I meant to have a nice summary of both the Developer Days training which I attended and the meeting I had with fellow DotNetDevelopers about forming an Ann Arbor group.
I didn’t get around to it 🙂
Basically ADO.NET 2 has some awesome features. DataTable is a first class citizen now, so you can use it directly without the overhead of a DataSet. Asyncronous stuff is awesome. SQL Server 2005’s XML features are REALLY VERY SWEET. Finally, the CLR in SQL Server is nice, but I fear it will be abused rather than used well.
As for the new Ann Arbor Dot Net Developers (AADND), well, I love the that DND could also mean Dungeons ‘n Dragons. It makes me laugh. We are meeting the second Wednesday of every month at the Ann Arbor IT Zone. There is a great group of people helping to get this organized. I don’t recall everyones names, but Josh Holmes nudged me to volonteer for something, so I’m into advocacy. I’m calling people I haven’t talked to in years and asking them to come to our meetings. Well, OK, no I’m not. I’ve only lived in Ann Arbor for about a year and a half. But I’m doing my best to invite any programmers and tech savy people I know.
Did I mention that the meetings are The Second Wednesday of every month at 6pm?
The Ann Arbor IT Zone Launch Pad is located at:
330 E. Liberty
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Our meeting format is such that we have a basic tutorial presentation at 9pm that should be understandable by anyone with basic programming background. It lasts about 45 minutes and we get pizza and chat and then watch the main presentation which is on a more specific topic.
At our February 8th meeting, I’m giving the first tutorial, an overview of ASP.NET. Then Josh Holmes is presenting something that is more detailed in ASP.NET. I don’t recall exactly what, but I’m sure it will be excellent.