Ben and Ryan are joined by software developer and listener Patrick Carlile for a conversation about how the job market for software engineers has changed since the dot-com days, navigating boom-and-bust hiring cycles, and the developers finding work at Walmart and In-N-Out. Plus: “Party in the front, business in the back” isn’t just for haircuts anymore.

As companies race to build or modernize intelligent apps that incorporate generative AI, many are finding gaps in their tech-stack modernization efforts as they explore and test use cases. 

Recently, Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate modernization efforts at global organizations. The study found that nearly 90% of decision makers said they have a modern tech foundation and are ready for the future. The study also found there’s a perception gap and many aren’t as ready as they think they are. Some still deal with inflexible, outdated, and brittle legacy software systems that stifle innovation and leave substantial room for improvement. 

Some of this comes from a cloud approach focused on migration. There is a lot to gain simply in migrating to the cloud, but modernization is much more than lift and shift—it’s about what you can do once you get there. 

The study also found that one in five companies surveyed are overcoming foundational barriers in their application modernization journey to bring critical value back to the business. These companies are doing a few common things: implementing a clear technology strategy built around AI and training, integrating analytics and key metrics to connect with business outcomes, and upgrading technology stacks, supported by strategic partnerships with relevant suppliers. In adopting these practices, these companies can move rapidly to address internal gaps and overcome thorny challenges in the way of their modernization goals. 

Is your tech stack AI-ready? Are you looking for best practices to help execute your modernization strategy? Want to learn more about the Forrester study? Join us on May 8, 2024 for our next Microsoft Azure webinar: “Harness the Power of Intelligent Apps: Modernize with Azure.” In addition to hearing from me, you’ll hear from: 

• Amanda Silver on “Powering Future Innovation with Azure Application Platform”
• Ali Powell on “Vision to Value: Accelerating Modernization to Azure with Azure Customer Success”
• Cyril Belikoff on “Empowering Modernization with Microsoft Programs, Offers, and Partner Ecosystem (Closing Keynote)”

And we’ll be joined by Bill Martorelli, Principal Analyst at Forrester, who will discuss the study. 

Next, here is the latest from Microsoft data, AI, and digital apps to help you with your modernization.

What’s new in data, AI, and digital applications 

Snowflake partnership extends Azure options for your data 

One of the most empowering things Microsoft does for customers is forge partnerships with companies who extend the value of our platform. Snowflake is a great example of this in action. I had the opportunity to join Snowflake Chief Marketing Officer Denise Persson to talk about how we work together to help customers make the most of their data to drive AI transformation. Partnerships like these are just one more reason why Azure is the best cloud for your data. 

More choice—Microsoft Azure AI model catalog of open and frontier models just got bigger with additions from Snowflake, Microsoft Research, Meta, Databricks, and more 

The Azure AI model catalog now offers more than 1,600 foundation models (large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs)) enabling Azure customers to choose the best model for their use case. Our catalog continues to grow, with the addition of new cutting-edge models, including Snowflake Arctic, Meta Llama 3, databricks/dbrx-base and databricks/dbrx-instruct, and Microsoft’s Phi-3 family of open models, the most capable and cost-effective small language models available, outperforming models of the same size and next size up across a variety of language, coding, and math benchmarks. The new models not only expand our catalog, but also enhance our ability to meet diverse enterprise demands.  

More scale at no additional cost: Increased vector capacity in Azure AI search 

Azure AI Search now has significantly increased storage capacity and vector index size at no additional cost. To support increased demand for retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and generative AI applications at scale, AI Search has drastically raised storage limits, giving customers more vectors per dollar without compromising high performance. With this change, customers can achieve more scalability at a lower cost, trust AI Search to handle their large RAG workloads, and apply advanced search strategies to navigate complex data to innovate in ways previously unimaginable. 

Microsoft announces new industrial AI innovations from the cloud to the factory floor 

We announced new AI-driven solutions for manufacturing that aim to unify data estates, enhance operational resilience, and empower front-line workers with AI copilots for efficient data querying and issue resolution. The private preview includes Microsoft Fabric data solutions and the Microsoft Copilot for Azure AI template, promising to optimize operations and accelerate AI integration across global manufacturing sites. 

