Episode 841

Edward Thomson on Privacy and Security with Generative AI

Edward Thomson is a Product Manager at Stacklok, creating CodeGate - a product that vets the security of generative AI tools. He talks about the risks inherent in trusting the advice of generated code and of sending prompts to a large language model, and how CodeGate addresses these risks.

Links
https://codegate.ai
https://stacklok.com/

The laws and customs of the early nineteenth-century United States established a hierarchy among races and genders. Whites had more rights than blacks, and men had more rights than women. In this society, a black woman had almost no rights.

Alice Walker's 1982 novel "The Color Purple" follows the life of Celie - a poor black woman growing up in rural Georgia during this time.

After his incestuous molestations of Celie produced two children, Celie's father Alphonso gave away the illegitimate offspring. Alphonso warned Celie to keep silent about his rape. "You better tell nobody but God," he tells her, so she begins writing letters to God about her life. Alphonso then forces his daughter to marry an older widower who is seeking a mother for his undisciplined children. After Celie's departure, the father turned his lustful eye toward her younger sister, Nettie.

The Sixteenth Amendment outlawed slavery decades earlier, but Celie remained a slave to her husband because she was born a woman. Like Alphonso, Albert abused and degraded her physically and verbally. "Who you think you is? You can't curse nobody. Look at you. You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all," he tells her. But Celie lacked self confidence and submitted to the abuses of Mister for years. Celie felt so disconnected from her husband that she referred to him only as "Mister _____" and learned his first name (Albert) years after their wedding. When Nettie came to live with them to escape her father, Mister threw her out for refusing his sexual advances. Nettie promised to write to her sister and became a missionary in Africa, but Albert intercepted and hid all the letters.

Celie's life changed when strong women entered her life and began to inspire her.: Sofie, the wife of her husband's son, and Shug Avery, her husband's former mistress.

Walker presents the story as an epistolary novel, entirely told in letters. Initially, those letters are from Celie to God. The tone and language of the book change significantly about halfway through when Celie finds Nettie's letters, and the two begin to correspond. Nettie is much more educated than Celie, so her writing is more polished, and her diction is far better.

This book sparked controversy from the moment of its publication. It has been banned repeatedly for its graphic depiction of sex, rape, and homosexuality. But it also won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Walker's book presents many examples of injustice. Sofie faces twelve years in prison for hitting the Mayor, even though he struck her first. Celie suffers abuse from every man with whom she lives. The subjugation of women is not limited to the United States—the traditions of her African tribe force facial scarring and genital mutilation upon the women of that tribe.

"The Color Purple" is a story of institutional racism and sexism. It is about racial injustice, but it is much more about gender injustice. However, the book also portrays victims overcoming the world's inequities and achieving self-actualization. It is a story of resilience - of strong women overcoming oppression by standing up for themselves and supporting one another. When Celie finally gains the courage to face Albert, she announces: "I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here."

Ultimately, "The Color Purple" is an uplifting tale of survival.

Most of us hope to improve our lives, and many of us work hard to do so. But how do we define that improvement? What motivates us to move up? What are we willing to do to improve our lives?

Booth Tarkington addresses these questions in his 1921 novel "Alice Adams." Tarkington's title character is a 22-year-old woman living in a small town who feels the pain of not being accepted by her peers. Her schoolmates lived in large houses, traveled the world, owned fine things, went away to college, and returned to throw fancy parties. The financial situation of Alice's family prevented her from enjoying any of these luxuries.

At the story's start, Alice's father, Virgil - a clerk working for industrialist J.A. Lamb - is too ill to work. His wife scolds him for never rising above the middle class. When Virgil's health recovers, he decides to quit his job after decades of service to open a glue factory using a formula he developed at Lamb's plant.

Tarkington's story follows Alice as she woos Arthur Russell, a wealthy young man who recently moved to town. Desperate to hide her social status, she makes up stories about her family to Arthur.

The book is filled with flawed people: Alice's friends look down on her, and Alice's mother nags her husband incessantly. Even the best people in the novel fall short. Alice has a good heart but lies to her suitor; Lamb resorts to petty revenge when he feels he is wronged. Her brother rejects society's expectations, going so far as to befriend "darkies" (this novel takes place a century ago in the US South) but disgraces the family when he steals from his employer; and Arthur listens to the gossip about the Adams family, which influences his behavior toward her.

"Alice Adams" is the story of America's caste system. It examines social hierarchies and the pressures they inflict, especially on those who cannot afford to meet the expectations of their class. The system pushes everyone to behave badly. Although society has changed much in the last hundred years, peer pressure still exists, which remains stressful for many of us.

Episode 840

Mark Tinderholt on GitHub AT AT and Terraform

GitHub AT-AT provides Infrastructure-As-Code templates and helps you put machinery in place to use IAC long-term on your projects. Mark Tinderholt, who created and maintains this open source project, explains how it works, how to use it, and how it integrates with Terraform and other tools.

Links:
https://github.com/Azure-Terraformer/terraform-github-atat
https://marktinderholt.com/
https://registry.terraform.io/modules/Azure-Terraformer/atat/github/latest

3/2
Today I am grateful to attend the MSU - Notre Dame ice hockey game in South Bend last night.

3/1
Today I am grateful to survive another trip around the sun.

2/28
Today I am grateful to successfully finish co-teaching an AI class this week.

2/27
Today I am grateful to Juan for helping me finish this Copilot Studio demo.

2/26
Today I am grateful that I have been able to keep up my daily stretching routine that I began months ago.

2/25
Today I am grateful for new slippers

2/24
Today I am grateful for a new pair of sneakers.

2/23

2/22
Today I am grateful to see Joe Bonamassa in concert last night.

2/21
Today I am grateful to SPF pickleball court, who refunded my money for a session I could not attend.

2/20
Today I am grateful:
- to see Tiffany in concert last night
- to participate in a panel hosted by Avanade and Tanium yesterday

2/19
Today I am grateful:
- that my sister's surgery was successful this week
- to talk to my brother in Australia yesterday

2/18
Today I am grateful to see "Betrayal" starring Helen Hunt and Robert Sean Leonard at the Goodman Theatre last night.

2/17
Today I am grateful for a phone call with Suzanne yesterday.

2/16
Today I am grateful for the Tile devices that help me locate my keys, wallet, and phone that I misplace at least once a month.

2/15
Today I am grateful to celebrate Valentine's Day by seeing Justin Timberlake in concert last night.

2/14
Today I am grateful to see the Metropolis String Quartet perform the music of Queen at a Candlelight Concert last night

2/13
Today I am grateful to kick off a new year of in-person student mentoring at a local high school.

2/12
Today I am grateful to meet so many nonprofits at Nisaini's Copilot event yesterday.

2/11
Today I am grateful for drinks with Peter last night.

2/10
Today I am grateful to practice speaking Spanish last week with actual Spaniards in Spain.

2/9
Today I am grateful to sleep in my own bed.

2/8
Today I am grateful for a 2-week vacation in London, Madrid, and Barcelona.

2/7
Today I am grateful to visit the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid yesterday

2/6
Today I am grateful to visit the Royal Palace, Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, and Mercado San Miguel yesterday.

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Today I am grateful for a visit to the Museo Nacional del Prado, a walk through the Parque de El Retiro, to see the Puerta de Alcala, and the view from the Madrid City Hall observation deck yesterday.

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Today I am grateful to walk around Barcelona yesterday, exploring the Gothic Quarter, Plaça de Catalunya, Casa Batlló, Casa Amatller, and the Barcelona Cathedral.

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Today I am grateful to visit the Sagrada Familia and the Park Güell yesterday.

LinkedIn is a good platform for networking, communicating, job searches, and self-promotion. But what is an effective way to use this platform?

Dan Rey addresses this question in his book "#LinkedIn365: 365 Prompts and Results on LinkedIn."

He suggests ideas for LinkedIn posts for every day during a calendar year. His ideas include writing articles; sharing links to online articles and other resources; prompting users with a poll; and sharing infographics or other images.

For some months, he suggests creating a daily post that aligns with a monthly theme. For instance, he advocates sharing a different idea each day of July on how readers can use technology to increase their productivity. In August, you can virtually explore a new location each day. In November, he suggests expressing gratitude each day for someone or something in your life.

Rey uses LinkedIn frequently and deliberately and has successfully engaged his audience of over 16,000 followers. In his years on this platform, he has learned what works best. He shares his experience and knowledge in this book.

"LinkedIn365" is a good primer for those stuck on effectively using LinkedIn or any other social media platform.

GCast 191:

Creating an Azure AI Foundry Project and Hub

Azure AI Foundry provides a unified platform to explore, build, test, and deploy AI applications. This video shows you how to create an Azure AI Foundry Hub and Project.

