Episode 671

Martine Dowden on the D3 JavaScript Visualization Framework

Martine Dowden discusses the D3 JavaScript framework and how she uses it to create powerful interactive data visualizations.

Links:

https://martine.dev/
https://www.d3-graph-gallery.com

The Wings of the Dove by Henry James is the story of a very good person, her friend who manipulates her, and a lover caught in the manipulation.

Milly Theale was a wealthy American heiress who loved traveling the world. She met and befriended the betrothed English couple Kate Croy and Merton Densher shortly before Milly was diagnosed with an incurable disease. Kate convinced her fiancé Merton to court the dying Milly in the hope that he would inherit Milly's fortune and share it with Kat.

The story is good, and the novel has withstood the test of time, but its problems come from the author. The American James wanted desperately to come across as a Victorian Englishmen. He does so by dressing every sentence with flowery prose - prose that often gets in the way of the story. He has a story to tell, and he tells it, but he takes at least twice as long to do so.

I believed in the characters. Kate was raised without a mother - first by her worthless father, then by her domineering Aunt Maud, who forbade her from marrying the penniless Merton. Kate's actions were understandable, if not forgivable.

The conversation in the final chapter, in which the characters seem to come to terms with their sins, is satisfying, even if the final ambiguous sentence is not.

Finishing this book made me feel as if I had accomplished something, which is something.

In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck describes two mindsets: Fixed and Growth. People with a Fixed Mindset believe that each of us is born with a finite amount of intelligence, talent, and skill. Those with a growth mindset believe that we can work to improve our intelligence, talent, and skill.

As a society, we tend to embrace the idea of Fixed Mindset. We praise those gifted with natural athletic ability; teachers tend to label children as smart or dumb; and people talk about relationships as if they were destined to be together. But the reality is that it takes work to improve one's athletic prowess, education, and relationships. A Fixed Mindset discourages this work as pointless, which inhibits growth in these areas.

The most significant difference between the two mindsets is in their approach to failure. Fixed Mindset people see failure as an indictment of their abilities. They tend to stop trying when they encounter failure, and they avoid those activities that do not have a high chance of success. In contrast, Growth Mindset people are challenged by failure. They view it as an opportunity to learn and are motivated to develop themselves further. They choose challenging activities that will push them to stretch their limits.

Those with a growth mindset tend to be happier and more successful.

While the book favors anecdotes over clinical research, Dweck's theories make intuitive sense to me. I look back on my own life and realize that I was trapped in a Fixed Mindset during my early years. I was labeled early on as a "smart kid" and so I tended to coast through school without pushing my boundaries. In Elementary School, I perceived myself as a poor athlete with low strength, so I did not attempt to excel at sports. Later in life, I shifted my outlook and sought to improve myself in areas where I was weak, and this made a huge difference in my life. Dr. Dweck's ideas are not revolutionary, but she articulates them well.

I attended my first concert in 1977. It was at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, where the Red Wings played before moving to Joe Louis Arena and again to Little Caesar Arena. Four singers/songwriters/guitarists performed: John Denver, James Taylor, Harry Chapin, and Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot's hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" released the prior year was still getting significant airplay and I loved seeing him live. Chapin and Denver are gone, but Lightfoot is still touring at the ripe old age of 82.

His touring was interrupted 17 months ago, but he kicked off a new tour Sunday evening at the Copernicus Center in Chicago.

I watched contentedly from the fourth row, remembering a night long ago when a high school David experienced this for the first time.

Many of the songs were the same. Lightfoot's peak of popularity occurred in the 1970s when he established himself as arguably the greatest songwriter in Canadian history.

The years have weakened Gordon's once-rich voice, but he can still carry a tune and he can still put emotion into songs that he has been singing for decades. More importantly, he engaged the audience between songs, joking about everything from his age to almost meeting Elvis Presley years ago (the crowd exiting the arena slowed him so much that Elvis had left the building by the time Gordon finally arrived backstage.)

The sold-out theatre was filled with many gray and balding heads, but they responded enthusiastically to the music of their youth. Lightfoot sang all his hits, including "Carefree Highway", "Sundown", "Early Morning Rain", "Rainy Day People", the aforementioned "Edmund Fitzgerald", and my personal favourite - "If You Could Read My Mind". In between, he mixed in many lesser-known songs, each one enjoyable.

He performed for about two hours with a 15-minute intermission and returned to the stage for one encore.

It was an evening well spent.

At this rate, I will be 103 and Gordon will be 126 when we next meet.

More photos

Episode 669

Sarah Withee on an Open Source Pancreas

Sarah Withee describes how the open source community has created software to help diabetics make it easier to manage insulin levels and injections.

Links:
https://github.com/nightscout/cgm-remote-monitor
https://github.com/nightscoutfoundation
https://github.com/openaps
https://loopkit.github.io/loopdocs/
https://github.com/loopkit
https://github.com/loopdocs/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not new, but it is challenging for most people. In her book You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, Janelle Shane breaks down this technology in simple terms and illustrates it with examples that are interesting, humorous, and sometimes absurd.

This book does not require any prior knowledge of neural networks, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or even computer science. Dr. Shane writes in a straightforward prose that is easily consumed - even by those unfamiliar with the math and science under the hood.

She begins with an explanation of Artificial Intelligence - what it is and why it is useful. She then covers some uses of AI, focusing on its limitations and misuses. Her samples include many unexpected results. The title of the book comes from an effort by a neural net to generate pickup lines after examining hundreds of actual lines.

Here are a few thoughts from Shane's book:

• An AI is very literal. It will try to solve the problem you give it - sometimes in unexpected ways. If you tell it to come up with a game-playing strategy that minimizes the number of times a player is killed, it may decide to hide in a corner and not move, which accomplishes the stated goal but is probably not an effective strategy for winning a game.
• An AI will take shortcuts if it can. In an experiment to identify the presence of sheep in a photograph, the AI noticed that nearly every photo of sheep also included grass. Since it was easier to identify grass than sheep, it concluded that any photograph of grass also included sheep.
• AI works best when it is given a narrow focus. It struggles if the problem is too broad. It is possible to create a bot that can have a conversation with a human, but that conversation will be far more meaningful if we train it to stick to a narrow topic. Try to train a bot to both take travel reservations and give relationship advice and it will likely fail at both.
• Because AIs are trained in a simulated environment, they may choose solutions that only work in that environment, but not in the real world. One experiment asked an AI to find the fastest way for a robot to get from one point to another. It concluded the optimal solution was for the robot to grow a long leg and fall toward the destination.
• Bias in input data can result in bias in predictive results. Train a system on existing resumes and hires and it may conclude that men are better hires than women because they were hired more often in the past.

As a result of these and other limitations, Shane concludes that we are unlikely to develop a general-purpose intelligence system, such as Star Trek's Data, 2001's HAL, or Terminator's Skynet any time soon. But that does not diminish the usefulness of the field, which can solve complex problems in imaginative ways. We just need to be aware of the pitfalls, so we can avoid them.

In 2005, Time Magazine published its list of the 100 best English-language novels.

The magazine had three filters to the list:

1. The original publication was in English. No translations qualified.
2. The book was a work of fiction, even if it was based on a true story.
3. It was a novel. No short stories or plays qualified.
4. It was published between 1923 and 2005.

Rule 4 may seem puzzling until you consider that Time Magazine began publication in 1923. These are the 100 greatest English language novels of all Time and this list defines "Time" as the era of Time Magazine's publication, rather than the infinite progress of existence that is usually assigned to that word. Authors like Edith Wharton, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Mark Twain lived too early to make this list. Sinclair Lewis's "Babbit" and "Main Street" were published just prior to this time span, as was James Joyce's "Ulysses" and Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". But the list spans 82 years, which is still a lot of novels to consider.

