The PHINUG Blog

PHINUG at Heroes Happen {Here} Manila Launch

2008-04-15T02:56:00Z

A big thanks to those who participated in the Philippine Launch Wave of Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008. The event was a huge success not only for Microsoft Philippines but for the user groups who was present during the launch delivering mini-sessions as well as the breakout session. We had to change topic on the day prior the launch as our prepared topic was quite different from what was advertised. Our supposed topic was a Windows Presentation Foundation using Visual Studio 2008 but what was advertised was "Visual Studio 2008". Personally, I think that the topic is too technical for a launch event but I have decided to have this topic to be delivered in future events. Fortunately, we were able to get speakers from the core group of PHINUG: Jonjon Limjap on Language Enhancements for C# 3.0 and VB 9.0, Edu Lorenzo for LINQ and of course, yours truly for Windows Presentation Foundation.

The Speakers

Jonjon on his Language Enhancements talk

Edu on his LINQ talk

me, on WPF

I had to cut my time short in our breakout session due to time constraint but I do hope I was able to convey the message I am doing for WPF. I was supposed to tell a lot more about the technology and I look forward to a future event where I can deliver the whole WPF 3.5 talk to you guys. There were a lot of people who were interested with the new developer technologies and from students, professionals, business owners, we were able to at the least address their concerns on migrating, etc. Most of the things that we presented on stage are demos and if I'm not mistaken, we only have 5 slides on stage that includes the welcome and thank you messages.

Again, thank you to those who came, who dropped by our event, and I hope the group was able to help you out with your concerns.

The February Technical Sharing

2008-02-07T01:15:00Z

I would like to thank all the people who came in PHINUG's February Technical Sharing. I've seen again (perhaps) a large dropout rate for our Technical Sharing but nonetheless, I was able to grab some warm bodies, particularly students to attend our session. Perhaps, it was a blessing in disguise for the students that they have attended this session as we barely get imported speakers. (Bose? Lol!)

Our speaker is Engr. Edwin Sarmiento (Sorry dude, I have to put your title) and he was able to present the new things about ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. Aside from that, he was also able to relate how the topic can be used by students for their applications or thesis. The LINQ discussion was also great as he presented how LINQ statements translate to actual queries performed from the database server by using the SQL Server Profiler (he's using SQL Server 2000 for the demo).

Of course, there are some striking moments each participant won't forget as the term "DreamStudio" was coined up. New algorithms were also introduced such as the "C and P" algorithm followed by the "D and D" algorithm.

The event started quite late as we encountered some technical difficulties but I am pretty sure that the audience did enjoy the event. Again, thanks to all who came and we hope to see you more on our next Technical Sharing next month.

We're still rolling out changes to www.phinug.org but you can now sign-up for membership. Registration is free and get started at www.phinug.org/register.aspx.

For more pictures, you can view the gallery here.

The November Technical Sharing Experience

2007-12-10T09:46:00Z

The PHINUG November Technical Sharing last 28 November 2007 was graced by 12 PHINUG members and 2 Microsoft representatives. We only had 1 topic but the discussion went well as the speaker, Mr. Jacinto Limjap (Lattex in MSFORUMS), was able to get the attention of the audience on his discussion of C# 3.0 Language Enhancements through his "recipe".

(The speaker pointing out some changes presented in C# 3.0)

(The audience)

After the discussion and an on the spot random number generator coding, two books were raffled away: 3D Programming for Windows and Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (Thank You Microsoft PH DPE!) Honestly, we never knew that Microsoft would be giving away two books and 2 guys are really fortunate to have these books. While we were relatively short in number of participants, we intend to have more of this technical sharing in the future. With the upcoming elections of the new set of PHINUG officers, we can expect for more events for developers like this.

PHINUG Technical Sharing, for developers, by developers.

Volunteers Wanted

2007-11-21T16:20:00Z

For some of you who have attended at the least the last Technical Sharing, it was mentioned that one of the goals of the organization is to put up the updated version of the PHINUG website.

