10/1
Today I am grateful to go to Kingston Mines blues club last night with Tim.

9/30
Today I am grateful for 2 days in Champaign, IL.

9/29
Today I am grateful for a drink with Rachel last night in Champaign.

9/28
Today I am grateful for some kind words from my manager yesterday.

9/27
Today I am grateful for Taco Tuesday at Flaco's.

9/26
Today I am grateful to arrive home safely yesterday.

9/25
Today I am grateful for:
-a visit with Diane yesterday;
-a place to sleep last night, courtesy of Sherree and family

9/24
Today I am grateful for a return to Spartan Stadium to watch the game with friends from college.

9/23
Today I am grateful I got out of a hackathon on a Friday night before 1AM.

9/22
Today I am grateful for:
-the opportunity to speak at VSLive this week;
-great feedback following yesterday's presentation;
-dinner at the spy-themed Safe House last night.

9/21
Today I am grateful for sushi last night with Rachel and Jim.

9/20
Today I am grateful for
-2 days in Seattle
-a chance to learn the basics of CNTK at yesterday's hackathon.

9/19
Today I am grateful for a company reception last night at Optimism Brewery in Seattle.

9/18
Today I am grateful for dinner and a movie with Glenn yesterday.

9/17
Today I am grateful to ask about software on social media and get help from the creator of that software.

9/16
Today I am grateful for free online learning resources.

9/15
Today I am grateful for my new (to me) Surface Book.

9/14
Today I am grateful to walk 5 miles yesterday.

9/13
Today I am grateful for healthy teeth.

9/12
Today I am grateful that I can walk to work.

9/11
Today I am grateful for the NFL Pass to watch all the games.

9/10
Today I am grateful to spend time with Chris this weekend.

9/9
Today I am grateful for dinner last night with Tim to celebrate his birthday.

9/8
Today I am grateful to successfully deliver a new AI presentation last night for the first time.

9/7
Today I am grateful I've made it to the gym almost every day for the past month.

9/6
Today I am grateful to teach at the University of Illinois yesterday.

9/5
Today I am grateful for a clean apartment.

9/4
Today I am grateful for a walk around LaGrange, IL yesterday afternoon.

The Warrior's Apprentice is the fourth book I've read in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga; but it is the first one to feature Miles Vorkosigan, the protagonist of most of the series.

An assassination attempt on Miles's mother during her pregnancy resulted in Miles being born with extremely brittle bones. Despite this handicap, he attempts to pass the rigorous requirements of the military academy on his home planet of Barrayar. After breaking both his legs in a physical exercise, Miles travels to his mother's home planet to visit his maternal grandmother; but is sidetracked by the adventures he encounters when he buys one spaceship and captures another.  It all leads to political intrigue and an attempt to frame Miles for treason.

I really like the character of Miles - an unlikely hero, given his handicap and his sub-5-foot stature. He is especially disadvantaged because Barrayar is a planet that disdains imperfections, often aborting "inferior" fetuses. He is a great contrast to his noble father and his headstrong mother.

The Warrior's Apprentice advances the story of the "Vorkosiverse", introduces a significant new character, and stands alone as a good adventure story.

I have known Jim Holmes for years, and I have experienced many times his presentations and his writings about leadership skills. This year, he finally compiled that advice into a book - The Leadership Journey.

He draws on his experience in the US Air Force and  in the business world, providing examples of himself and others in a leadership role.

The book begins with 2 assumptions:

1. Most of us are not born with great leadership skills
2. We can each work to improve our leadership skills

Holmes lists the qualities needed to be a good leader:

• Integrity
• Respect
• Decisiveness
  
• Motivates those around them
• Delegates authority
  
• Remains Calm in storm
  
• Protects the team
  
• Knows what's really a crisis
  
• Leads from the front

It's no accident that Integrity tops this list. "Integrity is a coin you can’t afford to spend," he correctly asserts, pointing out the long-term damage when trust erodes.

Each chapter focuses on one key point of leadership and includes one or more exercise. Typically, each exercise asks the reader to write down some ideas; step away for a few minutes; then return and review what he wrote. They are deliberately time-boxed to keep the reader focused and to give her time to reflect on the ideas. For example, one exercise asks the reader to identify a few effective leaders from their own experience and identify traits they have in common.

The book advises a few things that I've been doing for years, such as writing down what needs to get done and keeping track of wins. But it also includes new (to me) ideas, such as recognizing small victories to foster success.

At 107 pages, this is a quick read (I finished on a flight from Seattle to Chicago); but it is dense with good advice.

Much of the advice may seem like common sense to you. But I've made many of the mistakes pointed out in this book and I've worked with many managers who have made these mistakes. Reinforcing these ideas is a step toward internalizing them.

Episode 488

Christina Aldan on Emotional Intelligence

I was recently introduced to the Developer on Fire podcast, hosted by Dave Rael. Dave has had an impressive list of guests on his show the past few years, which is one reason I was excited about being interviewed by him.

We spoke less about technology than about my experiences in my career and my philosophy toward work, education, and the community.

You can listen to the interview here.

Episode 487

Adam Freymiller on Interviewing for a Tech Job

Episode 486

Gael Fraiteur on PostSharp 5.0

If you would like to hear one of my presentations, here is my schedule:

Thursday Next is an agent working for the British Special Operations law enforcement agency in an alternate world where England and Russia are still fighting the Crimean War, where Wales is an independent country, and where time travel is possible.

The people of this 1985 England love their literature. They are so passionate that literary arguments sometimes erupt into riots and a special government police department exists solely to deal with crimes of literature. Thursday works for this department.