The list was compiled by literary critics Richard Lacayo and Lev Grossman, who made no effort to rank the novels - a book is either on the list or off.

Three of the "books" - "The Lord of the Rings", "A Dance to the Music of Time", and "The Berlin Stories" - were actually series. "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is part of the Narnia Chronicles, but only this volume was included. In each of these cases, I read the entire series. A few of the books, such as "I, Claudius" and "Rabbit, Run", inspired sequels that were not included in the list, and "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" includes characters that appear in other novels by John Le Carre.

Eight Authors appear twice on the list: George Orwell, Graham Greene, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Thomas Pynchon, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, and William Faulkner. No one made the list three times.

Margaret Mitchel, Harper Lee, and J.D. Salinger published only one novel each during their lifetimes ("Gone With the Wind", "To Kill a Mockingbird", and "The Catcher in the Rye " respectively) but those novels all made this list.

Most of the stories are set in the United States or Great Britain and were written by residents of those countries; but there are some Australians on the list and a few stories set in India, the West Indies, the South Pacific, and other locations. African Chinua Achebe's novel "Things Fall Apart" takes place in his native Nigeria. Achebe and Vladimir Nabokov accomplished the impressive feat of writing classic novels in a language that was not their native tongue.

A variety of styles and themes are represented among these 100 items. The list includes a diverse set of topics and genres: detective stories, postmodern stream-of-consciousness ramblings, science fiction, morality plays, satires, character analyses,  political statements, and more. There are books written for young people ("Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret", "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe", "The Catcher in the Rye") and books that feature rape and extreme violence ("A Clockwork Orange", "Tropic of Cancer", "Deliverance")There are stories of dystopian futures ("1984", "Never Let Me Go") and fictionalized histories of real people ("The Confessions of Nat Turner", "The Sot-Weed Factor", "I, Claudius"). There are stories that mock the absurdity of war ("Slaughterhouse-Five", "Catch-22"), stories that shine a light on American race relations ("Invisible Man", "Native Son", "Go Tell It on the Mountain", "To Kill a Mockingbird"), and stories of the effects of colonialism ("A Passage to India", "Things Fall Apart"). Immigrants - particularly Jewish immigrants - making a life in America ("Call It Sleep", "The Assistant", "The Heart is A Lonely Hunter") is a common theme.  Another common theme is the tensions underlying a seemingly mundane life in American suburbia, as in "The Corrections", "Appointment in Samarra", "American Pastoral", "Revolutionary Road", and "An American Tragedy". Drug culture is explored in "Naked Lunch" and "On The Road", while "Under the Volcano", "The French Lieutenant’s Woman", and "A House for Mr. Biswas" detail the main characters' march toward self-destruction. There is even a graphic novel, as "The Watchmen" compiles a 12-issue comic book series.

The thing that almost all of them have in common, however, is tragedy. There are very few happy endings. Great art tends to inspire great emotion and sadness is a powerful emotion.

As with any list like this, there will be some debate. Your favourite author or novel may have been omitted and you may not be a fan of some of the books that were included. As for me, I did not find any bad novels in the list. I enjoyed all of them and I loved some of them.

It took me almost three years, but I managed to power through this entire list.

As I began this list, I marked off books that I had already read. A few I had read recently because they were on NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books - a list I had recently completed. But, as I approached the end of the English language list, I decided to revisit any book that I had not read in the past 5 years. It had been decades since I read "Beloved" and I had not opened "Gone With the Wind" since high school.

I wanted to re-read the old books to see how my impressions had changed, but also to make it easier for me to accurately review the book. My reviews served multiple purposes. Writing about a book forced me to think more about its themes and what I liked or disliked about it, which increased my appreciation of it. I find it easier to remember a book if I go through this exercise; and, if I forget, I have a reference to which I can return. I also enjoy sharing these thoughts with others and exchanging ideas with them about what we have read.

I discovered that I enjoyed every book on the list - some more than others of course. Here are my top 30, in no particular order:

'Ragtime' by E.L. Doctorow
'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' by Judy Blume
'Go Tell It on the Mountain' by James Baldwin
'Animal Farm' by George Orwell
'The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
'1984' by George Orwell
'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess
'Slaughterhouse-Five' by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck
'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov
'A Dance to the Music of Time' by Anthony Powell
'Beloved' by Toni Morrison
'All the King's Men' by Robert Penn Warren
'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey
'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee
'The Sportswriter' by Richard Ford
'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' by John le Carre
'The War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells
'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding
'The Blind Assassin' by Margaret Atwood
'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald
'Native Son' by Richard Wright
'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen
'The Painted Bird' by Jerzy Kosinski
'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers
'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith
'Ubik' by Philip K. Dick
'Deliverance' by James Dickey
'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
'Watchmen' by Alan Moore

The least enjoyable ones for me were Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity’s Rainbow" and David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest", but I fully admit that the fault may have been mine, as these two novels contain a plethora of characters and subplots that I struggled to keep straight. A re-reading (if I ever have the time) may improve my opinion.

You can find my reviews on various websites, including this one.

Here is the complete Time Magazine list:

Episode 670

Jason Bock on Mutation Testing

Mutation Testing involves modifying code that should break tests in order to validate the quality of these tests. Tools like Stryker allow you to do this automatically. Jason Bock discusses how this fits into your testing strategy.

https://stryker-mutator.io/
https://youtu.be/zbOnygEeFLU

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Although dead television channels today emit a different pattern, the opening line of William Gibson's 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer still draws the reader into the story.

This is the story of Henry Case - a computer hacker, who committed his crimes in "the matrix" - a virtual reality cyberspace of the near future. Case was caught stealing from his employers, who retaliated by injecting him with a neurotoxin that prevented him from ever again connecting to the Matrix.

Case was devastated and unemployable until he was recruited by Armitage, a mysterious patron who promised to reverse the neurotoxin effects in exchange for performing a job. What Case did not know was that the reversal was only temporary - the surgeons left sacks of toxin within his veins that would dissolve without a transfusion. This set a time limit on the job.

So, Case partnered with Molly Millions - a beautiful mercenary, who has surgically enhanced her body to make her more dangerous; Maelcum, a Rastafarian space pilot; and a host of other bizarre characters to connect with powerful artificial intelligences and complete Armitage's jobs.

Gibson does a very good job of building a dystopian world and a digital cyberworld within that world. Among the features of this world:

-A personality may persist after death by uploading a person's consciousness into the Matrix. Case and his allies are assisted by the Flatline consciousness of a former mentor.

-Extreme surgical enhancements are commonplace - sometimes for aesthetics and sometimes for practical reasons. Molly has replaced her eyes with glass lenses that boost her vision and has retractable razors embedded beneath her fingernails.

-Artificial intelligences are self-aware and have grown powerful, manipulative, and dangerous.

This story is complex enough that I often found myself lost and re-reading chapters. Significant characters are introduced suddenly and it was not always obvious to me whether our antiheroes were in the real world or the Matrix.

But ultimately, I enjoyed this novel. The narration has the feel of both a science fiction story and a noir detective novel. Gibson reflects on humanity's relationship with technology and where it is headed. His description of a worldwide system of connected computer networks was prophetic - predating the proliferation of the Internet by at least a decade.

I respect the novel's place in history. William Gibson is credited with the invention of the cyberpunk science fiction subgenre (he originally coined the term in an earlier short story) and this - his first novel - helped to establish that subgenre in the popular consciousness.

