Archive for November, 2007

Wednesday 28th November MSDN Connect Evening meeting

November 25, 2007 · Filed under ADNUG · Tagged , ,

NB This month’s meeting is an evening meeting featuring Shane Morris, Microsofts latest addition to the DPE team as a “User Experience Evangelist”. Shane is in Adelaide for the UniSA OZChi 2007 (Australasian Computer-Human Interaction Conference). http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/OZCHI_2007

Shane will be presenting to us in the evening after spending the day at OZCHI running a tutorial on “Principles of Interactive Design”. 

Contents

1. MSDN Connect meeting Wednesday 28th November 5.45pm- 7.15pm 

2. Employment Requests

1. Wednesday 28th November MSDN Connect Evening Session.

Next meeting MSDN Connect to be held 5.45pm Wednesday 28th November

at   
SA Innovation Centre ,  Level 2,  Westpac House, King William Street, Adelaide .  

See below for Programme. 

Visitors welcome. 5.45pm      Join us for some finger food and drinks.6.15pm    Shane Morris – Developer Evangelist – The Age of User Experience

http://blogs.msdn.com/shanemo/  

“User Experience” is currently a focus for Microsoft, with platforms like Silverlight and WPF, the new Expression Studio design tools, and the appointment of “User Experience Evangelists”.  In this talk Shane Morris, Microsoft’s User Experience Evangelist for Australia, will discuss how to integrate design – and designers – into the software development process. What is “user experience”? What is the difference between “user experience” and “usability”? What is Microsoft doing to help?.   

7.15pm    Meeting Closes 

2. Employment Requests

A permanent VB.Net or C#.Net opportunity offering between $60 – $80K. 

Assist the CHEOPS Development team in producing quality targeted solutions by assisting with code analysis, design and development and testing in VB, VB.NET and C#.NET environment, working with large complex systems.  The role involves bug resolution analysis, assisting with code research to enable technical specifications to be written, developing using industry standard coding methodologies, conducting code testing against specifications / original issues and completing documentation of code changes and conducting code peer reviews.For more information, send me an email with subject “CHEOPS”.  

Paul Turner advises that SDM are seeking staff. The links will take you to the SEEK ad

·         BI National Manager in Sydney or Melbourne

·         Project and Office Administrator in Melbourne

·         Business Analyst in Adelaide or  Melbourne

·         SharePoint (MOSS) Consultant in Sydney 

PG      

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Is there a problem with our Universities????

November 19, 2007 · Filed under Education · Tagged , , , , , , ,

I have watched conditions at South Australian Universities slowly deteriorate over the last ten years. Being a member of the SA Branch Executive of the Australian Computer Society, I have been involved with students and staff in a number of events and projects, and seen these effects. But how to intelligently describe this?

Fortunately it has been done for me by Professor Vicki Sara, Chancellor UTS on the Science Show on ABC Radio National.  What I was observing was real, not imagined.

“Vicki Sara points to a looming crisis in Australian universities as they lose their competitive position due to underfunding and over regulation. Other OECD countries have increased funding for higher education. Australia has seen a decline of 4%.”

  Excuse me, what was that again?

” If I can just explain what the major underpinning problem is. Universities are funded both from the government and from the private purse. What has happened is that over the last decade there’s been a failure of care of the Australian university system so that there is an ever-increasing gap between the real cost of providing university education and the funding that the universities have achieved. Australia is the only country in the OECD where there has actually been a decrease in the investment by the government into higher education. If you look at the average, all of the other countries have increased their investment over the last decade by 49%, and Australia is the only country where there has been a decline of 4%.

What’s happened in Australia is that there has been a shifting of the cost from the public purse, there has been no increase in real terms in government funding of places at universities, and there’s been a shift over to students who are now paying double the cost for university education than they paid a decade ago. So, cost shifting over to the students and no real firm investment by the government into universities.

What this means is there is a gap between the cost of providing quality education and the funding received, and that gap is increasing all the time. How do we fill it? We fill it by cross-subsidising by fee-paying students on the one hand. The second cross-subsidisation comes from popular courses. It may come as a surprise to many people but popular courses like business and management are actually cross-subsidising courses in science and humanities.

And this situation cannot continue because the impact on the quality of the education all universities are able offer has deteriorated and is deteriorating. You can see it in a change in the staff-student ratios; a decade ago it was 14, today 19, where will it be tomorrow? If we cannot compete globally, we no longer are able to fill the gap that is existing in the current university system. I believe this to be a looming crisis for the future of this country.”

For the full transcript http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2007/2089488.htm#transcript

I am grateful for programs such as the Science Show that keep me informed on what’s happening in the real world.