In The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, Thursday's uncle Mycroft invents a machine that allows people and characters to travel in and out of fictional books. If one enters a book and changes the plot, the story in the actual book changes. If this happens in an original manuscript, every copy of that book is modified. The Villainous Hades kidnaps Mycroft, steals the machine and some original literary classic manuscripts; then blackmails England, threatening to kill characters in the book, destroying England's most beloved literature. And only Thursday can stop him.
 
If you think this sounds like some serious suspension of disbelief, you'd be right. If you think it sounds somewhat silly, you are right about that as well. This novel is filled with weird science and over-the-top characters with names like Braxton Hicks and Jack Schitt. But it works. And not just as satire and humor. Although the story never takes itself too seriously, it never falls into the completely absurd, as with authors like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

The Eyre Affair is a silly, adventure, detective, sci-fi, comedy story filled with action and memorable characters.

I loved it.

Episode 485

Miguel Castro on Building AngularJS Component-Based Applications

9/3
Today I am grateful to attend a Windy City Thunderbolts game last night.

9/2
Today I am grateful to go to the gym and dinner last night with my son.

9/1
Today I am grateful to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in concert last night.

8/31
Today I am grateful for a week of technical training in Chicago with my team.

8/30
Today I am grateful to finally replace my broken reading glasses.

8/29
Today I am grateful that, after staying up until 4AM completing the materials, my workshop yesterday was well received.

8/28
Today I am grateful for a walk around the Oak Park Arts & Crafts Show yesterday

8/27
Today I am grateful for lunch with Tim yesterday.

8/26
Today I am grateful for a Gary Southshore Rail Cats baseball game last night.

8/25
Today I am grateful for lunch with Jaidev yesterday.

8/24
Today I am grateful for a walk along the St. Joseph River yesterday.

8/23
Today I am grateful to work remotely yesterday in southwest Michigan.

8/22
Today I am grateful for: -a view of the solar eclipse from Grant Park yesterday; - Joe Healy's help with a PowerApps issue

8/21
Today I am grateful for dinner with Nick, Tim, and Adriana last night.

8/20
Today I am grateful for a drive/walk around Indiana's Heritage Trail yesterday.

8/19
Today I am grateful for an Amish dinner in Amish country last night.

8/18
Today I am grateful for: -seeing the Gaugin exhibit yesterday at the Chicago Art Institute; -attending the Chicago Polyglot Mingle last night in Old Town.

8/17
Today I am grateful for online music.

8/16
Today I am grateful that my parents saved their whole lives and left something to their children.

8/15
Today I am grateful to pair program with an inexperienced developer last night.

8/14
Today I am grateful for a Sunday walk around Oak Park, IL.

8/13
Today I am grateful to see Benny Golson in concert last night and to take my son to his first jazz club.

8/12
Today I am grateful for a successful surgery yesterday.

8/11
Today I am grateful to see Youssou N'Dour in concert last night.

8/10
Today I am grateful to the organizers and volunteers who worked so hard to make #ThatConference a success.

8/9
Today I am grateful for a visit to the water park last night.

8/8
Today I am grateful for: -lunch with Ondrej -a drive to the Wisconsin Dells. -Seeing old friends -Dinner with my team

8/7
Today I am grateful for an afternoon at Three Oaks Recreation Area in Crystal Lakes, IL.

Episode 484

Jimmy Bogard on AutoMapper

Garion was an orphan boy living on a farm with his Aunt Pol when Mister Wolf a kindly, old traveler - took the two of them on a quest to retrieve a stolen object of great value.

Mister Wolf turns out to be Garion's grandfather the ancient sorcerer Belgarath; and the stolen object turns out to be a magical orb forged by the god Aldur, and stolen by his brother Torak, who now lies asleep for centuries after the orb was re-captured by Belgarath. Prophecies surrounded the orb, including one that foretells a battle to the death between Torak and Garion (now renamed Belgarian).

The 5-volume epic fantasy The Belgariad by David Eddings follows the trio and companions they gather along their quest to both liberate enslaved lands and to fulfill the prophecies of the orb. Although the prophecy predicts a death battle between Belgarian and Torak, it does not predict the outcome of this battle. Along the way, they pick up the runaway princess Ce'Nedra, with whom young Belgarian has a love/hate relationship.

With 5 volumes to work with, Eddings does a good job of weaving a story of adventure and building a cast of characters and a relationship between those characters. The Belgariad is a coming-age-story for Belgarian, and also a coming-age-story for Ce'Nedra, who grows from spoiled princess to potential monarch in the latter two novels. Belgarian discovers himself, his magical abilities, and his destiny as he travels across the world fighting evil.

Each book begins with a brief story of the old gods and their battle for the orb during ancient times. This story is told in a more formal voice (as if read aloud from an ancient codex) than the rest of the book, which focuses on the story of Belgarian and his company. 

The story is much less complex than the Lord of the Rings (from which it draws obvious inspiration). The wizard-led fellowship traveling across a dangerous world of fantastic beasts and pitting magic against magic is similar enough to Tolkein's story, that I could not help reading the part of Belgarath in the voice of Ian McKellan. But Eddings makes The Belgariad original enough and adds enough action to hold my interest throughout.

My only complaint is how little time is devoted to the final, inevitable battle between Belgarian and Torak. We wait for it for 4.9 books and it is over too quickly.

It's not a classic, but The Belgariad is definitely worthwhile and is an enjoyable story set in an interesting world.

Episode 483

Riccardo Bennett-Lovsey on Digital Transformations

Last week, I took my son to his first jazz club. We saw Benny Golson at the Jazz Showcase in the South Loop. He liked it.

