Mateusz Ligeza

Shink virtual disks

2022-05-06T00:00:00Z

Repost of Stack Overflow answer
It came handy when I was trying to free some disk space from the local docker instance

wsl --shutdown
diskpart
# open Diskpart in new window
select vdisk file="C:\WSL-Distros\…\ext4.vhdx"
attach vdisk readonly
compact vdisk
detach vdisk
exit

Maybe someday there will be more elegant way to do it: WSL GitHub Issue

Google maps intent for android

2021-03-19T00:00:00Z

Google Maps
Google Maps driving mode

Adding new non nullable column to SQL table with default value

2020-11-01T00:00:00Z

ALTER TABLE [schema].[Table]
ADD [NewColumn] INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT [DF_Table_NewColumn] DEFAULT 2
GO

ALTER TABLE [schema].[Table] DROP CONSTRAINT [DF_Table_NewColumn]
GO

Requesting SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt using manual verification for Azure WebSite

2020-06-18T00:00:00Z

Summary of commands needed to quickly generate new SSL certificate for the Azure Website. We will request the certificate from the Let's Encrypt using manual HTTP-01 challenge and use Kudu to pass the validation.

We will be using certbot to request certificate using command line. Although it is possible to install it on windows (explained in this article Running Certbot on Windows - Phase 1) it is much easier to run it from linux. In this article we will use both Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 and azure vm.

Prepare Azure Website for the manual challenge

You need to configure you website tb be able to host the extensionless files under the url http://<YOUR_DOMAIN>/.well-known/acme-challenge/<TOKEN>

In order to do that open the kudu console for you azure app (if your website azure url is https://<websitename>.azurewebsites.net/, Kudu is accessible under https://<websitename>.scm.azurewebsites.net/)

Open Debug Console > PowersShell

Navigate to site\wwwroot\

Create .well-known folder, and then inside it acme-challenge folder. Inside it create web.config file with following content to enable extensionless file support.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <staticContent>
            <mimeMap fileExtension="*" mimeType="text/json" />
        </staticContent>
        <handlers>
            <clear />
            <add name="StaticFile" path="*" verb="*" modules="StaticFileModule" resourceType="File" requireAccess="Read" />
        </handlers>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

You can create some dummy test file to validate that the new configuration works as expected and the file content is displayed when you navigate to http://<YOUR_DOMAIN>/.well-known/acme-challenge/test.

Install WSL2 on your machine

You need have run Windows 10, version 2004 that supports Hyper-V Virtualization as explained here

Enable Hyper-V

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform

Enable WSL

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

You might see this message after running that command: WSL 2 requires an update to its kernel component. For information please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2kernel please follow the link and install the MSI from that page.

Got to Microsoft Store and install Debian

Get Certbot

Install certbot (for other systems you may follow guides from official docs)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install certbot

Request new certificate

sudo certbot certonly --email <your-email> -d <your-domain> --agree-tos --manual

You will see (you might also see the question if you want to pass your email to some 3rd party - you can say No to it)

Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Plugins selected: Authenticator manual, Installer None
Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for <your-domain>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NOTE: The IP of this machine will be publicly logged as having requested this
certificate. If you're running certbot in manual mode on a machine that is not
your server, please ensure you're okay with that.

Are you OK with your IP being logged?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Y)es/(N)o:

Say Y (you can't say No here)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Create a file containing just this data:

_cZlHtcA4U80CB66f3TH78132ee5cYrJJi7Lk3FXJAU.Oww5lwNSS9WD5-PnXEyKJn3oGjcivmy6z-shKDZPsj4

And make it available on your web server at this URL:

http://<your-domain>/.well-known/acme-challenge/_cZlHtcA4U80CB66f3TH78132ee5cYrJJi7Lk3FXJAU

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Press Enter to Continue

Before you press Enter you should create the required file using Kudu and verify it is accessible under the link displayed in console.

Once you pass the validation you will be able to see the files in the /etc/letsencrypt/ folder. Use following commands to open that folder in windows explorer

cd /etc/letsencrypt/
explorer.exe .

You can copy the files from that folder to some windows location.

To generate the final .pfx certificate for the website open the \letsencrypt\live\<your-domain> and run

openssl pkcs12 -inkey privkey.pem -in cert.pem -export -out cert.pfx

List of commands to use when running from Azure vm (debian 10.4)

In local powershell

ssh mateusz@52.230.31.107 # ssh <username>@<vm-ip>

In remote vm

sudo apt-get install certbot
sudo certbot certonly --email <your-email> -d <your-domain> --agree-tos --manual
sudo apt-get install zip
zip -r letsencrypt.zip /etc/letsencrypt/
ls -l letsencrypt.zip # file is owned by root
sudo chown mateusz:mateusz letsencrypt.zip # chown <username>:<username> changes the ownership to you
ls -l letsencrypt.zip # file should be owned by you
exit

In local powershell

scp mateusz@52.230.31.107:letsencrypt.zip . # scp <username>@<vm-ip>:<filepath> <local-filepath>

This should download the zip with all relevant file to your machine.

Links

Install WSL 2 on Windows 10
How to Access Linux Files in a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro from Windows 10
Let’s Encrypt - How It Works
Get Certbot
Running Certbot on Windows - Phase 1
Azure Web App - Extension-less URL issues
Extensionless Static Files are Very Painful to Configure Under IIS - final fix
Encrypt https domain server with Azure Application Gateway
Automating Azure Application Gateway SSL certificate renewals with Let’s Encrypt and Azure Automation
How To Zip Folder on Linux - pretty cool blog btw
Chown Command in Linux (File Ownership)
DigiCert - How to convert .pfx file to .pem format including private key
Free certificates using Certes CLI - another cli client that can be used to manage the acme account based on .net. Thanks to Adrian Clark for recommending that one.
GitHub - Certes

Creating CSR with openssl

2020-06-09T00:00:00Z

Consolidated information from DigiCert articles about requesting new SSL certificate using OpenSSL command line

Getting private Key

From existing certificate - How to convert .pfx file to .pem format including private key

Solution OpenSSL can be used to convert pfx files to pem files that includes the private key. Some Servers require this format.

To convert use the command below:

openssl pkcs12 -in certificate.pfx -out certificte.pem

Generating new key - Generating Your Private Key

After deciding on a key algorithm, key size, and whether to use a passphrase, you are ready to generate your private key.
Use the following command to generate your private key using the RSA algorithm:

openssl genrsa -out yourdomain.pem 2048

This command generates a private key in your current directory named yourdomain.key (-out yourdomain.key) using the RSA algorithm (genrsa) with a key length of 2048 bits (2048). The generated key is created using the OpenSSL format called PEM.
Use the following command to view the raw, encoded contents (PEM format) of the private key:

cat yourdomain.pem

Even though the contents of the file might look like a random chunk of text, it actually contains important information about the key.
Use the following command to decode the private key and view its contents:

openssl rsa -text -in yourdomain.pem -noout

The -noout switch omits the output of the encoded version of the private key.

