Keep safe out there and Happy Coding!
–Kevin Collins
]]>For MotM #15, we’ve got something special planned! Unfortunately, we need a bit more time to put it all together. Instead of the normal presentation on a given topic, we’d like to invite folks to come and have a go at one or more of the technologies that we’ve covered over the past year. This could mean that you have a go at implementing ZeroMQ, or you finally get around to running through that Python tutorial you were looking at. Whatever it may be, join us for a fun time!
We’re working on getting some laptops provisioned for folks to use as well, so if you don’t have a machine to use we can help you out. Stay tuned for more details and information!
Another mention on the JetBrains front: PyCharm 2018.2 was released recently with support for Pipenv and a lot more! Read more on their What’s New page! We’ve been blessed to have JetBrains as a continued sponsor for KC Tech Group–we thank them for their support. We’re also pretty excited about their latest releases!
Anybody who is interested in diving into some Python during our Hackathon in September can definitely dip their toes into PyCharm at the same time. I’ll be there proclaiming its wonder. 😀
Have a great rest of the summer, and we’ll see you in September! Happy Coding!
–Kevin Collins
]]>ZeroMQ is a distributed messaging infrastructure that you can add to your application with relative ease. Learn more about it by reviewing the Learn the Basics section of their website. There are even some nice videos there to bring up into context quickly. However, one great way to learn more about it is to join the discussion at our next Meeting of the Minds session this Thursday! We’ve reserved space at Third Space Coffee House so you can enjoy some tasty coffee, dinner and/or snacks while learning about ZeroMQ!
Also, don’t forget about our monthly raffle of a free license to one of JetBrains great products!
If you’re a fan of great tools that really help increase your productivity and efficiency, JetBrains is definitely one to check out. We thank them for sponsoring KC Tech Group!
That’s it for now. We look forward to seeing you and hope you can join the discussion at Meeting of the Minds #14! See you there! Happy Coding! 🧐
–Kevin Collins
]]>The topic for June’s Meeting of the Minds session is Heroku, and yours truly will be doing the presentation. I’ve been intrigued by Heroku and its offerings since I became enamoured with container computing more than a year ago. Lately I’ve actually been putting it to good use deploying some MkDocs solutions for customer review. We’ll be reviewing at least the core offering (there is a lot more under the Heroku umbrella) at MotM-13 with some discussion and application demos. At MotM-12, we discussed the plans for this upcoming session and mentioned a Modbus simulator as a good demo app to implement and deploy via Heroku. If you have any other application suggestions (remember, these will be demos! 😀) please join us in the discussion over in our Slack group or leave a comment below.
I’m pretty excited to demonstrate how even the free tier of Heroku can be used to host some great application content. It isn’t just about web pages either–our Modbus simulator will be emulating remote device behavior, and our documentation demo is a great way to host documentation packages. Combine these with a custom domain name integrations and you can have a pretty broad set of functionality without much hosting upkeep! I look forward to some wonderful brainstorming on this during next month’s session.
If I haven’t just completely convinced you to drop by yet, don’t forget that each month we raffle off a free license to one of JetBrains’ amazing developer tool offerings! We’re very happy to have them as a continuing sponsor of our group. Come by and take advantage with a chance to leverage their productivity enhancing IDE’s or refactor/linting tools.
Finally, we’re looking for more discussion topics for future sessions, so please let us know if you have interest in a particular discussion topic. I’ve updated our Mindmap with some more topic ideas–let’s build that list out even more and get some folks lined up to dive in on these!
That’s all I have for now. Enjoy the weather everyone, don’t forget to go outside and do a little analog processing; all the same, happy coding as well! 😎
–Kevin Collins
UPDATE: As it turned out during preparing materials for this MotM, Heroku is really just for deploying web applications. It supports WebSockets, but you can’t deploy an application that listens on an arbitrary TCP socket–something that you need if you’re going to perform device simulation as my hopes outlined above. As we discussed during the session, you can have what are called “worker” dynos to perform background tasks, but they won’t be reachable externally. Thanks to those who made it out, and we’re all looking forward to a great rest of 2018, to be continued with a session on ZeroMQ in July!
