Manual Cinema ProjectorsWhen I bought tickets to see Manual Cinema's Frankenstein Friday evening at the Studebaker Theater, I had no idea what to expect.

On its surface, this was a silent movie about Mary Shelley's life, the creation of her most famous work - the novel "Frankenstein" - and the novel's story about a mad scientist and the tragic creature he created.

The twist is that the people on stage create the movie in real-time.

Puppets, pantomime, silhouettes, vintage overhead projectors, signs with text, multiple cameras, and shadows provided the visuals. A few recorded sound effects and a musical combo (keyboard, strings, woodwinds, and percussion) provided the audio.

It is a fantastic mashup of cinema and live performance.

I often found myself looking away from the screen to the people making the magic happen and how they were doing it.
I saw overhead projectors turned on and off, over which people held dark silhouettes to project onto a screen. These showed simple animations, background images, and special effects.
I saw hands reaching from off-camera into the frame to create a sense of mystery.
I saw extreme close-ups of a puppet as it walked across a barren field or frozen tundra.

David on stage at Manual CinemaAfter the show, the cast invited the audience onto the stage to see the props, technology, and performers up close. I was impressed by how much was done manually. Multiple projectors cast images on a screen. Operators turned on and off the projectors via a piece of black paper dropped in front of the lens.

Many people have told the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster countless times in various media since the publication of Shelley's novel over two centuries ago. But never like this. MC's experimentation brought fresh life to a familiar story.

Manual Cinema began life in Chicago fourteen years ago but escaped my notice until now. Their production of Frankenstein is one of the most creative productions I have ever seen.
When they return, so will I.


GCast 186:

Using M365 Copilot with Microsoft OneDrive

M365 Copilot allows you to understand and work with files stored in Microsoft OneDrive without ever opening those files.

This video shows you how.


Episode 824

Jennifer Marsman on Generative AI and the Office of the CTO

Jennifer Marsman works on Generative AI for the Microsoft Office of the CTO. She talks about her work with strategic partners, product teams, and her participation in the Microsoft Build conference. Jennifer describes some of the generative AI demos she has created since joining the team.

Links:
https://github.com/jennifermarsman/PromptEngineeringWithDalle
https://github.com/jennifermarsman/PhiRecycling
https://github.com/microsoft/PodcastCopilot


LeonBridges2024Leon Bridges is a throwback to an earlier era of singers.

His soulful voice reminds me, at times, of Marvin Gaye and, at other times, of Curtis Mayfield.

Thursday night, the Fort Worth, TX native brought that voice to Chicago for the first of two shows at the Auditorium Theatre. Sporting a gold snakeskin jacket and white pants, he even looked retro.

We arrived shortly before the opening act - Hermanos Gutiérrez - began. This brother duo from Ecuador entertained us with their hypnotic Latin guitar and percussion as the audience filed into the theater.

Nearly every seat was full when Leon Bridges took the stage. A seven-piece band surrounded the stage's perimeter in a semicircle while Leon stood at the front and center.

For nearly two hours, Bridges sang soul, rock, R&B, and ballads.

"Music brings people together that wouldn't normally be together," he told the crowd, who responded enthusiastically. But Bridges did not do much talking, allowing the music to deliver his message.

Songs like "Texas Sun," "River," and "Bad Bad News" show the singer/songwriter's range.

He closed with the beautiful love song "Beyond," a song that my son and daughter-in-law chose for their wedding dance earlier this year.


TBoneBurnett2024Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett is known primarily as a record producer. He has successfully produced albums by Los Lobos, Brandi Carlisle, Elton John, Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, and countless others. His list of movie and TV soundtracks is impressive.

But Burnett showed off his performing skills Sunday evening at the Old Town School of Folk Music. This was Burnett's first tour in almost twenty years, and he assembled a top-notch group of musicians to accompany him.

In a show that lasted over 2.5 hours, the veteran producer/songwriter/musician/singer entertained a sold-out audience with his blend of country blues.

He began the evening with a solo performance of "He Came Down," a hymn-like song from his most recent album, "The Other Side."

While T Bone played guitar and sang, he was joined by a lead guitarist, an upright bass, and one who switched between mandolin and violin. After every two songs, a new musician walked on stage until they formed a quartet. Most of the numbers of the evening were songs written or co-written by Mr. Burnett, but he included a few covers, such as Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song" and Elvis Costello's "The Scarlet Tide." T Bone has worked with many of the music industry's greats and told stories of his career between numbers. He consistently referred to other musicians as "cats."

Burnett closed his encore set by reprising "He Came Down," the song with which he opened the show - this time accompanied by the entire band.

T Bone Burnett has won Grammys and Oscars for the recordings he produced. But he shone tonight with his live performance.


The Conference

VenkatSubramanianAtGOTOChicago2024The GOTO organization's first stated goal is: "GOTO gathers the brightest minds in the software community to help developers tackle projects today, plan for tomorrow and create a better future."

One way they accomplish this is by hosting conferences all over the world. This week, the organizers brought this conference to the Convene Conference space in Chicago's Willis Tower. I attended Monday and Tuesday, which featured presentations from a wide variety of speakers.

The agenda broke the schedule into fifteen time slots over the first two days, as follows:

  • 7 keynote sessions. These were the only talks offered during that time, so nearly everyone attended
  • 7 sets of parallel sessions. During these times, the conference offered 3-4 different talks, allowing attendees to choose what they wanted to hear
  • 1 set of Lightning Talks. These spanned two time slots and featured a set of shorter presentations.
  • 1 hands-on lab ("Your First AI-Assisted Pull Request for Good"), which spanned two sessions.

I did not attend the third day, which featured workshops on building AI applications and on authentication.

Sessions

Here are some key takeaways I received from the sessions I attended:

"Decision Dials" by Venkat Subramaniam

Venkat listed tradeoffs in application architecture, software engineering, career choices, and life. For most tradeoffs, the choice depends on the context of the problem. For example, it is important to set boundaries by saying "No" to requests, but early in one's career, one may wish to say "Yes" more often to get more opportunities.

"Where AI Meets Code" by Michael Feathers

MichaelFeathersAtGOTOChicago2024Michael is known for his work on refactoring legacy code, but he is currently writing a book about using artificial intelligence. He described some patterns for effectively working with AI.

"Vanilla Web: You Don't Need That Library" by Maximiliano Firtman

Maximiliano described the value of web frameworks and the danger of overusing them. This overuse has led to a recent trend toward writing "Vanilla JavaScript" (i.e., JavaScript code without using a framework). He demonstrated simple code that could replace functionality we often implement using a heavy framework.

"How AI Will Bring Computing to Everyone" by Matt Welsh

MattWelshAtGOTOChicago2024Matt talked about the current state of AI - particularly the generative AI capabilities of ChatGPT. He cautioned about the range of usefulness of these tools in different parts of the world. For example, many countries have an average annual salary so low that most citizens cannot afford $20 a month for an AI service. Also, although ChatGPT works well in English, it is less accurate in some other popular languages.

Monday Evening Meetup

Monday evening, I hosted a meeting of the Chicago Java User Group at which keynote speaker Venkat Subramaniam delivered a presentation titled "Scaling Up with Virtual Threads in Java," in which he described ways to implement non-blocking asynchronous programming in Java on the same or different threads.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the sessions and the people I met at this event. I hope to attend the next time GOTO comes to Chicago, and I aspire to speak at one of their conferences someday.