PG

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ADNUG meeting last Wednesday

November 17, 2007 · Filed under ADNUG · Tagged , , , , ,

Readify is now in Adelaide, Darren Neimke heading the local charge.

And the ADNUG meeting was powered by Readify with presentations from Darren and Paul Stovell.

For content see Darren’s blog

 http://showusyourcode.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!15630F96CB7D86C1!479.entry  and Pauls blog

http://www.paulstovell.net/blog/index.php/adnug-next-week/

Thanks guys for an excellent evening.

PG

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ICT gets its green house in order, article in Information Age

November 16, 2007 · Filed under Greenhouse Gases · Tagged , ,

Lead Article in latest ACS Information Age

Australia produces half a billion tons of carbon dioxide every year; ICT adds to the load
http://www.infoage.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1675228962;fp;16;fpid;0

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ADNUG MEETING WED 14th November SA Innovation Centre AUDITORIUMADNUG MEETING WED 14th November SA Innovation Centre AUDITORIUM

November 11, 2007 · Filed under ADNUG · Tagged , , ,

This month November 20071. ADNUG Meeting Program – 14th November2. Employment requests3. Australian SQL Server User Group meeting – 13th December.4. Beta version of new ADNUG website 5. Free VB2005 book from Microsoft Press. Still there, still free.6. Request from Jocelyne Kanna re Adelaide City Comparator7. My new blog http://pgriffith.wordpress.com/feed/  1. ADELAIDE DOT NET USERS GROUP.                 The next meeting of ADNUG will be held on WEDNESDAY 14th November at 5.45pm

at   
SA Innovation Centre ,  Level 2,  Westpac House, 91 King William Street, Adelaide .  

Visitors welcome. See below for Programme.     Special Door Prize for members tonight  Readify now have a presence in Adelaide and tonight is the “Readify Night” in as much as we have two “heavies” from Readify, Darren and Paul, presenting.Readify are strong supporters of Dot Net Groups in Australia, and heavily involved in the CodeCamp scene. Readify was a strong supporter of CodeCampSA flying in presenters such as Mitch Denny and Greg Low.Darren Neimke, who also presented at CodeCampSA, heads up the local scene for Readify. Darrens’ commentReadify’s commitment to technical readiness for VS2008 is demonstrated by the broad range of community events and training sessions that we deliver.  In Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne we are running bi-weekly RDN sessions where our own experts give in-depth presentations in this area.  Much of the content for our RDN sessions comes from our experiences with the product as early adopters and also through our extensive, internal Professional Development program.  Much of the content which results from these activities can also be found at the Tech Zone on our website. We look forward to having some of these events come to Adelaide in 2008.  PROGRAMME
 5.45 pm Finger food and Drinks. Have some nibbles and refreshments before we start     Have something to eat before the meeting.   6.10 pm questions and answers. Bring along your .Net problems for discussion from members.  6.20 pm Darren Neimke MVP – Readify Development Centre Manager - Developing client-centric web applications with ASP.NET Ajax and VS2008 www.readify.net darren.neimke@readify.net http://markitup.com/ The imminent release of Visual Studio 2008 includes many new tools and features which make it easier to create differentiated web experiences.  These include things such as a new CSS designer, new server controls, and baked-in support for ASP.NET Ajax. Come along and join the discussion as Darren demonstrates how to use ASP.NET Ajax to build truly web applications that are truly client-centric. 7.05 pm Paul Stovell MVP—Readify Senior Developer – Introducing LINQpaul.stovell@readify.net | B: www.paulstovell.net With Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft will release a set of extensions to the .NET Framework known collectively as “LINQ”, or Language INtegrated Queries. LINQ gives developers the ability to query many data sources, including XML and SQL Server, all from within the strongly-typed comfort of C# or Visual Basic .NET. We expect LINQ to play a part in every .NET application of the future.  In this session, Paul will look at the changes coming to the C# and VB.NET languages to support LINQ, demonstrate some of the features of LINQ, and offer guidance on real-world LINQ usage. 7.55 pm Meeting close 2. Employment Requests 

Have fun, be challenged, expand your skills and deliver leading edge solutions.  That is the motto that this company live and breath.  There has never been a better opportunity for a .NET conultant, with solid exposure to Sharepoint, to join this Adelaide sucess story. 