It’s all about consistent multi-platform development, across a wide range of use-cases, much more than just single desktop and mobile applications. Vehicles, refrigerators, automation, and more! Feel free to check out the Qt website for some additional overview content, but what better than some real-world demos, feedback, and discussion? We’ll be hearing from Alec Weaver, who has been working with the platform to create some interesting applications. I’m looking forward to a great session and some great discussions about how Qt might be able to be applied.
Join us on Thursday, May 3rd at 6:30pm in Bonner Springs at Third Space Coffee. Feel free to come by a little beforehand to get a tasty coffee or snack and chat about things tech and otherwise–there is a nice deck out back as well to enjoy the nice evening weather.
I’d like to take a moment to give a shout out to our continued sponsor for 2018, JetBrains, who has been generous to offer us licenses to their extensive collection of IDE’s and other tools as offerings in our monthly raffle.
We’re always looking for some additional topic ideas, so please feel free to send us a note via our MotM Topic Submission Form! Thanks as always and Happy Coding!
–Kevin Collins
]]>I’m hoping we can build more on some of the great discussions we had during MotM-10. Part of what makes Meeting of the Minds interesting is not just the tech itself but the insights from everyone regarding how it can be applied (and also, sometimes, the why). LoRaWAN, one of a few emerging Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies, has some unique properties that enable some fascinating possibilities for sensor deployments. I’m sure everyone will have some neat ideas to chat about.
We’ll be meeting again on Thursday, April 5th at 6:30pm in Bonner Springs at Third Space Coffee. We’ve reserved the conference room for 6:30pm, but we usually gather before than–after all, there is great coffee and tasty bits to be had there. Come a little earlier to get things going even sooner!
In 2018, we’re continuing to raffle off a license to one of JetBrains’ wonderful IDE’s. If you end up working with Python at all, it is difficult to match the features and functionality of their PyCharm environment. They’ve got a bunch of great products, but I couldn’t help mentioning PyCharm after having it really help me out a lot over the past months. It continues to be great to have their support for KC Tech Group.
Have a great Easter and happy coding!
–Kevin Collins
]]>Alright, alright, so we’re going to learn how to adjust fuel injection parameters and spark advance curves? Nope, instead we’re going to focus on an area of vehicle customization that has been out of reach in times past. General Motors (and perhaps others) now offers a development SDK for creating custom applications that run on the built-in touchscreen infotainment systems in newer cars. Best of all, you develop these applications using open technologies such as Node.js! 😎 Check it out on their site for Next Generation Infotainment.
Join us at 6:30pm on March 1st, 2018 in the Conference Room at Third Space Coffee House in Bonner Springs, KS. I’ll be giving a demo of this system along with a proof-of-concept application (source code will be available on our Github page afterwards). It should be an entertaining (that part is on me) presentation and discussion (this part is partially on all of you), so come and join the fun!
We’re also back in action with our sponsor for Meeting of the Minds, JetBrains s.r.o.. We have a drawing each session for a free license to one of their great IDE’s or development tools. You should really check them out–especially if you want to get your dev on. 😉
Alright, I better get to coding.
–Kevin Collins
]]>Rather than spill all the beans, let’s just plan on stopping by Third Space Coffee House in Bonner Springs, KS at 6:30pm on Thursday, February 8th for some great coffee, company, and tech discussion!
We’ll be continuing our raffle for a JetBrains s.r.o. product license in 2018, so if you’re at all interested in their great developer tools and products, this is a great way to possibly win a free license! Even if you don’t, check out their community offerings that are available free of charge! It has been great to have JetBrains’ support for our group and we’re happy to welcome them back as a sponsor for 2018.
