Author: Jeff Miles

Jeff is a husband, father and computer programmer who loves to read, work out, watch movies, and spend time with his family.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in this blog are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. For book reviews, in some cases I have received a free copy of the book so that I can read it and post a review on my website. The advertisements on this site are affiliate links which means if you click on the ad and purchase the item, I will receive a commission from that sale. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Categories
Books Fun Non-Fiction Reviews

Book Review: Start by Jon Acuff

Aviary Photo_130149637485349437

A few weeks ago Michael Hyatt held a random drawing on his blog for 50 copies of Jon Acuff‘s book Start – Punch Fear in the Face | Escape Average | Do Work that Matters. I was fortunate enough to be picked as a winner. This book is awesome! I would definitely recommend it to anyone, especially anyone who wants to be awesome.

Jon starts off by talking about the 5 stages that every awesome life goes through in their life, the five stages traditionally are:

20’s Learning, we consume everything.

30’s Editing, narrowing down what we have learned and focusing on a couple key things.

40’s Mastering, we become experts at those couple things.

50’s Harvesting, we are blessed to reap what we have sown (good or bad).

60’s Guiding, we become educators of the upcoming generation.

Next, he talks about how with the advent of the internet the timeline above is null and void, anyone can reach any of those stages at any point in their life. Anyone can reach awesome…the key is you have to start and that is the hang up for most people, they never start on the road to awesome, so they stay mediocre for their entire life. I don’t want to spoil anymore of the book so I will leave it at that and let you read the rest for yourself, which you should because this is an excellent book. Head on over to Amazon and pick it up here, you won’t regret reading this book.

Categories
Functions

Microsoft TechEd Day 4

I made it to the final day of TechEd with my brain still intact and am almost completed with the template for a Phillips 66 Branded Single Page Application Template based on the SPA session yesterday so I think the conference has been a success. I am brimming with ideas that I can take back and help to make our development staff more effective with (and I got 14 different t-shirts).

Entity Framework in Core Business Applications and Domain-Driven Design Approaches – Julie Lerman – @julielerman – [Channel 9 Session Info]

This session made me wish that I had gone to one of the three other Domain Driven Design (DDD) sessions. Julie admitted at the very beginning of the session that she was still in the process of learning DDD and how to best use it in your application development. She admitted that she is still trying to break herself of habits and mindsets developed over the last 25 years that she has been a developer. Based on what I learned at the session, I want to do more investigation on DDD because I think that it will help multi-developer teams develop faster as well as have the potential to make applications faster because they are only making Entity framework load up information related to the portion of the application that the user is currently working in. One other takeaway is that DDD is a drastic mind shift from the way current development at most companies is done and it may be a case of “the view is not worth the climb” type of scenario, but it definitely warrants more investigation.

Hardcore Debugging – Andrew Richards – [Channel 9 Session Info]

Wow, when I signed up for this class, I was expecting it to be Visual Studio debugging…man was I wrong. I saw way too much hex code for my tastes. I am thankful for guys like Andrew, but that is not my cup of tea. This session was essentially about Windows debugging using different analysis tools. If you go to the Channel 9 Session Info you can see what tools he uses, then go to his Channel 9 show Defrag Tools to learn how to use them. I think I will stick to tools where F9, F10, & F11 are your best friends.

Serious Web Services: Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Web API, OData, & More – Daniel Roth – [Channel 9 Session Info]

Daniel did a really good job making something that could be extremely dry into a very interesting talk. He started talking about all the ways that Microsoft has addressed web based services in the past, then made recommendation around which ones not to use. Then, he went into a comparison of SOAP vs… REST, ending on the fact that you should be using RESTful services in most cases. He did also comment on when you should use SOAP services to be fair to both sides. Then, he talked about OData and how it is supported in the different technologies. Finally, he talked really quickly about SignalR as he ran out of time.

Understanding Dependency Injection and Those Pesky Containers – Miguel Castro – @miguelcastro67 – [Channel 9 Session Info]

I was already cracking up before the talk even started, the man is hilarious (his joke about Canadian Formula 1 racing being called Formula 1-eh was awesome). This session was meant to be an intro course on dependency injection. While I had already used dependency injection in the past, I still wanted to get more familiar with the concept. Miguel did a great job explaining what dependency injection was and why in our environment of programming you HAVE to write loosely coupled code that can be easily tested. He then demonstrated using mocking code and listed the available mocking frameworks such as:

He then explained the idea of Dependency Injection Containers that allow a developer to properly do dependency injection. The libraries that he demonstrated were:

I would have to say that this was probably one of the most practical sessions of the conference. If I were to list the top 5 sessions that I went to this week in terms of most practical to use in my day to day job, they would be (listed in order or attendance):

Overall, I thought the conference was very informative and can definitely see the benefit to my company from the things I learned this week.

