Friday 29 May 2009

6th June Sheffield Linux Users Group (ShefLUG)

Meetings are free and open to anyone to attend

Saturday 6th June 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

For the past two years we have held meetings at Starbucks coffee shop
at Western Bank next to the University. We thought that our June
meeting might go down well at the Walkley Cottage. The address is...

Walkley Cottage Inn
46 Bole Hill Rd
Sheffield, S6 5DD
0114 234 4968

http://www.walkleycottage.co.uk/

If you don't have a car then you might like to know that the No: 94
and 95 buses run from High Street and Church Street (across from the
Cathedral) through the city centre to the pub. This is a frequent bus
service every 10 to 15 minutes during the day. Call 01709 515151 for
bus information. Use Google maps if you don't know where the Walkley
Cottage is. Tea and coffee is available. There is a good selection of
beers which are well looked after. Look out for someone sitting next
to an Hewlett-Packard penguin with a laptop in front of him.

http://www.sheflug.org.uk/meeting.html

The topic of the meeting will be a general discussion or we can fix
some hardware or software. If you need some help with that we can
most likely point you in the right direction. If you want to
know more about anything else come along and ask questions. We seem
to have a growing band of EeePC people who bring them along to
meetings. We also see other netbooks such as Acer, Dell and Elonex.
Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope and it's associated operating
systems have been released. We can discuss this release and how
to install it. Also any other version of GNU/Linux that you might
be interested in. Most people who come along to our meetings have
used most versions of GNU/Linux and the BSDs.

3 June Exposure Leeds #4 - The Technology Special!

Full details

Exposure Leeds is series of monthly events in a user-group format aimed at helping those serious about their photography to improve and develop.

This months' event will tie in with Leeds Web Festival, LSx09, and deliver a special technology focus. Because of this we are going to run the evening in a mini-photocamp format - with simultaneous workshop / presentations. Because of this I am asking for speakers / workshop leaders to volunteer to deliver sessions of a more 'technical nature'.

This could be more obvious computer/web-related issues such as...
- Flickr secrets (Greasemonkey, anyone?)
- Websites
- Photoshop
- HDR :-)
- Lightroom
- Capture NX or
- Photosynth

Or could be otherwise 'technical'; but whichever you choose - it should be easy to cover (you'll have 60-90 minutes) and would be best if those in the workshop can get involved. Do you have ideas? Think you can help? Have some technical passions? We may also run a new short session of 'my top tip' - if you have one you'd be happy to share then please let me know! There will be time given over for networking and socialising - including continuing the evening at a nearby hostelry. www.exposureleeds.org

3 June NW Hackspace - Liverpool

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2495877/ ]

Fortnightly meet-up at 7pm at FACT. Join the efforts to make a hackerspace where hacking and creativity can bloom. It's a start to getting together a crowd to open a North West Hackspace in Liverpool.

We're looking to create a hackerspace where anyone interested in technology, or digital or electronic art can meet, socialise and collaborate. Everyone is welcome, regardless of ability or experience. Sign up to the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/NW-hack-space & introduce yourself. If you're really shy, you could just follow announcements on http://Twitter.com/hsNW - or subscribe to the data feed for announcements from http://nwhackspace.wordpress.com/feed/ Want to know more about hackspaces? Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace

2nd June OpenCoffee Leeds {June}

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2750703/ ] If you're working in the creative or digital industries, we'd love you to come hang out, chat, demo or just network with others...usually around 20-25 people each month...sometimes more :)

OpenCoffee itself runs from 10am to noon, but Old Broadcasting House has an open house in the afternoon with plenty of hotdesks available for those who wish to work into the afternoon and stick around for the company :)

SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting Techniques

Leeds Area SQL Server User Group Meeting, Leeds - Wednesday 3rd June - Sponsored by Quest Software

End-to-End SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting – Iain Kick

When attempting to diagnose a problem in a SQL Server application, there's no right or wrong way to go about troubleshooting. However, certain techniques yield much better results when used for end-to-end troubleshooting.