While I just thought that coding for the site, doing your job, managing the organization is a pretty manageable task, it seems like things are getting out of nowhere.

Because I love my current job and I don't want to lose it, I am looking for volunteers who will help me test and deploy the updated website. The site works fine in my machine but my machine is not your typical production server set-up so chances of "because this worked in my machine" occurences is possible. To cut things short, we will be working side by side to have this site deployed before the year ends.

Interested? Mail me at patrick.oliveros [hotmail].

PS: No friendster requests please. :)

After the October Technical Sharing

2007-10-26T01:56:00Z

Thank you to all people who appeared last night in PHINUG's October Technical Sharing. Despite ending up late in the evening, I hope you guys enjoyed the night and learned something from the event. Also, thank you to the Microsoft Philippines Developer and Platform Evangelism Group (DPE) for extending their support (for the food and the freebies) for the event.

For those who weren't there, we had 3 speakers: Michael Corpuz for Building Tiers for ASP.NET, Eduardo Lorenzo for Spiders - Building a SEO Compliant Website, and Warren Yu for Web Client Software Factories. I guess the lack of time for Mike Corpuz was the reason why he wasn't able to cover LINQ. Here are some photos from the event last night:

Michael Corpuz on Building Tiers for ASP.NET

Eduardo Lorenzo on Spiders - Building a SEO Compliant Website

and last, but not the least, Warren Yu for Web Client Software Factories

Again, we would like to thank everyone for participating in this event. We heard your feedbacks and comments through the forms you submitted last night. Of course, there would still be some 'birth pains' to speak of but we would be definitely improve our future events for your convenience.

Ad astra per aspera!

Alive and Kicking!

2007-10-09T05:26:00Z

Just when you thought we vanished through thin air, we're alive and kicking!

PHINUG will be having its October Technical Sharing on 24 October 2007 from 6pm-8pm. We're fortunate enough to be graced by two MVPs, and a Web Developer sharing to you some of the new/exciting things about the Web.

Spiders - Building an SEO Compliant Site
Speaker: Eduardo Lorenzo, Web Developer, OSRP-LLC

Building Tiers on ASP.NET/LINQ
Speaker: Michael Corpuz, Microsoft MVP: Visual Developer - Visual Basic

Web Client Software Factory
Speaker: Warren Yu, Microsoft MVP: Windows Server System - BizTalk Server

For more information, you can visit the thread discussion here. This event is free of charge however, sign-up is required for the participants. The event is open to all: students, professionals, and managers alike. We will be closing soon the registration as we are closely reaching the maximum possible participants.

Till the next blog!

Patrick Oliveros
VP Internals - PHINUG.

At the Biñan event

2006-04-11T17:32:00Z

PHINUG organized a seminar event last April 1 at AMA Biñan, Laguna. We invited some PHISSUG speakers for the event. We had Patrick for Web Dev in VS 2005, myself for Intro to .NET and Mike C. sharing SQL 2K5 Express. Then Rodel and Vanni gave some talks to a dozen or so participants for the professional session. We talked about C#, stored procedures, and tips on freelancing and career, sharing our personal insights (I enjoyed this part a lot.)

I had an awful sore throat which surfaced right after drinking C2, right before the start of the event! Somehow I managed to get through my talk, sounding very, very different. My voice got a teensy bit better later; I was already cracking some jokes at the end of the event.

Great stuff:

First off, Lawrence and Glory did a great job organizing the whole event. We had chairs, sound system, sponsored lunch from Pizza Hut, transpo, etc. Very good thing that Lawrence insisted on an entrance fee; the event wouldn't have been possible without all the spending.
The student volunteers at AMA were organized, helpful and very polite.
The talks, of course! Both for the regular session, and the one with the professionals. I think everyone prepared well and was able to express themselves in their distinct styles, with Patrick presenting like a DevDays pro, Mike talking with a gameshow-host-esque style that he's acquired from our MSNERDS events, Rodel going in-depth technical, Vanni dishing out the buzz in his unique relaxed manner, and myself lecturing while attempting Kuya Bodjie-level comprehension.
Express CD's c/o Microsoft. I think many people went home thinking about shelving DOTA for a while.