Episode 839

Alvin Ashcraft on Microsoft Learn

Alvin Ashcraft is a Content Developer on the Microsoft Learn team. He describes the MS Learn site, how it works under the hood, and how you can contribute to documentation on this site.

Links:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
https://www.alvinashcraft.com/

Joe Bonamassa let the music do his talking for him during most of his Friday night concert at the Chicago Theatre.

For two hours, he entertained a sold-out crowd. His soulful singing was excellent, but his strength is in his guitar playing. Bonamassa can play blindingly fast, as he demonstrated on multiple songs. But he is also adept at slowing down, caressing the space between the notes. In both cases, he is a master at getting the most out of the blues melodies. He mixed originals ("Dust Bowl," "Self-Inflicted Wounds," "The Heart That Never Waits") with covers (Bobby Bland's "Twenty-Four Hour Blues," Guitar Slim's "Well, I Done Got Over It," Led Zeppelin's deep cut "How Many More Times.")

He did interrupt the music a few times to talk to the audience, first introducing his excellent band, which consisted of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and two backup singers. Calvin Turner on bass and Lemar Carter on drums provided driving rhythms, but guitarist Josh Smith and keyboardist Reese Wyans stole the show when they performed their solos. Joe introduced himself as the "Five-time Grammy Loser," a nod to his multiple nominations.

The second time Joe stopped the music to talk with the audience, he smilingly complained about paying for the "worst f*cking confetti show ever!" The occasional scrap of confetti that drifted from the ceiling was barely visible from my seat in Row G. At one point, the guitarist picked up a piece of confetti and flung it into the air in mock celebration.

Bonamassa returned to the stage for an encore - the crowd favorite "Mountain Time." He explained that his decision to skip this song last night led to "bitching and moaning" by fans on the Internet.

Tonight produced the opposite of bitching and moaning. Tonight's performance inspired smiles and standing ovations.

Tiffany burst on the music scene as a teenager in 1987 with her debut album "Tiffany" and its number 1 singles "I Think We're Alone Now" (a Tommy James cover) and "Could've Been." She promoted that album with a series of concerts in American shopping malls.

Decades later, she still performs on record, in person, and on television. Recently, she appeared on the TV show "The Masked Singer." Wednesday evening, she brought her act to Chicago's City Winery.

Tiffany still embraces her roots. She routinely performs on 80s tours and plays many of her early hits. On this evening, the 53-year-old singer played four songs from her debut album. But she updated the arrangements to create a more rocking sound. Often, she tours with the hard rock band L.A. Guns. Due to other commitments by Guns members, she assembled a trio to back her (guitar, bass, and keyboard/drum machine). Mark Alberici, who played guitar, was the highlight of this group, backing her rhythmically and shredding on the solos.

She added a few rockers from her latest album, "Shadows."

Although she only performed for about 70 minutes, Tiffany warmed to the audience, moving across the stage and serenading folks in the first few rows. She referred to her supporters and her bandmates as "Team Tiff."

Age has changed her appearance from her days as a teen prodigy. But it is clear she still loves to perform, and she has transferred that love to her audience.

What happens to a relationship when a spouse cheats on their partner? What if a wife has an affair with her husband's best friend? How does that affect the marriage and the friendship?

These are questions explored in Harold Pinter's "Betrayal," which is currently running at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. This version, directed by Susan V. Booth, brings a lot of star power to the stage. Chicago native Ian Barford stars as husband Robert, Hellen Hunt is his wife Emma, and Robert Sean Leonard stars as Robert's best friend and Emma's lover Jerry.

Barford is a Tony nominee, Leonard is a Tony winner, and Hunt holds Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe awards. Fans of movies and television will know Hunt from her roles in "Twister," "As Good As It Gets," and "Mad About You," while Leonard is most remembered as the title character's best friend in TV's "House" and as the conflicted student in "Dead Poets Society."

The twist in this play is that the story is told in reverse chronological order. The opening scene takes place two years after the end of the affair, as the former lovers meet with Emma revealing that her marriage is over. As we move backward in time, we learn details of the affair - how it ended, how it progressed, what and when Robert knew, and how it began. Each scene reveals details of events mentioned earlier in the play but later in the timeline. The past often reveals misrepresentations or misremembered events.

The dialog and actions are more realistic than most plays, reflecting the awkwardness with which the characters find themselves. Sentences are sometimes left incomplete, and pauses are occasionally uncomfortable. When Emma reaches out her hand to Jerry in the opening scene, he hesitates before pulling away. Leonard / Jerry conveys his guilt over the situation perfectly. He enjoyed the seven-year triste, but now he feels enormous guilt for betraying his best friend. In contrast, Barford / Robert has come to terms with events and is willing to continue the friendship unaltered, possibly because he was unfaithful to Emma during their marriage.

Pinter based "Betrayal" on an extramarital affair of his own and wrote an honest account of the conflicted emotions of all those an affair touches. Hunt, Leonard, and Barford brought those feelings to life.

While not perfect, this short play effectively transferred emotions to the audience.

How do you tell a story that your audience knows so well?

In this case, the "The Lion King" producers focused on the costumes. And what costumes they were! The producers of the London West End Production at the Lyceum Theater on January 28 gave us clothing, masks, puppets attached to actors, and bird kites on poles.

This play's plot, characters, and dialogue were nearly identical to those in the Disney animated movie. The show included many of the film's classic songs ("I Just Can't Wait to be King," "Hakuna Matata," "Can You Feel the Love Tonight") as well as a few fresh originals.

Shaun Escofferey as Mufasa and Owen Chaponda were great, but Mark Roper's Pumba stole the show whenever he was on stage.

An audience of adults and children was not looking for a new story. They were looking to be entertained. And "The Lion King" delivered!

My friend Jon is a big musical theater fan, so I asked him to suggest a play we could see together in London's famed West End. He did not hesitate, suggesting "Hadestown" - a show he had seen at least a half-dozen times. We went on January 26 at the Lyric Theatre in London's West End.

The production did not disappoint.

Hadestown tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, star-crossed lovers of Greek mythology. After the two fall in love, Underworld overlord Hades entices Eurydice into his domain of the Dead. Her presence sparks jealousy in Hades's wife, Persephone, while Orpheus braves the journey, attempting to rescue his lover.

While the Orpheus / Eurydice love story is the focus of this play, Hades and Persephone seek to rekindle their romance in a touching parallel story.

Dónal Finn projected a naive sincerity as Orpheus and Zachary James portrayed a cunning Hades. Melanie La Barrie captivated the audience in her role as Hermes, who provided musical narration to the story.

The music was great, the story was great, the acting was dynamic, and our front-row seats allowed the energy of the actors to flow through us.

I do not think I will see Hadestown as often as Jon, but I will likely see it again.

The musical "Tina" tells of the rise and fall and rise of singer Tina Turner. I was able to enjoy the Saturday evening show at London's Aldwych Theatre.

Few stars have had the second act of Tina Turner. Turner rose to prominence fronting The Ike and Tina Turner Review with her husband, Ike. With hits like "Nutbush City Limit" and "Proud Mary," Tina established herself as a force in soul and R&B music throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Sadly, the singer suffered abuse at the hands of her husband. Her career floundered when she divorced him, and his lawsuits prevented her from performing any of the songs they recorded together.

"Tina" relates her story beginning with Ike Turner recruiting a star-struck teenager named  Anna Mae Bullock to sing in his band, marry him, and change her name to Tina Turner. As her husband's drug abuse and violence increased, Tina remained submissive for too long. Finally, she took action, escaping from an abusive marriage, knowing the financial hardship this decision would place on herself and her children.
Her comeback began in 1984 when Capital Records released the "Private Dancer" album, which included her #1 hit single "What's Love Got To Do With It."

We hear her story through her music as it evolved over the years.

Rolan Bell is excellent as the villain Ike. We see his fall and an attempt at redemption later in life. Despite limited stage time, tiny Azaela Harris stole the show each time she appeared as young Anna-Mae. But the evening belonged to Zoe Birkett, who brought the title character to life. Her evolution as she took control of her life is impressive and believable. And when she sang, it felt like watching the Queen of Rock & Roll herself.

After the final bows, Birkett stepped to the front of the stage to perform two of Tina Turner's hits in full character, including a wig with The Queen of Rock & Roll's well-known spiked haircut.

I missed my chance to see Tina Turner years ago when she performed a concert for attendees of the TechEd conference in New Orleans. I skipped the concert to fly home for my son's high school commencement. Ms. Turner passed away in 2023, denying me any opportunity to see her in person.

This night was a good consolation for missing seeing the Queen of Rock & Roll in person.