We’ve got some other MotM topics lined up for 2018, let us know through our Slack group if you’ve got some other ideas or would like to do a presentation! So far, here are some of the topics on our radar:
I’m looking forward to keeping things going in 2018. Happy Coding!! 😎
–Kevin Collins
]]>We’re taking a brief respite in January, with our next Meeting of the Minds session targeted for Thursday, February 8th, 2018, so lets look back at 2017 and see what we covered…
We also began, at Post not found: motm-7 MotM-7, a new intro series called “Pass the Mic”. Kicking off the meeting, everyone gets a chance to briefly mention something that has caught there attention recently. We’ve got some interesting hits so far and are looking forward to continuing this in 2018 with some better capture and follow-up on the website! Let’s take a look at what we’ve covered so far:
I think 2018 will be another exciting year. More and more interesting technologies continue to emerge, even more existine ones continue to mature and see increased popularity. One of the things I love about this group is that we can collectively discover and shed light on more of these fascinating developments that we might not have time for on our own. Join our Slack group (or hop on there if you haven’t been there in a while) and help us lay out some topics to dive in on in 2018! We need volunteers for presentations! You needn’t be the undisputed expert on a given topic–what we’re looking for is some time spent putting together an introduction and demonstration so that we can all discover something new and learn a bit about how to get started.
I also don’t want to close out 2017 without thanking our sponsor, JetBrains. Their generous support has enabled us to share some great tools with our community and add some extra incentive for folks to gather and talk technology! Thank you so much JetBrains for all you do and your wonderful support of KC Tech Group. Let’s give them a hand (👏)and check out some of their great products via the link below!
We’ll plan to see everyone in February–let’s have a great 2018 full of discovery, learning, and community.
Happy Coding. 💻 😎 🖖
–Kevin Collins
]]>For MotM-8, we’ll continue discovering (together!) some of the latest and greatest trends in computing and automation. We’ve got a sneak peak at Hilscher’s NetPi platform as well as an introduction to some of the technologies it is using. We’ve covered Node-RED in the past (MotM-5), and this time around I’ll be giving an introduction to Docker and container technology. Sure, you can go through the Getting Started guide on Docker’s website, but why not enjoy some tasty coffee and dinner at Third Space Coffee House in Bonner Springs, KS (directions are on their website) while I help distill it down! We’re getting started with the official stuff at 6:30pm on Thursday, December 7th, 2017, but feel free to come early for food and conversation!
I’d like to thank JetBrains s.r.o. for their continued support of KC Tech Group! I hope to have some of our members reflect in one of the next meetings on some of the projects they’re working on with the JetBrains tools. We’re going to be raffling off a license to one of JetBrains’ incredible IDEs/development tools at MotM-8! Check out their site for some of their other community offerings, they’ve got some great ways to get started with some great new technologies.
Don’t forget to join us on our Slack group! See you in December, happy coding! 👻
–Kevin Collins
]]>There has been a lot of movement in the world of text editors in recent times, and MotM-7 is ready to share some of the changes with you. We’ll also be touching on regular expressions, which have been around for a long time, but are worth looking at while you’re playing with your new text editor. 😎
Mike Wickersheim and I will be teaming up on a double header to deliver a presentation on modern Text Editor options and the power of Regular Expressions along with a summary of the Ignition Community Conference 2017 last month! Join us and talk tech at 6:30pm on Thursday, November 2nd, 2017 at Third Space Coffee House in Bonner Springs, KS (directions are on their website). They’ve been offering some pretty amazing soups recently, so come early to endulge (and leverage a tasty cup of coffee to stay awake during our sure-to-be-exhilerating presentation 😉).
I’d like to thank JetBrains s.r.o. for their continued support of KC Tech Group! I hope to have some of our members reflect in one of the next meetings on some of the projects they’re working on with the JetBrains tools. We’re going to be raffling off a license to one of JetBrains’ incredible IDEs/development tools at MotM-7! Check out their site for some of their other community offerings, they’ve got some great ways to get started with some great new technologies.
Don’t forget to join us on our Slack group! See you in November, happy coding! 👻
–Kevin Collins
]]>It is an exciting time in this area, as we see a lot of different products and strategies emerge. I think this is an area that will see a lot more attention in the next couple of years. I’m not sure how any one of us can keep up on all of it ourselves–this is when we need to engage our community. Join ours and talk tech with us at 6:30pm on October 5th, 2017 at Third Space Coffee House in Bonner Springs, KS (directions are on their website). Come early and get some dinner and wonderful coffee!
I’d like to thank JetBrains s.r.o. for their continued support of KC Tech Group!
Join us for a chance to join our raffle for a free license to one of JetBrains’ incredible IDEs or development tools! Also, check out their site for some of their other community offerings, they’ve got some great ways to get started with some great new technologies.
We look forward to seeing you! Until then, happy coding! 😎
–Kevin Collins
]]>Eric Crook (@ecrook on our Slack group) has volunteered to give us a presentation on Node-RED and shine some light on its capabilities and reveal some of its more common use-cases. With it being able to run on commodity hardware as well as powerful server-grade machines, everyone can explore Node-RED and find their own uses for it. Feel free to bring your Raspberry Pi and we’ll help get Node-RED up and running for you after the presentation!
I’d like to thank JetBrains s.r.o. for their continued support of KC Tech Group!
Join us for a chance to join our raffle for a free license to one of JetBrains’ incredible IDEs or development tools! Also, check out their site for some of their other community offerings, they’ve got some great ways to get started with some great new technologies.
We’ll see you at 6:30pm on September 7th at Third Space Coffee House in Bonner Springs, KS:
Until then… Happy coding! 😎
–Kevin Collins
]]>Returning to Third Space Coffee House in Bonner Springs on August 3rd, 2017, we’ll start the meeting in the conference room at 6:30pm. Many folks enjoyed some tasty food before/during MotM-3, so feel free to come out and enjoy a bite and/or some delicious coffee ahead of time (they’ll give ya decaf too if you’d like given the evening schedule ☕️)!
Mike and I are also happy to thank JetBrains s.r.o. for their support of KC Tech Group! MotM-3 was our first raffle for a license to one of JetBrains’ amazing development tools. Jim Evers hasn’t let us know which product he’s picked, but I’m sure there will be one that will enable some pretty neat new code to be constructed! It is super great to have such generous support from JetBrains
Happy coding! 😎
–Kevin Collins
]]>Third Space Coffee:
Our last MotM session at Third Space was quite delightful. There will be food available (they have a wonderful menu!) and possibly some pie too 🍰.
We’ve still got some work to do on the topic voting–we’re certainly up for volunteers until we land on something concrete! For this session, we’re going to fall back on one of my more favorite recent topics. You guessed it: Static Site Generators. I really think this will be an exciting session–I’ll be demoing a few different systems and I’m expecting a lot of folks to have light bulbs going off! You’ll be able to do some pretty neat things after this one!
As we get closer, I’ll post a link to some resources for the presentation. If you haven’t done it yet, don’t forget to join us in Slack!
Happy coding! 😎
–Kevin Collins
Third Space Coffee:
]]>This will be our first gathering here, but I can assert that they have great food, exceptional coffee, and a wonderful atmosphere! The presentation topic, chosen at the last MotM session, will be Source Control. We’ll be covering the basics as well as demoing both Git and Subversion across a few platforms. We might even offer up a surprise (at least to me!) entry in the Source Control world that I hadn’t run into before! In addition to some introductory content, I hope to share a few tips and tricks that will benefit both beginner and advanced users!
I’ve got the presentation assembled (at least the Keynote content, you’ll have to come in person to see the demos), feel free to join the presentation live here (although until we work out some additional live video streaming goodness, it might not be that exciting):
Have a great week, and happy coding!
–Kevin Collins
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