Golson has been performing tenor saxophone publicly for decades and has accumulated a number of stories of his interactions with many of the all-time greats - from Dizzy Gillespie to Eric Burdon. He spent much of this evening telling of his days with other musicians, preceding each song with the tale of how that song came to be. For example, he spoke of writing "I remember Clifford" after learning of the death of his friend Clifford Brown; and he talked about playing "Whisper Not" for Dizzy Gillespie and trying to remain cool after Gillespie asked if he could record the song.

At 85, Golson is showing his age. He no longer has the stamina to maintain the long slow notes that many of his melodies demand.  But on this night in Chicago's South Loop, he surrounded himself with some excellent musicians (piano, upright bass, and drums), who made up for that with their solos.

And Golson is best known for his songwriting prowess and nearly every song he performed was his own composition. And his melodies are still lovely.

And my son enjoyed his first jazz concert.

30 years ago, I received as a gift the album "Nelson Mandela" by Youssou N'Dour. I was hooked. N'Dour exposed to me an engaging style that combined traditional rhythms of his native Senegal with western instruments.

Thursday night at Millennium Park, I finally had the chance to see N'Dour in concert. He did not disappoint.

Throughout the show, everyone smiled and danced to the music. The audience enjoyed themselves, Youssou enjoyed himself, and the band enjoyed themselves. Except for the rhythm guitar player, who remained stoically stone-faced throughout the performance, despite being surrounded by smiling musicians and fans.

N'Dour shared the stage with about a dozen other musicians, including two keyboardists, 3 guitarists, 4(!) drummers, and 1 dancer.

They played danceable Afro-pop for over 90 minutes and came back for an encore to the delight of the crowd.

The show was a treat for those of us who love African music. Next to the stage, I saw people dressed in African garb dancing to the music. A few rows back, I saw middle-aged white Americans tapping their feet. Even though none of the songs were sung in English, Youssou and his band made a connection with an audience far from his homeland.

By the end of the show, even the rhythm guitarist had to smile.

More photos

Episode 482

Kent Alstad on Leadership

Episode 481

Matthew Renze on Data Science

8/6
Today I am grateful for:
-3 days in downtown Kansas City
-Lunch with Sara
-Pizza with Tim at Pequod's last night

8/5
Today I am grateful to attend my first PubConf last night.

8/4
Today I am grateful for my first time speaking at #KCDC.

8/3
Today I am grateful to meet so many old friends in Kansas City last night.

8/2
Today I am grateful for the past, present, and future MVPs who contribute so much to our community.

8/1
Today I am grateful to watch Game of Thrones each week with my son.

7/31
Today I am grateful for:
-breakfast with Tim and Ahmani yesterday
-a drink last night with Tim at the new outdoor café across the street.

7/30
Today I am grateful for the International Nodebots Day workshop yesterday.

7/29
Today I am grateful to spend a day with my team.

7/28
Today I am grateful I was able to help people multiple times yesterday.

7/27
Today I am grateful I got these web services working (mostly)

7/26
Today I am grateful for:
-Starting a new project yesterday
-Coffee with Thad -Dinner with Michael and Dave

7/25
Today I am grateful for a chance to sleep in this morning.

7/24
Today I am grateful for an afternoon at Warren Dunes State Park.

7/23
Today I am grateful for a week in Las Vegas with Microsoft folks from around the world.

7/22
Today I am grateful for a gondola ride yesterday with Jennifer and Matt.

7/21
Today I am grateful for:
-Lunch with Jeffrey
-Drinks with Scott and Brian
-Dinner with Shahed, Nickolas, Paul, Jeffrey, and Bret

7/20
Today I am grateful to see Lenny Kravitz and Ellie Goulding in concert last night.

7/19
Today I am grateful to reconnect with so many colleagues yesterday.

7/18
Today I am grateful for honest conversations.

7/17
Today I am grateful for the year that we had together.

7/16
Today I am grateful that Thad and I saw Pharez Whitted in concert at the Jazz Showcase last night - my first visit to the club.

7/15
Today I am grateful for a Pakistani dinner with Raj last night.

7/14
Today I am grateful to meet so many students and entrepreneurs from Africa yesterday.

7/13
Today I am grateful to the organizers, volunteers, speakers, and attendees of the first Detroit.Code() conference for making the event a success.

7/12
Today I am grateful for:
-Lunch yesterday with Mark
-Help from Ryan answering my JavaScript questions

7/11
Today I am grateful to see so many friends last night in Detroit.

7/10
Today I am grateful for a visit from my son Nick this weekend.

7/9
Today I am grateful to attend a Cubs game last night with Nick and Tim.

7/8
Today I am grateful to go to the gym and dinner last night with Tim.

7/7
Today I am grateful for dinner with Emilija last night.

7/6
Today I am grateful for lunch with Ondrej yesterday.

7/5
Today I am grateful for fireworks last night in Dawn and Bill's backyard

7/4
Today I am grateful to live in the United States of America.

7/3
Today I am grateful for the hospitality and generosity of Kevin and Judy, who opened their home to me.

7/2
Today I am grateful for yesterday's celebration of my mother's life.

Episode 480

Jonathan Mills on Angular CLI

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin is the story of the twin planets - Anarres and Urras that rotate about one another.

Centuries ago, a group of revolutionaries on Urras escaped or were exiled to the barren world of Anarres, where they have been working the mines and building an equalitarian society - a society in which all property is owned collectively, and everyone shares everything and the government controls nothing.

Urras is a world with a beautiful main city where everyone has plenty. But the ruling class of this city oppresses the lower classes outside the city and keeps them in their caste. An oppressive government keeps the rich and poor in their places.

