Reading Notes #455

The suggestion of the week

• Scott Hanselman's 2021 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows (Scott Hanselman) - I'm a long-time big fan of that list. On many occasions, I discover tools that since then, are now always on my devices.

Cloud

• Using Azure Slots and GitHub for Personal Projects (Shawn Wildermuth) - A nice post that explains how to use the Azure deployment slots. It is really easy and useful.

• Automating Azure Site Recovery VMs with ARM and some magic (Dominique St-Amand) - The perfect place to get started with site and disaster recovery. This post is the best I read for a long time on this topic, great job.

• Azure Communication Services – Building an experimental messaging solution (Abhijit Jana) - Cool demo. It's the first time I read about communication services.

Programming

• Design patterns in C# - The Proxy Pattern (Carmel Eve) - I really like those little posts about code patterns. There is everything to learn in a consumable bit size.

• How To Install An ASP.NET Core In .NET 5 App On Ubuntu 20.04 (David Grace) - There it is. Simple and it works.

• Should I use self-contained or framework-dependent publishing in Docker images? (Andrew Lock) - Interesting question and answer.

Miscellaneous

• Using multiple APIs in Blazor with Azure AD authentication (Damien Bod) - Nice post with all the code you need to get started.

Reading Notes #454

Cloud

• .NET 5 support on Azure Functions (Anthony Chu ) - Great news we cant start playing with the preview today

• Remote Debugging for Azure Functions Can Be a Breeze (Simon Timms) - A nice post that gives a little bit of history and architecture information, before showing how to use the product named Ozcode for debugging.

Programming

• Best 5 Tools for Node.js Monitoring (Olivia Diaz) - As a new Node.js developer I am pretty pleased to see all these tools. All bookmarked.

• How to MongoDB in C# - Part 1 (Rami Honig) - A really great tutorial with tons of code and examples to learn how to use MongoDB.

• New from Universe 2020: Dark mode, GitHub Sponsors for companies, and more (Shanku Niyogi) - Don't miss the keynote (it's available on demand), it's 15 mins highlighting some pretty cool new features... Or this post.

• You should be customizing your PowerShell Prompt with PSReadLine (Scott Hanselman) - Wanna customized your prompt? This post contains references to all previous tweaking posts and goes into detail about PsReadline.

Podcast

• PI 450: Entrepreneur Growth, Self-Discovery, and Pivoting in Tough Times (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - Very inspiring women that definitely knows how to "bounce" when things don't go how planned.

• Optimizing for Happiness with Alfonso Cabrera (Screaming in the Cloud) - Great episode all DevOps related

Books

Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It 

(Adam Savage) 

- I really liked this book. In fact, As I was reading the first chapter I was "earing" Adam's voice. So instead of creating that voice in my head I bought the audiobook and let Adam himself tells me his story. This is the best book I listen to this year. It was inspiring and empowering.

Reading Notes #439

Cloud

• How to Redirect with Azure Static Web Apps - Kevin W. Griffin | Developer, Training, Entrepreneur (Kevin W. Griffin) - A nice tutorial that explains a key feature.

• Free eBook: Developer’s Guide to Azure: 2020 Edition (Chris Pietschmann) - Awesome Free book. It looks very nice.

Programming

• Azure SDK: Packaging, tools, and repository structure | Azure SDKs (Mitch Denny) - A very interesting post, it's important to find the best way and for that, we need to start by asking the good questions.

• Integration Testing ASP.NET Core Applications: Best Practices (Steve Gordon) - This summary chapter gives us a really good preview of this very interesting Pluralsight course.

• Introducing C# 9: Extending Partial Methods (Anthony Giretti) - It's been a while since a used them, but it nice to see it will be much easier...because I remember how it was.

• The DevOps Journey (Chris Ayers) - Interesting post about DevOps in our reality.