Extracting Your Public Key

The private key file contains both the private key and the public key. You can extract your public key from your private key file if needed.
Use the following command to extract your public key:

openssl rsa -in yourdomain.pem -pubout -out yourdomain_public.pem

Creating Your CSR

After generating your private key, you are ready to create your CSR. The CSR is created using the PEM format and contains the public key portion of the private key as well as information about you (or your company).
Use the following command to create a CSR using your newly generated private key:

openssl req -new -key yourdomain.pem -out yourdomain.csr

After entering the command, you will be asked series of questions. Your answers to these questions will be embedded in the CSR. Answer the questions as described below:

| | | |---|---| | Country Name (2 letter code) | The two-letter country code where your company is legally located. | | State or Province Name (full name) | The state/province where your company is legally located. | | Locality Name (e.g., city) | The city where your company is legally located. | | Organization Name (e.g., company) | Your company's legally registered name (e.g., YourCompany, Inc.). | | Organizational Unit Name (e.g., section) | The name of your department within the organization. (You can leave this option blank; simply press Enter.) | | Common Name (e.g., server FQDN) | The fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) (e.g., www.example.com). | | Email Address | Your email address. (You can leave this option blank; simply press Enter.) | | A challenge password | Leave this option blank (simply press Enter). | | An optional company name | Leave this option blank (simply press Enter). |

Some of the above CSR questions have default values that will be used if you leave the answer blank and press Enter. These default values are pulled from the OpenSSL configuration file located in the OPENSSLDIR (see Checking Your OpenSSL Version). If you want to leave a question blank without using the default value, type a "." (period) and press Enter.

Using the -subj Switch

Another option when creating a CSR is to provide all the necessary information within the command itself by using the -subj switch.
Use the following command to disable question prompts when generating a CSR:

openssl req -new -key yourdomain.key -out yourdomain.csr -subj "/C=US/ST=Utah/L=Lehi/O=Your Company, Inc./OU=IT/CN=yourdomain.com"

This command uses your private key file (-key yourdomain.key) to create a new CSR (-out yourdomain.csr) and disables question prompts by providing the CSR information (-subj).

Creating Your CSR with One Command

Instead of generating a private key and then creating a CSR in two separate steps, you can actually perform both tasks at once.
Use the following command to create both the private key and CSR:

openssl req -new \
-newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout yourdomain.key \
-out yourdomain.csr \
-subj "/C=US/ST=Utah/L=Lehi/O=Your Company, Inc./OU=IT/CN=yourdomain.com"

This command generates a new private key (-newkey) using the RSA algorithm with a 2048-bit key length (rsa:2048) without using a passphrase (-nodes) and then creates the key file with a name of yourdomain.key (-keyout yourdomain.key).

The command then generates the CSR with a filename of yourdomain.csr (-out yourdomain.csr) and the information for the CSR is supplied (-subj).

Note: While it is possible to add a subject alternative name (SAN) to a CSR using OpenSSL, the process is a bit complicated and involved. If you do need to add a SAN to your certificate, this can easily be done by adding them to the order form when purchasing your DigiCert certificate.

Citrix - How to Create a CSR and Key File for a SAN Certificate with Multiple Subject Alternate Names

OpenSSL CSR with Alternative Names one-line

in short create separate file csr_details.txt with configuration details

[req]
default_bits = 2048
prompt = no
default_md = sha1
req_extensions = req_ext
distinguished_name = dn

[ dn ]
C=US
ST=New York
L=Rochester
O=End Point
OU=Testing Domain
CN = www.your-new-domain.com

[ req_ext ]
subjectAltName = @alt_names

[ alt_names ]
DNS.1 = your-new-domain.com
DNS.2 = www.your-new-domain.com

default_bits and default_md can be ommited if provided from command line. the default_bits can be ommited when creating CSR using existing certificate
Cisco recommends adding the

keyUsage = keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment
extendedKeyUsage = serverAuth

to [ req_ext ] section

openssl req -new -key certificate.pem -out request.csr -config csr_details.txt
# when creating new key in the same command
openssl req -new -out request.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -sha1 -keyout certificate.pem -config csr_details.txt

Verifying CSR Information

After creating your CSR using your private key, we recommend verifying that the information contained in the CSR is correct and that the file hasn't been modified or corrupted.
Use the following command to view the information in your CSR before submitting it to a CA (e.g., DigiCert):

openssl req -text -in yourdomain.csr -noout -verify

The -noout switch omits the output of the encoded version of the CSR. The -verify switch checks the signature of the file to make sure it hasn't been modified.

Convert P7B to PFX

Note: This requires 2 commands
the p7b file should contain whole certificate chain (both site and CA certificates)

STEP 1: Convert P7B to CER

openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificatename.p7b -out certificatename.cer

STEP 2: Convert CER and Private Key to PFX

openssl pkcs12 -export -in certificatename.cer -inkey privateKey.pem -out certificatename.pfx

Summary

openssl pkcs12 -in .\oldCert.pfx -out .\oldCert.pem
openssl req -new -key oldCert.pem -out newCert.csr -config .\csr_details.txt
openssl req -in .\newCert.csr -noout -text

openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in .\newCert.p7b -out newCert.cer
openssl pkcs12 -export -in newCert.cer -inkey .\oldCert.pem -out newCert.pfx

Links

DigiCert - General CSR Creation Guidelines
DigiCert - Creating a CSR for Microsoft Servers Using the DigiCert® Certificate Utility for Windows
DigiCert - OpenSSL Quick Reference Guide
DigiCert - SSL Tools - Check your CSR
DigiCert - How to decode a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file using OpenSSL
DigiCert - How to convert .pfx file to .pem format including private key
Chocolatey OpenSSL

choco install openssl

DigiCert - How to convert a certificate into the appropriate format
Extracting PEM Certificates from a .p7b Bundle File

m3u8 stream to mp4 using ffmpeg

2020-06-07T00:00:00Z

Repost of GitHub Gist

echo "Enter m3u8 link:";read link;echo "Enter output filename:";read filename;ffmpeg -i "$link" -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -vcodec copy -c copy -crf 50 $filename.mp4

Or in simplest form

ffmpeg -i <url> -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -vcodec copy -c copy -crf 50 <filename>

Example

ffmpeg -i "http://host/folder/file.m3u8" -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -vcodec copy -c copy -crf 50 file.mp4

Joining a list of values with table rows in sql

2020-06-06T00:00:00Z

Repost of StackOverflow answer

In Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or later you can use Table Value Constructor

SELECT v.valueId, m.name 
FROM (VALUES (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)) v(valueId)
LEFT JOIN otherTable m ON m.id = v.valueId

Learning how to invest

2020-05-13T00:00:00Z

2020-05-13T00:00:00Z2020-05-13T00:00:00Z

Apps

CoinSpot - Crypt currency trading. Mainly for AU
OnTheHouse - Home for Property Research
Spaceship - simple way to invest in your future
Monzo - Banking made easy - Unchecked
Qapital - Discover true money happiness - Unchecked
CoinBase - Crypto currency trading. Mainly for US - Unchecked

Handy Links

Checking CoinSpot orders

Articles, Blogs and Books

Book - Inteligentny Inwestor XXI wieku
How to Invest in Bitcoin

Tax

Tax treatment of cryptocurrencies
Individual income tax rates

SQL Server Snapshots

2020-04-28T00:00:00Z

Summary of Paul Mcilreavy blog post Keep your dev loop as short as possible with Sql Server Snapshots

Azure Data Studio Extension automating that process

https://github.com/ecirpnaes/DbSnapshotCreator

To take snapshot

USE [Master];
GO
CREATE DATABASE [snapshot_name] ON
(
    NAME = 'database_logical_data_file_name',
    FILENAME = 'C:\Users\mateu\snapshot_name.ss'
)
AS SNAPSHOT OF [database_name];
GO

The database_data_file_name should match the logical file name of the .mdf database file

To restore from snapshot

USE [Master];
GO
ALTER DATABASE [database_name] SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE;
RESTORE DATABASE [database_name] FROM DATABASE_SNAPSHOT = 'snapshot_name';
ALTER DATABASE [database_name] SET MULTI_USER;
GO

There can only be one snapshot of the database present in the sql server. If multiple snapshots of the same database are found, the restore operation will fail with Database cannot be reverted. Either the primary or the snapshot names are improperly specified, all other snapshots have not been dropped, or there are missing files. Fortunately, it is safe to delete older snapshot and afterwards restore from the newer one.

