We had a great meeting and were very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear Michael Nygard present to us. He spoke to us on “Failure Comes in Flavors”, a topic derived from his book, Release It! Design and Develop Production-Ready Software. It was a long session, around 3 hours, but was extremely informative and one of the best talks we’ve had to date.
Stay tuned for some more great speakers - I have some deals in the works…
We are proud and excited to announce that Michael Nygard will be presenting to the Java Users Group at 6:00 pm on August 27th, 2008. Michael is the acclaimed author of Release It! and Java Developer’s Reference. He will be giving a two part talk on “Failure Comes in Flavors“, a topic derived from his book, Release It!. Please note that this is a language agnostic topic - all language enthusiasts are encouraged to attend!
We will be giving away 10 copies of Release It! and, as always, we will have refreshments and snacks.
If you are going to be in Charleston or wish to make the trip, I strongly encourage you to join us as this is a great opportunity to hear an industry expert in person.
A couple important announcements:
Our last meeting went great! Bryan Gilbert gave a talk on Struts 2. We have shifted the balance of members so that it is now only about 50% Benefitfocus employees with the rest being from Automated Trading Desk, Blackbaud, and others. This is a great thing and shows that we are really starting to grow throughout the community!
During the last meeting I announced a couple important things:
1. The group project is now off the table unless someone steps up and takes the lead on it. I don’t have time to manage a group project and the JUG so if this is something the group is really wanting then we need to find someone to lead it. Unless I hear something from one of the members the idea will die here.
2. The bulletin board is going away. Nobody uses it so I see little point in me trying to maintain it.
I’ll have some more exciting info about the group very soon. Stay tuned!
Our next meeting will be July 30th, 2008 at 6pm at Benefitfocus.
Our speaker will be Bryan Gilbert, and he will be presenting on Struts 2.
Also on the agenda, we need to discuss a project for the group. People at the inaugural meeting indicated that they were interested in working on a group project but we never got anything moving on this. If you have ideas bring them. We will also be looking for someone to volunteer to head up the initiative. (Still)
Here is a modified version of Google maps with directions to us. The address is 100 Benefitfocus Way, Charleston SC, 29492. This link will allow you to enter the address you are coming from. Please note: If you head north on River Landing Drive and miss the turn for Fairchild Street you will find yourself on the interstate and will have to go all the way to the edge of Mt. Pleasant to turn around.
If you are planning on attending please RSVP by visiting our bulletin board and going into the RSVP forum. There will be a post for each meeting so that we can get a head count and list out any volunteers to bring refreshments. We still have some SWAG left over from the first meeting, so be sure and stop by to get yours.
Should you have questions, comments, concerns feel free to call me at 843-849-7476. You will get the receptionist - just as for Jason McDonald.
We had a great meeting last night on an introduction to Grails. We continue to increase our use base from month to month, which is a great thing and will help us to get more prominent speakers.
For those interested, you can get a copy of the presentation, the sample application, and a step by step guide to building the sample app on my website.
Finally, I need help from the group with two things:
1. The group has indicated that we should work on a project. I need someone to step forward to head this up. This can be as involved or detached as you wish as long as you are able to do the leg work behind getting everything up and running.
2. I need feedback on the site, forum, mailing lists, and more. I want our communications to be as effective as possible, so please contact me with your thoughts.
Our next meeting will be June 25th, 2008 at 6pm at Benefitfocus.
Our speaker will be me, Jason McDonald, and I will be presenting on Grails. This presentation will cover the basics of Grails, what it is, why it is useful, how to use it, and a sample application.
Also on the agenda, we need to discuss a project for the group. People at the inaugural meeting indicated that they were interested in working on a group project but we never got anything moving on this. If you have ideas bring them. We will also be looking for someone to volunteer to head up the initiative.
Here is a modified version of Google maps with directions to us. The address is 100 Benefitfocus Way, Charleston SC, 29492. This link will allow you to enter the address you are coming from. Please note: If you head north on River Landing Drive and miss the turn for Fairchild Street you will find yourself on the interstate and will have to go all the way to the edge of Mt. Pleasant to turn around.
If you are planning on attending please RSVP by visiting our bulletin board and going into the RSVP forum. There will be a post for each meeting so that we can get a head count and list out any volunteers to bring refreshments. We still have some SWAG left over from the first meeting, so be sure and stop by to get yours.
Should you have questions, comments, concerns feel free to call me at 843-849-7476. You will get the receptionist - just as for Jason McDonald.
We had our second users group meeting last night and had a small but great event. We had Chuck Peterson and Mark dos Santos from BEA join us and talk about virtualization, how it affects java applications, and some of their solutions for improving it. While it was a sales presentation, it was a highly technical one, chock full of interesting information about how virtualization works, how it interacts with the JVM, common problems with it, and ways of eeking quite a bit more performance out of it.
I blame myself for the small turnout. There was an event at my work that conflicted that I was unaware of and I didn’t do a great job of championing this meetings due to my new baby and my recent injury. I plan on doing a better job next time.
So along these lines, here’s what I am looking for in the community:
1. Someone to help champion the group and get the word out
2. Someone to help find corporate sponsors to fund meetings.
This can be two different people or the same person and you can devote as much or as little time as you want. If you are interested, contact me.
P.S. Thanks again for coming to speak with us, Chuck and Mark.
Our next meeting will be May 21st, 2008 at 6pm at Benefitfocus.
Our speakers will be Chuck Peterson and Mark DeSantos, from BEA. They will be presenting on Weblogic Virtual Edition and the JRockit JVM. For those of you who work with me (which is most of the attendees so far), this should be an interesting topic as we already rely heavily on BEA products.
Here is a modified version of Google maps with directions to us. The address is 100 Benefitfocus Way, Charleston SC, 29492. This link will allow you to enter the address you are coming from. Please note: If you head north on River Landing Drive and miss the turn for Fairchild Street you will find yourself on the interstate and will have to go all the way to the edge of Mt. Pleasant to turn around.
If you are planning on attending please RSVP by visiting our bulletin board and going into the RSVP forum. There will be a post for each meeting so that we can get a head count and list out any volunteers to bring refreshments. We still have some SWAG left over from the first meeting, so be sure and stop by to get yours.
Should you have questions, comments, concerns feel free to call me at 843-849-7476. You will get the receptionist - just as for Jason McDonald.
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No Fluff Just Stuff has also donated a ticket to their upcoming event in Raleigh, NC, an $800 value! The winner will be chosen from the attendees so make sure you’re there!
I am having a lot of trouble finding speakers for our next meeting and haven’t had time to prepare something myself. If anyone knows of any speakers that will be available, please contact me.
I will post again soon with information regarding the next meeting.