To improve:

Our target was 300 audience, we got only 200. Perhaps better estimation -- "drop-out rate" should be considered even for a paid event.
The venue could be better. It was a covered area on top of the building, and the sunlight couldn't be blocked off completely, so the projected image wasn't that visible. There wasn't a white screen to speak of, but good thing we were able to improvise a decent white backdrop.
Lawrence did try to get SM Sta. Rosa, but hearing it was a "Microsoft" event, they tried to charge us a 6-digit figure. I think this could have been cleared up but we ran out of time. So we should clarify up-front when we're dealing with other parties that the UG's are not a part of Microsoft per se.
Lugi ang PHINUG sa event na ito. We did charge an entrance fee, but a lot of expenses crept up. Someone should have told me about the dancers, and how much they cost. Ditto about the tablecloths. The spotlight wasn't necessary, could have been bargained. Also the travel expenses from the org helping us out, we weren't able to track those. In general, someone should keep already tabs on the costs during the planning and preparation, instead of just summing up everything afterwards.

Hope we have more of these out-of-Manila roadshows. At least we now we've chalked up some experience.

Efren Alcuizar of Events Committee also came with us, thanks for participating, maybe you can take charge of the next roadshow! [:-)]

I'd like to hear from the other attendees!

At the PLUG Seminar: A Visit to Linux Land

2006-04-10T15:18:00Z

I went to the Philippine Linux Users Group (PLUG) quarterly technical seminar last Saturday, April 8, so I can get a feel of an event by the "opposite camp", as well as learn a new thing or two, who knows. There were around 40-50 people in attendance. I met a couple of acquaintances who happen to be some of the more active people in PLUG. I know one of the PLUG officers, as well as the head of the Ubuntu PH group.

Some observations/opinions about the event:

The presentations were functional, technical, to the point. A number of presentors used black and white for slides. Black text on white background, that's it. The command-prompt ethos embodied in presentation slides.
The seminar was a sampling of the entire Linux ecosystem, including infrastructure (some hacking tools), a distro (SLAX), development (PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails), GPL 3.0, a generic entrepreneurial talk and some tips from a PR guy on how to promote OSS. I like this format, this brings a lot of different people together. Hopefully we can have MS Community events with this kind of variety in one sitting.
Most people didn't ask questions. So it's the same everywhere.
The place at Asia Pacific College is quite roomy, though commuting there will force you to walk a long distance. Still, a venue to consider, if just to one-up PLUG at their own turf. [:P]
PLUG sells the event certificates, and it seems to be a primary source of income. They sell Tux keychains too.

About the Linux crowd:

No, they don't bite. [:P] I didn't get lynched.
I didn't get to talk to a lot, so wasn't able to catch the demographics of the crowd. My perception, from their reaction to the talks, is that a lot of them are relative newbies.
They have their own "cool merchandise". If we have MS jackets, they have "Red Hat" red hats.
Linux people have their pet distros, and they will bash the other distros, with varying degrees of animosity, ranging from light banter to mailing-list flames. The "in" distro right now apparently is Ubuntu, it used to be Knoppix some time back.
Various Linux distros do have their corporate backers, so it's not like they're necesssarily handing out cheap CD-R's. The Ubuntu CD's I got had professional packaging. Apparently you can have them delivered for free.
I got the impression that PLUG people use IRC a lot, and of course the PLUG mailing list. Most of the talk isn't even related to Linux (I can see a parallel with MS Forums here). However they post porn links there on occasion, so the MS community discussion is decidedly more tame.

