Extending the Greatness of Application Insights I will start off by saying I love Application Insights. I have been using it for a long time, and am delighted at the new roll-out of features for it. I have even been giving a talk on Application Insights and how easy it is to instrument your application, so check that out if you are interested. One thing that is great about Application Insights is how extendable it is.

New Beginnings I have accepted a position to join Microsoft in the Premier Services Division. My role will be Application Development Manager (ADM) and I will be responsible for helping our customers reach their full potential using Microsoft Tools and Resources. I am immensly excited to start this journey and continue to grow as a developer/technology enthusiast. For a software developer, one who focuses on .NET, C#, and other goodness on the web, Microsoft is where the magic happens.

Dot Net Standard Support in Azure Functions! I have talked about Azure Functions before, but up until this point, I felt like it was limited to cases where you needed to interact with a database. One prime example being listening on an Ftp folder and tracking the files in a database. You would do this in the past don’t get me wrong, but I wanted to use the newest stuff with the newest stuff, and using an older mechanism to interact with a database with something as cool as Azure Functions bummed me out.

I prefer CLI to visual tools for Git In doing my day-to-day development, I prefer to do most tasks Git related in a CLI. There are great tools available in Visual Studio 2017, Code, and 3rd party software like Source Tree, but for I like what I like, and the CLI does it for me. One thing that it is super easy to do in the CLI is “resetting” or clearing a working directory and starting fresh.

HttpClient and Interceptors Last month, the Angular team released version 4.3 of their SPA Framework. One of the big additions in this release was the upgrade to the Http mechanism used by the framework, now called HttpClient. The process to make Http calls is different now, and by initial smell for the better. To adjulation from the community, the return of HttpInterceptors, a mechanism that sits between your application and your Api.

Being Repitive is not fun Ever since I can remember I have loved to automate things. Whether it was taking toys and mounting them on remote control car parts or convincing my brother that the show I wanted to watch at a particular time was far better than anything he wanted to watch. I guess those things aren’t really automation rather more like a combination of laziness and and ability to make a little effort so something wasn’t as contrived the next time… WAIT, ISN’T THAT AUTOMATION?