How do you make your applications accessible to everyone? Carl and Richard talk to Elle Waters about her working building applications for the visually and hearing impaired, on all sorts of platforms. The web dominates the discussions since so much can be built there. Elle talks about the array of tools that users have to help them understand a web page through audio, even touch solutions using braille! You can make your applications work well with these tools, but it takes empathy, effort and l...
Aug 22, 2017•56 min
How can ETW help you? While at NDC in Oslo, Carl and Richard talked to Dina Goldshtein about her work instrumenting applications. This leads to a conversation about Event Tracing for Windows, which Dina uses primarily to take measurements of different applications running on Windows machines - but you can have your app add to the ETW stream as well. Monitoring, profiling and debugging are all different tasks that can take advantage of the data provided by ETW, it depends on your needs at the tim...
Aug 17, 2017•57 min
There's a lot of stuff in Azure - how to sort through it all? While at NDC in Oslo, Carl and Richard talk to Barry Luijbregts about the huge array of features that exist in the Azure Platform-as-a-Service offerings. Barry runs down the list, helping to categorize what elements are very similar, what are totally different, and how things work together. The platform is where it's at in terms of value, it's well worth your time to figure out what parts can work for you! Support this podcast at — ht...
Aug 15, 2017•59 min
Is there more to logging? Yes! While at NDC in Oslo, Carl and Richard talked to Nicholas Blumhardt about his long running logging project called Serilog. Calling back to the earlier .NET Rocks episode on Serilog (2014!), Nicholas talks about how logging is one of those 'bicycle shed' problems - it looks simple on the surface, but the deeper you go, the more you find complexity that needs to be managed well. Don't do it yourself, use a great library like Serilog! The core implementation is simple...
Aug 10, 2017•53 min
MS Build is cooler than you think! While at NDC Oslo, Carl and Richard sat down with Daniel Plaisted to talk about the latest version of MS Build. But first, a quick conversation about the situation around the reversion back from project files using JSON rather than the traditional XML-driven MS Build files. The good news is that more of what made the JSON project files great is showing up in the MS Build files! The conversation also digs into building complex pipelines for MS Build and more imp...
Aug 08, 2017•48 min
Are you ready to go into the cosmos? With apologies to the late Carl Sagan, let's talk about Cosmos DB! While at NDC in Oslo, Carl and Richard talked to Josh Lane about Cosmos DB which was first announced at the Build conference. Cosmos DB is a globally distributed multi-modal database. As of the recording it supported several flavors of document storage (including MongoDB) as well as key-value, graph and columnar stores. Josh digs into the various scenarios for an ultra-fast distributed storage...
Aug 03, 2017•55 min
It's summer in the northern hemisphere, are you ready to get hacking? Carl and Richard chat with the new executive director of the .NET Foundation, Jon Galloway. The conversation starts out talking about the Foundation itself, why it exists and what it does for the .NET open source community as a whole. The Foundation is where .NET Core, C# and more all live, as well as many awesome third party projects. Then to the Summer Hackfest, where the Foundation is providing support to get developers wor...
Aug 01, 2017•53 min
How do you make your APIs accessible to everyone? While at NDC is Oslo, Carl and Richard talk to Steven Faulkner about GraphQL, a Facebook open source project for exposing your APIs in a type-safe JSON-like approach. Steven talks about the advantages of having an abstraction over your APIs, allowing you to manage new versions of your API painlessly as well as packaging up multiple calls - saving some round trips! While the reference implementation is React and Javascript focused, the community h...
Jul 27, 2017•52 min
Core 2 is coming - are you ready? While at NDC Oslo, Carl and Richard talked to the amazing duo of Damian Edwards and David Fowler about the rapidly approaching release of Core 2. Expectations are huge, but Damian and David are confident that Core 2 will deliver. The conversation dives into the meta side of software development - what didn't make it into Core 2, what had to be pushed to the next version, and what will have to be added at the last minute. Lots of laughs and enthusiasm as the open...