I got to talk to Ealden, the head Ubuntu guy in the Philippines, and he told me a little about how the community here works, and how active participation is quantified. As I understand, contributions are quantified with points. There's a system that converts code contributions (like bug fixes) to points (galeng!) For the non-code contributions like writing articles, conducting talks, etc., one has to submitted URL's to an evaluation group. Testimonials from fellow community members are also considered.

And finally, a rant about the copy of Ubuntu they gave me.

I got 4 CD's, 2 for the x86 version and 2 for the 64-bit version. One CD is the Install CD, and the other is the Live CD (the one you boot from the CD not requiring an install). I tried the Live CD, and I ran into some experiences which have made me conclude that desktop Linux still has some way to go:

I couldn't make any MP3 files or WMA files play, apparently the codecs weren't installed by default.
My Windows partitions weren't mounted. Yes they were NTFS, but Linux does support NTFS nowadays -- reading, anyhow. The write functionality is in beta, though one PLUG member said that he tried to write to NTFS in Linux, and after that he couldn't access the NTFS partition anymore. Fair warning.
I tried mounting a partition myself, but I had to be using the root account to do that. I happen to know the "su" command, but I didn't know the root password which was required. And it's not on the CD cover or anything. I know Linux people are very careful with the root account, but try explaining that to someone who just wants to access his Windows C:\ drive and is scratching his head about what the blood root password is.
There were 2 brown wallpapers to choose from. Wow.
The desktop theme was also brown. I tried to change the theme, but to apply it, you have to specify a save filename and location. Hmm, where to save, /usr, /bin, /etc, /dev...
I wanted to connect to the Internet via dial-up connection, partly to post this rant, partly to Google to help me figure out solving any of the above. However the Networking applet had me choose from a dropdown with "/dev/modem", "/dev/ttsy1" (or similar), etc. I tried all of them, and I couldn't make it work, didn't get as far as the dial tone.

In fairness, the GUI was spiffy and intuitive enough, the sound was working, and my Flash drive was detected and auto-mounted. I know a bit about Linux and mounting drives, and wondered what would happen if I just pulled out the Flash drive without unmounting which I could do in Windows, but didn't dare try it. The games were fun because I happen to love the WEP games (Klotski!) I had an officemate try Ubuntu Live in the office and we were able to make LAN access work, and even got to use GAIM and connect via Remote Desktop to a Windows machine without a hitch. OpenOffice 2.0 worked and looked, well, very useful. But hey, you have that in Windows too.

So that's it for my venture into Linux Land. The PLUG-ers are most welcome to return the favor and gatecrash into MS events. [:)]

EVENT: CPLS Showdown

2006-03-14T10:44:00Z

CPLS Showdown

The Philippine .NET Users Group (PHINUG) "CPLS Showdown" event aims to showcase the best Microsoft CPLS (Certified Partners for Learning Solutions) talent in the country in delivering .NET technology training.

Participating CPLS's will deliver Level 200-300 presentations on a .NET-related topic.

Date: 3/24/2006
Time: 8:30am - 5:30pm
Venue: Office & Exchange Rooms, Microsoft Philippines, Inc., 16th Floor, 6750 Ayala Ave., Makati City
Sponsor(s): Philippine .NET User's Group (PHINUG)

Programme:
8:30 - 9:30 : Registration
9:30 - 10:00 : Invocation, Opening Remarks
10:00 - 12:00 : Presentation #1
12:00 - 1:00 : Lunch Break
1:00 - 3:00 : Presentation #2
3:00 - 3:15 : Break
3:15 - 5:15 : Presentation #3
5:15 - 5:30 : Closing

Participating CPLS's, in alphabetical order, are: dB Wizards, MISNet and New Horizons.
Final topics and order of presentations will be announced on March 17, 2006, Friday.

Entrance fee is P100.00. Payment to be made to PHINUG on the day of the event.

