Posts Tagged virtual brown bag
Virtual Brown Bag: October 2020 Summary
Posted by claudiolassala in Virtual Brown Bag on November 3, 2020
Another month full of Virtual Brown Bag meetings in the books and the variety of topics keeps increasing.
Check out what we’ve been up to in October and join us to participate in the conversations as well! Every Thursday, 12-1pm Central Time.
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October 29th, 2020
We talked about Microsoft certifications, past and recent experiences. We also spent some time talking about custom matchers in Cypress.io, and security-related static analysis tools.
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October 22nd, 2020
Great discussion remembering the Alt.NET movement, and also talking about architecture katas.
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October 15th, 2020
Obs and PPT automation, Books (Righting Software, .NET Architecture), DDD, Event Storming, CQRS, REST… great conversation!
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October 8th, 2020
Some more talk about Mmhmm, anti-fatigue mats, home-office setups, nerves-project.org, IoT, Elixir, micro-services and data for dashboards, AWS and AWS Amplify.
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October 1st, 2020
Mmmhmm (virtual camera, setup, experiences), EICAR test string, Spam Pull Requests, things we put in the resumes, databases: when to start thinking and making decisions about them…
Virtual Brown Bag: September 2020 Summary
Posted by claudiolassala in Virtual Brown Bag on October 1, 2020
September was another month with great Virtual Brown Bag meetings: large variety of topics and great conversations!
Join us every Thursday, 12-1pm Central Time.
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September 24th, 2020
Cypress.io, Trust (the struggle is real… how to build trust?), OSS maintainers and leadership, Blazor.
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September 17th, 2020
Xamarin, React, state management, data migration and source control, Surface Laptop, job interviews, DB natural IDs, managerreadme.com
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September 10th, 2020
Mmhmm (making it for better virtual meetings), TypeScript, Swagger, Express.
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September 3rd, 2020
Main smartphone apps we use, discussion on technical writing, top-level functions vs classes, Python.
Virtual Brown Bag: August 2020 Summary
Posted by claudiolassala in Virtual Brown Bag on September 4, 2020
The weekly Virtual Brown Bag meetings keep going strong. August was filled with great discussions.
Check it out, and also consider joining us, every Thursday at 12-1pm Central Time! www.VirtualBrownBag.com
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August 27th, 2020
Houston Tech Fest, 3D-printed masks, Code Metrics (messy code), George’s architectural talk and new talk on “computer pioneers you should now about” https://medium.com/a-computer-of-ones-own
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August 20th, 2020
We talked about job searching, code challenges, job interviews, being manager or leaders and how to apply for such job. We wrapped things up with a quick discussion about “Human Code Reviews”.
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August 13th, 2020
Great discussion on books that all software developers should read. Also some talk about this post: “It’s probably time to stop recommending Clean Code”. And to close the meeting of, some geeking out with a Python FizzBuzz implementation.
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August 6th, 2020
Topics we discussed: looking for a job, helping out others, RocketBook, Replacing Jasmine with Jest on Angular projects, test style, Jest Custom Matchers, https://questions.wizardzines.com/
Virtual Brown Bag: July 2020 Summary
Posted by claudiolassala in Virtual Brown Bag on August 3, 2020
Tons of great conversations at the Virtual Brown Bag weekly meetings in July. Check it out, and also consider joining us, every Thursday at 12-1pm Central Time! www.VirtualBrownBag.com
Our bud Tony shared his experiences learning React. We discussed a little about React vs Angular vs Vue. Then we talked abou Story Mapping and Impact Mapping. And last but not least, we had a conversation generated by asking folks on the call the following questions: 1. As a developer, what’s most important to you? 2. What does “being a great developer” mean to you? Why?
July 9th:
We’ve had a great conversation about communication challenges and techniques, including how to communicate through code, spoken language, Improv techniques, etc.
July 16th:
George had a question about C#, Generics, Reflection, which then led us to a TypeScript discussion, interface vs class, etc. Alper gave us a mini-presentation on Distributed Systems Design Principles: Lessons Learned from Udi’s class
July 23rd:
This week we talked about estimation techniques for projects, as well as API documentation.
July 30th:
Great conversation that included an F# project using F# Dapper and Fable React (an F# solution for Server Side Rendering), DSL in F#, Farmer, difficulties learning React, the history of CSS…
Virtual Brown Bag: June 2020 Summary
Posted by claudiolassala in Virtual Brown Bag on July 2, 2020
June was another month filled with Virtual Brown Bag meetings every Thursday. Lots of great discussions on a variety of topics. Here’s a summary and links to the videos. Enjoy!
