.NET Rocks!

Carl and Richard talk to Burke Holland about building mobile apps. But the conversation starts out with an announcement - Telerik's KendoUI is going open source! Burke talks a bit about the history of KendoUI and how it has evolved over the years, including a KendoUI Mobile (which is also open source). That leads to a discussion about mobile development as a whole, including his preferred tools and styles for building apps across different mobile platforms, comparing native, hybrid and web development on the smartphone and where tablets fit into this story.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard chat with Richard Astbury about the Microsoft Research project known as Orleans. Orleans brings the Actor model of development to C# - the Actor model is typically found in functional languages, but you can write functional C#, so why not? Richard talks about Orleans being used to run Halo 4, where hundreds of thousands of players connected with each other between hundreds of Azure instances. Orleans was officially released into the wild at Microsoft Build. Looking at scalable software strategies? Take a look at Orleans!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard go back to space with Uncle Bob! What started at NDC last Fall finishes today! But first, a quick conversation about an episode with Alan Stevens around the software craftsmanship movement, which Uncle Bob is a key part of. Then off to interstellar space! Bob pulls no punches, jumping straight into why nuclear technologies are key to significant space travel. Lots of history in this show too, talking about NERVA engines, Project Orion, Bussard Ram Engines and more! No warp drives or wormholes, what could we build today to go to another star?Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard talk to John Papa about the current state of Single Page Application development. John digs into his latest focus on libraries, the constant evolution in the Javascript world, and how AngularJS is still a big pile of awesome. The conversation also turns a bit philosophical, with a discussion of Javascript being the assembly language of the web, and how languages like Dart, CoffeeScript and TypeScript create abstractions over assembly language to make web applications more maintainable.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard chat with Nicholas Blumhardt about his work on Serilog, a structured logging tool. But first, the conversation dives a bit into Octopus Deploy, an awesome tool for helping you manage your application packages and help deploy them to testing, pre-production, production, and so on. Then on to the main event - Nicholas' amazing Serilog product. Logging is a pain, and Serilog makes it as painless as possible - one line per log entry, and configuration to write your log anywhere: text files, other logging products, even Event Tracing for Windows!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard talk to Hugh Jones about EU Data Protection laws. But first, a long discussion about the NSA revelations and the surveillance culture we're living in today. Hugh talks about the evolving perceptions around privacy and how data needs to be better protected. From there, Hugh dives into the EU Data Protection laws, which apply not only to companies doing business in the EU, but companies outside of the EU that are handling EU citizen data. The focus is on personally identifiable information - what is it, how do you handle it, how do you protect it, when does it become too risky to keep. Good thinking around data protection!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

The first of the new Tablet Shows as .NET Rocks episodes, Carl and Richard talk to Scott Allen about the continued evolution of JavaScript. The conversation starts out with a comment from a listener about a past show with Scott on Modernizr, and Scott talks about how things have changed since then - the focus on newer browsers (if IE9 counts as new) means that the tool needs change. Scott also talks about what new features are moving into the browser, reducing the library load your web page needs. Is the browser becoming a smart client platform?Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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/donations

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 validations - it's very clever! If you own Visual Studio 2013, you need to check this out!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 notes) and Microsoft's acquisition of InRelease by InCycle Software. If you've got an MSDN license, you have to take a look at Release Management! And if you don't, take the trial out for a spin, it's worth it!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 be used, what users actually like to do with it and how that can affect the final product. The discussion also digs into the dynamic between the developers, QA, project management and usability testing - they all have important roles in building great software!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 model that software appears to be grabbing onto, with apprenticeships, journeymen and masters. Does it make sense? Does it keep us humble? Does it really ship better software?Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 much fun it is to be a developer today.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 concepts like Continuous Delivery and DevOps becoming essential skills for the modern developer. Great thoughts from an awesome thinker in our industry!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 for us?' And check out the link below for David's video on the subject.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 have a listen to Hilton's own podcast, The Moss Show!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 way it should be!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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

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 write comments below!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 receive a patent demand letter. Check out the links in the show description for the document!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 lighting in the house? It opens the door to many more DC based solutions!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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

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 huge advantage. And prepare for some CSS bashing!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 well with EF. And most importantly, Julie discusses how Entity Framework is now entirely open source and on CodePlex! More great thoughts from Julie!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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

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

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 with source control, testing and proper management. You know, like a real language!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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-rocks/donations

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 talking to your people!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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 zud.io - series A funding!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

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

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 build the best software you can. Great insight from one of the legends!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at NDC-London, Carl and Richard talk to Steve Sanderson about his work with KnockoutJS, Azure and other goodies. Steve starts out talking about his role in Knockout and the MVVM pattern as well as his work building the admin consoles for Azure. The conversation then dives into Steve's latest project, using WebGL to take advantage of GPU processing inside a browser! Along the way the boys talk about the effects of plugins on browsing for mortals and some thoughts on what web apps will look like in the future.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden, Carl and Richard talk to Björn Granvik about being a lifetime learner. The conversation starts out with a history lesson about Øredev - Björn has been involved since the beginning. He talks about how the development firm he was involved with tried to improve learning with their developers... which ultimately led to creating a conference! Björn talks about understanding how you learn for yourself, and making time to continuously improve.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at the Atlanta stop of the ModernApps2013 Road Trip, Carl and Richard talked to Joel Semeniuk about the latest on TFS 2013. Joel talks about how TFS 2013 changes your thinking about source control, requirements planning, work tracking and more. Great conversation about what it means to do 21st century application building!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

The day before the US Road Trip started in Boston, Carl and Richard sat down with Bill Wagner to talk about the latest version of TypeScript. But first Bill talked about Humanitarian Toolbox, a charity building open source software for disaster relief organizations that he and Richard are deeply involved in. Then the conversation turned to TypeScript, a language for bringing types, classes and modules to Javascript. Originally a separate installation off of GitHub, TypeScript is part of Visual Studio 2013. Bill talks about the challenges of building maintainable Javascript and how TypeScript makes things better!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden, Carl and Richard talk to Scott Barber about testing for performance and in production. Scott discusses his history that leads him to getting involved in making systems more efficient - sometimes that means faster, sometimes it means something else! The conversation digs into the essence of meaningful testing - having a team that has each other's backs when it comes to delivering good quality software. Great thinking about testing, performance and DevOps.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden, Carl and Richard talk to Fred George about implementing programmer anarchy in your organization. This is the good form of anarchy - the kind that focuses on self-organization, rather than blowing things up. Fred talks about the roles of management in software, and which ones make sense and which one don't... and how developers can take over those roles in conjunction with development. Autonomy and mastery, that's what keeps developers motivated!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden, Carl and Richard talk to Mads Kristensen about the amazing set of features that have been added for web development in Visual Studio 2013. First up is browser link, a method to automate the connection between your development environment and various browsers being used to test your app while you code. Auto-refresh and more! Mads also talks about Web Essentials and SideWaffle - tools and templates for helping you to build web applications the right way. Visual Studio 2013 is a must have for the web developer!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

A rockstar geek out at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden! Carl and Richard chat with Randall Munroe of XKCD fame! Randall talks about how he left NASA to focus on drawing web comics (?!) and the fun that has ensued since. The conversation digs into a bunch of the thinking of various XKCD comics. If you're a fan, you're in for a treat, and if you're not, you need to get reading!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden, Carl and Richard talk to Rachel Reese about her fun with F#. Rachel's background in mathematics led her to experiment with functional languages like Erlang and F#, and ultimately to solve problems more effectively utilizing techniques like parallelism from F#. The conversation also explores the actor model (and agents, and a bunch of other Hollywood terms) as well as the cool new type providers that are in F# 3.0. Another huge F# fan - have you taken it out for a spin yet?Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard chat with Steve Smith about the latest Software Craftsmanship Calendar put out by Steve's team at Telerik. Steve runs through many of the anti-patterns in the calendar - lots of laughs about the silly things we've done over the years trying to build software. Pre-order a copy today!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

While at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden, Carl and Richard talk to Patroklos Papapetrou about Sonar. Sonar is an open source project for instrumenting your code quality, looking for various 'deadly sins' of programming, such as duplication, lack of documentation, etc. Patroklos talks about each of the 'deadly sins' and how Sonar can help you make better quality code.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard chat with Mark Greenway about his work using MongoDB on Azure. The conversation starts out talking about fundamentals - why NoSQL? From there, Mark talks about his web based application, running as an Azure web site, that started out using SQL Azure, until he ran across MongoDB. Now his application uses both, but in the future, he sees it all as MongoDB. NoSQL in the cloud!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

Carl and Richard chat with Matt Wynne about Cucumber, a tool for building requirement statements that are actually testable in your development environment. Matt starts out with a discussion about behavior driven development and how Cucumber evolved as a way to not only capture behaviors effectively but to actually make them part of the testing process using a language called Gerkin (and yeah, the whole show is full of pickle references). Matt also talks about SpecFlow, which is Cucumber for .NET and talks about all the different flavors of Cucumber out in the world. This naturally leads to a discussion about the state of Ruby since Cucumber started there. Great thoughts about how technologies evolve by branching and merging ideas!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations