Thursday, April 22, 2021

May Virtual Tech Events

Virtual User Group Meetings

 

Virtual Conferences

 

Friday, April 9, 2021

5 Reasons to Attend the Global AI Night 2021

The Global AI Night is a an online community event organized across the world by local communities that are passionate about artificial intelligence on Microsoft Azure.  For one night, you will get to join various speakers as they share their experience with AI features in Azure.  The event is free of charge, virtual, and open to all. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, April 20th  4-9 PM EST.  Not sure if you should register?  Here are the top 5 reasons why you should!

 

  1. Interact with AI experts actively working in the field

The event will speakers from around the US and the world.  These are professionals actively working in the AI field.  Not only will they share their experience, but you can interact with them directly during the session.  Despite the online presentation, speakers and organizers strive to make it as much of a roundtable discussion as much as possible.  This means you can ask questions at any time, either verbally or via the chat window.  In addition, their contact information will be made available for additional questions.

 

  1. Expand your skillset

Working in IT, one always has to keep up with modern technology.  Not keeping up means falling behind in your career.  Attending free events, such as the Global AI Night is a great way to learn, without travel or additional expenses.

 

  1. Explore new ways how AI can be used in your organization.  Be a pioneer

Not using AI in your workplace?  This doesn’t mean your organization can’t benefit from AI.  Learning to use AI can help you identify applications that can benefit your end customer by integrating various AI features.  Learn AI and learn to be a pioneer among your peers by bringing added features to your applications.

 

  1. Discover free learning resources

With each session, every speaker will present links where you can find more information and helpful tutorials.

 

  1. Learn what to do, what not to do, and Gotcha’s

Each speaker will present a session and a walk-thru of creating working demos.  In addition, they will also discuss their own learning experiences, problems encountered.  They will show what to do and what not to do.  Speakers will also cover the hidden gotchas and issues they encountered so you can avoid them.

 

 

For more info on the Global AI Night 2021, please visit https://globalai.community/global-ai-night-april-2021/usa-cleveland.

 

To RSVP, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-ai-night-2021-cleveland-tickets-148258271481  

 

Looking forward to seeing you online on April 20th.

 

Azure Health Bot

Bots have been available to developers and consumers alike for many years.  They have been used in many facets of everyday life that many times we don’t even realize.  The intelligence behind these has continued to become more sophisticated and specialized for specific business sectors.  In addition, Microsoft has made the bot development experience very easy and straightforward for developers. 

 

Continuing in the path of specialization and ease of creation, Microsoft has a developed a Health Bot, with strict focus on health care.  It’s backed by a pre-trained Machine Learning model with focus on the healthcare terminology.  This empowers developers to quickly build and deploy AI-powered conversational bots.  In addition, the bot service follows industry compliance requirements and HIPAA standards.  These bots can be used in any healthcare related environment to assess a potential sickness of a patient, inquire about certain medications/supplements for a specific scenario, etc.  The bot can also be combined with the Text to Speech service to provide a more human-like interaction with users.

To get started, follow the Step by step guide to creating your first health bot.

For more information, please visit the following links:

 

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Global AI Night 2021

The Global AI Night is a an online community event organized across the world by local communities that are passionate about artificial intelligence on Microsoft Azure.  For one night, you will get to join various speakers as they share their experience with AI features in Azure.  The event is free of charge, virtual, and open to all. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, April 20th 4PM-9 PM EST and it will be virtual.

 

To learn more about this event, please visit https://globalai.community/global-ai-night-april-2021/usa-cleveland

 

If you’re interested in sharing your AI story, feel free to submit your presentation at https://sessionize.com/global-ai-night-2021-cleveland/

 

Join us for a night of AI and expand your skill set.

 

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Monday, March 15, 2021

Free Microsoft Certification Courses!

 

 

 

SkillMeUp.com is hosting four free events in March and April! Each Saturday will prepare you to pass a new Microsoft fundamentals certification exam!

 

Free Live Courses

 

Microsoft Azure

March 20th │ $250 Free

 

Power Platform

April 3rd │ $250 Free

 

 

Security Compliance & Identity

April 10th │ $250 Free

 

Microsoft 365

April 17th │ $250 Free

 

 

Meet the Instructors

 

 

 

Dwayne Natwick

Cloud Training Architect Lead

Dwayne Natwick is a lifelong learner and teacher. Dwayne delivers live training, creates curriculum, writes blogs and more! He is an expert in Azure and cloud computing.

Dwayne has over 30 years of experience in the IT industry, holding multiple positions and certifications.

 

 

Brian Nielson

Senior Cloud Training Architect

Brian has 26 years of professional IT experience. He has exceptional knowledge of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and Open Source software. As a consultant he is used to solving highly visible and complex problems.

Brian is well-versed in current technological trends and familiar with a variety of business concepts. He can meet ever-changing technology needs with innovative and up-to-date solutions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, March 7, 2021

Podcast: SQL Server For Developers

I recently had the pleasure of being featured on Azure DevOps Podcast.  The host, Jeffery Palermo, interviewed me about a topic I’m passionate about “SQL Server For Developers”.  These are features available within SQL Server that make some specific development tasks easy to implement.  Some of these features include:

File Streams: “Pointers” that allow you to store a BLOB within the SQL Server File Groups and maintain security over it, not storing it in a DB and bloating the table size.