More details in this stack overflow answer

You have multiple snapshots defined, try refreshing the snapshots folder in ssms or run select * from sys.databases where source_database_id IS NOT NULL to see if you have more snapshots. Because snapshots are 'copy on write', you cannot restore if you have multiple snapshots for a single database.

You are not specifying correctly the logical name of the snapshot. Run select * from sys.databases where source_database_id IS NOT NULL to check the the logical name of the snapshot. Then rerun the restore using that name.

Your snapshot file is not linked anymore with the snapshot (snapshot got somehow corrupted). The statement below queries the pages in the snapshot file. Run it and see if you have any errors. select db_name(database_id) [<database name>], database_id, count(*) from sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors where database_id= (select top 1 database_id from sys.databases where source_database_id IS NOT NULL) group by database_id

Teams custom background

2020-04-18T00:00:00Z

Put desired images in %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads folder

Chat Backgrounds
Wallpapers

Today I read

2020-04-10T00:00:00Z

Similar to The Wolf Report 🐺 but with different intent. It's the list of cool articles/websides I stumbled upon on a given day so I can easily find them.

2022-05-06

Conditionally specify a property in an ARM template
Restrict access to static website hosted on azure storage to intended users
Tutorial: Configure HTTPS on an Azure CDN custom domain - candidate for blog post
Set up the Standard rules engine for Azure CDN - candidate for blog post
FIDO Alliance - Open Authentication Standards More Secure than Passwords
Markdown Preview Enhanced
Outlook Meeting Invitations Deleted After Accepted… WHY?!?!

2020-05-05

2020-12-13

How to make a pretty prompt in Windows Terminal with Powerline, Nerd Fonts, Cascadia Code, WSL, and oh-my-posh
Wrap elements by column: 1-3-5-7, 2-4-6-8
.NET client libraries for AzureDevOps
AzureDevOps api client package
Current Directory For Windows Service Is Not What You Expect
AzureDevOps - Define iteration paths and configure team iterations
Service Workers - Practical Guided Introduction (several examples)
.NET Core Worker Services with Application Insights and Serilog
How Yarn Lock Files Work and Upgrading Dependencies
.NET 5 - The breaking changes you need to know about
Customize webpack configuration of React App created with Create-react-app
Web-workers in Create React App (CRA) without unmounting
Workbox 5 + Workbox build + TypeScript SW + Webpack build + Angular app
Customize webpack configuration of React App created with Create-react-app
Should I Move from Evernote to Notion?

2020-12-04

Alternative to PlantUML

2020-11-01

Editing HTML Like A Boss In VS Code
Learn DaVinci Resolve
Dronelink
Error SQL71624: The permission 'CONNECT' is not valid for the target object 'guest' in Microsoft Azure SQL Database v12
VS Code - Cannot display some emoji

2020-10-05

https://boostnote.io/
https://evernote.com/
https://www.notion.so/
https://zapier.com/blog/best-note-taking-app-for-mac/

2020-08-29

Can MobX be combined with RxJS?
Getting the .NET Core Runtime Version in a Running Application
What is the binary component in LastPass?
Configuring ESLint on a TypeScript project
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL (Transact-SQL)
Snapshot Isolation in SQL Server
Surprises and a Bug with SQL Azure DB
How long should SET READCOMMITTEDSNAPSHOT ON take?
Compare EF Core & EF6
Outlook - Create an email message template
Outlook - Send an email message based on a template
Stanford University's course CS193p (Developing Applications for iOS using SwiftUI)
Stanford University's online courses
What it takes to be an MVP - from Rahul
A Step-By-Step Guide To Building a Trading Bot In Any Programming Language
1-Line Layouts - candidate for repost
CoinSpot Cryptocurrency Tax Overview
Azure Static Web Apps are Awesome
Dark Ages Of The Web
A brief history of HTML/CSS layouting
Highlights from Git 2.28
Git Pull with Submodule
Figma - Where teams design together
Papertrail - Frustration-free log management
Loggly - Aggregate & analyze logs from any source
Stack Exchange Data Dump
How to identify and resolve SQL Server Index Fragmentation
SQL Server index structure and concepts
Tips and tricks for SQL Server database maintenance optimization
Microsoft SQL Server Express: Version Comparison Matrix and Free Downloads
Is it possible to script a view as a table in SQL Server? - candidate for repost
How To Not Suck At Mentoring
03 08 Eric Evans on the Entity Equality Methods
How to Host a Static Website for Free on Google’s Firebase Hosting Platform

2020-07-02

Grid for layout, flexbox for components
An Overview of Scroll Technologies
Ultra high-performance, professional-grade animation for the modern web
Scroll-driven animations re-invented
When Sass and New CSS Features Collide
Things I Wish I’d Known About CSS - good starting point to basic css
Why We Don't Use a CSS Framework - Scott Tolinski, Reactive Conf
Recover lost files on Windows 10
MS Store - Windows File Recovery
The Magical Methods in C#
Visualizing ASP.NET Core endpoints using GraphvizOnline and the DOT language
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20161

2020-07-01

C# Language Anonymous type equality
Execute Raw SQL Queries in Entity Framework 6
Assign null to a SqlParameter
Target frameworks in SDK-style projects
C# language versioning
ASPNET Core 3.1 - Attribute routing requirement
Immutability, part 1: Read-only vs. Immutable
ASPNET Core 3.1 - Route constraint reference
RANK (Transact-SQL)
DENSE_RANK (Transact-SQL)
EOMONTH (Transact-SQL)
Generate a set or sequence without loops – part 1 - candidate for repost
Sql Query to generate months and year
SQL Server Indexed Views: The Basics
Create Indexed Views
How to check if a Trigger exists in Sql Server
How can I redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS using an Application Load Balancer?
The Problem with Window Functions and Views
Table-Valued Function(TVF) vs. View
GitHub > cezary piatek > Mapping Generator
The reasons behind why I don't use AutoMapper.
Friends don't let friends use AutoMapper | Andrew Harcourt (Disqus)
The cat sat on the mat.
Stack Mechanics - .NET Software Architecture Workshops - Andrew Harcourt & others as mentors
15 Must-Have Visual Studio Extensions for Developers

2020-06-18

Install WSL 2 on Windows 10
Get Certbot
How to Access Linux Files in a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distro from Windows 10
Azure Web App - Extension-less URL issues
Extensionless Static Files are Very Painful to Configure Under IIS - final fix
Encrypt https domain server with Azure Application Gateway
Automating Azure Application Gateway SSL certificate renewals with Let’s Encrypt and Azure Automation
Azure Application Gateway documentation
PowerTip: Use PowerShell to Create New File
How To Zip Folder on Linux - pretty cool blog btw
Monitoring Linux Processes using Prometheus and Grafana
Chown Command in Linux (File Ownership)
Secure your Custom Domains at no cost with App Service Managed Certificates (preview)
Running Certbot on Windows - Phase 1
Leading free and Open Source multi-platform Deepfakes software.
How to Produce a DeepFake Video in 5 Minutes
First Order Motion Model for Image Animation
Source code for the paper First Order Motion Model for Image Animation
https://reflect.tech/
https://doublicat.com/
https://deepfakesweb.com/
DeepFaceLab - the leading software for creating deepfakes

2020-06-14

"CredSSP encryption oracle remediation" error when you try to RDP to a Windows VM in Azure
From Gulp to Webpack
Modifying host headers with Azure websites when using it behind an Application Gateway or reverse proxy via URL Rewrite Module - Candidate for repost
azcopy copy - downloading files from azure blob storage
Series: Upgrading to ASP.NET Core 3.0

2020-06-06

AppGet, What Chocolatey wasn’t
The Day AppGet Died
Microsoft copied its new Windows Package Manager from rival AppGet, claims developer
Series: Adding feature flags to an ASP.NET Core app
Building a React Design System
JS - Most efficient method to groupby on an array of objects

2020-06-04

Online SVG Path Editor
The Shapes of CSS
Tools to Visualize and Edit SVG Paths (Kinda!)
Working with Shapes in Web Design
Online CSS clip-path maker
CSS Almanac: clip-path
Clipping and Masking in CSS
HTML numbers in Circles (the quick way)
JSFiddle - numbers in circles
Colored Numbered Circles Using Pure CSS & HTML
CodePen - Pure CSS Diamond Shape
How To Import And Export Signatures In Microsoft Outlook? - TLDR %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
Joining a list of values with table rows in SQL
Table Value Constructor (Transact-SQL)
Fix for Error: "Seq is unavailable. Failed to initialize storage: Primary index is corrupt. The database must be defragmented or the table deleted."