Podcasts

• TikTok, Reels, and Shorts (UGH! Not another algorithm to learn?!) (Your Thriving Side Hustle) - When I saw the title I was TikTok? Not for me... I'm still not convinced, but now it's definitely not that clear. Could some serious things work in that format?
• SPI 435: 7 Terrible Traps Entrepreneurs Fall Into (And How to Get Out of Them) (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - Interesting real-life stories. We ear more often about success, but things don't go always well.
• Cybersecurity for Executives in the Age of Cloud with Teri Radichel (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - A interesting conversation about security. Who's accountable? What does it mean?
• #385: Rediscovering the Joy of Work with Bruce Daisley (The EntreLeadership Podcast) - I'm lucky because I really like what I do for a living. You could too. An interesting episode about emotion, joy, and work.
• Linus Tech Tips Returns for Episode 100! (That Creative Life) - I was really happy when I saw that Linus was back on the show. I really like to dynamic between those two, it feels honest and true.

Books

How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships 

Author: Leil Lowndes

I was interested to read this book to get some inspiration when it's time to talk to people in an event. But this book brought me way more then that. I really appreciated the clear example and the variety. After reading this book you won't be a master, but you now have options to start a conversation.

☁️

Reading Notes #382

Cloud

• Getting Started with the Cognitive Services Computer Vision API - The Wit and Ramblings of David Giard (David Giard ) - Nice little tutorial to get started quickly with the Vision API.
• Kubernetes: What it is and what it isn’t (Jason Haley) - Cool source of resources related to how to learn Kubernetes
• Sync Folder with Azure Blob Storage (Thomas Maurer) - Wow, this is so sick! Very happy about this feature.
• Using Entity Framework with Azure Functions (Jeff Hollan) - Pretty cool demo about the new dependency injection feature of Azure Function.

Programming

• Clever little C# and ASP.NET Core features that make me happy (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post about some C# gems...If I can say that.
• 10 Top Blazor Tools Just a NuGet Away -- Visual Studio Magazine (David Ramel) - Wow, so many great projects...
• Top 10 C# Developer Books for Summer 2019 (Claudio Bernasconi) - Great list of books to get started with C# or as a developer. I'll definitely refer people to it when asked where to start.

~

Reading Notes #364

Cloud

• Azure Automation of A-to-Z, Part I (dbakevlar)
  - This is a great post very instructive, that explains how and why we should structure our scripts.
• Azure Policies (Gregor Suttie) - One of the best tools to he
  lp us with the governance in Azure is the policies. This post is a nice introduction to how it could help.
• Setting Up Azure Key Vault w
  ith an Azure Website (Web API) (Luis Valencia) - This is the second post of a very instructive series, and this time it focuses on Keyvault.

Programming

• Debug your live apps running in Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Kubernetes (Visual Studio Blog) - Nice addition to the rem
  ote debugger experience
• How to set up Gatsby and Auth0 for easy authentication on your next project -
  A geek with a hat (Swizec Teller ) - Cool post that shows how to implement an auth authentification within a static website.
• Top 5 Open Source Features i
  n Azure Pipelines (Edward Thomson) - Learn why the Azure DevOps Pipelines are so great in this post about the evolution of an opensource
  project.

Miscellaneous

• A Few Coding Patterns with the MongoDB C# API (Julie Lerman
  ) - An instructive post about how to use MongoDB.
• If You Think “Digital Transformation” is About Kubernet
  es, You’re Wrong (Richard Seroter,) - Interesting thoughts, looking forward to read what's next.
• Why Containers are a Game Changer for Software Development (Mike Hadlow) - Very interesting
  post about containers and the raise of gitOps.

~

Reading Notes #359

Cloud

• GitLab 11.6 Supports Serverless Function Deployment (Sergio De Simone) - Interesting post that introduces a CI/CD tool that works really well with the serverless offering from all providers.
• How to migrate from AzureRM to Az in Azure PowerShell (Madeleine Clayton) - A mandatory read to migrate without hiccups.
• Great News, Azure Developers! Microsoft is Simplifying Your Path to Certification! (Liberty Munson ) - That's excellent news!