Shevek is a physicist, who was born on Anarres; but he is one of the few from that world permitted to visit Urras. Shevek is invited to an Urras university in order to complete his work - a work that the Urrans hope can allow them to produce faster-than-light interstellar travel. He is overwhelmed by the beauty of his host city, unaware of the suffering outside the walls until local rebels try to contact him.

The story is filled with ambiguities: The 2 planets orbit one another yet each considers the other its moon; It's never clear if walls are built to keep people out or in; the anarchy of Anarres seems morally superior to the caste system of Urras, but Anarres's system is far from perfect and its people suffer much hardships.

LeGuin tells the story in a non-linear fashion, alternating chapters between recounting Shevek's early life and his pilgrimage to Urras. This narrative style can be hard to follow at times, but it revealed his character and contrasted the strengths and weaknesses of each society.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed LeGuin's writing. She weaves within her stories multiple themes about society and economics. I will be reading her work again soon - maybe a second reading of this book.

Episode 479

Nancy Gaines on Productivity

Episode 478

Peter Leeson on Quality

Episode 477

Florin Loghiade on Testing PowerShell wit Pester

Assassin's Quest is the third, final, and longest book in Robin Hobbs's Farseer Trilogy.

It also the book with the most action.

Royal bastard Fitzchivalry Farseer was executed by his Uncle Regal, who has usurped the throne from its rightful heir. He escaped by using his Wit power to transfer his consciousness to his wolf-brother and living as a wolf for weeks. Fitz's allies manage to return his soul to his exhumed body following the execution, but he is become more wolf than man and struggles to resume his old life or to fight for his kingdom.

King Shrewd and King-In-Waiting Chivalry (Fitz's Father) are both dead.  Verity has left the kingdom to seek the help of the legendary Elderlings, hoping they can rescue his kingdom from the attacking Red Raiders.

Fitz has 2 quests in this story - the first to find and assassinate King Regal and the second to find his Uncle Verity in hopes he can restore order to the kingdom.

Most of this book follows Fitzchivalry's odyssey across the world, seeking Verity and the dangers he encounters along the way. He is reunited with The Fool - a jester he befriended during his days at court. The Fool reveals himself to be more than he showed before and they seek Verity together.

This is the most complex and most satisfying of the 3 Farseer novels. The storylines weave in and out as Fitz travels across the world and out of his own kingdom. Magical powers are used just enough to keep them plausible in this world; but not so much that they are an easy escape from any danger.

Assassin's Quest completes Fitz's transition to manhood and brings the story of Regal's power grasp to a conclusion. The ending felt a bit rushed, but Hobb managed to tie up each of the plot lines. Overall, I very much enjoyed this series.

"Royal Assassin" continues the saga of FitzChivalry, the bastard son of king-in-waiting Chivalry, who is raised to be an assassin.

Fitz recovers from the assassination attempt by his Uncle Regal at the end of "Assassin's Apprentice". He grows to manhood at a court engulfed by the rivalry between his two uncles: the noble Verity and the wicked Regal. Regal and his minions plot to poison the mind of King Shrewd by drugging and isolating him from anyone else. Meanwhile, Verity is devoted to the protection of his people (most notably from the invading and pillaging Red Raiders).

This story mostly involves political intrigue as Fitz is caught in the middle of a battle between his 2 uncles. But there is also much action and character development, most notably of Fitz himself, who is growing to manhood and attempting to harness his mental powers.

Fitz is prosecuted for practicing the feared and illegal Wit power and must find a way to hide it while also using it to protect himself, his king, the kingdom, and his woman.

I enjoyed the story on its own, but it also convinced me to complete the Farseer Trilogy. So, I am now on to book 3!

My mother - Joyce Ann Gill Giard - had a lot of idiosyncrasies.

There were phrases she would repeat often. "and what not" meant she could not think how to complete her current thought; "so anyway" meant she was ready to leave; and "You're special" meant that she wanted to say something nice about you but could not think of anything specific.

There was her inability to tell a story properly. So many times, she would tell a nonsensical punchline; then remember that she had forgotten an important bit from earlier in the story.

And there was her habit of re-telling the same story to us, as if we hadn't heard it a hundred times already - maybe just yesterday. Maybe earlier in the same conversation.

We used to make fun of my mother for these idiosyncrasies. We would smile, and roll our eyes, and we would laugh about it later.

But I began to rethink this attitude a few years ago. That was when my mother's life was struck with a series of tragedies.

It began when my father - Norm Giard - was diagnosed with skin cancer. He recovered, but it cost him his entire nose, which had to be rebuilt.

Next came the following events, which happened in rapid succession.

• My mother had open heart surgery
• My sister Denise (Mom's oldest child) died suddenly at the age of 50.
• Someone my mother trusted betrayed the family and tried to steal an inheritance left to my sister's daughters. This ordeal lasted nearly a year.
• My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He ultimately had to be placed in a nursing home when my mother was unable to care for him.
• My mother was in an automobile accident. She was in the hospital over 6 months and never fully regained the use of her legs.
• My father passed away after a long illness.
• My mother's health deteriorated, leaving her deaf, confined to a wheelchair, and losing her memory.

It was her loss of hearing and memory that my mother found most frustrating. Mom was a very social person. She loved people; she loved spending time with her friends; and she loved to start conversations with strangers. I was once driving her around our old neighborhood when she spotted the current owners of our former home. I had not fully stopped the car before she had opened the passenger door to get out and introduce herself.

As her memory faded, she found it difficult to recall the names of close friends and how she knew them. She once called me in a panic because she could not remember where she had met my father.

