Betatalks the podcast

In this episode, we talk to Frank Boucher, a Microsoft Azure professional whose expertise and bilingual service are called upon in many markets. Frank created the ‘Cloud 5 minute’ show on YouTube and writes about his experiences with Microsoft Azure on his blogs. We talk about the benefits of being bilingual in the development community, speaking French and English, and how this helps him share his technical knowledge with others. Also, we wonder what Azure services impressed him the most in recent months. What will the future bring? And what is his take on the fact that more and more new Azure products seem to be a combination of existing services with some extra sauce on top? Touching upon Container Apps, Static Web Apps, Azure Functions, and Logic Apps. And at last, we will talk a bit more about his goals with and his love for creating tech video content on YouTube, Twitch and TikTok, in both his languages, and his URL Shortener project.About this episode, and Frank Boucher in particular: you can find @fboucheros  on Twitter, and on his GitHub. Check out his blogs on 'Frankysnotes' or watch his 'Cloud 5 minute' show on YouTube. Don't forget to also check out his accounts on Twitch and TikTok.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we talk to Dennie Declercq, a Microsoft MVP Developer Technologies. He is president and developer at DDSoft, a non-profit that connects IT with people who are less tech-savvy. Thanks to his autism, he is the right man to contribute as a volunteer in function of people with disabilities. We talk about the modern way of building websites with Azure Functions, Azure Static Web Apps and Blazor. And, how to build really affordable tech solutions that you can add into products for people with disabilities. Dennie also shares his own experiences with (non)inclusive and (un)accessible software. Moreover, we discuss how Blazor can help developers with autism because it reduces context switching. And about the future of accessibility with Blazor and Azure Cognitive Services. Furthermore, we also dive deeper into what the biggest misconceptions are about working in tech with a disability or being on the autism spectrum.About this episode, and Dennie Declercq in particular: you can find @DennieDeclercq on Twitter, and on his GitHub. Check out his website or listen to his conference presentation about 'Intro to Blazing Web Accessibility - Empowered with AI'.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we speak with Laurent Bugnion, a Principal Cloud Developer Advocate for Microsoft. He is one of the foremost experts for XAML and C# based development. And, he is also the author of the well-known open source framework MVVM Light for Windows, WPF and Xamarin. We talk about the success story of his open source framework MVVM Light, its adoption by Microsoft, and his thoughts on and use of Xamarin, Blazor and Azure. We also dive into his open source project; timekeeper.cloud. This is all built on Blazor, runs on Azure Static Web Apps, and is powered by Azure Functions and by SignalR. In particular, we zoom in on the benefits of Azure Static Web Apps. Furthermore, we talk about his role and the importance of developer advocacy and creating content. Especially, his focus on his show called ‘Learn Live’. And we finish with a great story about his tattoos and heritage.About this episode, and Laurent Bugnion in particular: you can find @LBugnion on Twitter, and GitHub. Check out his Timekeeper.cloud and his show and producing Learn Live. Also, you can read his blog here.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we speak with Isaac Abraham. He is the founder of Compositional IT and author of the books 'Get Programming with F#' and 'F# in Action'. We talk about programming with F# and how it compares to C#. What are their differences and similarities? We discuss why F# is not yet a widely used language. What made Isaac push through all the difficulties when getting to know F#? What advantages did he enjoy? What made it productive and rewarding? And how does it work with Unit Testing? We also share experiences about working with and switching between different languages, for example from F# to C#, or C# to Typescript. And he elaborates on the SAFE Stack initiative - Saturn Azure Fable Elmish - and the benefits of working with it. Furthermore, we talk about the value of functional programming and Azure Container Apps - the service Isaac is most excited about.About this episode, and Isaac Abraham in particular: you can find @isaac_abraham on Twitter, check out his website and find his very interesting book here: F# in action. About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we speak with Louëlla (Lou) Creemers. She is a web developer with a love for .NET. We talk about the tech content she creates and how she tries to bring value to the tech community through social media and by being a speaker. As a relative newcomer to Tech Twitter, how welcoming is the tech community, especially for women? Further, we discuss what the .NET ecosystem currently has to offer, if anything is missing, and if there is something she would like to change. And, we dive a little deeper into her learning journey to become the next generation web developer and how this could help other students inspire and achieve their goals.About this episode, and Lou Creemers in particular: you can find @lovelacecoding on Twitter or check out her website and definitely read her blogpost Do's and don'ts with Twitter DM's.