Personal DevelopmentPresentations

What I wished someone told me about speaking at tech conferences

on May 13, 2019

Came across a great article about speaking at tech conferences. Check it out, it’s worth the read and who knows you might find yourself presenting.

You might be familiar with the following scenario.

You’ve been a developer for a while and you’ve learned quite a lot along the way. Travelled to a couple of tech conferences, saw a number of tech talks and one day you think – “I can probably do that”. This is what I personally thought at the beginning of 2017.

The good news is that this is true – you CAN do that.

The bad news: it’s not easy.

Follow the link for the rest of the article. dev.to/tlakomy/what-i-wished-someone-told-me-about-speaking-at-tech-conferences-3opp

Enjoy!

Build 2019DeveloperWindows

Build 2019: Announcing the new Windows Terminal

on May 6, 2019

During Rajesh Jha’s keynote, Kevin Gallo announced the new Windows Terminal and showed the following “sizzle video” that showcases that the team wants to aspire for v1.0: 

Windows Terminal Session

Rich Turner (Senior Program Manager) and Michael Niksa (Senior Software Engineer) delivered a deep-dive session into the Windows Terminal, its architecture, and its code.

What’s new with the Windows Command Line

See Scott Hanselman interview the Windows Terminal team and discuss several aspects of the new Terminal capabilities, the process of opening sourcing Terminal and looking at some of its features:

The new Windows Terminal will run alongside Console and will not replace it. They are looking to target a preview download from the Microsoft Store by Summer 2019, and to deliver v1.0 release by end of 2019.

You can go try it now if you like by cloning the repository. This is pretty exciting and I can’t wait to download, compile and give it a try.

Enjoy!

References

Development

Introduction to Git Version Control Workflow – Build Azure

on May 6, 2019

Keeping track of file versions has been a long time issue in the world of software. This remains true if you’re writing source code for an application, com
— Read on buildazure.com/2018/02/21/introduction-to-git-version-control-workflow/

DatabaseDeveloper

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 18.0 now Generally Available

on April 29, 2019

SQL Server Management Studio v18.0 is now generally available and is the latest version that provides support for almost all feature areas on SQL Server 2008 through to 2019 preview.

If you have a preview of SSMS 18.0 installed, you will need to uninstall before you can install SSMS 18.0 GA. SSMS 18.0 will also not replace an older version of SSMS but will run side by side with it.

image

Release Highlights

Here is a brief list of is new in SSMS 18.0.

  • Support for SQL Server 2019. SSMS 18.0 is the first release to be fully aware of SQL Server 2019 (compatLevel 150).
  • SSMS 18.0 is based off the Visual Studio 2017 Isolated Shell.
  • Smaller download size.
  • Accessibility improvements.
  • Ability to install to a custom folder.
  • Requires .NET Framework 4.7.2 or greater.
  • Support for High DPI (by default).
  • Added integration for Azure Data Studio.
  • Still no official support for Dark Mode. Please see my article on how to enable Dark Mode for SSMS.
  • Database Diagrams has been removed. Seriously it’s gone! You will need to install a previous version of SSMS (like 17.8.1) to get this functionality.

Summary

Dark mode is still not available and remains a feature you have to manually enable. It’s also weird that they dropped support for the Database Diagramming tool without any warning or guidance to replace it. This was a gem of a tool inside of SSMS and was simple to use for visualizing database relationships, and documentation. You will need to rely on an older version of SSMS or use another tool. Other than that it looks like a great update to SSMS.

For more details on what’s new, bug fixes and deprecations, please take a look at the detailed release notes.

To get started download SSMS 18.0 (GA) now.

Enjoy!

References

Azure

#AzureApril–Day 1

on April 1, 2019

Inspired by @burkeholland, @editingemily, @sigje and others where instead of putting effort into an Aprils Fools joke, I will instead take the #AzureApril challenge of posting an Azure tip each day in April. Some tips might come from @mbcrump comprehensive list of tips and tricks, while others might come from me and/or the community. Now on to todays tip.

Tip #1

Azure has over a 100 services that offer you everything you need to develop, build and run you applications with all the performance, redundancy, security, and scale that the cloud has to offer. With all these services sometimes it can be daunting on where to begin.

Todays tip is to take bite-sized lessons to reinforce your #Azure skills, all in a single month of lunches. This is a practical guide to learning Azure cloud computing skills quickly or refresh what you already know.

By reading this e-book, you get to build your cloud computing skills quickly and efficiently. You’ll be productive immediately, and when you finish, you’ll be well on your way to Azure mastery.

For more details and to download the e-book, go to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/learn-azure-in-a-month-of-lunches/

Since we’re starting a new month today this is a great tip to tackle and complete by end of the month, all while eating your lunch.

Enjoy!

References

Learn Azure in a Month of Lunches

Azure

New Azure Datacenters Open in Africa

on March 6, 2019

image

Today Microsoft announced the general availability of new Azure regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. This marks a major milestone as Microsoft is the first global cloud provider to deliver cloud services from datacenters on the African continent.

Microsoft Azure now has a total of 54 regions worldwide that span 140 countries. That’s more than all other cloud providers combined – offering the scale needed to bring applications closer to your users around the world, preserving data residency, and offering comprehensive compliance and resiliency options.

Enjoy!

References

Microsoft opens first datacenters in Africa with general availability of Microsoft Azure

Azure Regions

Azure Locations

Windows

Windows 10 Mail and Calendar app finally gets complete dark mode

on March 5, 2019

image

Today Microsoft is rolling out an update to its Mail and Calendar app and has finally added a complete dark mode to which the reading pane is now dark (previously the reading pane or email body was white). Microsoft has also added a toggle button to switch between light and dark which sits between the Forward and Archive buttons.

The new update is available for everyone that is using Windows 10 1809 build. You can download the Mail and Calendar app from the Microsoft Store.

Enjoy!

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