.NET Musings

Exciting news! I'm offering a discount for my 4-Day .NET 9 deep dive class starting December 10th!

blog@skimedic.com — Sat, 30 Nov 2024 06:26:00 -0700

I teach two in-depth .NET courses every year—one in July and another in December. This upcoming session is a 4-day, hands-on lab where you'll build a complete data access layer using Entity Framework Core 9, create two web applications (one with Razor Pages and the other with MVC), develop a RESTful service, and finish off with a single-page app (SPA) using Blazor WASM.

Interested? Use the code JAPIKSE at https://vslive.com/events/training-seminars/2024/dec10/home.aspx for a special discount!

Curious about the course topics? Here's a sample of what you'll dive into:

Day 1: Entity Framework Core

Migration from EF6
Model creation & configuration
Global query filters, value converters, temporal tables
Overriding SaveChanges with custom error handling
Connection resiliency, concurrency errors, and transactions
Fast changes with ExecuteUpdate/Delete
Integration testing with xUnit

Days 2-3: ASP.NET Core

Razor Pages, MVC, and RESTful Services
Dependency injection, app configuration, and logging
Routing, validation, tag helpers, and GDPR support
HTTPClient factory, API documentation, versioning, and more

Day 4: Blazor WASM

Components, pages, and forms
State management, JavaScript interop, and HTTP client integration
CSS isolation, routing, and lifecycle management

Spots are limited, so grab yours now—I hope to see you there!

Don’t Say I Can’t

blog@skimedic.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 05:24:00 -0700

Last night I had the pleasure of working with a customer at Perfect North Slopes (I’ve been on the Ski Patrol there for over 25 years). Normally, working with a customer means treating injuries, but this time was different. Paul approached me for some help making a video. Paul is a guide, and he was there with his exchange student, Ozzie, a young man from Turkey who is blind. Ozzie had never experienced snow before coming to the US, and had certainly never skied before. Paul wanted me for follow behind them and create a video of Ozzie skiing down Far Side, our longest trail (about a mile).

Not the first time I’ve been asked this on my tenure with the Ski Patrol, but this time it was very different. Ozzie is completely blind. Paul spent this ski season teaching Ozzie to ski, and Ozzie follows Paul down the hill listening to the sound of Paul clicking his poles together behind him. Ozzie isn’t tethered, he’s just skiing. At one point in the video, you can see Ozzie get ahead of Paul, so Paul simply banged his poles louder, Ozzie slowed down since the sound was behind him, and then they continued skiing down the hill.

Here is the video from my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U8dEcQyKtg

Next time I start to say “I can’t”, I’m going to think of Ozzie, and realize what I really mean is “I won’t try”. It wasn’t that Ozzie was a phenomenal skier. It’s that he can’t see, yet he didn’t let that stop him from skiing. And in three short months!

Graphic Design with the Surface Pro

blog@skimedic.com — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 16:32:00 -0700

I had Surface machines since they first came out. Every edition of the Surface RT and the Surface Pro. I write code for my clients, the text and images for my current book effort for Apress, and my courses for LinkedIn. I am also writing this blog post on my Surface Book. Obviously, I’m sold on the Surface as a laptop and a work machine. My son, on the other hand, not so much. When my kids were much younger, I gave them Surface RTs as tablets. Ok, so I probably jaded them with that move. My mistake.

My oldest has a knack for drawing. He’s really really good. Good enough that when he wanted a digital drawing pad for his laptop, I couldn’t say no. Well, I *did* try and talk him into a Surface, but teenagers don’t always listen to what their dad has to say. We got him a drawing pad to use with my old Dell luggable, and he produced several images that he’s put on t-shirts, including the following:

Recently, he had some issues with his drawing pad, and (probably due to the marketing of the Surface as an artistic tool), he asked my if I had a old Surface laying around that he could use. I was a bit shocked, but I certainly did have a Surface Pro 3 laying around (my old development machine). So I cleaned off all of my geek tools (like Visual Studio and SQL Server), and set it up for him to use.

When he started using it, there was an issue with pen pressure. He practically had to press the pen through the screen to get a solid line. I knew it was adjustable, but it was not intuitive how to do so. There is an app in the store simple called Surface (https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9wzdncrfjb8p) that allows for an artist to customize the pen for their unique style of drawing. Then it was just a matter of setting up Krita 64 for Surface Pro, and he was off to the races. I had only ever used the pen as a mouse when I was sitting on an airplane!

The designs that he made on my old Surface Pro are pretty cool. He started by creating this drawing:

He shopped the image around, and a local band expressed an interest in it. So he created some variations (again, just using my old Surface Pro 3 with pen and Krita) like this:

No deal has been cut yet, so don’t look for his artwork on any shirts or album covers. I guess he was somewhat inspired by my old Yes albums (he inherited all of my old vinyl albums).

So, two points about this post. The Surface Pro line is really good at being an artists’ tool. The other? In case you hadn’t figured it out, I’m just a proud dad showing of my son’s work!

Note: All Images in this post © Conner Japikse and Phil Japikse

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About the author

Philip Japikse

An international speaker, Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider, MCSD, CSM, and CSP, and a passionate member of the developer community, Phil Japikse has been working with .NET since the first betas, developing software for over 30 years, and heavily involved in the agile community since 2005. Phil is co-author of best selling "C# and the .NET 4.6 Framework" (http://bit.ly/pro_csharp), the Lead Director for the Cincinnati .NET User’s Group (http://www.cinnug.org) and the Cincinnati Software Architect Group, co-hosts the Hallway Conversations podcast (http://www.hallwayconversations.com), founded the Cincinnati Day of Agile (http://www.dayofagile.org), and volunteers for the National Ski Patrol. During the day, Phil works as a Principal Consultant and the Agile Practice Director with Strategic Data Systems (http://www.sds-consulting.com). Phil enjoys to continuously learn new tech and is always striving to improving his craft. You can follow Phil on twitter via http://www.twitter.com/skimedic and read his blog at http://www.skimedic.com/blog.

Discounts for DevIntersection–Las Vegas

blog@skimedic.com — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 18:53:00 -0700

I’ll be speaking at the DEVIntersection in Las Vegas October 25-28. I’ll be giving three talks – one on Design Patterns, and two WPF talks – WPF For Developers and Implementing MVVM for WPF. When you register, use the code JAPIKSE (my last name) to receive a nice discount off the admission price!

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About the author

Philip Japikse

Discount for VSLive Washington DC

blog@skimedic.com — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 18:23:00 -0700

I will be speaking at VSLive Washington DC the week of October 3-6. Using the code DCSPK13REG will save you $400 off the full conference! In addition to many other talented speakers, I will be speaking on ASP.NET MVC 6 as well as MVC 6 Web Services with Entity Framework.

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