Episode 838

Chris Ayers on Dev Containers and Codespaces

Dev Containers allow you to quickly spin up a full development environment inside a container. Codespaces use this technology to allow you to work on code in your GitHub repository in a virtual online environment.

Chris Ayers discusses these technologies and how they are useful.

Justin Timberlake has enjoyed an enormously successful musical career, graduating from a regular on "The Mickey Mouse Club" to the popular boy band "NSYNC" to solo artist as a grown-up. He has had a string of top hits since embarking on his own two decades ago, including "Rock Your Body," "SexyBack, "My Love," "Cry Me a River, "What Goes Around, "Summer Love, "Mirrors," "Say Something," and "Can't Stop the Feeling!"

He performed them all on Friday night at the United Center before a sold-out arena.

But the show was not only about the music. Timberlake showed off his dancing prowess and brought other dancers into the choreographers.

The most entertaining part of the show was a second stage set up on the back of the main floor. Before Justin began, a DJ warmed up the audience by playing dance music records from turntables atop the stage. During the headliner's act, Justin made his way between the primary and secondary stages multiple times. The alternate stage allowed those in the rear (like me) to be closer to the entertainment.

This evening's show featured some impressive lighting and stage props. A giant obelisk was raised and lowered above the stage, and it was even sometimes tilted to loom above the performers and lay flat on the stage. The obelisk projected images of Justin and his backing band and dancers and, at one point, displayed images on its side to look like a gas station set in the southwest US desert.

This evening was my first time seeing Justin Timberlake in concert. I knew of his capabilities as a singer and actor. But this evening, I appreciated his talent as an entertainer!

I experienced my first Candlelight Concert on Thursday evening. It was a unique experience for me on several levels.

Rather than hosting this concert in a theater, nightclub, or concert hall, it took place in the ballroom of a Logan Square mansion.

Nearly all the light in the venue came from hundreds of candles placed around the stage and the floor. The only exceptions were EXIT signs above the doors and tiny bulbs illuminating sheet music.

The Metropolis String Quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello) provided the evening's music. One would expect chamber music from this quartet. But they played their arrangements of the music of the rock band Queen.

Some of the selections were soft and melodic ("Somebody to Love," "Who Wants to Live Forever," "Love of My Life"), and playing on acoustic strings seemed natural. Others, such as "Another One Bites the Dust," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and " Under Pressure," required creativity on the part of the performers. For some songs, the artists set aside their bows to pluck their strings, mimicking the guitar and bass guitar of the original rock quartet. Other times, they thumped on their instruments to add rhythm. They sometimes relied on the audience, such as when the crowd stamped hands and feet to the classic " We Will Rock You."

Most songs selected this evening were massive hits, recognizable by even a casual Queen fan, but they did choose a few deep album cuts, like "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "I Want to Break Free."

The quarter consisted of great musicians technically. But it was clear they had fun performing for us. And we had fun listening!

Episode 837

Burton Smith on 5 Questions to Get You Started with UX

Burton Smith has some advice for those designing a user experience: Ask yourself these five questions before you begin!

It had been over five years since my last visit to London and almost seven years since I spoke at an NDC conference (Oslo, 21018).

So when the NDC organizers invited me to speak at their London event, I jumped at the chance.

I planned a vacation around this 3-day conference, taking two weeks off work. We settled on a few days in London before the show and a flight to Spain afterward.

We arrived at Heathrow Airport Saturday morning and spent the afternoon walking around central London. Dishoom, the Covent Garden Indian restaurant where we ate dinner, was so good that it earned two return trips later in the week. With a free evening, we bought tickets to see "Tina" at the Aldwych Theatre. London's West End area is known for its world-class theater and is on par with the quality of New York's Broadway. The show was great, concluding with a pretend concert where the entire audience stood and sang along with the actress who played Tina Turner.

Before the trip, I made plans to meet my friend Jon for lunch and a show. Jon is a massive musical theater fan, so I accepted his recommendation to see Hadestown, a show he had already seen at least half a dozen times. He was right. The show was great, and our front-row seats were a treat.

While in London, we visited several great museums: The British Museum, the National Gallery, and the Tate Modern. Public museums in London are free and contain treasures from all over the world, collected when the British Empire stretched across the globe. Other touristy activities included lunch at Borough Market, a walk past the famed Globe Theater, where Shakespeare showcased his plays, and lots of walks through Covent Garden and along the Thames. We concluded our pre-conference activities by seeing "The Lion King," a live adaptation of the Disney classic featuring amazing costumes and puppetry.

The NDC London conference began Wednesday morning with a keynote by Scott Hanselman. You can read my thoughts on the conference here. What I love most about in-person events like this is connecting with and learning from people. I was able to catch up with many old friends I had not seen in years, and I met some new people that I found very likable and interesting. The Wednesday evening speaker dinner and Thursday evening attendee party provided opportunities to connect with others. I avoided the crowds and had some enjoyable one-on-one conversations. I scheduled some interviews for my show among the conference speakers. I will record these in the coming weeks, so they will be online soon. You can read more about the conference here.

I skipped out early from the last day of the conference to complete something that has long been on my bucket list. I now have a photograph of myself crossing Abbey Road in front of the Apple Studio building, just as pictured on the cover of the classic Beatles album.

Friday night, we flew to Madrid to enjoy a vacation without responsibility. We did little more than walk around our hotel's neighborhood (Atocha) before catching a Saturday morning train to Barcelona. I chose Madrid as a flight destination because of the many high-speed trains that depart from that city, and I chose our hotel based on its proximity to the train station. We liked the hotel (AC Atocha) and its staff enough that we booked it again a few days later.

Our Barcelona hotel (Hotel Miramar) appeared nice initially, but numerous problems dampened our enthusiasm for it. We had to change rooms late Saturday night because neither the shower nor the heater worked adequately. Our room lacked hot water for most of our stay, forcing us to either forego a shower or shower in cold water. It was a shame because, at first glance, the hotel seemed terrific. It sits atop a hill, and our balcony offered a spectacular view of the city and the Mediterranean Sea.

Despite the disappointing hotel, we enjoyed Barcelona.

We had enough time Saturday night to dine on seafood and gelato at La Nacional - a food court at the end of an arcade in the city's heart.

We spent hours Sunday morning at the Sagrada Familia - a large church designed by famed architect Antoni Gaudi. Construction began in 1882 and continues to this day. The large columns and the green and yellow glass of the interior give the building a feeling like a forest. After leaving the Sagrada Familia, we spent the rest of the day at the Park Güell - a set of parks, gardens, and buildings on a hill overlooking Barcelona. Colorful birds reside in the trees, and busking musicians appear around many corners of the path.

Monday, we walked around the Gothic Quarter, the city's oldest neighborhood, and stumbled upon the Barcelona Cathedral - an enormous gothic edifice with tributes to numerous saints inside. Before boarding a train back to Madrid, we walked for miles through Barcelona, visiting the Palaça de Catalunya, Casa Batlló, and Casa Amatller.

We returned to the AC Atocha in Madrid, where the staff again treated us well. Each morning after breakfast, we explored the capital city's parks, museums, squares, and markets.

We packed a lot into Monday, beginning with a visit to the Museo Nacional del Prado, home to many classic works by European painters, such as Goya and Breugel. Several painters had set up easels in the concourse and attempted to recreate the paintings on the walls. We walked through the Parque de El Retiro - a large park in the middle of Madrid. We exited at the Puerta de Alcala - a gate that initially led through the city's walls. On the way to the Gran Via shopping district, we stopped to use a public restroom at the Madrid City Hall. We discovered that the building features an observation deck on its top floor, offering beautiful vistas of the city center.

iWe spent much of Tuesday at the Royal Palace of Madrid. This palace is the royal family's official residence, but its primary function is to be a museum that shows the history of the Spanish monarchy. In the afternoon, we walked city streets to large square Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol and ate a small lunch in the Mercado San Miguel, which houses numerous food stands. After hours on my feet, I ran out of gas and needed to recharge with a latte and some olives.

Wednesday was our final day in Madrid. We spent the morning at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. This museum features contemporary works of Spanish art. There are many works by Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso and by those influenced by their styles. A significant amount of the artwork focused on the Spanish Civil War. Numerous school groups crossed our paths as teachers explained the art to their young students.

We flew back to London Wednesday evening and spent a night near Heathrow before the long flight home.

In the two weeks we were gone, we walked countless miles, visited a dozen museums, explored many parks and buildings, and dined well.

In England, I enjoyed fish and chips and pints of beer at hundreds of years old pubs. In Barcelona, we drank wine and ate paella. In Madrid, the best restaurant we found was a tiny Cuban restaurant with excellent ropa vieja. Despite all this rich food, I managed not to gain any weight, thanks to all the walking.