Categories
Functions

Microsoft TechEd Day 3

What has cracked me up every morning this week is that they take a bunch of geeks (who in general do not like a lot of attention) and basically make them feel like they are walking down the red carpet for each meal.

2013-06-05 07.29.11

Developing iOS and Android Apps with Windows Azure Mobile Services – Chris Risner – @chrisrisner– [Channel 9 Session Info]

As you are all aware mobile is huge right now. The problem is that there are so many options available to develop your applications with. Windows Azure Mobile Services allows you to use Azure as the backend for your applications. The cool thing about it is that Azure Mobile Services is essentially front-end agnostic. In this session Chris demoed using Azure Mobile Services with PhoneGap for iOS, native Android development, then he developed an iOS application with Xamarin. I was really impressed by the capabilities of the Windows Azure Mobile Services and how easy it was to do the server side and the programming for integrating with Azure Mobile Services. The other thing that I was really impressed with was that Chris was so good with all three development options that he was able to seamlessly switch between all the different tools and not skip a beat.

Essential Truths Everyone Should Know About Performance in a Large Managed Codebase – Dustin Campbell @DCampbell – [Channel 9 Session Info]

This is the second session I have attended from Dustin Campbell (he co-led the Visual Studio Tips and Tricks session I attended on Day 2). He works on the team that builds Visual Studio so I can imagine the code base that he deals with is enormous. He discussed the essential truths about performance management which are:

  1. Profiles do not lie
  2. Good tools make the difference/The right tool is essential
  3. Allocations are king

He explained the tool that they use at Microsoft (PerfView) and how they applied it to project Roslyn (C# & VB .NET Compiler rewrite project). He walked through all the different things they found (too many to enumerate here, go download the slides from the Channel 9 page for this session if you want to see them all). The key point though with all the “smells” is to not go on a witch hunt unless the profiler points them out make informed decisions on optimization based on the performance monitor results.

Design or Die: The Challenge to the Microsoft Developer Ecosystem – Billy Hollis – [Channel 9 Session Info]

This was not your normal TechEd session due to the fact there was very little code shown. What I experienced though was so much better. Billy was an incredibly dynamic speaker and he broke down how the standard grid based applications just don’t cut it anymore. He talked about how the iPad was a paradigm shifter but it just wasn’t cut out for enterprise apps. With the Metro/Modern UI/Windows Runtime interface and its supporting technologies (much faster development, better security and manageability, more device options to plug-in, and more form factors to choose from) we are in a much better position to deliver business apps that our customers can use. He also offered several resources for understanding good User Experience principles and better design process principles, one such resource was his Pluralsight course: Creating User Experiences: Fundamental Design Principles. Overall, this was a great session and I was brimming with ideas when I left the session.

Agile Testing Across Browsers and Across Devices – Matthew Aniyan – [Channel 9 Session Info]

This session was a non-starter for me. What I learned from this session, I learned in the first 5 minutes and that was you can do coded user interface tests using a neat little recorder tool that popped up when you started the test, then if you refactor that code and add one line of code you can do multiple browser tests.

On my way out of that session, I saw this guy and it pretty much summed up how I am feeling right about now…my brain is tired from all the learning.

this dude had the right idea

Single Page Applications with Microsoft ASP.NET – John Papa – @john_papa – [Channel 9 Session Info]

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this session, but I was completely blown away. All the lethargy and tiredness I had been feeling prior to this session was completely erased. I walked away from this session with so many ideas buzzing around my head was spinning. I had heard of some of the libraries that John talked about Knockout.js, Bootstrap.js, Angular.js, but once he introduced Durandal.js and Breeze.js I finally got it. By the way he showed it, the idea of single page apps really has an appeal for me for both the company I work for and the company that I run on the side. I really look forward to digging into the idea of SPAs.

That’s it for today, there will be more tomorrow.

Categories
Functions

Microsoft TechEd Day 2

Wow, if I thought that my brain was full after day 1, it is overflowing now. If the theme yesterday was convergence, the theme today in the sessions I went to was convenience. Below is my assessment of the sessions I went to.

 

Building Windows Store Line-of-Business Apps – Brian Noyes – @briannoyes

I expected this session to be a down and dirty demo of the grueling work that you had to do in order to create a Windows Store app. Was I wrong. This demo was for a tool called Prism. Prism is a framework that handles all those dirty little details that I thought the session was going to be about. The main topics were the MVVM app structure within Prism, Navigation and State Management, and Validation. If you have a Pluralsight subscription, Brian recorded an in depth training course on Prism.

 

Visual Studio Tips & Tricks – Dustin Campbell – @DCampbell & Scott Cate – @ScottCate

If you thought you knew how you use Visual Studio, you are woefully mistaken. This demo was given by two guys that have a mouse that is collecting dust by the side of their keyboard. Some of my favorites that I found out today are:

  • Windows + # – toggle between items that are pinned on your taskbar
  • ctrl + ; & ctrl + ‘ – toggle between team explorer and solution explorer
  • alt +w then l – closes all windows
  • ctrl + [ then s – sync the solution explorer with active document
  • F12 – go to definition
  • Shift + F12 – find all references
  • ctrl + alt + down – document drop down. Beware though, on some video drivers this key combination will flip the screen .
  • ctrl + i – invoke incremental search
  • ctrl + shift + v – cycle through clipboard
  • ctrl + . – will pull up smart tag [my new best friend] (the smart tag is the little blue box that is almost impossible to hit with the mouse)
  • ctrl + F10 – run to cursor 
  • ctrl +shift + F10  – roll back while debugging.
  • shift + alt + F11 – step into specific (when you have nested function calls and need to step into a specific one)
  • magnify win + +, reverse win + -, jump to 100% win + esc

Microsoft ASP.NET SignalR: The Real-Time Web Made Simple – Damian Edwards – @damianedwards

If I thought that Prism was going to make building Windows Store apps easier, SignalR is ridiculously easy! I watched a simple real time chat system between two browser windows created with less than 20 lines of code. That being said, while the code he wrote right before our very eyes is not production ready code, it goes to show how powerful SignalR really is. The is a NuGet package that contains the sample code that will show you how to use SignalR.

I was also able to go to the Ask the Expert sessions as well to have some great conversations with some really smart people. I am looking forward to what the next two days have to offer. I will continue to blog as I am able.

Categories
Functions

Microsoft TechEd Day 1

I am currently in New Orleans, Louisiana for Microsoft TechEd. So far it has been an absolute blast, but I think by Thursday, my head might explode! While I don’t intend to live blog the event (one of my co-workers recommended I bring a Go Pro to the event and have that attached to my head for the entire time I was here), I do intend to offer a recap of what has been going on from a developer’s perspective. I meant to get this post out last night and intend to post each night if possible, but see the next paragraph as to why I didn’t get it out last night…

I am writing this blog post on my new Surface Pro! Microsoft gave all the attendees a ridiculous deal on Surface tablets (they limited each of us on the number we could get so no, I cant get you one). Here is a picture of it as I was getting ready to write this morning.

my new Surface Pro

The conference started off in true Louisiana style with the Trema band coming on stage to perform. They were awesome!

2013-06-03 08.19.55

Next came the keynote by Brad Anderson and a whole host of other Microsoft VIPs. The two main takeaways for me from the keynote were:

  • No developer who has an MSDN subscription has any excuse not to use Windows Azure for their dev and test environments.
  • I can’t wait for Visual Studio 2013, it looks awesome! The heads up display blew my mind!

The foundation session that I went to was Building Modern Business Applications. Some key takeaways were:

  • Developers are dumb if they don’t embrace cloud VMs for their development.
  • It is possible to set up private VPNs with Azure so that your boss/security guys don’t have to freak out about you pushing things to the cloud.
  • The Visual Studio/TFS 2013 combination is a very powerful combination.

The next session was Microsoft ASP.NET, Web, Cloud Tools Preview. This was an awesome session aimed directly at developers. In this session the presenter demoed a bunch of the One ASP.NET toolset that is coming with Visual Studio 2013. Some key takeaways were:

  • By default in the One ASP.NET model websites styling will be based on Bootstrap. Mind.MentalState == MentalState.Blown. I had been meaning to look into Bootstrap for our group, now I HAVE to look into Bootstrap for our group.
  • The out of the box scaffolding that is available means you will probably never write an admin page by hand ever again!
  • Cassini is dead…long live IIS Express.
  • Web API routing is now an inline ability instead of having to provide long drawn out routing files.
  • They plugged Xamarin for mobile development.