Programming

• 11 Of the Best Scrum Tools to Increase Your Team’s Productivity (Ben Aston) - Nice list of great tools. I would add Azure DevOps to it.
• Background jobs in ASP.NET Core made easy with Hangfire (Matthew D. Groves) - This post helps us to be quickly set up with hangfire.
• How to Use a jQuery Progress Bar in Your Web App (Alberta Williams) - This post shows many different ways to use some progress bar as long as you have Kendo UI.
• Introduction to Bash Scripting: Iterative Statements Using Loops (Daniel Farina) - Great introduction tutorial to the fundamental loops. This time it's in bash... Yeah, if you didn't know, you probably need it.
• Quick Introduction to C# Span. (Doug Mair) - A nice new feature in C# that is absolutely not related to the span in Html that we know....aaah!
• Using Visual Studio Code to program Circuit Python with an AdaFruit NeoTrellis M4 (Scott Hanselman) - Very cool son-dad project post and how to use the tool we like.
• When You SHOULD Comment Your Code (Peter Kellner) - Commenting or not commenting... Should it be THE question?

Databases

• MongoDB on Windows in Minutes with Docker (Jeremy Likness) - This post is a fantastic setup tutorial, perfect to get started in a snap! Using docker so easy...

Miscellaneous

• Enjoy some DOS Games this Christmas with DOSBox (Scott Hanselman) - With DOSBox and Retropie... We should be good for the holidays... If you don't have a Raspberry Pie this post is perfect for you since it focuses on DOSBox.

Books

How to Be a Bawse A Guide to Conquering Life
Lilly Singh
Not only the message is strong, but the way she delivers it is awesome. Many times I laugh and nod of the head... Definitely a great book to read at the end of the year when resolution time is not far...









~

Reading Notes #332

Cloud

• Generate the OpenAPI definition for Azure Function Apps (Abhijit Jana) - Learn how to save time and get your API definition generated for you.

Programming

• ASP.NET Core Web API Best Practices (Marinko Spasojevic) - Great post. The perfect post to refresh our memories or learn the best practices.
• Adopting Kubernetes step by step (santiago arias) - Perfect post to get started with Kubernetes even more if you know React.
• Clean out your Docker images, containers and volumes with single commands (ryanwhocodes) - Useful post that gives a few examples of how to use the Docker commands.
• How to use Visual Studio Code (Flavio Copes) - Another post that confirms that VSCode definitely worth our attention. This post gives examples, and shows deferent extensions... If you don't know vscode... Yep start here.
• Controllers as action filters in ASP.NET Core MVC ( Filip W) - Same good old tricks, but with a fresh twist.
• C# Enum: Definition, Examples, Best Practices, and Pitfalls (Justin Boyer) - Nice post that ENUMerate the best practices and pitfalls.
• Preview of Visual Studio Kubernetes Tools (Visual Studio Blog) - Exciting news! This post introduces a new tool... I Think this is my cue to do more kubernetes!

Books

• [Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories That Resonate] (Brian McDonald)  - We all know it, a story is the element that will give that little plus to our post, and video. This short book explains how to really make an effective one talking about the not visual things...
  Really interesting.
  
  ISBN 0984178627 (ISBN13: 9780984178629)

Reading Notes #311

Suggestion of the week

• 4 Common Datetime Mistakes in C# — And How to Avoid Them (Carlos Schults) - This post is a must to all C# (and you know what?! All developers), because we all need to use dates at one point in our code and script...