2020-06-02

SET NOCOUNT ON usage
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SET NOCOUNT
git archive - Create an archive of files from a git repository
Git Archive: How to export a git project

2020-05-28

Color Tools For Designers 2019 - good candidate for repost
COLOR PICKER
Typescript : how to loop through enum values
Quick fix for 'unions can't be used in index signatures, use a mapped object type instead'
Checking the type of an object in Typescript: the type guards
Bootstrap - Clearfix
W3C - Clearfix
Edge Surf game
Rehearse your slide show with Presenter Coach

2020-05-27

Wake Lock API - Candidate Recommentation
Screen Wake Lock API - W3C Editor's Draft
GitHub > W3C > screen-wake-lock
Devices and Sensors Working Group Implementation and Testing Status
Chromium - Issue 257511: WakeLock API - Screen Lock
Chromium - [wakelock] Mark ScreenWakeLock feature as stable
Chrome Updates Experimental Wake Lock API Support
Screen Wake Lock Demo
Screen Wake Lock Demo 2
Screen Wake Lock Demo 2 - Source Code
Open Broadcaster Software
OBS Studio Quickstart

2020-05-24

CKAN, the world’s leading Open Source data portal platform - government public data reporting
5 summer books and other things to do at home
How to use Windows 10’s Quick Assist app for remote PC support
Quick Assist - Solve PC problems over a remote connection
Announcing .NET 5 Preview 4 and our journey to one .NET
What is Common Data Service?
.NET programs in browser
.NET MAUI is the .NET Multi-platform App UI
Introducing .NET Multi-platform App UI
PowerToys - Windows system utilities to maximize productivity
Windows Package Manager CLI (aka winget)
Automated dependency updates
Codespaces - Your instant dev environment
Visual Studio Codespaces
Windows 10 release information - when you need to check the version/build of the windows 10 you are running
Best Windows Hello Compatible Webcams for Windows 10 Within Budget
Logitech BRIO ULTRA HD PRO WEBCAM
Introducing YARP Preview 1
YARP - toolkit for developing high-performance HTTP reverse proxy applications
Introduction to treat
treat - Themeable, statically extracted CSS‑in‑JS with near‑zero runtime

2020-05-14

Monokai Pro for Visual Studio Code
SQL CASE Statement - TODO: create own article about it
SQL PIVOT and UNPIVOT

2020-05-13

Create/Revert database snapshot extension for AzureDataStudio
Hugo Syntax Extension: Revisited
MURAL - digital workspace for visual collaboration - coalborative draw.io
Task Manager metrics frozen on Win10
Beyond Compare - the only tool that could handle large file (90MB json) comparison

2020-06-09

Working with SSL at Development Time is easier with IISExpress
“The parameter is incorrect.” error using netsh http add sslcert

2020-05-08

Cashing in on the JavaScript Payment Request API
Should You Use HDMI, DisplayPort, or USB-C for a 4K Monitor?
Monzo - Banking made easy
Qapital - Discover true money happiness
Home for Property Research

2020-05-07

TypeScript exercises
Are you using SVG favicons yet? A guide for modern browsers.
Diagram.codes - Diagram generation tool
It's time for you to install Windows Terminal
What's the difference between a console, a terminal, and a shell?
Windows Terminal Themes
Color themes for ConEmu
Windows Terminal

2020-05-06

Azure AD B2B vs Azure AD B2C
Set up sign-in with an Azure Active Directory account using custom policies in Azure Active Directory B2C
Restrict new user signups in a Azure B2C tennant to emails from specific domains.
Set up sign-in for a specific Azure Active Directory organization in Azure Active Directory B2C
How do I delete my Azure AD B2C tenant?

2020-05-05

VisualStudio Extension - WebCompiler
WebCompiler - Autoprefixer for SASS
WebCompiler - Fails due to Browserslist: caniuse-lite is outdated
Browserslist: caniuse-lite is outdated. Please run next command npm update caniuse-lite browserslist
VS Code Extension - ARM Template Viewer

2020-05-04

VS Code - SCSS IntelliSense
"font-family: monospace, monospace"
Modular SCSS and Why You Need It

2020-05-03

Rahul Nath - My YouTube Setup and Workflow
Microsoft Build 2020 registration is not only open, it's FREE, it's LIVE, it's VIRTUAL, and it is all FOR YOU
https://www.notion.so/
Rahul Nath - GETTING STARTED WITH CYPRESS.IO - UI End to End Testing

2020-05-02

How LinkedIn handles merging code in high-velocity repositories

2020-04-30

Select matching element/rename HTML tag in Visual Studio Code
Using Reinforcement Learning in the Algorithmic Trading Problem
AngularJs - How to use replace of directive definition?
AngularJs Component: no template replace option?
: The Shadow DOM Content Placeholder element (obsolete)
Setting Up & Configuring Visual Studio Code
https://github.com/ipatalas/ngComponentUtility
Learn Authentication The Hard Way, with Andrew Best
NDC Sydney 2016 - Modern Authentication - Rob Moore
OAuth 2.0 Security Best Current Practice

2020-04-29

Building The New Facebook With React and Relay - facebook implementation of css-in-js
Dissection of COVIDSafe (Android)
Hacker News
Implementing Skeleton Screens In React

2020-04-28

CodePen - css svg spinner
Keep your dev loop as short as possible with Sql Server Snapshots
Cannot restore SQL Server snapshot

2020-04-27

TypeScript With Babel: A Beautiful Marriage
Karma docs - Preprocessors
GitHub - Karma Chrome Launcher
GitHub - Karma SourceMap Loader
GitHub - Karma Webpack plugin
GitHub - Karma Spec Reporter
Github - Chalk - color console plugin
Github - Webpack ng-annotate loader
How can I get a list of passing tests from karma runner suite?
How to uninstall npm modules in node js?
VS Code docs - jsconfig.json
Make VS code read webpack.config and recognize path with alias?
Solve Module Import Aliasing for Webpack, Jest, and VSCode

2020-04-26

Migrate from ASP.NET Core 2.2 to 3.0
Migrate from ASP.NET Core 2.2 to 3.0 - MVC Service Registration
Migrate from ASP.NET Core 3.0 to 3.1
Migrate Authentication and Identity to ASP.NET Core
Autofac - ASP.NET Core 3.0+ and Generic Hosting
Entity Framework Core tools reference - .NET CLI

2020-04-23

Google's common Java, C++ and JavaScript library for parsing, formatting, and validating international phone numbers

