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

The next couple months include lots of travel and lots of presentations

Episode 465

Jaidev Kunjur on Enterprise Integration

Episode 464

Ed Charbeneau on Machine Learning and the Full Stack Developer

I spoke recently with CVP Erich Andersen and Director of Marketing for Azure Tanuj Bansal about the Microsoft Azure IP Advantage program, that assists companies with patent issues.

Watch below or click here.

Episode 463

Vibhu Bhutani on IoT Projects

4/2
Today I am grateful for an opportunity to finally offer a long-overdue apology. And that it was accepted.

4/1
Today I am grateful that everything on the Internet is true!

3/31
Today I am grateful for lunch with Dan yesterday.

3/30
Today I am grateful to reconnect with old friends and to meet some new ones in Indianapolis yesterday.

3/29
Today I am grateful to spend yesterday with Ted.

3/28
Today I am grateful that we were close to a gas station when we ran out of gas.

3/27
Today I am grateful for drinks with Mike last night.

3/26
Today I am grateful to the organizers and volunteers at yesterday's Global Integration Boot Camp.

3/25
Today I am grateful to kick off a new project with a local startup.

3/24
Today I am grateful to see Al Stewart in concert last night and to meet him after the show.

3/23
Today I am grateful to see Kris Kristofferson in concert last night.

3/22
Today I am grateful that some people want to hear me talk.

3/21
Today I am grateful for the vibrant startup community in Chicago.

3/20
Today I am grateful for springtime.

3/19
Today I am grateful that Tim came to visit me this weekend.

3/18
Today I am grateful for a couple days back in Kentucky.

3/17
Today I am grateful for dinner with Ed last night in Louisville.

3/16
Today I am grateful for dinner last night with Mike and Lee.

3/15
Today I am grateful for:
-Attendees who told me they enjoyed the IoT camp last night
-New running shoes, thanks to Nick

3/14
Today I am grateful I can work from home when I need to.

3/13
Today I am grateful to Bret for his help getting me through these IoT labs on a Sunday night.

3/12
Today I am grateful for dinner and a movie last night with Emilija and Larissa.

3/11
Today I am grateful to see Delbert McClinton in concert last night.

3/10
Today I am grateful for an evening with my team at Second City yesterday.

3/9
Today I am grateful for breakfast with Angela yesterday.

3/8
Today I am grateful to see Marcia Ball in concert last night and to meet her after the show.

3/7
Today I am grateful for lunch with Hao yesterday.

3/6
Today I am grateful to all those who chose to listen to my presentation on a Sunday afternoon, even though the weather was nice and they had other options.

Phèdre nó Delaunay was a woman of extraordinary beauty, born with a single flaw - a speck of red in one of her eyes. At first, society shuns Phèdre for this imperfection; but a nobleman recognizes the red moat as a sign from the fallen angel Kushiel that Phèdre was born with special talents. He buys her and begins her training to put those talents to use.

It turns out that her talents are to be really good in bed and the ability to derive sexual pleasure from pain. Her training prepares her to become a high-priced prostitute to be passed around among the court nobles. It seems a harsh fate, but in the land of Terre D'Ange, where Phèdre lives, casual sex is the norm. The people of Terre D'Ange live by the motto "Love as thou wilt" and Phèdre is devoted to her master and sees her sexual romps as a tribute to her god.

Everything is great until her master is murdered and Phèdre is captured by Vikings, who carry her off and make a sex slave of her. She is still turned on by their cruelty, but at least she feels bad about that.

Jacqueline Carey's first novel Kushiel's Dart weaves a story of political intrigue and sex. Lots of sex. Mostly S&M sex.

Carey creates a world much like early Renaissance Europe and follows the upper class of a city founded by the demigod Elua and a group of fallen angels. The current residents of Terre D'Ange are the descendants of those angels.

The story doesn't get going until the murder/kidnapping and the escape and recapture and war that follow, but it takes nearly 500 pages to get that far. Until that point, it's aristocrats flirting and spying and backstabbing and having sex.

It's supposed to be a high fantasy novel but reads more like a sex fantasy novella. Even though Terre d'Ange was founded by fallen angels and demigods, we get only a couple brief encounters with supernatural beings and those don't occur until about two-thirds of the way through the novel.

