Nearly three years ago, I showed you an awesome $8 cable tester that quickly tells you if your USB-C cable is likely fast, slow, powerful, or weak. Sadly, that gadget got discontinued, and I've never found anything as intuitive or inexpensive since. But if you've got a Mac with Apple Silicon chips, you can simply download an even more impressive tester for free.

It's called WhatCable, and it works by reading the data your Mac already collects about attached USB devices, data that Apple doesn't normally pass along to you. Just click a little widget that lives in the menu bar atop your Mac, and you can see every USB-C cable and device attach …

Read the full story at The Verge.

This is Part II of a guest post from Jeremy Rosselot-Merritt, an assistant professor at James Madison University. In this post, Jeremy transitions from describing the reasons for the gap between academics and practitioners (explained in Part I) to solutions. Some solutions involve increasing the conversations between academics and industry professionals, collaborating more with workplace research, having industry professionals guest speak in academic programs, teaching academics what research methodology is acceptable in the workplace, and more.

This is a guest post from Jeremy Rosselot-Merritt, an assistant professor in the School of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication at James Madison University. In this post, Jeremy explains why there's such a gap between industry practitioners and academics. He lays out the case with everything from language, cadence, pressures, motivations, job cycles, promotions, and more, in as clear and straightforward way as possible. This is part I of II.

Brady Gaster is a Principal PM Architect at GitHub, where he works on Apps, Agents, MIDI, and most notably, Squad — an open-source framework for orchestrating AI agent teams with GitHub Copilot. A longtime contributor to the .NET ecosystem, Brady previously served as Principal Program Manager on the .NET and Visual Studio team, leading work on SignalR, Orleans, microservices, and HTTP APIs.

He is the co-creator of Squad, which allows developers to define a team of specialized AI agents that collaborate on real engineering work.

When he's not building developer tools, Brady enjoys making music in his basement with synthesizers and guitars, and spending time with his two sons.

Website / Blog: https://bradygaster.com/
GitHub: https://github.com/bradygaster
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradygaster/
Twitter/X: @bradygaster

Previous Appearances on the Azure & DevOps Podcast:
Episode 102 — Brady Gaster on SignalR and More 
Episode 221 — Brady Gaster: Orleans 
Episode 295 — Brady Gaster: .NET Cloud Native 
Episode 331 — Brady Gaster: Upgrading .NET apps 

Want to Learn More?
Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

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In this episode, Rick & Oscar talk with Burke Holland about a future that is already changing the way developers work. From GitHub Copilot and AI agents to coding in the terminal, they explore how developers are moving from writing every line themselves to orchestrating intelligent tools that can build, test, and improve software with them. But this shift is not only technical: it also raises big questions about creativity, craftsmanship, identity, and even mental health. If you want to understand what it really means to be a developer in the age of AI agents, this is an episode you do not want to miss. 

About this episode, and Burke Holland in particular: you can find Burke on LinkedIn. Watch his videos on his YouTube channel, and read his blogs here.

About Betatalks: watch our videos and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Bluesky. 

Download audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1622272/episodes/19478525-134-the-future-of-software-development-with-ai-agents-with-burke-holland.mp3

Frank releases UI.md, a practical markdown guide distilled from 25 years of software development that captures essential UI/UX principles to help AI (and developers) build better interfaces. The hosts dive deep into why users expect consistency, how small details create polish, and why understanding your users' mental models beats flashy design every time—with real-world examples from their own apps.

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• James: Twitter, Blog, GitHub
• Merge Conflict: Twitter, Facebook, Website, Chat on Discord
• Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface

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Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm

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Links:

• UI.md

Download audio: https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/02d84890-e58d-43eb-ab4c-26bcc8524289/3f0802fd-8e01-460f-8f63-96ce6438343d.mp3