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we speak with Eve Pardi. She is a skilled Data Scientist and AI Engineer, the owner of AI42, and a board member of Global AI Community. Eve explains why she started AI42, what their mission is, and how AI is still something new and magical to most engineers. How there's still a disconnect between AI engineers and "normal" developers. We talk about the importance of understanding and controlling AI systems.  So we wonder, how can we understand AI in general? What should we keep in mind when using NLP? How can we create fair, unbiased, and non-discriminatory intelligent models? And how you need to ask yourself: am I really able to tell what my model is doing? Furthermore, there has been a lot of buzz around GPT-3, so we ask Eve why it's a big deal and what we can expect in the future.About this episode, and Eve Pardi in particular: you can find @EvePardi on Twitter or check out her website codewitheve.azurewebsites.net.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode we speak with Henry Been, in a busy period where it seems that all the in-person events are planned right before the summer. We share our experiences and opinions about developer productivity and the fact that "doing nothing" is necessary sometimes. Because Henry literally wrote the book 'Azure Infrastructure as Code', we dive into everything Azure native around infrastructure as code such as Bicep, ARM and even Deployment Stacks which is still in preview.About this episode, and Henry in particular: you can find Henry on Twitter at @henry_been or at henrybeen.nl. For information about the book 'Azure Infrastructure as Code' written by Henry Been, Eduard Keilholz, and Erwin Staal visit this link. About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we speak with Niels Swimberghe, a Belgian-American software engineer and content creator at Twilio. Of course, we want to know what Twilio is all about, known for, and why people should use it. How do they help developers build stuff with Twilio? Always striving to create the best experience for customers, getting feedback, and sharing as much technical content as possible. We talk about the developer products, the features, and the integrations Twilio provides, its connection to Azure, and its distinction from Azure Communication Services. In particular, we dive into Twilio Voice combined with Twilio Phone Numbers; what can you do with the APIs? And we look back at the tremendous developments in telephony and its technical achievements. Furthermore, we share our experience and love for Visual Studio Code and JetBrains Rider.About this episode, and Niels in particular: you can find @RealSwimburger on Twitter or check out some of his blogs and videos on swimburger.netAbout Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we talk to Clemens Vasters. He works at Microsoft on the Azure product engineering team. Specifically, he is a Principal Architect for Service Bus, Event Hubs, Event Grid and Relay. We dive into these services, what they can do and how they differ. Clemens explains why and when to use events or messages, and what types of scenarios they fit into; from discrete events and event series to jobs, commands and processing. And we discuss working with CloudEvents in Event Grid. Furthermore, we talk about the origins of the term Red Dog, how Azure emerged, easter eggs, and the Relay Service, which even predates Azure, and the evolution of the service. About this episode, and Clemens in particular: you can find @clemensv on Twitter or check out some of his blogs.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel 

In this episode, we talk to Sarah Lean. She recently left Microsoft to go work for Octopus Deploy, in some ways a competitor to Microsoft in the area of software deployment. We discuss how you can improve your DevOps and CI/CD pipeline by using integrations from both companies. We also talk about how almost everything boils down to software, from using Azure FarmBeats for your gardening to making whisky, as Sarah herself has experienced.  There even was an AI developed whisky. Furthermore, we talk about her role in the community as the founder of the Glasgow Azure User Group (how it started, its goals, challenges and benefits), as STEM (Science Tech Engineering Math) ambassador, and as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Helping others and even your future self. About this episode, and Sarah in particular: you can find @TechieLass on Twitter, check out her blog Techielass or her videos Talking tech with Techielass.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel