June Event Recap

Peter Myers from SolidQ joined us this month to present on the data mining capabilities of SQL Server. After a short slide deck Peter launched into a series of demos starting with how to build and deploy data mining structures. Peter then showed how these structures can be embedded into applications as reports, visualisations and also how we can query these structures from code to enhance the functionality of our applications.

 

The session was well attended and it has been great to see in excess of 20 attendees at the last 3 user groups, the higher numbers makes it much easier to continue to attract high quality presenters.

 

Peter has very kindly made his slide deck available in PDF for you to download here: 20080624_dmdev

June Event Reminder

Dear All,

Just a quick reminder about tomorrow evenings event and to let you know that we will be in the Riviera Room on the Mezzanine floor directly above hotel reception.

It has been great to see numbers at these events growing and this should be a very interesting and relevant topic so I hope to see you all there.

As always RSVP’s are not required but an email is appreciated if you plan to attend so that I have an idea of numbers.

Date: Tuesday 24th June
Cost: FREE
Venue: Wrest Point – Riviera Room (Mezzanine floor directly above reception)
Time: 6pm Food and networking; 6:30 Talks begin
Presenter: Peter Myers from SolidQ
Topic: TAKING YOUR APPLICATION DESIGN TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH DATA MINING

Data mining as a technology is designed to analyze large volumes of data looking for patterns that accurately predict behavior. These patterns can then be used to derive knowledge about data, and in turn this knowledge can be used to enhance application designs and the user experience.

In this presentation, Peter Myers will present an overview of SQL Server 2005 Data Mining and will demonstrate how to develop data mining models that can be embedded into your applications. Demonstrations will be based on SQL Server 2005 Data Mining, using .NET Windows and web development.

This presentation is a must for any developer looking to embed “Artificial Intelligence” into their solution design to take their applications to the next level.  It is guaranteed to thrill you with potential, and excite you with the ease in which it can be accomplished. Note that there is no requirement that attendees have any data mining background.

Peter Myers is a freelance BI practitioner, trainer and presenter.  He has 11 years’ experience working in OLTP database design and development, DBA support and Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence with SQL Server. Peter has a broad business background supported by a bachelor degree in applied economics, and he extends this with MCITP, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE and MCT certifications. Currently he provides mentoring and technical training locally and internationally, and focuses on delivering training for the SQL Server database engine, Integration Services (DTS), Analysis Services, Reporting Services, ASP.NET and .NET programming (C# and VB.NET).

Regards,
Rowan Miller
http://hdnug.wordpress.com

May Event Recap

David Burela came in as a last minute replacement for our scheduled May presentation and showed us his SOAK system which was the Australian finalist in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup. David works as a Senior Developer for Readify (http://readify.net).

 

It was great to see numbers rising yet again with 27 attendees and a number of first timers. I’m always open to suggestions to help improve the group so please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any ideas or requests (mail@romiller.com).

 

David introduced us to the SOAK system by delivering the presentation his team gave to the selection panel for the Imagine Cup. He then went onto discuss the architecture and technologies used to build SOAK. There was certainly an impressive list including WCF, WPF, Silverlight, .Net 3.5 Compact Framework, Live Earth, Live Alerts… the list goes on.

 

You can keep an eye on David’s Imagine Cup journey via his blog, http://davidburela.wordpress.com.

 

I’ll finish with a quick reminder of the tasty treats we will be serving you up next month;

 

Date: Tuesday 24th June

Cost: FREE

Venue: Wrest Point Hotel Casino - Room to be advised

Time: 6pm Food and networking; 6:30 Talks begin

Presenter: Peter Myers from SolidQ

Topic: TAKING YOUR APPLICATION DESIGN TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH DATA MINING

May Event Changes

Unfortunately Bryn Systems will not be joining us this month so I have organized a replacement presenter, our meeting has moved to the following week to achieve this.

I have had a sneak peak at the SOAK system David will be basing his presentation on and this is a really impressive implementation using a huge range of current Microsoft technologies, it will also follow on nicely from the SOA fundamentals I covered at last months meeting, a must see for all developers, architects, analysts….

Date: Tuesday 3^rd June
Cost: FREE
Venue: Wrest Point Hotel Casino – Mezzanine Board Room (directly above reception)
Time:  6pm Food and networking; 6:30 Talks begin
RSVP: Not essential but an email is appreciated
Presenter: David Burela from Readify : http://readify.com/
Topic: David will be presenting his system titled SOAK “Smart Operational Agriculture Kit” which was a finalist entry at this year’s Imagine Cup http://www.imaginecup.com/

David will cover the design decisions that went into the system which dictated the architecture and technologies used. SOAK uses multiple technologies such as: WPF, WCF, Silverlight, Windows Mobile (.Net Compact Framework), LINQ, Windows Live SDK (Virtual Earth).

SOAK addresses the problem of limited water supplies by empowering the farmer to make decisions which affect water usage on their farm. Environmental sensors and weather forecasts are used to determine when watering their crops would be optimal. By implementing agriculture best practices farmers can specify what conditions must be met before SOAK will water their plants.

June Event

Peter Myers from SolidQ will be joining us in June to present on adding data mining to application development, Peter is a consultant/trainer specializing in SQL Server Business Intelligence.

