Finding space for this year's [Global Azure]() event was a challenge, but Eric Boyd worked his network, and George Roberts was able to reserve a hall inside the McDonald's world headquarters in Chicago's West Loop.

Global Azure has a long history. It began over twelve years ago as the Global Windows Azure Boot Camp. I hosted an event in 2013 in Southfield, MI, years before I joined Microsoft. Community organizers host events the same week in cities around the world.

Saturday's Chicago event started with a presentation by Microsoft MVP and Regional Director Eric Boyd, who gave a history of Azure in the context of how he worked with the platform. Eric was an early adopter and proponent of Azure and has built a business focused mainly on Azure services. Dan Rey spoke next, educating us about Azure data centers and how they have evolved to meet growing demand. George Roberts then told us how McDonald's migrated to Entra from Active Directory and the challenges they had to overcome. After lunch, Dee Peterson spoke about using the Well Architected Framework to create resilient applications in the cloud. To close the day, I gave a presentation on Azure Monitor and Application Insights.

Over thirty people attended the event - an impressive number given that we scheduled it late and the sunshine tempted folks to enjoy outdoor activities. The audience was engaged for the six hours of presentations, asking many relevant questions and hanging out afterwards to connect with the speakers and organizers.

This event was an excellent opportunity to engage the community, educate people about Azure, and promote in-person events. As we closed, Eric and I announced a rebirth of the Chicago Cloud Computing User Group, which will host a meeting at the Downtown Chicago Microsoft office on June 5.

Episode 850

Damian Synadinos on Trust

Damian Synadinos discusses the role that trust plays in our lives an in the workplace, and when it is appropriate to trust without verification. He warns against over-trusting and under-trusting, advising us to use critical thinking when deciding who and what to trust. He applies these principles to Artificial Intelligence, discussing how much we should trust the results produced by AI.

https://www.ineffable-solutions.com/

Some leaders lead from the back. Record producers, audio engineers, composers, and music directors like Alan Parsons fall into this category. They allow others to handle instrumental solos and lead vocals.

Parsons took this a step further at the Rivers Casino Event Center in Des Plaines Friday evening. Throughout the performance, he sat at the back of the stage while the spotlight shone on his band of singers and instrumentalists. Parsons sang lead on only two songs - "Don't Answer Me" and "Eye in the Sky." For the rest of the show, he strummed an acoustic guitar while others in the band alternated lead vocals and performed solos on guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards. Guy Erez's creative bass solo on "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" was especially impressive.

Alan Parsons gained worldwide fame as the co-leader of The Alan Parsons Project, along with the late Eric Woolfson. Although Eric sang lead on many songs, Alan's name appeared in the band title. The two hired many session musicians and singers to perform on their eleven studio albums. Before teaming with Woolfson, Parsons made a name for himself by producing classic albums like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and engineering the latter of the Beatles' albums.

Parsons has been releasing albums under his own name (sans "Project") since the breakup of The Alan Parsons Project thirty-five years ago. But Friday evening's performance consisted almost entirely of songs from his collaboration with Woolfson in the 1970s and 1980s. This set list delighted a crowd that sported a lot of gray hair. I was happy to hear compositions from the underrated "Tales of Mystery and Imagination," APP's first album that failed to chart on its 1976 release. The classic "Breakdown" from the more commercially successful second album "I Robot" led seamlessly into "The Raven" from the debut album. The encore set began with "(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether" - one of my favourite songs!

The 76-year-old Parsons is showing his age. He walks with a cane and requires assistance climbing on and off the stage. However, the progressive rock music he created decades ago holds up well, and he has assembled a collection of top musicians to share that music with the world.

Photos

Marie Benedict's novel "The Only Woman in the Room" tells the story of Hedy Lamar, who was born Hedwig Kiesler into an Austrian Jewish family before the rise of Adolf Hitler and Naziism.

Kiesler was an Austrian actress when her family encouraged her to marry wealthy industrialist Friedrich Mandl as a way to increase their social standing and financial stability. She converted from Judaism to Christianity for the marriage and lived the life of a socialite, but Mandl proved to be an abusive, controlling husband. Her life became worse when her husband aligned himself with Adolf Hitler and began selling arms to the Nazis after Germany's takeover of Austria.

Hedwig escaped Austria before Hitler began to execute his plan to exterminate Jews. She moved to Hollywood, California, changed her name to Hedy Lamar, and starred in a series of successful movies for Lous Mayer's MGM Studio.

But Hedy was much more than a beautiful actress. She learned that American remote-controlled torpedoes were ineffective because Germans could easily jam their signals, so she developed a new wireless communication system that was nearly impossible to jam. The U.S. military rejected her invention, refusing to believe that a woman could create this, but her technology is used in many cell phone systems today.

"Only Woman" is a fictional autobiography. The author puts words into the heroine to tell the stories of her life as she transitions from daughter to wife to refugee to actress to scientist. Although Benedict invents the thoughts in Lamar's head, the events she relates are based on history, and the inner monologue we read is plausible.

Hedy Lamar was a remarkable woman who led a remarkable life, and her story deserves to be told. A novelization of that life is a good way to tell that story.

In the last article, I showed you how to create an Azure Storage Account. One way to secure a storage account is to assign users to roles that allow each user only the access that they require and no more. In this article, I will show you how to assign users to roles in an Azure Storage Account.

Log in to the Azure Portal and navigate to the Azure Storage Account, as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

From the left menu, select [Access Control (IAM)] (Fig. 2) to display the "Check Access" tab of the "Access Control (IAM)" blade, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

The "Role Assignments" displays a list of existing role assignments for this Storage Account, as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

On the "Check Access" tab, click the [Add role assignment] button (Fig. 5) to display the "Add role assignment" dialog, as shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

This dialog is separated into two tabs, representing the different types of roles: Job function roles, intended for users of the services and its data; and Privelged administration roles, intended for those who are managing the Storage Account. Search for the role to which you wish to add a user. In the figure, we searched for "Storage Blob Data Contributor," so the dialog filters the list of rows to show us this role. Select the role.

On the "Members" tab (Fig. 7) you can add users to the selected role.

Fig. 7

Click the [Select members] button (Fig. 8) to display the "Select members" dialog, as shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

Search for a user, select that user, and click the [Select] button (Fig. 10) to add the selected user or users to the selected role.

Fig. 10

The User should now appear in the list of members, as shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 11

At this point, the user has not yet been assigned to the selected role. Click the [Review + assign] button (Fig. 12) to activate the "Review + assign" tab. Then select the [Review + assign] button again to assign this user to the selected group.

Fig. 12

The user is now assigned to the group and should appear in the list of role assignments and should have rights appropriate to that group.

In this article, I showed you how to secure an Azure Storage Account by assigning users to appropriate roles in that account.

Azure Storage Accounts allow you to store data in the cloud in a secure, scalable, and highly available way. A Storage Account provides storage of four broad categories of data objects: blobs, tables, queues, and files. In this article, I will focus on blobs, showing you how to use the Azure Portal to upload files into an Azure Storage Account Blob Container.

Log in to the Azure Portal and navigate to the Azure Storage Account, as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Select [Storage browser] (Fig. 2) in the left menu to display the "Storage browser" blade, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Click the "Blob containers" panel (Fig. 4) to display a view with "Blob containers" selected, as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Click the [Add container] button (Fig. 6) to display the "New container" dialog, as shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

At the "name" field, enter a name for a container.

The Anonymous Access dropdown is enabled if you have enabled anonymous access for the storage account. In this case, it is disabled, so anonymous access is not an option for this container.

Click the [Create] button (Fig. 8) to create the container.

Fig. 8

The dialog closes, and the new container should display in the view, as shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9

Click the container to open it and click the [Upload] button (Fig. 10) to open the "Upload blob" dialog, as shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Click the "Browse for files" link and select files on your computer, or drag files from Windows Explorer onto the dialog. If files with the same name are already stored in the container, check the "Overwrite" checkbox to overwrite these files with new ones.

Click the [Upload] button to begin uploading files.

When the files finish uploading, they should appear in the container view, as shown in Fig. 12.

Fig. 12

Azure Storage Accounts allow you to store data in the cloud in a secure, scalable, and highly available way. A Storage Account provides storage of four broad categories of data objects: blobs, tables, queues, and files.

This article walks you through the process of creating an Azure Storage Account.

Navigate to the Azure Portal and log in.

Click the [Create a resource] button (Fig. 1) and search for "Storage Account," as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

From the list of results, select the [Create] button in the "Storage Account" panel (Fig. 3) to expand the menu, and select the [Create] option, as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

The "Create a Storage Account" dialog displays with the "Basics" tab selected, as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

At the "Subscription" dropdown, select the subscription in which you want to create this Storage Account. Many of you will have only one subscription, so you will not need to choose anything here.

At the "Resource group" field, select the resource group in which you want to create the Storage Account, or click the "Create new" link to create a new resource group in which to add the Storage Account. A resource group is a logical grouping of Azure resources you want to manage together.

At the "Storage account name" field, enter a unique name for this Storage Account.

At the "Region" dropdown, select an Azure region in which to create the Storage Account. Consider the location of the people and services that will be using the data in this account to minimize latency.

At the "Primary service" dropdown, select how you most often plan to use this account. Azure will optimize the account for this service. The options are:

• Azure Blob Storage or Azure Data Lake Storage Gen 2
• Azure Files
• Other (tables and queues)

At the "Performance" radio button, select "Premium" if you require high-speed data access. This selection will cost extra. Select "Standard" if you do not need low latency.

At the "Redundancy" dropdown, select the type of redundancy you would like for this service. Although all Azure Storage Accounts create multiple copies of your data, you can decide where that data is stored: in the same data center or in a different region. The options are listed in ascending order of protection and cost, with a description below each option.

Fig. 6 shows the "Advanced" tab. It is unnecessary to change anything on this tab, but it allows you to configure additional security on the account.

Fig. 6

Fig. 7 shows the "Networking" tab. Changing anything on this tab is unnecessary, but it allows you to restrict access to the account to specific networks and configure private endpoints.

Fig. 7

Fig. 8 shows the "Data protection" tab. It is unnecessary to change anything on this tab, but it allows you to configure the Storage Account to make it possible to roll back changes to your data.

Fig. 8

Fig. 9 shows the "Encryption" tab. It is unnecessary to change anything on this tab, but it allows you to configure what is encrypted and how to encrypt it.

Fig. 9

Fig. 10 shows the "Tags" tab. It is not necessary to change anything on this tab, but you can apply name-value pairs to this resource that you may use to filter or sort your reports.

Fig. 10

Fig. 11 shows the "Review + create" tab. If you made any errors, such as leaving a required field empty or selecting an inconsistent combination of options, these errors will be listed here, and you will need to correct them before you can proceed.

Fig. 11

After correcting any errors, click the [Create] button (Fig. 12) to start the creation of the Azure Storage Account.

Fig. 12

After a short time, a confirmation message similar to the one in Fig. 13 will display, indicating that the Storage Account has been created.

Fig. 13

Click the [Go to resource] button (Fig. 14) to show the "Overview" blade of the newly created Storage Account, as shown in Fig. 15.

Fig. 14

Fig. 15

This article showed you how to create an Azure Storage Account. I will show you how to add data and work with this account in future articles.

Last month, Illinois Institute of Technology graduate student Aviral Bhardwaj approached me about hosting a hackathon at the Chicago Microsoft office. Aviral told me he had run multiple hackathons in India before coming to Chicago to pursue a Master's degree.

I reserved Microsoft's Multi-Purpose Rooms and met several times with Aviral to coordinate.

Nearly 500 people registered for the hackathon, so he had to trim the list to fit into the event space.

On Saturday, May 3, over seventy people attended the event, most of them graduate students from universities across Illinois.

The attendees divided into ten teams and spent the day building RAG solution. For those who don't know, RAG stands for "Retrieval Augmented Generation" and allows generative AI applications to get information from other data sources before responding to the user. This technique can allow you to create chatbots specific to users and knowledge bases. Pathway donated licenses of their ETL product and sent project manager Kasia Lechka as a mentor. Many students used this tool to accelerate their application development.

During lunch, I offered a tour of the Microsoft office. Interest in this was high enough that I split the group in half and conducted the tour twice. One attendee called this tour out as a favorite moment:

"One of my favorite moments? Touring the "Idea Floor" with David Giard—a space in the Microsoft office filled with domain-specific innovations to spark creativity. It simulated my mind and got my creative juices flowing for sure! ✨" (link)

At the end of the day, each group presented its project to all attendees. Along with three other judges, we picked the best three projects. The other judges were Kasia, Uber Freight Manager Alex Nova, and University of Illinois Computer Science Graduate Student Jugal Bhatt.

We selected three winning teams. They created applications that used AI and RAG for time management, monitoring clinical data, and tracking driver safety in real time.

It was a long day (8 AM to 6 PM), but well worth it to see the energy and enthusiasm the hackers brought to the event.

Photos

Episode 849

Glenn F Henriksen on Deliberate Software Development

Glenn Henrikson questions why we do things. Sometimes, it is simply because we have always done it that way. Sometimes, it is because of a sunk cost fallacy or disproportionate value placed on things we built. For example, he advocates eliminating backlogs. He explains his reasoning in this thought-provoking conversation.

5/4
Today I am grateful to participate in HackChicago's hackathon yesterday.

5/3
Today I am grateful to see an excellent concert last night, featuring Joe, Musiq Soulchild, and Eric Benét last night.

5/2
Today I am grateful for lunch with Adam yesterday!

5/1
Today I am grateful I was invited to speak at two upcoming events!

4/30
Today I am grateful for a new knee brace.

4/29
Today I am grateful for a hot bubble bath yesterday.

4/28
Today I am grateful for a ride around Northerly Island yesterday.

4/27
Today I am grateful for a Korean lunch yesterday with Tim and Natale

4/26
Today I am grateful:
- to volunteer at Microsoft's 'Take Your Family to Work' Day yesterday in Chicago.
- for drinks with my neighbors at a brewery in the Chicago Stockyards neighborhood last night

4/25
Today I am grateful to see the NBA playoffs game at Little Caesars Arena last night with my sons and their friends!

4/24
Today I am grateful to attend the ISTC STEM Challenge Showcase yesterday and see the presentation by the students I have been mentoring this year.

4/23
Today I am grateful:
- for dinner with Eric and Anissa yesterday
- to see an excellent Iron & Wine concert featuring the puppetry of Manual Cinema last night

4/22
Today I am grateful that my car is still running well after 8 years!

4/21
Today I am grateful for Easter lunch with Nick and Adriana yesterday

4/20
Today I am grateful to attend and present at the SHPE conference at Northwestern University yesterday.

4/19
Today I am grateful to see "Sunny Afternoon" at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre last night.

4/18
Today I am grateful to attend Columbia College's "Biggest Mouth" battle of the bands last night at the Epiphany Center for the Performing Arts.

4/17
Today I am grateful to participate in a Copilot workshop and the AI Camp yesterday.

4/16
Today I am grateful to file my taxes yesterday.

4/15
Today I am grateful for coffee with Christine yesterday

4/14
Today I am grateful for:
- an exciting overtime Warriors - Clippers game last night at the Chase Center
- dinner and stargazing with Glenn and Lana last night

4/13
Today I am grateful for:
- an evening with John and Becky
- an exciting A's - Mets game in Sacramento yesterday

4/12
Today I am grateful
- to visit the California state capitol and the California Museum yesterday
- to attend an exciting Kings - Clippers game at Golden1 Center last night

4/11
Today I am grateful to see Ani DiFranco in concert last night.

4/9
Today I am grateful to talk with a financial advisor and restructure my retirement portfolio.

4/8
Today I am grateful for 300 consecutive days studying Spanish.

4/7
Today I am grateful to play pickleball on Saturday and Sunday and get better as the weekend went on.

Do you like R&B and soul music? Were you a fan twenty years ago? If so, you would have enjoyed the concert Friday evening at the Arie Crown Theater. Billed as "The R&B Invitation Tour," this show brought together three hitmakers from the early 2000s: Joe, Musiq Soulchild, and Eric Benét.

The Arie Crown Theatre is hidden in the back of the McCormick Place convention center, making it one of the least accessible venues in the city. Despite this, a crowd packed the auditorium to hear three excellent performances by three excellent singers.

The evening opened with Eric Benét, who played a brief set, including his hit "Spend My Life With You" and his cover of Toto's "Georgy Porgy," which inspired the audience to sing along. He was joined on stage by talented young singer Charity Davis, who alternated between background vocalist and duetist.

The next act featured Musiq Soulchild, a singer-songwriter known for combining R&B, funk, blues, and jazz. Two dancers accompanied him, gyrating to the rhythms of his singing. He opened with his biggest hit, "Halfcrazy," immediately engaging the audience.

Between sets, comedian MC Lightfoot entertained with dirty jokes, silly dancing, poking fun at the audience, and old songs played by a DJ. I have seen funnier comedians, but he was good enough to keep us interested until the next act was ready.

Finally, Joe took the stage as headliner, performing for over an hour. Joe's brand of soul music features many love songs and erotic lyrics, and his stage show played off this. Some of his dance moves were suggestive, and he frequently moved to the front to flirt and hold hands with ladies crowding the stage. One aggressive woman refused to let go of his hand, even after he whispered, "Let me do my show, baby," for all the audience to hear. He closed the evening with two of his best: "All the Things (Your Man Won't Do)" and "I Wanna Know."

Each act was more complex than the one before. Benét performed to recorded music, Musiq had three musicians behind him, and a full band backed Joe. None of the singers returned for an encore, and each kept their set to a reasonable time, allowing the aging crowd to get home early.

It was a lovely evening that I was fortunate to spend with a special person.

Photos:

Joe

Musiq Soulchild

Eric Benét

GCast 193:

Using the Sentiment Analysis Feature of the Azure Language Service

Learn how to use the Sentiment Analysis feature of the Azure Language service to determine if text is positive, negative, or neutral

Episode 848

Richard Campbell on the Current State of Energy Production

Richard Campbell discusses how green energy is produced and stored, how energy production varies by region, and other low-carbon energy production. He describes how different power generation methods work best in various parts of the world and the challenges with each of these methods.

Oscar Hijuelos's 1989 novel, "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love," tells the story of the rise and fall of Cesar and Nestor Castillo - two brothers who emigrated from Cuba to New York City in the 1950s, hoping to make a name for themselves playing Latin music. They struggled for years, but their high point came when they appeared in an episode of "I Love Lucy," performing their most popular song: "Beautiful María of My Soul." The song was an ode written by Nestor about a woman he loved who married another man.

The novel begins at the end when Cesar is a lonely old man, looking back on his life and clutching to his moment of fame years earlier. The author then takes us through the events that led Cesar to his current place.

The brothers were very different. Cesar was a swaggering womanizer, while Nestor was quiet and thoughtful. But they loved each other and tried to be there for one another.

Hijuelos gives us a picture of family life and the struggle for success and respect in a new land. "Mambo Kings" is a story of loss - the loss of a woman once loved, the loss of a sibling, and the loss of potential fame and fortune. But it is also a story of hope and resilience.

I decided to drive to Madison, WI for the Iron & Wine concert partly because I enjoy his music. But this concert was special. The singer-songwriter partnered on this tour with Manual Cinema - a Chicago-based collective that produces puppetry and multimedia shows. I have seen two productions of Manual Cinema, and I love their work. Tuesday evening's partnership at the Orpheum Theatre seemed destined for success.

Colorado-based folk singer Jobi Riccio opened the show with an impressive set of songs, accompanying herself on guitar. Later, she would return to the stage to sing a duet with the headliner on "All in Good Time."

Iron & Wine (his real name is Samuel Ervin Beam) drew on the ten studio albums he has released over the last two decades for this evening's performance. But he sniffed into the microphone and announced that there was "a smell of new songs in the air" as he sang selections from his 2024 release "Light Verse" and a few tunes written in the past year. He opened with his sentimental song "Carousel." A screen behind the band showed silhouettes of dancers circling one another. Manual Cinema created this projection with cutouts and projectors to accompany the music and lyrics of the performer.

Manual Cinema's projected silhouettes complimented about half of the songs. At times, they provided a literal interpretation of the music, as when they showed the audience blades of grass on "Teeth in the Grass" or displayed a boat on a blue field during "On the Sea." At other times, abstract shapes moved across the screen to capture the music's emotion rather than the lyrics' meaning. Their best addition came on "Call It Dreaming" when one of the puppeteers stood in front of the light to project her silhouette on screen. The other puppeteer added mini cars and other items to turn the woman's shoulders into a landscape as Iron & Wine performed "Call It Dreaming."

I&W displayed a corny sense of humor throughout the night. When someone shouted a compliment, he replied, "Thank you, Mom," at least three times. Forty minutes into the show, he joked that the show was over, telling the audience, "Thanks for coming. I hope to see you next time." It was silly, but it was fun.

After his duet with Riccio, he dismissed his band (keyboards, drums/percussion, violin, and bass) and performed "Bitter Truth" and "Autumn Town Leaves" alone on stage with his voice and guitar.

I loved my first experience seeing Iron & Wine live. I loved even more that he invited Manual Cinema to enhance his music.

Playlist

Episode 847

Adi Polak on AI Agents and the Necessary Data Infrastructure

Adi Polak leads the Developer Advocacy team at Confluent. She talks about Agentic AI and some of the tools, processes, patterns, and best practices that go into creating AI Agents.

I have been listening to the Kinks for decades. When I heard that lead singer Ray Davies had written a play about the band and that the play was running at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, I leaped at the chance. Friday night, we enjoyed the local performance of "Sunny Afternoon."

Named for one of The Kinks' hit songs, this musical takes us on a journey as four lads evolve from working-class London teenagers to rock icons. The story centers around the rise of the band and its effect on the members. Songwriter/singer Ray is troubled that he must focus on things other than music; his brother Dave falls to the temptations of fame, living a life of sex and drugs; drummer Mick Avery feuds with Dave; and drummer Pete Quaife - Ray's childhood best friend - laments the changing relationship of the friends.

Danny Horne is very good as the cerebral but flamboyant Ray, but Oliver Hoare steals the show as the manic Dave.

The story is solid, but it is not uncommon for a rock band to experience similar turmoil when facing meteoric success. The music sets this one apart. Ray Davies's compositions progress the narrative and entertain the audience. Songs like "A Well Respected Man," "Stop Your Sobbing," and "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" rocked the hall throughout the evening. But "Waterloo Sunset" sounded like an anthem at the show's end. After taking a bow, the boys returned to the stage to perform a medley of "Lola," "All Day and All of the Night," and "You Really Got Me" as the audience rose to its feet and danced.

It was a great ending to a very good show.

Ani DiFranco has always traveled her own path.

Early in her career, he established herself as the anti-establishment folk singer of the 1990s. She rejected the typical path to success of signing with a major label and releasing singles. Instead, she started her own music label - Righteous Babe Records - and built a following through college station airplay and live performances.

Friday evening, DiFranco brought her performance to Thalia Hall in Pilsen - a show that sold out quickly.

She opened with the quirky tunes "Pixie" and "Dilate." DiFranco puts a lot into the lyrics of her songs, which endear her to her audience. Many of her songs sound like feminist anthems.

I love seeing artists who enjoy performing, and Ani's joy is infectious. She joked that she was considering a suggestion given to her by many people that she should run for President because "apparently you don't have to know shit!" Making clear that she was not serious, Ani followed with the message that her philosophy is to "be nice!"

Backed by three strong musicians on drums, upright bass, and electric or lap steel guitar, DiFranco proved herself an accomplished musician as she coaxed a variety of sounds out of a plethora of acoustic guitars.

She was scheduled to perform two nights at Thalia Hall, so she mixed up the set list so those who bought tickets to both shows would see something different.

Ani DiFranco is a performer who sounds much better in person than on record. She brought joy to her enthusiastic audience.

Episode 846

Maarten Balliauw on Identity Management in .NET

Maarten Balliauw is Head of Customer Service at Duende Software. He describes the importance of authentication and authorization, how these identity management concepts are implemented in .NET applications, some issues implementing IM, and some tools and processes that can help.

Links:
https://bsky.app/profile/maartenballiauw.be
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/security/authentication/
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/security/authorization/policies?view=aspnetcore-9.0
https://duendesoftware.com/products/identityserver
https://docs.duendesoftware.com/identityserver/v7/apis/aspnetcore/
https://docs.duendesoftware.com/identityserver/v7/tokens/pop/dpop/
https://docs.duendesoftware.com/bff/v3/overview/
https://www.passkeys.com/

When Laughing Boy - a young Navajo living in early twentieth-century Southwestern United States - met Slim Girl at a dance, he was smitten. The two married and built a life together. Despite sharing a Native American heritage, the two grew up very differently. Laughing Boy was raised in a Navajo family. He excelled at traditional tribal skills, such as silversmithing and training horses. By contrast, the US government took Slim Girl at a young age and educated her in American schools, encouraging her to abandon her language, religion, culture, and heritage. LB is simple and optimistic, while SG is world-weary and opportunistic. Slim Girl struggles to maintain a life in both worlds, sometimes deceiving her husband as she returns to a lover who retains a hold on her. After being abandoned by a white man who impregnated her when she was a young adult, Slim Girl turned to a life of prostitution - a life she has not entirely abandoned. She keeps her past secret from her husband, but he loves her regardless. Their relationship is a microcosm of the clash of cultures between whites and reds at the time. Laughing Boy's family and the rest of his people never accept Slim Girl; she never feels at home in either world.

Oliver La Farge's 1929 novel "Laughing Boy" explores cultural identity and loyalty. It is a coming-of-age story, a love story, and a Western saga. It tells of the issues brought about by assimilation.

Many question whether this novel deserved the Pulitzer Prize over other classics of the same year, such as Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" and Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms." Others question if La Farge, a white anthropologist, had the right to tell a personal story about a culture he only observed from the outside. But the author's first novel feels authentic. His protagonists are layered and complex, and he tells their story with sensitivity.

The Friday night show at Evanston's Cahn Auditorium was not what I had expected. I had front-row seats to see Emmylou Harris, my third time seeing the country superstar. But this show was less about Ms. Harris than Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp.

Thompson performed with the late Guy Clark for years, and Camp produced some of Clark's albums. This evening, the trio focused on the music of Guy Clark.

Emmylou's name topped the bill, but Thompson and Camp led for much of the evening, taking turns singing lead with impressive guitar work, while Harris provided harmony vocals.

As a longtime fan of Guy Clark, I appreciated their selection of songs, which spanned the singer-songwriter's long career and included "Dublin Blues," "Let Him Roll," "Stuff That Works," and "LA Freeway." They bookended "Desperados Waiting for a Train" with "Red River Valley" - a traditional song that figures prominently in the lyrics of "Desperados."

Harris included some favorites outside the Clark catalog, notably her covers of Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty" and "If I Needed You."

Although the show was not what I expected, I enjoyed the evening immensely.

Yesterday, Azure Copilot helped me troubleshoot a demo that was failing for no apparent reason.

I was delivering a demo to over twenty people, and I wanted to show the Computer Vision tools of Azure AI Services. While working on an Azure AI Foundry project, every service hung for minutes before timing out.

I opened Azure Copilot and asked:
     Is there currently an issue with the Computer Vision AI Service?

Copilot responded that there was currently an unresolved issue in the EASTUS region causing excess latency in the response (the exact symptom I was seeing)

I created a new Azure AI Foundry Hub in WESTUS, and everything worked perfectly.

I was able to resolve this issue in minutes, thanks to Copilot!

Of course, I could have navigated to the Azure health page, but I could not remember the URL, and there were lots of people watching, and I did not know if that was even the issue. Copilot got me the answer much more quickly!

This tool should be a regular part of your troubleshooting.

My team and I created a series of videos to get people started using GitHub Copilot. We recorded a screencast and created three copies, each with an audio track in a different language. Hopefully, this makes the technology more available to a global audience.

Thanks to Omar Aviles Rosas, Fabio Padua, and Andy Huang for their contributions to this project.

What are your thoughts? Should we create more like this? Are there other languages you would like to see?

Episode 845

Trinh Tran on Windows Accessibility Tools

Disabilities can be permanent, temporary, or situational. Microsoft Cloud Architect Trinh Tran explains some of the accessibility features of Microsoft Windows that assist disabled users. He covers Narrator, Magnifier, Mouse options, and many other hardware and software accessibility tools.

4/6
Today I am grateful for exciting semifinal NCAA basketball games yesterday.

4/5
Today I am grateful to see Emmylou Harris perform the music of Guy Clark last night in Evanston.

4/4
Today I am grateful to host an AI Agent Week event last night.

4/3
Today I am grateful to Sara for inviting us to see an exciting Blackhawks - Avalanche game from a United Center suite last night!

4/2
Today I am grateful to see an excellent Robert Cray concert in Skokie last night.

4/1
Today I am grateful that Donald Trump is a competent President and that he never tells a lie.

3/30
Today I am grateful that I found yesterday the thing I lost Friday.

3/29
Today I am grateful to Mary for driving me to and from Pontiac, MI this week

3/28
Today I am grateful to the organizers of #MITechCon for another great event!

3/27
Today I am grateful to attend the #MITechCon Speaker dinner last night in Pontiac.

3/26
Today I am grateful for my first hearing aid.

3/25
Today I am grateful to see Iggy Pop in concert last night.

3/24
Today I am grateful to see Suzanne Vega in concert last night.

3/23
Today I am grateful to spend a weekend with my cousins in the Washington, DC area.

3/22
Today I am grateful for a day seeing the sights in Washington, DC

3/21
Today I am grateful to attend the funeral of my Aunt Jean at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday.

3/20
Today I am grateful to hang out with Greg last night in Arlington.

3/19
Today I am grateful to finish writing my first application using Azure Search and Azure OpenAI.

3/18
Today I am grateful to participate in Tech Week yesterday at the University of Illinois - Chicago

3/17
Today I am grateful:
- to attend a service at 180 Chicago Church for the first time
- for an ABBA Brunch at the City Winery yesterday afternoon, featuring The Neon Queen

3/16
Today I am grateful for a late birthday lunch with my sons yesterday.

3/15
Today I am grateful to volunteer at the Hidden Genius Project this morning.

3/14
Today I am grateful:
- for a visit to Detroit this week
- to stop in East Lansing on my way home yesterday

3/13
Today I am grateful to see an exciting Red Wings game from a suite at Little Caesars Arena last night.

3/12
Today I am grateful for a front-row seat to the Elvis Costello concert last night!

3/11
Today I am grateful to play pickleball outside for the first time this year.

3/10
Today I am grateful to spend the weekend with friends that I first met 45 years ago!

3/9
Today I am grateful for an architecture walking tour of Chicago yesterday with college friends.

3/8
Today I am grateful to lead a discussion of "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker for our book club.

3/7
Today I am grateful to participate in a mentoring event yesterday with graduates of i.c. stars.

3/6
Today I am grateful for a late cancellation that allowed me to play pickleball last night.

3/5
Today I am grateful that I almost always wake up before my alarm goes off.

3/4
Today I am grateful that last weekend was one of the best birthday celebrations of my life (and I've had a lot of birthdays)!

3/3
Today I am grateful:
- to see an exciting Michigan State Spartan basketball victory at the Breslin Center yesterday
- for lunch yesterday with Amanda, Betsy, and Nick.

Thirty years ago, I had tickets to see Robert Cray at a club in Cincinnati. Robert canceled the show due to illness, and I never returned to the venue for my refund.

And I never saw him perform.

Until now.

Tuesday evening, Cray performed for nearly two hours before a sold-out audience at the North Shore Center for Performing Arts in Skokie.

Robert Cray is among the most proficient guitarists of his generation. But he is much more than that. His emotional playing and soulful voice make him a complete entertainer. At 71 years old, his voice remains strong. On this night, he was backed by three outstanding musicians - Richard Cousins on bass, Dover Weinberg on keyboards, and Les Falconer on drums.

He drew on his extensive music catalog that spans over forty years. He sang of love and heartache and cheating; he played blues and soul and funk; and he did it all with the passion that he pours into all his music. Songs like "Because of Me," "Anything You Want," and "I Shiver" showed off his vocal range and his mastery of the many Fender guitars on which he played. In addition to his own compositions, Cray offered interpretations of The Mississippi Sheiks' "Sitting on Top of the World" and "You Must Believe in Yourself" by Johnny Copeland. These were the only two non-originals that Cray performed, although he did include the Booker T-inspired "High Tight Onions."

When introducing one song, Robert remarked, "I still love her," a phrase he appended to multiple song introductions throughout the night, weaving it into the introduction and title of several songs.

It was worth waiting three decades for this performance.

Setlist

Today marks fifty years since the founding of Microsoft - the company I have worked for the last eleven and a half years.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company in Albuquerque, NM, on April 4, 1975, before moving the headquarters to the Seattle area shortly after that. I have been working with Microsoft technologies for over 30 years. I enjoyed their tooling enough that I joined the company in October 2013!

Here are some highlights from my journey!

1992

I bought my first PC - a Gateway 386 running Windows. I used it to look for a job, using the mail merge features of Microsoft Works.

1993

I accepted a job offer with a small company and moved to Cincinnati. The company was all-in on Microsoft technologies. All desktops ran Windows 3.1, everyone used Microsoft Office, and the network operating system was Microsoft LAN Manager, a long-forgotten competitor to Novel Netware. Within a year, I was the entire IT department. I wrote all the custom software (which I programmed in Microsoft FoxPro), administered the network, was the help desk, purchased and configured new hardware, and managed the data entry staff. Shortly after joining, I upgraded all the workstations from Windows 3.1 to Windows for Workgroups.

1995

Microsoft announced a new operating system - Windows 95. I was unsure if it was appropriate for our company. To learn more, I attended a launch event at the local opera house, which featured product demos and a live feed from Redmond of Bill and Steve dancing to the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up." The demos impressed me enough that I drove straight to Micro Center after the event to purchase a copy and install it on my PC. Within a few months, I had upgraded all the company's PCs from Windows for Workgroups to Windows 95!

1999

I accepted my first consulting gig with IS Research, a company focused on software development using Microsoft tools. Here, I learned to develop applications using Visual Basic, SQL Server, and Active Server Pages. While at ISR, I taught classes on these topics.

2000

I visited the Microsoft campus for the first time when I attended a class on XML.

2010

I took over the leadership of the Great Lakes Area .NET User Group in suburban Detroit. During my time, we more than quadrupled monthly attendance and invited Microsoft experts from all over the world!

2007

Brian Prince and Josh Holmes introduced me to the local tech community, especially those focused on Microsoft technologies. I began speaking at code camps and user groups across the Midwest.

2009

I was named a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.

2012

I was elected Treasurer of INETA, an organization that supports .NET User Groups around the world.

2013

Microsoft hired me as a Technical Evangelist. My job was to teach others about Microsoft technologies. It remains the best job I have ever had.

Microsoft and its software products and services have been a big part of my life for many years. Interacting with this company has changed my life significantly. I wish all involved a happy fiftieth!

Episode 844

Rob Conery on Productivity Features in GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI tool designed to accelerate your productivity when developing software. Microsoft Developer Advocate Rob Conery talks about how to fine-tune GitHub Copilot. He shows off new and upcoming features, such as Custom Instructions, multi-file edits, and Agent Mode.

"I'm a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm
I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb
I am the world's forgotten boy
The one who searches and destroys!"
- Iggy Pop, "Search and Destroy"

Iggy Pop will turn 78 years old next month. But you would not know it from his energetic performance Monday night at Chicago's Salt Shed. The aging punk rocker marched onto the stage, ripped off his shirt, and then screamed and danced for nearly two hours before a sold-out venue.

He whipped the mostly-standing crowd into a frenzy with songs like "Raw Power," "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and "Search and Destroy." When he slowed things down, it wasn't by much, introducing "Gimme Danger" as "something dark."

He engaged the audience between songs, briefly introducing songs or telling their history. He spoke of how David Bowie found a secret poem of his and set it to music so that it became "Some Weird Sin." Near the show's end, he shouted his gratitude to the audience: "F*cking thank you so f*cking much for f*cking coming!"

His backing band consisted of heavy, thrashing guitar, driving bass, and pounding drums. It also included a horn section, which was irrelevant for most of the evening but came to the fore in "Lust for Life" and "The Passenger."

Fans have always known Iggy for the sexual energy of his shows, and he continued this tonight. The crowd cheered when he thrust his hands down his pants, held the microphone like a phallus, and humped the stack of speakers.

Iggy released his first album in 1969 as a teenager in Ypsilanti, MI. Decades later, his voice is still powerful, and his body - although curved with age, still possesses impressive stamina. He spent the frenetic evening dancing, posturing, gyrating, and punching an invisible enemy in the air before him. Multiple times, he jumped off the stage to sing to the crowd.

When I grow up, I hope to have the same energy.

Set List

A musical artist does not need light shows and theatrics to entertain. Suzanne Vega proved this Sunday evening at the Old Town School of Music.

Vega performs without fanfare or props, but her voice retains the rich quality of her twenties and thirties. At 65, she is still going strong. She will release a new album next month and performed the second of two shows Sunday evening at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Ms. Vega sang and played rhythm guitar, accompanied by Gerry Leonard on lead guitar. The two were enough to fill the sold-out venue with excellent sounds. But, halfway through the set, they were joined onstage by Stephanie Winters, playing her black cello (I've never seen a cello that color), who added richness to the arrangements.

Her stories between songs were nearly as entertaining as the music. Vega joked that she began this midwestern tour in Rhode Island, telling the crowd: "They were surprised, as well." She told the story of a boy she met in her teens while they both worked as a camp counselor. At summer's end, Suzanne gave him a poem that later became the song "Gypsy." Years later, the two reconnected when the boy heard another of her songs, recognized their story in the lyrics and sent her flowers after a concert. The two remain friends today.

The tour was titled "Old Songs, New Songs, and Other Songs," which is exactly what she delivered. She began with many old favorites: "Marlene on the Wall," "99.9," and "Small Blue Thing," before playing a few numbers from her upcoming album; then closed the set with her hits "Luka" and "Tom's Diner." Other songs included a cover of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," which she explained "No one else would touch" for a tribute album recorded after the rocker's death. She also surprised us with the Ramones-inspired "Rats" and her response to Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe" - "Chambermaid," a song told from the point of view of Dylan's jilted lover.

As much as I have enjoyed listening to Suzanne Vega's albums over the years, she is much better in person.

Set List

Episode 843

Mads Torgersen on Designing a Programming Language

Mads Torgersen is currently the Lead Designer of the C# programming language, where he has worked for decades.

He talks about the evolution of the language and how to effectively design and evolve a language so that it remains relevant. 

Watch until the end to learn the C# feature of which Mads is most proud.

Episode 842

Andy and Kristin Looney on Fluxx

Kristin and Andy Looney own and operate Looney Labs and spend their time creating and developing games.

They talk about the development and evolution of Fluxx - a popular set of card games invented by Andy.

They also tell us about how they met while working at NASA, other games they've developed, and why an analog card game like Fluxx is so popular among computer geeks.

Links:
https://looneylabs.com/
https://looneylabs.com/content/homeworlds
https://www.looneylabs.com/fluxx
https://thedownloadpodcast.com
https://boardgamearena.com/
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=fluxx
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=starfluxx
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=justdesserts
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=getthemacguffin
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=homeworlds

Elvis Costello has played with everyone from Burt Bacharach to Rosanne Cash. But the man with whom he has played the most is Steve Nieve. On this tour, Elvis gave second billing to his longtime keyboardist. The two began a four-night stand at Chicago's Park West theater on Wednesday evening.

Costello's recording catalog spans nearly five decades. It isn't easy to keep old songs fresh after all these years, but the English musician managed to do so by changing many of the arrangements. He was three verses into "When I Write the Book" before I recognized it. The bouncy "Veronica" became a melancholy ballad.

The show began with Elvis alone on stage, accompanying himself on guitar. After two songs, he was joined by Steve, whose excellent keyboards added depth to the songs. The two continued like this for over an hour until Eleanor Whitmore (fiddle), Tony Garnier (double bass), and Shaye Cohn (cornet) joined them. After a few songs, Sean McKeon on Uilleann pipes (an instrument similar to bagpipes) completed the ensemble. With the other musicians on stage, the set included songs with an Irish, Spanish, and New Orleans feel.

Between songs, Elvis told stories of his parents, his career, and growing up in London.

Costello closed with a rousing version of the Nick Lowe-penned classic "What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding?" and a moving acoustic rendition of "Allison" - my favourite song of his.

Elvis spent four nights in Chicago to close out this tour. Each evening featured a different setlist. I was fortunate to see the first of these shows. I showed up twenty minutes before the start and bought a ticket that sat me in the front row. I  heard a fantastic music set and felt the joy Mr. Costello experiences when performing.

GCast 192:

Using the Vision + Document capabilities of Azure AI Services in Azure AI Foundry

Learn how to automate image recognition and analysis using the AI Services Vision + Document Capabilities of Azure AI Foundry

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.

2/5
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.

2/4
Today I am grateful to walk around Barcelona yesterday, exploring the Gothic Quarter, Plaça de Catalunya, Casa Batlló, Casa Amatller, and the Barcelona Cathedral.

2/3
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!