I am still jet lagged from my journey and still processing all we saw. It took me days to sort through the photographs I took. As I ease back into my day job, I am considering when I can return to London, Madrid, and Barcelona.

Photos

London 2025

Barcelona 2025

Madrid 2025

NDC originally stood for Norwegian Developers Conference, but I don't know if those initials still apply. Although the organizers still host a conference in Oslo, Norway every year, they have expanded to host events across the world.

I attended NDC for the third time this year, but this was my first time speaking at NDC London.

I was happy to see Microsoft sponsoring this event, providing a booth and a place for attendees to ask questions. In addition, about a dozen Microsoft employees delivered presentations at the conference.

I delivered a session on "Effective Data Visualization," a topic I have spoken about numerous times. The audience seemed appreciative, and the feedback was positive.

Sessions

During the three-day conference, I attended multiple sessions and had many conversations in the open areas outside the sessions.

Microsoft Vice President Scott Hanselman delivered an excellent opening keynote titled "AI without the BS, for humans," in which he spoke about the limitations of Artificial Intelligence tools and how we can use AI effectively.

Microsoft Engineer Steve Sanderson gave the Day 3 keynote: "The past, present, and future of AI for application developers" - a technical presentation in which he wrote code on stage to show the power of AI tools.

In between, I attended the following sessions:

"Beyond The Hype: Every Day, Real World Uses for Copilot" by Rob Conery

This presentation was all demos. Rob showed how to add context to your GitHub Copilot prompts by adding files to the Copilot Edit area.

"Consistency and Agreements in Distributed Systems" by Jimmy Bogard

Jimmy walked through the advantages and disadvantages of a few patterns designed to provide transactions to a distributed system that did not natively support transactions.

"20 year old cloud native apps with .NET" by Scott Hanselman

Scott demonstrated updating legacy applications, making them cloud-native.

"Old to Gold: How to Modernize Your Legacy ASP.NET Apps Gradually" by J Tower

Refactoring applications is risky. J showed some techniques to mitigate that risk.

"Practical advice for building glorious monoliths" by Glenn Henriksen

Glenn walked through an enterprise application architecture that provided a good separation of concerns without resorting to splitting every component into a microservice. I enjoyed this even more because Glenn gave me a bar of Norwegian chocolate for asking a good question.

"You Don't Know Git" by Edward Thomson

Edward knows Git inside and out from his time on the GitHub team. He showed many underused but powerful git commands by typing them live.

Conclusion

The sessions I saw were all great, but the real value of this conference was talking with people one-on-one or in small groups. I had many opportunities to do so during the day and at organized mixers in the evening. I learn so much from talking with people who have expertise that I lack. This one meant a bit more because I have attended fewer conferences in the past few years.

This was my first NDC since flying to Oslo almost seven years ago. The organizers did an excellent job of creating a positive experience for the attendees, the sponsors, and the speakers.

2/2
Today I am grateful for my first visit to Barcelona

2/1
Today I am grateful to arrive safely in Madrid last night.

1/31
Today I am grateful
- to the organizers of NDC London for an excellent conference this year
- to have a drink and talk with old friends at the attendee party last night
- to deliver a presentation on Data Visualization at the conference yesterday
- to the man who stopped me in the hallway to tell me how much he enjoyed my presentation

1/30
Today I am grateful to attend the NDC speaker dinner in Westminster last night.

1/29
Today I am grateful
- to see "The Lion King" at the Lyceum Theatre
- for a visit to the Tate Modern Museum
- for lunch at Borough Market

1/28
Today I am grateful to visit the National Gallery and the British Museum in London yesterday.

1/27
Today I am grateful to see "Hadestown" with Jonathan yesterday in London's West End.

1/26
Today I am grateful to see the musical “Tina” in London’s West End last night.

1/25
Today I am grateful to arrive safely in London.

1/24
Today I am grateful to complete the tasks on my To Do list before my vacation begins.

1/23
Today I am grateful for my first appointment with an audiologist.

1/22
Today I am grateful to catch up on writing book reviews and concert reviews.

1/21
Today I am grateful for a long weekend.

1/20
Today I am grateful for the inspiration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for equal rights for all men and women.

1/19
Today I am grateful for lunch with Eric yesterday.

1/18
Today I am grateful to the organizers of #CodeMash for another excellent conference!

1/17
Today I am grateful to deliver a new presentation on Cybersecurity and the Secure Future Initiative at #CodeMash yesterday.

1/16
Today I am grateful for dinner with Gary and Kendall last night.

1/15
Today I am grateful for dinner last night with Chris and Mark

1/14
Today I am grateful to see so many old friends last night.

1/13
Today I am grateful:
- to attend an exciting Michigan State basketball game at Northwestern yesterday
- for dinner with Brian while he was in town yesterday

1/12
Today I am grateful for a day in Kalamazoo.

1/11
Today I am grateful to see Buddy Guy and Wayne Baker Brooks in concert last night and to meet them after the show.

1/10
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to mentor a young software engineer in India these past few months.

1/9
Today I am grateful to play pickleball 3 days in a row and 4 of the last 8 days.

1/8
Today I am grateful for some time to study the last few weeks.

1/7
Today I am grateful to stay at home last night watching silly movies.

1/6
Today I am grateful for the Detroit Lions winning back-to-back division titles and earning the #1 playoff seed.

Isabel Allende's 2022 novel "Violeta" tells the life story of the title character in her own words.

Violeta was born in an unnamed South American country (probably Allende's native Chile, given some historical clues) during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1920. She died a century later during the COVID-19 epidemic. Between that time, she grew up, fell in love multiple times, bore two children, and witnessed changes in her life, her country, and the world.

Allende brings us into Violeta's head to experience her passions, triumphs, mistakes, and growth. The entire novel is a letter to a loved one whose identity is revealed two-thirds through the book.
Her father lost his fortune in the Depression of the 1930s, but she and her brother built a successful business. She is a victim of a violent husband's physical abuse, but she survives and gains her independence. Her country's patriarchy deems women second-class citizens, but she and her friends fight the injustices, and society slowly changes. Much of the saga takes place against the backdrop of the political upheavals of her country and the world.

The author gives life to her heroine and those who touched that woman. She introduces us to a stream of interesting characters who enter and exit the protagonist's life: Miss Taylor, the lesbian Irish tutor who teaches Violeta both discipline and rebelliousness; Julian, the dashing, violent ex-husband who fathers her children and looks after only himself; and Nieves, the self-destructive, drug-addicted daughter who rebels against her parents.

I read an English translation of the book, initially published in Spanish. I would not have known it was a translation had I not looked it up. Allende gives voice to her heroine, and the translator captures the inspiration in that voice. The narrative is a message to someone named Camilo, but the reader does not learn Camilo's identity until at least halfway through the book.

I do not know if it is significant that this centenarian entered and exited this world during a global pandemic. Still, I found significance in the triumphs and mistakes of this woman's life. Violeta was a feminist living in a patriarchal society. She gained her independence despite the roadblocks set before her. "Violeta" is not just the story of Violeta. It is a story of the world where she lived for a hundred years.

By all accounts, Second Century Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius never intended his private journal to be made public. Aurelius kept a journal throughout his life, recording his philosophical musings. Others collected and published his writings centuries after the Emperor's death.

Aurelius presents most of his thoughts concisely in a few sentences but occasionally expands an idea beyond a whole page.

Many of the ideas presented in the book are repeated later with variations in the words - not surprisingly, since this was originally a journal. By observing topics to which the author returns most often, we can find some significant themes in his writings, such as:

- Life is short. Make the most of it.
- Contribute to the world
- Favor reason over emotion
- The words and actions of others cannot hurt me. I have control over my emotions and feelings
- Do not tie your self-worth to the praise of others

Aurelius speaks often about the interconnectedness of all things in the universe, a concept he calls  "the whole."

He voices the philosophy of stoicism - the idea that a well-lived life is sufficient to make one happy.

Here are a few of the quotes that resonated with me:

• "No more roundabout discussion about what makes a good man. Be one!"
• "If it is not right, don't do it; if it is not true, don't say it."
  
• "You should leave another's wrong where it lies." - an interesting concept for an emperor.
• "You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
• "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."
• "When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love."

Although "Meditations" contains only a few pages, it took me a long time to read. I gained the most when I stopped after each paragraph to ponder how it applies to my life. The author also references several historical figures with whom I am unfamiliar. The edition I read contained a lengthy appendix that provided this context but also slowed my velocity.

"Meditations" is a good read with some simple, thought-provoking advice that is still relevant today.

No one liked Captain Queeg. He was petty, egotistical, and quick to blame others for his many mistakes. As Captain of the USS Caine, he frequently verbally abused the men under his command, often for trivial incidents.