New infrastructure for the era of AI: Emerging technology and trends in 2024 

From cloud to edge, CPUs to GPUs, and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), the AI hardware and software landscape is expanding at an impressive rate. Our new “Microsoft Azure: The State of AI Infrastructure” report helps you keep up with the current state of AI, its trends and challenges, and to learn about best practices for building and deploying scalable and efficient AI systems. Read the inaugural blog in our new Infrastructure for the Era of AI series for more and to download the report. 

Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric for Azure SQL Database and Azure Cosmos DB now in public preview 

Azure SQL Database Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric continuously replicates your SQL data into Delta tables in Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake in near real-time. This new feature helps avoid complex and time-consuming extract, transform, load (ETL) processes and enables faster time to insights. Mirroring further reduces your overall total cost of ownership with zero compute and storage costs to replicate, helping you quickly and cost-effectively respond to changes in your business. 

With Azure Cosmos DB Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric, you can seamlessly bring your Azure Cosmos DB data into OneLake in Microsoft Fabric with no-ETL and near real-time insights on your operational data, allowing you to react more quickly to changes in your business environment and market conditions. 

Microsoft Azure Database for PostgreSQL: New AI capabilities in Azure AI extension and new migration service 

The Azure AI extension in public preview now includes real-time predictions to invoke machine learning models hosted on Microsoft Azure Machine Learning online endpoints. This is extremely helpful for building fraud detection in banking, product recommendations in retail, patient predictions in healthcare, and more. Also new is real-time text translation using Microsoft Azure AI Translator to translate text from within SQL. This facilitates building intelligent multilingual applications on Azure Database for PostgreSQL. It also supports automatically detecting the language of the input text and filtering profanities.  

A new migration service now generally available simplifies the process of moving PostgreSQL databases from anywhere to Azure. The service offers both offline and online migration options from an on-premises server, AWS RDS for PostgreSQL, Azure Virtual Machines (VMs), and Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Single Server. The service helps customers move to Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Flexible Server with ease and confidence. 

Microsoft Defender for Cloud now supports Azure Database for MySQL—Flexible Server 

Protect databases from threats without affecting performance or availability, and lower the risk of data breaches, attacks, and unauthorized access with security monitoring of anomalous or suspicious activities. Customers can easily enable Defender for Cloud from the Azure Portal to start getting security alerts and insights for Azure Database for MySQL—Flexible Server and receive recommendations to mitigate potentially harmful threats. Learn more about Defender for Cloud. 

Healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric in public preview 

The healthcare data solutions provide data models and transformation activities that help customers create a multi modal warehouse. It enables customers to align with industry standards, such as Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIRs) and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), and supports compliance with regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Learn more about healthcare data solutions.

Empowering AI globally with investments in Japan and United Arab Emirates, a new AI Hub in London, and a global partnership with Cognizant 

Microsoft will invest USD2.9 billion over the next two years to increase our hyperscale cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Japan. We will also expand our digital skilling programs, open our first Microsoft Research Asia lab in Japan, and deepen our cybersecurity collaboration with the Government of Japan. 

We are investing USD1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi’s G42 to accelerate AI development and global expansion, and to strengthen our collaboration on bringing the latest Microsoft AI technologies and skilling initiatives to the United Arab Emirates and other countries around the world. 

Microsoft AI Chief Executive Officer Mustafa Suleyman announced Microsoft AI is opening a new AI hub in the heart of London. Microsoft AI London will drive pioneering work to advance state-of-the-art language models and their supporting infrastructure, and to create world-class tooling for foundation models, collaborating closely with our AI teams across Microsoft and with our partners, including OpenAI. 

Cognizant and Microsoft are expanding our partnership to integrate Microsoft’s generative AI and Microsoft Copilot into Cognizant’s digital transformation services. With a significant investment in generative AI, the partnership is set to drive AI adoption and create industry-specific solutions, while upholding ethical AI standards. The initiative also includes extensive training for Cognizant developers and the deployment of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 to a vast user base.  

Learn something new 

Microsoft Learn helps address the AI skills gap 

With more than 6 million people globally engaged with AI learning, Microsoft Learn is your AI skill-building partner in addressing the AI skills gap. We designed a simple framework to help you chart your own course for building the necessary AI skills to realize the value of the Microsoft platform. Learn more with the “Accelerate AI transformation with skill building” position paper. For more, see the blog from Kim Akers, Corporate Vice President, Enablement and Operations for Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions, on how to transform your business with AI skill building on Microsoft Learn. 

