Boston Code Camp 26 - Sessions

Why have you never used a state machine to control your app's behavior? Or better said: Why don't you use a State Machine in your controllers? Well the answer is: "There is no good reason why not." To demonstrate this we'll demystify what state machines are and marvel at how "predictably" they behave. Better yet, let's build one in a visual editor and then run it in a Web UI controller. No barriers to entry there. Lastly, we'll wrap up with some do's and don'ts and a sincere cry to "keep it simple smarty." More

Docker is somewhat of a poster child for today's era of microservices but ServiceFabric is a very interesting PaaS alternative at the other extreme. While there are many options in the middle, including various container services platforms, this session focuses on comparing the two from a developer and DevOps perspective noting design, development, topology and deployment lifecycle differences. More

Everybody's doing it, so it's time to get on board. The most popular of the agile methodologies is Scrum - this session will give you an introduction to the value system, roles, artifacts and ceremonies of Scrum, so that you can determine which elements make sense for your team to adopt. More

So you want to make your games that change everytime they're played? Come learn the basics of how you can procedurally generate content for your game. We'll walk through simple examples, discuss more advanced concepts, and analyze games that do it. More

The Decision Tree is one of the widely used powerful toolset in Machine Learning. This seminar is a practical introduction to the Decision Trees – including when to use the decision tree, popular packages in R, how to differentiate a classification tree and a regression tree, how to build the tree model, how to visualize the tree model, how to cross validate the tree, how to read the cross validation plot, how to identify the over-fit if any, and how to prune the tree when necessary. You don’t need to have R language knowledge. I will use .NET developer’s terminology to explain the concepts when necessary. More

This presentation will give you the basics of R programming. We will start with a background on what R is and where it came from. Then you will learn how to install the language shell and R Studio, the development environment. You’ll learn about the unique vector based architecture of R which makes it such a powerful analysis tool. Through examples you will learn about the language. We'll also see some examples of R's powerful visualization features. The goal of this session is to demystify R and give you a basic understanding of R programming. You will leave feeling that R is fun! The focus is on the programming language so only a minimal understanding of statistics is needed. More

They all have have a place in life. We are in a era where most of these tools and technologies would potentially be disrupted and made smarter with Machine learning and Artificial intelligence. Cheers :) More

There are lots of new and exciting things going with Microsoft and .NET with the introduction of ASP.NET Core 1. For this presentation we will discuss one new feature that developers of all levels will be able to take advantage of to help streamline your code by reducing HTML code duplication - Taghelpers. During the session we will explore what Taghelpers are, how they are used, and why Taghelpers will be beneficial for developers when coding in ASP.Net Core , while demonstrating how quick and easy it is to setup a new ASP.Net Core 1 website and start using Taghelpers! More

If you’re building an ASP.NET Core application, you’ll want to understand how to get information about how your application is running. In this talk, Shawn Wildermuth will show you how logging works in ASP.NET Core and how it is a better way to instrument your code in .NET Core. More

Azure has two popular choices for hosting web applications in a platform as a service model: Cloud Services and Web Apps. In this talk I will give a quick introduction of Cloud Services and Web Apps, then dive into the Pros and Cons of the two approaches by focusing on three scenarios: 1. Simple web site/application (1 tier app) 2. Web application with backend processing (N tier app) 3. Web application(s) with multiple backend processing and DMZ (N tier + DMZ) This presentation is designed to help you understand which choice is best for your situation. More

Are you tired of installing, configuring and patching Microsoft SQL Server? Azure SQL database maybe a way to move some of your existing infrastructure to the cloud. Depending upon your companies philosophy, it might be great for development, testing, and possibly production environments. The exciting thing about this service is that new features will be released on this platform first before trickling down to the on premise editions. Come to this session and learn what you need to start right away. More

Join us to find out how you can support Boston Code Camp help make this event better. There are many opportunities: from simple tasks on the day of Code Camp to ongoing work with organizing the event, to working on the website. If you're interested in knowing more about how you can help keep this community event moving forward, please join us. More

We all know we need to make sure our code is secure, but how best to do that? One important part of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) is Testing, and that includes Security Testing. This session will introduce you to some open source security tools such as Gauntlt, OWASP ZAP, etc. useful in integrating security into your DevOps (or Continuous Deployment) pipeline. More

The HoloLens is here! Join Microsoft Technical Evangelist Gavin Bauman as he details the difference between Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality, describes how to develop 2D and 3D holographic applications that interact with the real world, and delivers some epic HoloLens demos! Go ahead and get started. More

Most applications require a backend service to do the complex processing.  In this session, we will see how to build resilient communication with a backend service in the mobile world where we are not always connected to our service.  Using a Xamarin application, We will focus on techniques like request prioritization, caching and more.  By the end of the of the talk, you will be familiar with several techniques to ensure your app performs well in all situations and learn about a few libraries that enable resiliency in your applications.  More

One of the penultimate achievements of any self respecting nerd is to build your own arcade machine. We'll talk about how to build a cabinet, setup an old computer, what electronics are needed and where to get them, and share high scores. More