Most of his officers disliked him and some viewed him as unbalanced and paranoid. When the Caine began to tip dangerously during a Pacific typhoon, Captain Queeg faltered and froze. First Officer Steve Maryk seized command during the storm, knowing he would face a court-martial and charges of mutiny when the ship returned to port.

Herman Wouk's 1952 novel "The Caine Mutiny" explores this fictional incident, including the events leading up to the mutiny and its aftermath.

Wouk explores the stress of the ship's crew, much of it caused by Captain Queeg's erratic behavior. The typhoon incident was not an isolated event. Queeg made many mistakes and focused on trivial matters to the detriment of the ship's welfare and his men's welfare. But the question arises: Do these shortcomings make him unfit to command? Did they justify Maryk's actions?

A court-martial trial addresses these questions - a trial that takes up much of the novel.

This book is a slow burn, taking its time to reveal the characters, their growth, their flaws, and their realizations. The sailors see World War II from their perspective aboard a dilapidated, little-used minesweeper under the command of an incompetent micromanager. Instead of filling his story with thrilling battle scenes, Wouk reveals the emotions of those living on the fringes of the war.

Wouk weaves an excellent story with masterful character development.

The story is bookended by the misadventures of Willie Keith, an upper-class young man who served as an Ensign aboard the Caine and supported Maryk's decision. Keith enlisted to avoid the Army's draft and to avoid deciding on his love for a nightclub singer from a working-class family of immigrants. Willie's experience in the Navy forces him to grow up and take control of his life. He is a different man after his time at sea.

In contrast, intellectual writer Thomas Keefer reveals severe character flaws when placed at risk, denying all responsibility despite encouraging Maryk to question Queeg's authority.

Initially, Keith finds Queeg's disciplinarian approach a refreshing change from the lackadaisical attitude of the ship's previous captain. Maryk defends Queeg initially, scolding sailors and officers who mock him. But soon, both recognize the deficiencies in the new captain's leadership style and lose respect for their commander.

The author also gives us Barney Greenwald, the disillusioned lawyer who ends up defending Maryk despite disagreeing with him.

"The Caine Mutiny" is an examination of life aboard a ship during wartime, a study in psychology, a coming-of-age story, a development of characters, a critique of class in America, a look at the limits of authority, and a legal drama. It has held up well over the years because it succeeds at all these.

Episode 836

Randy Pagels on GitHub Advanced Security

Xebia Architect and Trainer Randy Pagels talks about how GitHub Advanced Security can assist developer in writing more secure code. He covers the three capabilities of GHAS: Dependency Scanning, Secret Scanning, and Code Scanning with CodeQL.

Links:

GitHub Advanced Security
https://github.com/advanced-security
 
About Dependabot alerts
https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/dependabot/dependabot-alerts/about-dependabot-alerts
 
About secret scanning
https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/secret-scanning/about-secret-scanning
 
About code scanning
https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/code-scanning/introduction-to-code-scanning/about-code-scanning
 
Learning Path - Secure at every step
https://resources.github.com/learn/pathways/security/

When Buddy Guy completed his farewell tour last year, I feared I would never again see him perform. Luckily, he continued his annual residency at his "Legends, " the Southside Chicago club he has owned since 1989.

Guy has performed four nights a week every January for years, featuring a different warmup act each evening. Wayne Baker Brooks preceded Buddy on stage when I attended on Saturday.

Brooks is the son of legendary Chicago bluesman Lonnie Brooks. He told of "my journey," paying respect to his late father with songs by Lonnie and the previous generation of bluesmen before launching into his own songs.

Buddy Guy belongs squarely to a previous generation of blues artists. He is among the last of that group, and on this night, he played many classics such as Muddy Waters's "Hoochie Coochie Man," BB King's "Five Long Years," Al Green's "Take Me to the River," and "Chicken Heads" by Bobby Rush, one of the few active blues singers born before Buddy. He also included songs of his own, including "Damn Right I've Got the Blues," with which he opened the set.

As always, Mr. Guy surrounded himself with first-rate musicians. I was especially impressed by Dan Souvigny, who replaced the longtime Buddy Guy keyboardist Marty Sammons after Sammons's 2022 death.

We bought standing-room tickets because all the tables sold out months ago; however, a host offered us seats next to the stage shortly after Guy began his set. Of course, we grabbed them. As a result, we could see the legend work his magic up close.

I have seen Buddy Guy many times over the past thirty-five years. In the 1980s, he sported a Jheri curl and moved about the stage with a wild abandon. These days, his movements are more controlled, but he still brings energy and he still winds his way through the audience during a guitar solo.

I caught Guy during his residency last January, and this year's performance differed little from that one. But it did not matter to those of us who love to see him do what he does best.

At eighty-eight years young, Buddy Guy has earned the right to do what he wants. I hope he decides to continue playing for us.

Episode 835

Brian Hitney on Real Time Intelligence with Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Partner Solution Architect Brian Hitney defines real-time intelligence and how to implement it using the suite of tools in Microsoft Fabric.

I do not recall a time I was not a fan of Bill Murray. I was a high school freshman when he replaced Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live.

Although Murray has made his name as a comic actor these past five decades, he came to Chicago's Thalia Hall to sing! The two shows in the Pilsen venue kicked off a national tour through October. A group of first-rate musicians joined him on stage, including accomplished bluesmen Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia. Together, they referred to themselves as Bill Murray and the Blood Brothers.

Calling this a backing band would be a misstatement. Murray deferred most of the entertainment to his bandmates during the concert as he stood in the back banging on bongos or a cowbell. His percussion was not needed, as two drummers flanked him. The blues these musicians produced on this night was excellent. For most of the evening, Murray was just as much an audience member as I was. He just had a better seat.

But Bill Murray's name was at the top of the bill, and fans came to see and hear him. So, Bill stepped to the front every few songs to sing the lead.

He sang classic rock songs from The Dave Clark Five ("Catch Us If You Can"), The Kinks ("Tired of Waiting for You"),
Although his "backing band" was far more talented, it was fun to see Bill pretending to be a famous singer. He has never taken himself too seriously; this night was no exception. "Any one of you could sing with this band," he assured us. Born and raised in the Chicago area, Murray delighted the audience when he appeared for the encore wearing a Black Hawks jersey.

If I ever become as famous as Bill Murray, I fully intend to do exactly as he did - surround myself with great musicians and ask them to play while I sing my favourite songs in front of my adoring fans. I guarantee I will have as much fun as Bill did.

In 2024, I took significant steps to improve myself.

Last year, I accomplished some things, I experienced some things, I rebounded from some challenges, and I focused on my health.

Family

The big news this year was the marriage of my son Tim to Natale. The wedding took place in August in Chicago. Friends and family gathered to welcome my new daughter to our family.

Travel

Although work travel is still limited, I did experience two such trips in 2024. A long-delayed team offsite finally happened in February. Hundreds of my teammates from across North and South America met in the Seattle area for meetings, education, and fellowship. For most of us, it was the first time we had met in person, which was the most significant advantage of this event.

In May, I spoke at the DevSum conference in Stockholm, Sweden. It was an exciting chance to speak at an international conference for the first time since before the pandemic. When the conference ended, I took an overnight cruise ship to Helsinki, Finland - a place I had never visited. After spending a few days exploring Helsinki, I took another boat across the gulf to spend a day in Tallinn, Estonia, another new destination for me. I booked a guided tour of each city and walked alone, soaking in the architecture, atmosphere, food, and culture. I have now visited 27 different countries in my life. (Nordic Rhapsody 2024)

In November, I booked a trip to the east coast. Because I have a goal to visit every stadium arena for each NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB team, I planned this excursion around sporting events. I was able to attend home games for the Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia 76ers, Baltimore Ravens, Washington Capitals, and Washington Commanders. I also visited many cousins and old friends and explored a few museums on this 10-day adventure. (East Coast Rhapsody 2024)

The Arts

This year, I decided to become a member of the Art Institute of Chicago. I visited the museum several times, but not as often as I hoped. My membership allows me to bring in four guests during each visit, so let me know when you are in or near downtown Chicago and are interested in visiting one of the world's great museums.

Believe it or not, I increased the number of concerts and plays I attended this past year: 26 concerts and 24 plays. Here is the list:

Concerts

Theater

Public Speaking

I have a passion for learning and sharing knowledge with others. One of the most enjoyable ways for me to do this is to get on stage at a conference, user group, or school and deliver a presentation. The pandemic limited my ability to do this, but I increased my activity during 2024. I delivered 29 presentations during the year: Seven online and Twenty-two in person. The highlight was delivering the keynote at the inaugural Michigan Technology Conference in Pontiac, MI. United Wholesale Mortgage hosted this conference, and I was able to share the story of how UWM owner Mat Ishbia inspired my son Nick when Nick was a boy and Mat was a walk-on for the Michigan State University basketball team. I had hoped Mat would attend my talk, but he also owns the Phoenix Suns, which were competing in the NBA Playoffs the week of the conference.

Here are the presentations I delivered during the calendar year.

I am scheduled to speak at two events in January - CodeMash in Sandusky, OH, and NDC in London, UK. I am awaiting word on a few conferences to which I have submitted.

My Job

My job has not changed much from last year. I continue to enjoy the fact that I am constantly learning, making a difference, and working with excellent people.

Volunteering

I volunteered to mentor students at a local public high school for the sixth consecutive year. We are making a difference in young people's lives and contributing to diversity in the industry, as nearly all the students are from underrepresented groups. In-person mentoring begins again later this month.

Reading

I read 37 books in 2024. I aim to read every winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and I am about halfway through this list. In addition, I have joined two book clubs, and I am open to reading suggestions. You can follow my progress and read my book reviews here

Online

This year, I passed 800 published episodes of "Technology and Friends," the online show where I interview smart people about topics of interest to technologists. Because my job involves working with Microsoft partners, I tried to showcase some of them on my show. Although I do not exclusively target famous people for this show (anyone with an interesting story is welcome), I interviewed a few well-known technologists this year, including:

• Oren Eini, the creator of RavenDB
• Gael Fraiteur, the creator of Metalama (formerly PostSharp)
• Venkat Subramaniam, an internationally known speaker
• Michael Feathers, author of the definitive book on working with legacy code

I am approaching 200 episodes of GCast, where I record a screencast to showcase a technical concept or technology.

I published 188 blog posts in 2024 - a little over one every two days. This number is lower than in previous years. I plan to write more technical content next year.

Health

In the past, I tried to maintain my fitness by riding my bike and scheduling regular sessions with a personal trainer. Unfortunately, my trainer decided to change careers, and I have not found an acceptable replacement for her.

Despite losing a trainer, I increased my focus on my physical health last year. I recognized where I was lacking and took steps to improve.

Every day, I try to do the following:

• 5-10 minutes stretching
• 5-10 minutes of core exercises
• Ride my bike

In addition, I try to go to the gym three times a week and play pickleball once a week.

I have stopped worrying about how much time I can spend on each activity and focused more on checking off the activity each day. Consistency seems to be the key for me.

This exercise regimen and a serious diet resulted in a weight loss of 60 pounds. I had lost 70 pounds but fell back into bad habits during the holidays.

Other Stuff

I set other goals during the year. I wanted to learn Spanish, partly because much of my team is in Latin America, and I hope to work with them in their home country. I signed up for Duolingo and have taken lessons every day for over seven months. I have always wanted to play the piano, and I own a small electric keyboard that my brother gifted me a few years ago. This year, I committed to practicing every day that I am home. Usually, this involves only practicing the basic major and minor chords. It is not much, but it is a start.

Of course, sometimes, I cannot meet my daily goals. Practicing piano or riding a bike is challenging, and the weather often makes bike riding impractical. But I set these goals, and I achieve them when I can.

An emotional rollercoaster ended on a high note this year. A woman with whom I became close destroyed our relationship by lying and responding to my hurt with gaslighting. Months later, I still sometimes get angry when thinking about it. I count myself blessed that I met someone else soon after that incident. Her kindness, intelligence, generosity, sincerity, and beauty continually impress me. We are still together, and I am grateful every day for her. She is a big reason I am optimistic about the future.

After switching almost exclusively to online services, I have begun to attend Sunday Mass in person. Usually, I go to the Roman Catholic church a few blocks from my home, but I have been exploring other churches, including a couple of non-denominational ones.

Looking Ahead

During the coming year, I plan to continue the daily habits that I adopted this past year. I want to improve my foreign language and musical skills. I want to continue my health journey. I would love to drop another 25 pounds. I would love to go beyond a few chords and learn some songs on the piano. I would love to be fluent in Spanish.

I want to focus on forgiveness in 2025. I hurt some people this past year, and I apologize to them. Some accepted my apology, but some did not. Some who hurt me never offered an apology, and I struggle to forgive them. This attitude harms me. In 2025, I hope to release the anger I feel inside.

Overall, I feel optimistic about this year. My job, my health, and my personal life are trending upward, and I have no reason to believe they will not continue to do so. I think 2025 will be the best year in some time.

GCast 190:

Organizing Your Day Using Microsoft 365 Copilot

Us M365 Copilot to reflect on yesterday and plan for tomorrow, based on your emails, meetings, and chats.

Episode 834

Blaize Stewart on RAG Apps

Blaize Stewart describes the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern and how to build applications that use this pattern to enable users to search for information inside and outside their organization using a natural language.

1/5
Today I am grateful to see a thrilling overtime Spartan victory over Wisconsin outdoors at Wrigley Field last night!

1/4
Today I am grateful to see Bill Murray and the Blood Brothers in concert last night.

1/3
Today I am grateful for the ability to binge-watch an entire TV series.

1/2
Today I am grateful to face 2025 with renewed optimism

1/1
Today I am grateful to spend New Year's Eve cooking dinner with someone special.

12/31
Today I am grateful to return to volunteer repacking food at the Chicago Food Repository this morning.

12/30
Today I am grateful for the humanitarian work and inspiration of Jimmy Carter.

12/29
Today I am grateful to introduce a friend to "A Princess Bride" yesterday.

12/28
Today I am grateful for an escape room experience last night

12/27
Today I am grateful to Debbie for a place to stay during my Christmas visit

12/26
Today I am grateful to celebrate Christmas with my family in Michigan last night.

12/25
Today I am grateful to meet Donna's family last night and to her sister for inviting me to dinner.

12/24
Today I am grateful to attend a Christmas service in Orland Park last night.

12/23
Today I am grateful for Christmas movies

12/22
Today I am grateful for coffee with Nick after watching the MSU game at Breslin yesterday

12/21
Today I am grateful to see an exciting Kalamazoo College basketball game last night.

12/20
Today I am grateful for a relaxing evening at home.

12/19
Today I am grateful to see Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol last night at the Studebaker Theatre.

12/18
Today I am grateful to see Boney James in concert last night.

12/17
Today I am grateful for dinner with Nick in Kalamazoo to celebrate his team's victory yesterday.

12/15
Today I am grateful for front-row seats to see Leo Kottke in concert last night.

12/14
Today I am grateful to Nisaini for organizing volunteers to wrap Christmas gifts for underprivileged children yesterday.

12/13
Today I am grateful to the electrician who repaired the light switches that have left two rooms in the dark for weeks.

12/12
Today I am grateful
- for breakfast with Andrej yesterday
- to see "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" last night

12/11
Today I am grateful for lunch with Andrew yesterday

12/10
Today I am grateful for six straight months of Duolingo Spanish lessons.

12/9
Today I am grateful for a long-overdue car wash yesterday

12/8
Today I am grateful to see "YIPPEE KI YAY - The Parody Celebration of DIE HARD" at the Broadway Playhouse last night and to meet the show's star after the performance.

12/7
Today I am grateful:
- to participate in a career panel at a STEM event for area high school students yesterday
- to see "Dream Girls" live at the Studebaker Theatre last night

12/6
Today I am grateful for calls with Adam and Jon yesterday

12/5
Today I am grateful to return to pickleball open play for the first time in months.

12/4
Today I am grateful to talk with someone yesterday whose book influenced my life years ago.

12/3
Today I am grateful for a massage yesterday

12/2
Today I am grateful to return to a personal trainer for the first time in months.

"The Beet Goes On" is more than a cookbook. Author Serenity Green begins by sharing her personal journey to a plant-based diet and how it benefited her. She then discusses how one's diet affects the brain, immune system, and other parts of the body. She highlights a vegan diet's ethical, environmental, and health benefits.

The recipes begin about a third of the way into the book, and there are plenty of them.

In addition to recipes, Green includes a few tips for improving meals, such as sprinkling red pepper flakes on avocado toast or recommended chips to accompany your homemade guacamole. Charts at the end of some chapters summarized key points, making it easier to consume this information.

So far, I have tried the following recipes:

• Vegan Wrap
• Cozy Chili with Beans and Sweet Potatoes
• Wok Magic Chickpea Curry Stir-Fry
• Breakfast Burrito

The recipes I prepared were tasty, healthy, and colorful ("KIC" or "Keep it Colorful" is a theme of the book).

I am not a vegan, but I enjoyed this book, and I will return to its recipes.

Episode 833

Michael Feathers on Working with Legacy Code

Michael Feathers wrote the definite book on working with legacy code. He defines legacy code, talks about the challenges faced in working with legacy code, and how to address those challenges. He also discusses how AI will impact dealing with legacy code.

Links:
https://www.amazon.com/Working-Effectively-Legacy-Michael-Feathers/dp/0131177052/
https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/

Episode 832

Venkat Subramaniam on The Evolution of Java

Venkat Subramaniam describes the origins of the Java language and platform and how it has evolved over the last 29 years. When asked about new Java features that excite him, he describes virtual threads in detail.

How does one keep a story that is familiar to everyone fresh? This was the challenge faced by Manual Cinema when they decided to perform Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." MC took multiple approaches to this challenge. First, they adapted the story as a puppet show, featuring primarily cardboard stick puppets and silhouettes. Second, they projected the puppet show onto a screen above the stage, converting it into a real-time movie. Finally, the woman performing the puppet show was a bitter workaholic who hated Christmas. As the puppet show progressed, Ebenezer Scrooge's story became her story.

LaKecia Harris was brilliant as the puppeteer Trudy. Her character shifts from the cynical widow at the show's start to the confrontation of her fears as she imagines spirits during a severe thunderstorm and her epiphany as she learns similar lessons taught Scrooge by Dickens's Christmas ghosts.

Wednesday evening's performance was not as complex as MC's interpretation of "Frankenstein" that I saw earlier this year.
./manual-cinemas-frankenstein-is-a-creative-multimedia-mashup

But it was as clever and delightful.

Early in his career, Boney James played keyboard in Morris Day's post-Time band. At Tuesday night's performance at Pilsen's Thalia Hall, he celebrated this Minneapolis connection by performing the funky "Slide" from his latest album - "Slow Burn."

Not long after leaving Day's band, James began releasing his own albums and making a name for himself in the world of smooth jazz.

James showcased a number of tunes from "Slow Burn" on this night.

Some of James's studio recordings feature a vocalist. October London sang on the album version of "All I Want Is You," but Boney told the audience that October was "out doing his own thing," so prerecorded vocals replaced the singer in concert.

He focused instead on the instruments. In addition to his alto, tenor, and soprano saxophone, a 4-piece band backed him up, highlighted by the electrifying guitar playing of Mike Hart. A beautiful rendition of Bill Withers's "Ain't No Sunshine" concluded with an energetic Hart solo.

Boney's catalog features arrangements of some of the great jazz composers. He performed "just a taste" of the music of Grover Washington, Jr. - one of his early influences before launching into a Sergio Mendes song. He joked that he had to "Bonify" the Latin composition. A highlight of the evening was a soulful interpretation of Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly."

But James has plenty of his own compositions in his catalog. He informed us that his composition "Butter" - released over fifteen years ago to little fanfare - is now his most streamed song.

After an impressive solo, James has the habit of walking to the front of the stage and smiling proudly at the audience. He did so many times during the performance.

I saw Boney in concert once before. Shortly after my divorce, I was traveling for work, and he was performing at the theater across from my hotel. It was Valentine's Day, and I think I was the only person in the audience without a date, which saddened me a bit. Last night, I brought someone special with me. She enjoyed the show, and I enjoyed the shared experience.

This made the evening all the more special.

Episode 831

Danny Kim on Cybersecurity in Industry and Education

Danny Kim is the founder and CTO of Full Armour - a company focused on cybersecurity. He talks about some of the threats his customers face and how he helps them defend themselves - even after the hackers gain access to the organization.

He is using his nonprofit Quest Institute to teach cybersecurity, robotics, and other technology topics to middle school and high school students.

Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimdanny/
https://www.fullarmor.com/

Leo Kottke performed Friday and Saturday evenings at SPACE in Evanston. I attended the Saturday show - my first time seeing Kottke in concert in almost thirty years.

Impressively, the 79-year-old retains the rich baritone voice of his youth, which he showed off on lyrical songs like "Pamela Brown," "Rings," and "Julie's House." But it is his guitar playing that makes Kottke special. Alone on the stage, he brought with him only two guitars - a 12-string and a 6-string; by quickly tuning them, he coaxed a variety of sounds from each instrument. His flying fingers often made it sound like multiple musicians were playing simultaneously.

Between songs, he told stories of life on the road and the people he had known. He joked that his hands had a mind of their own. While he sometimes made fun of those hands, they often made fun of him. While talking to the audience, his fingers continued to pluck and strum the strings, adding a soundtrack to his stories, which he told with a quiet gentleness, as if he were alone in conversation with each of us.

After 90 minutes, without moving from his chair, he announced that the next song was the encore before closing the show with "Cripple Creek." The audience rose and applauded as Leo left the stage.

I have never understood why an enormous talent like Leo Kottke never achieved the fame he deserves. But I am glad we still get to experience him in intimate venues like SPACE.

Add to the list of things I did not know: Before the American Civil War, some black people owned slaves. It was not common, but it was legal, and it happened.

Edward P. Jones's 2003 novel "The Known World" tells the story of Henry Townsend, a former slave whose father was able to purchase his freedom. Henry used his freedom to buy a tobacco plantation and purchase thirty slaves of his own.

The story begins with Henry's untimely death as his widow tries to maintain order on the plantation.

A plethora of subplots and characters often made keeping everyone's story straight challenging. I sometimes found it necessary to flip back to remember the backstory of the current chapter's main character. In addition, Jones presents a non-linear narrative, frequently stepping away from a scene to reveal a character's fate decades later or to describe a present-day historian researching the story's events. Despite these difficulties, Jones builds and evolves his characters well. They are complex - none are purely good or purely evil, instead reacting to the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Jones explores the social structure of society, showing a clear hierarchy in antebellum America among whites, mixed-race people, freed blacks, and slaves. The few rights the law afforded blacks were sometimes not enough. In one scene, a white man kidnaps a free black man and sells him back into slavery.

Henry Townsend is a fictional character, as is Manchester, the county where the action takes place, but the author makes them feel real. He brings to the fore the doomed institution of slavery and the complex personal and societal issues of those involved.

"The Known World" shed light on what was an unknown world to me.

GCast 189:

Automating Microsoft Excel with VBA

Learn how to use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automate tasks in Microsoft Excel

Episode 830

Christina Aldan on Changing Careers

Christina Aldan talks about how to prepare yourself for a career change. She provides practical advice about preparing for a change, as well as ways to deal with the stress inherent in such a change.

It is difficult to argue with Richard Marsh when he declares "Die Hard" the greatest Christmas movie of all time. Marsh honored his favourite film by creating "Yippee Ki Yay," a one-man show that pays tribute to the movie.

Mr. Marsh brought this show to the Broadway Playhouse at Chicago's Water Tower Place, where I saw it Saturday night.

In this performance, Marsh alternates between two stories. One story recreates "Die Hard," in which New York City police detective John McClane travels to Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged wife Holly but ends up battling a group of murderous terrorists led by the evil Hans Gruber. Marsh's telling is sometimes serious and sometimes tongue-in-cheek but always told with affection. Periodically, Marsh steps out of the "Die Hard" story to relate his relationship with his wife, whom he met on a Reddit forum dedicated to the 1988 movie. The couple bonded over the Bruce Willis film, fell in love, married, had two kids, and worked through relationship issues.

Richard Marsh is charming and funny, as are the stories he tells. He outputs both tales almost entirely in rhyme.

He moves from character to character, emulating and/or parodying voices and actions. He is hilarious playing Karl, the vengeful assassin played by long-haired ballet dancer Alexander Gudunov in the movie.

Although no one else joined Marsh on stage, he incorporated lighting, sounds, and simple props to advance the story. A tiny watering can stood in for the indoor waterfall at the company party, and a teddy bear served as McClane's gift to his wife and as a stand-in for the villains during hand-to-hand combat. The lighting and sound effects coordinated perfectly with the actor/poet's words and actions, adding mood to his storytelling.

If you are a fan of the movie that made Bruce Willis an action star, I highly recommend this show.

I grew up listening to the music of Motown, and I still love old music. I listened to bands like The Supremes, The Vandellas, and the Marvelettes from my basement in suburban Detroit.

"Dreamgirls" celebrates the music I grew up with. The story follows the fictional girl group The Dreams, from backup singers to successful solo act through intra-team conflicts. In Friday night's performance at the Studebaker Theatre, a sold-out audience enjoyed nearly three hours of drama and music.

My program did not list the cast, so I will refer to the actors by their character names. Each actor brought emotion and depth to their character. The original Dreams trio of Effie, Deena, and Lorrell were great! Manager Curtis Taylor showed driving ambition, and James "Thunder" Early was charming with a touch of pathos.

Significantly, the singing was powerful. Effie's voice especially resonated with her fantastic range.

We heard rock, soul, R&B, and disco, and each genre pleased.

The audience was more engaged than most, singing along and interacting verbally with the actors. Much of this was encouraged by the players, who spoke directly to the crowd, requesting applause or asking them questions.

"Dream Girls" explores success and friendship. But mostly, it celebrates music.

Episode 829

Joe Sharmer on Migration, Modernization and Entra

Quest Software Architect Joe Sharmer discusses the challenges of migrating data and applications to the cloud, and how to modernize an application in order to take advantage of the advanced features of cloud computing and of Entra ID.

Links:
https://quest.com

12/1
Today I am grateful to drink peach margaritas and watch Christmas movies last night.

11/30
Today I am grateful for the hospitality of Diane and Pat, who provided a place to sleep during my visit this week.

11/29
Today I am grateful for Thanksgiving dinner with my family, hosted by Katie and Josh

11/28
Today I am grateful to arrive safely in Michigan

11/27
Today I am grateful to lose 70 pounds in the last year.

11/26
Today I am grateful for my local public library.

11/25
Today I am grateful for a Reuben sandwich at Manny's delicatessen yesterday.

11/24
Today I am grateful for a relaxing day with almost no responsibilities

11/23
Today I am grateful for:
- dinner with old and new friends at Charity's house
- the company of Dan and Paul this week
- an excellent Ignite conference this week

11/22
Today I am grateful:
- to speak about Microsoft Copilot at the INFORMS conference yesterday
- to attend a party at Navy Pier last night
- to meet up with Paul, Laurent, Betsy, Jason, Justine, Patrick, Dale, Divanshi, and so many others yesterday

11/21
Today I am grateful for:
- lunch with Mihai and Georgiana yesterday
- a chance to speak at Splunk's #MSIgnite session
- dinner with Tom, Jesse, and the folks at Genpact/Rightpoint

11/20
Today I am grateful for dinner and a bike ride with Jennifer last night

11/19
Today I am grateful:
- to attend and volunteer at the Women in Microsoft "Better Together" event yesterday afternoon
- to give a presentation about Copilot Studio at the Elastic meetup last night

11/18
Today I am grateful to have a drink last night with Paul, Dan, and Charity

11/17
Today I am grateful
- to see an exciting Kalamazoo - Dominican basketball game yesterday in River Forest
- for dinner with a group of Microsoft Certified Trainers last night

11/16
Today I am grateful for lunch with Tobias yesterday

11/15
Today I am grateful to catch up on all the emails I ignored while on vacation.

11/14
Today I am grateful I was invited to speak at the Ignite conference next week.

11/13
Today I am grateful for a chance to mentor a young software developer in India.

11/12
Today I am grateful for all the things I experienced and all the people I saw during my recent vacation.

11/11
Today I am grateful:
- to see an exciting Commanders - Steelers football game on my first visit to FedEx Field yesterday
- to see Cole perform the leading role in "Romeo & Juliet" at the Folger Shakespeare theater last night and to meet up with him after the show
- to all US Veterans, especially my late father Lt. Cmdr E. Normand Giard

11/10
Today I am grateful:
- to visit 5 Smithsonian museums yesterday afternoon
- for coffee with an old friend yesterday morning

11/9
Today I am grateful for:
- a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum yesterday
- an exciting Capitals - Penguins ice hockey game last night

11/8
Today I am grateful for:
- crab cakes with my cousins
- a visit to Fort McHenry, where I was asked to raise the flag
- watching an exciting Ravens-Bengals game from Row 2

11/7
Today I am grateful for dinner and drinks with Kendall last night in Baltimore.

11/6
Today I am grateful for:
- a visit to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell yesterday
- dinner at Sam and Bobby's home last night.

11/5
Today I am grateful
- for breakfast with Dave yesterday
- to visit with my 93-year-old Aunt Tommie yesterday

11/4
Today I am grateful to see an exciting Eagles - Jaguars game last night on my first visit to Lincoln Financial Stadium.

In his 2018 book "Measure What Matters," John Doerr coined the term "OKR," which stands for Objectives and Key Results. Although Doerr came up with the name, he learned the concept from his mentor, Andy Grove, while working at Intel.

An Objective is a medium-term or long-term goal an organization strives to achieve. Key Results are specific accomplishments that help the organization achieve that goal. While an Objective can be broad, the KRs should be specific and support the Objective. An Objective describes what you want to achieve; Key Results describe how you will achieve that Objective.

Doerr was an early investor in Google, so he introduced this concept to the future tech giant, which adopted it enthusiastically and successfully. Other companies have implemented their version of OKRs, and many have succeeded with this practice.

The author recommends identifying and distinguishing between committed goals and stretch goals. You expect to achieve all your committed goals. If you fail to meet a committed goal, you should be prepared to explain why. You may or may not reach your stretch goals because you might not have all the information upfront to determine if they are achievable. But stretch goals are worth working toward, even if you are only partially successful. Some people refer to Stretch Goals as Aspirational Goals or Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs).

The book alternates Doerr's advice and analysis with passages from those who implemented his methodology. These CEOs and manager describe how they applied OKRs to their businesses and organizations. The case studies help make the concepts tangible.

The book's full title is "Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs." Doerr mentions Google often but includes only one chapter each on Gates and Bono, which does not seem enough to add their names to the title. However, their experience illustrates how one can apply OKRs to organizations outside the typical corporate world.

Key points that resonated with me about Key Results:

• Key Results should be measurable
• They should be achievable but not too easy to achieve.
• They should be clearly communicated and developed in the open
• Be prepared to change OKRs if you find they are not appropriate
• Balance conflicting OKRs
• Avoid tying OKRs to compensation. This encourages employees to avoid setting high goals.

I have always set short- and long-term goals and tasks for myself. With the concept of OKRs, I am working toward a goal and have defined a path to reach that goal. After reading this book, I converted these work items into OKRs. Here is an example:

Objective: Learn conversational Spanish

Key Results:

• Study Duolingo lessons every day for six months
• Complete all assignments six days of every seven

Stretch KR: Travel to a Spanish-speaking country and speak only Spanish

This book encouraged me to define my goals clearly and to establish objective criteria to determine if I achieved them.

GCast 188:

Creating a Copilot Agent with Copilot Studio

Copilot Studio allows you to create a Copilot Agent without writing any code. Learn how to create, modify, and deploy an Agent using Copilot Studio.

I had the opportunity to attend the 2024 Microsoft Ignite conference last week. In exchange for a ticket to the event, I volunteered to participate in the “Ask the Experts” area, sponsored by Microsoft.

Our partner Ignite hosted a pre-conference meetup on Monday evening in Chicago’s Motor Row neighborhood. I delivered a presentation on Copilot Studio while Elastic’s Greg Crist spoke about their Elasticsearch product. Many people from my organization attended.

Ignite began Tuesday morning with a keynote presentation led by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The keynote lasted almost three hours and included many speakers. Although there were no earth-shaking announcements, the keynote emphasized Microsoft’s commitment to Artificial Intelligence tools and improved security. You can read my summary here.

The conference set up the “Ask the Experts” area among the sponsor booths in a room dubbed “The Hub.” I worked in the AI section, answering questions about AI Search on the first day and Azure AI Fabric on subsequent days. In answering questions, I had a chance to learn more about these products. Azure AI Fabric is a rebranding of Azure AI Studio with related features added to the user interface.

Between my shifts, I found some of the partners with whom my organization works, asking them to describe their relationship with Microsoft. I received some valuable positive and negative feedback that I intend to bring back and use to improve.

Our partner Splunk asked me to co-present at their session on Wednesday afternoon. Splunk had just released its Cloud Platform on Microsoft Azure, so I described the advantages of this partnership.

Due to my volunteering commitments, I could only attend a few sessions (other than the one at which I spoke). I attended sessions on configuring security in Azure AI Fabric, Copilot Pages, and GitHub Copilot.

This week was very busy. In addition to Ignite, I delivered a presentation on Microsoft Copilot tools at the INFORMS conference at DePaul University.

I also hosted two MVPs at my home. They were traveling from far away, and i was able to provide a nearby place to stay without any financial burden.

The most significant advantages of attending were networking with Microsoft partners, customers, and MVPs and connecting with old friends. Because I live close to the convention center, two MVPs stayed at my home during the conference.

Although conference organizers promote the session content to entice attendees, I typically gain the most value in talking face-to-face with attendees, speakers, and partners. This conference provided the opportunity to learn about new technologies and how others apply them.

Photos

Episode 828

Jerry Nixon on Data API Builder

Jerry Nixon talks about and demonstrates how to use Data API Builder - a configuration tool that eliminates the need to write boilerplate code to access data in SQL Server, MySQL, CosmosDB, and PostgreSQL.

Links:
https://aka.ms/dab
https://denverdevdaycom