Xamarin MVVM apps with Gill Cleeren

At the Nebraska Code Camp, Carl and Richard moderated a panel discussion with Mads Kristensen, Lee Brandt, Josh Broton, and Robert Boedigheimer exploring the state of web development on the Microsoft stack. Of course, the first topic is the upcoming ASP.NET vNext and its switch over to open source, along the way letting go of some legacy features including Web Forms. The panel also discussed various JavaScript libraries, when they should be used and when plain old VanillaJS is a better way to go. Conversation also explored design tooling and whether we all should be running Visual Studio or stick with dedicated design tools and editors. Lots of viewpoints from a great panel!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

2 Apr 201550min

How are you thinking about UX these days? Carl and Richard chat with Danielle Cooley about her talk at the Nebraska Code Camp around user experience, efficiency and effectiveness of design. Danielle talks about her background in biotechnical design and the challenges of bringing biology (that's us) and technology together in an effective way - including web design! The conversation explores a variety of effective designs: it's not just about speed and simplicity, sometimes it's more important to make things discoverable and clear! Danielle focuses on user-oriented design and how developers can decrease confusion, increase satisfaction and generally make the world a better place. Lots of great tips and thoughts from someone who works on the problem every day!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

1 Apr 201556min

What's the difference between an Azure Web Site and Web App? Not at thing! Carl and Richard talk to Scott Hunter about the latest announcements from Microsoft about Azure App Service. Azure App Service brings together Azure Web Sites, Mobile Services and a whole bunch of other goodness. Scott explains how Microsoft has unified all of these services under one umbrella to make it easier to buy and use. If it speaks HTTP or HTTPS, it's an Azure App Service. Then on to the new stuff, including Logic Apps, which lets you manage your mashups using workflow and interconnection tools. You need to check out this great set of technology!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

31 Mar 201554min

How do you do agile faster? Carl and Richard talk to Dan North about accelerating agile - but Dan has changed the name to Software, Faster. And even that is controversial, as Dan talks about focusing on delivering business needs, which may or may not involve code. The conversation also calls back to the Agile Manifesto and its abuse - it's not code with no documentation, its code over documentation! There's a great digression about the BBC giving away a million tiny computers to children to help create a new generation of makers... it's a fun time to be in computing! And as Dan says, the only code that has no bugs at all is no code at all.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

26 Mar 201556min

Where can iBeacons take you? Carl and Richard talk to Greg Shackles about some of the opportunities available using beacon devices with smartphones. While iBeacons are specifically an Apple technology, there are lots of third party implementations that are more open. The balancing act of power and capability is a constant struggle for beacons. Things get really fun when you start looking at all the ways you can locate someone in an interior space using beacons - opening the door to a huge number of applications. Beacons are also part of Google's Physical Web, creating the idea of "interaction on demand." Cool stuff!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

25 Mar 201552min

Are you building in WPF? Are you using PRISM? Carl and Richard talk to Brian Noyes and Brian Lagunas about the PRISM project, which is a set of tools for building WPF apps. As Brian Noyes says, PRISM is the AngularJS of WPF! The conversation dives into the on-going evolution of PRISM, including support for Windows Phone and Universal Apps. The point of PRISM is composability, helping you to organize the elements of your application into something more maintainable, easier to test and continue to evolve. Brian and Brian also announce that they are running the PRISM project now and have moved it to GitHub - they will take your pull requests!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

24 Mar 201552min

Is Spaced-Based Power viable? Time for a Geek Out! Carl and Richard chat about the state of space-based power, reviewing a number of designs going back to the 1970s. Can you really transmit enough power to make it worthwhile? How big does the satellite need to be? What's the best place to put the satellite? Is it a giant weapon when its done? Who will build it and why... and just how much is this going to cost? It's not all good news, but its interesting stuff - have a listen, and don't forget to Vote for the Next Geek Out episodes!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

19 Mar 201558min

Programming in Swift? Want to build Android apps too? Carl and Richard talk to Marc Hoffman of RemObjects about his Silver project - using Swift to program for Android. Swift is Apple's cool new language for developing iOS apps, making life easier than Objective C. Don't use Swift? No problem, how about Pascal - because RemObjects has Oxygene, which is a moderized version of Pascal. That doesn't work for you? Then how about C#? Because this tool set lets you write C# across all the platforms too. And you can use it in the development environment of your choice, including Visual Studio. Mind blown? Ours too!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations

18 Mar 201555min