You can learn more about this at https://gotochgo.com/2024


STEAMPromptAThonVolunteers2024On Friday, October 18, the downtown Chicago Microsoft office hosted a Prompt-a-Thon STEAM event for middle and high school students. The event was designed to expose students to AI and robotics.

Danny Kim opened the event with a keynote presentation on cybersecurity, highlighting the numerous threats facing corporations and individuals and discussing how to protect ourselves. Danny is the CTO of Full Armour Consulting, but he is also heavily involved in his local school district and with the Quest for Excellence organization, which promotes STEM education for K-12 students.

After the keynote, the students split into two groups. The first group assembled robotic vehicles and then deployed software to drive and control the vehicles for a battle bots competition. The second group was asked to create a presentation on using the Generative AI capabilities of Microsoft Copilot to solve a real-world problem. I was a mentor and judge for the second group. We selected three winning teams from the presenters, awarding each team member a Starbucks gift card or t-shirt. The winning presentations were:

  • Small Boats, Inc.: This group used generative AI to design 3D models of a toy boat that was safe for children and fish. Their presentation was polished and professional-looking.
  • Mental Health Problems for People in Poverty: This group did an amazing job identifying the health problems of the poor and proposing solutions to those problems. They prompted Copilot for their questions and answers.
  • Terraforming: This was a creative proposal to terraform a new planet for earthlings to colonize. While not practical in the short term, the team showed great creativity.

Customer Success Account Manager Lori Kim organized the event.  Students, parents, and volunteers came from far away. Many battled rush hour traffic to drive 40 miles from Barrington, IL to downtown Chicago. One student summarized his experience: "It was really informative and very fun and very tiring."


Episode 823

Alex Riviere on CSS Container Queries

In the second in this series, Alex Riviere describes how to use the Container Queries and Style Container Queries features of CSS to declaratively create flexible and responsive user interfaces

Links:
https://codepen.io/fimion/pen/QWXjGww?editors=1100


Inherit The Wind Cast 2024Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee wrote "Inherit the Wind" in 1955. They based the story on the 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial" - a case in which the state of Tennessee accused high school teacher John Scopes of teaching the theory of evolution to his students.

Although Lawrence and Lee drew on many facts from the 1925 trial, they fictionalized the story, changing the names of all those involved, including famous lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. In this version, Scopes became Bertran Cates, Darrow became Henry Drummond, Bryan became Matthew Harrison Brady, and the authors took liberties with some historical facts.

I saw a production of this play Friday evening at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Under Henry Godinez's direction, Collette Pollard's minimalist set and Jessica Pabst's simple costumes allowed the authors' dialogue and themes to shine.

Henry Lennix as Drummond and Alexander Gemignani fille the stage with their orations and verbal sparring. Lennix has numerous TV and movie credits to his name, including The Martian Manhunter in Zac Snyder's Justice League. As in that role, he brings dignity and aloofness to the character of Drummond.

This play is a legal drama about the characters involved. However, it is also about human prejudice and how popular opinion can set itself against what is right. Lawrence and Lee made no secret that they intended their story as a commentary on the dangers of Joseph McCarthy and the harm caused by the fear he stoked. One can make a similar case today, as some leaders try to inspire hatred and division at the cost of the vulnerable folks in our society.

"Inherit the Wind" has lessons for us all over seventy years after its debut.


"So Big" by Edna Ferber

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Edna Ferber's 1924 novel tells the story of Selina De Jong and her son Dirk, whom Selina nicknames "So Big," after a verbal game the two play during his childhood.

Despite the title, this story is mainly about Selina, who was orphaned when a gunman mistakenly shot her gambler father. Selina completed her education and resolved to earn her living as a schoolteacher in a Dutch farming community outside Chicago in the late nineteenth century. The harsh life of the hardworking Dutch farmers contrasts with the one where she grew up; but Selina makes the most of her situation. She stays with a host family, inspires their young son Rolf to pursue his artistic dreams rather than remain on the farm, and marries Purvis - a kindly but simple bachelor, settling into the hard life of a farmer's wife. Purvis's death leaves Selina to run the farm and raise Dirk alone.

Selina does not fit in well with the local community, but she adapts. Following the death of her husband, she deviates from traditional farming methods, trying new crops and new farming and marketing techniques. These practices, along with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck, lead to a successful life. However Selina does not measure success only by financial profit. She values beauty,  kindness, and integrity, which define her character throughout her life. For years after her arrival, neighborhood farmers joke about an offhand remark she made on her first day about the beauty of cabbages.

Ferber contrasts Selina's outlook with that of her son. When Dirk comes of age, he trains and works as an architect before switching to a more lucrative career in banking.

I enjoyed Ferber's straightforward writing style and her focus on characters.

What the story lacks in plot, it more than makes up for with the development of the characters and ideas about the meaning of life. Dirk's pursuit of material gains contrasts with his mother's desire for beauty and truth. Selina was a feminist before the idea was popular. She defines success for herself and lives her life in pursuit of happiness.

It is clear that Ferber approves of Selina's choices.



GCast 185:

Using Copilot Pages

Copilot pages allow you to persist Copilot responses and edit them later, as well as collaborating with others on these responses.

Learn how to create and take advantage of this powerful feature.


Episode 822

Michelle Frost on Sociotechnical approaches to AI

Michelle Frost is a senior software developer for Crema and serves on the Ethical AI Council for the Center for Practical Bioethics. She talks about the history of artificial intelligence and the questions we should be asking ourselves as we implement AI solutions.


CinderellaI remember watching a musical television adaptation of the classic fairy tale "Cinderella," when I was a young boy. Many of the details escape me, but I retained many songs through the decades. The songwriting duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had established themselves as Broadway composers, but they wrote this show specifically for television. Although the first showing starred Julie Andrews in the title role in 1957, I believe the version from my childhood premiered in 1963 and starred Lesley Ann Warren.

In 2008, Douglas Carter Beane rewrote the book, adding scenes and subplots and modifying some of the story. In this version, Prince Topher is an orphan manipulated by his advisor, Sebastian, who uses the throne's power to exploit the kingdom's poorest citizens. With the help of her Fairy Godmother, Cinderella - a kindly orphan abused by her stepmother - attends a royal ball. Prince Topher falls in love with her beauty and kindness, but she runs away before her magic wears off at midnight. In Beane's version, only one of Cinderella's stepsisters is cruel, and one of Cinderella's closest friends is the radical Jean-Michel, who stands up to the oppressions of the palace.

Beane's version of the story runs through October 18 at The Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights, IL. Saturday afternoon's edition began with an adventure. Less than five minutes into the performance, the fire alarm sounded, forcing the entire theater to empty into the street for a half hour. When the show resumed, the magic began. The story was both familiar and new, with Beane's twist providing just enough deviation from the traditional fairy tale to surprise the audience. The music was wonderful, of course. Rogers and Hammerstein spent their career creating musical theater masterpieces, such as "South Pacific," "The King and I," and "The Sound of Music." Cinderella is not their masterpiece, but it is filled with memorable songs such as "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible/It's Possible," "Stepsister's Lament," and the lovely waltz "Ten Minutes Ago."

Molly Bremer's sweetness shone through as Cinderella and Rachel Caarreras stole each scene in which she appeared as the Fairy Godmother. The sets were simple but beautiful, shifting from the woods to the palace and then to Cinderella's home, with minor changes in props and lighting.

I enjoyed the music; I enjoyed the story - both traditional and updated; and I enjoyed the memories of my childhood that this production revived.


