere: a database, a network stream, another file to be ingested by another program. These types of problems generally require one-off solutions with little reusability between projects.

Despite having generic parsers for handling types of data like fixed-width, delimited, xml, etc, they do not provide a concrete definition of the data that you need to properly manipulate it. We’ll explore using dynamic and declarative development to create a hybrid approach that can be both generic and concrete, yet provide the speed and scalability that is needed to meet customer demands and help you develop solutions faster.

About Mike: Mike Andrews is currently a software engineer with Vestcom, Inc. where he builds custom solutions to meet customer data needs. He has more than 17 years of development experience with companies in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas, including his own consulting business. His development experience includes front-end design, back-end database development, and everything else in between.

Though he has Microsoft certifications, most of his knowledge and understanding comes from self-teaching and direct experience in tackling problems and learning from peers. He originally learned to program on a TI-99/4A computer and has been hooked ever since. He is excited about programming and looking forward to see what software development challenges come in the future.

Topic: Exploring the Microsoft Kinect SDK - Jeremy Davis
The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a programming toolkit for application developers. It enables the academic and enthusiast communities easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running the Windows 7 operating system. 

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, installation documents, and resource materials. It provides Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Come get your first exposure to working with this fantastic bit of hardware! 

About Jeremy: Jeremy Davis is a Sr. Software Engineer and Software Architect at Vestcom International (a Little Rock, AR retail services company). His primary focuses are on Enterprise Architecture, Research Development of new products and services, and more generally, solving tough business problems through the application of logic via software and process quality improvement. He's always looking for ways to deliver increasing value on the information resources and assets of his customers and business partners. A true "geek-at-heart" he delights in learning about and working with new and compelling technologies. In his off time, he can be found exploring the beautiful back country of this great nation in his off-road 4x4

Download: SOLID Project

Presenter: Tony Wang - SOLID Object-Oriented Design

Meeting Synopsis:

Are you interested in developing software that will be easy to maintain and extend over time? Do you work or have you worked on software that is difficult to maintain or extend? If you answered yes to either of these questions and are not familiar with SOLID then this presentation may just change your life, forever...

SOLID is a set of design principles introduced by Robert Martin (or Uncle Bob as he known in the community) around the turn of the century. Used in concert, these principles provide the guidance necessary for creating software that will be maintainable, extensible, scalable, and many other 'ables.

Speaker Bio:

Tony Wang is a Sr. Solutions Developer with Acxiom Corporation in Conway, AR. He began his career in the late 90's developing client-server applications with Delphi 2. For the past 7+ years, he has continued developing client-server applications as well as integration systems with the .Net framework. Tony has a bachelor's degree in Software Engineering from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. His recent areas of interests include Test Driven Development and Software Craftsmanship. In his spare time, Tony is an avid cyclist.

Download: Facebook Sample Project

Presenter: Abby Sims - Facebook development
With over 500 million active users, a Facebook presence is becoming actively pursued by companies everywhere, with many desiring custom application development to differentiate their brand above the rest. Let’s dive into Facebook development using ASP.NET MVC 3. We’ll create a simple tab application with a default view for all visitors and a custom view for people who have liked our Facebook profile. We’ll also setup a simple authorization scenario using Facebook OAuth to only allow authorized users into our full application. Using the Facebook JavaScript SDK, we’ll cover how to share content to a user’s wall using the Feed dialog.

Speaker Bio:
Abby Sims is a hybrid web developer with 10 years of experience developing Microsoft-based web solutions. She specializes in ASP.NET MVC, C#, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. In 2010, Abby joined Rogers, AR based Rockfish, where she serves as a Senior Developer and Team Lead for their Little Rock location. Among her various responsibilities, Abby develops Facebook integrated websites as well as Facebook applications. She has completed a dozen Facebook applications within the previous year, allowing Abby to quickly become a company expert in Facebook development.

Over that last 10 years, Abby has developed web sites and applications for companies such as Sam’s Club, Walmart, American Greetings, WhiteCloud, US Playing Cards, NIC Inc., and Southwest Power Pool. Outside of work, Abby enjoys taking it easy with her husband and son, live team trivia and hiking.

 Thursday April 14th

Presenter: Tom DuPont

Meeting Synopsis:

Without an automated means to collect errors from deployed applications, how can you know that your software is performing as expected? Embedded QA can be used to augment your own internal QA efforts, greatly increasing both the effectiveness of your testing and overall stability of your applications. As Jeff Atwood phrased it, "If you're waiting around for users to tell you about problems with your website or application, you're only seeing a tiny fraction of all the problems that are actually occurring... the proverbial "tip of the iceberg". This presentation will go over the value of Exception Driven Development, and the tools you need to gain the vision necessary to improve your applications today.

Speaker Bio: 

Tom DuPont lives in Dallas, Texas, where he is the Vice President of CodeSmith Tools, LLC. But don’t let the title fool you, Tom is a total code monkey! He specializes in .NET development with C#, ASP.NET MVC, and even that crazy JavaScript stuff. Tom has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas. In his spare time Tom enjoys long rides across the country on his motorcycle.