How to customize your generative AI model 

There are three key techniques to customizing a LLM: prompt engineering, RAG, and fine-tuning. In this blog, you will learn how to:  

• Optimize prompts to ensure a model produces more accurate responses.  
• Retrieve information from external sources for better accuracy. 
• Teach a model new skills and tasks. 
• Teach a model new information from a custom dataset. 

LLMOps Maturity Model Assessment and framework, plus new instructional video series 

LLMOps describes the operational practices and strategies for managing LLMs in production. Not sure what your organization’s LLMOps maturity level is? Take a 10-minute assessment to find out. Then get guidance on how to advance your capabilities in LLMOps based on your organization’s maturity level.  

There are a lot of intricacies involved in building systems that use LLMs: selecting just the right models, orchestrating LLM flows, and monitoring them using responsible AI toolchains. LLMOps is more than technology or product adoption. It’s a confluence of the people engaged, the processes used, and the products implemented. In a new instructional video series, we will explore the concept of LLMOps in depth, alongside introducing the latest Azure AI tools designed to facilitate the adoption of robust LLMOps practices for enterprises. 

New blog: Improving Azure Functions cold starts 

Our new blog, “How to Conquer Cold Starts for Better Performance” is now live on The New Stack, the platform for the latest news and resources for cloud native technologies. Skill-up for free on leveraging AI with cloud-native and serverless technologies on Azure.

Insights Tomorrow: A podcast for data enthusiasts 

Insights Tomorrow features in-depth conversations with data leaders and experts about the revolutionary journeys they’re taking in the world of data, analytics, and governance. Join host Patrick LeBlanc to explore how unlocking value from data is trailblazing the way to digital transformation. 

Customers innovating with generative AI  

MultiChoice boosts user satisfaction with Azure Machine Learning and Microsoft Azure Databricks 

Have you ever wished for a viewing experience that knows your taste better than you do? MultiChoice, Africa’s premier entertainment destination, has made that a reality with Azure Machine Learning. Users enjoy highly personalized recommendations that cater to their tastes, making every view count. As MultiChoice is making the viewing experience better, smarter, and more enjoyable, it has seen a remarkable uptake in user engagement and satisfaction. 

Nexi uses Microsoft Azure App Service to modernize its FinTech apps to provide a personalized payment solution to customers 

Nexi is a European PayTech company that helps its customers pay and accept digital payments through a complete and personalized range of simple, intuitive, and secure solutions. To simplify transactions and empower people and businesses to enjoy closer relationships and prosper together, Nexi needed a unified solution with more flexibility to allow its developers to spend much less time on infrastructure activities and provide more value on delivering products. Working with Microsoft and cVation, Nexi moved forward to implement app modernization and transformation. 

Coles accelerates from monthly to weekly application deployments with Azure 

Coles, which operates more than 800 stores in Australia, needed to modernize its technology to meet growing customer demand for an omnichannel experience that served them equally well in store and online. In the highly competitive grocery business, that means rapidly evolving in response to customer input. Coles gained amazing efficiency with Azure DevOps, shifting from monthly to weekly deployments, reducing build times, and enabling rapid deployment of changes to production. The customer experience is further optimized with Azure Cosmos DB, which provides an aggregated view across channels to enable further customer insights, allowing Coles to provide an even more customized experience. 

Opportunities to connect 

Build multimodal apps with Microsoft and win at Microsoft Generative AI Hackathon—now through May 6, 2024

Do you want to learn how to use Azure AI and GitHub Copilot to build multimodal apps that combine text, image, video, or voice inputs and outputs for a big impact? Do you want to win cash prizes, Azure credits, and recognition for your work? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should join us for the Microsoft Generative AI Hackathon, an online challenge where you can use your skills to create exciting generative AI solutions. 

Microsoft Build—May 21 to 23, 2024 

Develop the AI skills needed for tomorrow, today. At Microsoft Build 2024, you will learn from in-demand experts, experience the latest innovations in breakouts, and make connections with a community that can help you achieve more. Register for Build. 

Microsoft Developers AI Learning Hackathon, win up to $10,000 in prizes! Now through June 17, 2024

This hackathon challenges you to push the boundaries of what’s possible by building your very own AI app using Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB. Targeting both Node.js and Python developers, the hackathon guides you through comprehensive learning to delve into the fundamentals of AI apps— and you might win up to $10,000 in prizes. By the end of the hackathon, you will know how to build your very own custom AI copilot with Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB. Get started now! 

Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2024 available on-demand 

Missed the excitement and innovation-packed Azure Cosmos DB Conference in April? No worries, we’ve got you covered! The event brought together the sharpest minds in the industry, including product leaders, chief technical officers, and community members who shared insights on building groundbreaking generative AI applications powered by Azure Cosmos DB. Whether you missed a little or missed it all, catch the replays on-demand. 

Microsoft’s AI Classroom Hackathon winners 

Microsoft’s AI Classroom Hackathon winners were chosen from more than 3,700 students from over 100 countries, participating in Microsoft’s call to build the next generation of intelligent applications that reimagine the future of education using Azure AI and Azure databases. Among the winners is Dialogues Through Time, that allows you to have interactive AI-driven dialogues with historical figures like Socrates and Leonardo DaVinci. Also, EquEdu, an AI-powered content accessibility tool that makes online educational content accessible for the visually impaired. Lots of inspirational ideas here—check out the winners and their projects. 

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What’s new?  

Jessica shares insights on technology transformation along with important updates and resources about the data, AI, and digital application solutions that make Microsoft Azure the platform for the era of AI. Find Jessica’s blog posts here and be sure to follow Jessica on LinkedIn. 

The post What’s new in Azure Data, AI, and Digital Applications: Harness the power of intelligent apps  appeared first on Microsoft Azure Blog.

The Imagine Cup is a global student competition for visionary entrepreneurs building with AI – and empowers this next generation to use Azure and AI services to solve some of the most challenging local, industry and global challenges. Every year, students from across the globe compete for the honour of taking home the Imagine Cup, along with a cash prize of USD100,000 and mentorship session with Microsoft Chairman & CEO, Satya Nadella.

 

This year, the competition has been more challenging and exciting than ever, with new technologies and solutions being showcased across the Microsoft ecosystem including projects using Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Computer Vision & Azure Machine Learning.

 

The MVP community rallied behind this hallmark initiative, with more than 200 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) & Regional Directors (RDs) involved in this year’s Imagine Cup. The involvement ranges from judging various stages of the competition to mentoring the student teams of contestants.

 

The top three teams that emerged from the semifinals, in alphabetical order are:

• FROM YOUR EYES (Turkey), who developed a wearable device that uses computer vision and natural language processing to assist people who are visually impaired in their daily activities.
• JRE (United Kingdom), who designed a drone-based solution that uses computer vision and machine learning to monitor and optimize the environmental impact of mining operations.
• PlanRoadmap (United States), who created a web application that uses natural language generation and semantic search to help project managers plan and execute their projects more efficiently and effectively.

These teams impressed the judges with their innovative use of AI, inclusivity for end-users and viability of their startup. But they did not achieve this alone. They had the invaluable support and guidance of their MVP mentors.

 

As part of the Imagine Cup 2024, each of the startups in the semifinals were assigned an MVP mentor, who volunteered their time and expertise to help the students refine their solutions, prepare their pitches, and overcome any technical or business challenges they faced.

 

We reached out to the mentors for the top three teams and asked them to share their experiences and insights from working with the Imagine Cup teams. Here are some of the highlights:

 

 

Catalin Gheorghiu, mentor of FROM YOUR EYES

Catalin Gheorghiu, an Internet of Things & Microsoft Azure MVP from Romania, is a mentor for FROM YOUR EYES. Catalin has been working with Microsoft technologies as a software architect and developer for more than 20 years. He is interested in AI, IoT, and cloud computing, and often gives talks at conferences and meetups.

 

What do you enjoy most about being a mentor?

I enjoy the flood of new ideas and the enthusiasm in solving problems using new technologies. It always gives me a “rejuvenation” of technical thinking and provokes me to learn more and reminds me that I need to continue to work to remain on the technological edge. I would say that I get a lot from mentoring and hope that the students would say the same. Thank you From Your Eyes!

 

As a mentor, what strategies did you employ to guide your team in overcoming the challenges of developing an AI-driven solution for visually impaired users?

As strategies go, my job was simple. When talking about AI today, Microsoft covers all the bases and is the place to go, the biggest issue is to pick the right service from this offering. The students knew the problem firsthand and did well technically, choosing the right services etc. What was missing was explaining to the world what they were using in their material. The project is a testament of the strength of Microsoft’s AI offerings, and how it can enable a company to deliver quickly and efficiently a great AI solution to the market.