This presentation will teach you the best practices for finding the root cause of a problem in a SQL Server application, correlating that root cause to a specific set of activities being performed on the server, and tuning the problem activity for maximum performance-all using the native SQL Server tools. We will then compare and contrast those techniques to Quest Software's performance management and query tuning tools. All examples and syntax are verified for Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

See http://www.sqlserverfaq.com/events/182/SQL-Server-Performance-Troubleshooting-Techniques-Sponsored-by-Quest-Software.aspx

Jun 03 End-to-End SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting by Iain Kick of Quest

This presentation will teach you the best practices for finding the
root cause of a problem in a SQL Server application, correlating that
root cause to a specific set of activities being performed on the
server, and tuning the problem activity for maximum performance-all
using the native SQL Server tools. We will then compare and contrast
those techniques to Quest Software's performance management and query
tuning tools. All examples and syntax are verified for Microsoft SQL
Server 2005.

For more details and registraton look at
http://www.sqlserverfaq.com/events/182/SQL-Server-Performance-Troubleshooting-Techniques-Sponsored-by-Quest-Software.aspx

June 10th AgileYorkshire@ThePub - Slim, The Future Of FitNesse,

The next meeting of AgileYorkshire which is on the 10th June when we have Gojko Adzic coming to talk about Slim. Slim is the next step in the evolution of Fitness which itself was the de facto standard tool for executable specifications and agile acceptance testing.

See here for more details.

Note - 6:30 sharp start for this presentation.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

27th May North West England Perl Mongers - Manchester - Social meeting

This months North West England Perl Mongers social meeting is in
Manchester at The Salisbury pub next to Oxford Road station
(http://manchesterbars.wordpress.com/2006/11/16/the-salisbury/) Cask
ales and Perl will be consumed from around 19:00, though some people
might be there slightly earlier - look out for Pingu. Further details
along with directions can be found on the North West England Perl
Mongers web site (http://northwestengland.pm.org/meetings/005.html).

Remember, North West England Perl Mongers covers the largest
geographical area for any Perl Mongers group in the world! If you
want us to bring the camel and penguin to your area and you can
organise a venue, please do let me know. We're looking to organise
next months technical talks in the Manchester area and would
appreciate any assistance in finding a suitable venue (projector, bar
or close proximity to, room for twenty people?).

Tuesday 19 May 2009

23rd May Howduino

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2126491/ ]

Howduino is a free, one day event about connecting the internet to the real world, breathing life into inanimate objects and creating new ways to interact with things. It's for artists, programmers, designers, hobbyists and anyone else interested in robotics, technology, communication and interaction.

The event was initially inspired by the Arduino platform, a cheap and easy way to introduce intelligence into objects. The focus of the talks and support will be on using Arduino, but don't let this limit your imagination. All platforms and tecnnologies are welcome.

Where: FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) @ 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, England L1 4D UK

21st May NWDUG May Meet-up

This month's Drupal meeting is on Thursday, 21st May from 6pm at
Manchester University's Samuel Alexander building, off Oxford Road.
See http://groups.drupal.org/node/22287 for directions.

Whether you're a long time Drupal developer or just starting out,
you're more than welcome.
Expect plenty of discussion about the upcoming DrupalCampUK [1] this
month!

[1] http://drupalcamp.org.uk

2nth May, NW Hackspace - Liverpool

Full details
Fortnightly meet-up at 7pm at FACT. Join the efforts to make a hackerspace where hacking and creativity can bloom. It's a start to getting together a crowd to open a North West Hackspace in Liverpool.

We're looking to create a hackerspace where anyone interested in technology, or digital or electronic art can meet, socialise and collaborate.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of ability or experience. Sign up to the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/NW-hack-space & introduce yourself. If you're really shy, you could just follow announcements on http://Twitter.com/hsNW - or subscribe to the data feed for announcements from http://nwhackspace.wordpress.com/feed/ Want to know more about hackspaces? Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace

May 20 GeekUp Leeds

Full details

We have an action-packed schedule this month with three very cool 20:20s:
* "Creating iPhone apps with PhoneGap" - Clare Lindley
* "What your BIG-IP can do for you" - Phil Helliwell
* "Hack Spaces, and why having one in Leeds will be awesome" - Jonathan "Squigfried" Powell

What is GeekUp?

GeekUp is a community of web designers, web developers, and other tech-minded folk from the North. Our socials take place once a month in Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Preston and Manchester and are always a lively place to share ideas and spread a little knowledge. GeekUp Leeds takes place every third Wednesday of the month.

Who can attend GeekUp?

While the focus for GeekUp is predominately web related anybody involved in the technology industry is more than welcome to attend a GeekUp. The monthly events are free, we just ask that you buy your own beer.