Spyro Gyra 2024Spyro Gyra was a major force in the jazz music scene of the 1980s when I first discovered the genre. The band released an impressive output of recorded music with their blend of jazz, funk, and R&B. I had a chance to see them twice - in 1983 and 1989, both in East Lansing, MI.

The band celebrated fifty years since its formation in 1974 with a tour across the United States. That tour brought them to Chicago's City Winery Friday evening, where they performed before a sellout crowd.

The group has had numerous lineup changes over the past five decades, but founding member Jay Beckenstein and his saxophones remain the centerpiece of the music. He also took the lead with the audience, introducing the band and most of the songs for most of the evening. When describing his tune "Old San Juan," Beckenstein explained that it has a tropical sound "because it was written in Buffalo, NY," a city that he described as "Canda's Riviera."

While Beckenstein remains the only original member, he has surrounded himself with first-rate musicians. The group no longer features a dancing percussionist, as they did in their early days, but the current lineup (sax, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards) blend together perfectly. The drum-heavy "Percolator" and bass guitar-heavy "Good to Go" showcased the talents of Lionel Cordew and Scott Ambush, respectively, while the guitarist Julio Fernandez played excellent solos and sang the only vocals of the evening on the Cuban-influenced "De La Luz." Keyboardist Chris Fischer brought great playing and enthusiasm to his craft.

Most of the evening consisted of funky grooves overlaid with beautiful melodies, but Beckenstein provided a mournful, reverential tribute titled "The Unknown Soldier." Despite all the differences in our country, he explained, "We have no differences there," referring to our support of men and women in the military.

The concert ended with a medley of three popular songs ("Shaker Song," "Catching the Sun," and "Morning Dance") that Beckenstein explained were written in the 70s when he was in his 20s, as opposed to now, which is the 20s and he is in his 70s.

For an encore, they performed a jazzy version of Squeeze's "Tempted," which brought the audience to its feet, dancing in the aisles.

Spyro Gyra's technical craftsmanship, humor, and energy made this one of the most enjoyable shows I have seen in a long time.


Episode 821

Javier Salmeron on Bitnami and Tanzu Application Catalog

Broadcom engineer Javier Salmeron explains the Bitnami open source project and how the Tanzu Application Catalog builds on this project to provide more features to developers and managers.

Links:
https://tanzu.vmware.com/
https://bitnami.com/
https://github.com/bitnami


September 2024 Gratitudes

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10/6
Today I am grateful for excellent pizza at Paisano's on Chicago's south side last night.

10/5
Today I am grateful for a new inkjet printer.

10/4
Today I am grateful to see John Gorka in concert last night, and meet him and his son after the show.

10/3
Today I am grateful for a fresh haircut.

10/2
Today I am grateful to the handyman who fixed a few things in my condo yesterday.

10/1
Today I am grateful:
- for lunch with Michael yesterday
- to see Marques Carroll at Jazz Showcase last night

9/30
Today I am grateful to attend an exciting Bears - Rams game yesterday at Soldier Field.

9/29
Today I am grateful to attend a Northwestern - Wisconsin volleyball game last night in Evanston.

9/28
Today I am grateful for an amazing run by the Detroit Tigers this past month.

9/27
Today I am grateful for a full day yesterday:
- Lunch and a visit to the Art Institute with Jeff and Amos
- Presenting at the Tulsa .NET User Group
- Hosting AI Camp
- Late-night dinner and drinks with Trinh, Sara, and Chewy

9/26
Today I am grateful to see Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters in concert last night!

9/25
Today I am grateful to see "Ain't Too Proud" last night at the CIBC Theatre and to see Otis Williams in person!

9/24
Today I am grateful for dinner with Richard last night.

9/23
Today I am grateful for a new Dahon folding bicycle

9/22
Today I am grateful to play Exploding Kittens last night for the first time.

9/21
Today I am grateful to finally test negative for COVID-19 this morning.

9/20
Today I am grateful to Kevin for volunteering as a last-minute replacement for an AI panel after I tested positive again.

9/19
Today I am grateful for:
- a 100-day streak studying Spanish on Duolingo
- a bike ride through Bridgeport with Dan last night

9/18
Today I am grateful to take a day off to recover from an illness.

9/17
Today I am grateful for NyQuil

9/16
Today I am grateful to attend Mass yesterday at the beautiful St. Michael Church in Old Town.

9/15
Today I am grateful:
- to see the Mike Jones Trio last night on my first visit to the Green Mill
- to the ladies who let us share their table, so we did not have to stand the entire show

9/14
Today I am grateful to attend a Braves - Dodgers game last night on my first visit to Truist Park.

9/13
Today I am grateful:
- to present at the Quest Security Summit yesterday
- to hang out with Pat last night in Atlanta

9/12
Today I am grateful to arrive safely in Atlanta.

9/11
Today I am grateful for a call from Linda and Carol yesterday morning

9/9
Today I am grateful for my first visit to the Forge in Lemont, IL this weekend.

9/8
Today I am grateful to see three legends in concert last night: Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and John Mellencamp!

9/7
Today I am grateful to play pickleball in Lemont yesterday.

9/6
Today I am grateful to my therapist Rosa, who allows me to rant and helps me work through my issues.

9/5
Today I am grateful for dinner last night with family to celebrate my son's thirtieth birthday!

9/4
Today I am grateful to Fernando and Andre, who made me look good by answering questions for the partner on my current project.

9/3
Today I am grateful to stumble upon an R&B band performing at the South Shore Social Beach Club yesterday

9/2
Today I am grateful to participate in Ride the Drive yesterday for the first time


John Gorka And David 2024I met John Gorka in 2002 after a concert in Newport, KY. For years, I had been listening to his smooth ballads, love songs, and sad songs on public radio, so I was excited to see him perform and to meet him.

Twenty-two years later, I met him again after his Wednesday evening performance at Chicago's City Winery.

Gorka's hair has turned gray in the twenty-two years between these shows. He looks frail and carries a cane, but his voice sounds the same. I heard the same rich baritone in 2024 as I did in 2002.

I was happy he played many songs from his earlier albums when he was a mainstay on my local stations. He opened with "I'm from New Jersey" off his 1991 album "Jack's Crows," a song that Gorka said embodied all the feelings of all his other songs. He also played four songs ("Branching Out," "Love is Our Cross to Bear," "I Saw a Stranger With Your Eyes," and the title track) from "I Know" - his very first album, released in 1987.

Listeners know John Gorka for the emotion he puts into his singing, and this emotion was on display in songs like "Let Them In" and "The Gypsy Life."

John Gorka And David 2002The singer told charming stories between songs and chatted casually with the audience. Before playing "Land of the Bottom Line," he explained that he wrote this song about a dark time in his life - a time when he had a job. After one lengthy story, he announced: "No more to say. This song is going to happen," and began playing. The 66-year-old singer/songwriter drew laughter when he picked up a half-size electric guitar and joked: "I'd like to play a little guitar for you." He told the story of meeting Pops Staples at a festival in England. Although Pops never recorded the song that Gorka sent him, he did inspire Gorka to write "Good Noise," which he performed tonight.

Although Gorka penned most of the songs he performed that night, he also treated us to a Nanci Griffith cover and a moving version of the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger."

John was alone on the stage with his guitar and piano for most of the evening. However, his son Joe Gorka joined him, providing a 30-minute solo warmup set, as well as two songs in which the pair performed together. Joe, who resides in Chicago, is a promising singer-songwriter in his own right, and the two share impressive chemistry on stage.

John Gorka never achieved the commercial success he deserved. The City Winery was less than half full on this weeknight. But he continues to perform and entertain and delight audiences.


