I have added a new section under the calendar on the right for Upcoming Progress Webinars.  I will try to keep this updated with what is coming.

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Progress Road Show Coming in October!!

Remember the mini-Tech Peak Progress had a few years back? They are bringing back something similar and it promises to be an awesome event! It will be October 24th in downtown Portland at the Westin Benson hotel, starting at 8:30am and ending with a 12:30pm lunch. You should be getting a flyer in the mail about this soon.

We don't get much here in Oregon, but I've lobbied heavily for this and they have agreed to bring it here. I'm excited and I think everyone will enjoy it a lot! Below are the details, I look forward to this and seeing all of you there. :)

The Progress Innovation Road Show
Fall ‘06

Bridging the Gap with Innovation

Today’s Progress is not the company you think you know. Offering a bol der, broa der and more diverse portfolio as a result of strategic investments in leading technologies, Progress continues on its path to innovation—bridging the gap between the business demands and technology requirements. As Progress and the user community continue to evolve as a result of innovation, one thing remains constant: it’s all about building, running and managing the world’s best business applications.

Now we are taking our latest innovations on the road across North America. Join Progress and your local Progress User Group to network and explore the many ways the Progress portfolio of products and services can address your new business challenges.

Who Should Attend?

All business and technical professionals seeking to learn more about:

• How the Complete Progress Portfolio can Grow your Business
• How Progress Resources can Support your Growth
• The People Behind the Products and Vision
• The Benefits of the Progress User Community

Whether you are new to Progress and the Progress User Community, or have years of Progress experience, you can benefit from this session.

Where to Attend:

9/19 Atlanta, GA Southeastern PUG
9/21 Bedford, MA New England PUG
9/26 Chicago, IL Chicago PUG
9/28 Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis PUG
10/10 Toronto, ON Toronto PUG
10/17 Brookfield, WI Wisconsin PUG
10/18 E. Lansing, MI Western Michigan & Michigan PUGs
10/24 Portland, OR Oregon PUG

The Agenda

Registration and Refreshments

Welcome

Innovation in Action
David E.Olson
Progress Director of Enterprise Solutions and Lead Evangelist
Join David for a quick tour of Progress technologies in action via a live demonstration featuring Progress OpenEdge, Sonic ESB, EasyAsk, Apama, Actional and DataXtend. David will show you how the latest Progress technologies can work together to integrate the supply chain, monitor business in real time, understand key performance metrics, provide ad hoc query and reporting capabilities for business executives, and monitor the IT infrastructure.

Biography
David is the Director of Enterprise Solutions for Progress’ OpenEdge Division, and has responsibility for the technical adoption of Progress solutions. Mr. Olson is currently involved with application architectures for the OpenEdge Architect, Tools for Business Logic and .NET interfaces. Since joining Progress in 1994, Mr. Olson has been actively involved in product management and technical marketing of the company’s application development products. He has held management, technical, and marketing positions in Progress’ ActiveX, Java, and Sonic business units

Customer Testimonial

Bridging the Resource Gap
Discover how Progress can help you with your innovation and growth. Learn more about Progress resources and tools, OpenEdge principals, Technical Support, Education, PSDN, Sales contacts, etc.

Wrap Up

Exploring Innovation Forum
Whether your interest lies in business, technology, or joining a local Progress User Group, you will find a kindred spirit and a forum in which to network.

Register Today!

For location information and to register, please visit http://www.progress.com/innovation
or call us at 1-800-477-6473 ext. 4700

Upcoming Progress Related Events

There are always Webinars going on with Progress and their other companies (Sonic, RealTime, etc). Now that we have an ORPUG Google Calendar, I'm going to try to keep that updated with these events as I find out about them. If you look down the right side of this blog you'll see a little Google calendar. Click on any one of the events listed and you'll see what webinars are coming up. Here's a quick list:

• Wed, Aug. 23rd. Stylus Studio webinar. 5am and 11am (both times PST).
• Thu, Aug. 31st. SOA webinar.
• Wed, Sep. 13th. OE10 Database Improvements webinar

If you hear of something I haven't listed, please let me know and I'll make sure others know about it.

Also, Oct 22-26 is the Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA) Conference which will be held here in Portland. At that conference Ken Rugg, vice president of products for Progress Software’s DataXtend®
and ObjectStore® product lines, will join a panel discussing "Objects
and Databases: State of the Union in 2006."

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Next Pub Gathering

Update 8/21/06: We will be meeting at Chili's at the 217-I5 interchange [map]. Hope to see you there!


