Presentations

Upcoming talks

Colin Angus Mackay — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:36:39 GMT

My SQL Injection Attack prevention talk is on the road. I’ve already given the talk in Dundee, Newport and Nuneaton. And in the coming months I’ll be delivering it in Glasgow, London and Newcastle.

If you want to come and learn about securing your database from a developer perspective you can come along.

Glasgow, 4th February at Scot ALT.NET.
London, 17th February at Edge UG.
Newcastle, 21st April at NEBytes.

SQL Injection Attack Talk in Nuneaton

Colin Angus Mackay — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:18:47 GMT

I’ll be speaking to VBUG in Nuneaton on the 12th January 2010 on the subject of SQL Injection Attacks and Tips on How to Prevent Them.

More details on this event can be found on the VBUG website.

SQL Injection Attacks and Tips on How to Prevent Them

Colin Angus Mackay — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:29:25 GMT

I’m giving a talk in Dundee on the topic of SQL Injection Attacks. If you are interested in the subject then the registration link is at the bottom of the page.

Wednesday, 28th October 2009 at 19:00 – 21:00
Queen Margaret Building, Dundee University

The Talk

In light of some recent events, such as the man who was convicted of stealing 130 million credit card details through a SQL Injection attack, it is imperative that developers understand what a SQL Injection Attack is, how they are carried out, and most importantly, how to defend your code against attack.

In this talk I’ll demonstrate a SQL Injection Attack on an application in a controlled environment*. I’ll show you where the vulnerable code lies and what you can do to harden it.

Although this talk uses C# as the application language and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as the database engine many of the concepts and prevention mechanisms will apply to any application that accesses a database through SQL.

* Demonstrating an attack on a real system without the owner’s consent is a breach of the 1990 Misuse of Computers Act, hence the controlled environment.

The Venue

We are meeting in the Queen Mother Building at Dundee University. After the meeting we normally retire to the the bar at Laing's

The Agenda

18:45 Doors Open
19:00 Welcome
19:10 The Talk (Part 1)
19:55 Break
20:05 The Talk (Part 2)
20:45 Feedback & Prizes
21:00 Repair to the Pub

Registration

Space is limited, we would therefore ask that you sign up.

Technorati Tags: sql,sql injection attack,security

An Introduction to ASP.NET MVC

Colin Angus Mackay — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:18:49 GMT

[More details and registration]

16th October 2008 at 19:00 in Edinburgh

Today, ASP.NET webforms is a well established and highly productive platform for building web applications. Some people though, crave more control. They want to operate that bit closer to the metal, enjoy a clear separation of concerns and ensure that unit testing their application is made as easy as possible.

Enter ASP.NET MVC. ASP.NET MVC enables you to build Model View Controller (MVC) applications with the ASP.NET framework as an alternative to ASP.NET webforms.

In this session we'll take a look at the drivers behind MVC, the architecture of a typical ASP.NET MVC application, new features in ASP.NET that make it possible and we'll build a simple ASP.NET MVC application to explore the key concepts.

Speaker Bio

Mike Ormond gained a BSc(Hons) in Information Engineering from the University of Strathclyde before moving south of the border many years ago. After spending some time with the Defence Research Agency, Mike joined Mars Electronics where he worked on automated payment systems. In 1996 he joined Mercury Interactive before heading over to Microsoft in 1997 to work in their developer support organisation.

In 2003 he joined the Developer and Platform Group as a Developer Evangelist. Since then he’s travelled the length and breadth of the land talking about Microsoft’s platform and developer tools. Currently Mike’s interests include ASP.NET, AJAX, Silverlight and developing solutions with Office Open XML.

When he’s not working, Mike likes to potter in his allotment and listen to Radio 4 on the wireless.

You can contact Mike at: http://mikeo.co.uk

[More details and registration]

Technorati Tags: asp.net,asp.net mvc,.net,microsoft,mvc,edinburgh,scottish developers.

Speaker Training full

Colin Angus Mackay — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:01:41 GMT

As I mentioned in the Scottish Developers July Newsletter Microsoft are running speaker training sessions to help community speakers get started or improve their skills with regard to technical presentations. I just got an email earlier today to say that all the places are full already. Microsoft will be running another session at some point, so if you missed this opportunity there will be another sometime in the coming months.