GCast 184:

Using M365 Copilot with Excel

M365 Copilot allows you work with Micrsoft Excel using a natural language, such as English. In this video, you will learn how to perform complex Excel tasks, such as executing Python code, by asking questions in English.


Episode 820

Jason Bock on C# Source Generators

Jason Bock describes Source Generators - a new Roslyn-based .NET feature that allows you to configure your application to automatically generate code at compile time, based on changes to your source code.

Links:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/roslyn-sdk/source-generators-overview
https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn/blob/main/docs/features/source-generators.cookbook.md
https://github.com/JasonBock/Rocks
https://discord.com/channels/143867839282020352/598678594750775301


Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters 2024When I was in high school, my friends would come over to my house, and we would plug our instruments and amplifiers into the outlets of my parents' garage and play loud music, pretending to be rock stars.

Wednesday night at Chicago's City Winery, the Boxmasters reminded me of those days.

The Boxmasters are the brainchild of actor Billy Bob Thornton, who founded the group in 2007 in Bellflower, California - a town he mentioned multiple times during the evening. Seventeen albums later, the group continues to tour, bringing high energy and guitar-heavy three-chord rock wherever they go. It did not seem to bother them that the small club was less than half full. They performed for nearly two hours, with Thornton occasionally pausing between numbers to tell stories about his family, his life, his friends, and the band's past.

The "Bad Santa" star has assembled a group of first-rate musicians (two guitars, bass, and drums) while he handles the lead vocals. The solos of lead guitarist Kirk McKim were particularly impressive.

While low-resolution videos projected to the side of the stage, the Boxmasters performed almost exclusively original compositions, each with passion and energy. They closed the evening with their only cover song - a deep album cut of the Kinks that fits Billy Bob Thornton and his band.

I totally made up the story about my high friends playing music in my garage, but in my fantasies, that is how I spent my teenage Saturdays, and I sounded just like Billy Bob and the Boxmasters.


Otis Williams and Shelly Berger 2024"Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations" began its six-night Chicago run Tuesday evening at the CIBC Theatre.

The show traces the iconic vocal group's rise from small gigs in Detroit to signing with Motown Records to their superstar status and through their struggles.

The Temptations became the most popular rhythm and blues group of all time, but their fame came at a cost. Drug addiction, alcoholism, and illness caused attrition among the original five members.

Founding member Otis Williams occasionally stepped to the front of the stage to narrate the story, but the saga is told primarily through the singing and dancing that made this quintet legendary. Most of the songs came from the Temptations' catalog but included a few others from their era. The lyrics sometimes advanced the story, but mostly they set the scene's mood and entertained the audience. Sergio Trujillo's choreography made every number more entertaining.

Fame was rapid when it arrived, but it came at a cost. Williams's constant travel cost him a marriage and his relationship with his son.

The music of the Temptations filled a large part of my youth when I was growing up in Detroit. This evening's show was a fitting tribute and a peek into how the band came to be. My only complaint was the acoustics, which sometimes made hearing the actors' dialogue difficult.

After the play, the audience received a special treat as 82-year-old Williams walked on stage. He is the last surviving member of the original Temptations lineup. Longtime Temptations manager Shelly Berger stood beside him, and the two spoke to the audience about their love of the music and their fondness for Chicago.

The post-performance appearance of these originals made a special evening even more special.


Episode 819

Esteban Garcia on Prompt Engineering with GitHub Copilot

Xebia US CEO Esteban Garcia discusses the value of GitHub Copilot and how to craft your prompts to use this more effectively.


Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch was 46 years old when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Doctors gave him three to six months to live – an accurate prediction. He died the following year.

Before dying, Pausch delivered a lecture at CMU, sharing his childhood dreams and how he attempted to accomplish each. He fulfilled some dreams (writing for the World Book Encyclopedia, becoming a Disney Imagineer); some dreams he changed a bit (He did not become Captain Kirk, but he met William Shatner, and he experienced zero gravity rather than becoming an astronaut); and some dreams went unfulfilled but he grew by pursuing them (playing football never led him to the NFL, but he learned about the importance of fundamentals and accepting constructive criticism).

Following this lecture, Pausch wrote "The Last Lecture." In this book, he reiterated many of the points from his talk. He also told of how he and his family dealt with the knowledge of Randy's impending death.

The CMU lecture focused on Randy's pursuit of his childhood dreams, examples of how he empowered others to achieve their dreams, and advice to the audience and the children he was leaving behind. The book covers many of the same topics relayed in the lecture but provides more details and background. His parents encouraged creativity and compassion. His football coach taught him to set goals and work to achieve them. Mentors helped him to improve by forcing him to become more self-reflective. The reader can use that same advice in their life.
One can forgive the author if this book felt self-congratulatory at times. By all accounts, Pausch led a successful life, set his priorities correctly, and achieved what he hoped. He faced his death with dignity and with what optimism he could muster. Rather than seeking pity, he sought to focus on the positive aspects of his life.


Jayne Anne Phillips's novel "Night Watch" takes place during the final months and the aftermath of the American Civil War.

A decade after the end of the war, Eliza, who has not spoken aloud in nearly a year, arrives with her twelve-year-old daughter ConaLee at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, dropped off by a man who calls himself "Papa." Papa is not related to either woman. ConaLee's father left to fight in the war before her birth. After losing an eye and his memory, he never returned to his family. At the asylum, they meet a kindly doctor, a harsh nurse, a confused patient, and many other characters.

Through a series of flashbacks, Phillips slowly reveals each character's past. Some of their history is intertwined, although the author does not reveal this until late in the novel.

"Night Watch" does an excellent job of exposing the atrocities and trauma that war inflicts on its participants and bystanders. It also takes a hard look at mental health, exploring the effects of PTSD.

The frequent shifts in perspectives, the nonlinear narrative, and the lack of quotation marks often make the story difficult to follow. But it rewards those who pay attention with a well-written story.


GCast 183:

Using Copilot for M365 with Microsoft OneDrive

Learn how to use Copilot for M365 to analyze, summarize, and compare files stored in your Microsoft OneDrive folders.


Dean Schuster on UX Design

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Episode 818

Dean Schuster on UX Design

Dean Schuster is an expert on User Experience (UX). He reviews some principles of good UX, some common UX mistakes developers make, and how to address those mistakes.


More than twenty years after introducing the world to Paddington Bear, Michael Bond published his eleventh story collection - "Paddington Takes the Test." Paddington lives with the Brown family in London, where his curiosity routinely gets him into and out of trouble.

The test of the title refers to a driving test in the book's first story. A case of mistaken identity leads a civil servant to take the talking bear on a driving test, which ends in a harrowing cruise through London.

Similar cases of misunderstanding occur throughout the seven stories, such as when the bear thought that Wellington boots were an ingredient in Beef Wellington.

Paddington's selfish neighbor, Mr. Curry, is featured heavily in these stories. Mr. Curry invites himself into the family's new sauna but gets locked inside; Curry tricks Paddington into ironing a fancy shirt with predictably disastrous results; and Curry gets Paddington to try out a hammock picked from the trash.

Michael Bond continued to delight readers into his third decade of stories about his most famous creation. After publishing this book, the author set aside writing short stories about Paddington for another twenty years. This volume was a good note on which to break.


"The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt

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Thirteen-year-old Theo was visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan when a terrorist bomb struck. The blast leveled a wing of the museum and killed Theo's mother. Before wandering from the wreckage, Theo took a valuable painting - Carel Fabritius's "The Goldfinch" - and hid it for years. "The Goldfinch" is the title of Donna Tartt's 2013 novel, which tells Theo's story.

Theo moved in first with his best friend's dysfunctional family, then to Las Vegas to live with his estranged father, who is a grifter, gambler, and alcoholic.

Theo survived to adulthood thanks to his intelligence and the help of others - most notably his disreputable friend Boris and kindly old Hobie, who took in Theo and taught him the art of restoring antiques. But, the boy grew up flawed, nursing drug addiction, treating women as objects, and with a growing tendency to bend the rules when dealing with art collectors. All the while, he was haunted by the loss of his mother and the thought of the stolen painting hidden in a midtown storage unit. When Boris re-enters his life as an adult, Theo and Boris try to undo the damage they have done.

Although the terrorist attack on the Met is fictional, the painting is actual, as is Fabritius. The artist died in a 1654 explosion that destroyed many of his works.

"The Goldfinch" is a coming-of-age story about grief, friendship, dealing with tragedy, and redemption. It is also a thrilling action story of mobsters and international art thieves. Tartt takes the reader through the rollercoaster of Theo's life.

It was a thrilling ride.


Episode 817

Justine Cocchi on Building Applications using Azure Cosmos DB

Justine Cocchi is a PM on the Azure CosmosDB team. She describes CosmosDB, its features, how it handles reliability and scalability, and how to integrate it into your applications.


WillieNelson2024How often do we see three legendary performers on the same bill? We saw precisely that Saturday evening at Tinley Park's Credit Union Amphitheatre. Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and John Mellencamp each played a set to a sold-out audience. The three performed as part of the Outlaw Music Festival, which is traveling across the United States.

My evening began with John Mellencamp (blues/soul band Southern Avenue played a set before we arrived). The 71-year-old singer/songwriter was the youngest of the three headliners. Unsurprisingly, his was also the most energetic performance. He packed many of his hits into an hour set, including a solo acoustic version of "Jack and Diane," in which he mocked the audience (they skipped the second verse and went straight to the chorus) and himself ("I'm going to sing the second verse, even though it sucks.")

BobDylan2024Bob Dylan followed with a set in which he decided to forego his guitar and play the piano, accompanied by an excellent ensemble of musicians. I saw Dylan perform seventeen years ago in Ypsilanti, MI, at a show where he seemed to ignore the audience. On this night, he did acknowledge the audience occasionally despite displaying his known shyness. Bob Dylan's strength has always been his songwriting, but he also mixed in covers by Chuck Berry, The Fleetwoods, and the Grateful Dead.

Willie Nelson headlined the evening. The audience's excitement was palpable when he walked slowly onto the stage. At 93 years, Nelson chooses to sit during his show, and his vocal range is less than it once was. Willie's guitar contained the scars of years of experience - not unlike his body. His hands are gnarled, and numerous wrinkles crease his face. But his joy in performing was apparent, and his guitar solos still impressed. Nelson took his time, singing each song with care. If he skipped some of the high notes, he showed emotion in his singing. His guitarist took the lead on two songs, and I wondered if this was Willie's son Lukas with eyeglasses and his long hair cut short or it may have been Waylon Payne. I could see a resemblance to each, but no one introduced the band to confirm this. On "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," Southern Avenue returned to the stage to sing backup.

JohnMellencamp2024I find it amazing that Nobel laureate Bob Dylan was the warmup act, but that is what one gets when Willie Nelson headlines. Even more impressive was that John Mellencamp, who possesses countless awards, platinum albums, and top 10 singles, was the warmup act to the warmup act.

Four hours of music left us exhausted and satisfied. We enjoyed every act, and I finally saw the iconic Willie Nelson in concert!


Wallace Stegner's 1970 novel "Angle of Repose" tells a story within a story.

After losing his leg, suffering through a debilitating disease, and divorcing his wife, retired history professor Lyman Ward decides to research and write about the life of his grandmother - nineteenth-century author Susan Burling Ward. Mrs. Ward suffered through a difficult marriage and financial issues as she and her husband moved across the frontiers of the western United States and Mexico.

Susan and her husband Oliver are both good people, but Oliver trusts too much, and others take advantage of him. This trait repeatedly leads to financial failures, which strains the couple's relationship.

Stegner alternates between the present-day troubles of author/narrator Lyman and the struggles of the female protagonist about whom he writes. The result is two engaging stories of people trying to maintain control of their lives. Each finds temporary escape in their writing, but it is not enough.

Lyman learns about himself by studying his grandmother.

Stegner based the character of Susan Ward on the real-life Mary Hallock Foote. He included many of Foote's letters in the book, attributing them to Susan.

The title refers to the angle at which dirt and stones settle when they fall down a slope. This may describe the canals on which the engineer Oliver worked. Stegner repeats the phrase multiple times in the book and uses this as a metaphor for the couple's relationship:

"What interests me in all these papers is not Susan Burling Ward the novelist and illustrator, and not Oliver Ward the engineer, and not the West they spend their lives in. What really interests me is how two such unlike particles clung together, and under what strains, rolling downhill into their future until they reached the angle of repose where I knew them."

Although the story lacks action, it makes up for it with the development of the characters and the parallels between grandmother and grandson nearly a century apart.


GCast 182:

Using Azure AI Document Intelligence Studio Custom Classification Model

The Custom Classification Model allows you to automatically determine a document type. This video shows how to configure this model using Azure AI Document Intelligence Studio.


Episode 816

Bill Sempf on Trends in Application Security

Bill Sempf describes the security issues of which we need to be vigilant when building software.

Links:
https://owasp.org/www-project-proactive-controls/
https://owasp.org/
https://bsides.org/


August 2024 Gratitudes

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9/1
Today I am grateful to attend the Chicago Jazz Festival yesterday.

8/30
Today I am grateful that I survived a month in which I overcommitted.

8/29
Today I am grateful to mentor a successful Artificial Intelligence workshop this week and for all those who helped me prepare.

8/28
Today I am grateful that I won my appeal, and my Google Ads account is no longer suspended.

8/27
Today I am grateful to the friend who gifted me some new clothes last week.

8/26
Today I am grateful to see "The House of Ideas" at the City Lit Theatre yesterday.

8/25
Today I am grateful to talk with Mike this morning for the first time in forever.

8/24
Today I am grateful to see Terrance Simien in concert last night in Berwyn.

8/23
Today I am grateful to deliver a well-received presentation at the Cybersecurity Summit yesterday.

8/22
Today I am grateful for kind words from my manager this morning.

8/21
Today I am grateful to remove some dishonest people from my life.

8/20
Today I am grateful to see a Georgia O'Keefe exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago yesterday.

8/19
Today I am grateful for breakfast with friends I first met 44 years ago.

8/18
Today I am grateful for:
- to celebrate at my son's wedding last night
- my new daughter-in-law

8/17
Today I am grateful for all the family and friends who have come to Chicago to celebrate my son's marriage.

8/16
Today I am grateful to deliver a presentation on Azure Monitoring and Application Insights to the Greater Lansing .NET User Group last night

8/15
Today I am grateful to see Back to the Future: The Musical last night.

8/14
Today I am grateful for an outdoor drink and music at Boat Drinks next to Burnham Harbor last night.

8/13
Today I am grateful to the bicycle shop owner who fixed my seat and did not charge me.

8/12
Today I am grateful
- to see the Chicago Air and Water Show this weekend
- to attend the Printer's Row Art Fair yesterday

8/11
Today I am grateful to attend my building's annual summer party yesterday.