I liked the interweaving political plots of Kushiel's Dart. But I grew weary of the frequent sexual exploits. It was meant to be a High Fantasy novel, but at times reads like a sex fantasy novella. In this day and age, I can get my soft-core pornography too easily to be aroused by throwing in a bondage scene every few pages of a novel.

Episode 462

Aaron Lerch on Hacking for Good

I was 16 years old when I got my first real job. The day I received my first real paycheck, I drove from work to the bank to local record store and bought Al Stewart's Year of the Cat LP. I took it home and played it repeatedly, memorizing every word of every song on both sides.

Nearly 4 decades later, I finally had a chance to see Al Stewart live - Thursday evening at the City Winery. And here's the kicker: He played the entire Year of the Cat album! Every song, in the same order as on the album. It was like getting a visit from an old friend. The concert transported me back to my teen years, listening to my LP on my parent's Wi-Fi at top volume in the family basement.

In between each song, Stewart explained something about the song's meaning or told a story of its origin. He was surprised that a song about the Rhodesian civil war (On the Border) would become a top 40 hit; All airplane metaphors in Flying Sorcery are about the ending of a relationship; Broadway Hotel often inspires each audience member to attempt to seduce the attractive stranger next to him or her.

Stewart was backed by the local Chicago band Empty Pockets, which also opened the show with a short set of their own. They were joined by Marc Macisso on flute, harmonica and saxophone - most notably saxophone which he wielded with power and passion.

The band played a few songs before and after the complete Year of the Cat set, including his other hit Time Passages. But it was the re-playing of the album that we all came to hear. And that we all enjoyed.

More photos of this concert

I took a chance. The show had been sold out for over a month. But I drove to the City Winery in the West Loop anyway. And I was rewarded with a ticket close to the stage. And I was not disappointed.

Kristofferson played for 2 hours with a very brief (maybe 10 minutes?) intermission. He played

He didn't bring a band. Just himself and his guitar and harmonica. It was enough.

At 80 years old, Kris Kristofferson still carries an impressive stage presence. There were a few missed notes on his guitar, and a few missed high or low notes in his vocal range, but his wit and charm more than made up for any shortcomings brought on by his age.

For Kristofferson, it has never been about his singing or his playing. It was always about his music and his storytelling. And he captivated a packed house Wednesday night on stage. He sang love songs and drinking songs and ballads and each one struck the audience as if the story were written and sang only for each of us.

My only complaint is that he apologized too much for any lapses in his musical technique. The audience didn't care. They wanted to hear him sing his stories.

And he did.

And I'm glad I was there to see and hear it.

Photos of the concert

Episode 461

Chris Woodruff on Electron

Episode 460

Gary Short on A Chicken Counting Algorithm

Delbert McClinton has recorded dozens of albums over the past 45 years, but it was always his live shows that brought him the most praise.

Friday night, McClinton brought that live performance to S.P.A.C.E. in Evanston. For over 2 hours, he entertained a packed room with a mix of originals and cover songs.

McClinton has a devoted audience and all night long this crowd shouted requests and sang along to lyrics they had memorized.

Now, in his 70s, McClinton still has the powerful, gritty voice that made him the ultimate Texas roadhouse singer. What he has lost in range he makes up for with emotion.

For this show, Delbert's only instruments were his voice and his harmonicas. But he was backed by an outstanding 7-piece band, highlighted by Bob Britt on guitar, Kevin McKendree on keyboards, Dana Robbins on saxophone, and Quentin Ware on trumpet. This was a group of top-notch musicians who complemented one another very well. Instead of an intermission, Delbert stepped off the stage for 10-15 minutes in the middle of the show and allowed his band to play a trio of songs without him.

Delbert McClinton is often cited as the definitive Texas roadhouse musician. And Friday, he showed us why. Powerful vocals, a tight band, and a connection with the audience in an intimate venue made me glad I finally saw him live after listening to his recordings for years.

Marcia Ball rocks. Her songs rock. Her band rocks.

And Tuesday night in Chicago, she and her quintet rocked the City Winery in Chicago's West Loop. For over 2 hours, she played her Texas mix of stride piano, boogie-woogie, rockabilly, and the blues. Lots of blues

Ball showed off a powerful voice that could not possibly come out of his tall, slender woman. But even more impressive were her keyboard skills. When she sits at a piano, she owns it. Her band wasn't far behind, led by excellent guitarist Mike Schermer and outstanding saxophonist Eric Bernhardt. Each stepped to the front frequently for skillful solos.