2020-04-21

Sql Server Snapshots
Visual Studio Code - Migrating from ReSharper
Resharper 9 Key Bindings fo VS Code
RazorLight Partial views
Using Razor outside of MVC in .NET Core
Simple replacement for RazorLight in .NET Core 2.0
Rendering Emails with RazorViewEngine in .NET Core 2.0
Integration tests with ASP.NET Core causes missing references from Razor files
Building String Razor Template Engine with Bare Hands (.NET Core)
RazorEngineCore - ASP.NET Core 3.1.1 Razor Template Engine
Example Razor Page Generator - taken from This issue discussion

2020-04-20

AngularJS: template vs templateUrl
Front-End Challenges
Strapi, another use case: Build your own API from any website with Puppeteer

2020-04-19

Fancy Forms in React with Reactstrap
→ Fancy Form Example
Create React App - Setting Up Your Editor
Prettier - Ignore
ESLint - Ingore
Axios
Everyauth vs Passport.js?
Mobx-React Store injectiong
Mobx - [Question] How to get typesafe injection
Mobx - Mobx-React does not work with React.CreateContext

2020-04-13

MVPs and $100k AWS Bills: Reflections on the launch of Octopus Cloud 1.0
Why we chose Kubernetes, Linux, and .NET Core for Octopus Cloud
Lessons learned porting Octopus Server to .NET Core 3.1
A security review of 1,300 AppStore applications

2020-04-11

Git submodules
The Modern JavaScript Tutorial

2020-04-10

From 48k lines of code to 10—the story of GitHub’s JavaScript SDK
Tools for Consistent JavaScript Code Style
https://bit.dev/ - place where you can build your own library of reusable components

Getting head around frontend

2020-04-05T00:00:00Z

Bunch of thoughts and links to help get head around frontend development and tools.

Rough build steps

download dependencies find all files for processing order all files process the files in a way that they can be used in a browser (babel) run linter run image optimisation consolidate into one file

minify files + obfuscate files + generate source maps => uglifyjs

autoperfix css styles minify css files => clean-css

minify html pages + potentially create cache for templates/partials?

run the bundle analyser to check how the js libs are structured in output

configure index.html SPA root creation

NPM vs. Bower vs. Browserify vs. Gulp vs. Grunt vs. Webpack - good starting point to understand what each tool is trying to achieve
What gulp-angular-filesort really does for gulp-inject?
Angular testing techniques Jasmine vs karma vs protractor in Angular 2?
Protractor vs. Selenium: Which is easier for testing?
Replace PhantomJS with Headless Chromium for JavaScript Unit Testing in Karma
Master Thesis about unit testing web applications with Karma
Karma vs testing framework Jasmine, Mocha, QUnit
End to End Testing For Angular-2 Applications - Protractor
Mocha vs Jasmine, Chai, Sinon & Cucumber in 2019
Webpack: Code Splitting (app, vendor and polyfill builds)
ng-annotate explained
ng-annotate-loader
Using ng-annotate loader with Webpack + Angular 1.x + ES6 classes + Babel
Using AngularJS with ES6 and Webpack
Karma: "singleRun" option causing crash when test suite is empty
ECMA Script compatibility table - probably should be added to links library post
Browser support tables for modern web technologiesprobably should be added to links library post
Gulp for Beginners
Visualize size of webpack output files with an interactive zoomable treemap
Use TypeScript to Build a Node API with Express - potentially can help with created typescript typed mock apis based on express and json server to be checked
From JSHint to ESLint
Webpack Configuration

npx webpack-cli init

Frontend build config generator
HTML Webpack Plugin Options
Modularize Angular applications with webpack
Getting rid of webpack log spam
Vendor and code splitting in webpack 2 - mainly used to configure bundle analyser
webpack html-loader
Module aliasing in Webpack
Uncaught TypeError: angular.module is not a function
webpack.ProvidePlugin angular
webpack 4: Code Splitting, chunk graph and the splitChunks optimization
AngularJS with Webpack - Introduction
Keeping it simple with UI-Grids and ES6
AngularJS: template vs templateUrl

Video editing resources

2020-03-28T00:00:00Z

Bunch of video editing related resources

https://vimeo.com/108677299 - Color Grading GoPro Footage in Davinci Resolve
https://groundcontrolcolor.com/collections/free-color-grading-luts/products/free-gopro-protune-to-rec-709-lut
https://havecamerawilltravel.com/gopro/gopro-video-lrv-thm-files/
https://fixthephoto.com/luts-video
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12026381/ffmpeg-converting-mov-files-to-mp4

ffmpeg -i movie.mov -vcodec copy -acodec copy out.mp4
// Alternative which re-encodes with best quaility
ffmpeg -i input.mov -q:v 0 output.mp4

Converting mp4 to mp3
FFmpeg MP3 Encoding Guide

ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a libmp3lame -b:a 320k output.mp3
// for variable bit rate 190kbit/s
ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 output.mp3

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5784661/how-do-you-convert-an-entire-directory-with-ffmpeg

ls *.avi|%{ ffmpeg -i $_ <ffmpeg options here> $_.name.replace($_.extension, ".mp4")}

m3u8 stream to mp4 using ffmpeg (for videos streamed with JW Player)

ffmpeg -i "http://host/folder/file.m3u8" -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -vcodec copy -c copy -crf 50 file.mp4

EF Core projections and calculated properties

2020-03-27T00:00:00Z

How to simplify complex db queries and reuse domain logic in generated sql queries.

https://daveaglick.com/posts/computed-properties-and-entity-framework
https://github.com/hazzik/DelegateDecompiler
https://benjii.me/2018/01/expression-projection-magic-entity-framework-core/
https://lostechies.com/jimmybogard/2014/05/07/projecting-computed-properties-with-linq-and-automapper/
https://jimmybogard.com/automapper-linq-support-deep-dive/

Setting visual studio as default merge tool

2020-03-26T00:00:00Z

Setting visual studio as default merge tool

Option 1

Option 2

Update user git configuration at %userprofile%\.gitconfig

[diff]
    tool = vsdiffmerge
[difftool]
    prompt = true
[difftool "vsdiffmerge"]
    cmd = \"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\Professional\\Common7\\IDE\\CommonExtensions\\Microsoft\\TeamFoundation\\Team Explorer\\vsdiffmerge.exe\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" //t
    keepBackup = false
[merge]
    tool = vsdiffmerge
[mergetool]
    prompt = true
[mergetool "vsdiffmerge"]
    cmd = \"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\Professional\\Common7\\IDE\\CommonExtensions\\Microsoft\\TeamFoundation\\Team Explorer\\vsdiffmerge.exe\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$BASE\" \"$MERGED\" //m
    keepBackup = false
    trustExitCode = true

VS code also can be used for that - https://www.meziantou.net/comparing-files-using-visual-studio-code.htm

Rules for creating open source repository

2020-03-21T00:00:00Z

Rules for creating open source repository

Source control

[ ] Create read me file
[ ] Add git ignore
[ ] Add editor config
[ ] Add information about line endings
[ ] Add information about expected encoding

Deployment

[ ] update version number
[ ] add varsion tag to source code
[ ] create release page

Home office

2020-03-16T00:00:00Z

Bunch of things that can make working from home easier.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Artiss-Electric-Motorised-Adjustable-Standing-Desk-Frame-Only-Office-Laptop-Desk/383007703791
https://www.artiss.com.au/office-study/#standing-desks
https://www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?page=1&q=Laminated%20Panels%201200%20x%20600&sort=BoostOrder&pageSize=60 - Laminated Panels 1200 x 600 from Bunnings
https://www.arkienvironments.com/product-page/leap-chair
https://www.innerspace.net.au/products/SAYL-BY-HERMAN-MILLER-805-100.htm
https://www.mattblatt.com.au/replica-aeron-style-ergonomic-chair
Satechi stands & mounts
The Dura Recline™ from Leggett & Platt Furniture Components - armchair form the hospital

.NET applications telemetry and diagnostics

2020-03-02T00:00:00Z

NDC video "Application Diagnostics in .NET Core 3.1 - Damian Edwards & David Fowler" recommended by Paul.

https://opentelemetry.io/
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-dotnet
https://zipkin.io/pages/quickstart
https://github.com/openzipkin/zipkin

EF Core 3.1 changes

2020-03-01T00:00:00Z

NDC video "Getting the best out of Entity Framework Core - Jon P Smith" recommended by Paul.