My next session was on developing for Windows Phone 8. This session was a high level overview so it was not as in depth as I would have liked, but it gave a really nice overview. This talk was when it really hit home how much Microsoft is working on convergence. It is starting to become a major theme to what I am seeing. It was also one of those great times where you can learn so much by watching someone use a tool that they are extremely familiar with.

The session that I attended was titled Partner Solutions for Modernizing Your Applications, there were 3 companies that presented.

  • Mobilize.net – This company has an application that will take your existing Visual Basic 6 code and convert it to .NET code. It can even go a step further and take that .NET desktop app and turn it into an ASP.NET web application (albeit a very ugly one). We didn’t get to see the code that was actually created, but by looking at the file structure generated I was able to infer that the conversion was a straight one to one conversion, meaning that the semi-object oriented code that was VB6 was converted straight across into semi-object oriented code on the .NET side.
  • Xamarin – Xamarin is taking the world by storm. They have an awesome product that allows you to write native Android, iOS, Mac, & Windows Store apps using C#. If you architect your code correctly, you can get complete code reuse out of your business and data layers. If you are using Visual Studio, you can even have 1 solution that has all three front ends in it. Xamarin stole the show in this because they were able to demo the same app on both a windows tablet and an iPad emulator (by running the source from Visual Studio) to show the native look and feel of the apps on their respective devices.
  • Citrix – I felt really bad for the Citrix guy because he had to follow Xamarin with a product that didn’t have the visual flash that Xamarin did. If I were to have any advice for the coordinator, they should have put Citrix before Xamarin.

After the last session, the Tech Expo grand opening kicked off. I ended up making it to most of the booths with only 2 bags full of stuff (less to pack on the way home) so that was good. I was able to meet Chewbacca and Princess Leia at one of the booths which was pretty cool. Overall, I was very impressed with the breadth of products that were represented at the conference, some I plan on using (or am currently using) and some I won’t.

I had a great Day 1 at TechEd…I’ll post another entry after Day 2 is over.

Categories
Fitness

Do you need to eat?

image

photo credit: SpirosK photography (back!) via photopin cc

I ran across this article (How I stopped eating food) a few months back but dismissed it pretty quickly.

Then, I was at work a couple weeks ago and ended up in a conversation with a co-worker who made the comment that he wished he could just stop eating, it takes too much time. Which led to a conversation about the article that I read. After talking about it I went back and found the article and the article follow-up (Follow-up Post with Ingredients). As I read through the comments I realized that there must be a lot if people in this boat (He is even starting a crowdfunding effort because of the populatrity). This got me to thinking, would I EVER want to do this? I love to eat (as evidenced by the waistline that I am in the process of getting rid of)! I love the taste of food, any day of the week I would be more than willing to chow down on some Chinese food. I can’t imagine not tasting food. Then, you add in the social aspect of eating and I just can’t fathom not wanting to eat. What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments section below.

Categories
Faith News

Hugging the Cactus

https://youtu.be/pF6NGq7tngg

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Matthew 18:21-22 NIV

I love the video above, it is the perfect example of how we as people who have been forgiven much should forgive others. One thing I love about this video was that Mel Gibson’s sins were very publicized because of the nature of his job and the fact that he made The Passion of the Christ. So it is only fitting that his forgiveness/restoration be equally as public. On the other hand, I have huge respect for Robert Downey Jr. The man is known for his quick wit and Tony Stark style personality but, the video above shows a humble man who knows where he had been and what he has been forgiven who is more than willing to extend that forgiveness to others.

The question for us is, are we hugging the cactus and need to stop or are we making someone else hug the cactus and we need to release them?

  • Is there something you need to forgive yourself for? That sin that maybe only you and God know about?
  • Are you holding an offense over someone’s head and you just need to let it go?
  • Do you need to ask forgiveness from someone and start the process of reconciliation?

The beautiful thing about a relationship with God is that He is more than willing to forgive you and give you a clean slate. Have you accepted that clean slate?

Categories
Faith

Be Angry

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ ” Matthew 21:12-13 NIV

A few weeks ago Pastor Whit (@whitneygeorge) preached a message titled Be Angry (above) that really got Mandy and I thinking about what it is that makes us angry. One thing that I have noticed in the last few years is that my fuse has gotten shorter. This is not a good thing especially because the things that I am getting frustrated about are things where I feel offended because things are not going my way or are (perceived) offenses against me or my pride. Examples are:

  • I want a quiet & peaceful house after a long day at work but my 6, 3, & 1 year old want to express themselves at the top of their lungs.
  • I finally have a day with no meetings so I should be able to get some good traction on a task that needs to get done, but then everyone and their brother decides to stop by because they are stuck and they think I can help them.