June 4:
We talked about a bunch of stuff this week! Books, Connecting, F# Conf, WebForm/WinForm, Android crash, Racket, FizzBuzz, The QA’s Role in a Scrum Team. George brought up discussion on resumes and interviews It sparked many comments. We’ll bring it back next week. We have even mentioned FoxPro. 🙂
June 11:
Great chat about resumes! We’ve lost the 2nd half of the discussion due to technical issues, but still, there’s good content in here.
June 18:
We’ve continued our conversation from last week, talked a little more about resumes, and also job interviews, developer challenges, etc.
June 25:
We talked about upcoming free virtual events, Claudio’s “Trusting IT” call for feedback, the “Badass – Making Users Awesome” book, George’s code challenges, using generators, threading/pipeline operator, and the Rocketbook.
Virtual Brown Bag: May 2020 Summary
Posted by claudiolassala in Virtual Brown Bag on June 1, 2020
Lots of goodies shared at the Virtual Brown Bag during the month of May. Here’s a summary (with links to the videos):
May 7: Talks on managing interruptions, Pomodoro Technique, finding opportunities and leveraging them, trust in IT, importance of tests, and a couple more miscellaneous things!
May 14: We talked about Udi Dahan’s Advanced Distributed Systems Design course, C#’s new feature: source generators, Security standards and considerations, Node and NPM, Tribes of Programmers, and some miscellaneous things, as usual
May 21: Arrange-Act-Assert, Given-When-Then, When-When-Then, Refining user stories, Righting Software (book), Architectural book, Software Architecture youtube channel, Google.dev, Azure App Service Static Apps with Svelte + Sapper, Top-Level Programs in C#9
May 28: George’s “challenges”: https://github.com/togakangaroo/daily, https://orgmode.org/, emacs, Org Babel
Looking forward to seeing what April brings us!
Virtual Brown Bag on Feb 2, 2016
Posted by claudiolassala in Virtual Brown Bag on February 9, 2016
Last week both George an I couldn’t make it to the VBB, but JB came through and shared more of his Earlang, Elixir and Phoenix love. The video is up and running so you can catch up (I just did!):
Some thoughts on the Virtual Brown Bag meeting for October 14th 2010
Posted by claudiolassala in Software Development, Virtual Brown Bag on October 14, 2010
Another Thursday, another fun Virtual Brown Bag. JB shared some more Rails/Heroku love today, and how he’s implemented the registration/login feature of http://www.virtualbrownbag.com. The more I hear and see things about Rails/Heroku, the more I like it. I need to find me some time to start messing with those things.
We had a special request from Mark, one of our frequent VBBers: he wanted to see a little example of MVVM, and maybe have a little talk on MVC.
I showed a very simplistic sample of a WPF app, where we started with having most of the code in a code-behind for a window, and then moving the code out into a ViewModel. We’ve covered the core differences between MVC (Model-View-Controller), MVP (Model-View-Presenter), and MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel, or also known as Presentation Model). The idea bein g that they’re all “presentation patterns”, aimed to better structure the code that sits closer to the User Interface.
![CL[4]](https://claudiolassala.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/cl4.jpg "CL[4]")
So why so many different patterns just for that? Well, each one has a slight different structure to cater for the scenario have at hand. In MVP, the Presenter takes care of providing behavior to the View. The View does nothing more than delegating things to the Presenter. This allows the Presenter to be reused independently of the View, and it’s also testable.
In MVVM, the ViewModel gives shape to the data coming from the Model, tailoring it to the View needs. For instance, the Model may have separate properties for Address, City, State, whereas the View calls for just a single property representing the Full Address; the ViewModel will handle just massaging of the data. ViewModels fit in nicely with WPF/Silverlight due to their data binding features.
In MVC, the Controller is usually the one responsible for executing behavior, and in web applications the Controller is usually the point of entry for the user to execute operations: when the user either enters a URL in the browser directly, or clicks something on the page that sends a request to the server, there’s a Controller intercepts the call and takes the appropriate action.
ViewModels are commonly used in MVC applications as well, but different than in WPF/Silverlight applications, they only provide the “data reshaping” aspect of it.
Even on a MVVM WPF/Silverlight application you may find “Controllers”, usually helping out with the way the application flows through menus and screens.
