The UK .NET Community continues it's alternative game of Risk using the UK as the map of the world. In the beginning there was Coventry and Birmingham. Both had just 2 armies and the mighty VBUG covered the whole land. But the mighty VBUG squandered its armies and first Oxford and then Cambridge fell and the writing was on the wall. With its back to the wall VBUG had a change of management and started the fight back. But it was too late. Southampton was next and most recently it is Hereford's turn to be seduced by the dark side. So far NxtGen are being contained in the Midlands and South with the land to the South West forming a mighty and seemingly impenetrable wall against the onslaught. But what of the North ? Spies recently uncovered a secret NxtGen document detailing invasion assimilation recruitment plans for Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. Stay tuned for more as-it-happens updates on the war effort and the fight of the free world to stop us all from becoming enslaved to the monthly fees of membership.

On a lighter note the first Hereford meeting is on Monday 16th March 2009 at the Shire Hall in Union Street and will feature Dave McMahon giving an intro to becoming a NxtGen drone being part of the NxtGen family and I will be giving a presentation on:-

• Visual Studio 2008 IDE Tips and Tricks
  Visual Studio is a treasure trove of functionality and productivity. The problem is that many developers don't know what's there. In this session we will cover some simple and not so simple tips and tricks and improve your productivity and enjoyment of Visual Studio. The majority of tips and tricks are common to both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.

See you there.

DevWeek this year is on between the 23rd and 27th March 2009 at the Barbican Centre in London. I'll be presenting a number of sessions there:-

• Microsoft Source Analysis (or How To Start A Fight)
  In May 2008 Microsoft finally released Source Analysis (aka StyleCop). Source Analysis does for C# source code what FxCop does for assemblies ? it applies ?good practice? rules to your source code. This means all those controversial code beauty issues like spaces, where to put curly braces, how and when to use blank lines and over 200 similar rules. This session gets you started using Source Analysis, investigates a selection of rules, shows how to integrate Source Analysis into Visual Studio and your build process and finally shows how to write your own custom rules. This is a low tech session on an essential tool that all C# developers should be using.
• Automating Testing With Virtual Server
  Virtual Server 2005 is a free virtualization download from Microsoft. It allows you to run and maintain multiple virtual machines running different Microsoft operating systems in different configurations. Virtual Machines allow you to test your software in different configurations without the need for buying and maintaining separate physical machines. Virtual Server 2005 includes an API for programmatically controlling these virtual machines. This session describes this API and shows you how to use it to run automated tests on multiple platforms.
• Visual Studio 2008 IDE Tips and Tricks
  Visual Studio is a treasure trove of functionality and productivity. The problem is that many developers don?t know what?s there. In this session we will cover some simple and not so simple tips and tricks and improve your productivity and enjoyment of Visual Studio. The majority of tips and tricks are common to both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.
• Internationalizing WPF And Silverlight Applications
  The .NET Framework has supported internationalization since 1.0 but with each new UI platform comes a new approach and new challenges. Unlike Windows Forms and ASP.NET, WPF does not offer one standard solution to localization. Instead it offers choices. This session shows how to localize WPF applications using standard .resx files and how to localize ?post-build? using LocBaml with and without Resource Dictionaries. In addition you will see how to localize a Silverlight application using .resx files and we will consider issues that are specific to Silverlight. We will evaluate the pros and cons of each approach and arm you with the information required to form a localization strategy for your applications.

The early bird price is still available until 27th February 2009 and there's the usual list of fabulous speakers including Aaron Skonnard, Fritz Onion, Tim Ewald, Dave Wheeler, Mike Taulty, Eric Nelson, Mike Ormond and Neal Ford so book it now and I'll see you there.