Design Patterns in VB.Net
With Phil Huhn
Wednesday, January 6th 2010
Abstract:
Phil will be covering the following VB.Net design patterns:
Singleton
Strategy
Observer
Template Method
And
a mention of:
Apple's New
Cat - Discussions on new MacOSX and Apple hardware and Software
With David Pugh
Wednesday, Dec 2nd, 2009
Bio:
Dave Pugh is an Apple Systems Engineer for higher education in Michigan.
Prior to joining Apple, Dave worked for the University of Michigan for
five years as the lead Mac OS X administrator for the College of
LS&A. He helped write four books about Mac OS X system
administration, and has been a speaker at five recent Macworld
Conferences. Although he comes from a UNIX and telecom background, he
has used Macs since 1993. A techie at heart, he enjoys scuba diving,
downhill skiing, camping, and flying when not in front of a computer.
An
Introduction to Business Intelligence
With Phil Huhn
Wednesday, Nov 4th, 2009
Bio:
Phill has been a programmer for more than 25 years. In 2008, he was a
programmer/consultant at the University of Michigan working with ITS
(formerly MAIS) on the M-Reports project. M-Reports is a web reporting
portal, implemneting ITS's first Business Intelligence application.
Abstract:
This talk is a change from our normal venue and comprises a unique
selection of 10 minutes "lightening talks" on
* * Business Intelligence Overview
* * SSIS
* * SSAS 2005
* * MDX
* * SSRS 2005
* * Excel 2007
Aggregating
Dissimilar Data Types - Dean Keith
Wednesday, October 7th,
2009
Bio:
Studying at the University of Michigan in CCS and ECE in the late 1970s,
Dean Keith is a
co-inventor of Datura's technology and its president. Previously, Dean
was the CTO and a co-founder of the EDSA-Micro Corporation, a maker of
electrical power engineering software.
Abstract:
Keith has developed a product for storing dissimiliar data in a variety
of relational databases. The product is called Bean Counter, and he will
be giving a demonstration of the software as well as answering
questions on storing data and meta data in a variety of relational
databases. Hopefully, the talk will help inform and illuminate powerful
data aggregation and search technologies.
Creative Commons
Licensing
Wednesday, September
02th, 2009
Bio:
Greg currently works part time for Creative Commons as a Community
Assistant liaising with the Free Open Source Software community. His
timeis spent enabling developers to learn about and implement Creative
Commons metadata support in FOSS applications. Greg also works part time
with the Open.Michigan project at the University of Michigan where he
manages student workers to create Open Education Resources that are put
online available for all to use and remix. Additionally, he is working
to
make it easier for the community of users of Open Educational Resources
to make contributions. And thankfully, Greg has completed his Masters of
Science in Information from the University of Michigan.
http://grossmeier.net
Abstract:
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making it
easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent
with the rules of copyright. The tools give everyone from individual
creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way
to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. The Creative
Commons licenses enable people to easily change their copyright terms
from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”
Greg will show how CC licenses enable new methods of collaboration in
areas such as Education and how Free/Open Source Software plays an
important role in all of it.
http://creativecommons.org
http://open.umich.edu
Agile Software
Development with Scrum
by John Fohrman
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
This session will present:
· defining Agile, Scrum and the relationship of the two
· essentials of the Scrum methodology
· advantages and benefits of Scrum
· how and when to use Scrum
· a comparison to other methodologies
· a case study of one of the presenter’s Scrum-based projects
John Fohrman, Certified Scrum Master, is a Senior Software Engineering
Consultant and Project Manager with Stout Systems.
(www.stoutsystems.com). Since 1992, John has managed and developed
numerous projects for organizations ranging from start-ups to the State
of Michigan, the City of Detroit and two-thirds of the Big Three.