When she lost her hearing, she found it nearly impossible to engage the new people she met. And when she moved into an assisted living facility in Michigan, everyone was new.

It was this string of tragedies and the dignity with which my mother faced them that caused me to re-think her and my behavior around her. Her idiosyncrasies became for me unique aspects of her personality, rather than a reason to roll my eyes.

I would visit her, and she would tell me "You're special" and I would respond "No. *You're* special!".

She would tell me a story I've heard before and I would listen and nod as if I were hearing it for the first time.

And I laughed at her jokes.

These struggles and these tragedies did not break her. I admire that she maintained a positive attitude and a strong faith throughout all this. She did not blame anyone for her fate. And she remained positive that she would eventually be reunited with her husband and daughter.

We still sometimes laugh at my mother's idiosyncrasies; but now we do so with the appreciation that these are the things that set her apart; that made her unique; that made her the woman we loved.

Joyce Ann Gill Giard passed away last week at the age of 84. Yesterday, I returned from her funeral in Florida.

If she were here with me right now, I would tell her in no uncertain terms: "You are special!"

Episode 476

Boris Hristov on Technical Presentations

7/2
Today I am grateful for yesterday's celebration of my mother's life.

7/1
Today I am grateful to make it safely to Florida.

6/30
Today I am grateful
-to finally make it to the dermatologist yesterday
-for sushi with Tim last night

6/29
Today I am grateful for the support of my family.

6/28
Today I am grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of love and condolences these past 2 days.

6/27
Today I am grateful for my mother and all that she did for me during her life.

6/26
Today I am grateful for a bbq lunch with Tim yesterday.

6/25
Today I am grateful for a day in Sawyer, MI.

6/24
Today I am grateful for an afternoon at 1871.

6/23
Today I am grateful to see J. while he was in town yesterday.

6/22
Today I am grateful for good health insurance.

6/21
Today I am grateful for my camera, which has preserved so many memories over the years.

6/20
Today I am grateful to see Jean Luc Ponty in concert last night.

6/19
Today I am grateful to spend Fathers Day with my son.

6/18
Today I am grateful that I finally got back my lost luggage.

6/17
Today I am grateful that my son Tim will be staying with me for a couple months.

6/16
Today I am grateful for my first visit to the Czech Republic.

6/15
Today I am grateful for a day in Cesky Krumlav, Czech Republic with Gael

6/14
Today I am grateful for:
-coffee with Britt yesterday morning in Prague
-lunch with the Microsoft Prague DX team
-a drive across the Czech Republic with Gael last night

6/13
Today I am grateful for a visit to Prague Castle yesterday.

6/12
Today I am grateful for dinner and a walk around Prague last night with Gael and Britt.

6/11
Today I am grateful for a brewery tour and beer tasting at Fjäderholmarna yesterday.

6/10
Today I am grateful to the organizers and volunteers of #devsum for an excellent conference in Stockholm this week.

6/9
Today I am grateful that my lost luggage finally arrived at my hotel.

6/8
Today I am grateful that I made it safely to Stockholm, despite many delays along the way.

6/7
Today I am grateful for an opportunity to teach at Xamarin University yesterday.

6/6
Today I am grateful for a couple nights in my own bed.

6/5
Today I am grateful that I have the privilege to travel the world and to come home to recharge.

6/4
Today I am grateful for a visit to Nashville and my first time speaking at the Music City Code conference.

Episode 475

Radu Vunvulea on Surviving in the IoT World

Traveling to Stockholm was an adventure. I was impeded by heavier-than-usual Chicago traffic, lost luggage, delayed flights, and a passport that I stupidly left at home on my kitchen counter.

But I made it in time for DevSum 2017 and it was worth the trouble.

I was returning to DevSum for the first time since 2015 and the event has moved from the city center to the Münchenbryggeriet conference center - 2 islands to the south.

After a long trip, I arrived at the conference feeling anything but refreshed. But the staff made me feel at home. They retrieved a lunch plate for me, despite my arrival after mealtime. And I presented that afternoon on Cognitive Services in front of a full room. I had heard that European audiences tend to be more reserved than their American counterparts, but I did not experience that. The crowd laughed where I hoped they would and remained engaged throughout. I drew energy from them.

The speaker lineup at DevSum was really impressive this year. Speakers came from all over Europe and North America, including people like Richard Campbell, Michael Feathers, Markus Egger, Kent Alstad, Tess Fernandez-Norlander, Dino Esposito, and Gil Clereen.

For me, this was not only an excellent opportunity to learn from smart people, but also a chance to interact with many people whose work I respect - either through their articles, books, podcasts, or Pluralsight courses.  The collective knowledge at events like this is always high, but it's even more so when the speaker homes span continents. I was able to meet Michael Feathers and personally tell him the impact his book had on my life when I was a consultant.

The day after the conference, the speakers were invited to a special outing - a boat trip to nearby Fjäderholmarna, lunch, a tour of a local brewery, a beer tasting, and a walk around the island. It was yet another chance to interact with the other speakers.

One difficulty about traveling to Sweden in June is the long daylight hours. The sun does not set in Stockholm until almost 11PM and it rises at around 3AM. This can be disruptive of one's sleep schedule, especially if one is already suffering from jet lag.

But I powered through this issue. And now I am home and paying off sleep debt and dreaming of next year's DevSum.

Links

DevSum home page

My photos

In the province of Calderon in the land of Aleron, there are furies. Furies are magical beings with the power to control air, fire, earth, or water. Every person in Aleron can control at least one of these elements and at least one fury.

Everyone except Tavi.

