.NET Rocks!

Do you understand how networking works in C#? Carl and Richard chat with Chris Woody Woodruff about his new book on networking with C#. Chris runs down the fundamentals of networking and then discusses the different approaches readily available in the C# world, including web sockets, gRPC, SignalR, and many more! The conversation also turns to the upcoming QUIC standards built into HTTP/3 that should simplify networking. Sure, you could go with the defaults, but why not explore all the options!

How do you balance architecture and code? Carl and Richard talk to Steve Smith about various architectural strategies and the swing back-and-forth against over-designing architecture and getting code written. Steve talks about how architecture changes depending on the size and number of teams, how the latest tools can help with architectural choices, and the challenge of effective refactoring when things need to change. Lots of great conversation!

Open Source Maintainers are burning out or going commercial - how do we solve this? Carl and Richard chat with Rob Mensching about his work to create the open source maintenance fee through GitHub. Rob talks about the common problem of single maintainers getting buried under issues and demands of consumers for a project. Recognizing that most people cannot contribute to the project, a maintenance fee helps support the maintainer in a low friction way for everyone involved. Check out the links to get started!

How can a large language model help your organization answer government RFPs? Carl and Richard talk to Vishwas Lele about his startup pWin, as in proposal win. Vishwas talks about being a year into the startup and his deeper understanding of how AI technologies can augment skilled operators to produce better quality products in less time, including responding to RFPs. The conversation digs into tuning the LLM to focus on the data relevant to each section of the RFP so that the operator can interact with the tool and build better responses!

Can you integrate performant audio-video into your .NET application? Carl and Richard talk to Elias Puurunen about his work at Tractus Events, where he uses the NDI protocols to bring real-time audio and video streams into his C# application. Elias talks about the power of P/Invoke to access the underlying libraries for controlling video streams, including utilizing NVidia GPUs for extremely fast encoding and decoding. You could write this code in C++, but why?

Spencer Schneidenbach, a Microsoft MVP and the president of Aviron Software, dives into the world of agentic AI. He discusses using large language models to improve healthcare customer interactions, from summarizing conversations to identifying sentiments. Spencer highlights the ease of integrating Microsoft's Semantic Kernel with OpenAI models, enhancing API connections. The conversation also explores the challenges of building scalable AI solutions, the importance of effective prompt crafting, and the critical role of user feedback in AI tool development.

How do you measure the quality of a large language model? Carl and Richard talk to Dr. Jodie Burchell about her work measuring large language models for accuracy, reliability, and consistency. Jodie talks about the variety of benchmarks that exist for LLMs and the problems they have. A broader conversation about quality digs into the idea that LLMs should be targeted to the particular topic area they are being used for - often, smaller is better! Building a good test suite for your LLM is challenging but can increase your confidence that the tool will work as expected.

What are JavaScript promises, and why do you want to make them? Carl and Richard talk to Martine Dowden about all the various async options available in Javascript today, including Callbacks, Promises, Async/Await, and even ReactiveJS! Martine digs into some of the more remarkable features available, including grouping sync calls together so code is only called when they all complete, or the race option where only one needs to complete, and everything else is thrown away. Lots of power is available in Javascript today. Have you taken advantage of it?

Rob Richardson, a Microsoft MVP and software craftsman, shares his insights on building cloud applications with .NET Aspire. He highlights the powerful features of Aspire, including OpenTelemetry and containerization, and discusses the challenges of adapting .NET for cloud environments. Rob delves into resilient strategies and the latest updates in Aspire 9.1, emphasizing security and performance. He also compares infrastructure as code tools like Pulumi and Terraform, showcasing their unique advantages in modern software development.

Jimmy Bogard, an independent software consultant and the mastermind behind AutoMapper and Mediator, shares insights on the evolution of AutoMapper over its remarkable seventeen-year journey. He discusses the challenges of maintaining a beloved open-source library and how it transformed from a personal tool into a community staple with hundreds of millions of downloads. Jimmy reflects on the importance of community engagement and feedback, while navigating the complexities of software design and the balance between innovation and stability.