The HackGuelph User Survey is now available! Please take a few minutes to fill it out. The results collected in the survey will help to shape HackGuelph in the coming year. All questions are optional and the survey is anonymous.

You’ll have to forgive me for being so late on this. I had hoped to get the user survey out before Christmas, but I’ve clearly missed that by more than a week. Because of this, and because the results of the survey may lead to scheduling changes anyway, I’m not planning on scheduling any new HackGuelph meetings until February.

In the meantime there are a number of other great events coming up:

• The Guelph PHP Users Group is meeting on January 18. Their guest speaker this month will be Chris Hartjes.
• The second Guelph K-W Game Jam will be on January 21. Try your luck at making a complete game in 8 hours!
• DemoCampGuelph 19 is coming up on January 25. Get in touch with @ChrisUnfiltered or @Brydon if you want to demo. If you’d prefer to watch (and not demo) you can register on the website.
• The Guelph Web Maker Meetup will be starting up again soon, but no dates have been announced yet. Keep an eye on their Meetup page.

There is currently an open call for presentations. From the announcement:

It doesn’t have to be formal or anything… Introduce us to a tool that you’ve been using, demo an obscure language, show off some code that you wrote, whatever you want.

If you would like to demo something next week I encourage you to join the mailing list and let us know.

Update: Agenda

Alright, folks. Sorry this is so last-minute.

• Jeremy Cook (@jcook21) will be talking about the Yellow Pages API and Rendezview, the cool application he built with it.
• We’ll likely hack on some code.
• And as always we’ll head over to the Woolwich Arrow afterwards.

I’m sad to be missing this meeting—I missed Jeremy’s Yellow Pages/Rendezview presentation at the Guelph Web Maker Meetup last night, and now I won’t be able to see him at HackGuelph, either. Oh, well.

Have fun!

We also have a new Twitter account and mailing list. If you would like to receive updates we recommend that you follow/join both of these.

Moving to the new domain will be a gradual process. This blog, for instance, will currently stay active at its existing location. The current @GCNC Twitter account is also likely to stay active for a while.

We hope that this change will be minimally disruptive. Please contact Chris if you have any concerns.

Schedule

We will be meeting on the first and third Thursdays of each month from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Following this schedule, the next meeting will be on April 7, 2011.

You can download the poster as a PDF and put it somewhere awesome if you’d like to help spread the word about GCNC.

With Cory’s move to Toronto we have a new leadership team and a re-tuning of our focus. We would like to emphasize the community element of C&C, and welcome anybody to lead a one-off or recurring segment of their choice.

We will not be continuing the Microsoft Certification work that many of you have been doing unless somebody volunteers to lead it.

Reboot meeting

Date and time: Thursday, March 24, 6:00–9:00 p.m.

Location: 349 Woolwich Street

Schedule:

• Introductions (10 minutes)
• Tips and Tricks: SSH Tunnels (10 minutes)
• Introduction to Project Euler (10 minutes)
• Team coding with Gobby (15 minutes) This is likely going to be bumped to the next meeting
• Social coding (until 9:00)
• After party at the Woolwich Arrow

If you are interested in leading a segment, or if you have any topic requests, please add a comment to this post.

Have you heard about Microsoft’s newest venture into the mobile space, Windows Phone 7?  Windows Phone offers up a new user interface based on a design deemed “Metro”.

If you have aspirations of becoming a Developer for Windows Phone 7, but don’t have previous experience with Silverlight or XNA [which are the two main development stories for the phone] you’re in luck!

I’m pleased to announce the first Canadian Windows Phone 7 User Group!

Looking for more information on Windows Phone 7? Download the *FREE* Programming Windows Phone 7 E-Book along with the Sample Code!

Cory lead a Windows Azure Focus Group at Guelph Coffee and Code during the Windows Azure Community Technology Preview. Over the course of the focus group 7 Developers and 1 IT Professional learned how to deploy applications to Windows Azure.

Congratulations Cory from all of the members of Guelph Coffee and Code!