Using Ruby to
Create Domain-Specific Languages
by Eric Ivancich
August 6th, 2008
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are tailored to solve a particular
problem. They're designed around a domain, focusing on abstractions
specific to that domain, which makes them distinct from general purpose
languages. Specifications written in a DSL can often be read,
understood,
and verified as correct by a domain expert who is not a programmer. And
sometime DSLs are designed around the goal of enabling domain experts to
write their own specifications.
In this talk we will look at the features of Ruby that lend themselves
to
the creation of domain-specific languaes, some expample DSLs, and
examples
of the underlying Ruby code.
An
Introduction to Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing
Chris G. Sellers
Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
EC2 (http://www.amazonaws.com/) is a buzzword cloud computing model.
Amazon hosts servers running Linux that allow you to fire off virtual
systems quickly and easily and you pay per hour. This model has taken
the hosting industry and added a whole new aspect to it; creating a rich
and easy environment for developers to stand up servers to test their
applications quickly and easily, and then tear them down when not
needed, saving ongoing costs.
Why use EC2? What about backups? Can I run Windows? Can I see it in
action? Stop by and get some answers and ask your own questions.
About Chris G. Sellers... Currently Chris is the Lead Internet Engineer
working at NITLE (http://www.nitle.org), a non-profit higher education
partner organization based out of Ann Arbor and Georgetown, Tx.
Chris's background and experience ranges from hosting engineering to
desktop and technical staff management. Chris spends much of his spare
time fixing up his house and trying to stay active in the Ann Arbor
community.
PostgreSQL 8.3 and
Beyond
Aaron Thul
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
There's lots of exciting things happening the world of relational
databases in the Open source world. Aaron Thul will show some of the
awesome new features in PostgreSQL 8.3, which was released on Feb 4th.
Ubuntu 8.04 and
Developing w/Mono
Jorge Castro
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
Ubuntu 8.04 was released and includes some excellent new features for
developing software.
An Introduction to
Boo and DSL
Jay R. Wren
Wednesday, April 2, 2008, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
DSL shwee ess ell. Isn’t this a Digital Subscriber Line? Domain Specific
Languages get all the lip service and none of the implementation or
use. Real world DSLs are hard work. Boo makes it much easier. Just what
does it take to make a DSL with Boo? Why would I use Boo instead of that
Ruby thing I keep hearing about? You might get some answers here.
About Jay R. Wren... Currently Jay is an independent contractor working
on Windows Forms applications for tuning embedded software control
modules for a US auto manufacturer. Jay spends his free time writing
more software, baking, and watching far too much television. Jay's blog
is at http://jrwren.wrenfam.com/blog/
So You Want To Be A
Consultant?
John Stout
Wednesday, March 6, 2008, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
About John Stout... John W. Stout is the founder and president of Stout
Systems, an Ann Arbor-based software development and technology talent
search firm whose motto is "Consider It Done". John has both a
consulting and software development background over a nearly 30-year
career, and he is a featured speaker at industry events.
Ubuntu Linux
Kevin DuBois
December 5, 2007, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
Linux is making great strides onto the desktop operating system market
with advancements that make it easier than ever to switch from Windows
or Mac. In my speech, I'll be illustrating some of the new features
Ubuntu Linux has incorporated in its latest release, 7.10, "Gutsy
Gibbon." Some of these features include a revamped graphical installer
and LiveCD, the first GUI configuration tools for some parts of the
system, as well as a basic 3-D accelerated desktop environment.
Furthermore, I will demonstrate Compiz Fusion, an open-source, 3-D
window manager that provides eye candy for the Linux user that rivals
what is found on Mac's OS X. I will also briefly demonstrate some open
source alternatives that can be used as replacements for some
commonly-used Windows or Mac media utilities and productivity tools.
Lastly, I'll dive a little under the hood of the latest stable Linux
kernel, 2.6.23, to talk about some of the improvements and alterations
made to the heart of the Linux operating systems, like the new
Completely Fair Process Scheduler that allocates processor time more
effectively for pressing, real-time computations, as well as the
burgeoning number of device drivers that are included in a standard
kernel.
