A flash from the past! Carl and Richard chat with Robert Scoble! Carl and Robert go back to the VBits days and the beginning of the public internet, the first blogs and Robert's time at Microsoft. Then the conversation turns briefly to Robert's work at Rackspace and their attempt to make the cloud even better. Robert also talks about his book the Age of Context, the stories they collected to create the book and a vision of the future! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/don...
Apr 01, 2014•53 min
Carl and Richard talk to Marcel de Vries about CodedUI - the test functionality built into Visual Studio that nobody knows about. CodedUI tests are tests built to automatically operate your UI so that you can test your application top-to-bottom, no short cuts. Marcel talks about how CodedUI tests are actually built using a test recorder and then tweaking the tests to increase coverage. You can build tables of data to use for entry to challenge boundary testing, add additional assertions and vali...
Mar 27, 2014•56 min
Carl and Richard chat with Micheal Learned about modern release management with Visual Studio. The conversation starts like many do when it comes to ALM: what's hard, and what's easy. And let's face it - releasing software properly is often hard! Micheal talks about the various pitfalls that folks fall into around releasing software and how today's environment just won't tolerate those mistakes any more. This leads to a discussion about release pipelines (check out the great doc in the show note...
Mar 25, 2014•56 min
Well, you knew this was coming - a geek out on the not-fun topic of nuclear accidents. Richard runs down the fundamentals of nuclear accidents, with some story telling around what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Then on to the main event - Fukushima. The situation is serious, but progress is being made and the Japanese remain committed to fully cleaning up the mess made there. So is nuclear power worth the risk? Be part of this conversation; it's certainly not done yet! Support this...
Mar 20, 2014•55 min
Carl and Richard talk to Amber DeRosa and Alicia Hatter about usability testing. The conversation starts out by digging into what usability testing is all about - actually looking at how users are using your software... or perhaps would want to use your software. Amber and Alicia talk about working through usability studies even before the software is built to get a feel for what the user would really like. And while software is being built, routine testing digs deeper into how the software will...
Mar 18, 2014•53 min
Carl and Richard talk to Alan Stevens about his views on software craftsmanship. Well, if he just agreed with it, it wouldn't be much of a show now, would it? Alan starts off talking about what it really means to be a craftsman - referencing such wonderful talents as Kevin Ryan Guitars and Steinway pianos as examples. This leads to a discussion about function, construction method and artistry - they're all part of making anything great. The conversation also digs into the whole medieval guild mo...
Mar 13, 2014•1 hr 2 min
Carl and Richard chat with Rob Conery about his open source project called Biggy. Biggy is a project in GitHub that puts a wrapper over top of Postgres (and SQL Server for that matter) to allow you to handle documents (aka JSON) efficiently and fast. Rob takes on thinking around noSQL in general, including graph and document databases. This leads to a whole discussion on what we should store and why. Rob mentions a ton of cool GitHub projects around storage (links in the show notes), and how muc...
Mar 11, 2014•54 min
While at the ModernApps2013 event in Mountain View, California, Carl and Richard got a chance to sit down with David Chappell and get his views on the changing landscape of software and software development. David talks about how applications have evolved into a devices+services model, where parts of the application live in the cloud, and the rest live in the various form factor devices that we all now use. Later the conversation turns to the evolution of Application Lifecycle Management, with c...
Mar 06, 2014•52 min
Carl and Richard talk to Neil Danson about his experiences with F#. The conversation starts off connecting Carl's thoughts on neural networks and a listener question - so what is the role of F# in the big data analytic world? Neil digs into how F# has permeated all types of development in the .NET world, even WPF! There's also some serious discussion about quality of code in F# and how Bob Martin's SOLID principles can be applied to functional programming. Support this podcast at — https://redci...
Mar 04, 2014•49 min
Carl and Richard chat with David McCarter about what it takes to be successful when you are interviewed for a job. But David goes well beyond just the interview - are you pursuing the right job for you? Are you looking for it the right way? The conversation digs into the value of recruiters and difference between good ones and bad ones. And when it comes to the interview itself, what preparation should you be doing? What are the right answers to classic questions like 'do you have any questions ...
