Paul Grenyer

Hands-on workshops have become a mainstay of Norfolk Developers over the last 18 months. As is well documented they started with a Neo4j workshop following an evening presentation when it became apparent that forty-five minutes just wasn’t enough for some topics. Covering many aspects of software engineering, from databases to JavaScript, the workshops are an opportunity to learn by doing rather than just listening and are created and given by both visiting speakers and our exceptional local talent. Today it was the turn of Dom Davis of local Techstars Rainbird to tell us about Docker , an open platform for developers and sysadmins of distributed applications. Docker is a hot topic at the moment and a very popular method of deploying applications. As with a lot of new technologies I’m keen to learn, but struggle to find the time, so a workshop like this one where I have to put the time aside is extremely valuable to me. A lot of work clearly went into the preparation of the...

What: Bluemix, a Platform for Digital Transformation and An Introduction to CoreOS When: Wednesday, June 3, 2015 @ 6:15 PM to 9:00 PM Where: The King's Centre, King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/222366789/ There will be Free burgers, and the usual free drinks! 6.15pm - Free Food and Drink 7.00pm - Introduction 7.10pm - Bluemix, a Platform for digital Transformation 7.55pm - Break 8.10pm - An Introduction to CoreOS 8.55pm - End Bluemix, a Platform for digital Transformation  Sukhvinder ( @saujla ) In this session, Sukhvinder will describe and show the IBM BlueMix platform, demonstrating how it fits into an innovative organisation and how its DevOps approach leads to quicker time to deployment. Bluemix is IBM’s Digital Innovation Platform to enable developers to rapidly build, deploy, and manage their cloud applications, while tapping a growing ecosystem of available services and runtime frameworks. ...

"After visiting Naked Element with my document management idea. Within a few days they were able to take that idea, and transform it into a working prototype. It was quite remarkable! Thank you Naked Element"  - Jonathan Knight of Norfolk IT Support When you come to see Naked Element for the first time at the start of a new project, you’ll tell us about your requirements and we’ll explain how we can implement them for you. However, we’re a new supplier. You’re new to Naked Element and we’re new to you. We haven’t worked together on a project before, so there hasn’t been the chance for trust to build up between us. And although we know we can deliver, because we have experience from many projects we’ve completed in the past, we know you would feel more comfortable if we had something to show you. Ideally we would like to be able to show you the work we’ve done before and in a lot of cases we can. However, there are at least two reasons why we may not be able to. A...

When: Wednesday, 27th May 27 2015 @ 9:45 AM to 4:30 PM Where: The King's Centre, King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH Price: £30.00 RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/221748446/ Level: Beginners Prerequisites: Laptop with SSH client Location: Conference Room 1 (1st floor) In this hands on workshop we’ll be looking at the basics of using Docker to deploy services in immutable servers. Starting from the absolute basics of installing and running docker we’ll then look at running pre-packaged images before moving onto creating our own. We’ll then use these images to see how Docker can be used to simplify testing and deployment of code. During the session we’ll be working with the linux command line, so a familiarity with that will be beneficial. The practical sessions will be run from the cloud, so a laptop with an SSH client will be needed. Dom Davis  ( @idomdavis ) Dom Davis is a veteran of The City and a casualty of The Financial Cris...

What: Ruby on Rails from scratch full day workshop When: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 @ 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM Where: The King's Centre, King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH How much: GBP30.00/per person (includes lunch) RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/219153512/ Ruby on Rails Full-day Beginner’s Workshop The aim:  To take developers from a position of very little or no ruby experience, to the point where you are comfortable building  and hosting a simple Ruby on Rails web application. Prerequisites: Some programming experience in any language (e.g. Javascript). Understand what a database is, maybe a little SQL, and be reasonably comfortable with HTML and CSS. Basic familiarity with the command line (changing directory, running scripts). You will need to bring a laptop with a recent version of ruby and rails installed (Ruby 2+ and Rails 4.1+) The syllabus: We will walk you through the basics of building a simple application using R...

Imagine this scenario: You’re sitting in an initial meeting with a new client and they’ve just explained their requirements to you. Naturally, you’ve explained that you can build everything they’ve asked for and they look pleased. However, they are a new client. They’re new to you and you’re new to them. You haven’t worked together on a project before, so there hasn’t been chance for trust to build up between the two of you. And although you’re confident you can deliver, because you have experience from different aspects of a number of projects you’ve completed in the past, you can’t help wondering if that confidence has fully transferred to the client. So why not just show them what you’ve done before? There may be at least two reasons. A lot of the work you may have done in the past might be internal to previous clients and therefore cannot be shown to a third party, even under NDA. Another reason might be that you haven’t built some of the specific aspects the new client is ask...