Cloud

• Create Precompiled Azure Functions With Azure Event Grid Triggers (Jason Roberts) - A nice quick tutorial that shows how to plug the Azure Functions with the new Event Grid.
• Microsoft releases new time series data developer tools for Azure (Anirban Ghoshal) - It looks pretty neat and it is certainly easy to deploy. Looking forward to trying it.
• Setting up a managed container cluster with AKS and Kubernetes in the Azure Cloud running .NET Core in minutes (Scott Hanselman) - Not that long ago I would never guess that Building and deploying a cluster could be that easy... If you got 30mins it's a demo to try.
• The moment I came to play with .NET Standard 2.0… (Dominique St-Amand) - In this interesting post, the author shares with us all the gotchas and lessons learned developing his project.

Programming

• Styling Social Media Icon Lists in CSS (Mark Heath) - Yeah right, we can read CSS and probably hack some stuff... But it's excellent to learn how to do simple things the good way. And this post shows exactly that.

Data

• Microsoft Deep Drive Track at the Data and BI Summit April 22-26 (Charles Sterling) - Wow, it looks packed with so much great content!
• Power BI Desktop January Feature Summary (Amanda Cofsky) - It looks like some team did not take a lot of time-off during the Holidays... So many great new functionalities; it's a fantastic way to start the year.

Miscellaneous

• Long Distance Relationships, or How to Manage a Remote Team (Natallia Brych ) - Remote working is not for every situation nor everybody. This post will help you to get started on the topic.
• Why Consider a Website Redesign – Tips and Recommendations (Daniel Schwarz) - Good post, food for thought.

Reading Notes #244

Cloud

• Azure DevTest Labs: Set expiration date for a virtual machine - How could we have lived without that all that time... awesome
  
• Creating “Codeless” Swagger Connectors for Logic Apps (Jeff Hollan [MSFT]) - This post is a great tutorial about how to create an API App ready to be used by Azure Logic App (or anything else of course).
  
• Deploying an Angular 2 App to Azure with Github - Nice tutorial that leverage many frequently used tools, a popular framework and my favorite cloud platform.
  
• Logic Apps Reaches General Availability - This post is a great summary of the changes introduced by the last release aka GA.
  
• Microservices Cookbook: Design Principles and Solution Recipes for Microservices (Neil McEvoy) - Because something is done using a specific new tech that doen't automatically makes that thing better... Learn more about best practice and useful pattern.

Programming

• A .NET IDE for the iPad? - Exploring Continuous with Frank Krueger - Wow! That look just fantastic. I cannot try it since I'm not a "jThing" owner, but I really like the idea of such a powerful and useful tool on a tablet. Looking forward to see how that will go.

Miscellaneous

• GitKraken Pro git client teaming up with NightScout to support Open Source Diabetes software - Have you tried this awesome tool? I've been using it since the first private preview, and I love it. I really think it' s a must as git user interface
  
• Windows Insider Program.next() (Dona Sarkar) - The Windows 10 anniversary edition is out since August 2nd. This post is about the community who made that possible, and explains how you could join.

Reading Notes #169

 

Happy New Year!

 

Suggestion of the week

• Magic Strings – No More! - Great post that explains different ways to manage string in our code. Clear and efficient.

Cloud

• The cloud saves the day and other non-myths (Brian Heckert) - Nice post that discusses some myths mentions in Gartner's presentation about the cloud.

• Automating Azure on your CI server using a Service Principal - Great tutorial that explains how to use Active Directory (AD) to access resources in Azure.

• Scaling #Azure Cloud Services Up and Down Like Clockwork (Alexandre Brisebois) - Really interesting post that explains how scaling up & out and down &in can mean huge saving in our pockets.

Programming

• Could not load file or assembly… NuGet Assembly Redirects (blog.maartenballiauw.be) - Nice clever tricks to avoid losing time.

• UI Considerations When Using Asynchronous Methods (Jeremy) - Good tutorial that explains some key features we must adapt in the UI when making our code async.

Miscellaneous

• 4 Simple Tricks to Help Make Your Content Stand Out (AJ Agrawal) - This post provides a nice list of tools to improve our content.