It is not easy to make a pizza delivery exciting. But when the delivery takes place in a dystopian future and the pizza franchise is owned by the Mafia and the punishment for late delivery is severe, it can get your pulse racing. And Neal Stephenson makes this happen in the opening scene of "Snow Crash".

Hiro Protagonist is the hero and protagonist of this novel. He is a deliverer of pizzas, a hacker, a music promoter, and an expert swordfighter, who fights most of his battles inside the Metaverse - a virtual reality world with its own rules and laws.

The United States government has collapsed, and hyperinflation has devalued its currency a trillion-fold. In California, each suburb is now its own autonomous nation. Hiro helped create the Metaverse, where he discovers a new virus that infects both computers and people. After some research, he realizes that the virus is an ancient one - predating computers by thousands of years and that it attacks the human brain in the same way a computer virus attacks the files and memory of a machine. This virus is so ancient that it may have inspired the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

Hiro encounters a religious cult, artificial intelligences, crime lords from various factions and nations, a rebellious teenager, and a psychotic Aleut.

I loved the way that Stephenson combined linguistics, history, cybercrime, and characters. He tells the entire story in the present tense, which gives it a sense of immediacy. Stephenson includes satire of commercialism and capitalism. Most of the suburb-states are controlled by corporations. The church exists for the personal financial benefit of its founder and is bankrolled by a telecommunications tycoon. And he includes a hilarious description of the bureaucratic regulations on the use of toilet paper.

The book is not without its faults. After an exciting start, it fails to maintain that same energy throughout the novel and the ending felt a bit rushed. Some of the characters could use a bit more development. Y.T. and Juanita - the most important female characters - were at least as intriguing as Hiro, but we did not get to know them as well as I would have liked.

A potential flaw is that this book contains several extended scenes in which Hiro or an Artificial Intelligence explain world history and background information in great detail. Usually, I prefer to learn things in a novel as the action unfolds, rather than having someone explain it to me; but I found their lectures interesting and illuminating - especially as they compared and contrasted the stories from various religions. And the author offsets these monologues/soliloquies with many scenes of intense action. Hiro and Raven the Aleut are the two badassest people on the planet - Hiro with his sword and Raven with his harpoon, so their battles tend to be epic.

This was not the first cyberpunk novel published, but it established Stephenson as a master of the genre.

The recent pandemic forced the Drive-By Truckers to cancel their tour and take a hiatus from touring that lasted more than a year. They are scheduled to resume their tour in August; but lead singer/co-founder Patterson Hood could not wait. So, he grabbed his guitar and hit the road in June. He opened his tour Wednesday evening at the City Winery in Chicago. I already had tickets to the Truckers' show in Evanston, IL September 3; but I also could not wait. So, I headed for the Winery to hear what Patterson had to offer.

He offered a lot. For 90+ minutes, he delighted a full room with just his voice and his guitar. Drive-By Truckers celebrated the 25th anniversary of their first recording session just a few days prior to this show and Hood drew liberally from the band's catalog of thirteen studio albums.

"I play in a band", he confided to the audience, although we already knew this.

Hood opened the show with the emotional "Sandwiches from the Road" off of DBT's debut album "Gangstabilly". "Nothing can hurt you but yourself", the singer advised from the chorus.

Many of his songs tell stories and Hood interspersed the songs with some stories of his own. "Road Cases" was an ode to the Atlanta Rhythm Section - a band that experienced a meteoric rise in the 1970s leading them to purchase a plethora of equipment and cases. Cases with the band's logo appeared in many secondhand stores after their popularity declined so that many Georgia bands ended up with cases stenciled with the ARS logo.

After playing for about 90 minutes, Patterson did not go through the traditional charade of leaving the stage and allowing the audience to call him back. Instead, he stood up, announced the set was over, and asked if we wanted to hear some encore tunes. Of course, we did and of course, he obliged, delighting us with three more songs.

It was clear listening to Patterson Hood that he enjoyed his time back on the stage and he managed to transfer that enjoyment to the audience.

more photos

Episode 668

Michael Dowden on Firebase

Firebase is an application development platform that includes databases, serverless functions, static hosting, push notifications, analytics, and other features. Michael Dowden discusses these tools and how he uses them to build applications and products.

https://firebase.google.com/docs

7/4
Today I am grateful for the United States of America.

7/3
Today I am grateful that my son's birthday present finally arrived after a long delay.

7/2
Today I am grateful for a new table for my balcony.

7/1
Today I am grateful for new beginnings.

6/30
Today I am grateful for lunch with Josh yesterday.

6/29
Today I am grateful for a weekend with Nick

6/28
Today I am grateful to share a dinner, some drinks, and a basketball game with my sons last night.

6/27
Today I am grateful to attend my first Chicago Fire FC game last night with Nick

6/26
Today I am grateful for lunch with Daniel yesterday.

6/25
Today I am grateful for no bad news from my dentist.

6/24
Today I am grateful for a new electric toothbrush.

6/23
Today I am grateful for dinner in New Buffalo last night with J.

6/22
Today I am grateful for a box of nuts and candy sent to me by my employer.

6/21
Today I am grateful for an excellent Father's Day dinner with my son Tim yesterday.

6/20
Today I am grateful for the privilege of being a father.

6/19
Today I am grateful to attend the Zafiro Flamenco Festival last night in Skokie, IL.

6/18
Today I am grateful to speak at the Chicago .NET User Group last night for the first time in years.

6/17
Today I am grateful to see Patterson Hood in concert last night.

6/16
Today I am grateful for folk music.

6/15
Today I am grateful for the gift of a new electric razor

6/14
Today I am grateful to explore the Midway Plaisance and the Fountain of Time yesterday.

6/13
Today I am grateful for a ride along the North Branch Trail yesterday.

6/12
Today I am grateful to see "In the Heights" at the Music Box Theatre last night.

6/11
Today I am grateful for a nighttime ride with the Streets Calling Bike Club last night.

6/10
Today I am grateful for many kind words of support from friends the last couple days.

6/9
Today I am grateful for coffee with Pete yesterday.

6/8
Today I am grateful to try a trainer at a new gym this morning.

6/7
Today I am grateful that June is starting out so much better than a very difficult April and May.

C.S. Lewis's 7-volume Chronicles of Narnia is a beloved series, known for its memorable characters, exciting adventures, and Christian themes.

Michael Ward always loved these stories, but he had questions. Why did some of the books contain clear allegories of Biblical stories, while others were less obvious? Why is Christmas mentioned so frequently in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when no person named Christ existed in that universe? (Why wasn't there an Aslanmas holiday, instead?) Does any unifying theme other than Christianity tie together all the novels?

In The Narnia Code, Ward concludes that Lewis's novels each focus on one of the seven planets recognized by astronomers of the Middle Ages. These astronomers believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and defined planets as bodies that moved across the skies (as opposed to stars, which were fixed in their positions). They recognized Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, and the Moon as planets. The ancients often referred to the spheres in which these planets rotated as "The Seven Heavens".

According to Ward, each of the seven novels reflects the properties of one of these planets or of the beings for which it is named. More specifically, it represents attributes of Jesus that are similar to those beings.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for example, focuses on Aslan as Jupiter - a jovial being who led all heavenly creatures; while the battles of Prince Caspian reflect the warlike powers of Mars.

The author shows that Lewis had a fascination with the planets, as shown in many of his other writings. He even wrote a space trilogy that took the reader to Venus, Mars, and the Moon.

Ward argues that Lewis never explicitly stated these themes because he loved a mystery and wanted his readers to discover the connection themselves.