About the Speaker
Kevin DuBois is currently an undergraduate computer engineering student
at the University of Michigan. He works part time for a local Ann Arbor
streaming television startup called Zattoo. Kevin has been an advocate
and user of open source for two or three years now, since high school.
Kevin is a member of the Michigan Ubuntu Loco team, and is currently
focusing on aiding the developers of a 3-D window manager called Compiz
Fusion, and the media player, VLC.
No Meeting in January!
Relax, enjoy the new year. Watch some football. See you in February.
We don't know yet what the topic will be for March, but we can assure
you it will be much more interesting than the January meeting.
Apple's New
Leopard OS with John Hickey
November 7, 2007, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
The Ann Arbor Computer Society invites you to attend our next tech
update. Our presenter from Apple will be John Hickey, a Senior Systems
Engineer with Apple, Inc. In this seminar Mr. Hickey will present
Apple's next generation operating system (Leopard). In addition he will
share details about Apple's new products that have been recently
announced - including the new iMac and iPods. As a separate topic we
will also look at Apple's server offering: Leopard Server.
About the Speaker
John has expertise in enterprise design and deployment strategies. He
also has a strong background working with security in enterprises. Prior
to working at Apple, John worked in both Academic and Administrative
computing services for private universities in the midwest. John now
serves higher education customers in Michigan. His other interests
include hiking, camping, college sports and photography.
Turbo Gears with Mark
Ramm
October 3, 2007, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
TurboGears is part of a new generation of web development frameworks
designed to make development of database-driven, Ajax-enabled web
applications easier. The discussion will cover:
1. How well designed frameworks can increase productivity,
maintainability, and generally make web application development more
fun.
2. How Ajax is integrated into the core of TurboGears, and how you
can use it to make your web applications more dynamic and easier to use.
3. I'll also compare TurboGears to some other popular web development
environments, so you can better evaluate when TurboGears might be the
right tool for the job.
About the Speaker
Mark Ramm is the author of the forthcomming "Rapid Web Applications with
TurboGears." He is IT Manager for Humantech, Inc. Over the years, he
has programmed Web applications in a wide range of technologies,
including Python, TurboGears, CGI, Perl, PHP, ASP, Java Struts, and Ruby
on Rails. He has written for Linux Magazine and various online
publications, and maintains an IT Management blog at
http://compoundthinking.com.
Estimating
FPGA 64-bit Floating Point Performance
Date Strenski
September 5, 2007, 6:00 pm
At SPARK, 330 East Liberty, Downtown Ann Arbor
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) have gain in popularity for High
Performance Computing (HPC) over the past several years. They have
proven to be great for accelerating calculations that can handle reduced
precision, but the question is how do they stack up against 64-bit HPC
type applications. This talk will give the audience a basic
understanding of the architecture of the Xilinx Virtec-4 and Virtex-5
FPGA chips, give examples of how they are integrated into HPC systems,
and walk through a process to estimate the FPGA 64-bit performance.
About the Speaker
Dave Strenski is an Application Analyst for Cray Inc., which designs and
manufactures high performance computers. Prior to Cray, Dave held a
variety of technical positions at several computer and research
organizations. Dave holds degrees in Land Surveying, Civil and
Mechanical Engineering. His publications include works in the areas of
parallel computing, numerical consistency, genomic data searching
algorithms, other computer related topics, and was issued a patent on a
meshing algorithm for threaded fasteners. As a hobby, Dave plays with
solar power, and helped design and install the photovoltaics system at
the Ypsilanti Food Cooperative.
An AACS
tradition is back! This month AACS revives the "So You Want to be a
Consultant?" session given by John Stout of Stout Systems Solutiuons.
Is it possible to survive today's computer industry as an independent
contracting consultant? We'll discuss real world business essentials
such as: How do you evaluate technologies for their future potential?
How do you get new customers? How do you effectively promote what you
can do? What should you charge for your services and how to you make
sure you get paid? What laws, regulations, business practices do you
need to know? How do you turn consulting into a ongoing, prosperous
career? Even if you aren’t going to be computer industry consultant,
this talk also has lots of information you can use to help make your
career choices.