Breaking changes included in EF Core 3.0
New features in Entity Framework Core 3.0
Entity Framework Core 3.0: A Foundation for the Future
Entity Framework Core - Improved Value Conversion Support - Technically it talks about 2.1 but it's still relevant in 3.1. Also the 3.1 value converters work much better than in 2.1. This article Using Noda Time with Entity Framework Core talks about the value converters for NodaTime. They were evaluated in memory in ef core 2.1 and now are translated properly in ef core 3.1
EF configuration for Generated Values
Migrating to dotnetcore 3.1 (mostly EFCore)

Eliminate magic numbers from SQL queries

2020-01-22T00:00:00Z

2020-01-22T00:00:00Z2020-01-22T00:00:00Z

WITH Constants AS ( SELECT Foo = 42) 
SELECT *
FROM Bar
CROSS JOIN Constants
where Bar.Baz = Constants.Foo

Command line find and replace script

2020-01-20T00:00:00Z

Simple comman line script to replace %LAUNCHER_PATH% with dotnet and %LAUNCHER_ARGS% with .\MySolution.dll inside the default aspnet core 3.1 web.config file

Bash

sed -i 's/%LAUNCHER_PATH%/dotnet/g;s/%LAUNCHER_ARGS%/.\\MySolution.dll/g' web.config

Powershell

(Get-Content .\web.config) -replace '%LAUNCHER_PATH%', 'dotnet' -replace '%LAUNCHER_ARGS%', '.\MySolution.dll' | Set-Content .\web.config

SVG pattern fills

2019-12-12T00:00:00Z

Bunch of resources related to SVG pattern fills

Sample patterns

M 0 0 L 2.5 10 M 2.5 10 L 5 0 M 5 0 L 7.5 10 M 7.5 10 L 10 0 

M 0 0 L 2.5 2.5 M 2.5 2.5 L 5 0 M 5 0 L 7.5 2.5 M 7.5 2.5 L 10 0 
M 0 2.5 L 2.5 5 M 2.5 5 L 5 2.5 M 5 2.5 L 7.5 5 M 7.5 5 L 10 2.5 
M 0 5 L 2.5 7.5 M 2.5 7.5 L 5 5 M 5 5 L 7.5 7.5 M 7.5 7.5 L 10 5 
M 0 7.5 L 2.5 10 M 2.5 10 L 5 7.5 M 5 7.5 L 7.5 10 M 7.5 10 L 10 7.5 

M 0 2.5 L 2.5 7.5 M 2.5 7.5 L 5 2.5 M 5 2.5 L 7.5 7.5 M 7.5 7.5 L 10 2.5 

M 0 2.5 L 5 7.5 M 5 7.5 L 10 2.5

Links

https://codepen.io/anthonydugois/pen/mewdyZ
https://jsbin.com/leqeze/embed?html,output
https://jsfiddle.net/highcharts/gqg618eb/
https://jsfiddle.net/gh/get/jquery/1.7.2/highcharts/highcharts/tree/master/samples/highcharts/css/pattern/
https://jsfiddle.net/gh/get/library/pure/highcharts/highcharts/tree/master/samples/highcharts/series/infographic/
http://jsfiddle.net/gh/get/library/pure/highcharts/highcharts/tree/master/samples/highcharts/series/pattern-fill-area/
https://api.highcharts.com/class-reference/Highcharts.PatternOptionsObject#path
https://bocoup.com/blog/using-svg-patterns-as-fills
http://localhost:6969/Colors.html
https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-use-svg-patterns-as-backgrounds--cms-31507
https://www.heropatterns.com/
https://css-tricks.com/tools-visualize-edit-svg-paths-kinda/
https://www.base64decode.org/
https://www.sitepoint.com/6-incredible-svg-pattern-generators/
http://iros.github.io/patternfills/sample_svg.html

Color blind friendly design

2019-10-30T00:00:00Z

Bunch of resources related to color blind friendly design best practices

ChromeLens Extension
Full blown W3 recommendations
A guide to color accessibility in product design - I should take copy of this article
Recommended color pallet
Recommended color pallet 2
Color contrast rating recommendations
color contrast rating check

Sidenote https://observablehq.com/@d3/color-schemes - standarized color palettes names

.NET Reunified - Microsoft’s Plans for .NET 5

2019-09-10T00:00:00Z

Repost of this article By Mark Michaelis

When Microsoft announced .NET 5 at Microsoft Build 2019 in May, it marked an important step forward for developers working across desktop, Web, mobile, cloud and device platforms. In fact, .NET 5 is that rare platform update that unifies divergent frameworks, reduces code complexity and significantly advances cross-platform reach.

This is no small task. Microsoft is proposing to merge the source code streams of several key frameworks—.NET Framework, .NET Core and Xamarin/Mono. The effort will even unify threads that separated at inception at the turn of the century, and provide developers one target framework for their work.

The source code flow concept in Figure 1 shows how the timeline for each framework syncs up, and ultimately merges into a single thread as .NET 5 in November 2020. (Note that .NET Framework has been shortened to .NET FW in the image.) When released, .NET 5 will eclipse .NET Framework 4.8, Mono 5.0, and .NET Core 3.0.

Figure 1 Source Code Flow Concept from .NET, Mono, and Shared Source Initiative to .NET 5

Admittedly, Figure 1 is more conceptual than reality, with source code forking (more likely just copying) rather than branching, and features (like Windows Presentation Foundation [WPF] or Windows Forms) migrating rather than merging. Still, the infographic provides a reasonably transparent view of the ancestral history of the .NET source code, showing its evolution from the three major branches all the way to .NET 5.

The result of this work is a unified platform with the .NET 5 framework executing on all platforms (desktop, Web, cloud, mobile and so on). Figure 2 depicts this unified architecture.

Figure 2 .NET 5 - a Unified Platform

Origin Story

It’s fascinating how the different .NET frameworks—such as Microsoft’s Shared Source Common Initiative (Rotor), SilverLight, Windows Phone, .NET Core, and .NET Framework (but not Mono)—were originally compiled from the same source code. In other words, all the source code was maintained in a single repository and shared by all .NET frameworks. In so doing, Microsoft was able to ensure that APIs that were common to different frameworks would come from the same source code and have the same signatures. The only differences were which APIs were shared. (Note the use of .NET “framework,” lowercase, referring to all .NET frameworks in general, vs .NET “Framework,” uppercase, referring to the Windows .NET Framework, such as .NET Framework 4.8.)

To achieve a single source targeting different frameworks, various subsetting techniques, such as a multitude of #ifdefs, were used. Also of interest is how an orthogonal set of subsetting techniques (that is, different #ifdefs) were baked into the .NET source code to build Rotor’s cross-platform support, enabling rapid development of both Silverlight and (much later) .NET Core from the same code base.

While the orthogonal set of subsetting techniques remains, the one that enables cross-platform compilation—the subsetting to produce the different frameworks—is being removed. (See, for example, the pull request at bit.ly/2WdSzv2 that removes several #ifdefs that are stale.) The reason it’s possible to remove them today is because within days after the .NET 1.1 release, the .NET Core and .NET Framework source code was forked (more like copied). This in fact explains why there are two separate .NET source code Web sites: .NET Framework at referencesource.microsoft.com and .NET Core at source.dot.net. These are two separate code bases.

The decision to fork rather than continue the use of subsetting reflects the tension between maintaining backward compatibility (a high priority for the .NET Framework) and innovation (the priority of .NET Core). There were simply too many cases where maintaining compatibility conflicted with correcting or improving the .NET APIs, such that the source code had to be separated if both goals were to be achieved. Using #ifdefs was no longer a functional way to separate out the frameworks when, in fact, the APIs were different and version incompatible.

Over time, however, another conflict arose—that of allowing developers to create libraries that could successfully execute within both frameworks. To achieve this, an API standard was needed to assure developers that a framework would have a specific set of APIs identified by the standard. That way, if they leveraged only the APIs within the standard, their library would be cross-framework compatible (the exact same assembly could run on different frameworks—without even recompiling).

With each new feature added to .NET (for example Span), it became more and more difficult to maintain backward compatibility with older versions of the framework. More specifically, the challenge was to support concepts in new .NET Standard versions—which were really new .NET Core innovations—in the .NET Framework. Furthermore, though less significantly, each new version of the .NET Standard included a larger and larger set of APIs until it became a maintenance burden to preserve .NET Standard compatibility between .NET Framework and .NET Core.

Come Together

The two frameworks began to look more and more alike because of the standard. As the APIs became more consistent, the obvious question began to arise: Why not move the separate code bases back together? And, in fact, starting with .NET Core 3.0 preview, so much of the .NET Framework WPF and Windows API was cherry-picked and merged into the .NET Core 3.0 code base, that this is exactly what happened. The source code for .NET Core 3.0 became one and the same with the modern day (desktop, cloud, mobile and IoT) functionality in .NET Framework 4.8.

At this point there’s still one major .NET framework that I haven’t covered: Mono/Xamarin. Although the source code for Rotor was publicly available, using it would’ve violated the license agreement. Instead, Mono began as a separate green field development effort with the vision to create a Linux-compatible version of .NET. The Mono framework continued to grow over time, until the company (Ximian) was acquired in 2003 by Novell and then shuttered eight years later following Novell’s sale to Attachmate. Ximian management quickly reformed in May 2011 as Xamarin. And less than two years later, Xamarin developed a cross-platform UI code base that ran on both Android and iOS, leveraging a now closed-source, cross-platform version of Mono under the covers.

In 2016 Microsoft acquired Xamarin to bring all the .NET framework source code under the control of a single company. Shortly after, Mono and the Xamarin SDK would be released as open source.

This brings us to where we are in the first half of 2019, with essentially two main code bases going forward: .NET Core 3.0 and Mono/Xamarain. (While Microsoft will support .NET Framework 4.8 on Windows for as long as anyone can forecast, .NET Core 3.0 and later .NET 5 will eclipse it as the strategic platform for new applications going forward.) Alongside this is the .NET Standard and the unification of APIs into the soon-to-be-released .NET Standard 2.1.

Again, the question arises, with APIs moving closer and closer, can we not merge .NET Core 3.0 with Mono? It’s an effort, in fact, that has already begun. Mono today is already one-third Mono source, one-third CoreFx, and one-third .NET Framework reference source. That set the stage for .NET 5 to be announced at Microsoft Build 2019.

The Advantages of .NET 5

This unified version of .NET 5 will support all .NET application types: Xamarin, ASP.NET, IoT and desktop. Furthermore, it will leverage a single CoreFX/Base Class Library (BCL), two separate runtimes and runtime code bases (because it’s really hard to single source two runtimes intended to be critically different), and a single tool chain (such as dotnet CLI). The result will be uniformity across behaviors, APIs and developer experiences. For example, rather than having three implementations of the System.* APIs, there will be a single set of libraries that run on each of the different platforms.

There are a host of advantages with the unification of .NET. Unifying the framework, runtimes, and developer toolsets into a single code base will result in a reduction in the amount of duplicate code that developers (both Microsoft and the community) will need to maintain and expand. Also, as we’ve come to expect from Microsoft these days, all the .NET 5 source code will be open source.

With the merger, many of the features exclusive to each individual framework will become available to all platforms. For example, csproj types for these platforms will be unified into the well-loved and simple .NET Core csproj file format. A .NET Framework project type, therefore, will be able to take advantage of the .NET Core csproj file format. While a conversion to .NET Core csproj file formats is necessary for Xamarin and .NET Framework (including WPF and Windows Forms) csproj files, the task is similar to the conversion from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core. Fortunately, today it’s even easier to do thanks to tools like ConvertProjectToNETCore3 (see bit.ly/2W5Lk3D).

Another area of significant difference is in the runtime behavior of Xamarin and .NET Core/.NET Framework. The former uses a static compilation model, with ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation that compiles source code down to the native source code of the platform. By contrast, .NET Core and .NET Framework use just-in-time (JIT) compilation. Fortunately, with .NET 5, both models will be supported, depending on the project type target.

For example, you can choose to compile your .NET 5 project into a single executable that will use the JIT compiler (jitter) at runtime, or a native compiler to work on iOS or Android platforms. Most projects will leverage the jitter, but for iOS all the code is AOT. For client-side Blazor, the runtime is Web Assembly (WASM), and Microsoft intends to AOT compile a small amount of managed code (around 100kb to 300kb), while the rest will be interpreted. (AOT code is large, so the wire cost is quite a burden to pay.)

In .NET Core 3.0 you can compile to a single executable, but that executable is actually a compressed version of all the files needed to execute at runtime. When you execute the file, it first expands itself out into a temporary directory and then executes the entry point of the application from the directory that contains all the files. By contrast, .NET 5 will create a true, single-executable file that can execute directly in place.

Another remarkable feature of .NET 5 is interoperability with source code from Java and Objective-C (including Swift). This has been a feature of Xamarin since the early releases, but will extend to all .NET 5 projects. You’ll be able to include jar files in your csproj file, for example, and you’ll be able to call directly from your .NET code into Java or Objective-C code. (Unfortunately, support for Objective-C will likely come later than Java.) It should be noted that interoperability between .NET 5 and Java/Objective-C is only targeted at in-process communication. Distributed communication to other processes on the same machine or even processes on a different machine will likely require serialization into a REST- or RPC-based distributed invocation.

What’s Not in .NET 5

While there’s a significant set of APIs available in the .NET 5 framework, it doesn’t include everything that might have been developed over the last 20 or so years. It’s reasonable to expect that all the APIs identified in .NET Standard 2.1 will be supported, but some of the more “legacy” APIs, including Web Forms, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) server and Windows Workflow, will not. These are destined to remain in .NET Framework only. If you wish to achieve the same functionality within .NET 5, consider porting these APIs as follows:

ASP.NET Web Forms => ASP.NET Blazor
WCF server and remoting => gRPC
Windows Workflow (WF) => Core WF (github.com/UiPath/corewf)

The lack of WCF server support is no doubt disappointing to some. However, Microsoft recently decided to release the software under an MIT open source license, where its destiny is in control of the community (see github.com/CoreWCF/CoreWCF). There’s still a tremendous amount of work to be done to release independently of the .NET Framework, but in the meantime, the client-side WCF APIs are available (see github.com/dotnet/wcf).

A Declaration of Intent

Even as Microsoft makes plans to unify its developer frameworks under .NET 5, the company has announced that it’s adopting a regular cadence for its unified .NET releases (see Figure 3). Going forward, you can expect general availability versions of .NET to be released in Q4 of each year. Of these releases, every second version will be a Long Term Support (LTS) release, which Microsoft will support for a minimum of three years or one year after a subsequent LTS release, whichever is longer. In other words, you’ll always have at least three years to upgrade your application to the next LTS release. See bit.ly/2Kfkkw0 for more information on the .NET Core support policy, and what can be reasonably expected to become the .NET 5 and beyond support policy.

