[Toronto-JUG] Toronto Code Camp 2010

[Rayson Ho]

Hi all,

I was at the March Meeting in the North York Library -- I was sitting
at the back of the room. I wasn't able to chat with anyone because I
needed to leave early to shop for a new laptop at the FS across the
street.

I am wondering if anyone is going to the Code Camp this Saturday??
There are 40 sessions this year, and about half of them are related to
web development (including a talk on HTML5). There are no talks on
Joomla, but there are 2 talks on DotNetNuke (an Open Source CMS on
the .NET platform), which I am interested in -- I mainly work with
Joomla, but I am interested to find out what other CMSs can do.

Lunch/coffee/tea included with registration, which is free. And an
XBox 360 for the lucky draw.

You can take a look at the agenda at:
http://www.torontocodecamp.net/Agenda/tabid/56/Default.aspx

Rayson

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[Alan (instance)]

Wow is that typical Microsoft or what? A quick look at the program and
it's more like "How to work with out proprietary technologies", it
looks like they're just including some open source stuff in to foster
confusion. Sort of like FUD with less Fear than usual.

If you want to explore alternative FOSS CMS systems, I would suggest
choosing those that are not based on proprietary technologies. The
leading alternatives are WordPress and Drupal, but there are dozens of
others. Take a look at http://www.packtpub.com/award for some others
with community "buzz". If you want a snapshot of the big world of all
CMS systems (FOSS and proprietary), you can spend a lot of time wading
through extensive information at http://cmsmatrix.org/.

Personally if it's not coded in PHP, Ruby, or Java (and sometimes
Python), I would think very carefully about investing time in it.

Alan

[Rayson Ho]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the conference is about programming on
the .NET and Windows platform.

While I mostly work on Open Source technologies, and I *contribute* to
many different open source projects (see: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/raysonho
, and also Google me!), I am not totally against Windows. As long as
there are users on that platform, then I think there is a need to know
something about it, don't you think? :-)

Rayson



On Apr 26, 12:45 pm, "Alan (instance)" <alan.langf...@abivia.com>
wrote:

> Wow is that typical Microsoft or what? A quick look at the program and
> it's more like "How to work with out proprietary technologies", it
> looks like they're just including some open source stuff in to foster
> confusion. Sort of like FUD with less Fear than usual.
>
> If you want to explore alternative FOSS CMS systems, I would suggest
> choosing those that are not based on proprietary technologies. The
> leading alternatives are WordPress and Drupal, but there are dozens of

> others. Take a look athttp://www.packtpub.com/awardfor some others

> with community "buzz". If you want a snapshot of the big world of all
> CMS systems (FOSS and proprietary), you can spend a lot of time wading

> through extensive information athttp://cmsmatrix.org/.

[Alan (instance)]

Well sure... like how to clone functionality, and either circumvent
their patents and/or demonstrate prior art. ;) But as far as actually
showing up for one of their PR fests, I wouldn't dignify them by
incrementing the headcount.

On Apr 26, 1:51 pm, Rayson Ho <raysonlo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry, I forgot to mention that the conference is about programming on
> the .NET and Windows platform.
>
> While I mostly work on Open Source technologies, and I *contribute* to
> many different open source projects (see:http://ca.linkedin.com/in/raysonho
> , and also Google me!), I am not totally against Windows. As long as
> there are users on that platform, then I think there is a need to know
> something about it, don't you think? :-)
>
> Rayson
>
> On Apr 26, 12:45 pm, "Alan (instance)" <alan.langf...@abivia.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Wow is that typical Microsoft or what? A quick look at the program and
> > it's more like "How to work with out proprietary technologies", it
> > looks like they're just including some open source stuff in to foster
> > confusion. Sort of like FUD with less Fear than usual.
>
> > If you want to explore alternative FOSS CMS systems, I would suggest
> > choosing those that are not based on proprietary technologies. The
> > leading alternatives are WordPress and Drupal, but there are dozens of

> > others. Take a look athttp://www.packtpub.com/awardforsome others

[Rayson Ho]

I think one thing I really need to clarify -- about the nature of
these conferences or Windows-centric user groups.

First thing -- the event is not solely sponsored by Microsoft, there
is also RIM and 9 others on the Platinum list:
http://www.torontocodecamp.net/Contributors/tabid/60/Default.aspx

Secondly, the organizers and I don't work for MS. None of the speakers
work for Microsoft.
http://www.torontocodecamp.net/Speakers/tabid/54/Default.aspx

Third thing -- this is not a PR release, it is all about code and real
world experience. See "So what is Code Camp all about?" on the
homepage.

Last but not least, there's nothing that stops non-MS technologies
from appearing at the conference. This year, there are 2 talks by a
RIM employee on BlackBerry programming, 1 talk on JQuery, 1 talk on
Unit Testing, 1 talk on HTML5, and then 2 talks on DotNetNuke (well,
it's half MS as it runs on .NET) that I've already mentioned before.
So you can still get your day (5 sessions max) filled without getting
into too much Microsoft-centric technologies...

And months ago, I did ask a guy at Novell to present, but he did not
response after mentioning that he was interested. Otherwise, you would
be able to hear about running Mono applications on the iPhone.

Alan, do you own any Apple products??

Search for my name in this Linux Weekly News article (
http://lwn.net/Articles/359070 ) and you will find out why Linux and
other OSes can't get FatELF support for legal reasons.

