2009 was the most exciting year ever for DOSUG. Our lineup of speakers was as strong as hoped, and the learning and networking reached a fevered pitch. Below are the minutes for all the meetings during the year.
December 2009 Holiday Party
DOSUG and DJUG are having a combined holiday party on Wednesday, December 9th, at the Sports Column downtown. This event is sponsored by Jeremy Crum and his generous team at KForce, in addition to Tek Systems, Realeyes, and the Denver Flex User Group.
RSVPs are required by November 30th. Sign up at http://dugparty.eventbrite.com/
Apress has a discount code just for this event. This is a 25% discount off of any eBook (http://www.apress.com/ebook/catalog) purchases. The code is due to expire on 12/31, good for 40 purchases. VTVXUYYGPQ
December 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, December 1st, 2009
Basic Concepts: The Lift Web Framework by Derek Chen-Becker
The talk will start with some background on Lift and then dive right into a Comet and AJAX example that shows how simple it is to make dynamic web applications with Lift. Next we'll talk about some of Lift's unique features that simplify development. Finally, we'll go into detail on Lift's templating system and how that lends itself to clean separation of logic and presentation layers.
Bio:
Derek is a committer on the Lift project and a co-author of The Definitive Guide to Lift with Tyler Weir and Marius Danciu. Derek has been working on the Lift project and Scala since 2007, and has been writing software in Java for over 12 years. Derek is currently the Senior Network Engineer and Security Architect for CPI Corporation, which owns and operates the Sears Portrait Studios and PictureMe! Portrait Studios.
Main Topic: Developing a Server Application with OSGi by Chris Custine
Abstract: "OSGi has become a popular modularization framework for building server applications in Java. We'll start with a quick overview of OSGi. Then we'll review tools, frameworks and best practices used to develop applications and components for OSGi. Lets tie it all together by building a simple OSGi based application and unit tests using some of these tools. Time permitting, we'll take a look at upcoming directions for the OSGi spec."
- A *very* brief overview of OSGi for anyone un-initiated
- An overview of ServiceMix 4 and the tools we use to build, test, and manage the framework (Apache Karaf, Pax Exam, Maven + bundle plugin, etc)
- Build a live application using Apache Karaf + integration tests using pax exam
- Upcoming specs and activities related to OSGi (Enterprise Expert Group and related RFPs)
Bio: "Chris is a Software Architect at Progress Software Corporation working on the FUSE open source product line and is also a committer on Apache ServiceMix, Felix, and Directory Server."
November 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, November 3rd, 2009
Clark Hobbie /The XMPP Messaging Protocol
This talk examines the protocol that Google uses for instant messaging protocol: XMPP. The protocol has many innovative features like prioritization and streaming XML that make it interesting in its own right and this talk will explore them -- but wait, there's more!
XMPP offers additional opportunities for the greater applications space. The IM model offers a convenient solution to the problem of polling over HTTP. What's more the security model, message storing and strong security are also solutions to common enterprise problems.
Is XMPP an answer to these issues or is it another elegant solution in search of a problem? Find out at this talk.
Bio:
Clark Hobbie is a Denver area consultant specializing in OO, Java and web-enabled systems. I've been working in the field for 15+ years and have a BS and an MS in CompSci.
The Pulse Project by John Lowe
This is a look at the SunSPOT platform (which has both open source hardware and software) and using Java in embedded systems. In this presentation we're going to look at implementing a Java powered pulse rate monitor. Along the way we will see how using Java and OOP make the implementation of digital signal processing algorithms clear by breaking them into small manageable pieces. We'll also touch on real-time concerns and using RESTful web services to provide the user interface for our system.
Bio:
John Lowe is a President of NAND Gate Technologies LLC, a software development and consulting company. John's area of expertise includes embedded systems and hardware/software interaction. John has been developing embedded systems for the past 15 years including, robotics, analytical instrumentation and medical monitoring applications. He has been working with Java since 1996, and has been attending Java User groups in the Denver/Boulder area for 12 years.
October 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, October 6th, 2009
Basic Concepts: Jim Walker on OpenSolaris and Porting Open Source Applications
This talk will give an Overview of OpenSolaris and some ofthe key OpenSolaris technologies including IPS, ZFS and
TimeSlider then discuss some of the thousands of open source applications running on OpenSolaris and how to quickly port open source software using the OpenSolaris Source Juicer and OpenSolaris Test Farm development zones.