MVP is usually the best bet for WinForms and WebForms applications. So why not use MVVM in a WinForms application? Because MVVM leverages the WPF/Silverlight data binding capabilities, which in WinForms aren’t that great.
As with all design patterns, there isn’t one presentation pattern that’s the silver bullet to all applications. Depending on context, requirements, etc., a single application may mix and match these patterns: have a Login screen implemented using MVP, whereas an order placement screen may be implemented using MVVP, whereas a more complex composite screen may be using MVVM with a Controller added to handle the flow between the different parts of the screen.
This post isn’t supposed to be nothing more than a brain dump as to what we’ve discussed at the Virtual Brown Bag this week. Please make sure to take the time and go do some research and experimentation on your own.
Some thoughts on the Virtual Brown Bag meeting for October 7th 2010
Posted by claudiolassala in Software Development, Virtual Brown Bag on October 12, 2010
I’ve enjoyed Scott Hanselman’s “two must have tools for readable web” post, and have been following that kind of workflow for sometime now. I’ve tried Instapaper, but decided to just stick with Evernote for that as well. I use the Readability bookmarklet to get rid of the noise, and send the whole page to Evernote. I then apply a “read later” tag to it, and usually read things later on on my iPad.
I’ve incorporated Posh-Hg in my setup. It gives nice tab completion in Powershell for the Mercurial commands, and it also customizes the command prompt to display some useful information (such as what branch I’m currently on, how many files added/changed/deleted, etc.)
Favorite Things, according to the VBBers
I asked attendees about their favorites things they’ve either learned or shared at the Virtual Brown Bag. This is the kind of things I got:
- Productivity Tools (we’ve covered a good number of tips and tricks overtime on tools such as CodeRush, ReSharper, Executor, etc., and we’re certainly going to continue doing so).
- Feeling I’m on the right track with development
- Knowing I’m not alone in my questions concerning development
- I appreciate the help of those of us less experienced in development (great, we’ll certainly continue covering things for all levels)
- Git
- Rails
- Pomodoro Technique
- LINQ tips and tricks, like the .Any(x => x.Condition) instead of the .Count(x => x.Condition) > 0
- I love what you did replacing a switch using a Dictionary<DayOfWeek.Action>
Things that I’ve personally learned/enjoyed since we started:
- How people step up and help us keep the VBB’s going:
- Zach Young: who allowed us to use the Virtual Alt.Net LiveMeeting room to host the VBB, as well as processing the recordings, posting it to Viddler, and listing it at the VAN site.
- JB: who’s helped out being the host several times when I couldn’t make it (usually because I’m travelling). Not to mention the tons of things he’s shared, besides bringing www.VirtualBrownBag.com to life.
- Ed Evans: who’s taken the initiative to create a wiki page for the VBB
- Jared Lobberecht: who’s stepped up and automated the process of processing the videos, so they become available online just a few hours after the meeting has ended.
- Brian Shroer: who’s been updating the wiki live during meetings, with timestamps, notes, links, etc.
- At one of the VBB’s over a year ago, I was showing SlickRun, and then somebody showed Executor, which I’ve switched to and can’t live without.
- A few weeks ago, somebody asked me if I could do an intro to Mercurial/Branch by Feature. That was fun. Even though I’m a total beginner with Mercurial, I think I was able to do it, which proves the point that Mercurial is such an easy source control system to use.
- Sharing both Evernote and the Pomodoro Technique have been fun for me, and I’ve noticed people on Twitter talking about it, so that’s great.
The Live Virtual Brown Bag session at the Houston TechFest 2010 was well attended, and I hope we’ll be getting more and more attendees every week now. At the TechFest we’ve launched t he official site for the Virtual Brown Bag, containing information on what the VBB is all about, links to the Wiki and Recordings, and a place for people to post their suggestions on things we could talk about. Make sure to check it out!
Material from Houston TechFest 2010
Posted by claudiolassala in Presentations, Software Development, Virtual Brown Bag on October 9, 2010
I’ve had a great time presenting at Houston TechFest 2010. The sessions I’ve paired with JB and George went really well, and the Virtual Brown Bag session worked out great. Thanks everybody who attended to those sessions.
We’d really appreciate if you could take a minute or two and rate the sessions, along with giving us some feedback, so we can improve them in the future. You’ll find the material to be downloaded at those links too!
Synchronized Development for Distributed Teams
Tips and Trips to Boost Productivity
And now I’m off to go see Nevermore (my favorite metal band) here in Houston! 🙂
Claudio Lassala's Blog 