Thursday August 24th, 4:30pm - ???. I'm leaning towards Chili's, though not sure which one. There's one at 217 & I-5, but the one I frequent is off Sunset at Bethany (just west of Murray and 217). Thursday's they have pints of microbrew for $2.50 (happy hour). They also have great food, lots of good happy hour food for $3.00.

How does this sound to everyone? Please email me and let me know if you plan on being there - and even if you don't, I need to know both ways so I can plan events that work best for everyone.

In October, Progress is planning another event like the Tech Peak they had several years ago, they are calling it a Road Show. They will be working closely with ORPUG to plan this event. From the agenda I've seen, it looks really good! I have told them while new stuff is always cool, a lot of people are still on v9, v8 and a few earlier versions - our members want to know things that can benefit them regardless of versions. I have also told them one of the main reasons for NOT upgrading to v10 is the licensing issues. Once they get an agenda finalized, they will mail out info to everyone, and I'll post it here on the blog.

Hope everyone is doing well and look forward to seeing you on August 24th!

Rich Uchytil

July 27th Get-Together Location

I've picked the Barley Mill Pub as our place to get-together.

1629 S.E. Hawthorne
Portland, OR 97214
Map

4:30pm - ???

We've been here before and it's a very cool place. Lots of stuff to chat about, and some neat things coming up. If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope to see you there!

Rich Uchytil

Progress in CIO Magazine!

Progress is mentioned in the current CIO magazine. The article is about Bonhams auction house using Progress for the database and development as well as other open source solutions. From the article:

"He opted for software and development tools from vendor Progress for two reasons: They were less expensive than Oracle at the high end of the market, and more scalable and reliable than Microsoft at the low end. He also liked the software because it provided a single programming language for three separate activities—coding the database, programming the business logic and writing the programs that deliver content to the Web. "That means less [for developers] to learn, fewer errors and less time spent debugging code," says Whitehead. "

Exchange 2006 Presentations Available

The powerpoint and PDF presentations from Exchange 2006 are now available on PSDN.  Sorry, no audio, just the presentations.

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Date change for July Get-Together

I had to change the date for the July Get-Together to the 27th. That's still a Thursday, and still 4:30pm - ???.

I'm still trying to think of a good location. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!

Rich

6/22 Meeting Minutes

It was suggested that I publish our meeting minutes which I thought was a great idea. So here's what went on.

We had a good turnout. Went around the room introducing ourselves and discovered one person who is new to Progress has a real mess on his hands. We spent a good portion of the meeting listening to his problems and offering suggestions, as well as sympathy - we could all feel his pain.

Several people are still running character clients instead of gui, and no one was on OE10. Three people have old v6-style code that includes editing blocks.

I talked about Exchange and provided a handout (pdf) with links to various Exchange information on PSDN, information about the new products, some quick tips on DB Performance from Adam Backman and Gus's presentations, and highlights from Tom Bascom's Highly Parallel Dump and Load presentation. Exchange 06 was very good with a lot of great information. We talked a little about how the big buzz is still about SOA and web services.

The other hot topic (at least hot for me because of our companies desires) was AJAX. There were two sessions at Exchange showing what you can do with AJAX, and I included Tom Bascom's ProJAX in the handout as another great example of what you can do. If you've used Google's Gmail, Google Maps, or Flickr, you've used an application using the AJAX concepts. Basically it's a way to refresh the web page without reloading the entire page. With this you can create web app's that are more feature rich and closer to the experience users expect from applications on their desktop. Progress will continue investigating this.

Overall I thought it was a very good meeting. Later this year and next year Progress is going to put together some Road Show's like the Tech Peak's they had in the past. They are trying to set these up to work with Users Groups, so we'd have a morning show, lunch, then a Users Group meeting in the afternoon. I'll send out all the details when I have them.

Thanks to everyone who showed up, especially Dan Foreman and Mark Bloomberg!

Next meeting will be Thursday September 21st, 3pm - 5pm, place TBD. On Thursday July 20th we'll have another little get-together at a local pub, 4:3opm - ???, place TBD.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Remember, this is YOUR Users Group. I am here to make it run how you would like and get you what you'd like to see. If there is a topic you would like see covered, let me know. If there is someone you would like to see as a guest speaker, let me know. Later!