 

 

Charley Hanania, mentor of JRE

Charley Hanania, a Data Platform MVP from Switzerland, who coached JRE. Charley is an expert in business applications and AI and has worked with Microsoft technologies for over 25 years. He is the Principal Consultant at QS2 AG, a company focused on data platform consulting and data-based application development.  He also speaks, writes, and mentors, helping startups and social entrepreneurs.

 

How did you become a mentor? What motivated you to take on this role?

The opportunity to mentor the student teams for the 2024 Imagine Cup presented itself in January, through one of the MVP newsletters and also via our Community Program Manager, Alice Piras. I’ve always been drawn to assisting students and young individuals, and mentoring both locally and globally has been a significant part of my community involvement over the years. I find the impact of these engagements to be extensive and enduring, influencing the paths and directions people choose to take in their lives. Even after many years, I continue to hear from those I’ve engaged with, keeping up with their journeys, triumphs, challenges, and future plans. It’s this ongoing connection that truly motivates me.

 

How did you help your team find inspiration for their project or what guidance did you provide for its evolution?

JRE already had a fantastic idea and concept!  Initially, I reviewed their technical architecture and assisted them in identifying services and technologies that would not only enhance their offering but also future-proof the design.

 

We aimed to synergize with the review panel by leveraging key technologies within the Microsoft product and service ecosystem that would better align with their development. Drawing from my extensive experience working with startups, I guided them on key pitch areas, asking pointed questions about the perceived benefits to society and the industry they were targeting. I also provided presentation tips and guidance.

 

Fortunately, my consulting work has given me some experience in the Heavy Metals and Mining Industries, so their concept was not entirely foreign to me. This familiarity helped me develop ideas around message clarity and direction, particularly in explaining the concepts and benefits to panelists who may not be familiar with the industry.

 

 

Marcin Policht, mentor of PlanRoadmap

Marcin Policht, a Security MVP from the US, is the mentor for PlanRoadmap. Marcin has over 15 years of experience with Microsoft technologies. He is a cloud and datacenter management expert who writes books and articles to help professionals and organizations use the cloud effectively.

 

Could you share your experience in helping your team leverage Azure AI services in their project?

One of my goals was to help the team fully understand the capabilities of Azure AI services and Azure OpenAI, so they take advantage of the capabilities they offer. This included considerations around data privacy, security, scalability, and cost optimization. They are quick learners, as the final outcome demonstrates.

 

What strategies do you use to guide your mentees towards their goals?

Review with the team competition guidelines and criteria to ensure that the solution aligns with the judging criteria, highlight the importance of addressing all aspects of the competition, including the technologies in scope, social impact, innovation, commercial viability, inclusivity, equality, and privacy protection.

 

Encourage the team to identify pressing social issues or challenges that their Azure AI solution can address, research and discuss potential problems in areas such as social justice and accessibility.

 

Emphasize the importance of ethical considerations in AI development, review principles such as fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy protection.

 

Prioritize the needs and experiences of end-users, emphasize the importance of inclusivity and accessibility in design.

 

Ensure a sustainable business model, including market opportunities and potential partnerships, help think strategically about how to create value for customers while achieving social impact.

 

Offer technical guidance and support to effectively leverage Azure AI services and OpenAI technologies, assist in selecting the right tools and platforms, designing scalable architectures, and implementing robust solutions.

 

Help prepare for pitching the solution to judges and stakeholders, including effective communication of ideas, highlighting the social impact and commercial viability of the solution, and address potential questions or concerns.

Who will take home the Imagine Cup? Catch the Finals on May 21

We applaud the top three teams of the Imagine Cup 2024 and appreciate all the MVP judges and mentors for their incredible work and commitment over the contest. We are proud of the MVP community and the impact they have on the future of technology, social impact and young visionaries.

 

Catch the startup finalists live at Microsoft Build on May 21 to find out who wins the Imagine Cup 2024.

 

 

This week, we discuss IBM's intent to acquire HashiCorp, the state of Open Source Businesses, and the (slow) adoption of Continuous Integration. Plus, some thoughts on the end of non-compete agreements.

Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 465

Runner-up Titles

• Extra Innings
• Later Innings
• Customer is always right, except for pricing
• Leave the party crying
• Put a price on it

Rundown

• Hashi
  • Introducing The Infrastructure Cloud
  • HashiCorp unveils The Infrastructure Cloud, a unified platform for cloud Infrastructure and Security Lifecycle Management
  • IBM to Acquire HashiCorp, Inc. Creating a Comprehensive End-to-End Hybrid Cloud Platform
  • IBM to acquire Hashi for $6.4 billion, seeks software boost
  • IBM falls as enterprise-spending constraints choke consulting demand
  • IBM Is Buying HashiCorp. What Comes Next?
  • The threat to open source comes from within
• You should automate your builds and tests - 71% of people do not “use continuous integration to automatically build and test my code changes.”
• FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes

Relevant to your Interests

• AlmaLinux 9.4 beta: RHEL compatible, but a little different
• Building for our AI future
• Lacework, last valued at $8.3B, is in talks to sell for just $150M to $300M, say sources
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• Lacework, last valued at $8.3B, is in talks to sell for just $150M to $300M, say sources
• Netflix Dealt With the Freeloaders. Its Next Act Will Be Tougher.
• Tesla recalls the Cybertruck for faulty accelerator pedals that can get stuck
• Do software companies actually have good margins?
• Women Who Code: Influential tech network shuts down unexpectedly
• The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
• Tesla’s Q&A with investors rips open Musk anguish: ‘Will you please at least appear to make Tesla your top priority?’
• The SignalFire State of Talent Report: 2023 tech employee trends
• Appeals court rules that cops can physically make you unlock your phone
• Improve cost visibility of Amazon EKS with AWS Split Cost Allocation Data | Amazon Web Services
• Introducing Our Open Mixed Reality Ecosystem | Meta
• US is reviewing risks of China's use of RISC-V chip technology
• Google's First Tensor Processing Unit : Origins
• UnitedHealth says Change hackers stole health data on 'substantial proportion of people in America' | TechCrunch
• Broadcom Tells Partner Negotiating For Charity ‘VMware Is Not For Everybody’
• Oracle is moving its world headquarters to Nashville to be closer to health-care industry
• Congress Passed a Bill That Could Ban TikTok. Now Comes the Hard Part.
• The Coca-Cola Company and Microsoft announce five-year strategic partnership to accelerate cloud and generative AI initiatives - Stories
• Atlassian Co-CEO Scott Farquhar Resigns, Leaving Mike Cannon-Brookes as Sole Chief
• Thoma Bravo to buy UK-listed Darktrace for £4.3bn
• All we have to fear is FUD itself — Oxide and Friends
• The walls of Apple’s garden are tumbling down
• We're moving continuous integration back to developer machines
• Enterprise Browser Island Receives Capital at $3 Billion Value
• Kubernetes Market Sizing Windmills
• FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes
• Amazon cloud unit kills Snowmobile data transfer truck eight years after driving 18-wheeler onstage
• The Port State of Platform Engineering in two surveys
• Cloud native platforms: To build or to buy?
• State of DevSecOps | Datadog
• Letter from Edward Norton, Founder of Zeck, Why Zeck
• The Man Who Killed Google Search
• Alphabet earnings are out — here are the numbers
• Alphabet stock surges on earnings beat, dividend announcement
• Amazon earnings are out — here are the numbers
• Microsoft earnings are out – here are the numbers

Nonsense

• Adam Neumann moves to buy back WeWork as it seeks funds to exit bankruptcy
• A Mansion, Two Dogs and a Wall: Inside The Conflict Between a Utah Billionaire And His Neighbors
• Red Lobster Is Reportedly Heading For Bankruptcy After Losing Millions On Endless Shrimp

Conferences

• Executive Dinner in Atlanta, May 22nd
• NDC Oslo, Coté speaking, June 12th.
• DevOpsDays Amsterdam, June 19-21, 2024, Coté speaking.
• DevOpsDays Birmingham, August 19–21, 2024.

SDT news & hype

• Join us in Slack.
• Get a SDT Sticker! Send your postal address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com and we will send you free laptop stickers!
• Follow us: Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, BlueSky, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads and YouTube.
• Use the code SDT to get $20 off Coté’s book, Digital WTF, so $5 total.
• Become a sponsor of Software Defined Talk!

Recommendations

• Brandon:
  • MarkdownDown
  • BBEdit's Extract and new feature blindness
• Coté: Adam Savage Q&A

Photo Credits

• Header
• Artwork

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What design interventions can help improve human connection in your software product? Our guest today is Evelyn Gosnell, behavior scientist and managing director at Irrational Labs. You’ll learn what behavioral design is, the foundational principles of human connection, how AI products are trying to establish trust and connection with their users, and more.