Ball sang mostly originals from throughout her long career and from her latest album – The Tattooed Lady and the Alligator Man; but she mixed in a few cover songs, such as Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927 and Frankie Ford's Sea Cruise.

This was the last night of a long tour before she and her band head home; but they brought energy that night and the crowd fed off it.

If you get a chance, go see Marcia Bell. You will not regret it.

In the 1960s Booker T and the MGs pioneered the Memphis Soul sound, recording numerous hit records. In the decades since, Booker T. Jones has recorded and produced countless records with the likes of Neil Young, Drive-By Truckers, Ray Charles, and Albert King.

Today, Booker T is in his 70s and still going strong.

I had the pleasure of seeing his current band at S.P.A.C.E. in Evanston. Although not a long show (about 80 minutes total), he delighted the crowd with a top-notch performance by him and his band.

Of course, they played the hits of the MGs, such as Hip-Hug-Her, Hang ‘em High, Soul Limbo, and their first and biggest hit Green Onions; And they played music he is associated with, such as Born Under a Bad Sign, which he co-wrote for Albert King, and Grandma's Hands, which he produced for Bill Withers; but they also performed a number of cover songs, spanning genres from Outkast's hip-hop hit Hey Ya to Muddy Waters's blues classic Mannish Boy.

I was surprised to see Jones step out from behind his signature organ and play some songs on guitar and perform lead vocals on some.

Jones's band - a quartet of drums, guitar, bass, and organ - is highlighted by his son Ted on guitar. Ted has an engaging stage presence and is a solid musician like his father. Booker and Ted performed a moving rendition of Prince's Purple Rain together as the other 2 band members left the stage.

Booker T Jones has received numerous honors throughout his career. He has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy and is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

And Saturday night in Evanston, I finally got to see him perform live.

Episode 459

Maggie Pint on JS Foundation

3/5
Today I am grateful to see Booker T. Jones in concert last night in Evanston.

3/4
Today I am grateful for a long-overdue haircut.

3/3
Today I am grateful that the worst cold in 5 years is now behind me.

3/2
Today I am grateful for all the birthday wishes yesterday - especially to those who took the time to call or send a personal message.

3/1
Today I am grateful
-to all those who braved the storm last night to hear the world premiere of my Big Data on Azure presentation
-that I made it home safely last night, avoiding tornados in the area

2/28
Today I am grateful to attend a very interesting Diversity Panel last night in Chicago.

2/27
Today I am grateful to the organizers, volunteers, student hackers, and mentors who worked so hard to made #HackIllinois excellent this past weekend.

2/26
Today I am grateful for the number of students who were inspired enough to use the technologies I showed in my workshops yesterday.

2/25
Today I am grateful for medicine to battle this cold - especially when I want to sleep.

2/24
Today I am grateful to the lady who pointed out the approaching meter maid yesterday in time for me to move my car.

2/23
Today I am grateful for dinner in Chicago last night with my team.

2/22
Today I am grateful to Mostafa for volunteering his time yesterday and providing me valuable feedback on my presentation.

2/21
Today I am grateful for coffee with Kasia yesterday.

2/20
Today I am grateful for dinner last night in Little Italy with Gary and Patricia.

2/19
Today I am grateful for dinner and a movie last night with Emilija and Larissa.

2/18
Today I am grateful for: -Lunch with Jaidev yesterday -A drink with Beckyy last night

2/17
Today I am grateful for my first time speaking at the Northwest Chicago JavaScript meetup.

2/16
Today I am grateful for a chance to finally edit some of the photos I've taken in the past few months.

2/15
Today I am grateful for a 6-course gourmet meal last night at River Valley Farmers Table.

2/14
Today I am grateful I've completed the coursework for the Xamarin certification.

2/13
Today I am grateful to discover 2 new coffee houses in my neighborhood yesterday.

2/12
Today I am grateful to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo in concert last night.

2/11
Today I am grateful to complete my passport application after numerous false starts.

2/10
Today I am grateful to people who ask me questions and to people who answer my questions.