Faking the
Type System: Implementations in interfaces and non-existent types.
by Bill Wagner
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008, 6:00 pm
At SRT Solutions, 206 South Fifth Ave, Downtown Ann Arbor
Extension methods provide a mechanism for C# developers to define
behavior in interfaces. You can define an interface with minimal
capabilities and then create a set of extension methods defined on that
interface to extend its capabilities. In particular, you can add
behavior instead of just defining an API.
You’ll probably use a number of constructed generic types in your
application. You’ll create specific collection types: List<int>,
Dictionary<EmployeeID, Employee>, and many other collections. The
purpose of creating these collections is that your application has a
specific need for a collection of a certain type and you want to have
specific behavior defined for those specific constructed types. To
implement that functionality in a low-impact way, you can create a set
of extension methods on specific constructed types.
With more than 20 years experience in software design and engineering,
Bill Wagner has led the design on many successful engineering and
enterprise Microsoft Windows products and adapted legacy systems for
Windows.
In 2000, he started using .NET and now spends his time facilitating the
adoption of .NET in clients’ product and enterprise development.
Knowledgeable in all .NET areas, Bill’s principal strengths include the
C# language, the core framework, Smart Clients, and Service Oriented
Architecture and design.
December 3rd, 2008
George Azrak will be speaking about the type of software help needed in
an entrepreneurship environment, outsourcing the safe way and how the
Computer Community in Ann Arbor can help make Michigan a better place to
be an entrepreneur.
Mr. Azrak is the founder of the Azrak Group, an IT Architecture
consulting company focusing on design, improvement, integration
initiatives using technology tools. Special focus is on Bio-Banking and
life science research solutions.
Mr. Azrak began his career as an IT professional in 1978. He has a
strong track of leadership with a variety of companies and industries,
including Asterand as the General Manager and CIO, Domino’s Pizza as a
Senior VP of IT and Advantage Computing as a Chief Software Engineer.
Mr. Azrak’s expertise involves managing software development and
providing solutions for clinical data collection, ERP systems, Supply
Chain Management, data warehousing, business intelligence, financial
reporting and electronic commerce.
Mr. Azrak is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Masters in
Computer Engineering and a Professional Engineering Degree.
Real-time
Monitoring of Solar Power
Dave Strenski (Cray Inc)
Nik Estep
(Eastern Michigan University)
Wednesday, August 05th, 2009
Bios:
Dave Strenski is an Application Analyst for Cray Inc., which
designs and manufactures high performance computers. Prior to Cray,
Dave held a variety of technical positions at several computer and
research organizations. Dave holds degrees in Land Surveying, Civil
and Mechanical Engineering. His publications include works in the
areas of parallel computing, numerical consistency, genomic data
searching algorithms, reconfigurable computing, and other computer
related topics, and was issued a patent on a meshing algorithm for
threaded fasteners. As a hobby, Dave plays with solar power, and
helped design and install photovoltaics systems in Ypsilanti and
the website SolarYpsi.com.
Nik Estep is a computer science student at Eastern Michigan University.
He works part time for the Tarigma Corporation in Columbus, OH and
studies under an Dr. William Sverdlik through an Undergraduate
Research Fellowship sponsored by Dell Computers. The research work is
on a website to extractively summarize text to better assist those
with reading disabilities (http://treads.emich.edu). In his spare
time he works on the SolarYpsi.com website.
Abstract:
A group in Ypsilanti has been working on installing solar
photovoltaic systems within the City. As part of this activity,
a website (SolarYpsi.com) was developed along with a method for
reading the utility meters that measure the power coming into
the building (inflow), power being generated by the photovoltaic
system (gen), and any excess power exported back to the utility
grid (outflow). Dave and Nik will review the basics of how a solar
photovoltaic installations works, the details of how we're able to
read the utility meters, post the inforamtion to a website and
generate real time graphs of the power.