Be sure to ready Scott Guthrie’s Post “Important: ASP.NET Security Vulnerability” which will outline the potential threats in more detail.

For a script to detect if you are Vulnerable to this attack read Microsoft Security Research and Defense entry.

There is also a newer update by the Microsoft Security Response Center which includes a twitter account [@MSFTSecResponse] which will give more up-to-date coverage as new developments unfold.

Please make sure to make your superiors aware of this threat as it affects mostly all installations/Versions of ASP.NET on a wide range of Operating Systems.

With that being said, I think I have come up with a way to offer knowledge, a goal, a purpose and this will actually help advance your career! So I ask you one Question:

The Proposal

For those of us that are Microsoft Developers [sorry Open Source folks, feel free to create your own movement and join our adventure]

I propose that we continue to meet for Coffee and Code events which will be extended to 6pm – 9pm. The first hour of the event will be social, this will allow some de-stress time, keep up the networking aspect, and allow time for consumption of food. This leaves 7pm – 9pm for Presentation, Discussion, and Hands-On Labs.

The First Topic

Considering our youthful group, I believe the logical first topic would be starting at the entry level [don’t take entry level lightly] Certification Platform, Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist [MCTS].  We can have break out groups to cover different competencies however I believe the Visual Studio and Microsoft .NET Framework.

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Application Development Foundation self paced training kit for MCTS Exam 70-536 is the first stepping stone towards an MCTS Certification for the .NET Framework.

Candidates for this exam work on a team in a medium-sized or large development environment that uses Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, or Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Candidates should have at least two to three years of experience developing Web-based, Windows-based, or distributed applications by using the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0, the .NET Framework 1.1, the .NET Framework 2.0, or the .NET Framework 3.5. Candidates should have a working knowledge of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008.

The Application Development Foundation book is exactly that the Foundation of the MCTS Certification, in order to become Certified you have to select One Additional Exam [70-561,70-562,70-503,70-505,70-502,70-504].

The Second Exam is where the break-out groups would come into effect. As the majority of the group are Web Developers, my recommendation would be the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – ASP.NET Application Development self paced training kit for MCTS Exam 70-562.

Candidates for this exam use Microsoft Visual Studio in a team-based, medium-sized to large development environment. Candidates should have a minimum of two to three years of experience developing Web-based applications by using Microsoft ASP.NET. Candidates should also have a minimum of one year of experience with web services, state management, ASP.NET configuration, monitoring web applications, debugging, page life-cycle management; security, membership & roles, JavaScript, and Internet Information Server (IIS). Candidates should be very familiar with Visual Studio 2005 or later and the .NET Framework classes that are related to ASP.NET and ADO.NET. In addition, candidates should have a good grasp of ASP.NET AJAX.

The Cake

Prometric and Microsoft have a pretty sweet deal on right now, which gives extra incentive to start the process now and this cake is not a lie.

The Lettuce

In the end everything always comes down to money. Unfortunately this is no exception, however I am trying my best to get funding to help us out along the way. I will not be able to pay for your exams, but I am looking to comp the Literature [I have submitted my plea, and will comment on this post when I receive the answer].

A Microsoft Certification Exam costs $125.00 USD [Source: Prometric’s Website] in Ontario, Canada.

If you get a 2-exam pack you save 20% 15% and have the safety of the second shot.

The last item that will cost money is food, if we meet at our typical location, The Albion Hotel, they have been nice enough to allow us to have our meetings without a venue cost. We should be sure to eat a meal in good faith for them hosting our Study Group for 3 hours. Just be sure to include food in your budget.

The Challenge

Earlier today I contacted Microsoft Canada on twitter asking if they would be willing to put up 2 Certification Vouchers if we could get a group of 10 Certification Study Members. I will be following up with Microsoft Canada via Email [seems more appropriate] to see if they would be able to provide the prizes.

Track the list of interested Study Members on the MS-Cert-StudyGroup Twitter List [we’re currently at 6].