Date: Tuesday 24th June
Cost: FREE
Venue: Wrest Point Hotel Casino - Room to be advised
Time: 6pm Food and networking; 6:30 Talks begin
Presenter: Peter Myers from SolidQ
Topic: TAKING YOUR APPLICATION DESIGN TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH DATA MINING

Data mining as a technology is designed to analyze large volumes of data looking for patterns that accurately predict behavior. These patterns can then be used to derive knowledge about data, and in turn this knowledge can be used to enhance application designs and the user experience.

In this presentation, Peter Myers will present an overview of SQL Server 2005 Data Mining and will demonstrate how to develop data mining models that can be embedded into your applications. Demonstrations will be based on SQL Server 2005 Data Mining, using .NET Windows and web development.

This presentation is a must for any developer looking to embed “Artificial Intelligence” into their solution design to take their applications to the next level.  It is guaranteed to thrill you with potential, and excite you with the ease in which it can be accomplished. Note that there is no requirement that attendees have any data mining background.

Peter Myers is a freelance BI practitioner, trainer and presenter.  He has 11 years’ experience working in OLTP database design and development, DBA support and Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence with SQL Server. Peter has a broad business background supported by a bachelor degree in applied economics, and he extends this with MCITP, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE and MCT certifications. Currently he provides mentoring and technical training locally and internationally, and focuses on delivering training for the SQL Server database engine, Integration Services (DTS), Analysis Services, Reporting Services, ASP.NET and .NET programming (C# and VB.NET).

Slides from April HDNUG

If anyone is after the slide deck and/or source code from the April presentation you can download it from http://romiller.com/Default.aspx?tabid=54&EntryID=4

May HDNUG Event - Input Needed

Phill Kenny from Bryn Systems is likely to be joining us to present on BizTalk at the May HDNUG event. Phill would like some suggestions on the topics people would like to see covered by this presentation, an example might be;

“How does BizTalk differ from SQL Server Intergration Services and when should these technologies be used”

This is a great oppurtunity to get your questions on BizTalk answered so I encourage you to have some input. If you can email your suggestions to rmiller@federalit.net it would be greatly appreciated.

Bryn Systems is a software development house and consultancy specialising in EAI and B2B integration solutions using MS-BizTalk. You can find Bryn Systems on the web at www.bryn.com.au  

April HDNUG Event

Date: Tuesday 29th April
Cost: FREE
Venue: Wrest Point Hotel Casino (Room to be advised)
Time:  6pm Food and networking; 6:30 Talks begin
Presenter: Rowan Miller
Topic: How the Technology Services Group builds and deploys its SOA applications using Visual Studio 2008 and the dotNet Framework 3.5.

Technology Services Group (TSG) is the information technology provider for Federal Hotels and Resorts. Federal Hotels & Resorts operates in the tourism and leisure industry and is recognised as Tasmania’s leading tourism, entertainment, accommodation and gambling services provider.

During this presentation we will explore an end to end SOA solution and the options for building, deploying and maintaining such solutions using Visual Studio 2008. The presentation will focus on the following technologies;
-> Visual Studio 2008
-> LINQ
-> WCF
-> MS SQL 2005 & 2008
-> Click Once Deployment

Download March HDNUG Slides

Jey has kindly made his slide deck available to us, you can download it from http://www.mediafire.com/?atvyxmdn1w1 

March HDNUG Recap

Wednesday evening saw another Hobart .Net User Group meeting with a presentation on K2[blackPearl] by Jey Srikantha. This month we had the presentation in the Mezzanine Boardroom at Wrest Point which worked well as a venue, thanks must go to Microsoft and The Federal Group for their ongoing support covering the cost of the venue and food for these events.

Unfortunately Jey’s laptop wasn’t playing nice and after trying 2 projectors and an LCD monitor Jey had to perform his presentation using only his laptop. Fortunately we were a small group (8 attendees) and Jeys presentation was very engaging. The “workshop” style presentation sitting around a laptop seemed to encourage more questions and made the evening quiet interactive. 8 people did prove a few too any to sit around a laptop though as the screen was a bit hard to see at times so probably not an approach we will take voluntarily in the future

Although it was fortunate given our lack of projector it was disappointing to see numbers low again as it would be good to see 20+ attendees at these events to ensure we continue to attract quality presenters. I welcome suggestions from anyone on ways to reach more people or to make the events more attractive.

My summary of Jey’s presentation;

Jey presented the predecessor to K2[blackPearl] (K2.Net) to us early last year and this new version is certainly a very complete and user friendly technology. K2[blackPearl] is essentially a workflow/BPM product that extends WF (Windows Workflow Foundation) and provides the user with a range of ways to create orchestrations including within Visual Studio, Visio and K2’s own application. The philosophy behind the suite is to allow non-technical business users to solve their own needs using lego style building blocks in a drag and drop designer. These blocks include a comprehensive base set provided by K2 and custom ones built by the ICT department supporting the end user or third parties. Workflows can be initiated by a number of inputs including ASPX forms, Emails, Info Path forms etc.

Once workflows are built they are deployed to a central K2 server where they can be monitored and reported on using a suite of web based tools provided by K2. These tools are designed to allow business users to develop there own reports and monitor the state of their own workflows.

K2’s website is www.k2.com and he regularly blogs at http://srikantha.wordpress.com