Coder Radio

The guys drink some Liquid Christmas Tree and reflect on the major trends of 2018, and the stuff they are preemptively freaking out about for 2019.

Chris is back from his trip to Denver to tour System76’s factory, and what he discovered while he was there was the last thing he was expecting.Links:Thelio - System76

Estimates can be a very tricky thing to get right, but they are vitally important. Peter Kretzman joins us to make it all a bit easier and clearer. Plus Chris thinks he knows why Microsoft is willing to kill off their Edge browser engine and switch it out for Chromium. But can he convince Mike?Special Guest: Peter Kretzman.Links:Electron — The Electron framework lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It is based on Node.js and Chromium and is used by the Atom editor and many other apps.Visual Studio 2019Connect(); 2018 Xamarin AnnouncementsThe case against #NoEstimates: the bottom lineRecommended reading for the CTO/CIOLinuxFest Northwest

Mike and Chris don’t claim to have a time machine, but they still have a major problem to solve.Links:To old to start?How to Evaluate open source libs/frames/software?Top programming languages of 2018

iPad Pro is a great machine for people that don’t want to get too much work done. But ultimately this week’s episode is about the guys catching up after a long couple weeks apart.Links:Ferrite Recording Studio — Ferrite is the tool many podcasters and journalists reach for when they’re away from the studio.‎LumaFusion video editor — Pro video editing and effectsMichael Dominick on Twitter — "Was running out of drive storage on my desktop, so I did the unthinkable @ChrisLAS. I opened it up and installed an additional HDD! What madness is that? #CoderRadio"

We answer how Chris and Mike started in independent contracting, and the lessons changes they’d make with some perspective of time. Plus System76’s new Thelio hardware looks great, but would the Mac Mini be the wiser purchase? The guys debate. And a tool of the week, some news, and more!Links:Mac miniThelioASP.NET Core Ditching .NET Framework — Microsoft yesterday (Oct. 29) said that going forward, ASP.NET Core 3.0 -- the Web framework part of the "Core" platform offerings -- will only run on the base NET Core 3.0 platform, not the traditional .NET Framework that has been a Windows-only mainstay for some 16 years. Erick Roberts on Twitter — "@dominucco I went way back in the @coderradioshow archives hoping to get some back story on how you and Chris both started your independent contractor lives. Can you or @ChrisLAS point me to a blog post or a podcast episode. It cuts me off at episode 55."Gogh — Color Scheme for Gnome Terminal and Pantheon Terminal

We react to the news that IBM is buying Red Hat, cover some feedback that sets us straight, and are pleasantly surprised by Qt Design Studio.Links:Qt Design Studio 1.0 Released — Qt Photoshop Bridge – import your graphics design from PhotoshoNew LSP language service supporting Swift and C-family languages for any editor and platform — I'm excited to announce that we are going to start a new open-source project for a Swift and C-family language service based on the Language Server Protocol 1.6k. We've chosen to adopt LSP so we can benefit from its active community and wide adoption across other editors and platforms. This means that Visual Studio Code, Atom, Sublime Text, or whatever your favorite editor happens to be, can use the same service as Xcode, and any improvements we make to the service will benefit them all. IBM to Acquire Red Hat — IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $34 billion.Forget Watson, the Red Hat acquisition may be the thing that saves IBM — Watson, the business division focused on artificial intelligence whose public claims were always more marketing than actually market-driven, has not performed as well as IBM had hoped and investors were losing their patience.GitHub is now officially a part of Microsoft — With government approvals received, the acquisition announced in June is complete.Remote Workers Are Outperforming Office Workers — Plenty of studies and surveys show the power of remote work when it comes to productivity.

What’s the future of .NET? With .NET Core growing and the future of the orginal .NET seems uncertain. Chris and Mike suspect there is clear possibility. Plus a few more thoughts on Unit Testing, embedded productivity companion devices, and the hoopla of the week.Links:Matthew's Thoughts on Students and Linuxu/HCharlesB on Unit TestingMichael Dominick on Twitter — "Well, lookie here -> through the power of #dotnetcore, I have #Microsoft #Bot Framework working on #Linux in #csharp instead of JS. The more I learn about .Net Core & .Net Standard, the more impressed I am.… https://t.co/jBeQLB48c0"Help us plan the future of .NET! | .NET BlogDid Microsoft Really Just “Open Source All Its Patents”??​Redis Labs and Common Clause attacked where it hurts: With open-source codeAdobe announces full Photoshop CC for iPad shipping 2019

Azure Sphere dev kits are shipping, and we take a look at the practicalities of getting setup to start developing. Then we clear some recent Java FUD, read some feedback, and share a few stories.Links:Regarding Michael's MacBook Pro mishapText Contrast for Dark ThemesDeveloping an Azure Sphere experience with Visual Studio — You will write your application logic in C, using APIs that are provided by the Azure Sphere SDK, this is compiled into your application binary using GCC. As part of the build process, tools that are part of the Azure Sphere SDK are used to generate a signed .imagepackage file that will be deployed to your development board, or through the Azure Sphere security service for Over The Air.Michael Dominick on Twitter: "Does anyone have an #AzureSpheres devkit in hand yet?" — I’m thinking of evaluating it for a project but am trying to get a sense of what the actual developer experience is like and how dependent it is on a connection to @Azure #dotnetAzure Sphere MT3620 Development Board — Azure Sphere MT3620 Development Kit_US VersionMichael Dominick on Twitter: "Ok, let me dispel some #Java FUD here." — You CAN use #Java11 for free. Just use the @OpenJDK and you're golden. #Programming #FOSS #CoderRadio @ChrisLAS Spread the word -> there's a lot of confusion on this one thanks to Oracle's strange communications on it.Oracle releases open source and commercial licenses for Java 11 and laterProject Strobe — The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.Microsoft open-sources Infer.NET AI code just in time for the weekend — Infer.NET, which is on GitHub right now, takes a model-based approach to machine learning. The developer gives the framework a model, and the framework then develops a machine-learning algorithm directly from the model provided.

Mike makes his case for realism when it comes to automated testing, and a readjustment of expectations in the wider community. Plus the guys define what makes a “Dark Matter Developer”, and gauk at the possibility of this young hip upstart’s automated build pipeline, and share memories of large scale QA testing teams.Links:Mike: I'm Seeing Something Strange...MacinCloud — This is the cloud-based Mac solution you are looking for! Access on-demand Mac servers for app development, Mac tasks, and enterprise builds.iOS Code Signing in App Cente — An app must be signed to run on a real device during the development process, through a beta program or in the App Store. The Day the QA Department Died — Let’s take a step back and examine how things used to work.Who needs a separate QA Team? — Have you come across developers who think that having a separate Quality Assurance (QA) team, who could test (manually or auto-magically) their code/software at the end of an iteration/release, will really help them? Personally I think this style of software development is not just dangerous but also harmful to the developers’ growth.Why your QA testers quit—and what to do about it — After years of hearing tragic tales of continuous tester turnover, I started to wonder if testing is just a temporary, transitional role for many people.Alexa is the future of Amazon’s consumer business — Here’s a quick rundown of the Alexa-enabled products Amazon announced: A wall clock, microwave, subwoofer, an Alexa for the car, a DVR for your TV antenna, a smart plug, and a microphone that turns your existing hi-fi setup into an Alexa-powered audio rig. Oh, and updates to the Echo Dot, Echo Plus, and Echo Show.Big Mouth Billy Bass will soon work with Amazon Alexa - The Verge — Amazon says an updated Billy is coming later this year.