C.S. Lewis is long gone so we cannot ask him if Ward is correct. In fact, Ward never had the chance to ask Lewis himself, as he was born 5 years after Lewis's death; but Ward has spent years studying the life and works of C.S. Lewis and his hypotheses presented here are plausible. This book is interesting and entertaining, and it increased my appreciation for Lewis's Chronicles.

GCast 113:

Passing parameters to xUnit net tests with the ClassData attribute

The [ClassData] attribute of xUnit.net allows you to store a collection of data parameters in a single class and pass that class to a single test method, allowing it to run multiple tests with different values.

You can find the source  code at https://github.com/DavidGiard/XUnitDemo

Last week, Microsoft announced Windows 11, the upcoming version of its popular operating system. You can watch the official announcement here.

Here are some of the new features:

• Tighter integration with Microsoft Teams, allowing you to chat and connect with others right from your desktop.
• Snap Layouts allow you to customize how you want apps to appear on your screen.
• Multiple monitors. Minimize all windows on a second monitor when you disconnect. Restore them when you plug another monitor back in.
• A wide variety of Widgets exist that slide into view to provide bits of information.
• Android Apps will be supported and will be available through the Windows App Store.
• There are a few aesthetic changes. Icons are more rounded - a UI feature that has been advocated for years by many design experts. The start menu now displays in the middle of the screen, instead of the left, allowing you to see more apps at the same times.
• There are enhancements for gaming, such as better graphic support for older games.
• A new Game Development Kit will make game development easier.

The most relevant feature to me was tighter integration with Teams. I spend a lot of time in Teams, so it helps if it is available quickly, rather than in a separate application.

The release date has not been announced, but I've seen speculation that it will be available in 2022.

I am hopeful that Windows 11 will be available as an Azure Virtual Machine, allowing me to try it before committing to installing it on my desktop. Of course, many PCs will be sold with this OS pre-installed.

Episode 667

Gavin Bauman on SonarQube

Gavin Bauman discusses how he uses SonarQube to catch potential errors and ensure quality code for his team's software projects.

Albert Einstein was a genius, who understood the universe in ways that I will never completely grasp. In his book Relativity, he tried to explain his theories of relativity in a way that might make sense to mere mortals like me.

Einstein begins by discussing the concepts of relative position and velocity. The example to which he returns repeatedly is the person on a speeding train and a person on the ground next to the tracks. An object moving forward on the train would have a different velocity relative to each person. The math for this is relatively straightforward. Velocity is distance divided by time, and you can add or subtract vectors when determining relative velocities. However, Einstein posited that the velocity of light is constant (at least in a vacuum), so we must adjust our concept of relative velocities when dealing with light. In the example above, the perceived velocity of light is the same for both persons. To make the math work, we must modify either distance or time or both. This change in distance and time is negligible when dealing with most objects, but it becomes significant when objects approach the speed of light. This is the basis for Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. A basic principle of this theory is that nothing can exceed the speed of light.

In the second section of the book, Einstein discusses his General Theory of Relativity, which builds on top of Special Relativity. This theory takes into account the effects of fields - particularly gravitational fields. Strong gravitational forces can actually bend the space-time continuum and may explain the physical limits of the universe. The math becomes more complex here and is significant only on a more macro scale.

Einstein concludes by discussing the structure of space itself. The universe appears to be expanding, to have no end, that there is a finite amount of mass and energy in the universe, and to be of approximately the same density everywhere. These three things seem to be inconsistent unless we consider the idea that space is curved on itself, much as a circle is curved on itself in 2 dimensions and a sphere curves on itself in 3 dimensions.  This would allow the universe to be both limitless and unbounded.

Although the book contains a lot of math, it does not include any calculus; so, if you are familiar with algebra and geometry, you can (mostly) follow the mathematics. Einstein builds on the work of scientists who preceded him, such as Newton and Lorentz, so it is helpful to be familiar with their ideas.

Some of the ideas presented herein sound like fudge factors to make the math work; however, a number of experiments were performed shortly after the Special Theory's publication and those experiments supported the theory. Experiments on General Relativity were difficult to perform at that time, but experiments since that time have supported this theory, as well.

This book was written in 1916, well before Albert Einstein became a worldwide household name. Despite its short length, this is not a simple book. But it is far simpler than reading academic papers and mathematical proofs on these topics. And it is a good introduction to ideas that shape our understanding of the universe.

"All this happened, more or less."

Kurt Vonnegut begins his novel Slaughterhouse-Five with an autobiographical description of the effect that World War II had on him. He witnessed the carpet bombing of Dresden, Germany while he was held there as a prisoner of war. He reflects on how he struggled to describe his wartime experiences and to relate to his friends who had gone through these struggles with him. In the end, he wrote this book about Billy Pilgrim.

"Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time”.

Billy was a soldier, but he wasn't much of a soldier. He was skinny and weak and he had trouble focusing and he was captured by the Germans before he was even issued a gun or boots. Occasionally, Billy became unstuck in time - traveling to the past or the future to experience different periods of his life before returning to the moment when he left.

On one journey to the future, Billy was kidnapped by aliens and transported to the planet Tralfamador, where he was placed in a zoo for the study and entertainment of the local inhabitants. The Tralfamadorians see the universe in four dimensions, which gives them the ability to perceive every moment of the past and present simultaneously. Because of this, they have developed a philosophy that all that has happened or will happen is unchangeable. They accept as their destiny what they are powerless to affect, and they respond with the simple - almost flippant - phrase: "and so it goes." This phrase follows nearly every mention of death in the book.

This is a science fiction story about aliens and distant planets and time travel. But it is also a war story, chronicling the 1945 Allied bombing of Dresden - a campaign that was successful, but yielded no significant advantage to the Allies. Thousands of civilians were killed in a pointless display of force. More correctly, this is an anti-war story, demonstrating the absurdity of armed conflict.

It is possible that Billy's travels between times and between planets occur only in his imagination - a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, brought on by the horrors of the war; but it does not matter whether or not Billy dreams it all - at least not to the reader and maybe not to Billy. Viewing and living his life nonsequentially helps him to perceive the universe as the aliens do and to adapt some of their fatalistic views and better accept death and tragedy.

The book's non-linear narrative and almost complete lack of a plot might be perceived as a weakness. But Vonnegut takes us through a series of episodes that tie together and he does so with a sparse, informal style that makes for a pleasant journey.

Ultimately, the novel is about fate and inevitability and acceptance of the unavoidable. The Tralfamadorians understood the future and accepted their inability to change it. Billy comes to do the same. Even the horrors of war seem predestined. Those fighting the battles have no control over the events that affect their lives, and the Dresden civilians had no reason to suspect they were a target.

And so it goes.

GCast 112:

Passing parameters to xUnit.net tests with the InlineData attribute [GCAST 112 ]

If you have multiple unit tests with redundant code, it may make sense to create a single test and pass parameters to it. You can do this using the [InlineData] attribute of xUnit.net.

You can find the source code at https://github.com/DavidGiard/XUnitDemo

Episode 666

Hattan Shobokshi on Getting the Most Out of Bash Scripts

Hattan Shobokshi provides guidance on how to manage Bash scripts effectively, from configuration to libraries he has found useful to architectural guidance.

C.S. Lewis concluded his classic Chronicles of Narnia with The Last Battle. It was the last book written and the last story chronologically in the series.

It is centuries after the events of "The Silver Chair", Aslan has not been seen in many years, and Narnia faces a threat from Calormen - the country to the south, whose people worship a malevolent demon named "Tash". Trouble begins when the talking gorilla Shift deceives the people and the talking beasts by falsely claiming that he has been directly communicating with Aslan.