Exchange 2007

2007 will be June 10 - 13 in Phoenix AZ, at the JW Marriot.  Looking at the website this looks like a really nice hotel.  I'm still wondering if going from Vegas to Phoenix in June is like going from the frying pan to the fire.  It WILL be HOTTT!!!  But it'll be a great conference and from what I can tell about the hotel, 1) it is non-smoking (WOOHOO!!) and 2) wireless is available almost everywhere in the hotel.  I wonder what the Tuesday night event will be.  Maybe everyone sitting in the pool to try to bring our body temp down?  :)

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D'OH!

Ok, so I didn't do exactly as I planned and didn't post comments and photos from each day.  It was very busy and a fantastic time, and I'm just now getting back to a normal schedule.

I PROMISE to post photos this week and PROMISE to post a recap as well.  This Thursday I will give an in depth recap of the conference, which was my best so far.  I think next year will be amazing and you should try now to convince your management to let you go!

Please come Thursday, it'll be very informative and you'll enjoy it a lot!  Hope to see you then!

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Exchange Day 3

Well, I was going to try to blog at the end of each day, however by the time I got back to my hotel room, I was just too tired.  The first two days were great, lots of fantastic stuff, and today looks very good too.  Most people are leaving today but I'm staying the night, so I'll be able to give a wrap-up tonight - WATCH THIS SPACE!  ;)

I also hope to get my photos posted tonight.  Time to run to a session called "Inside the OpenEdge UI Research Lab".  This should be very cool!

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Exchange - Tuesday Morning

Sorry I haven't written sooner, busy busy busy here at Exchange.  First, I want to say they FINALLY have a good beer selection!  Well, ok, ONE good beer - Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale.  But that's WAY better than it has been in the past, so good job to whoever made sure we had that!

Lots of neat stuff, went to the first AJAX session which was very interesting, I can't wait for the 2nd session.  Today I've got two database tuning sessions to go to, then tonight they have some event for us.  I'll try to blog more and post my photos tonight.

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Next ORPUG Meeting - 6/22

Next ORPUG Meeting:

• Thursday, June 22nd (had to change the date due to conflicts with the location)
• 3pm - 5pm
• Hampton Affiliates
  9600 SW Barnes Rd, Suite 200
  Portland, OR 97229
  503-203-6557
  map (all mapping software doesn't show our address correctly)

This will be a post-Exchange recap for those who couldn't make it. Some highlights:

• Why is Progress interested in AJAX as a user interface?
• A new UI for OpenEdge?
• Database performance tuning, always a favorite at Exchange.
• Mark Bloomberg from Progress will be joining us.
• And lots more!

There is a lot of great stuff at Exchange this year and this meeting will be a great way to find out about it if you couldn't go. If you have any questions, please contact Richard Uchytil. I look forward to seeing you there!

I will also be adding comments and photos to our ORPUG blog each day.

Next Get-Together

Our next fun get-together will be:

Thursday, 5/18
McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Imbrie Hall
4:30pm - ???

This building is very cool inside. I know it's a bit of a drive for people on the east side, but it's well worth it! And for those at FEI and Epson, we're in your backyard. ;)

Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Meeting 4/20

The next meeting will be Thursday, 4/20, 3:30pm - 5pm at North Pacific Group, Inc.  Topics are still being finalized and an email will be sent out early next week with details.  North Pacific Group is located near Washington Square by Red Lobster and Gustav's.  Please RSVP so they know how many people to expect.

North Pacific Group, Inc.
10200 SW Greenburg Rd. 4th Floor.
Portland, OR  97223
503-231-1166

Look forward to seeing you there!

Fun Get Together last night!

Thanks to everyone who showed up last night, that was fun! We missed the rest of you, but will see you at our next regular meeting in April.

Rich

Get-Together 3/16 at Bridgeport Brewpub

Bridgeport Brewing has finally finished their 14+ month remodel! Let's meet there this coming Thursday, 3/16, from 4:30pm - ????. I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun and it sounds like a fantastic remodel! Again, this is NOT a replacement for the regular meetings (next one will be in April), rather a get together for us to chat about Progress, cars, the weather, users, music, tv, whatever we want, just a fun time after work.

Map to Bridgeport:
http://tinyurl.com/louk9

Hope to see you there - and THIS time everyone IS healthy and I WILL - repeat WILL - be there!!!!!!

2/16/06 Gathering

Our next get-together is this Thursday from 4:30pm - ??? at Gustav's by Washington Square [ map ]. This is not a regular meeting, rather a chance for us to get together informally, have some beer (or other drink), food, and chat about anything, including Progress. If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope to see you there!

