Theocacao: Announcing NSCoder Night

Announcing NSCoder Night

Chris Hanson had the idea to start up a weekly Mac programming help + hacking night using regular CocoaHeads attendees as a base. The idea has now become reality in the form of NSCoder Night, every Tuesday in Campbell at Orchard Valley Coffee.

We do this thing weekly — every Tuesday night. We're starting immediately, with the first meeting this Tuesday, Oct 30 from 7pm to 9pm. If you're looking to get your first batch of Leopard tools and framework questions answered, this is a good start.

CocoaHeads has a feature presentation, Q&A time, and mini demos. NSCoder Night has no presentation. We just show up and do our thing. We've run the numbers and 70% of the time will be for hanging out, and the remaining 30% will be for just kicking it. We may write some code somewhere in there.

The idea is that you can bring your laptop with any project that you're working on. You can walk up to Chris or me or anyone else who you have a question for, and we'll do what we can to answer it. The fact that we're there means you're not risking ambushing us, so don't be shy. You may also just want to demo your project to some other developers and get feedback.

To add something else to the mix, I'll leave my door open for UI and design help for anyone who is interested in that sort of thing.

If you've been to CocoaHeads, you'll probably see some familiar faces, but anyone is free to show up. In other words, don't think that because you haven't been to CocoaHeads you'll be out of place. In fact, you could just attend in stealth mode initially if you want.

Location and Details

Chris chose Orchard Valley Coffee based on a few factors: size, accommodations, power outlets and internet. I haven't been there, but I'm told it's fairly large, has power outlets all over the place, and has solid free WiFi service. Even the two-person tables are quite reasonable.

Live Google Map | Full-Size Map

NSCoder Night — Episode 0
Tuesday Oct 30, 7pm - 9pm
Orchard Valley Coffee
349 E. Campbell Avenue

I have no idea how many people are going to show up but I'm just excited we're doing this. Please spread the word.

But Wait, There's More!

Chris has expressed interested in having multiple chapters of NSCoder Night in various locations across the country and world — even in places where CocoaHeads meetings are not currently held. If you'd like to start a chapter, contact Chris and he'll get you started. The advantage of this approach is that we can probably help you with the promotion of your particular location.

See you Tuesday night.

Announcing NSCoder Night
Posted Oct 24, 2007 — 12 comments below

StuFF mc — Oct 24, 07 4826

http://www.pomcast.com would be proud to organize a Chapter in Cologne Germany. It might not be every week, but at least once a month, probably every 2 weeks.

Johannesh — Oct 24, 07 4827

Since I never heard of such an event here in germany, cologne would be awesome; For NRW it'd even be perfect.
And on a monthly base I could effort to come.

regards
Johannesh

John C. Fox — Oct 24, 07 4828

Hi Scott:

This is fantastic!

It so happens I'll be at Apple that day for a performance workshop, so I'll definitely stop by. I have a number of things I'm working on using Leopard for which I'd love to get some feedback.

See you,

John

Fred Priese IV — Oct 24, 07 4830

We have been doing cocoaCodingNights in St. Louis since late May or early June. I forget when we started. Same concept though. Been on a hiatus since August due to scheduling conflicts. We will be starting back up next week hopefully.

Steve Weller — Oct 24, 07 4831

Is the bandwidth good enough for iChat? If it is you could publish one iChat address for triage and then help remotely those who cannot attend. A good work-out for iChat theater as well.

Scott Stevenson — Oct 24, 07 4832

@Steve Weller: Is the bandwidth good enough for iChat? If it is you could publish one iChat address for triage and then help remotely those who cannot attend. A good work-out for iChat theater as well.

Personally, I don't think this is a good venue for realtime video or anything like that. It's at a coffee shop, so we may be spread against many non-contiguous tables, lots of background noise, etc.

In any case, the whole point of both NSCoder Night and CocoaHeads really is to be there in in real life -- to encourage you to get out from behind your cube and/or home office (if you are able) and meet other people doing the same sort of work. If distance is an issue, I'd say that's a cue to startup a local chapter.

I do realize some people are not physically able to be there, and it would be nice to have a solution for that as well. But it would be nice to do it in a way that doesn't eliminate the entire "get out of the office" element.

This is just my opinion, though. Chris may feel differently.

JoseRVazquez — Oct 25, 07 4834

Yes you read that right! Washington DC is a big enough place for it to have it's own NS Coder chapter. I find it hard to believe we do not have a Cocoa heads chapter as well but that will change soon, wink wink.

I live in Vienna VA and I believe Tyson's Corner would be a good area to meet. There is a Panera Bread in Route 7 towards Leesburg. I think that would be as good as any place to meet casually between 7:00 and 9:00 pm. The other alternative would of course be the Apple Store in Tyson's itself, but I don't think they sell cookies or drinks in there... maybe an apple at most.

If you want to join me come to Panera

If you do see me, this is what I should look like:

I am also working on seting up greenmango.org (or greenmangos.wordpress.com)

with a little luck this post will show up there too.

So I am shooting for next tuesday same as the Silicone Valley chapter. Thanks and hope to see you guys soon. (yeah I'm talking to all you AOL cocoa guys hogging Aaron for a week up in DC and not letting anyone know about it!!)

Jose

JoseRVazquez — Oct 25, 07 4836

If you want to join me come to Panera

If you do see me, this is what I should look like:

I am also working on seting up greenmango.org (or greenmangos.wordpress.com)

with a little luck this post will show up there too.

Jose

Shawn Inman — Oct 25, 07 4837

Man, we need a chapter in Cleveland. I'm not sure that there is enough of a community up here.

Anyone game?

Blain — Oct 25, 07 4838

Aw nuts. I have work during that time, but I'll see if I can swing by for a short while anyways.

Gunnar — Oct 25, 07 4839

I was about to add this to my iCal and saw "Tuesday night coding" already in that slot. I was a little freaked out for a second until I realized it was in the CocoaHeads iCal I'd subscribed to. Nifty! Is it safe to assume in the future that if it's posted there, it's a go? I noticed it's not a repeated item.

Scott Stevenson — Oct 25, 07 4840

@Gunnar: Nifty! Is it safe to assume in the future that if it's posted there, it's a go? I noticed it's not a repeated item.

I think the calendar is basically just reinforcement of the established weekly schedule. It's probably best to assume it's on even if the calendar says otherwise.

Comments Feed

Comments Temporarily Disabled

I had to temporarily disable comments due to spam. I'll re-enable them soon.