The book contrasts those who worship Tash out of fear and those who worship Aslan out of love. Shift insists that Aslan and Tash are two names for the same being - an absurd notion given their opposite ways of dealing with their disciples. It is a commentary on those who perceive God as a judge whose main purpose is to exact vengeance on man. My perception of God is that He is filled with love for man and wants to save us all.

This book may be the most religious in the series. Lewis explores themes such as loss of faith, false prophets, the afterlife, and end times.

It is obvious that Lewis intended Aslan as a version of Christ in this alternate universe, but Tash's counterpart in our world is less obvious. When I first read this years ago, I wondered if Lewis intended Tash to represent Allah, as the color and diet of the Calormenes suggested they might be Arabs. But, with this reading, I believe that Tash is a stand-in for Satan.

Halfway through the story, Eustace and Jill and called back to Narnia to help right the wrongs committed there. Eventually, the book reunites us with many of the characters from past stories - a delight for readers.

This story is darker than its predecessors, but it still conveys the optimism and hope that permeates all these novels. It was a very good conclusion to an excellent series.

I am coming near the end of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.

The Silver Chair is the penultimate novel in the series, as I read them in chronological order.

Narnia's benevolent deity Aslan has already told all the Pevensie children that they will not return; but Eustace Scrubb, who was swept along on their last adventure is the protagonist of this story, along with his classmate Jill Pole. The two of them are called to Narnia by Aslan to rescue King Caspian's son, who went missing ten years earlier.

As with so many of Lewis's other works, this one is filled with Biblical allegories and Christian messages. The world below ground ruled by an evil sorceress where the climactic battle takes place suggests Purgatory, if not Hell. It is clear that Lewis blames the lack of morals among Eustace and Jill's school on the school's rejection of God and religion. The school is so secular that neither child even knows the names of Adam and Eve.

Whether you accept Lewis's faith or not, the story is another good one. It is filled with wonderful characters, including the pessimistic, but charming Puddleglum; and with action and adventures and magical creatures.

I am looking forward to wrapping up the series tomorrow.

GCast 111:

Writing unit tests with xUnit.net

Learn how to use the xUnit.net open source project to create unit tests for your .NET application You can find the source code at https://github.com/DavidGiard/XUnitDemo

Episode 665

Michael Scherotter on Creativity and Technology

Michael Scherotter was trained as an architect. Today, he works as a Technical Project Manager and he still uses his creativity in his job. His passion for drawing helps him to channel his energy to creatively solve technical problems. He offers Career Coaching for technologists and shows them how to use creativity effectively in their careers.

Links:
https://techcreativecoaching.com/
https://www.phillips.com/solus
http://charette.com/2020/09/20/virtual-flight-sketching/

Eustace Scrubb was rude, arrogant, condescending, and skeptical of the stories his cousins Lucy and Edmund Pevensie told of their visits to the magical land of Narnia. His skepticism is challenged when the three children are drawn through the frame of a painting and find themselves on the deck of The Dawn Treader - a ship sailing across the oceans east of Narnia. On the ship, the Pevensies are reunited with their friend Caspian, who is now the Narnian king and is exploring the ocean and searching for seven Lords who years earlier fled Narnia to escape the evil King Miraz.

C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader takes the reader along on this voyage.

We experience slave traders, a transmogrification, a giant sea serpent, invisible men, a pond that turns to gold anything that touches it, an ancient wizard, an anthropomorphized star, merpeople, and the edge of the world. The action is nonstop and takes us from conflict to conflict, reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey. As with the other Narnia stories, Lewis moves us from adventure to adventure, while developing and evolving characters in a short space. One of the characters experiences an epiphany and changes from a useless whiner to realize how his actions have hurt others; others rise to their challenges with heroic actions; and Caspian discovers his responsibility as a King.

Aslan makes an occasional appearance to help or advise others in the story, but he stays mainly in the background.

Lewis packs a great deal into such a short story. This is one of the stronger novels in these Chronicles.

C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe told the story of Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan Pevensie and their adventures in the world of Narnia. Prince Caspian tells of their second visit to this magical land.

A year after returning home from Narnia, the children are waiting for a train when they are suddenly whisked to a strange land. They realize they are back in Narnia, but the area is unfamiliar to them. They come upon the ruins of a castle and eventually conclude that they are at their old home and that many years have passed since they lived there. Due to the time differences between the Narnian world and our world, it is now over a thousand years since their last visit.

Narnia has fallen on hard times: the holy and benevolent lion Aslan has not been seen in centuries, the false king Miraz has ascended the throne through treachery, and talking animals and trees are nowhere to be found. Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne, has used Susan's horn - originally a gift from Aslan and now an ancient artifact - to summon the Pevensies back to Narnia. Together, they attempt to restore goodness to the world.

Once again, Lewis takes the reader into a world that is both magical and believable. This is a story of a world that has fallen from righteousness into wickedness. It is an attempt at redemption for the land, its rulers, and its people. Knowing Lewis's Christian roots, we can assume he was thinking of the rise and fall and rise of God's chosen people in the Old Testament when he wrote this book.

It is an enjoyable story, and it introduces the fearless talking mouse Reepicheep, who is one of my favourite characters in these Chronicles.

GCast 110:

Renaming Projects and Folders in a Visual Studio Solution

Renaming projects, files, classes, and namespaces is a risky thing that affects anything that references or depends on those objects. The refactoring tools in Visual Studio can help, but only so far.

In this video, I will walk through renaming projects and folders in one of my Visual Studio solutions.

Episode 664

Sasha Rosenbaum on Growth Mindset

There are two types of mindsets: Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset. Fixed Mindset says that each of us is born with a level of intelligence and talent and that we cannot change this level. Grow Mindset says that we have the ability to increase these things through actions and effort. Sasha Rosenbaum explains how we can improve our lives by adopting a Growth Mindset. Many of these ideas came from Carol Dweck's book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success".

Links:
https://amzn.to/33p4wix
https://www.sasharosenbaum.com

6/6
Today I am grateful for a kayaking architecture tour on the Chicago River yesterday.

6/5
Today I am grateful for dinner with friends last night.

6/4
Today I am grateful for a ride to the bike shop after I had a flat tire 10 miles from home yesterday.

6/3
Today I am grateful for the friendship of good people.

6/2
Today I am grateful for online courses.

6/1
Today I am grateful to visit 3 northwest Chicago parks yesterday for the first time: Jefferson Park, Portage Park, and Hanson Park

5/31
Today I am grateful to all the men and women who gave their lives in defense of my country.

5/30
Today I am grateful to attend the end-of-season party of the Lincoln Park Ski Club last night.

5/29
Today I am grateful to see Vance Kelly at Rosa's Lounge last night.

5/28
Today I am grateful for an unexpected gift from Tobiah

5/27
Today I am grateful for a clean bill of health from my dermatologist.

5/26
Today I am grateful for online grocery shopping.

5/25
Today I am grateful for my new refrigerator/freezer.

5/24
Today I am grateful to randomly cross paths with Paul in downtown Chicago yesterday.

5/23
Today I am grateful to see Heartfield in concert last night at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn.

5/22
Today I am grateful for a beer tasting party last night.

5/21
Today I am grateful to hear some flattering words from a manager.

5/20
Today I am grateful for lunch with KL yesterday.

5/19
Today I am grateful for sad songs.

5/18
Today I am grateful for public parks.

5/17
Today I am grateful I have the ability to stay in touch via my phone.

5/16
Today I am grateful for great pizza.