• Why You Should Say Goodbye to Work-Life Balance in 2015 (Aaron O'Hearn) - Interesting thoughts.

• The Key to Increased Productivity? Stop Working (Justin Bariso) - This post suggests simple thins to do to improve our productivity. Perfect to start the new year...

• XML Sitemaps for the Ghost Blogging Platform - Time to update our Ghost blogs...

~Frank Boucher

Reading Notes #165

 

Suggestion of the week

• OmniSharp - Making cross-platform .NET a reality, and a pleasure (Scott Hanselman) - This is both really exciting and easy to bring in your environment.

 

Cloud

• Azure : Blob Storage / Retrieval (sachabarber) - Excellent post to get started with the azure storage blob.

• Security and Identity Management with Azure Mobile Services - Great article from MSDN Mag that provides important information on how the cloud can help line-of-business (LOB) application developers create and support all platforms.

Programming

• Visual Studio 2013 Community - "Professional" development for free (Greg Duncan) - This post gives all the detail about this new community version: what is in, how to get it, the compatibility or incompatibility... everything.
• The Blog of Jason Roberts (Jason Roberts) - This book looks awesome, and the author Jason Roberts offer that we pay what we want. More to come.

Integration

• Azure BizTalk Services: An Introduction - This is the second post of a series on BizTalk. We are still in an introduction mode, but this is good, BizTalk is not a little application or system, and in this time of the Internet of things, it's good to have the good tools.

~ Frank B

Toby, did you see what I just did!

Today, I was running around with my laptop trying to find someone to show him what I did. My problem was that since I'm working from home, I found no one except my dog... Toby, did you see what I just did! He was looking at me and didn't really care about that I was doing some C# in Atom, a regular text editor. So, here I am now, sharing my discovery with you.

The "What"

While reading some article on the Internet, I fall on a video talking about OmniSharp.

A family of Open Source projects, each with one goal - To enable great .NET development in YOUR editor of choice.
SO I decide to give it a try in one of my favorite text editors this time called Atom.

Less than two minutes after, I was running across my house....

The "How"

What I like about Atom that it is so easy to install and to customize. The easiest way to install it is via Chocolatey.

Chocolatey NuGet is a Machine Package Manager, somewhat like apt-get, but built with Windows in mind.

Assuming that you don't have Chocolatey installed, let's start by that. Open a command prompt (cmd.exe) as Administrator, and execute this command:

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin

In a new command prompt again with the administrator permission, let's Install the text editor Atom:

cinst Atom

and Git:

cinst Git

Now to install the OmniSharp in Atom you have two options. You could do it through the Settings or using a console. For this post, I will use the second option. Let's open a new command prompt, always as Administrator.
The reason why I use a new prompt every time is to be sure that environment variable gets refreshed.

Execute these command:

apm install language-csharp
apm install autocomplete-plus-async
apm install omnisharp-atom

Now open Atom and let's put some code:

using System;

namespace ConsoleAppDemo
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
          var myBook = new Book{Title="Get Started with OmniSharp"};
          Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Here is my review of: {0}", myBook.Title));
        }
    }

    public class Book
    {
      private string _review;

      public string Title{get;set;}

      public string Review{
        get{
          if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(_review))
          {
            _review = "This book is nice";
          }
          return _review;
        }
        set{
          _review = value;
        }
      }
    }
}

Nothing special until you start the OmniSharp server with Ctrl-Alt-o.

Boom!

As you can see now the intelisense, completion, code navigation and so more! If you click on the little green flame on the bottom left you see details about notification and error message.

The end

OmniSharp is a frontend compiler, not a complete compiler so it doesn't generate CLI code. But It's already a lot. Today, you can use OmniSharp with Sublime Text 3, Atom, Emacs, Brackets, Vim and with command line only. So whether on your old laptop or your new PC, whether you run Linux, Mac or Windows let's do some C#!


~Frank Boucher