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The ACM have several classic computer books available as downloadable PDF’s here. You will need to create a free web account if you are not already an ACM member.

We had another full Perth .NET user group presentation with speaker Nick Randolph last Thursday (Oct 4th) . Turnout was excellent, with 46 people (including a few latecomers), turning up to listen to Nick talk about the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2008. Here are a couple of photos:

Many thanks to Nick Randolph for delivering a great, demo packed session. Our next meeting is on Thursday, November 1st at the usual time of 5:30pm, with a session on WCF with Brian Madsen. I’ll have a few t-shirts and assorted goodies from RedGate to give out.

Thanks again to Excom for providing our monthly meeting venue.

Want a free, downloadable introduction to Ruby on Rails? Go here.

This excellent SQL Server resource can be found at SQL Server Best Practices, a collection of whitepapers, scripts and top ten lists for SQL Server 2005.

Eric Sink on the Business of Software is a selection of Eric’s essays from his website and blog. He explores the business concerns that programmers face in small software development shops and starting out on their own. Note: much of the material in this book is available online.

This relaxed, easy to read and sometimes offbeat book is a candid recollection of Eric’s successes and failures in starting his own Independent Software Vendor (ISV), SourceGear. Eric founded SourceGear, in his own words, “somewhat by accident”, and he relates the joys and pitfalls he experienced along the path of starting your own ISV.

I have read Eric’s blog for several years, and I have always enjoyed his insights and commentary on a diverse range of subject matter, usually with a software development or business angle. [for example, his series of posts on Source Control HowTo, especially the section on Branching and Merging].

He covers issues such as hiring staff, finances and marketing in a style aimed at programmers, interspersed with anecdotes and humor.

Eric is honest and right on the mark when he says “Don’t take anybody’s guidelines too seriously”, as what works for one person in one situation might not apply in another.
Chapter 4 “Finance for Geeks” was particularly interesting and contains basic accounting information you should be aware of if you are setting up a business venture.

It is often said that successful business people are those that learn from their mistakes, and in chapter 7, “Make More Mistakes”, Eric describes several examples where he has made a few ‘whoppers’ and learned from them the hard way! Admitting your own mistakes is not always easy, learning from them and moving on to something else is one of the traits that distinguish successful businesses from those that fail.

I particularly liked Eric’s ‘conversational’ writing style and his ability to weave ideas familiar to ‘geeks’ into the text, such as his NetHack analogy of the “Gauntlets of Fumbling”. If you have never played NetHack, I won’t try to explain…just Google it! Definitely worth reading.

Disclosure: The Perth .NET User Group is a member of the Apress User Group Program. Apress make copies of their books available for review, and the copy reviewed here was kindly donated by them

I’ve been thinking and posting about education the last few weeks and came across a good post, How to Self-Study for a Computer Programming Job, by non-other than Steve McConnell, with some interesting commentary.

“The Springer Computer Science Reading Room offers you free access to books and journals in your area of interest. ” You just have to register (took me 3o seconds)!

Nothing new! Just a few winforms FAQs:

George Shepherd’s Windows Forms FAQ

Windows Forms FAQs

Windows Forms Forums at MSDN

I recently posted a short list of links to mathematics resources that I’d come across. I was speaking to a colleague and he mentioned the MIT OpenCourseWare initiative, which I had not heard of:

This collection of lecture notes and examples is nothing short of amazing. It covers a whole range of university level courses, including mathematics.

Thanks to Leigh Mitsopoulos for making me aware of this resource.

Join us at the Perth .NET Users Group October 4th to hear Nick Randolph present on the upcoming version of Visual Studio 2008. In this session, Nick will cover some of the language changes, including Linq, extension methods, anonymous types and xml integration, as well as some of the rapid application development features. Nick is a Microsoft MVP, and currently the lead developer for Intilecta Corporation, an ISV innovating in the area of behavioral intelligence and data visualisation. More details here: Visual Studio 2008: Languages, Features and Frameworks with Nick Randolph

TOPIC: Visual Studio 2008 with Nick Randolph
DATE: 4th October, 5:30pm
VENUE: Excom, Level 2, 23 Barrack Street, Perth
COST: Free. All Welcome.

There will be a couple of (as yet unspecified) give aways! If you want to get a seat, try to arrive early. Also, don’t forget we have a weekly informal coffee meeting at “Tiger Tiger”, Tuesdays at 1:30pm in the city.