5/15
Today I am grateful to see The Kinsey Report in concert last night.

5/14
Today I am grateful to present at the Cloud Lunch and Learn Marathon last night.

5/13
Today I am grateful for new shelves in my closet, so I no longer keep my sweatshirts in a cardboard box.

5/12
Today I am grateful to find my lost AirPod yesterday after searching along a mile of city streets and sidewalks.

5/11
Today I am grateful for excellent public art in the city.

5/10
Today I am grateful to complete and file my taxes.

5/9
Today I am grateful to see jazz singer Kurt Elling in concert last night at the City Winery.

5/8
Today I am grateful for new pillow cases.

5/6
Today I am grateful for another group ride last night around and under downtown Chicago.

5/5
Today I am grateful for my love of music.

5/4
Today I am grateful to my personal trainer, who kicks my butt 2-3 times a week.

5/3
Today I am grateful for the small light in my shower, so I don't blind myself when I walk into my bathroom in the dark.

C.S. Lewis continues the legends of his magical world of Narnia with his 1954 novel The Horse and his Boy.

Although this was the fifth novel written and published in the series, it takes place near the end of the events of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and features appearances by a few of the characters therein.

Young Shasta knew he was different than the other boys growing up in Calormen. He was resigned to his life until he overheard his guardian planning to sell him into slavery to a nobleman. When Shasta met the nobleman's horse Bree, he was startled to learn that Bree could talk. The horse was a captured beast from the land of Narnia, where many animals have the gift of speech. Together, the pair set out to escape to Narnia. Along the way, they met Aravis, a young aristocrat, who was also fleeing Calormen with a talking horse. The four travelers set out together, facing adventures and dangers in their exodus.

Lewis paints the Calormenes as evil or shallow and the Narnians as good, but the characters are not all black and white. The heroes have flaws that make them more real: Bree is far too vain for his own good and Aravis is a spoiled brat at the beginning of the story.

The only weakness in this book is the convenient wrap-up at the end in which everything is explained too quickly and with too many coincidences.

Despite this small drawback, this is an enjoyable book that fits in well with the Narnia saga.

Episode 663

Jeff Wilcox on Open Source and Microsoft

Jeff Wilcox is a Program Manager in Microsoft's Open Source Program Office (OSPO). He discusses open source software and Microsoft's evolution in using and contributing to it. He provides guidance for using, creating, and contributing to Open Source software and discusses some of the licensing and legal issues.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is the story that introduced the world of Narnia to our world. On its surface C.S. Lewis's 1950 novel is a children's fantasy story; but it is so much more.

It is the story of the four Pevensie children - Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, who accidentally stumbled upon Narnia, while staying at the home of elderly Professor Kirk.

Lucy was the first to venture into the old wardrobe and discover that it was a portal to another world - a magical world in which animals can talk; but this was also a dangerous world ruled by the evil White Witch, who had cast a spell on the land, ensuring that it was "always winter, but never Christmas".

Lucy returned to tell her siblings about her adventure, but she was met with skepticism. Edmund followed her through the wardrobe and discovered the truth, but he was weak and spiteful and was easily seduced by the White Queen's magic and promise of enchanted sweets. They returned later with their older siblings and learned that the lion Aslan was returning to Narnia after an absence of centuries. Aslan was held in great reverence by the Narnians and was destined to confront the White Queen and challenge her reign.

Lewis combines several different cultures in his narrative. He drew inspiration for his characters from the mythologies of the ancient Greeks, Romans, Norsemen, and other cultures and from the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. Even Father Christmas makes an appearance at one point. But the story also has many influences from Lewis's Christian faith. It is an allegory of Jesus Christ's sacrifice and resurrection to redeem the sins of others. Lewis does a remarkable job of suggesting Biblical stories without repeating or imitating those stories.

"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is a classic story that combines adventure, magic, family, action, religion, betrayal, forgiveness, and redemption in a very short space.

I never read this book as a child. I was in my 40s when I first experienced Narnia. Two decades later, I find it is still magical.

The Magician's Nephew was not the first book that C.S. Lewis wrote for his classic Chronicles of Narnia; but its story is first chronologically, and it often appears first in omnibus editions of the Chronicles. So, as I set out to re-read the series for the first time in 20 years, I elected to begin with this volume.

The story takes place prior to Lewis's iconic The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. A generation passes on Earth between the two novels; but a thousand years separate the two books in Narnia.

This book is the story of Digory and Polly, two children who find themselves transported to another world, tricked there by Diggory’s evil Uncle Andrew - a amateur magician of mediocre skill and dubious morals. When the children return to London, an evil witch queen from the other world follows them intent on ruling the Earth. The children work to drive the witch out of their world.

In this book, we learn answers to questions raised in later books: how Narnia came to be, why some of the animals can talk, how the White Queen came to Narnia and why she was kept from power for so long, why there is a lamp post in the middle of the woods, and why Professor Kirke was unsurprised when he learned that his wardrobe was a portal to another world.

Lewis was fond of including Christianity in his book and this story echoes many of the themes of the Book of Genesis, including representations of God, the Devil, the Creation of the universe, the first man and woman, and even a fruit tree.

You may choose to read the series in chronological order or in publication order (this was #6 of 7 written) or you may read them in any random order you wish. The Magician's Nephew is a delightful story on its own, but even more so for those familiar with the other Narnia books.

Episode 662

Ovetta Sampson on Mindful and Ethical AI

Ovetta Sampson teaches a class on Ethical Artificial Intelligence. She discusses how biased or invalid input can cause invalid and/or biased AI models. She discusses ways of being mindful of these potential problems when building these models to minimize these issues.

Links:
https://youtu.be/QgHD7hXj30c
https://www.womentech.net/speaker/Sasha/Rosenbaum/52447

When Tom Joad came home after four years in prison, his house was empty, and his family was gone. Nearly all the families in the area were gone - driven away by the drought and by poor soil management and by the bank that took their homes.

Tom found his family at the home of his uncle. With no prospects in Oklahoma, they decided to head to California, lured by a handbill's promise of plentiful jobs. The handbill lied. They expected California to be the promised land; but it is a land of broken promises.

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family across the country to California, where they face unemployment, poverty, and a system designed to keep them down.

The Joads and others like them feel helpless. They are starving and have no source of income, other than an oligarchical system of large farms that reduce wages to poverty levels. They try organizing and they are labeled Communists and beaten by police. They try helping one another, but the authorities harass them and burn their camp. They are angry but have nowhere to direct their anger. Just as the faceless bank foreclosed on their homes in Oklahoma, the faceless farms control their lives in California. There is no person to whom they can appeal or at whom they can lash out.

Steinbeck's writing is straightforward, but beautiful. He paints a very real picture of the world in which he Joads live and travel. He makes us care about an entire class of people - the working poor in this case - and about the individual characters in his story, including:

• Pa Joad, the family patriarch, who cedes leadership to his wife.
• Ma Joad, whose strength holds the family together.
• Jim Casey, the ex-preacher, who has lost his faith; but finds a purpose in life after he is arrested for someone else's crime.
• Tom Joad, who struggles to control his anger because he knows the consequences for himself and his family.

Steinbeck makes one feel the pain of oppression without ever getting preachy. Even the former preacher Casy manages to deliver his message without preaching. The endurance and resilience of the Joads and their repeated frustrations with the system makes the author's points for him. The Biblical parallels are clear, as the Joad’s exodus mirrors the trials of the one led by Moses.

This is one of the great American novels. It is a bleak story of life during the Great Depression - a story of man's inhumanity to man and of man's kindness and resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity. Sometimes the oppressed turn on one another; but more often they face greed with dignity. It is a moving story of community and family; it is a story of hope and disappointment and despair. It is a warning of concentrated power. It is a classic.