Where?
The Lounge @ St. Johns House, Merrion St, Leeds, England LS2 8JE UK

Thursday 14 May 2009

21st May NWRUG Going for a Ruby

21st May Going for a Ruby

No talks this month, we’re taking a short break though talks should be back on next month. Feel free to bring a laptop and anything ruby or just turn up and have a beer and a chat. Thursdays is always Curry night at The Paramount and the food is pretty good.

Schedule

18:30 :: Social meeting in The Paramount

Sign Up

If you want more information email nwrug@willj.net You can sign up on the Upcoming event page if you want, but it’s not necessary.

Location
This meeting is being held at one of our regular venues, The Paramount pub on Oxford Street in central Manchester (Directions). If you get lost call Will on 07939 547 962

Monday May 18 GeekUp Preston

Monday May 18, 2009 at 7:00pm
Forum Bar
17 Winckley Street
Preston, England PR1 2AA Get Directions
We're going to be discussing and planning Barcamp Blackpool!!!

There will be the usual socialising, chatting about new technology, techniques and non-geeky stuff in addition to cake and booze (buy your own!)

Sign up

You'll find us sat upstairs
Website:

Wednesday 13 May 2009

May 18th Dojo In Manchester

If you are working with - or just curious about - the Dojo Toolkit
(http://dojotoolkit.org), please join us next week:

May 18th in Manchester, 6pm @ Code Computerlove:
http://dojomanchester.eventbrite.com/

It'll be myself and Dylan presenting a short talk on building great
apps with Dojo. Dylan is a dojotoolkit co-founder, runs the
cometdaily.com site and CEO/Founder of Sitepen Inc.

We're being hosted by Code Computerlove Ltd to whom we're enormously
grateful. I'd love to meet up with anyone dojo-curious in the area, or
wanting to talk javascript/ajax, in whatever shape and form you like
it. Following the talk, we'll adjourn to a pub for a jar or 2.

If you fancy stepping out but have no clue what Dojo is... Dojo is an
100% opensource javascript toolkit, in the family of YUI, jQuery etc.
It provides a fast, extendable and highly useful api for building
responsive web UIs, with a package system, animation system,
standardized api for data retrieval, powerful and accessible UI
widgets, cross-browser charting, and lots more. Dojo is
server/framework agnostic, but has been adopted and integrated with
the Zend Framework, Django among RoR among others. Its also seeing a
lot of use on the Adobe AIR platform, and finding a niche with rich
mobile apps via phonegap

If you plan on coming please register w. eventbrite (its free), but
also feel free to just drop in, or follow dylans or samfosteriam on
twitter for updates on where we're at.

19th May Manchester Free Software Talk - Steven Flower, Plings (Places to Go, Things to Do)

Talk
------
Substance, a local cooperative, are working to free local government
and other data so that the information can get to the people who
really need it. The project is called Plings [1] and Steven Flower
will be talking about about their experiences over the past two years
and their plans for the next two years. Free software and freedom of
data are the goals - but they have to jump through and negotiate a few
hoops along the way!

Location
----------
The meeting will take place at the usual time, 7pm, at the Lass O'
Gowrie pub on Charles Street in Central Manchester. We will be located
in the back room on the ground floor. As normal, there will be people
around a little earlier (probably sampling the food and drinks on
offer). Their website[2] has full details of how to get there and the
fine selection of food and drink on offer.

General information about Manchester Free Software meetings can be
found on our website[3].

If you would like five minutes to tell us about something, please
contact us at .


[1]: http://www.plings.co.uk/
[2]: http://www.thelass.co.uk/
[3]: http://manchester.fsuk.org/blog/meetings/

13th May Agile Yorkshire - Ralph Williams: Exploratory Testing

Details

In this session, Ralph will provide an overview of some techniques that bring Agility into the world of testing. (The world of testing is a strange place: regarded by most people as a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there, it is an unmapped wilderness where the waterfall methodology still roams unfettered.)

The main focus will be on one such technique, Exploratory Testing. It is defined by many as "simultaneous learning, test design and test execution", but Ralph will attempt to be more helpful. After the presentation many of you will claim this is what you have been doing all along, but now it has a fancy name you can use it without shame and companies can sell you high-priced consultancy in it.

Speaker

Ralph Williams is a Test Consultant at the Yorkshire Building Society, based in Bradford. The Society develops much of the application software used throughout its 140 branches and offices, and Ralph is responsible for managing the testing for some of these systems. He has previously worked in various management, testing and development roles at Erudine, Wanadoo and British Telecom, and specialises in Agile Testing and chocolate.