If I look at the examples above in the right light, I would realize:

  • I have been at work all day and my kids have missed me and just want to tell daddy all about their day and are just excited to see me.
  • The people who are asking me for help believe that by coming to me they are going to get their problem solved and I should be honored that they respect me enough to come to me.

The challenge issued by Pastor Whit (coming straight from scripture) is to be angry about what makes God angry and that anger should drive us to action. What are the things within your sphere of influence that anger God that you can do something about? Is it:

  • Helping the woman on your street who is raising her kids by herself because dad checked out and left them high and dry by playing catch with her boys or offering to fix things around her house?
  • Supporting (or becoming) one of the people who goes into those dark places and rescues kids caught in the trap of human trafficking?
  • Supporting the AIDS orphans in Africa who are caught in that vicious cycle because the prevailing belief is that men can get rid if AIDS by having sex with a virgin?
  • Buying a meal for the homeless guy on the street who can’t provide for himself for one reason or other?

The challenge for us is to forget about our pride and open our eyes to see what is going on around us that angers God because it is hurting his children and do something about it. Imagine what the world would look like and how people would be affected if all Christians actually got angry about what made God angry and did something about it instead of only getting angry when our pride or our expectations are not met.

Categories
Fun Movies Reviews

Movie Review – Iron Man 3

First things first, I love comic book movies. So before you read my review, realize that. The other thing to realize about my movie reviews is that I am a pretty easy critic, if you can make me forget what is going on and keep me entertained for a few hours and tell a cohesive story I am probably going to like your movie. I usually know enough about a movie before I go see it that I typically don’t go to a movie unless I am pretty sure I am going to like it (especially comic book movies).

Iron Man 3 follows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) shortly after the events of The Avengers. We find Tony haunted by what he has experienced, unable to sleep, and nervously creating Iron Man mark after mark. When we last saw him in The Avengers the suit was at Mark 8, by the time we catch up with Tony here he is already on Mark 42. Tony’s relationship has also become strained with Pepper Potter (Gweneth Paltrow) who is struggling to understand what is going on with Tony. Add to the mix 2 figures from Tony’s past and you have a recipe for conflict.

This Iron Man features more of Tony than previous movies, which I think was a smart move because the Iron Man movies set the tone for the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so if Iron Man sets the tone of going bigger by blowing more stuff up then the rest of the movies get pigeonholed into that mold. In this movie they do a really good job focusing on what drives people to do what they do. Is it fear? Is it love? Is it loyalty to a friend? Is it the desire for power? One interesting thing that drew my attention was how someone can make a ridiculously bad decision, a terrible decision, because they love someone so much and want a better life for them.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action for all the action fans out there. One of my favorite action scenes (I’m not spoiling anything because this is in the trailers) is the final battle where all the suits are involved in fighting the Extremis soldiers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the twist, don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil it. A lot of the fanboys were really disappointed with the twist and with the information that they were given I can understand that. However, after seeing the movie and the motivation behind the different characters, the twist really does make sense. Because the key method of operation for one particular character was to operate in anonymity and that is why things were set up the way they were.

One review that I read said that Iron Man 3 was better than The Avengers, but I would have to disagree. I was one of the many people who said that The Avengers was a 5 star out of 5. I think Iron Man 3 is a great movie, just not a 5 star movie. Overall, I would give Iron Man 3 3.5 stars out of 5.

Categories
Fiction

Book Review: Salvaged – Stefne Miller

salvagedI was given Salvaged as a gift from a family member because they knew I would read it and provide a review. I devoured the book, but because of how crazy things were at that point I did not post a review right after I read it. I’m remedying that situation right now. This book deserves better than that.. In an age where young minds are learning what true love is from books like the Twilight Saga, it is nice to see a wholesome love story like Salvaged.

In Salvaged, Miller deals with a lot of weighty issues like loss, fear, romance, and what faith looks like when you are truly at the bottom. At the beginning of the book we meet Attie after she has lost her best friend and her mom in a car crash and goes to live with the family of the best friend she lost. The story details her journey back to wholeness and the bumps and bruises along the way. I love Miller’s writing style, she writes in a way that is very easy to read and lends itself to you getting through the book rather quickly. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would be drawn to the Twilight Saga. It is also a good read for guys like me who are fathers of little girls because it gives you a window into their world in a way that you may not get in other places.

I currently have Miller’s two other books Rise (the sequel to Salvaged) and Collision in my stack to read/review so look for them in the future.