Feb 27, 2014•52 min
Carl and Richard talk to Hilton Giesenow down in South Africa about what it takes to build real enterprise-class SharePoint systems. Hilton talks about the history of SharePoint and how it's twists-and-turns have left a bad taste in the mouth of some developers. The conversation also digs into the infrastructure side, which is unavoidable when it comes to SharePoint - there are lots of moving parts, and someone has to take charge of them. If you're keen on SharePoint, you owe it to yourself to h...
Feb 25, 2014•1 hr 3 min
Carl and Richard talk to Benjamin Howarth about his experiences working with Umbraco. Umbraco is a CMS system built in ASP.NET. Benjamin discusses how Umbraco has become a key part of his work with Universal Music - and how its affected the entire development practice. After a digression into DevOps, the conversation comes back around to what you need to know to be successful with Umbraco - where it can save you time, where you need to write code, and why you'd want to. This is open source the w...
Feb 20, 2014•1 hr 1 min
Carl and Richard talk to Michael Kennedy about using Python with .NET. Michael talks about the nature of Python and what makes it great (like whitespace counting). The conversation digs into the many forms of Python, some Windows friendly, some not so much, and many with specializations. Don't miss the discussion about the Zen of Python, and check out the huge collection of links for various Python bits! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Feb 18, 2014•58 min
Time to geek out on Bitcoin! Well, more than Bitcoin, let's talk cryptocurrency in general. But first, a history lesson - Richard runs down the fundamentals of currency and banking from the neolithic era, ancient culture, the middle ages, all the way to today. The history lesson sets the stage for why cryptocurrencies have come into being. While there are many cryptocurrencies, the boys focus on Bitcoin since it's the big kahuna. Is it the Napster of its time, or the iTunes? Check the links and ...
Feb 13, 2014•1 hr 2 min
Carl and Richard talk to Tatham Oddie about his work with Neo4j. The conversation starts out exploring the core concepts behind graph databases - of which Neo4j is one. This leads to a more general conversation about NoSQL, what it's good for and where it struggles. Can NoSQL and SQL work side by side? You bet! Tatham talks about some of the applications he's built using both technologies, and how your thinking has to change to really take advantage of all your choices. Support this podcast at —...
Feb 11, 2014•1 hr 3 min
Carl and Richard talk to Jonathan Zuck about the state of software patents today. The conversation starts out talking about some of the craziness around software patents - patent trolls, extortion-like letters and the like. Jonathan talks about the changes made by the US to patent law in 2012, and how the biggest challenge today is cleaning up poorly written patents from the DotComBoom era. Also mentioned is a document for application developers created by ACT Online for what to do if you receiv...
Feb 06, 2014•1 hr 1 min
While at the Denver stop of the ModernApps2013 tour, Carl and Richard talk to Tim Huckaby about the latest on the Kinect. The Xbox One comes with the Kinect 2, which by summer 2014 will be available for PCs. The conversation starts out explaining the differences between the old Kinect and new (it's three times better!) and some ideas of what can be done with it. But don't stop there - from gesture comes mind control and more! The NUI continues to evolve - jump in and explore! Support this podcas...
Feb 04, 2014•1 hr 3 min
Time to Geek Out on Direct Current! Carl and Richard talk about the recent wave of discussion about DC in the home. Blame USB for part of it - everyone is using USB to charge devices now, and USB was never meant to do that... but in 2014, the new USB Power Delivery standard will be implemented to make it more effective. Richard digs into his experiences switching over to LED lighting in his house, and the craziness around converting from AC to DC at every LED light. So what about distributed LED...
Jan 30, 2014•50 min
During the Seattle stop of the ModernApps2013 road trip, Carl and Richard chatted with Michele Leroux Bustamante about her experiences with Azure, and how that naturally leads to some DevOps practices. Michele discusses the relative benefits of automation over manual control, dealing with the challenges of account privileges, and why startups seem to be so much better at DevOps than bigger organizations. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Jan 28, 2014•58 min
While at the Irvine stop of the ModernApps2013 road trip, Carl and Richard talk to Dan Wahlin about getting started with AngularJS. The discussion digs into the variety of JavaScript libraries out there today and how Dan has shifted his skills from a much more C# centric world into a more JavaScript world. The interplay of the libraries is an important discussion, as well as thoughts about when NOT to use technologies like AngularJS - as well as when there are times that these tools provide a hu...
Jan 23, 2014•54 min
At the beginning of the west coast leg of the ModernApps2013 road trip, Carl and Richard talk to Julie Lerman about the latest features of Entity Framework in Visual Studio 2013. Julie talks about the improvements made in EF6, the version of Entity Framework that ships 'alongside' Visual Studio 2013. The focus is on code-first data interaction, but along the way Richard puts on his DBA app and complains. The conversation digs into performance, tuning and creating maintainable data that works wel...
Jan 21, 2014•58 min
At NDC-London, Carl and Richard moderated an amazing panel about Web API... panelists included Glenn Block, Darrel Miller, Pedro Felix, Christian Weyer, Dominick Baier and Daniel Roth. What's the future hold for Web API? Is it headed the way of WCF? Can anyone get a word in edgewise around Glenn Block? Some great questions from the audience toward the end of the show as well. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Jan 16, 2014•57 min
While in Chicago at the ModernApps2013 Tour, Carl and Richard talk to Stephen Forte about accelerators - startup business accelerators. Stephen discusses how small teams enter into accelerators to learn about building Minimal Viable Products and the fundamentals of lean startups. The cornerstone of this story is Erik Reis' Lean Startup book. The conversation also dives into crowdsourcing sites like kickstarter and indiegogo. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Jan 14, 2014•56 min
At the Houston #ModernApps2013 Road Trip stop, Carl and Richard talk to Justin Searls about using Javascript in the enterprise. Besides referencing an awesome number of tools around Javascript (check out the huge list of links!), Justin focuses in on how enterprise's often ignore the actual care and feeding of Javascript code within their organization. While he's certainly taken advantage of that ignorance, better that we all figure out how to treat Javascript like a first class language citizen...
Jan 09, 2014•1 hr
While at NDC in London, Carl and Richard talk to Glenn Block, Justin Rusbatch and Adam Ralph about ScriptCS. Our first show with Glenn on ScriptCS was way back in March 2013, only a week after ScriptCS was first checked into GitHub. Nine months later, where is ScriptCS now? What are people doing with it? Justin talks about his contributions while Adam digs into how he's using ScriptCS in the field. ScriptCS represents some of the awesome potential of Roslyn! Support this podcast at — https://red...
Jan 07, 2014•48 min
At the St. Louis stop of the #ModernApps2013 road trip, Carl and Richard chatted with Kathleen Dollard about code generation and Roslyn. The conversation starts out talking about the relative acquiescence of code generation in recent years and the potential of Roslyn to rekindle the movement. Kathleen talks about her own efforts with code generation and where she sees this technology ultimately going. Long range thinking from an amazing mind! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-r...
Jan 02, 2014•58 min
While at NDC-London, Carl and Richard talk to Jez Humble about his latest thoughts on continuous delivery. Jez talks about the tendency of people to count on tools to provide continuous delivery, while culture and process are far more important components. No technology will save you from bad practices and a lack of trust! The conversation also digs into the inertia of automation, resistance to change, and the disconnect within a team on intention, risk tolerance and reward! It all starts with t...
Dec 31, 2013•51 min
While at NDC-London, Carl and Richard sat down with Mark Rendle about building Zud.io, a set of tools for handling storage in the cloud. The conversation starts out with a quick chat about TypeScript and it's role in development. Mark talks about the experience of working with BizSpark Plus to build a web-centric way to programmatically handle blobs, tables, queues and more. Also discussed is building a responsive web design web page that works well with desktops, tablets and phones. Next up for...
Dec 26, 2013•49 min
Carl and Richard talk to Mads Torgersen about his work on C# and Roslyn. Mads talks about how old the Roslyn CTP has gotten - and how that may change in the future. There's also a hint about a form of Roslyn already seen in the wild (hint - it's CodeLens!). And the conversation gets crazier from there, but it comes down to one thing... is C# in Roslyn, or is Roslyn C#? Have a listen! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Dec 24, 2013•56 min
While at NDC London, Carl and Richard check in with Bob Martin about a variety of subjects - starting with healthcare.gov. The conversation really digs into the fundamentals of professionalism - should the customer take precedent over the industry? What does it mean to really be a professional? Bob also explores the evolution of development practices, where what was once extreme is now mainstream, and how easy it is to lose sight of our long term goals in the midst of the day-to-day battles to b...
Dec 19, 2013•58 min