Tuesday 12 May 2009

4th June Manchester Girl Geek Dinner 3

When:
4th June 2009 at 7pm

Where:
Old Abbey Inn
Manchester Science Park
61 Pencroft Way
Manchester, Manchester M15 6AY
United Kingdom

What:
Girl Geek Dinners are organised all over the world. They are great fun
and provide a welcoming atmosphere for women to talk about technology
in an informal environment. A Girl Geek is simply a female with a
strong interest and passion in a subject (in this case Science,
Engineering and Technology). You don't have to work in a technical
role to come along. Just be prepared to enjoy some great food, drinks,
atmosphere and to meet some fantastic, engaging and like-minded
ladies!

Talks:
We have a talk by Lesley Allger! Come and listen to the experiences of
an older girl geek who has worked for nearly 30 years in BAE SYSTEMS.
Give her some inspiration to make the final 15 years as exciting and
rewarding!
I'm also pleased to welcome Dominic Hodgson from North Hub who will be
introducing us to all the technical events in the north.

Who can attend?
Any lady who wants to come along to a great evening of food, drinks,
fab atmosphere and the chance to socialise with other inspirational
ladies! Even though the event is for women, men are very welcome to
come along, as long as they are invited by a girl geek! This is to try
and keep the numbers even.

Details:
Sponsored by BAE Systems, there is a charge of £5 which includes a
drink and a BBQ at the lovely Old Abbey Inn in Manchester's Science
Park (http://eweri.com/Jm0 ). There's plenty of
free parking around the venue and it's not far from Oxford Road (taxis
will cost you a few quid or there's lots of buses to drop you off
outside the University or Infirmary).

I hope with this event we can introduce you to some more interesting
events and people in the area.

Tickets are available for £5 here:http://manchesterggd.eventbrite.com/

For more information visit the
websitewww.manchestergirlgeekdinners.co.uk/
follow us on twitter @mancggd, read our blog:http://
mancggd.wordpress.com

Thursday 7 May 2009

May 12th GeekUp Manchester

Details for next Tuesday's GeekUp Manchester: http://geekup.org/events/130/

When
6:00 PM Tuesday May 12th, 2009

Where
Revolution Deansgate, Deansgate Locks, Whitworth St, Manchester M1 5LH

Google Map: http://is.gd/2cLX
Extended Google Map: http://is.gd/2cL0

Description
We have a private area (The Lounge) reserved at the rear right of the
venue, just ask at the bar and they'll direct you.

Attending?
Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2415589/

Wednesday 6 May 2009

28th May UKNOF13

http://www.uknof.org.uk/

Registration is now open for our next
meeting, UKNOF13, which will be held in Sheffield on Thursday 28th
May.

This is being sponsored by regional development agency
Yorkshire Forward ,
at the Electric Works .

We are still finalizing the agenda, but it will include talks
on the IWF/Wikipedia incident, DNSSEC, Quagga, and Internet growth
data.
For the regular Internet history slot, we are very pleased to confirm
Postel award winner Daniel Karrenberg will be speaking.

We still have room for some additional presentations, please let the
PC know ASAP (most of us will be approachable at the RIPE meeting next
week) if you'd like to give or suggest one.

If you are planning to attend, please can you register for the meeting
as early as possible at:

http://www.uknof.org.uk/uknof13/regform.php

We have arranged discounted accommodation with the nearby Mercure,
Novotel, and Best Western hotels for the nights before and after the
meeting, if you wish to take advantage of this they need to be
booked by phone by the 11th May, using the code "2705UKN".

Note that we are planning connectivity at and a webcast from the event
once again. As we had nearly as many people attending by webcast last
time as in person, for the first time we are asking remote attendees
to
also register. This carries no obligation other than to help us get a
handle on numbers, please check the relevant "webcast" box on the
registration form.

We are also still open to a second sponsor for this meeting and/or
any social event afterwards - please get in touch if your organisation
is interested in contributing.

Girl Geek Dinner {Leeds}

Full details

Part of this month's LSx - The Leeds Web Festival (http://lsx.dotnorth.org), the evening's speakers will include:
* Reshma Sohoni, CEO of Seedcamp (http://www.seedcamp.com) a pan-European seed fund for technology entrepreneurs. Reshma's previous roles included venture investments at 3i and Softbank, as well as Vodafone's commercial strategy team.