In the meantime if you want to get your feet wet and have a go at speaking for a short 5-10 minutes session we always welcome new speakers at Scottish Developers. Just drop me an email to colin@scottishdevelopers.com. We also have an open mic night from time-to-time so drop me an email if you'd be interested in that.

Technorati Tags: speaker,training,speaker training,scottish developers

Speaking at SQL Bits III

Colin Angus Mackay — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:05:24 GMT

I've just had the email through to let me know that my session has been selected for SQL Bits III on the 13th of September. I'll be talking on the subject of Spatial Queries in SQL Server 2008, an evolving talk I've done a couple of times before. It will be updated once again for SQL Bits III.

Here's the abstract: It is reckoned that 80-90% of data has a spatial component to it. But what do we do with it now? At best, we constrain it to postcodes. Well, that would be great if we were delivering letters, but the majority of us aren’t. In this session we look at Spatial Queries in SQL Server to see how it works and what can be done with it.

Technorati Tags: SQL server,SQLBits,SQLBits III,Spatial Queries

VBUG Manchester - Spatial Queries

Colin Angus Mackay — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:08:47 GMT

Just a reminder to anyone that is interested that I'm speaking tomorrow (Thursday July 24th) Evening at VBUG in Manchester on the topic of SQL Server 2008 Spatial Queries, slide decks are available on my website.

Technorati Tags: VBUG,Manchester,Spatial Queries,SQL Server 2008,SQL Server,SQL,spatial,slide deck

SQL Bits III Session Voting and Delegate Registration open

Colin Angus Mackay — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:28:30 GMT

SQL Bits are going for a slightly different take on the registration process this time. You vote for the sessions you want to see at the same time as signing up for the conference. This is quite interesting because it means that you are signing up as a delegate without actually knowing what the final agenda will be. It's quite exciting really!

If you want to vote on the sessions you want to see and sign up for the conference then you can head on over to the SQL Bits website and sign up. Remember to vote for my session while you are there: "Where's my data? An introduction to Spatial Queries in SQL Server 2008"

Technorati Tags: SQLBits,SQLBits III,SQL Server,conference,community

LINQ to XML event summary

Colin Angus Mackay — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:14:18 GMT

The LINQ to XML talk was earlier today. We had a slightly smaller turn out than expected and I'm wondering if it was the weather (it was warm), people went on holiday (it is June - but then why sign up?) or if it was the string quartet in the lobby that people shied away from.

Yes, you read that right! Tonight our event was accompanied by a string quartet playing Pachelbel, Bach and pieces from many other composers. But it wasn't for our event, one of the neighbouring events in the university had the entertainment laid on. And if you've never heard a string quartet playing up close and live before then boy are these guys LOUD!

Anyway, for those that turned up we had a fun night and we issued prizes of a copy of JetBrains Resharper and a copy of Daniel Moth's famous book (something to do with Mobile Development).

If you want to learn more about LINQ to XML then you might want to read my series of posts on the subject, it is still in it early stages at the moment but more posts will added shortly.

The presentation was a new style for me. I had but two slides in total. An introduction slide and an overview of LINQ slide. For the remainder of the two hours I staying in Visual Studio. I'm hoping that was more effective that sitting in slides the whole time, or bouncing back and forwards between slides and code.

Technorati Tags: Scottish Developers,LINQ,LINQ to XML,XML,JetBrains

Event: LINQ to XML - Everything but the kitchen sinq

Colin Angus Mackay — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:10:18 GMT

I'll be speaking at the Scottish Developers event in Glasgow on the 10th June 2008 at the Continuing Professional Development Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University.

I've be giving an introduction to the new XML classes in .NET 3.5, how they work and what can be done with them. After the break I'll then show how the new XML classes can be used in LINQ (Language INtegrated Query) in order to get data out in the way that you want.

If you want to know more about the event and to sign up please use this link: http://www.scottishdevelopers.com/modules/extcal/event.php?event=61

Technorati Tags: c#,linq,xml,linq to xml,scottish developers