I'll discuss how a data scientist who doesn't know a lot about software engineering can develop Android chatbots that are useful and fun. These chatbots were developed using Java in Android Studio and use Microsoft's Bing speech API as well as Microsoft's Language Understanding Intelligence Service (LUIS). More

In content management systems or composite web applications, it’s often useful to allow authors to add small, self-contained “widgets” that are run and versioned independently from the page that hosts them. This can be a challenge since most programming samples and web frameworks assume you own the whole web page. In this session, you’ll learn how to develop widgets in popular JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery, Knockout, and AngularJS, and to avoid conflicts between multiple widgets and the hosting web page. You’ll also learn how to distribute and package your work so widgets on many web sites can be upgraded from a single distribution point. Join in to learn how to build widgets for use in the content management system of your choice. More

In this demo-driven session, we’ll take a look at how you can quickly leverage Azure Functions to get your code into the cloud with minimal fuss. C#, JavaScript, Python, PHP – take your pick. Build a HTTP server, CRON job, or run a function based on triggers that are engaged by other cloud applications – all from the comfort of your browser. More

Unleash the power of Graph databases in your next enterprise application. From Rich Recommendations to Real-time Fraud Detection, graph computing engines use connections between data to provide actionable insights in transactional apps. Learn why, when, and how to bring Graph to your development environment. More

Congrats on winning some time with the HoloLens! In this demo, you’ll experience the how to interact with the device using Gaze, Gesture, and Voice from a fun and immersive game called Roboraid! Defend yourself against robots in Mixed Reality! HoloLens Demo sessions (3 per 30 minute session, 6 per 60 minute session) will be raffled off at the 8:45 AM Welcome Session. More

What makes a community feel like a community? Is it the people? Is it the subject matter? Is it the tech? What is the icing on the (cup)cake? With the right ingredients, a Community Manager can bake up an engaged and successful community over time. What are the 10 ingredients that go into hosting a successful community? More

By the end of this session, attendees will have seen how to get started with IoT, from loading Windows 10 on a Pi 3 to selecting a starter C#/UWP application, customizing it, and running it. More

This session will introduce the foundational concepts of the DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) functional language and provide examples of implementing DAX in business intelligence and analytics projects. As DAX is the primary language for defining metrics and queries in Microsoft Power BI, SQL Server Analysis Services, and Power Pivot for Excel it’s important to be familiar with all common use cases as well as design practices to ensure the performance and sustainability of solutions. Topics in this session include where DAX fits in the Microsoft data platform, data types, use cases of implementing DAX, most common DAX functions, filter context evaluation, DAX variables, date/time intelligent metrics, and the new DAX functions available in Power BI,... More

This session will offer an introduction to React Native. React Native lets you build real "native" mobile apps using only JavaScript. The session will provide background on the architecture of the platform and how-to coding samples. If you are new to React Native and interested in iOS/Android development, this session is for you! More

In this session we will see what TypeScript is and how it can add value to your JavaScript Development. We will go over features of TypeScript such as optional static types, classes, interfaces, and modules. More

4 talks moderated by Ron Krawitz What is a secure password? - Joe Adams - This talk will discuss password best practices and what users can do to increase password strength. How GPS systems work - Griffin Savio - Do you use a GPS unit to find the best route? This presentation briefly explains how the GPS system works. Touch ID - Keith Fitts - With the emergence of mobile devices, securing the information a device holds has become crucial. Apple’s solution to this issue is their fingerprint scanner named “Touch ID”. This presentation will discuss how the technology works as well as how to increase its security on your own device. Quantum Computing - Matthew Gallagher - Quantum Computing has the potential to change computing as we know it.... More

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) transforms database development by introducing a ubiquitous, declarative model that spans all the phases of database development inside Visual Studio. You can use SSDT Transact-SQL design capabilities to build, debug, maintain, and refactor databases. You can work with a database project, or directly with a connected database instance on or off-premise. SSDT facilitates sourced controlled schema and simplifies deployment. Additionally, features such as database unit tests, data compare and schema compare offer powerful capabilities for free. More

Understand the vital steps in designing and constructing a killer mobile user experience. David Platt, author of the books Why Software Sucks and The Joy of UX, takes you through the design and building of his MBTA Commuter Rail schedule app, from initial requirements gathering, through layout, iteration, user testing, and implementation via Xamarin Forms. This is a hell of a lot of information for one talk, so be prepared to drink from a fire hose. More

Writing mobile apps is hard enough, but when you need to include an integrated web site with your native mobile app, things really get crazy. Partnering an Angular 2 codebase with a NativeScript app, however, can create beautiful music. In this session, you’ll spin up a native mobile app using NativeScript where you will create sketches paired with Soundcloud music tracks. At the same time, using shared code between web and mobile, you’ll create the matching web presence to display the audio visualization you created on the mobile app to build your own custom PocketRave! This session will showcase the magic of Angular 2 enhanced with a NativeScript-build mobile app, all songified with Soundcloud, and visualized on the web, with a special treat at... More