Next ORPUG Event

We will have quarterly meetings, and each month inbetween I plan on having little get-togethers. These get-togethers aren't meetings or replacements for meetings. We do talk about Progress some, but also talk about anything else - the weather, sports, cars, dogs, music, users, teal sheep, anything you want.

So the next gathering will be Feb 16th from 4pm - ???. I'm not sure where yet, but am thinking about Gustav's over by Washington Square. Any other recommendations?

Anyhow, put it on your calendar and I'll send out reminders as the date gets closer. Thanks to everyone for making our last meeting really good!

2006 PUG Presidents Meeting

What a great meeting! SO much better than last year. Honestly, last year I left feeling it was a waste of time as I did not really learn anything that would help me build up ORPUG. TOTALLY different this year! I've got lots of great ideas to share with everyone. Here's a few highlights (have to save some things so you'll come to the meeting). Click the photo to see more pictures form the meeting.

Benefits of Being a PUG Member

• One group had some extra money at the end of the year (and we aren't really profit making organizations), so they bought all of their members a Progress book.
• Discounts on training and other events sponsored by the PUG.
• Networking with peers, learning how others do things and finding people who might be able to help when you have a problem - or helping others with their problems.

Progress Stability

• As it has been for the past many years, Progress continues to be strong financially.

Pricing/Licensing
update 1/19/06: I think I have used the word "pricing" below when I should have used "licensing". Oops! Sorry!

• Sonic pricing licensing has changed for the better. If you're interested, check with your sales rep or var.
• OE10 pricing licensing is getting a major fix, no timeframe for when it'll be done. Part of the fix is what to do with those who have already purchased OE10.

10.1A

• 64-bit r-code. Right now there's a 2 billion record limit per area in Progress 9 & 10. 64-bit (which will be coming in 10.1B) will move this limit higher so for most people it's not an issue anymore. FYI, they have NO customers who are close to the 2 billion record limit. AND it is possible to set up your database in a way such that you could hit the 2 billion limit with 100 million records (using the wrong records per block settings for example).
• Should be out now or in a few days.

PSDN

• Progress wants to make PSDN THE place to go to get tech info, like whitepapers, how-to's, sample code, etc. NOT to be confused with the PEG which offers more real-world experience, more instant help, a very large range of opinions (which is sometimes good), etc. Both are complimentary.
• I suggested they also put all of the webinars and events for each Progress company (OpenEdge, RealTime, Sonic, etc) on PSDN so you don't have to go to 8 websites to get this stuff.
• You will be able to comment on stuff, like if you feel a whitepaper is wrong or was extremely helpful, you can leave a comment that others can see.

Directions Forums

• More info at the meeting, but basically a group of Progress and non-Progress employees working together on future directions of various pieces of Progress, like DBA, RFID, etc. I should be getting more info before our meeting and can share it then.

PUG Stuff
Here are some things that have worked for other groups that I want to try.

• Calling/emailing members many times (but not like every day) reminding of the upcoming meeting. Yes it's annoying to get the email again for the 10th time, but you're less likely to forget about the meeting. The groups that habe done this haven't had people complain, actually the opposite where they've said thanks for reminding them.
• Having a vendor sponsor a meeting. This means they can give a short (15 minute or less) sales pitch, but they have paid for the room and everything - plus usually their travel expenses - so the PUG doesn't have to come up with the money.
• Charge dues. Having money allows us to do many things, mainly being able to find a meeting place pretty much anywhere. Other groups also buy something they raffle off at meetings (to paid members only). Some have enough money they are able to help some go to Exchange. It is also felt if you are paying for this - or your company is - you are more likely to attend.
  
• Some groups only allow people a one-time free attendance to see if they want to join, then they must pay or they can't participate. If we get 60+ people attending all the time, I'll do this, but not right now.
• Guest Speakers. Lots of great ideas for finding guest speakers, including all of us Presidents sharing information on our guest speakers. I think from this discussion I will have a much better time of finding speakers and topics for us.

One last thing. We (meaning us here in Oregon) have complained for YEARS that we don't know who are Progress Rep is. The person in charge of Rep's (Diane Albano) will be more than happy to let everyone know. So if you don't know and want to know or want to verify, send me an email and I'll find out for you.


Again, this was a fantastic meeting and I got a lot of great stuff from it. I'll have more to share at our meeting January 19th. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or whatever. See you then!