Bio:
Jim Walker is a Staff Software Engineer at Sun Microsystems inthe Solaris organization. He has over 25 years experience in the software industry and is a member of the OpenSolaris Governing Board and an intern on the Solaris Architecture Review Committee. Jim is the project lead for OpenSolaris test initiatives including OpenSolaris Test Suites and the OpenSolaris Test Farm and is the IPS project test lead. Jim also leads development of the OpenSolaris contrib package repository, which includes the OpenSolaris Source Juicer and OpenSolaris Package Factory projects. Jim joined Sun Microsystems in 2002, leading testing for the UFS, MTBUFS and ZFS file system projects. He lives in Boulder, Colorado and helps lead the Front Range OpenSolaris User Group. He studied Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Purdue University and Computer Science and Management at the University of Colorado.
Main Topic: Dojo by Gabe Hamilton
The Dojo Toolkit (http://www.dojotoolkit.org/) is an open-source JavaScript toolkit useful for building great web applications. It aims to shorten the timespan between idea and implementation by providing an exceptionally well conceived API and set of tools for assisting and fixing the issues experienced in everyday web development. It is lightning fast, extremely robust, and supplies a solid set of tools for DOM manipulation, animations, Ajax, event and keyboard normalization, internationalization (i18n) and accessibility (a11y). Dojo Base is a single, lightweight 26KB entity "across the wire." Dojo is completely free, liberally licensed (AFL or BSD), and transparently developed by an active group of developers with a strong community presence."
Gabe Hamilton is president of InnoVoter, Inc, a Denver based software consulting firm specializing in enterprise web applications and constituent-legislator communication software. While working as a software engineer the past 10 years he has had the pleasure of working in France, Bulgaria and Togo. He has been using Dojo on and off from version 0.4 to the present 1.3.1.
September 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, September 1st, 2009
Basic Concepts: Mike Barker on Jasper Server
What do you do now that you've designed your report using iReport? A robust option is to load your report into JasperServer. Come learn about the report management server from your friends at Jasper Reports.
Bio:
Mike Barker is the owner of On Track Consulting, Inc. in Littleton. His 20+ year career as a software developer spans many industries: defense, semiconductors, medical, financial, and telecommunications. The last 12 years have been spent in Java, Java, and Java. He has been the report guy for a client for an 18 month gig that is about to come to an end.
Main Topic: Rich Remington on Mule ESB, Integration Simplified
Okay, so the economy is still in shambles. More companies than ever are working with a downsized workforce. You have been asked (again) to do more with less. Since that project to replace the legacy back-end application got shelved for now, you have to go back to the drawing board and integrate your new web applications with that same legacy application. And, of course, you have to do it in record time.
This talk introduces Mule ESB, an open source application that can simplify your integration projects. With an elegant, but simple architecture, Mule can provide an excellent foundation for your next integration project. Not only can it speak all the basic protocols (JMS, HTTP, FTP, Email, JDBC, File, etc.) out of the box, but it comes with a set of rich features for web services, message routing, transformation and transaction management. Topics discussed include: messaging patterns, service endpoints, routing, transformation, & protocol bridging. And, yes, you will see some code in action!
Bio:
Rich Remington is the owner of Rich Software Inc, a small consulting firm that specializes in building ESB/SOA software solutions based on Mule as well as developing web applications for its clients. Rich has over 25 years experience in software development including over 10 years experience architecting and developing Internet based applications, including a Java message oriented middleware application. Additionally, Rich has provided onsite Java and web development training for various companies as well as taught C programming courses (when C programming was in vogue) for the University of Denver, Great West Life, CAP Gemini America, and Information Handling Services. He is an innovative and strategic thinker, finding ways to improve information systems, workflows, and business processes - especially across the enterprise.
August 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, August 4th, 2009
Basic Concepts: A Fresh Introduction to Scala by Tom Flaherty
Whenever a language begins to gain popularity there is a need to present introductory material. But after a awhile the need shifts to understanding the strengths of a language.
In this presentation I am going to present a snapshot of Scala's unique features and paradigms. At start of the talk you will get to know Scala syntax, closures and functional programming. Next we will review unique features that Scala provides for DSLs such as ADTs, parsing and pattern matching. From this point we will study the improvements Scala makes to OO with strong typing, traits and mixins and how these improvements provide intrinsic support for new paradigms. Finally we will review actors and how Scala's capabilities are finding their way into the real world.