2/9
Today I am grateful for dinner with Esteban last night.

2/8
Today I am grateful to Christina, who brought me some homemade soup yesterday.

2/7
Today I am grateful for:
-A first visit to a new gym yesterday
-A long walk in Chicago in my shorts last night. In February!

2/6
Today I am grateful to watch an exciting Super Bowl yesterday.

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is an Epic Fantasy, a Coming-of-Age story; and a story of Political intrigue.

It is the story of FitzChivalry Farseer. Fitz is the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, who is heir to the throne of the Six Duchies kingdom.

At the age of 6, the nameless boy is unceremoniously delivered to the castle of his birth father, where he is raised by the king's stablemaster.

Fitz has magical gifts - the ability to communicate telepathically with both animals and humans, which sometimes helps him and sometimes marks him for the hatred of others (along with his illegitimate birth). When his grandfather King Shrewd takes notice of the boy, he orders that he be trained as an assassin.

The climax occurs when, as a teenager, Fitz is ordered to kill the innocent prince of a neighboring kingdom. He must balance his duty to his king with his own conscience and his loyalty to those around him.

It's a complex story with many subplots and many well-developed characters. It's often difficult to tell who is loyal and who is conspiring against our hero.

Assassin's Apprentice is Book 1 of the Farseer Trilogy, which is the first of several trilogies and novels Hobb has written about Fitz and his universe. I plan to return to this series in a few months. For now, I am savoring this volume.

The story of Christianity is the story of Jesus Christ – his birth, his life, his trials, his death, his message, and his resurrection.

In Jesus on Death Row, Mark Osler walks us through the biblical story of Jesus's trial, conviction, and execution; and compares it to the criminal justice system in the United States of today.

Osler draws upon the 4 Gospels for the details of Jesus's trial; and upon his own experience as a prosecutor (he is now a law professor) for analogous stories in today's legal system.
   
The similarities are often striking.

Many practices of Jesus's time persist today. Prosecutors still rely on paid informants to bolster their case as the Pharisees famously paid 30 silver coins to Judas Iscariot; the appeal process of today, although slower, is not unlike the process that Jesus went through as he was brought before the Jewish Elders, Pontius Pilate, and Herod; Arrests today are often made when a suspect is vulnerable and unprotected, which is how Jesus was arrested at night in the garden.

There are differences, of course. Crucifixion was an extremely painful way to die and would not pass today's ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

Osler discusses the last meal of prisoners, which is probably the death row event with which average people can most easily identify. He notes that Jesus's last supper the night before his execution was well documented in the gospels and is a key event in Christian history.

Jesus on Death Row leaves the reader with a sense of uneasiness about the death penalty, which is a final and irrevocable sentence - particularly as we see it applied to Jesus Christ, who was guilty of no violent crime. This undercurrent isn't surprising as Professor Osler spends part of his time fighting for the rights of inmates on death row.

I found the book fascinating. I've read the Gospels, but not with an eye toward the legal aspects and how they compare with today's law. "Jesus on Death Row" gave me a new perspective on an old and familiar topic.

Last week, Ed Charbeneau interviewed me for his Eat Sleep Dev podcast. The topic was Cognitive Services – a technology I’m passionate about.

You can listen to that interview below.

Episode 458

Bryan Soltis on Azure Search

Last week, I delivered a presentation on Angular 2 and TypeScript at the Northwest Chicago JavaScript meetup. The organizers recorded my presentation, which you can watch here or below.

Episode 457

Jeff Strauss on ECMAScript 6

Yesterday, I posted a list of community technical events in the US Central Region.

I thought this would be a useful reference to those who want to attend or speak at conferences. This is a living document as I learn about more conferences and as conferences announce their dates.

The problem with this post is that it is time-stamped and will farther and farther down the list of posts as the months pass. So I created a copy of this list and pinned it to the top of my site. You can reach this list at any time by clicking the “Tech Events” tab at the top of each page. Or you can just click here.

Here is a list of community technical events (conferences, code camps, etc.) in the US Central Region. I have listed the dates, if they are published. If no 2017 date is published, my estimate is based on last year’s date. I provided a link to each event’s home page so you can check the latest information directly from the source.

Please let me know if I am missing any.