8/10
Today I am grateful to see a jazz concert last night at Fred Anderson Park

8/9
Today I am grateful:
- to learn a lot at an AI workshop taught by Randy and Josh
- to attend the Record Row concert series at Willie Dixon's Blues Garden for the first time this summer

8/8
Today I am grateful to attend a Bush concert with Daniel last night.

8/7
Today I am grateful for a new tire on my car.

8/6
Today I am grateful to Manny, the tow truck driver, who got me to the tire repair place yesterday.

8/5
Today I am grateful for a walk around the Burnham Wildlife Corridor yesterday.


TheHouseOfIdeasCast2024As one who read comic books well into my adult life, I was excited to learn about Mark Pracht's "Four-Color Trilogy" - a series of three plays based on the history of comic books. Two years ago, I loved "The Mark of Kane" - the story of the 1939 creation of Batman by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, who took credit for many of Finger's ideas. Pracht followed this success a year later with "Seduction of the Innocence," telling of the censorship that nearly destroyed the comic industry in the 1950s. The final entry in the trilogy - "The House of Ideas" - is currently in preview and runs through October 6. I caught a preview performance on Sunday afternoon. All three shows premiered at the City Lit Theatre - an intimate venue in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood.

"The House of Ideas" follows Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, whose collaboration helped revive the comic book superhero genre in the early 1960s. The duo created memorable characters, including The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Mighty Thor, and the Incredible Hulk. Lee was an editor at the company that would become Marvel Comics. Kirby was an artist already well-known as the co-creator of Captain America two decades earlier.

Bryan Breau and Brian Plocharczyk excel as Lee and Kirby, respectively. Breau plays up Lee's optimism and showmanship, while Plocharczyk brings out Kirby's hard edges, honed by the artist's upbringing on the Lower East Side of New York City. As the 1960s turn into the 70s, Breau dons a wig and mustache to reflect Lee's tendency to adopt the latest fashions, while Plocharczyk's Kirby maintains the same haircut and attitude throughout the show.

Rivalry and a desire to achieve credit they feel is owed them strain the pair's relationship. Still, each respects his partner, and the actors do an excellent job transmitting these conflicting emotions to the audience.

Former City Lit Artistic Director Terry McCabe returned to direct this play, which featured low-resolution projections of old comic book covers and period photos, enhancing the mood of each scene.

Mark Pracht's trilogy ended with a bang. One can only hope he decides to turn it into a tetralogy.


Episode 815

Prasanna Pendse on Getting AI into Production

Prasanna Pendse is the Global Director fofr AI Strategy at Thoughtworks. He discusses how his customers are using AI effectively, some of the challenges of getting from an AI Proof-of-Concept to deploying an enterprise application, and how we can overcome those challenges.


TerranceSimien2024How much joy does zydeco music bring?

Terrance Simien never stopped smiling throughout his 2-hour performance Friday evening at Fitzgerald's nightclub in Berwyn.

Simien began the evening with a few short songs before announcing that it was time to get real with some zydeco music. He took out his accordion while his bandmate strapped on a washboard, and the tempo picked up. The audience responded, moving from their seats to the dance floor.

Simien was born into an old Louisiana Creole family and began playing zydeco music at an early age. Five decades and two Grammy Awards later, he is still loving it. On this night, he paused only occasionally to highlight his backing band - drums, keyboards, bass guitar, saxophone, and trumpet - or to show off his Grammy trophy or toss beads into the crowd. All six instrumentalists were excellent, but the bass player and saxophone player particularly impressed.

He interspersed with his compositions cover songs, such as Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry," Stephen Stills's "Love the One You're With" (he told us that one was for the hippies in the audience), and a soulful version of Professor Longhair's "Big Chief."

At one point, half the band left the stage and snaked through the audience, playing their instruments. It felt like a New Orleans festival.

For an encore, the band pleased with "Amazing Grace," followed by "Shout" and a medley of "Down by the Riverside," "Amen," and "This Little Light of Mine."

By the end of the evening, everyone was smiling.

Photos


Ignatius Reilly is eccentric, arrogant, judgmental, overweight, dishonest, and lazy. But he is also intelligent and funny. At 30 years old, he still lives with his alcoholic mother, even though each holds the other in contempt. John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces" tells Ignatius's story.

Toole tells the story with humor in his narration and dialogue.

He populates this story with bizarre characters, such as:

- Myrna Minkoff: A college friend of Ignatius. The two exchange letters in which they berate one another.
- Angelo Mancuso: A policeman who is punished for not finding and arresting enough people for vice offenses.
- Gus Levy: The owner of Levy Pants, where Ignatius briefly works. His wife henpecks him for not growing his father's business.

Reilly's world is filled with self-inflicted chaos. He is clever enough to blame the world for his misfortune, but he continues to get himself in trouble. When an angry customer complains that Reilly's employer shipped low-quality pants, Reilly sends him an insulting letter with Mr. Levy's forged signature at the bottom. While employed as a hot dog vendor, Riley eats nearly every dog in his cart, then tells his boss that he was robbed and beaten. Reilly frequently goes to the movies, mostly to shout his critique at the screen.

According to Ignatius: "Apparently, I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking."

A book rarely comes to light so long after its completion. Toole killed himself in 1969, presumably due to his lack of success in finding someone to appreciate his work. "Confederacy" went unpublished until 1980, eleven years after the author's death. The book's popularity rose quickly, winning the 1981 Pulitzer Prize.

Although unknown during Toole's life, this novel is worth a read for its humor and outrageous philosophy.



GCast 181:

Using the .NET SDK to Create and Manage .NET projects

Learn how to use the .NET SDK to create, build, and run .NET projects from the command line.


Introduction

Experts expect Cybercrime to cost companies $9.5 trillion in 2024. This anti-economy is larger than the Gross Deposit Product of every country besides the United States and China.

Microsoft has always taken security seriously, but staying ahead of hackers is a significant challenge. Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Security Fellow John Lambert once said: "Defenders think in lists; attackers think in graphs," indicating that hackers tend to be more sophisticated than those they attack.

Microsoft faces constant attack threats as a large software, hardware, services, and cloud company. The United States Department of Defense is the only organization targeted more than Microsoft.

After some partially successful attacks, Microsoft leadership decided to re-engineer their approach to security. The result was the Secure Future Initiative (SFI), which was introduced in late 2023 and expanded in mid-2024. It focused on three broad categories: Culture, governance, and accountability; Highest urgency and expansion of scope; and New operating model and processes.

Culture, governance, and accountability

This category included hiring new Igor Tsyganskiy, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and regular reports on security threats, responses, and updates to the Senior Leadership Team and the Board of Directors. Microsoft's senior leadership team now has plans and milestones correlating to their compensation. Other employees are also affected, as the company has included Security as a core priority in every role at all levels.

Highest urgency and expansion of scope

This Fiscal Year, the Microsoft leadership team is emphasizing that security is the number one priority of every employee. Projects, applications, and services often involve trade-offs between priorities (e.g., new features and bug fixes or between speed and reliability). The message to employees is: If a trade-off exists between security and something else, security takes precedence. Every employee in every division of the company received this message.

New operating model and processes

Microsoft introduced six security priority categories, known as the SFI Pillars. A Lead for each pillar drives the execution of that pillar across departments.

Security Principles

Microsoft's approach emphasizes the following security principles: Secure by Design, Secure by Default, and Secure Operations. I describe these principles below:

Secure by Design

Microsoft builds Security into every product and service they ship. The Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) is a list of security issues that Microsoft uses to determine and correct potential flaws.