Bio:
Tom Flaherty is Chief Architect at Axiom Architectures. He is currently authoring papers about Enterprise Architecture and applying this work to state governments. In 2008 he developed a symbolic math application in
Scala for Glaxo. In the past he established enterprise and OO methodologies along with 4-Tier platforms for Williams Communications, DMR and NorTel. He lives in Centennial with his wife Fifi and Maine Coon cat Buddy
Main Topic: Test First, Refresh Second: Web App TDD with Grails 1.1 by Tim Berglund
Not many of us question that TDD is the right way to write software, but not many of us really practice it either. Even fewer of us do it when writing a web app, and with good reason: web app code is usually coupled to a framework, and the framework is usually coupled to a web server on one end and a database on the other. All this coupling does not set us up for testing success.
Grails 1.1 introduces several features that make it easy and truly productive to create a web application while testing first. In this talk, you'll learn how to use Domain and Controller mocking to write unit tests that can be run quickly and easily from the IDE or from the command line. TDD with 100% coverage had always been possible in Grails, but for the first time the tools make it the kind of thing you'll want to do. Learn to use the new features of the framework to build your web app the right way the first time.
Bio:
Tim Berglund runs a software consulting firm called the August Technology Group, which provides training and development services to customers building web applications on the JVM and in embedded devices. With his keen sense of timing, Tim spent his early career writing firmware, then switched to the Internet just as soon as the dotcom boom was coming to an end. He loves open-source software and the rapidly diversifying world of the Java platform. He has been writing software since he was a boy, but only started brewing his own beer a few years ago. He lives in Littleton with his wife and three children who, despite being the homeschooled children of a programmer father, don't write as much code as you might think.
July 2009 BBQ
No regular Microsoft-building meeting. Regular meetings will resume in August.
July 18th is the DOSUG Barbeque Party: Click here to RSVP: http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=KJIMQQVKMBOZUADYDZQE
Host: Tim Berglund
Location: Civic Green Park, Highlands Ranch [Park Details Here: http://www.highlandsranch.org/civicgreen/]
When: Saturday, July 18, 11:00AM
The Denver Open Source User Groups is happy to announce its 2009 Summer BBQ. We'd love to see you there for a few hours of fun and food. Families are welcome!
Bring your favorite side dish to share. DOSUG will be supplying burgers, brats, and hot dogs for everyone who RSVPs. Please RSVP for you and anyone you are bringing so that we have enough food for everyone.
There are spacious lawns at the park and plenty of kids' play equipment. Bring your favorite lawn game or any other picnic games you'd like.
June 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, June 2nd, 2009
Basic Concepts: Demian Neidetcher on Android Mobile Phone Development
Demian will demonstrate what it feels like to develop for the Android platform. We'll see what's possible on the phone, how to write code on it (in Java!), how to get applications on the phone and compare Android development with iPhone development.
Demian Neidetcher has been writing software primarily in the telecommunications domain for over 10 years. He's currently an architect and scrum master for a small team but still manages to write code 95% of the time. He's been a fan of open source ever since installing Linux on a 486 laptop in 1996.
Main Topic: Paul Rayner, Catch Mono 2.0
The Mono Project (http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page) is an open development initiative sponsored by Novell to develop an open source, UNIX version of the Microsoft .NET development platform. Its objective is to enable UNIX developers to build and deploy cross-platform .NET applications, and can run on Linux, BSD, UNIX, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows operating systems.This presentation will provide an introduction to Mono 2.0 and show how it brings the benefits of the .NET framework to platforms beyond Windows. Part of the presentation will also cover the state of open source development in the .NET space and what Microsoft needs to ensure that .NET-based open source initiatives flourish.
Bio:
Paul Rayner (http://virtualgenius.spaces.live.com/) is a Denver-based software architect and Certified ScrumMaster with 18 years of development and consulting experience, specializing most recently in agile development with .NET. He is currently working as a solutions architect, lead developer and agile practice leader for The Warranty Group.
Paul is the founder and president of the Denver chapter of the International Association of Software Architects (IASA) as well as a member of the Denver Visual Studio Users Group, ALT.NET, Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance. He writes with an Australian accent about software development at virtualgenius.spaces.live.com and about the intersection of faith and work at www.rayneronline.com/blog.
May 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, May 5th, 2009
Basic Concepts: Frederic Jean / JRuby
There was a time not too far ago where adopting Ruby meant having to abandon Java. JRuby allows you to adopt a powerful and expressive language and still have access to the abundance of libraries and frameworks available on the Java Platform.
This talk will provide an introduction to JRuby and how to combine Java and Ruby code to write powerful and flexible applications.