Last week, Ladysmith Black Mambazo brought a bit of South Africa to Chicago. The vocal group performed at The Old Town School of Folk Music Saturday February 11.

LBM was formed by Joseph Shabalala in Ladysmith, South Africa in 1964. Shabalala did not make this trip, but a number of his sons still perform with the 8-man group. Westerners learned of their talents in the 1980s when they recorded the classic "Graceland" album with Paul Simon; but they have been touring and recording on their own for decades. Their tight harmonies and blend of African and western music make them appealing to audiences all over the world.

LBM delighted the audience in a too-short (about 80 minutes) performance before a sold-out theater. They blended harmonies and melodies and humor and Zulu dancing to entertain us. There were no instruments because there was no need for instruments.

They sang some songs in English and some in the Zulu language. "Homeless" and "Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes" from "Graceland" were crowd pleasers; but most of the night consisted of traditional African songs and their own compositions. For most songs, a different member of the band would step to the front of the stage to sing lead, while the remaining 7 harmonized behind him. Some songs were accompanied by coordinated Zulu dances.

The night concluded with a stirring rendition of "Amazing Grace".

Ladysmith Black Mambazo has long been on my list of bands to see live. Now I can cross them off the Bucket List. Until the next time they come to town.

Photos

I have a busy speaking schedule coming up. Here are the confirmed events as of today.

Episode 456

Rachel Weil on Connected NES

When I worked in consulting, part of my job was to interview potential new hires. This often included a technical screening. Here are a few of the questions I would ask on Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

What is the difference between an object and a class?

An object is an instance of a class. A class is a template - or blueprint - that describes what an object based on it will look like and behave. Further, objects have a defined lifetime - they are created and eventually destroyed; not so with classes.

What is encapsulation?

Encapsulation is an OOP principle describing an object hiding its implementation details form the outside world.

What is inheritance?

Inheritance describes a class that is derived from another class or from an interface. The derived class (or child class) inherits the properties and methods of the parent class or interface from which it is derived.

What is polymorphism?

Polymorphism describes to objects that can accept the same message (e.g., the same method call with the same parameters) and respond differently, but appropriately to that message. For example, a Customer class and an Invoice class may each have a "Print" method. Calling the Customer's print method could print a report listing details about the current customer, whereas calling the Invoice's Print method might print a specific invoice.  Polymorphism can be accomplished by implementing the same interface in multiple classes.

What is the difference between a Class and an Interface?

Although each can serve as a templates for inherited classes, an Interface includes only the names and signatures of properties and methods, whereas a class also includes the implantation of each method and property.

The world of Sunshine is filled with demons and werewolves and a variety of monsters. But the most dangerous creatures are the vampires - undead creatures who prey on humans at night.

Sunshine is kidnapped by vampires and finds herself chained next to the starving vampire Constantine, who is also a chained prisoner of her captors.

Together, they escape their prison. Sunshine returns to her life but the authorities and her family want her to explain where she has been and how she was able to escape from these creatures (No one ever escapes vampires).

Throughout the book, Sunshine and Constantine and a few human and half-human allies fight a battle against evil and powerful vampires. Along the way, she finds herself drawn to Constantine and learning about her own powers. She wrestles with her identity as she can no longer live the simple life of working in a bakery.

I liked the story and I liked the characters. Sunshine is strong, but flawed. The writing is sometimes rambling but that's ok, because it's written in the first person and that's how Sunshine thinks. Constantine is menacing and distant and alien. But he is likeable. And he strives to understand Sunshine, which sets him apart from the others of his breed.

Sunshine is a good story for those who want a new twist on an old legend without the triteness too often associated with this genre.

If you are interested in speaking at a conference, many of them are currently accepting submissions. Below are some open calls for presentations in and around the Central Region. I have submitted to speak at some of them, so maybe I will see you there.

Managing Big Data takes a lot of process power. Data often needs to be captured, scrubbed, merged, and queried and each of these things can take many hours of compute time. But often they can be performed in parallel - reducing the amount of time, but increasing the number of computers required.

You could buy a bunch of computers, cluster them, and process your data on this process. But this is expensive and these computers are likely to sit idle most of the time.

Cloud Computing tends to be an ideals solution for most Big Data processing because you can rent the servers you need and only pay for them while they are running.

