what do I know

Well, this week I’ve gotten one step close to organizing a Brevard RIA/web developer user group. I hope to have our first meeting on August 21, 2008. I’d like to have the meetings every 3rd Thursday of the month starting @ 8:00 PM, lasting for about 1 to 2 hours based on the topic. Short of finding a place beachside or near 95 that is open in the evenings and has wifi, we’re going to stick with House of Joe for now on 192, next to the Melbourne Mall. Initially it looks like it’ll be a small group of us, so I’m not too worried about space being available. The new Florida Creatives group for Brevard looks like they are going to meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, so that may cause some conflicts initially, but since I have little visibility for the group as of yet, we’ll see how it goes.

Now we need to just work on a name/acronym so I can get a domain and blog up. Here are some of the suggestions we have thus far:

• Brevard Area Developer of Rich Internet Applications (BADORIA)
• Brevard Network of Developers and Enthusiasts (BNODE)
• Brevard Developer Web Group (BDWG)
• Brevard Area Rich Internet Application UG (BARIA)
• Brevard Rich Internet Application UG (BRIA)
• Brevard Rich Internet Application Developers (BRIAD)
• Rich Internet Application Techies (RIAT)
• Web Brevard User Group (WEBBUG)
• Brevard Area Web Developers (BAWD)
• Beachside Developers (BSDEV)
• Rich Internet Application Brevard User Group (RIABUG)

I’d like to have Brevard and something like Web or RIA in the name, but I’m still undecided. Does anyone has any suggestions? I’m open to ideas.

Well, after some searching, I’ve decided to give House of Joe on 192 next to the Melbourne mall a shot for the first meeting of the Brevard user group I’m trying to start. It’s open until 11:00 PM on weekdays and has free wifi, so hopefully it’ll work out. Thanks to Sebastian for the suggestion.

I’ve been doing some thinking about the focus on the group. I’ve decided that rather than focusing exclusively on Adobe technologies, I’d like to shift the focus to rich internet technologies (RIA) including Flex, AIR, AJAX, and possibly Silverlight. I’ve been messing a lot with jQuery recently, and just like the rest of the masses, I can’t get enough of it; I’m sure there are others that feel the same way too. There are other cool APIs that’d I’d like to mess with including the spread over at Google (Data, Charts, Maps, etc.) that can fall under the umbrella of the RIA buzzword as well.

Based on the audience I’ve seen in Brevard and the types of jobs I see advertised on the job boards, I think this type of group will have a better chance at growth than just an Adobe focused group. My next goal is to pick a day and time that we can meet, then the first meeting’s topic, then a hopefully a domain and website. Initially I’m going to focus on just meeting up with people and hacking away at code, but if we get more people joining us, then maybe we can start doing presentations too.

Keep a look out for more info as I continually try to get my act together, and fail at doing so.

As the Adogo has grown over the last year, I’ve noticed that a few people, like myself, make the trek from the Space Coast into Orlando for our monthly meeting. In an effort to bring the work of the group to Brevard County, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in participating in an Adobe group locally? Initially I’d be interested in just getting together a local coffee shop or pub and doing hackfests with Flex, ColdFusion, AIR, and whatever else we can get our hands on. As attendance grows, maybe we could get into presentations, but until then, I’d like to keep it layback. I’m still looking to stay involved in the Adogo, but who can turn down getting away and coding for a few hours each month.

I’m looking for spots to have the meeting still, but things close pretty early in the Melbourne area; does anyone have any ideas about good joints that could support us? I’m looking into Charlie and Jake’s in Suntree or possibly the Sun Shoppe Cafe (coffee shop) in downtown Melbourne. I’d love find something beachside, but I’m not sure where to look. If people are interested we also need to come up with a name, date, and time. Any suggestions?

As I put together more information, I’ll post about them here. Please comment and let me know if you would attend. Check back soon for more details.

Well, it’s been a crazy month or so since I’ve posted, but a lot has happened on the Brevard restaurant scene. Here are a few of the tidbits that have crossed my path:

• Islamorada Restaurant, our local Suntree Cuban joint, recently closed for renovation and re-opened as Cocomo’s Grill, a not so Cuban but more island inspired style restaurant. After stopping by for lunch (review to come one day), I found out that the place is under new ownership and has a new wait staff. I think they’ve retained some of the cooking staff since many of the dishes on the menu are from Islamorada’s original menu, but unfortunately tostones did not make it back onto the menu; I also didn’t see any of that amazing key lime butter or panitos on the table. The new menu looks good however, so I’m not that discouraged.
• In crazy, all of Brevard’s restaurants are catching on fire news, Meg O’Malley’s Irish Pub, located in downtown Melbourne, had a fire break out on their rear patio. Smoke damage extended to the building costling about $150K in damages. Here’s the write up on the event for those who are interested.
• Dinners2U, the latest local craze in delivered and prepared meals for the Melbourne area, is doing so well that in the next 6 months, the goal is to open a new location in Viera off of Murrell Road. This is great news for the Suntree area since delivery is not available in our area. I want to order a few more times from Dinners2U before I write them up, but so far it’s home cooked meals for a descent prices (considering all of the food you get with your order). Here’s more info for the curious.
• Leaning Tower of Pizza Restaurant is celebrating 25 years of serving the Melbourne area. They’re running spaghetti and slice specials for the month; buy one of either and get one of the same for $0.25. Leaning Tower is a great establishment and deserves all of the praise that it receives. Swing by, check it out, and show your support for a staple of the city.
• A little birdy told me that the owners of Island Pasta Company downtown have purchased, or are in the process of purchasing, Chowders on US1 in Suntree. From what it sounds like, Chowders will remain a seafood restaurant but look for a new name and menu in the future. Not sure when that future will be, but I’m excited to hear something new will come from that spot. They’ve got a great view and I’d love to go back.
• Cantina Dos Amigos is now back open after being previously closed due to fire. Looks like business is back to normal.

So that’s about all for now. I have some reviews for some Brevard classics coming down the pipe as well as some new establishments with some great potential. Talk to you soon.

So Sebastian recently reminded me about The Beachside Resident which is a local magazine put out for the coastal area. This month’s restaurant review … Trevor’s Blue Toucan, a Jamaican restaurant in the Cape Canaveral area. We don’t know if it’s any good yet, but I definitely need to try it out. I haven’t had ginger beer in a long time and could definitely use one. The menu looks good so I’m excited to give it a shot. I’ll let you all know what I think.

So my wife and I are pretty big into going out to eat at local mom and pop places in town. I don’t know much about cooking but I love to eat. So in an effort to put some more content into my blog and give me another outlet to talk about food (that I like to eat), I’m going to being blogging about the restaurants we visit. I’ll try to list things like what I order about how much I pay for each item. I always try to get something new every time I go out, so hopefully it’ll be enough variety to distract people from the recent lack of technical content.