Bio:
Software engineer with experience leading small development teams and succesful delivery of high visibility software. Focus on web development on top of the Java Enterprise Edition platform as well as Ruby on Rails.
Frequent speaker at the Boulder JUG and Denver JUG. Also spoke at the Boulder Ruby Users Group, Derailed and the Denver Open Source Users Group. Frederic took over Scott Davis's responsibilities as the Boulder JUG host in January 2009
Main Topic: Matthew McCullough / Cloud Computing Boot Camp on the Google App Engine
Cloud this, cloud that. It's all we are hearing about these days. And whether buzz-worthy or not, you need to get in-the-know so that you can talk effectively about how this could fit into the application strategy on your next project. Leverage 100s of hours of research distilled into a 60 minute presentation. Get bootstrapped with what cloud computing is and isn't, who the players are in this space, what unique features each offers, and then how Google is completely changing the game. We'll navigate through a some demos of building and deploying an app live to the Google App Engine, and talk about the excellent tooling that the framework provides. Lastly, we'll put a reality check on cloud computing, and GAE specifically, looking at pitfalls and gotchas. You'll walk away having a thorough knowledge of cloud computing basics and the ability to build a practice app for GAE.
Bio:
Matthew McCullough is an Open Source Architect with the Denver, Colorado consulting firm Ambient Ideas, LLC which he co-founded in 1997. He’s spent the last 13 years passionately aiming for ever-great efficiencies in software development, all while exploring how to share these practices with his clients and their team members. Matthew is a touring speaker on all things open source and has provided long term mentoring and architecture services to over 40 companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 firms.
April 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, April 7th, 2009
Basic Concepts: iReport by Mike Barker
iReport (http://jasperforge.org/plugins/project/project_home.php?group_id=83) is the incredible visual designer for Jasper Reports. It gives drag and drop ease of use to complex data driven reports in a rich Eclipse-like IDE. Reports may not be the sexiest technology, but they are the meat-and-potatoes of corporate and enterprise applications. Get a quick start today on how to use iReport in your next application.
Mike Barker has been developing software for 20+ years, running On Track Consulting for 13 years, and programming Java for 11 years. He enjoys developing business applications using SOA and Open Source. Unwittingly, he became the reports guru for one of his clients.
Main Topic: Practical Grails by Scott Ryan
A new version of Grails has just hit the streets in the form of 1.1. Grails is a fantastic development environment that offers incredible flexibility and productivity. This talk will discuss some of the tricks and techniques I have learned in developing and deploying over 10 production applications with this technology across a variety of industries. This talk will not be an introduction or tutorial on Grails or Groovy but will cover some practical tips and examples that I have run across in my development of these applications. We will discuss IDE support, plugins and additional libraries. We will also take a look at each layer in the application (View, Service, Controller, Domain, Security) and discuss some best practices along with some tricks and some gotchas. While this presentation will by no means cover all the tricks in grails I hope to cover the ones that have caused me the most grief and research.
Feel free to email your questions to scott@theryansplace.com if there is anything you wish to cover in this session that would be useful to you.
Bio:
Scott is a Senior Open Source Evangelist/Developer and Architect working with clients throughout the world in various industries. Scott specializes in Web and Portal Application development, SOA Governance and Implementation. Scott leverages Open Source and commercial products in combination to produce the optimal solution for his customers. Scott loves to mentor and teach as well as getting his hands deep in the code. He has delivered leading edge solutions in countries around the world including Latin America, Canada, Russia, China, Europe, Middle East and Africa since 1984. He has leveraged his teams to deliver software, hardware and consulting solutions in multiple industries including Petroleum, Visualization, Telecommunications, Entertainment, Banking and Mortgage. He is a BEA Technical Director, serves on the Board of Directors of the Denver Open Source User’s Group, and is a principal at Soaring Eagle, LLC (http://www.soaringeagleco.com). Scott participates in several open source projects including Maven, Mojo, Appfuse, Cargo, Pollinate, Beehive, Eclipse and his own project Swoop hosted at Sourceforge and GitHub. Scott is a regular speaker at user group meetings and industry conferences. Scott holds a degree in Geophysical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines. In his free time he enjoys volleyball, riding his Harley, flying and skiing.
March 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, March 3rd, 2009
Basic Concepts: CLIP, the Open Source IPC Library by Clark Hobbie
The topic is "CLIP", an open source library I developed to enable IPC use in Java across the windows and Linux platforms.
Outline:
*What is useful about IPC?