Register now: http://msevents.ph/events/Event3242052.aspx

EVENT: PHINUG General Assembly - March 2006

2006-03-05T12:34:00Z

To all PHINUG Members,

We will have our next General Assembly on March 11, 2006, Saturday, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, at Adamson University, Manila.

1:30 - 2:00 PM -- Registration
2:00 - 3:00 PM -- Technical Seminar
                  Windows Controls Development
                  by Mr. Joey Calisay.
3:00 - 4:00 PM -- Organization Updates
                  Web Commitee Meeting
                  Events Committee Meeting

Since we need to advise Adamson University security beforehand, We will need your confirmation NO LATER THAN March 8, Wednesday, 10:00 AM.

To confirm your invitation, pls. send your full name, email, and contact number to "event@phinug.org", with the the subject "GA 3/11". To cancel, send the same information with the subject "CANCEL GA 3/11".

Adamson University is located walking distance from LRT U.N. Ave. Station. We will send more detailed travelling directions and exact building and room to those confirmed.

Regards,
PHINUG Events Committee

Hang-up with .NET cross-platform?

2006-02-18T14:42:00Z

About .NET having the image of being not cross-platform, just want to ask, what's the fuss?

When people talk of .NET not being cross-platform, I'm guessing that what a lot have in mind here, besides Microsoft not coming up with .NET for other OS's, is the GUI toolkit not being cross-platform like Java's. Basically, Windows Forms vs. Swing. Let's look at this particular issue.

For me, it's like EJB -- .NET doesn't have an EJB equivalent, but is this something most people want anyway? Do most people want to have a more "pure" cross-platform GUI at the expense of looking a bit inconsistent compared with the native apps (as is the case with Swing)? In GUI-land, a bit of inconsistency is glaring. Even within the Java community, there are debates about Swing vs. SWT, with SWT leaning more heavily on platform-specific widgets and API's. And the SWT camp is strong, rallying around their champion in the form of the Eclipse IDE.

So .NET's Windows Forms only work well in Windows. So what? If you just want to make a Windows app, and are using .NET just for the ease of development, then you couldn't care less if it ran on Linux or a toaster. For Mono in Linux, use GTK#, that's mighty fine. For Mono on Mac, use Cocoa# and be cool with it. So what if your program is limited to one platform? If you're delivering a great experience to your users they probably couldn't care less.

I'm not saying people don't need a "pure" cross-platform solution. Similarly, the persistence and scalability features of EJB are not useless. Some people really need these features. But if you're using .NET and you find that it doesn't have these features found in Java, there's no need to get depressed right away, because like FM radios and gazillion-pixel digicams on cellphones, maybe there are features you don't need for what you typically do.

.NET thinks cross-platform is a nice-to-have, not a necessity. And maybe most of the time you ought to think the same way too.

PHILNITS Society (and about the Japanese IT company employee)

2006-02-09T17:16:00Z

Last Wednesday I had the privilege of attending the induction of members and the first meeting of the PHILNITS Society, composed of JITSE/PHILNITS passers. Being one of the more outspoken individuals in my table, I ended up joining the Working Group which will serve as the group's core membership, to come up with mission, vision, values, by-laws, etc.

I think that my membership in this group is complementary to my involvement in the Microsoft Community. First, the exam focuses on IT fundamentals, while my activities with the MS Community are closely tied with MS products. I believe both are needed by truly great IT engineers. Second, PHILNITS aims to have a national scope -- I think observing how the org will manage this will give me some learnings which can be applied to the MS Community. Lastly, being a Japan-initiated and Japan-recognized IT standard exam, it gives me exposure to IT professionals working in Japanese companies, who happen to have a culture that's really different from the culture here at the MS Forums, which I feel has the culture from American and Filipino companies.