Microsoft Azure offers a full suite of Big Data tools. These tools are based on the popular Hadoop open source project and are collectively known as "HD Insight".

HBase

HBase is a NoSQL data store that is optimized for big data. Unlike SQL Server and other relational databases, the database does not enforce referential integrity, pre-defined schemas, or auto-generated keys. The developer must code these features into the client application. Because the database doesn't need to worry about these things, inputting data tends to be much faster than in a relational database.

HBase also can be scaled to store petabytes of data.

Storm

Apache Storm is a framework that allows you to build workflow engines against real-time data. This is ideal for scenarios like collecting IoT data. The Storm topology consists of a Stream, which is a container that holds a Spout and one or more Bolts. A Spout is a component that accepts data into the Stream and hands it off to Bolts. Each Bolt takes in data; preforms some discrete actions, such as cleaning up the data or looking up values from IDs; and passes data onto one or more other Bolts. Data is passed as "Tuples", which are sets of name-value pairs formatted as JSON. You can write your code in C#, Java, or Python and a Visual Studio template helps you create these components.

Hive

Hive is a data warehouse. With it, you can query NoSQL data (such as Hive) and relational data (such as SQL Server). Hive ships with a query language - HiveQL - that is similar to SQL. Where HiveQL falls short, you can even write user-defined functions to perform more complex calculations.

Spark

Spark is a visualization tool. In Spark, you can write code in R, Python, or Scala. Jupyter notebooks are a popular interactive tools that allow you to create templates consisting of text and code, so that you can generate real-time reports. Jupyter notebooks support both Python and Scala. Spark also ships with a number of libraries that make it easier to connect to data, create graphs, and perform a number of other tasks.

Clusters

Each of the services described above supports running in clusters of servers. In a cluster, these servers process in parallel, greatly reducing the amount of time required to process the data.  You can easily create a cluster in the portal or you can write a script in PowerShell or CLI.

The ease of creating clusters is a big advantage of running HD Insight over deploying your own Hadoop servers and clustering them yourself. Of course, the other advantage is that you do not have to purchase and maintain servers that are only being used occasionally, which can be a big cost saving.

Warning

One word of caution about using these services. You pay for each server in a cluster by the minute. This can quickly add up. Typically, you don't need to have your cluster running for very long in order to complete tasks, so it is a good idea to shut them down when they are finished. Because of this, it's a good idea to script the creation and deletion of your cluster to make it easy to perform these tasks.

Episode 455

Abi Iyer and Jen Anderson on Azure support for Red Hat Linux

2/5
Today I am grateful for checks and balances and those who believe in them.

2/4
Today I am grateful for a trip to Milwaukee, including a visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum yesterday.

2/3
Today I am grateful for a chance to spend time alone with those I care about.

2/2
Today I am grateful for high productivity days.

2/1
Today I am grateful to the countless immigrants and children of immigrants who contributed to the greatness of my country.

1/30
Today I am grateful for good dental care, good dental insurance, and healthy teeth.

1/29
Today I am grateful for a Microsoft party last night at Shedd Aquarium.

1/28
Today I am grateful I was able to attend Pam's funeral yesterday with Jim and his family.

1/27
Today I am grateful to Sara for driving me from San Francisco to Oregon yesterday.

1/26
Today I am grateful for all the crap I threw away yesterday when going through boxes in my closet.

1/25
Today I am grateful to Dan for driving down to Champaign on his own time yesterday to help me help out me and some professors.

1/24
Today I am grateful for a number of successful meetings with university professors.

1/23
Today I am grateful for my new MacBook Pro.

1/22
Today I am grateful to attend a Webb Wilder concert in Chicago last night.

1/21
Today I am grateful for how much better my life is - in almost every way - than it was a decade ago.

1/20
Today I am grateful I was able to get a last-minute ticket to the Microsoft Tech Summit at McCormick Place this week.

1/19
Today I am grateful for the wonderful imagination of Neil Gaiman.

1/18
Today I am grateful for -a record crowd at the Wisconsin .NET User Group last night -Hao helping me tweak my Angular presentation yesterday

1/17
Today I am grateful for lunch with Brian yesterday.

1/16
Today I am grateful to see Buddy Guy in concert last night at his own club - Buddy Guy's Legends.