Tavi is an orphan shepherd boy who lacks the basic powers of every other citizen of the realm. But it is Tavi who is thrust into the center of a battle for dominion of the realm.

Rebels led by Aldrick ex Gladius and assisted by the traitor Fidelias launch an attack against the reign of First Lord Gaius Sextus. Tavi, his uncle Bernard, and those loyal to the First Lord must fight off the invading usurpers

At the same time, warlike Marat are also invading and attacking and the sadistic rival landowner Kord is attempting to crush Bernard's family and enslave those around him.

The story builds to a climax as multiple factions clash during a siege that lasts for days. Sometimes, it is difficult to tell who is fighting whom and where alliances lie.

Jim Butcher builds a world and weaves an adventure that keeps the story constantly moving forward. He drew me in with his characters and he kept me going with the action.

This is the first novel in Butcher's 6-volume Codex Alera series and he does an excellent job of creating a tangible universe. The story stands on its own; but, in the end, not every villain is defeated and not every question is answered. One still wonders about the true identity of Tavi and a few others. I'm looking forward to the sequels.

I was in college when I discovered Jean Luc Ponty. My friend Tom had a copy of Enigmatic Ocean and he played it for me and I loved Ponty's style of jazz-rock fusion.

Shortly thereafter, I headed to the local used record store to add Enigmatic Ocean, Cosmic Messenger, and Imaginary Voyage to my vinyl collection.

I spent many hours replaying these albums and others over the years; but I never had the chance to see Jean Luc in concert.

Until last night.

Jean Luc Ponty and his band played 2 sold out shows at Chicago's City Winery Monday and Tuesday night. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Monday night show.

Ponty is focusing this tour on "The Atlantic Years" - performing the songs he recorded in the 1970s and 1980s - exactly the time that I discovered him.

Ponty, now 74 years old, brings the energy of a much younger man to his performance. He played 2 sets and 1 encore over more than 2 hours, drawing music from the 1970s and 80s.

As one would expect from a craftsman like Ponty, he surrounded himself with top-notch musicians for this tour: Jamie Glaser on guitar; Wally Minko on keyboards; Baron Browne on bass; and Rayford Griffin on drums. The group was talented and tight and matched Ponty's energy.

Jean Luc did not speak much between songs, which allowed him to focus on the music; but it was good to hear he retained his accent from his youth in France.

He closed his second set with an amazing version of Enigmatic Ocean, which began slowly and ethereally before building to a rocking frenzy.

Local violinist Edgar Gabriel joined the band on stage for an encore to match Ponty's and the band's intensity for one extended song.

Jean Luc Ponty changed the way we view the violin in jazz music and he continues to turn heads today. I was happy to finally catch his energy in concert.

Links:

Jean Luc Ponty homepage

My photos

Episode 474

Ben Armstrong on Containers and Virtualization

Episode 473

Bob Waltenspiel and Dave Phillips on IT In The D

This was my fourth year in a row attending IT Camp in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Cluj is a technology hub in the heart of Transylvania. Now in its 7th year, IT Camp attracted over 500 attendees from the region.

Speakers traveled from around the world for this conference. I counted speakers from the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Norway, and (of course) Romania.

Over 500 people attended the event – most from Romania.

The conference was primarily focused on Microsoft technologies, but not exclusively so. The conference began with a speech by Emil Boc, the Mayor of Cluj-Napoca. This was the only talk delivered in Romanian, so I was not able to follow; but it was well received.

The mayor was followed by 4 keynotes:

• Mihail Rottenberg contrasted his experience starting 2 businesses - BreezeCom, a pioneering wi-fi company in the 1990s; and a winery he recently began.
• Ben Armstrong described how Microsoft's advances in virtualization are influencing their cloud strategy.
• Peter Leeson discussed how companies can measure quality
• Jayson Street related stories of security breaches around the world.

I delivered 2 presentations: Big Data Solutions in Azure; and Building Powerful Applications with Angular and TypeScript. Over 150 people crowded into my room for the  Angular presentation.

The day before IT Camp, I spoke at a local consulting company – Yonder – about how to “Own Your Own Career”.

As always, the day after IT Camp featured a cultural experience to which all the speakers and volunteers were invited. This year, we toured the salt mines in Turda, Romania.

IT Camp was a great chance to connect with a number of influencers from around the world and return to Romania, where I have many fond memories.

Agolo is using Machine Learning to match employers with the right candidates for their open jobs. I spoke with CEO Sage Wohns when I was in New York City last week.

The interview is available on DevRadio at https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/DevRadio/DR1730.

Episode 472

Jef King on The Missing Children Society of Canada

6/4
Today I am grateful for a visit to Nashville and my first time speaking at the Music City Code conference.

6/2
Today I am grateful to experience the hot chicken at Hattie B's in Nashville yesterday.

6/1
Today I am grateful for my first visit to the American Museum of Natural History.

5/31
Today I am grateful for:
-a chance to be a part of #AngularNYC's 5-year celebration
-Preston's help in debugging my demo last night.

5/30
Today I am grateful for dinner at an outdoor café in Oak Park yesterday.

5/29
Today I am grateful for an amazing week in Transylvania.

5/27
Today I am grateful for a tour of the Salina Turda salt mines in Romania yesterday.

5/26
Today I am grateful to the organizers and volunteers who invite me to Romania and #ITCamp every year.

5/25
Today I am grateful that literally everyone here speaks English.

5/24
Today I am grateful for a chance to speak at a local company in Cluj-Napoca yesterday - my first private international presentation.