I'd just like to share some of my cultural observations, which I think can help me and others better appreciate how other people think differently:

They're more formal in dress, as well as behavior in public events. They are more conscious about the currentcontext or TPO (time, place, occasion) and the need to make a distinction between public and private behavior. This reflects the Japanese values of tatemae and honne. I'm glad I had the sense not to wear jeans, they would probably have been horrified.
If they were horrified though they wouldn't let it show. Related to the above, the Japanese are rarely frank.
The company is a big thing. Introductions always mention one's present organization. One can somehow sense how employers are conscious that they represent their employer (or training center) by thesubtly reverent tone used when mentioning the company (it never sounds matter-of-factly).
There are rules of fine ettiquete. For example, don't put calling cards in your wallet. Since your wallet usually goes on top of your behind.
Many Japanese IT firms here employ engineers to work on software for embedded systems or consumer electronics. They tend to like open source.

PHINUG Moving Forward: Rethinking the Boulder

2006-01-30T18:32:00Z

I think the boulder is seriously rolling now. We did hit a rut with the cancellation of the January GA (not really our fault) but this was quickly forgotten in the big push that was .NET Fest. The post event "energy" -- good feedback and the positive discussions reverberating in the community -- will only give the boulder more momentum.

Good: A lot of our "free energy" came from our sponsor OSRP. They willingly contributed their resource to push alongside us. And they got something in return I believe. I'll get back to this in a while.

To improve: Well, only the Exec Board was really pushing for this milestone to be achieved. We need more free energy from the other members. I really did want to officially kick-off the Event Committee, but we were too busy doing the pushing ourselves! Now we're in between major pushes, we should take this opportunity to rally extra hands to the cause. Hopefully our recent success will be a great encouragement.

About giving free energy, and getting something in return -- this is what's usually called synergy I believe. I'm not coining a new term here, I'll just try to fit it into the boulder analogy. If you push a boulder day-in, day-out, you'll obviously develop some serious muscle. That is a reward already, and a good reason why many of us are doing the pushing -- we improve ourselves in the process. This is something everyone should remember: that in all volunteer work you do get a little something out of it, that you become a better person, in skills and character.

But what OSRP did is actually more than just improve their skills (that would be like Roger sponsoring .NET Fest just so he can improve his Powerpoint skills.) They got to acquaint themselves with the other people doing the pushing, and there was a fair bit of socialization and relationships made, a more leisurely interaction than what you'd expect from people pushing a boulder.

So I am rethinking the boulder analogy, at least at this point of the group's evolution. What the boulder model sorely neglects is the fact that people do interact a lot and do more things than just follow the one objective of rolling a big mass forward. Perhaps the classical "bayanihan" image that we Filipinos have better captures the essence of what the group should be:

1) There is one clear objective (move something from one place to another)
2) It is a collaborative effort. But it's not a mindless one. One can imagine people talking to each other, keeping up-to-date with friends, even discussing business with each other while they carry out their work. The journey is just as eventful, as important, as the destination and the objective.
3) It is a very social activity; the objective is to fulfill a community need (help someone). Not just that, it is done in the spirit of the community, that one would expect the same deed to be done to anyone in similar need.

The only problem I have with "bayanihan" is that I feel that many Filipinos have really no clear idea of what it really is, besides an ideal which might be out of touch with real life (just like an idyllic Amorsolo bukid painting, or Andres Bonifacio who is forever in our minds wearing red puruntong, which as Ambeth Ocampo says is stupid; that's the last thing you'll wear when hiding in the jungle.) But since we do have more or less the same idealization in our head, just like Ibong Adarna whom everyone knows, it works.

so you want free learning?

2006-01-03T02:46:00Z

Taken from the spoke blog of Bernard:

Clinic 2551: Introduction to Visual Studio Team System

Course 2913: Creating Your First Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0 Web Application

Course 2924: Building Data Components in Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005

Course 4336: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework

Happy New Year to all!

2005-12-30T04:42:00Z

Happy New Year to all!

May you have a prosperous

New Year 2006!