Episode 661

Joel Cochran on Azure Synapse

Joel Cochran describes Azure Synapse - the next generation of Azure Data Warehouse. He discusses the advantages of its three processing engines - SQL Data Pools; Serverless SQL; and Spark.

Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle is a short fable that combines the legends of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

The book is beautifully illustrated with ink drawings by Chris Riddell - mostly black and white with a few splashes of gold.

Gaiman's gift for storytelling keeps one engaged, even with a familiar story; and his imagination provides a twist at the end which turns on its head our concept of villain and victim.

Although the story is a bit dark, the length of the book and the familiar topic make it a good book for children; but I found myself captivated by the magic in the book and in the telling.

"War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner."

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Mexican government hired John Joel Glanton and his group of mercenaries to hunt Apache warriors, who had been attacking citizens. They paid Glanton for each Apache scalp he brought them. After realizing that the government could not distinguish the origin of the scalps, the gang began a murderous rampage, killing women, children, and anyone in their path.

In 1985, Cormac McCarthy published Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West - a novelization of the exploits of the Glanton Gang.

The book follows "The Kid" - a violent youth who flees Tennessee to the Texas-Mexico border and joins with Glanton's crew. The Kid participates in the gang's violence, but mostly serves as an observer to the other characters and the action of the novel.

The most intriguing character is Judge Holden, a giant hairless albino, who serves as Glanton's second in command, but is the one in control of the company. Holden is a huge character - physically and metaphorically. He is a philosopher, who believes that war is man's ultimate occupation, and he is a charismatic manipulator, who serves his own moral purposes. The Judge is a memorable villain - a pedophile and a liar and a murderer and a sadist. He may even be Satan himself and the wastelands of northern Mexico and the southwester US may be the Hell over which he reigns.

The Kid is left to fight for his life as well as ponder the morality of what he is a part of. He is the only gang member and one of the few characters in the novel who shows anything close to mercy or any contrition for the atrocities committed.

The story becomes more savage, brutal, and bleak as it progresses. Eventually, the violence seems inevitable, as do the consequences - both to the victims and the perpetrators.

This book does not romanticize the Old West as so many western novels do. It exposes some of the racism and destruction rationalized by a belief in Manifest Destiny. It shows the dehumanization of Blacks and Native Americans by the white conquerors and it reveals the lack of humanity by those conquerors.

Blood Meridian has no protagonist, no plot, and almost no character development. But it does have raw emotion. And it brought difficult questions to my mind: Is man fundamentally good? Does war have a place in society? Who is the sinner in a conflict where everyone is committing atrocities?

If you are looking for a Western story of cowboys and Indians and heroes and bad guys, this is not for you. If you are looking for a grim statement on man's nature, brace yourself and dive into this novel.

Below are links to articles and videos I have created on Azure Media Services this year.

Videos

Video Files and Azure Media Services [GCast 102]

Encode a Video with Azure Media Services [GCast 103]

Sharing a Video Online with Azure Media Services [GCast 104]

Analyzing a Video with Azure Media Services [GCast 105]

Audio Transcription and Captioning with Azure Media Services [GCast 106]

Live Streaming with Azure Media Services [GCast 107]

Using the Video Indexer AI Tool [GCast 109]

Articles

An Introduction to Azure Media Services

Uploading a File to Azure Media Services

 Encoding Videos and other Media with Azure Media Services

Generate a Streaming URL with Azure Media Services

Adding an Adaptive Azure Media Services Video to a Web Page

Analyzing Audio and Video with Azure Media Services

Audio Transcription with Azure Media Services

Adding Captions and Subtitles to to an Azure Media Services Video Embedded in a Web Page

Live Streaming with Azure Media Services

GCast 109:

Using the Video Indexer AI Tool

Video Indexer is a tool from Microsoft that uses Azure Media Services and Cognitive Services to analyze video and audio file. It can use AI to determine a transcription, facial recognition, emotion and sentiment analysis, scene changes, and other useful information. This video shows how to use this tool.

Episode 660

Dani Diaz on IoT and Azure Percept

Dani Diaz describes some of the practical applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing and the tools that make it easier and more powerful.

Links:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/azure-percept/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-percept/overview-azure-percept

The City Winery was only about two-thirds full for the Friday afternoon performance - a small crowd, considering they removed at least half the seats to maintain social distancing. But jazz singer Kurt Elling and his band still brought full energy to their performance.

Elling, who has released 15 albums and won 2 Grammy Awards, performed for 90 minutes, showing off his vocal range for a small, but enthusiastic crowd.

It was the day before Mother's Day, and he talked about mothers, and he talked about the pandemic, and he talked about how this was his "first proper weekend" performing after a long layoff. But mostly he sang, and he sang well!

Elling is primarily an interpreter of the songs of others, but he brings an impressive ability to make each song his own. It may be the vocalizing on "I'm Satisfied" or the tonal range on "Come Fly with Me". Speaking of range, he and the band moved seamlessly between different styles of jazz from swing to ballads to improvisation.

His backing band consisted of piano, drums, and standup bass. They were talented and understated -impressing with their playing without drawing undue attention to themselves. After about an hour Elling - a Rockford, IL native - invited Chicagoan Lenard Simpson onto stage to accompany him on saxophone. This was a treat as I know Simpson's work after seeing him at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival last September.

It was a delightful evening that must have been a treat for the mothers in the audience.

Can a book be both horrible and beautiful?

Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita tells the story of Humbert Humbert, an intelligent, educated, charming man with one terrible flaw - He is obsessed with pre-pubescent girls, which he refers to as "nymphets". When Humbert encounters 12-year-old Dolores Haze (whom he dubs "Lolita"), he becomes so infatuated that he marries her mother to be with her. After the mother's death, he kidnaps the girl and takes her across the country for two years, violating her repeatedly.

This book disturbed me much more on this reading than on my first encounter 35 years ago. Maybe it was because I didn't have children at that time; or maybe it was because Nabokov did such a good job making me feel Humbert's panic and guilt; or maybe because I was naive enough back then to swallow Humbert's rationalizations. But on this more mature reading, it is clear to me that Humbert is a monster. Through begging, bribes, and bluffs, he coerces his stepdaughter into sexual relations. He terrorizes Lolita into believing she will be institutionalized if their secret is ever revealed. With no family and no support system, Lo has no choice but to acquiesce to her stepfather's pedophilia.

You may be seduced into thinking this is a love story; and you may be lured into believing it is an erotic novel. It is neither. Most of the sex is not related directly or in detail, reducing any possible eroticism; and this is, above all else, the story of systematic child abuse and exploitation. Humbert the sexual predator steals the childhood of a young girl.

Ironically, it is also a beautifully told story, thanks to Nabokov's gift for wordplay and linguistics.

Humbert's obsession stems from an incident in his boyhood when he fell in love with young Annabel Leigh, who died before they could consummate their passion. Their seaside rendezvous mirrors Edgar Allen Poe's tragic poem "Annabel Lee”, and the first-person prose repeatedly returns to echo Poe's words.

Why is it a classic? Because Nabokov persuades the reader to feel some of Humbert's pain and shame and panic and guilt and regret; he humanizes the monster without excusing him. His seduction of the reader is almost as complete as his seduction of his stepdaughter.

We experience his scheming to control this girl he should be protecting. We see Lolita only through the eyes of Humbert, but we know that she cries herself to sleep every night. There is neither love nor tenderness in Humbert's actions; only sexual objectification and a feeling of ownership.

There is a murder at the end. But this is far less shocking than the exploitation throughout the novel.

Lolita endures because it grabs our emotions – both positive and negative. 

Episode 659

Danielle Walker on Technology Startups

Danielle Walker assists entrepreneurs in starting technology companies. She discusses some of the things that they can do to launch a more successful product.

5/2
Today I am grateful that my refrigerator and freezer are finally working for the first time in over a month.

5/1
Today I am grateful to attend the wedding of Laurent and Vanch yesterday.
 
4/30
Today I am grateful for coffee with Steve yesterday.

4/29
Today I am grateful for the convenience of online shopping.

4/28
Today I am grateful for a 15-mile night ride yesterday through downtown Chicago with the Streets Calling Bike Club.

4/27
Today I am grateful to celebrate Ronald's life with his family yesterday.

4/26
Today I am grateful for new sweatpants

4/25
Today I am grateful for those who responded when I asked for advice and counseling.

4/24
Today I am grateful to visit my son's new home for the first time.

4/22
Today I am grateful to own a reliable car.

4/21
Today I am grateful that the criminal justice system sometimes works correctly.

4/20
Today I am grateful that I continue to learn new skills.

4/19
Today I am grateful for a freshly-washed car.

4/18
Today I am grateful for a long walk around East Lansing and Michigan State University yesterday afternoon.

4/17
Today I am grateful to celebrate Joe's life with my family yesterday.

4/16
Today I am grateful I have at least 1 right glove and 1 left glove remaining at the end of winter.

4/15
Today I am grateful to have 2 light switches now working properly after being defective for a long time.

4/14
Today I am grateful to interrupt a bike ride for a taco dinner in Little Village last night.

4/13
Today I am grateful I was able to return $80 worth of clothes that did not fit me properly.

4/12
Today I am grateful for my new kitchen faucet.

4/11
Today I am grateful for a hot bath after a long walk and ride in the rain yesterday.

4/10
Today I am grateful to attend my first concert of 2021 last night - Ivy Ford at Rosa's Lounge!

4/9
Today I am grateful to Shahed, who called to see how I was doing yesterday.

4/8
Today I am grateful for my first time biking to Midway airport.

4/7
Today I am grateful for the Chicago Nature Boardwalk.

4/6
Today I am grateful for my new sweater.

4/5
Today I am grateful to spend Easter weekend with my boys.

It was World War II and Captain Yossarian was panicking because everyone was trying to kill him. He served as a US Army bombardier and each mission he flew brought the deadly anti-aircraft fire from the Germans. In addition, his commanding officers repeatedly raised the required number of missions before Yossarian could go home.

So Yossarian approached Doc Daneeka to seek a discharge by reason of insanity. This was allowed, but there was a catch: Catch-22. Catch-22 states that recognizing the dangers of war is the act of a rational mind, so requesting to leave the war was proof of sanity and made one ineligible for discharge on those grounds.

From Joseph Heller's 1961 novel Catch-22:

"Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to."

This is the first of many absurd rules enforced and defended by the military bureaucracy. The soldiers are illogical, the orders are nonsensical, the officers are incompetent, and the rules are meaningless but must be followed.

"Catch-22" recounts these absurd incidents, rules, and conversations - often with laugh-out-loud hilarity. The logic presented is often circular and usually contradictory. The most common spoken phrases are "Are you crazy?" and "You're crazy!" and in many cases, they are crazy. Virtually every character suffers from some degree of neurosis or psychosis.

Heller introduces some of the most memorable characters in literature, including:

- Milo Minderbinder, an unchecked capitalist who is so greedy, he accepts contracts from the German to bomb his own air base and to help them shoot down American fighter planes.

- Major Major Major Major, who will never agree to see anyone in his office until after he leaves his office.

- Doc Daneeka, who dismisses the complaints of his patients because they don't compare to the agony of his being drafted and having to give up a lucrative practice.

This is not an easy novel to read. Dozens of characters come and go, and each has an interesting story, and many have a disturbing backstory. In addition, the story is told non-chronologically, often looping back on the same events, providing more detail with each pass. I found it nearly impossible to determine the actual order of events. Multiple readings help understand the details of the story, but re-reading is not necessary to enjoy Heller's language and the overall messages he strives to convey. These situations are absurd because war is absurd. And you would be crazy to think otherwise. Individual scenes could stand on their own as a short story; but together they weave a classic as each of the numerous threads come together.

After three readings, Catch-22 remains one of my favourite novels of all time. I found myself teetering between Heller's hilarious dialogue and the poignantly tragic circumstances he portrays.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.”

Catch-22 is an anti-war novel, written before anti-war novels were cool. It succeeds brilliantly.

Episode 658

Matt Adamczyk on Title Town Tech and Startups

Matt Adamczyk is the Microsoft Technologist in Residence at Title Town Tech in Green Bay, WI. He talks about this organization and what it brings to startups in Wisconsin.

An economic downturn affects some people more than others. The recession and housing crash of the early 21st century caused many Americans to make difficult choices. Many owed more on their house than it was worth. They were forced to surrender their home to the bank and walk away. Others lost their job and could no longer afford to pay their rent. Stock market losses reduced or eliminated pensions. Older Americans were particularly hard hit. A significant minority of these people decided to abandon the idea of living in a traditional house and opt for a life on the road - living in a van or a mobile home.

Jessica Bruder's Nomadland is the story of those people.

These American nomads are not homeless - they are houseless; they have chosen a life on the road.

There are some advantages to this lifestyle, which is not dissimilar to being on a permanent camping trip. Many people have formed a support community, sometimes referring to themselves as a "Tribe" and folks in that community support one another. Facebook groups and in-person events exist to help them learn and connect with one another. This lifestyle allows individuals for more freedom to explore the country.

But there are many disadvantages. Most of these migrants work low-paying jobs without health insurance or retirement benefits. The workers put in long hours and find it difficult to accumulate savings. The work is often physically demanding - especially for older people. Additionally, society makes life difficult for transients. For example, local ordinances often restrict where one can park a camper and often forbid sleeping in a vehicle; most camp sites limit lengths of stay; and a permanent address is a requirement for a driver's license and for many other basic tasks. Many of these "workampers" work temporary seasonal jobs such as maintaining a campground, picking beets, or scanning package at an Amazon warehouses. As a result, they must travel frequently, moving to where they can find work.

Given these challenges, it is surprising how much optimism, hope, and positivity projected by those interviewed by Ms. Bruder. Time and again, the people to whom she introduces the reader show an impressive resiliency that helps them to survive.

Bruder focuses most of her attention on Linda - a divorced 60-something woman traveling the country in a mobile home. Linda has a dream of buying land and building an "Earthship" - a solar-powered home made of recycled materials. As Linda ages, her options to sustain herself lessen; but she perseveres, keeping her positive attitude intact.

Bruder even travels in a van of her own to get a firsthand taste of life on the road.

This is not the story of wealthy retirees touring the country for pleasure; it is the story of older Americans, who feel they have fewer choices to survive and have opted for this lifestyle. As Bruder puts it:

Bruder quotes Bob Wells, who writes about the houseless culture on his site https://www.cheaprvliving.com:

"At one time there was a social contract that if you played by the rules (went to school, got a job, and worked hard) everything would be fine. That’s no longer true today. You can do everything right, just the way society wants you to do it, and still end up broke, alone, and homeless."

Nomadland is the story of those who ended up that way and found a way to survive.

GCast 108:

Managing Deleted Facebook Posts

Learn how to archive, permanently delete, and restore Facebook posts after they are moved to Trash.