* Jennifer O'Grady, founder of Democracy PR (http://www.democracypr.com/), a new agency created to blend traditional PR skills with social media opportunities. Jen will be speaking about the personal PR skills needed to manage your own personal profile online,

For just £15, you can enjoy some drinks, nibbles and the chance to hang out with the city's brightest creatives, technologists, programmers, entrepreneurs, marketeers, PR professionals and creative/digital girls - oh, and some boys too :)

8th May, GeekUp East Coast

Full details

What is GeekUp?

GeekUp is a community of web designers, web developers, and other tech-minded folk from the UK. It's a grassroots knowledge sharing and networking social for folks involved or interested in the web, design and technology industry. Monthly events take place in Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Sheffield.

GeekUp East Coast was created so that the Creative Types, Developers and Tech folks on the East side of the country had somewhere to get together without braving the Pennines! This is the Inaugural Event, and if it's successful, we'll do it some more.

Who can attend GeekUp? While the focus for GeekUp is predominately web related anybody involved in the technology / design industry is more than welcome to attend a GeekUp. The events are free, we just ask that you buy your own beer.

7th May, Yorkshire Digital Awards

Full details

Are you bowled over by some of the talent you have seen in the Yorkshire digital and creative sector? Perhaps you work in the sector itself, and feel the project you are working on at the moment, or the piece of technology you are developing, really needs wider attention. Even if you don't work directly in the industry, perhaps you have seen a mind-blowing website that establishes a new benchmark in quality, or a new digital equipment you think could really make a difference to our lives or the way we do business.

Whatever your situation, if you wonder why so many companies still seem to think they have to go to London for creative work done when so much excellent work goes on up here, then the Insider Yorkshire Digital Awards are for you. Whether you are in the industry or just an interested observer, we want to hear from you.

This successful awards programme, now in its tenth year, acknowledges and promotes digital companies in Yorkshire and the Humber who are really pushing the bar in creativity and technological prowess. There are clearly benefits to winnng too. Huddersfield-based Liquid Accounts, for example, won the Best Application of Internet Technology category in 2008.

May 13th, Agile Yorkshire Ralph Williams: Exploratory Testing

In this session, Ralph will provide an overview of some techniques that bring Agility into the world of testing. (The world of testing is a strange place: regarded by most people as a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there, it is an unmapped wilderness where the waterfall methodology still roams unfettered.)

The main focus will be on one such technique, Exploratory Testing. It is defined by many as "simultaneous learning, test design and test execution", but Ralph will attempt to be more helpful. After the presentation many of you will claim this is what you have been doing all along, but now it has a fancy name you can use it without shame and companies can sell you high-priced consultancy in it.
Speaker
Ralph Williams is a Test Consultant at the Yorkshire Building Society, based in Bradford. The Society develops much of the application software used throughout its 140 branches and offices, and Ralph is responsible for managing the testing for some of these systems. He has previously worked in various management, testing and development roles at Erudine, Wanadoo and British Telecom, and specialises in Agile Testing and chocolate.

Venue: Victoria Hotel, Central Leeds
Date/Time: Wednesday, 13th May, 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start.
More details: http://www.agileyorkshire.org/

Anyone welcome.

4th June Manchester Girl Geek Dinner

When:
4th June 2009 at 7pm

Where:
Old Abbey Inn
Manchester Science Park
61 Pencroft Way
Manchester, Manchester M15 6AY
United Kingdom

What:
The event is sponsored by BAE Systems, however to cover costs there is
a charge of £5 for tickets, which include a drink and a BBQ.
We have a talk by Lesley Allger, an employee at BAE Systems from 1980
working in all areas including manufacturing, software and finance.
She will be sharing her exciting career with us.
I'm also pleased to welcome Dominic Hodgson from North Hub (http://
www.northhub.co.uk/) who will be introducing us to all the technical
events in the north.

30th-31st May BarCamp Leeds

BarCamp Leeds is the city's third 'unconference', a event where the folks that attend create the programme of sessions themselves. BarCamps are open, participatory, democratic, 'workshop' events; the organisers and sponsors simply provide wireless broadband, a venue, beverages and food! The attendees provide the content - and the buzz :)

BarCamps are a great opportunity to network, lean and share...plus generally a lotta fun too. We're hoping our stack of Nintendo Wiis will break the ice and we know Old Broadcasting House will be a fun and inspiring venue.

We'd love for you to come - if you're a creative, an artist, a writer, blogger, technologist, or a developer, geek, entrepreneur, academic researcher, gamer or investor please join us. If you're just curious and interested in digital culture or social media - we'd love to meet you too :)

Come and demo, talk, share or just hang out!

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