Secure by Default

Many products and services have options to increase security. These options are now turned on by default. You may turn them off at your own risk.

Secure Operations

Microsoft provides monitoring tools to help users determine if their services and software are under attack or at risk of attack, allowing them to react quickly. Additionally, Microsoft has 34,000 engineers focused on security and has removed 730,000 applications that do not meet SFI standards.

SFI Pillars

The Secure Future Initiative consists of six major security priorities, as described below. Some pillars refer to commitments from Microsoft leadership; some are specific changes to processes and software.

Protect Identities and Secrets

This pillar ensures that all services and applications support protection tools, such as Multi-Factor Authentication, open identity standards, and system-managed credentials. It also involves encouraging the use of these tools and requiring internal employees to utilize them. System Managed Identities are more complex than passwords but are inherently more secure, and they remove the need for human intervention in rotating passwords.

Protect Tenants and Isolate Production Systems

Microsoft actively removed unused tenants and legacy systems, reducing the risk of exposing systems with insufficient protection. In addition, they have applied to existing systems, solid practices, such as least privelege access and denying access by unsecured devices.

Protect Networks

This pillar involves improved isolation of networks. Microsoft production environments are now each isolated from one another, and this isolation is implemented by default in networks created by customers. These defaults help prevent a threat actor from moving laterally within a system.

Protect Engineering Systems

The source code of all Microsoft products is secured, applying least privelege access to all users. Microsoft uses automated scanning tools and the Code Analysis Query language CodeQL to analyze source code and automatically detect potential vulnerabilities.

The testing and deployment of code to all environments is automated, making these processes repeatable and secure. The idea is to treat Testing, Development, and Demo environments with the same rigor as Production environments.

Monitor and Detect Threats

Monitoring and real-time threat analysis has been improved within Azure, making it easier to troubleshoot issues. Microsoft has implemented policies to keep security logs within a central data lake for at least two years, making it easier to detect threats more quickly.

Accelerate Response and Remediation

Using the tools and practices described above, Microsoft has committed to reducing the response time when mitigating critical security issues and resolving vulnerabilities. Perhaps more importantly, they committed to increasing the transparency of the vulnerabilities when discovered.

Conclusion

Some of these recommendations came from a report issued by the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) of the US Department of Homeland Security. Others are an evolution of what was already happening or a response to recent issues uncovered internally.

One goal is to drive a culture change, allowing every employee to prioritize security in everything they do. Security is a team sport involving everyone in the software development lifecycle. Turning on security features by default and adding multiple layers of defense make it easier to fall into the pit of success. Improved, more secure internal systems and better education are at the heart of these efforts.

Together, these activities will increase cybersecurity, decrease the risk of threats, and anticipate and respond to future cyberattacks.


Episode 814

Ben Kotvis on Modernizing Enterprise Applications

Insight Principal Architect Ben Kotvis describes the process of migrating and modernizing legacy applications, including the factors to consider and the challenges in migrating. He covers, greenfield applications, brownfield applications, and lift-and-shift deployments.


Many great novels tell a sweeping, epic story. In contrast, Eudora Welty's 1972 novel "The Optimist's Daughter" tells a simple story of a few people dealing with the death of someone close.

Laurel had already lost her husband and mother when she traveled from Chicago to New Orleans to care for her father, Judge Clint McKelva, following his surgery. When McKelva dies, Laurel and her father's second wife, Fay, return to the family's Mississippi home to prepare for the funeral. Fay is younger than Laurel and proves to be selfish and melodramatic. She seems to have married the man only for his money. As the old man's life slipped away, Fay complained: "I don't see why this had to happen to me." Fay's sense of entitlement and her anger contrast with Laurel's sweetness.

Scenes of the dying father, the mourners coming to pay their respects, and the conflict between Laurel and Fay are memorable for the emotion shown. Welty excels at writing dialogue that brings to life her characters.

This book triggered memories of my own life. I recall the death of each of my parents and how people who knew various parts of their lives remembered them differently. I remembered the death of my widowed sister and the aftermath, in which her second husband showed his true colors, which were not good. Laurel had to deal with similar issues as she grieved for her father.

"The Optimist's Daughter" is a short book with little action, but the author packs it with emotion. It is a story of a young woman's self-discovery as she deals with her grief. It is well worth the time it takes to read.


BackToTheFutureTheMusicalCast2024Sometimes, a story is a delight, even if you know exactly what is coming. This was the case with the Wednesday evening production of "Back to the Future: The Musical" at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre.

The play stuck closely to the plot of the 1985 Robert Zemeckis movie, which I have seen multiple times. Still, the story, the actors, the dancing, the characters, and the music kept the audience engaged throughout the play's 3-hour run time.

Caden Brauch did an excellent job channeling Michael J. Fox's interpretation of Marty McFly, the boy who finds himself transported 30 years back in time to the week that his parents met and fell in love. Marty unintentionally disrupts their first meeting, and his high-school-age mother falls for Marty instead.
Similarly, Burke Swanon's performance as the nerdy George McFly was almost identical to Crispin Glover, who portrayed George on the big screen.

Don Stephenson puts a slightly different spin on his portrayal of Doc Brown, the mad scientist who invented the time machine and assists Marty in both the present and the past at different times in Doc's life. Stephenson eschews Christopher Lloyd's gravelly voice, sounding much younger than the film version; but he retains Doc's manic quirkiness.

Early in the show, Marty asks Doc where all the dancing girls came from. Doc responds with a straight face: I don't know. They appear every time I start singing.
Director John Rando brings it all together, weaving a fun tale of relationships, consequences, and science fiction. He brilliantly used a translucent screen between the actors and the audience to portray technical effects, such as flying and time travel, and natural effects, such as rain storms.

The music of Alan Silvestri (who composed the soundtrack of the Zemeckis film) and the lyrics of Glen Ballard (best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morisette's "Jagged Little Pill" album) entertain and advance the story.

Besides the music, the show inserts some minor twists, including Uncle Huey, who is mentioned in the first act but makes an appearance near the end.
This show felt like a trip back to 1985. I enjoyed this week's performance so much that I will consider seeing it again. But not until I re-watch the movie trilogy.


Episode 813

Kevin Griffin on the Multithreaded Income Podcast

Kevin Griffin's podcast informs its listeners about the financial aspects of the IT industry. He talks with me about the podcast's goals, guests, topics, and history.

Links:
https://multithreadedincome.com/
https://podcast.multithreadedincome.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@MultithreadedIncome/videos


It has been over a year since I picked up one of Michael Bond's delightful Paddington stories. This week, I corrected this by reading the "Paddington Goes to Town" - the eighth book in the series.

For those who do not know, Paddington is an anthropomorphic bear from darkest Peru, adopted by the Brown family in London. He means well, but he has a knack for getting into and out of trouble.

Like its predecessors, this volume contains seven stories. The bear serves as a wedding usher but accidentally gets the bride's ring stuck on his paw; his grumpy neighbor, Mr. Curry, coerces Paddington into caddying for a golf contest; Paddington spends two stories in the hospital trying to visit Mr. Curry after his injury on the golf course; the silly bear searches for the perfect ornament to enhance the garden of his friend Mr. Gruber; he sets out singing carols, but ends up as a waiter at a private party; and he causes confusion when Londoners mistake him for a busker and drop money in his hat.