5/23
Today I am grateful for: -Breakfast yesterday with Peter, Mihai, Diana, Tudor, and Noemi; -A walk around downtown Cluj, exploring historical sites; -Dinner last night with Raffaele, Andrea, and Radu

5/22
Today I am grateful for dinner last night with Radu

5/22
Today I am grateful to arrive safely in Romania.

5/21
Today I am grateful for a chance to drive my new car around town yesterday.

5/20
Today I am grateful for -a week in Seattle -sleeping in my own bed after 2 weeks on the road

5/19
Today I am grateful for a tour of the Seattle Underground yesterday.

5/18
Today, I am grateful to spend an evening in Capitol Hill with Jason, Becky, and a bunch of Canadians.

5/17
Today I am grateful to watch a Mariners game from a suite at Safeco field last night.

5/16
Today I am grateful for -Tacos and drinks in downtown Seattle with Evangelists from around the world. -The Russian evangelists who gave me a ride to my hotel last night

5/15
Today I am grateful for lunch with Jeff yesterday in downtown Seattle.

5/14
Today I am grateful for: -a visit with my mother yesterday -dinner last night with my brother and his family to celebrate his son's birthday.

5/13
Today I am grateful for: -The opportunity to deliver a keynote at the Convergence conference in Detroit yesterday -Coffee with Richard yesterday morning -Dinner at Texas de Brazil last night

5/12
Today I am grateful for drinks and dinner in downtown Detroit last night with Michael, Aydin, Paul, and others.

5/11
Today I am grateful to complete a user group tour of 4 Iowa cities in 3 days.

5/10
Today I am grateful for a visit to the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville yesterday.

5/9
Today I am grateful for my first visit to Iowa.

5/8
Monday, May 8, 2017 at 7:27am CDT
Today I am grateful for a chance to finally edit the photos I've taken the past couple months.

Episode 471

Chris Heilmann on Progressive Web Apps

By now, you have probably seen the 1987 movie based on this book (If not, stop reading and go watch it now. You're welcome). The plot of the movie follows closely the book on which it was based. This is not surprising; William Goldman wrote both the novel and the screenplay. But the backstory of Goldman's life and reactions is much richer in the written version.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman is a story within a story.

In "The Princess Bride", William Goldman invents a fictitious novel by a fictitious author (S. Morgenstern) about a fictitious "historic" event in a fictitious country centuries ago. He then invents the story of how his father would read this book to him when he was a boy. When fictional Goldman buys the same book for his fictional son, he discovers that his father had been skipping all the boring parts, which are considerable. This, Goldman claims, was his motivation for creating an abridged and annotated version of Morgenstern's work. The result is a story within a story - a fairy tale wrapped by a family story.

In the fairy tale, young farmhand Westley falls in love with the beautiful Buttercup. He leaves Buttercup's family farm to seek his fortune. When news reaches Buttercup that Westley has been killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts, she agrees to marry the wicked Prince Humperdinck.

Along the way, Goldman introduces a menagerie of memorable characters - most notably Fezik, the Giant, who loves to make rhymes; and Inigo the Spaniard, who is obsessed with finding and killing the 6-fingered man who killed his father.

It's a fairy tale; it's an adventure story; it's a tale of political intrigue; but, most of all, it's a love story between a farmer's daughter turned princess and a farm boy turned pirate turned rescuer.

It's silly and it's fun and (spoiler alert) it has a happy ending.

Episode 470

J Tower on Communication Skills for Engineers

Episode 469

Anne Bougie on Azure Storage Options

I was told there would be corn. I did not see one ear of corn.

Last week, I made my first visit ever to Iowa. In 3 days, I drove over 500 miles from Chicago to Dubuque to Cedar Falls to Cedar Rapids to Iowa City to Des Moines.  Between 6PM Monday and 8PM Wednesday (just 50 hours), I spoke at 4 user groups ion 4 different cities

This trip came about as my friend Javier and I were chatting online recently about upcoming speaking opportunities. He invited me to speak at his user group in Des Moines and I asked if he could connect me with other groups in Iowa.

I entered Iowa by crossing the Mississippi from Illinois at Dubuque and I was surprised by the landscape. Cliffs rose along the river and and rolling hills marked the landscape for miles on either side. This contradicted my mental image of Iowa as hundreds of miles of flat prairie and farmland.

The Dubuque group was small but engaged. I talked about Cognitive Services, which is an exciting technology and fun to talk about. The only issue I had was the at Microsoft changed the Cognitive Services web site the day before m presentation and I found it difficult to find some of the features I wanted to show off.

Tuesday morning, I drove to Dyersville, IA to see the site where the 1989 film Field of Dreams was filmed. The Lansing family still owns the farm and continues to maintain the iconic baseball field carved out of the corn field by Kevin Costner. They built it; I came.

I continued for a lunchtime presentation on Angular and TypeScript at the Cedar Valley .NET User Group in Cedar Falls. This was another small group, but I enjoyed it - in part because it was held in the back room of a restaurant that served excellent pizza.

Tuesday evening found me in Cedar Rapids for the CRINETA group, where I give another presentation on Cognitive Services. The room was full as the organizers cross-promoted with the local SQL PASS user group.

Wednesday morning, I stopped in Iowa City for lunch near the University of Iowa before heading west toward Des Moines. This was the most stressful part of the trip as I drove through a driving rainstorm surrounded by semi trucks.

But I arrived in Des Moines for the Iowa .NET User Group and spoke to a packed room on Angular and TypeScript.

I delivered the following presentations at the following user groups in the following cities:

It was a great experience and I enjoyed meeting people and engaging local developer communities and seeing the sites and driving across the prairie.

Now, I have to return when the corn is in season.