1/15
Today I am grateful we made it home safely after a long drive yesterday.

1/14
Today I am grateful to all who have built the #CodeMash conference and made it such a great event.

1/13
Today I am grateful for: -Visiting a Japanese steakhouse with my team -An evening at a waterpark

1/12
Today I am grateful for the overwhelming generosity of the tech community.

1/11
Today I am grateful for friends who want to help and support one another when tragedy strikes.

1/10
Today I am grateful for: -A return to #MIGANG last night -Driving 400 miles in an SUV with 7 smart people -Jason driving our excess luggage to Sandusky, OH.

1/9
Today I am grateful to find time to get together on a very busy Sunday.

1/8
Today I am grateful for a full day with Tim Giard.

1/7
Today I am grateful for an evening at Second City with Tim Giard.

1/6
Today I am grateful for my first presentation of 2017 last night.

1/5
Today I am grateful for the infinite possibilities of 2017!

1/4
Today I am grateful for a desire to continually learn new things.

1/3
Today I am grateful for: -An evening spent browsing in a Lincoln Square book store -Finally seeing Rogue One last night

1/2
Today I am grateful for -a night at the movies watching La La Land -unexpected free parking when I exited the structure last night

We were at CodeMash this year when we heard the news.

The news was about our friend Jim Holmes, the man who started CodeMash and ran it until a couple years ago. Jim had just lost his wife - killed in a violent incident. Obviously, Jim was not coming to CodeMash as planned; he turned around headed back home.

Meanwhile, us - his friends - were left in shock. We were fortunate that we had each other to talk to and help one another deal with this tragedy.

It was a helpless feeling. We wanted to do something. I wanted to do something.

Although I did not know Pam well, Jim has been a friend and mentor since we first met at a Red Robin in Columbus, OH in 2007. Over the years, Jim has done me a number of personal kindnesses - some large and some small and he has done much to help the software community in general.

We began with a fundraising effort. We created a campaign on gofundme.com, allowing friends and others to contribute some money to Jim's family - money to allow him take time off work and focus on his family and dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy. I was overwhelmed to see the campaign raise over $30,000 in the first week. It now stands at over $40,000. As the administrator, I found myself adjusting the campaign goal upward 4 different times.

It helped me to see the outpouring of love and cash from those who felt a connection with Jim. It helped me to deal with the helplessness I was feeling.

But it wasn't enough.

When I learned the funeral details, I wanted to attend. But there was a problem. In 2015, Jim and his family moved to Ashland - a small town in southwest Oregon. Every airline route I found consisted of 3 flights and a full day of flying. When I heard that Sara Ford was driving up from her home in San Francisco, I reached out to her and asked if she wanted company. I booked a flight to SFO and Sara picked me up and we drove the 400 miles together.

Ashland, OR is a difficult place to get to - especially from the Midwest. CodeMash takes place in the Midwest and flights from Midwestern cities to small-town Oregon are difficult to arrange. As a result, very few from the developer community were able to take time off work on short notice and spend a full day traveling there and a full day traveling home. So Sara and I arrived at the funeral carrying greetings sympathy and hugs and love from many who could not make it. We were fortunate to have flexible schedules. But we had the responsibility to tell Jim and his family what they already knew - that those he knew and those he helped over the years were thinking of him and his family and praying for them all.

The funeral was sad of course. But it was not all sad. The Eulogy was read by the minister who married Jim and Pam a quarter century ago. And he spoke a lot about love and forgiveness - even for the one who killed Pam. I've heard Jim echo these thoughts and it's an attitude that not everyone takes and it's refreshing and humbling.

For me, the hardest part of the service was seeing Pam's mother say goodbye to her daughter. It brought back memories of my mother dealing with the death of my sister 7 years ago.

I spoke at length with Jim's parents and some of his siblings, who I found to be charming people. I was able to offer my condolences to Pam's mother and daughter. I met many of the Wolosz and Holmes family and I was impressed with them all.

We attended the funeral and the reception afterward, before getting back in the car and driving back to San Francisco, so I could catch an early morning flight home. I flew about 4500 miles and drove about 800 miles in less than 2 and a half days. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm really glad I went. I think it helped Jim that I was there. But I know it helped me.