Paddington confuses himself and others because he takes everything literally and responds accordingly. He assumes his role as a wedding usher is to 'ush anyone who speaks. The hospital receptionist refers to a psychiatrist as a "head-shrinker," which makes little sense to the bear. He is confused by the phrase "Vladimir's beside himself." When asked if he has experience waiting, he misunderstands that the lady wants to know if he has ever waited on tables and describes the time he had to wait for a bus.

"Paddington Goes to Town" is another delightful collection from Michael Bond.


Bush2024Wednesday was an evening of grunge music at the Huntington Bank Pavillion on Chicago's Northerly Island. Headliners Bush invited three acts to open for them. A prior commitment prevented me from seeing Tim Montana, but Candlebox put on a very good show as the crowd trickled in. Jerry Cantrell followed, performing music from his solo album and his time as lead singer and lead guitarist of Alice in Chains. He closed his set with an excellent rendition of "Rooster" - his tribute to his veteran father.

With so many acts, Bush did not hit the stage until almost 9:30 PM. But they hit the ground running, opening with the intense "Everything Zen," followed by the frantic "Machine Head."

JerryCantrell2024This tour was labeled "The Greatest Hits Tour," so the band favored their singles over deep album tracks. The crowd loved it. Lead singer Gavin Rossdale danced around the stage during many of his songs, and the audience bounced with him. He slowed things down when the rest of the band left the stage, allowing him to perform "Swallowed" and "Glycerine" accompanied only by his guitar.

The group's encore set included a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together" and closed with Bush's hit "Comedown."

This venue, situated on a point of land ("Northerly Island" is not an island, strictly speaking), is a wonderful place to experience live music. After so many bands, I left exhausted but feeling good.


BeerCityCode2024-aA young woman approached me after I delivered my "You and Your Technical Community" presentation at Beer City Code Saturday in Grand Rapids, MI. In my talk, I shared how my involvement in the tech community enhanced my career and suggested how others could get involved. I hoped to inspire some of them to try public speaking, connect more with others, and volunteer at local events. This woman had recently moved to suburban Detroit and wanted to know how she could find opportunities to get involved locally. I was delighted to help her because I was thrilled that she heard the lessons I was trying to teach, and she was determined to act on those lessons.

I also delivered a presentation at BCC titled "Blood, Sweat, and Code Reviews," in which I described the process, benefits, and challenges of conducting effective code reviews and ways to address those challenges. I heard positive feedback from attendees of this talk as well.

Teaching and inspiring attendees is one of my motivations for attending conferences like this. But I also was able to learn. In addition to my two sessions, I listened to the following:

Debunking the Complexity of Continuous Deployment
Carlus Henry talked about the advantages and challenges of CI/CD and walked through the process of creating a reliable deployment process.

BeerCityCode2024-bAzure Managed Identities: Connect Without Connection Strings
AL Rodriguez (He capitalizes his entire first name all across social media) demystified identity management in Azure and simplified the concept of managed identities.

Getting Good (or Better) at Code Reviews
I wanted to see Rhia Dixon's presentation because one of my talks at this conference was on a similar topic. I will incorporate a few of her ideas into my presentation next time.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Microsoft sponsored this event. My employer used to financially support many code camps like this, but they have done so less frequently in the past few years.

I loved seeing old friends, meeting new people, and hearing positive feedback from attendees. I am grateful to J Tower and the other organizers for an excellent weekend!


Episode 812

Rob Bogue on Getting the most out of RAG with Copilot for M365

Rob Bogue defines Retrieval Augmented Generation - a way to enhance natural language searching, how Copilot for Microsoft 365 takes advantage of this pattern, and how to extend this capability.

Links:
https://thorprojects.com/2024/04/04/now-available-organizational-readiness-for-generative-ai-draft-white-paper/


July 2024 Gratitudes

Comments [0]

8/4
Today I am grateful to J and the other organizers of Beer City Code for an excellent event!

8/3
Today I am grateful for an evening in Grand Rapids, MI that included:
- a Diversity and Inclusion Mixer
- Dinner with old friends

8/2
Today I am grateful to Brian for inviting me to co-host the Partner Showcase show yesterday.

8/1
Today I am grateful to the man who chased after me to return my wallet that I dropped while riding my bike yesterday.

7/31
Today I am grateful that the pain from my accident last month is now gone.

7/30
Today I am grateful to witness a Bobby Witt Jr. grand slam last night at the White Sox - Royals game.

7/29
Today I am grateful
- to see Guster in concert last night
- to stumble upon the Chinatown Summer Fair yesterday.

7/28
Today I am grateful to see Thee Sacred Souls in concert last night in Skokie.

7/27
Today I am grateful to see Courtney Barnett and Bob Mould in concert last night in Skokie.

7/26
Today I am grateful to attend a recording of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" at the Studebaker Theatre last night.

7/25
Today I am grateful for new lawn chairs.

7/24
Today I am grateful for a BBQ dinner last night with Daniel, Paul, and Kelsey.

7/23
Today I am grateful for a bike ride with Daniel and Paul yesterday

7/22
Today I am grateful to play pickleball for the first time in weeks.

7/21
Today I am grateful to attend M365 Chicago Community Days yesterday

7/20
Today I am grateful:
- to Daniel for helping me assemble my new bed yesterday
- to attend a speaker dinner last night

7/19
Today I am grateful:
- to deliver the world premiere of an AI presentation last night at the Louisville .NET User Group
- to host the Chicago Java User Group last night

7/18
Today I am grateful to see Acoustic Alchemy in concert last night.

7/17
Today I am grateful for minimal storm damage in my neighborhood and no damage to my home.

7/16
Today I am grateful for a call from Meenakshi last night.

7/15
Today I am grateful to pass an exam yesterday and renew my Microsoft AI certification.

7/13
Today I am grateful for a new pickleball paddle.

7/12
Today I am grateful to see "Ain't Misbehavin'" last night on my first visit to the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace.

7/11
Today I am grateful for a new mop.

7/10
Today I am grateful for a new work laptop.

7/9
Today I am grateful to pass 1,000 subscribers of #TechnologyAndFriends!

7/8
Today I am grateful to have lost sixty pounds in the last year.


Guster2024Guster lead singer Ryan Miller drew cheers from the audience at a Friday night concert in Skokie, IL, when he announced that he grew up in Skokie. He told the crowd that he visited his old house earlier in the day and that his grandfather had built the nearby temple. Miller looked out on the crowd and quipped that this was "a good-looking group of suburban Jews," which brought laughter from the crowd across the Illinois Science + Technology Park Field.

The concert was the final evening of the three-night Out of Space series presented by SPACE nightclub in Evanston.

Miller continued to reference this town throughout the show. At one point, he claimed that, before settling on the name "Guster," they considered naming the band "Skokie." They then played a song about "Skokie."

Although Miller weaved humor between the numbers, Guster is serious about their music. Their tight harmonies were evident tonight as they worked through over twenty songs. Each band member is a first-rate musician, and their arrangements brought smiles to faces. Percussionist Brian Rosenworcel was particularly impressive, moving between a traditional drum set and a large set of bongo drums that he played barehanded.

The crowd was in a frenzy, bouncing to catchy tunes and shouting along, as in the "4-3-2-1" chorus of "Barrel of a Gun." Miller continued to be the focus. At one point, he ran through the crowd with a lawn chair borrowed from an audience member before returning to the stage and lounging in the chair.

After ninety minutes of performing, Miller announced they would "fake an encore." They played two more songs, including Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams."

I loved the show, but I did some searching when I returned home, and I could find no evidence online that Ryan Miller ever lived in Skokie.


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