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Browsing posts in: Pluralsight
Oct 11, 2016    |      0 comments

Never Giving Up – When Life Gets in the Way (New Pluralsight Course)

I like to keep my life full of challenges, projects, experiences and never just settle. Those people that know me best have come to live with me never sitting still, never being content with the current state of things. I have achieved a lot of my goals, but I am still very much a work in progress. As you might have seen I have created courses, written articles and conducted webinars for Pluralsight for quite some time. While an article can be written in a relatively short space of time and you can fit it in with other tasks quite easily, a course is a different beast entirely. I have to script what I say, produce PowerPoint slides, write demos and then record everything. Unless you have a dedicated sound recording studio, getting clean sounds is really hard! I have birds, kids, washing machines, guests and 1000 other things being noisy and disruptive. So I tend to record from 10pm onwards.

About two years ago I had just completed two courses and I was ready to sign on for the next one. Despite the fact my son had just been born, moving house (huge move that ended up taking 6 weeks), starting a Bed & Breakfast, taking over a 50 acre property and changing jobs, I figured I would just take on another course contract. After all, how hard could it be? Answer: very. Continue Reading

Dec 14, 2015    |      0 comments

Hour of Code – Teaching Kids to Code

Hour of Code

If there is one thing I am really passionate about (besides Windows phone and Microsoft Kool-Aid) it is opening up kids’ minds to the world of coding. Watching kids in that light bulb moment when they suddenly realise that they can control computers and make them do their bidding is just priceless. I love it. Continue Reading

Jul 31, 2015    |      0 comments

Pluralsight Webinar – Building Apps for Windows 10

You might be aware that Windows 10 has launched to the world and that Microsoft’s servers are being hammered from millions of people wanting to get the best Windows ever. Yes, I am biased because I have seen the development of the OS over the last 9 months, and I think Microsoft has got most things right (don’t get me started on setting default applications though).

With Windows 10 they are launching the Universal Windows Platform, allowing developers to target all Windows devices with a single app. This means you can target anything from phones to desktop to Xbox, even HoloLens with the same app.

UWP

I proposed to Pluralsight to do a Windows 10 webinar a few months back, and what do you know! Microsoft decided to launch Windows 10 on the date we had already set. It is a sign! I have done a few talks on the topic already, but I am hugely excited about Universal Apps and the promise they give, not the least the Universal App Bridges, which lets iOS and Android developers bring their code to the platform too.

The full length webinar is posted below for your enjoyment. Please post any questions in the comments below and I will answer each and every one of them.

 

Jul 29, 2015    |       5 comments

Becoming Successful and Finding Your Own Strengths – Interview With Scott Allen

While at the Pluralsight Author Summit 2015 in Salt Lake City, I caught up with Scott Allen. We had a chat about the methods people learn and how you might fail at one way, but succeed at method number 17. We also talked about the success Scott has had with Pluralsight, and how this has changed his life, if at all.

He is one of the friendliest and nicest people I know and he is always willing to share experiences and advice, just like in the interview below. Enjoy.

 

Jul 25, 2015    |       2 comments

Interviewing John Papa and Community Involvement

Back in March I interviewed the all around awesome guy John Papa on what it means to be involved in the “community” and why as a developer being in love with your craft, the community can help you excel and meet awesome guys and gals. John is involved in a great deal of community initiatives and shares with me how it has helped him and why he thinks it is so important.

We talk about DDD Melbourne, which is on 8 August this year (2015), an event I have a great deal of involvement and interesti in. And if you don’t understand what you can give and get from the community, take 12 minutes out of your day to watch the interview.

Below is the interview. It is a ripper.

Jul 21, 2015    |      0 comments

Pluralsight Webinar – Building Windows Apps for Windows 10

It comes as no surprise to those who now me and read this blog that I have a soft spot for all things Windows development (well, most things at least). I have teed up with Pluralsight to present an online live webinar of all the ways you and build Windows apps. It will be an overview of how easy it is and how varied a skill set is now catered for. You will be surprised how much Microsoft loves everyone now.

webinar-poster

 

The webinar takes place at 1 p.m., July 28th USA Pacific/ 6 a.m., July 29th AEST (yep, I am getting up early for you guys).

 

The event is completely free and you can sign up here now.

 

Apr 8, 2015    |      0 comments

Getting the Troy Hunt Treatment – New Pluralsight Course

About a month ago I was in Salt Lake City for the annual Pluralsight Authors’ Summit. It was a weekend of incredible learnings regarding authoring and publishing, invaluable networking with fellow authors and of course having some fun in the snow as well.

I haven’t authored a course for some months and that is due to cloning myself, moving house, changing jobs and many other things happening, but when Pluralsight asked if Troy Hunt and I wanted to do a Play By Play course on website security I jumped on it. So while we were in Salt Lake City, we sat down for a couple of hours to record a live session with Troy casting his hacker eyes on a product called Sugar Learning built by SSW, the company I work for.

The course will show some of the most common areas of website security that you can relatively easily fix yourself by following the steps and using the tools we show you. A small sample can be seen below, and you watch the whole thing right now on Pluralsight.

 

Oct 20, 2014    |      0 comments

The Lumia 930 in all its Glory

About 9 weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to participate in the Microsoft #Challenge930. This meant that Microsoft would send a free Lumia 930 as a loan device and I could use it throughout the challenge. Who would say no to that!!?

Lumia 930

Being an app developer and trainer for the platform I was also extremely interested in seeing how the device would perform for building apps, experimenting with new features such as the SensorCore and of course using the latest and greatest of the Windows Phone operating system. With the introduction of universal windows apps the features of “Big Windows” are now available on your handheld device (although whether the Lumia 1320 and 1520 are handheld is another question entirely). Continue Reading

Aug 4, 2014    |      0 comments

Building Your First Windows Phone App

About three weeks ago my third Pluralsight course was published. This one had been underway for a while due to me being pedantic and a few other projects creeping up and taking my time. But it is finally here! “Building Your First Windows Phone App” is alive and doing really well.

This course is a different take on starting out building apps, and in fact about 80% of the content is applicable across mobile platforms and even non-mobile development. You know that feeling when you want to start developing for a particular platform, say Windows Phone, and you can’t figure out what to build? This course helps you right from getting an idea and how to harness it, to the point where the app is published and what to do post-publish. No other course guides you through the whole process.

You will learn to use the most important tools and everything from avoiding the typical pitfalls to using Azure mobile services. It really is the whole life cycle of building an app and I am really proud of it. Below is a snippet of what the course contains.

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