If you have always wanted to work with people that push the boundaries while having fun, then please contact Rohan Bishop pn 8223 3886  3. AUSTRALIAN SQL SERVER USER GROUP meeting: Venue: Level 2 Westpac House (91 King William Street Adelaide) Duration 2 hours (including light lunch) 12:00 – 2:00pm On Thursday 13th DecemberJeff Wharton is WARDY IT Solutions Chief Solutions Architect will be presenting the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE)?
http://www.sqlserver.org.au/Events/ViewEvent.aspx?EventId=282     4. Beta of new ADNUG web siteThanks to Paul for getting the new web site to a stage that we can now get this project underway to further develop the site.http://paulturner.is-a-geek.com:9001/default.aspx This is an opportunity to do some work and get experience in Sharepoint 2007.  We are looking for “volunteers” and beginners to get involved. You will be supported and mentored. Pick a function that needs to be added to the site and volunteer.  5. Free from Microsoft PressFree Microsoft Press book (PDF) – Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developershttp://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/staythepath/additionalresources/IntroTo2005/default.aspx   6. Request from Jocelyne Kannajocy.kanna@gmail.com Hi  I am Jocelyne, city editor for Adelaide on city comparator. It’s all about cities competing against each other and I’m trying to build Adelaide’s rating by adding content and involving more people. I thought your members might like to help out by writing their comments with pics and linking us:http://www.citycomparator.com/cities_1_6_adelaide.html    Join the MSDN Connection.  http://www.microsoft.com/australia/msdn/default.aspx  for details

 Going Interstate? For list of Australian User Groups  http://www.microsoft.com/australia/msdn/usergroups.aspx

Subscribe to MSDN Flash  http://msdn.microsoft.com/flash.   

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UniSA Project Fair Day and BIS Co-operative Program

November 10, 2007 · Filed under UniSA · Tagged , , ,

I attended 2 UniSA events this week. 

The first at Mawson Lakes Campus was the School of Computer and Information Science (CIS) Student Project Fair Day. A showcase of 90 final year projects, the Day celebrates their achievements. Projects covered software engineering, multimedia, information systems and web site development, for organisations such as the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, DSTO, Comunet, Northern Sound Systems, SAPOL, Cancer Council of SA, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, Megaw and Hogg, and many more.

Because of the number of projects, some 25 students gave a 1 minute elevator pitch to the audience on their project. The projects were able to be seen at display booths after the formalities were completed.

 The 2nd at Chifley Hotel was Final Student Presentations  for six projects undertaken for leading Adelaide organisations by top final year and postgraduate students in the BIS Cooperative Program. Projects included business needs and potential solutions for a digital photo library; strategic investigation of connected customer interaction; building a business case for a mobility solution; SAP portal roll-out; building a contract and contract clauses database; and client management system review.

The importance of students being involved in real industry projects, both students and industry participants are winners in this program,

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Thursday 1st November MSDN Connect Lunch meeting

November 3, 2007 · Filed under ADNUG · Tagged ,

Contents

1. MSDN Connect meeting Thursday 1st November 12pm-1.30pm 

2. Employment Requests

1. Thursday 6th September MSDN Connect Lunch Session.

Next meeting MSDN Connect to be held on Thursday 1st November from 12.00-1.30pm

at   
SA Innovation Centre ,  Level 2,  Westpac House, King William Street, Adelaide .  

See below for Programme. 

Visitors welcome. 12.00    Lunch   A light lunch will be served12.30    Dave Glover–Developer Evangelist – Visual Studio 2008 makes building Office 2003/2007 Business Applications a Cinch http://blogs.msdn.com/dglover/rss.aspx  This will be a fun session, with lots of demos!! Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) is a powerful development option for building Office Business Applications (OBA) and is now fully integrated in to Visual Studio 2008. Visual Studio 2008 represents a huge step forward in making Office development a highly productive and integrated experience. From full support for both Office 2003 and Office 2007, Word Content Controls, Custom Task Panes, the Fluent Ribbon and full fidelity with NET Framework, languages, security and deployment model.   1.30 Meeting Closes 2. Employment Requests 

Have fun, be challenged, expand your skills and deliver leading edge solutions.  That is the motto that this company live and breath.  There has never been a better opportunity for a .NET conultant, with solid exposure to Sharepoint, to join this Adelaide sucess story. 

If you have always wanted to work with people that push the boundaries while having fun, then please contact Rohan  pn 8223 3886   

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ADNUG MEETING WED 10th October SA Innovation Centre AUDITORIUM

November 3, 2007 · Filed under ADNUG · Tagged

This month October 2007

1. ADNUG Meeting Program – 10th October

2. Employment requests

3. Australian SQL Server User Group meeting – 11th October.

4. ACS/Rostrum Business Communicatios SIG – 31st October

5. Beta version of new ADNUG website

6. Free VB2005 book from Microsoft Press. Still there, still free. 

1. ADELAIDE DOT NET USERS GROUP.                 The next meeting of ADNUG will be held on WEDNESDAY 10th October at 5.45pm

at   
SA Innovation Centre ,  Level 2,  Westpac House, 91 King William Street, Adelaide .  