*When to use different IPC options
*The example applications
*The CLIP library
*Shared Memory
*Semaphores
*Shared Queues
*Resources
*Where to get the slides
*Other useful sites, etc.
*Summary
Bio:
I'm Clark Hobbie, a Denver area consultant specializing in OO, Java and web-enabled systems. I've been working in the field for 15+ years and have a BS and an MS in CompSci.
Materials:
Slides on Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net/ltsllc/java-ipc-and-the-clip-library
CLIP Project Homepage
http://ltsllc.com/slides/ipc.html
Main Topic: Talend by Tim Berglund
The extract-transform-load process, or ETL, plays a key role in supporting data warehousing and analytics initiatives in the enterprise. A typical application involves taking data from a highly normalized transactional database, combining it with various other structured data sources and lookup tables, and creating a flattened schema that lends itself to offline analysis and reporting.
Traditionally this has been the realm of large custom development efforts, expensive tools, or both. Talend is an open-source start-up that provides a lower-cost, open-source solution into a marketplace that had been dominated by Big Enterprise Vendors and golf. Talend Open Studio is a free, open-source, Eclipse-based product that allows data architects and DBAs to build ETL processes visually, using an impressive variety of data sources, transformations, and output formats. It can do most transformations with no code at all, but integrates natively with Java and Groovy when necessary.
Speaker Bio:
Tim Berglund runs a software consulting firm called the August Technology Group, which provides training and development services to customers building web applications on the JVM and in embedded devices. With his keen sense of timing, Tim spent his early career writing firmware, then switched to the Internet just as soon as the dotcom boom was coming to an end. He loves open-source software and the rapidly diversifying world of the Java platform. He has been writing software since he was a boy, but only started brewing his own beer a few years ago. He lives in Littleton with his wife and three children who, despite being the homeschooled children of a programmer father, don't write as much code as you might think.
Materials:
Slides on Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net/tlberglund/talend-open-studio-how-i-learned-to...
Blog reviews here and here.
http://ambientideas.com/blog/index.php/2009/03/ipc-and-talend-at-the-dos...
http://www.augusttechgroup.com/
February 2009 Meeting
TUESDAY, February 3rd, 2009
Basic Concepts: Tom Marrs on Apache Utilities at Work
Don't Re-invent the Wheel:
You're on another typical JavaEE-based project, and you find yourself writing the same old infrastructure code. Are you wondering if there's a quicker way to incorporate the basics such as configuration, logging, and email into your application? If so, then this presentation is for you. By using a number of Apache utilities from Commons, Logging, and other areas, you can learn how to stop re-inventing the wheel.
We'll start with a simple Struts 2 application and iteratively add the ability to:
- Use Commons Lang for String and Date utilities.
- Use Commons Property Configuration to setup and use application Properties.
- Use Commons Logging and Log4J to log messages.
- Generate Excel spreadsheets with POI.
- Use Velocity Templates and Commons Email to format and send email messages.
- Use HttpClient to invoke web apps with HTTP/S.
- Use Commons IOUtils to simplify accessing web content.
Bio:
Tom Marrs s a Principal Architect in CIBER’s Global Enterprise Integration Practice (GEIP), specializing in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Java/EE architecture. He designs and implements mission-critical business applications using the latest SOA, Java/EE, and Open Source technologies. Tom also evaluates architectures, and trains and mentors software developers.
Materials:
Slides on Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net/tmarrs/apache-utilities-at-work-v5
Main Topic: John Funk on Adobe Flex and other Adobe Tools
Adobe Technologies for Enterprise Developers
Your users' don't have to put up with clunky user interfaces. Adobe provides technologies that allows enterprise developers to provide engaging user interfaces for their SOA based systems. In this session we hope to broaden your horizons by introducing you to Adobe’s major technologies to provide compelling front of the glass experiences for your users which include PDF as well as Flex and Air. To keep things interesting we will end the session with a developer centric discussion of Cocomo which allows you to add real-time streaming video / audio and more into your own applications.
Bio:
John Funk is a long time member of the Denver technical community. He has written network device drivers in Assembler and spent 10 years at BEA systems doing everything from building really big transaction systems to managing the pre-sales technical consultants. Now days John works from home as a consultant's consultant providing expertise on Adobe's products to large system integrators. If you haven't seen John for a while, it's because he now devotes his evenings to studying and teaching Martial arts.
Materials:
Zip of Materials
https://share.acrobat.com/adc/adc.do?docid=38fae4ce-0f86-48f0-b96c-951d5...
John Funk's Blog with More Materials and Links
http://www.johnfunk.com/