Episode 468

David Washington on Home Automation

5/7
Today I am grateful for:
-My son Tim graduating from Indiana University yesterday
-Guy King concert last night at Buddy Guy's Legends with Kevin Remde

5/6
Today I am grateful for dinner last night with Ondrej and J.

5/5
Today I am grateful to complete all the paperwork on my car yesterday.

5/4
Today I am grateful for dinner with Hadi last night.

5/3
Today I am grateful for:
-dinner last night at Untitled Supper Club
-a chance to meet Java developers from all over the world

5/2
Today I am grateful for my first time speaking at GoTo Chicago

5/1
Today I am grateful for:
-My first visit to the Baha'i temple in Wilmette yesterday
-Drinks last night with Bryan and other out-of-state Azure experts planning a workshop in Chicago tomorrow.

4/30
Today I am grateful for dinner, drinks, and fellowship last night in Kalamazoo, MI with old friends - especially Jim Holmes.

4/29
Today I am grateful to complete a project yesterday working with an excellent startup for the past 2 months.

4/28
Today I am grateful for tacos 3 days in a row!

4/27
Today I am grateful for dinner last night at Mercadito with teammates from around the country.

4/26
Today I am grateful for an internal hackathon to practice writing a full application.

4/25
Today I am grateful for dinner last night with Shahed, Sarah, and Ross.

4/24
Today I am grateful for:
-breakfast yesterday with Derek
-lunch yesterday with Lee

4/23
Today I am grateful for:
-My first time speaking at the Twin Cities Code Camp
-My 5th time at the Global Azure Boot Camp

4/22
Today I am grateful for my new car.

4/21
Today, I am grateful to Dan, who delivered an excellent presentation on health care data yesterday at UIUC and made me look good for inviting him.

4/20
Today I am grateful to the organizers, volunteers, speakers, and panelists who made the first Chicago Machine Learning Venture Capital Summit a success.

4/19
Today I am grateful for my first workshop at DePaul University

4/18
Today I am grateful to Mike, Mitch, and Lance for organizing & speaking at the Visual Studio Best of Launch event yesterday.

4/17
Today I am grateful to have my sons in town for Easter weekend.

4/16
Today I am grateful that God sent his only son to redeem us all.

4/15
Today I am grateful for coffee with Dave and Bobbi this morning.

4/14
Today I am grateful to see Eric Church in concert last night.

4/13
Today I am grateful for 2 user groups in 1 night.

4/12
Today I am grateful for lunch with Hao yesterday.

4/11
Today I am grateful for:
-Dinner with Tim last night
-The mechanic who quickly fixed my car yesterday and only charged me $20.

4/10
Today I am grateful for a weekend mini-vacation in Madison, WI.

4/9
Today I am grateful for a walk and drive around Lake Mendota yesterday.

4/8
Today I am grateful for all the people I met at dinner last night in Madison.

4/7
Today I am grateful to those who taught me and inspired me to learn more and do more.

4/6
Today I am grateful to speak at MadDotNet for the first time yesterday.

4/5
Today I am grateful that there is always something new to learn.

4/4
Today I am grateful for lunch with Aalap yesterday.

4/3
Today I am grateful to spend the weekend in East Lansing with some of my oldest friends, celebrating Patrick's retirement.

Yesterday, I showed how to automatically generate lorem ipsum text in a Word document. While this is useful for showing what a document layout will look like with text in the appropriate places, you may prefer actual English words to the pseudo-language of lorem ipsum.

To generate paragraphs of English text, enter the following on an empty line of your document

=rand()

Press ENTER and the text above will be replaced by the following:

Video provides a powerful way to help you prove your point. When you click Online Video, you can paste in the embed code for the video you want to add. You can also type a keyword to search online for the video that best fits your document.

To make your document look professionally produced, Word provides header, footer, cover page, and text box designs that complement each other. For example, you can add a matching cover page, header, and sidebar. Click Insert and then choose the elements you want from the different galleries.

Themes and styles also help keep your document coordinated. When you click Design and choose a new Theme, the pictures, charts, and SmartArt graphics change to match your new theme. When you apply styles, your headings change to match the new theme.

Save time in Word with new buttons that show up where you need them. To change the way a picture fits in your document, click it and a button for layout options appears next to it. When you work on a table, click where you want to add a row or a column, and then click the plus sign.

Reading is easier, too, in the new Reading view. You can collapse parts of the document and focus on the text you want. If you need to stop reading before you reach the end, Word remembers where you left off - even on another device.

I have confirmed that this works in Word 2016.

Here is a Microsoft Word feature I recently learned.

For sample documents, it is often useful to insert some meaningless text to fill sections of the document. This is especially useful when you are just starting a document and you don't have any content yet, but want to show how the completed document's layout will look. A popular method is to use "lorem ipsum" text filler - paragraphs of nonsense words that have similar word size and letter selections as English.

In Microsoft Word, you can quickly create a section of lorem ipsum text.

Type the following on an empty line of your document and press ENTER:

=lorem()

The entry above will be replaced with the following text, which you may delete or copy-paste to adjust the length.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet commodo magna eros quis urna.

Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus.

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Proin pharetra nonummy pede. Mauris et orci.

Aenean nec lorem. In porttitor. Donec laoreet nonummy augue.

Suspendisse dui purus, scelerisque at, vulputate vitae, pretium mattis, nunc. Mauris eget neque at sem venenatis eleifend. Ut nonummy.

I am using Word 2016, but this appears to work on older versions as well.

Episode 467

Matt Soucoup on What's New in Xamarin

Episode 466

Heather Downing on Alexa, Web API, and Azure