Visitors welcome. See below for Programme.     Special Door Prize for members tonight  PROGRAMME
 5.45 pm Finger food and Drinks. Have some nibbles and refreshments before we start     Have something to eat before the meeting.   6.15 pm questions and answers. Bring along your .Net problems for discussion from members.  6.30 pm Graham Rock – Services Manager for SA for the Microsoft Innovation Centre .

 Microsoft is always looking for potential projects that meet the Innovation Centre objectives :

promote the Information Economy through innovation and the best practice use of the Microsoft software available to Government;
achieve maximum business value for Government and local industry partners;
enable and encourage the accelerated development and deployment of business solutions based on the Microsoft platform;
support effective business to business and business to consumer information exchange;
share research findings by creating information exchange networks to the advantage of the Government and South Australia in general.

6.45 pm Paul Turner– Senior Solution Specialist  SDM – Building Web Parts using Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services (CTP 1.1

)paul.turner@sdm.com.au

This Community Technology Preview (CTP) of version 1.1 of the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services contains the following tools to aid developers in building SharePoint applications:

New to Version 1.1 ·         Support for “Web Solution Package” editing ·         List Instance item template ·         List Even Handler item template ·         Bug fixes
Visual Studio 2005 Project Templates ·         Web Part ·         Team Site Definition ·         Blank Site Definition ·        

List Definition
Visual Studio 2005 Item Templates (items that can be added into an existing project) ·         Web Part ·         Custom Field ·         List Definition (with optional Event Receiver) ·         Content Type (with optional Event Receiver) ·         Module ·         List Instance ·         List Event Handler
SharePoint Solution Generator ·         This stand-alone program generates a Site Definition project from an existing SharePoint site. The program enables developers to use the browser and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to customize the content of their sites before creating code by using Visual Studio. 

 7.45 pm Meeting close

2. Employment Requests No requests this month 

3. AUSTRALIAN SQL SERVER USER GROUP meeting: Venue: Level 2 Westpac House (91 King William Street Adelaide) Duration 2 hours (including light lunch) 12:00 – 2:00pm On Thursday 11th OctoberChristine Bishop (Product Marketing Manager SQL Server and BI- Microsoft Australia) will be presenting the SQL Server marketing strategy for FY08
http://www.sqlserver.org.au/Events/ViewEvent.aspx?EventId=286  

4. ACS/Rostrum Business Communications Special Interest Group To be held at KPMG Board Room, 151 Pirie Street, Adelaide  Wednesday  31st  October 5.30pm Heather Layton  Australian Manager, Information Systems, BAE Systems Australia Ltd.“How to give effective presentations using PP?” 
The ‘Business Communications SIG’ will cover all aspects of communication, spoken and written … visitors welcome. Nibbles and drinks at 5.30 for 6pm start. Bookings at http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=event&temID=eventsfilter&state=9005  

5can now get this project underway to further develop the site.http://paulturner.is-a-geek.com:9001/default.aspx This is an opportunity to do some work and get experience in Sharepoint 2007.  We are looking for “volunteers” and beginners to get involved. You will be supported and mentored. Pick a function that needs to be added to the site and volunteer.  

6. Free from Microsoft PressFree Microsoft Press book (PDF) – Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developershttp://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/staythepath/additionalresources/IntroTo2005/default.aspx 

   Join the MSDN Connection.  http://www.microsoft.com/australia/msdn/default.aspx  for details

 Going Interstate? For list of Australian User Groups  http://www.microsoft.com/australia/msdn/usergroups.aspx

Subscribe to MSDN Flash  http://msdn.microsoft.com/flash.   

GROUP SPONSORS and SUPPORTERS Microsoft Pty Ltd http://www.microsoft.com/australia

Candle ICT – ICT Talent Specialists http://www.candlerecruit.com (08) 8223 3886

 Better Software Pty Ltd http://www.bettersoftware.com.au

 MGM Wireless Ltd http://www.mgmwireless.com  

O’Reilly UG Program http://www.oreilly.com 

 Australian Computer Society  http://www.acs.org.au/sa 

DotNetSolutions http://www.dotnetsolutions.com.au 

GUI-Visuals http://www.gui-visuals.biz  

Australian Dot Net Users Group ADNUG  http://www.adnug.com  

notice of meetings  http://www.adnug.com/notices.htm   Member of INETA http://www.ineta.org  http://www.ineta.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=20  SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS FOR ACCESS TILL 7PM.The doors outside the lifts for 2nd floor are not locked till 7pm. Access through lane from Topham St MallIf doors are locked when you arrive, ring  0408 832 891 or 0403 432393 and we will come down to the After Hours exit in Currie St and let you in but only till 7pm..Lifts going up to L2 are now shut down at 6.30pm.   If you wish to be unsubscribed from this list, please reply with Subject Unsubscribe 

PG  

        

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