Temporal Tables: Tables that automatically maintain historical changes to every record with a time span of those changes.

FileTables: Tables that duplicate a structure of a specific folder, giving developers the ability to quickly query the files one they’re dropped in the folder.

 

I discuss these topics and more on the podcast.  For the full podcast, please visit http://azuredevopspodcast.clear-measure.com/sam-nasr-on-sql-server-for-developers-episode-122#

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Global AI Bootcamp 2021

The Global AI Bootcamp is a free one-day event organized across the world by local communities that are passionate about artificial intelligence on Microsoft Azure. It takes place on January 15-16th, 2021 with venues on every continent. The event is a perfect balance of quality content, awesome talks, and hands-on learning with like-minded peers in your community.  Currently, there are 4 events happening in the US in different time zones. 

 

Las Vegas, NV: https://globalai.community/global-ai-bootcamp-2020/united-states-las-vegas

Plano, TX: https://globalai.community/global-ai-bootcamp-2020/usa-plano-tx-1

Des Moines, IA: https://globalai.community/global-ai-bootcamp-2020/usa-des-moines

Raleigh, NC: https://globalai.community/global-ai-bootcamp-2020/united-states-raleigh

 

Find the one that best suits you or choose another event elsewhere in the world.  To see a full list of all events, please visit https://globalai.community/global-ai-bootcamp-2020/

For more info on the bootcamp, please visit https://globalai.community/about.

 

Monday, December 14, 2020

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Separating Combo Boxes with Similar Data

A situation came up where a Windows Forms application required 2 combo boxes filled with customer IDs.  A caption of that form is shown below, where a user must select “From Customer ID” and “To Customer ID”.  Since both combo boxes were populated from the same data column, the natural thing to do was to use the same code for filling both with the same data.  However, this caused an undesirable effect.  When the user selected the “From Customer ID”, the “To Customer ID” was automatically populated with the same value. 

 

To resolve this problem, 2 separate DataTable objects must be used, dtFrom and dtTo.  Although both objects are populated using the same method (dm.GetCustomerIDNames()), keeping the objects separate will prevent one control selection from effecting the other control.  See sample code shown below.

 

 

 

        private void FillCustomerIDs()

        {

            Cursor.Current = Cursors.WaitCursor;  //Produces a "wait cursor" while data is loading

 

            //Must have 2 separate instances for the data method. 

            //DataTables must also be kept separate to prevent issues with binding

            //Data must NOT be cached, must be retrieved directly from the DB for each call. 

            //Otherwise all comboboxes will bind to the same datasource and to each other.

 

            DataTable dtFrom = dm.GetCustomerIDNames();

            FillFromCustomer(dtFrom);

 

            DataTable dtTo = dm.GetCustomerIDNames();

            FillToCustomer(dtTo);

        }

 

 

        private void FillFromCustomer(DataTable dtFrom)

        {

            AutoCompleteStringCollection acsFrom = new AutoCompleteStringCollection();

 

            foreach (var rec in dtFrom.AsEnumerable())

                acsFrom.Add(rec.ItemArray[0].ToString());

 

            cbFromCustomerID.AutoCompleteCustomSource = acsFrom;

            cbFromCustomerID.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.SuggestAppend;

            cbFromCustomerID.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.CustomSource;

 

            cbFromCustomerID.DataSource = dtFrom;

            cbFromCustomerID.DisplayMember = "ID";

            cbFromCustomerID.ValueMember = "Name";

            cbFromCustomerID.SelectedIndex = -1;    //Forces a blank item in the comboBox

        }

 

 

        private void FillToCustomer(DataTable dtTo)

        {

            AutoCompleteStringCollection acsTo = new AutoCompleteStringCollection();

 

            foreach (var rec in dtTo.AsEnumerable())

                acsTo.Add(rec.ItemArray[0].ToString());

 

            cbToCustomerID.AutoCompleteCustomSource = acsTo;

            cbToCustomerID.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.SuggestAppend;

            cbToCustomerID.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.CustomSource;

 

            cbToCustomerID.DataSource = dtTo;

            cbToCustomerID.DisplayMember = "ID";

            cbToCustomerID.ValueMember = "Name";

            cbToCustomerID.SelectedIndex = -1;

        }

 

 

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Sep/Oct'20 Events

Virtual User Group Meetings

Sep 29: .Net Virtual User Group - “VS/Code Hidden Gems”

https://www.meetup.com/dotnet-virtual-user-group/events/

Oct 15: Akron AITP User Group – “Enterprise Architecture in the Cloud”

https://www.meetup.com/AkronAITP/events/

Oct 21: Hudson Software Craftsmanship - “Crafting Better Software”

https://www.meetup.com/Hudson-Software-Craftsmanship-Meetup/

Oct 22: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group - “Multi-Model Databases in Azure SQL”

https://www.meetup.com/Cleveland-C-VB-Net-User-Group/

 

Virtual Conferences

Sep 26: Northern Virginia Code Camp

https://novacodecamp.org/index.html

Oct 3: SQL Saturday-Memphis

https://www.sqlsaturday.com/1003/

Oct 24: SQL Saturday-Oregon

https://www.sqlsaturday.com/1000/