Podcast feed: subscribe to https://feeds.simplecast.com/4MvgQ73R in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts.

Show Notes

• Irrational Labs — Evelyn’s company
• Episode 221: Behavioral Economics with Kristen Berman
• Negativity Bias, Similarity Bias
• The Liking Gap
• The Science of Change — Irrational Labs’ podcast show
• Check out Evelyn’s website

This episode is brought to you by Penpot — an open-source design tool that bridges the gap between designers and developers. Among other new features in Penpot 2.0, their CSS Grid Layout helps you design responsively and efficiently, and take your design and development workflow to the next level. Join Penpot for free at penpot.app.

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Avalonia XPF

This episode of The Modern .NET Show is supported, in part, by Avalonia XPF, a binary-compatible cross-platform fork of WPF, enables WPF apps to run on new platforms with minimal effort and maximum compatibility.

Show Notes

Yeah, so .NET MAUI is the .NET stack, framework, whatever you want to call it, for writing one code base that runs on what we call client devices, client platforms.

So you have the web, you have ASP .NET Blazor and all that stuff. You have the console apps, you can write with C#, of course, so many backends and APIs and all of that stuff running in the cloud. But with MAUI, it's for client app development. So Android, iOS, macOS and Windows, you can target using XAML and C#, or just C# if you don't like XAML, or Razor if you want to. All are options.

But you can write one code, business logic, your UI, all of your endpoint management and everything, all of that. And it's just written in C#. It's a .NET application. It's using .NET MAUI

Welcome to The Modern .NET Show! Formerly known as The .NET Core Podcast, we are the go-to podcast for all .NET developers worldwide and I am your host Jamie "GaProgMan" Taylor.

In this episode, Maddy Montaquila joined us to talk about .NET MAUI—the Multi-platform Application User Interface—what it is, it's history, and why developers who are looking for a first-party UI-framework their modern .NET apps should check it out.

We can do that totally within MAUI. It's actually pretty easy.

So you can just say like, "on platform Android, do this," or "on idiom," we call them idioms, right? Tablet, desktop, or phone. "On idiom, do this."

We actually have customers who will ship in the same code base, like two completely different navigation stacks. So it will say, "on desktop, load it up with this nav stack and load into these pages. On mobile, load it up into this nav stack and load up these pages." But since you can share the components, you can basically say, "the navigation of my desktop app, everything is horizontal, but I pull in the same components. It's just like a different grid view than I would do on mobile where it's all stacked on top of each other and it's a scroll." Right?

So you can get super flexible with all of it.

So let's sit back, open up a terminal, type in dotnet new podcast and we'll dive into the core of Modern .NET.

Supporting the Show

If you find this episode useful in any way, please consider supporting the show by either leaving a review (check our review page for ways to do that), sharing the episode with a friend or colleague, buying the host a coffee, or considering becoming a Patron of the show.

Full Show Notes

The full show notes, including links to some of the things we discussed and a full transcription of this episode, can be found at: https://dotnetcore.show/season-6/s6e17-net-maui-navigating-the-cross-platform-code-seas-with-maddy-montaquila/

Useful Links

• .NET Upgrade Assistant
• .NET MAUI VS Code extension
• C# Dev Kit
• David Ortinau's GitHub
• MAUI samples repo
• UIKit
• Mac Catalyst
• Maui.Markup
• ReactiveUI
• MVVM
• OpenJDK
• .NET MAUI documentation
• Android Studio
• aka.ms/mauidevkit-docs
• Bitwarden
• Cliff Agius
• Handy-App
• .NET Podcasts app
• eshop-mobile-client
• learn.microsoft.com
• James Montamagno
• Gerald Versluis
• You can email Maddy at maddy@microsoft.com
• .NET MAUI on Twitter
• The official .NET discord server
• .NET MAUI GitHub repo
• Supporting the show:
  • Leave a rating or review
  • Buy the show a coffee
  • Become a patron
• Getting in touch:
  • via the contact page
  • joining the Discord
• Music created by Mono Memory Music, licensed to RJJ Software for use in The Modern .NET Show

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Download audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/clean/secure/thedotnetcorepodcast/S06E17_-_Maddy_Montaquila.mp3?dest-id=767916