And which company is suing HTC because of Android??

Rayson

P.S. Seneca has another conference in the fall, and that one is Open
Source centric.

P.P.S. If Open Source people don't show up to at other conferences,
then every conference is like a Microsoft conference. With real code
contributions to more than 5 projects, I think I am qualified as an
Open Source developer. I hope more people could show up at those
events -- because Microsoft is not going to listen to just 1 user, but
if you have hundreds or thosands, then MS would need to listen.
Without a group or a conference, there is no way people can
collaborate, or complain about MS.

P.P.P.S. a long time ago I was even more hardcore anti-MS:
http://markmail.org/message/bdo7h45b36i7dige

[Bhupesh Shah]

Why does it matter whether Micro$oft listens or not? Open source is its own
animal. What if everyone went to Seneca's FSOSS instead?
http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2010/ how about asking the Micro$oft people to
sponsor that? :) Deadline for presentation proposals is May 15th. Those that
want to self-promote can do so to their heart's content...as long as the
content is worthy.

Bhupesh

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[Rayson Ho]

I guess it's a different approach -- whether one is anti-MS because he
or she hates MS, or because he or she cares about the users and want
to hook up Open Source technologies and Open Standards to over 80% of
the world's population. :-D

Yup, Seneca's FSOSS is the one I was referring to in my P.S. section
-- and I did not know that the deadline for presentation proposals is
approaching fast.

Rayson

[Ian MacLennan]

From the name it did seem like an interesting event, but when you look in at the details it seems very very MS centric.  I mean, sure there are a couple of other groups in there, but it is predominantly MS stuff.

The unit testing session looks mildly interesting but certainly not worth a trip into Toronto.

Ian

[Alan (instance)]

Goodness no, if I'm anti-MS, why would I get an iDisneyWhatever. Worse
than proprietary code, Apple lives in a world of proprietary code AND
content. For that matter Google may love to hug open source but it's
mostly icing. They've got boatloads of proprietary stuff. They're just
strategic about how they use it.

And honestly the less opportunity proprietary vendors have to listen
the greater their chances of being blindsided. I think we do a fine
job of collaborating without conferences

On Apr 26, 7:43 pm, Rayson Ho <raysonlo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think one thing I really need to clarify -- about the nature of
> these conferences or Windows-centric user groups.
>
> First thing -- the event is not solely sponsored by Microsoft, there
> is also RIM and 9 others on the Platinum list:http://www.torontocodecamp.net/Contributors/tabid/60/Default.aspx
>
> Secondly, the organizers and I don't work for MS. None of the speakers

> work for Microsoft.http://www.torontocodecamp.net/Speakers/tabid/54/Default.aspx

>
> Third thing -- this is not a PR release, it is all about code and real
> world experience. See "So what is Code Camp all about?" on the
> homepage.
>
> Last but not least, there's nothing that stops non-MS technologies
> from appearing at the conference. This year, there are 2 talks by a
> RIM employee on BlackBerry programming, 1 talk on JQuery, 1 talk on
> Unit Testing, 1 talk on HTML5, and then 2 talks on DotNetNuke (well,
> it's half MS as it runs on .NET) that I've already mentioned before.
> So you can still get your day (5 sessions max) filled without getting
> into too much Microsoft-centric technologies...
>
> And months ago, I did ask a guy at Novell to present, but he did not
> response after mentioning that he was interested. Otherwise, you would
> be able to hear about running Mono applications on the iPhone.
>
> Alan, do you own any Apple products??
>

> Search for my name in this Linux Weekly News article (http://lwn.net/Articles/359070) and you will find out why Linux and

[Rayson Ho]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 10:24 PM, Alan (instance)
<alan.l...@abivia.com> wrote:
> And honestly the less opportunity proprietary vendors have to listen
> the greater their chances of being blindsided. I think we do a fine
> job of collaborating without conferences

I think the most important thing at conferences or user groups is to
meet people, and find out who is doing what... most of the technical
stuff can be found online -- as long as I can reach Google.com (or
Google.ca when in Canada).

Rayson

[rarsa]

I am an Free Software advocate, I am mostly an Open Source Software
user at home (It's been months since I've used Windows at home). I've
contributed to some projects, I am a regular attendee and present
frequently at my local User's group http://www.kwlug.org and help
organize the Ontario GNU Linux Fest http://www.oglf.ca

I attended the Toronto Code camp. I won't repeat my impressions but
you can read it at http://rarsa.blogspot.com/2010/05/this-past-weekend-i-attended-toronto.html

I assure you that that conference did more to convince hard core MS
fans about the value of Free Software than a 1,000 rants from MS
bashers.

Secondly, you cannot make people understand your point of view if you
don't understand them or interact with them or, even worst, insult
them.

At the conference I had the opportunity to talk to many people. One
guy in particular made a derisive comment when I told him that I was
mostly a Free and Open Source software user. That was my opportunity
to explain him that even MS (yes, the devil itself!) was committed to
use and support JQuery under a Free License.

I also had the opportunity to sit down with other people that said
that they were starting programming in Flash; at which point I took my
laptop, booted in Linux and showed them Open Laszlo http://www.openlaszlo.com

So, I learned, I had fun and networked. I can tell you it was worth
the trip to Toronto.