SQL Server’s In-Memory tables are accompanied by Natively Compiled Stored Procedures and Functions that run at amazing speed. We'll: • Review in-memory tables • Look at the T-SQL language that can be used in Natively Compiled code • Discuss how transaction handling is different due to the use of optimistic concurrency • Recompile query plans as needed • Take a look at DMVs and extended events • Compare natively compiled functions to the alternatives forms How the speed improvements are achieved is a fascinating topic. We’ll take a look at the C code that SQL produces and uses as an intermediate step. Somewhere in the C is the query plan and we will hunt for them. If you want your application to be more than just fast, consider using Natively Compiled... More

Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service that orchestrates and automates the movement and transformation of data. In this session we will learn how to create data integration solutions using the Data Factory service and ingest data from various data stores, transform/process the data, and publish the result data to the data stores. More

Imagine the effects of predicting the future on your business. What if you have the power to predict the future? Predictive analytics enables uncovering previously unknown patterns and relationships buried in gigabytes/terabytes of your data. Windows Azure Machine Learning and Data Analytics platform offers a streamlined experience, from setting up with only a web browser to using drag-and-drop gestures and simple data-flow graphs to set up predictive analytics experiments. Azure Machine Learning Studio features a library of time-saving sample experiments, R and Python packages, and best-in-class algorithms from Microsoft businesses like Xbox and Bing. R is the de-facto programming language among the data science community that enables data... More

Many existing web applications require updates to provide a modern user experience with the latest cloud security. It can be a challenge to make these updates while also maintaining the legacy data that may be used by multiple applications. This talk is a case study using the design and implementation of the current Boston Code Camp website. You’ll learn about the tradeoffs in determining the level of backward compatibility and considerations of how far the design would move toward the leading or even bleeding edge (for example, the use of .NET vs. .NET Core, and the possible transition from server-side MVC to JavaScript/Typescript in the browser.) You’ll also see how it was possible to maintain the persistent data model and preserve links to... More

This session is designed to give you a broad introduction to using Python for data science or data analysis applications. The goal is to give you enough to make you dangerous. Using real world examples, we will see how to use Python for -- Data import from text files and databases -- Data munging (cleaning, filtering, grouping, merging, etc.) -- Performing descriptive statistics and developing models -- Plotting including charts, graphs and maps We will highlight the use of pandas, matplotlib, seaborn, numpy, scipy and scikit-learn. Code will be shown using Jupyter notebooks. More

Tired of eating CSS soup day after day? No longer want to play stylesheet Jenga whenever you try to edit main.css? You just may need a CSS architecture. This talk will review the major CSS architectures like BEM (Block Element Modifier), SMACSS (Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS) and Atomic CSS while discussing the pros and cons of each. More

ASP.NET Core and MVC have brought many changes to how ASP.NET developers write web applications. Security, as always, is an important part of any platform. In this session we will see how some aspects of security in ASP.NET Core will look familiar to the prior versions, but other features are brand new in an attempt to improve on the approaches from the past. We will start by looking at how authentication middleware manages user authentication. We will then turn to how authorization is handled with the new and powerful policy-based architecture. Finally we will see how applications manage secrets and security keys which are vital to the secure operation of any application. This session will bring you up to speed on everything you need to know about the... More

The Jupyter stack is built from the ground up to be extensible and hackable, but Jupyter is a big planet with many moons. The Developer Advocacy team at IBM Analytics has developed an open source library of useful time-saving and anxiety reducing tools we call "Pixiedust". It eases the pain of charting and graphing, saving data to the cloud and exposing Python data structures to Scala code. I'll introduce Pixiedust's features and discuss how the community can contribute. https://github.com/ibm-cds-labs/pixiedust More

REST APIs provides us lots of advantages including JSON based responses and supporting plain HTTP. This simplicity makes it difficult to utilize them for statically typed clients. Swagger allows these services to publish their contracts using the same HTTP. The session would be a deep dive discussing how Swagger can be used for API documentation, discovery and client code generation specially for polyglot development. More

You've heard the buzz words. Stewardship. Governance. But what does it all mean? Learn from an individual that has successfully formed and co-chaired Data Governance teams at multiple companies. I will cover how to sell Data Stewardship to the management, composition of a team, and the activities to perform in order to prevent a Data Information Disaster. In a world where the data architecture is comprised of multiple DBs and business users have direct access, data stewardship is needed NOW. More

Learn how creating a strong personal and professional network of connections can help you grow your career and business. We'll cover some networking tips, lessons learned and several groups you can join. More

TypeScript is fast becoming the framework of choice for front-end web development. C# programmers come to TypeScript with very different skills than JavaScript programmers. This presentation will teach TypeScript to experienced C# programmers. No knowledge of JavaScript is needed. More

Stop flying blind and use Azure Application Insights to monitor your application's availability, performance, feature usage and exceptions. In this sessions you will learn how to add Application Insights to any application, what kind of information it can provide and how to use that information to make your application better for your users. More

The Weka Health Systems SmartFridge is a solution built on Microsoft Azure that leverages key cloud services found in many Internet of Things implementations. In this session, you'll be part of a mini-ADS (architecture design session) in which we'll collaboratively build up the solution architecture (in Visio!!) while discussing the rationale for our choices. Although this session will focus on Azure services, the architecture and decisions made transcend the choice of cloud provider. More