Jul 25, 2017•49 min
The father of C# and TypeScript drops by for a visit! While at Build in Seattle, Carl and Richard talked to the one-and-only Anders Hejlsberg about his work on C# and more recently, TypeScript. Anders in his inevitable style talks through why languages work the way they do, the evolution of both C# and JavaScript, and the role that TypeScript has to play in making web development a better place. Great words from the legend! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Jul 20, 2017•54 min
How are containers coming along in the Windows world? Carl and Richard talk to Steve Lasker about his work making containers easy to use from within Visual Studio. Most work on containers has been around Linux, but when Windows Server 2016 shipped, Windows containers became real. Should you be using containers in your all-Windows world? Steve talks about the advantages and challenges, it's not all simple, but it is very powerful and worth a look! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/n...
Jul 18, 2017•47 min
After years of waning, .NET is on the rise - is it time for a renaissance? Ian Cooper says yes! The first of the NDC Oslo shows for 2017 starts out focused on a blog post that Ian published in February 2017 calling for a .NET Renaissance, and what it takes for it to come true. The move to open source has helped a lot, as it opens the door to what people really look for in a thriving community - rather than being a product created by Microsoft, it is a set of tools supporting by Microsoft but wit...
Jul 13, 2017•59 min
Ready to get fluent? While at the Build conference in Seattle, Carl and Richard talked to James Clarke about the Fluent Design System. Fluent represents the next generation of Windows UI elements, as part of the continuous updating process that Windows 10 is under going these days. James talks about how you can start to experiment with the latest Fluent bits and provide feedback directly to the team as the features evolve. Microsoft is implementing Fluent against Windows and the Microsoft Store,...
Jul 11, 2017•56 min
What's up with .NET Standard and the new XAML Standard? While at Build in Seattle, Carl and Richard chatted with Mike Harsh and Joe Stegman about the importance of the new standards and how they will affect .NET development going forward. As Mike and Joe explain, the focus is on making sure that the different versions of .NET (and XAML) that are out there today converge on a common standard. This will make it easier for tool vendors to build tools that work everywhere, and for developers to be a...
Jul 06, 2017•53 min
Is Silverlight back? Carl and Richard talk to Steve Sanderson about a demo he did at NDC Oslo that blew some minds. The demo involved using WebAssembly to put a version of the .NET Runtime and C# into the browser. Yes, that's right, Steve found a way to write C# that runs in the browser with NO PLUGIN. It's only an experiment, and there's no XAML to be found, so it's not really Silverlight, but it certainly gets you thinking - what if you could run any language you wanted in the browser? What wo...
Jul 04, 2017•49 min
We all have multiple devices, how do we make them all work together well? While at Build in Seattle, Carl and Richard sat down with Vikas Bhatia and Shawn Henry to talk about Project Rome. As Vikas explains, Project Rome is all about cross-device experiences utilizing APIs available on multiple platforms and interacting with Microsoft Graph. The goal is to have work and information follow you between devices - with the user always in control. Check it out! Support this podcast at — https://redci...
Jun 29, 2017•55 min
More analysis from Build - during Build! While at Build in Seattle, Carl and Richard talked to Holger Mueller about his impressions of the show, shortly after the first keynote. Holger runs the gamut, talking about .NET Core, Visual Studio 2017, Azure, DevOps, Containers and more. A lot happened at Build, here's a view from the early point in the event itself! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Jun 27, 2017•53 min
What does the military want with a space plane? Time for a Geek Out! The conversation begins with that question - what space plane? Richard digs into the history of the space shuttle, which did have substantial funding from the US Air Force for specific military missions, none of which ever happened for a variety of reasons. And then off into the various projects to try and build a military space plane, including the DC-X, X-33, X-37B, DARPA RASCAL and the latest attempt, the DARPA XS-1. Each pr...
Jun 22, 2017•1 hr
Want to manage your Azure apps on your smartphone? Carl and Richard talk to Jakub Jedryszek and Michael Flanakin about their work building the Azure Mobile App. Not just a mobile version of the Azure Portal, the app is built with Xamarin Native for iOS and Android, and focuses on using the phone efficiently to let you do what you need to! The discussion dives into the challenges of working on varying form factors and the tools that make things easier. And of course, there are great instrumentati...
Jun 20, 2017•52 min
Are you ready to take your UX design to the next level? Carl and Richard talk to Mark Miller about his latest research into the science of great design - and it's definitely a science! Mark walks through some core concepts related to user interface design and the design of the application as a whole, helping users stay focused on what they need to do without interrupting or confusing them along the way. The discussion also embraces a lot of design decisions in the non-digital world as well - how...
Jun 15, 2017•55 min
What happened at Build? Lots! Carl and Richard talk to Rocky Lhotka about his impressions around the various announcements at Build. The conversation ranges over how this Build was somewhat different from others - perhaps more aspirational? Topics covered included the amazing AI/vision system demos that were exciting and frightening at the same time, as well as the XAML and .NET Standards, Hololens, VR, Project Rome and more! So much happened at Build! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle...
Jun 13, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Azure Service Fabric is here - should your application take advantage of it? Carl and Richard talk to James Sturtevant about his experiences moving applications into Azure Service Fabric. Yes, it is possible to "lift and shift" your application into Service Fabric via Guest Executables, but that doesn't mean you'll get much of the benefit that Service Fabric can provide. James talks about picking a feature in your application to peel off into a microservice, perhaps as an Azure Function or other...
Jun 08, 2017•47 min
How do you get better uptime than the cloud? Two clouds! Carl and Richard talk to Vishwas Lele about his experiences building ultra-reliable applications, both on-premises and in the cloud. The discussion digs into the decisions around reliability - it's easy to want it, but will you pay for it? It's important to calculate the cost of downtime, as that helps set the budget for what it takes to stay up. And that leads to a conversation about how you build highly reliable software - it can't just ...
Jun 06, 2017•59 min
Banish Your Inner Critic! Carl and Richard talk to Denise Jacobs about her new book on creativity. And yes, we're all creative, we just have to get that inner critic under control. Denise talks about her own battles with feeling good enough to actually do work well and share it with others. It comes down to a sense of self-compassion - often we are harder on ourselves than we are on others. Give yourself a break and have some fun - the creativity will come! Support this podcast at — https://redc...
Jun 01, 2017•56 min
Troy is back, put on your tinfoil hat and get under the bed! Carl and Richard talk to Troy Hunt about the latest security exploits going around. Ransomware is hitting new highs, where a user's files get encrypted via malware, and the only way to get them back is to pay a ransom in Bitcoin. Or are there other ways to recover? And don't be so sure paying the ransom will fix anything, there are some unscrupulous criminals out there that just delete your files instead! The conversation also dives in...
May 30, 2017•54 min
Ready to get off the hourly treadmill? Carl and Richard talk to Jonathan Stark about ditching the hourly crusade. Jon talks about the fact that software development really isn't an hourly business - you don't provide value every hour with software, the value only comes when it's finished. The conversation focuses on value - what value does this software bring to the organization? If you don't know that, how can you be successful? But once you do know, pricing is different, and so is focus for yo...
May 25, 2017•59 min
What can Azure functions do for you? Carl and Richard talk to Yochay Kiriaty about his work creating Azure Functions as part of the App Service Platform for Azure. Azure Functions get you focused on just building code, there is no virtual machine, no operating system and a minimal hosting environment. But that doesn't mean that they're simple. Yochay talks about the need to architect effectively for Azure Functions - you can get yourself in a corner where Azure Functions can't save you. But if y...
May 23, 2017•1 hr
How fast can you go through the air? Time for a Geek Out! Richard chats with Carl about the challenges of flying in the hypersonic regime - above Mach 5! Lots of experiments were done in the early days of the space race, and died down after Apollo 11. But toward the end of the cold war there was a resurgence that has continued to this day - developing engines and materials to keep flying faster. Most of the technology is focused on military weapons, but there could be a path to space when more o...
May 18, 2017•1 hr
Is Angular ready for the enterprise? Carl and Richard talk to John Papa about the latest version of Angular and it's applicability in every day enterprise development. John discusses how the fast-moving updates of open source projects are a challenge for enterprise developers and the solutions available - you don't have to always use the latest bits! The role of the cloud (specifically Azure) is also explored, and John talks about Azure Functions as a great way to build server-side elements of y...
May 16, 2017•53 min
How do you deploy software? Carl and Richard talk to Robb Schiefer about his experiences using Chef to do application deployment. Chef comes from the open source Linux world, and is free to use with a pay option when you get to certain enterprise features. The Windows support is pretty good, and it works closely with PowerShell and Desired State Configuration to automate deployment of Windows and Microsoft services. Robb digs into the testing component of Chef as well, with tools that allow you ...
May 11, 2017•58 min