Figure 3 .NET Release Schedule

At this point, .NET 5 is still just an announcement—a declaration of intent, if you like. There’s lots of work to be done. Even so, the announcement is remarkable. When .NET Core was first released, the goal was to provide a cross-platform .NET version that could highlight Azure (perhaps especially the Platform-as-a-Service [PaaS] portions of Azure and support for .NET on Linux and within Linux containers).

In the original concept, the idea that all of .NET Framework could be ported to .NET Core wasn’t considered realistic. Around the time of the .NET Core 2.0 release, that began to change. Microsoft realized that it needed to define a framework standard for all .NET framework versions, to enable code running on one framework to be portable to another.

This standard, of course, became known as the .NET Standard. Its purpose was to identify the API that a framework needed to support so that libraries targeting the standard could count on a specific set of APIs being available. As it turned out, defining the standard and then implementing it with Xamarin/Mono, .NET Core, and .NET Framework became a key component that made the .NET 5 unification strategy possible.

For example, once each framework has implemented code that supports the .NET Standard set of APIs, it seems logical to work toward combining the separate code bases into one (a refactoring of sorts). And, where behavior isn’t the same (JIT versus AOT compilation, for example), why not merge the code so that all platforms support both approaches and features? The effort isn’t trivial, but the result is a huge step forward in reducing complexity and maintenance, while at the same time unifying the features to all platforms.

Perhaps surprisingly, the very .NET Standard that made unification possible will likely make .NET Standard irrelevant. In fact, with the emergence of .NET 5, it’s doubtful there will be another version of .NET Standard—.NET 5 and each version after that will be the standard.

Wrapping Up

They say timing is everything, and that’s true of .NET 5. A virtually comprehensive re-write of the .NET Framework wasn’t even conceivable when .NET Core development started. At the time, Microsoft was responding to demand to significantly enhance the Azure hosting experience on Linux, in containers, and on PaaS. As such, the company was laser-focused on getting something out to meet the demands of customers and the Azure product team.

With .NET Core 2.0 the mission expanded to matching the functionality found in the .NET Framework. Again, the team was laser-focused on releasing something viable, rather than taking on too much. But things began to change with .NET Core 3.0 and the implementation of .NET Standard 2.1. The idea of having to go in and make changes to three distinct frameworks when a new feature or bug came up was an irritation and an expense. And, like any good developer, the idea soon emerged to refactor the code as much as possible into a single code base.

And so, .NET 5 was born. And along with it was born the idea of unifying all the features of each framework—whether it was simple csproj formats, adopting open source development models, enabling interoperability with Java and Objective-C (including Swift), or supporting JIT and AOT compilation. Just like that, the idea of a single, unified framework became an obvious next step, and one I expect everyone both inside and outside of Microsoft will celebrate.

AngularJS filter to make urls in text clickable

2019-06-28T00:00:00Z

Repost from this article

This is a simple filter I made for Angular.JS to make url’s in text clickable. Make sure you place the content and filter in the ng-bind-html attribute of the HTML element. Otherwise the HTML won’t be parsed.

E.g. <p ng-bind-html="comment.body | parseUrl"></p>

Here’s the parseUrl filter:

angular
    .module('filters', [])
    .filter('parseUrl', function() {
        var urls = /(\b(https?|ftp):\/\/[A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;-]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/gim;
        var emails = /(\w+@[a-zA-Z_]+?\.[a-zA-Z]{2,6})/gim;

        return function(text) {
            if(text.match(urls)) {
                text = text.replace(urls, "<a href=\"$1\" target=\"_blank\">$1</a>");
            }
            if(text.match(emails)) {
                text = text.replace(emails, "<a href=\"mailto:$1\">$1</a>");
            }

            return text;
        }
    });

AngularJS resources

2019-05-25T00:00:00Z

Bunch of links related to angular

Libraries

https://sachinchoolur.github.io/ngclipboard/ - Angularjs directive for clipboard.js
https://github.com/compact/angular-bootstrap-lightbox - simple modal image preview for angular.js
https://uppy.io/ - open source and easy to set up. I used it in one of the projects

Links

http://blog.152.org/2014/07/angular-form-element-not-attaching-to.html - Angular: Form element not attaching to $scope
https://www.codelord.net/2017/05/28/understanding-optional-angularjs-bindings/ - Understanding Optional AngularJS Bindings
https://www.sitepoint.com/understanding-angulars-apply-digest/
https://itorn.net/angularjs-symbols-and-in-custom-directives-scope-binding/
http://oskarhane.com/angular-js-filter-to-make-urls-in-text-clickable/ - Angular.JS filter to make url:s in text clickable
https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/49558/angularjs-constants-depending-on-other-constants-any-established-patterns

JS file upload

2019-05-24T00:00:00Z

Libraries for adding file upload to the js client.

https://cssauthor.com/javascript-file-upload-library-plugins/ - 25+ Best JavaScript File Upload Library & Plugins
https://uppy.io/ - open source and easy to set up. I used it in one of the projects
https://pqina.nl/filepond/ - open source, authors want to earn money on additional image editing features
https://haacked.com/archive/2010/07/16/uploading-files-with-aspnetmvc.aspx/ - bit on handling uploaded files on server side
https://github.com/compact/angular-bootstrap-lightbox - simple modal image preview for angular.js
https://github.com/fengyuanchen/viewerjs - possible extension to preview uploaded files. However probably something similar can be achieved without library

Comparing two files in visual studio

2019-05-10T00:00:00Z

View > Other Windows > Command Window

Tools.DiffFiles file_1_path file_2_path

VS code also can be used for that - https://www.meziantou.net/comparing-files-using-visual-studio-code.htm

Finding BitLocker recovery keys

2019-05-10T00:00:00Z

https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/r/#/profile

Justin's software read list

2019-05-10T00:00:00Z

Justin's software read list

Hi Mateusz,

There's a number of topics that I think that all software developers should know, some of these range from basic coding styles, as in how to structure your code to be robust and maintainable. And others are around software craftsmanship, how to architect your solutions, how to structure robust maintainable code and why we do it.

https://www.justinshield.com/2011/06/essays-software-craftsmanship/#more-502

A lot of this comes with experience, and continual learning. There's a number of books that I recommend, some I have in my personal library, others were part of other companies libraries.

Book Recommendations (Along with the ones recommended at the end of my blog).

Microsoft .Net Architecture (Free downloads) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/guidance-architecture

Code Complete 2 - written by Steve McConnel IMO is a must read for every developer. If you haven't I highly recommend it. Similar to Clean Code.

Design Patterns - Gang of four We're currently using several design patterns, facade, adapter, decorator, proxy, command / cqrs, factory, strategy etc. It's important to be able to identify these patterns and be able to refactor to these to help avoid complexity, and improve maintainability when designing solutions to problems. More about refactoring to patterns, being able to identify repeating patterns

Domain Driven Design - Eric Evans (there might be other DDD books out there less... dry)

Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheMythicalMan-Month

I also highly recommend that you take a look at this video by Udi Dahan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXU4-VlAAcg

Justin

Places to go

2019-05-10T00:00:00Z

Places to go

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park 9gag video
Keswick Island some info - recommended by Julia as Whitsundays without people
1770 & Agnes Waters some info
Waterfalls near brisbance some info

Recommended by some random couple met in Cairns Litchfield
Babinda - josephine falls
Horizontal falls ⚠
Paronella Park
Herberton village
Boonah

Links library

2019-04-25T00:00:00Z

Links to projects/libraries/websites that I find useful

[DMI] Notation
DMI - Discover, Master, Influence
D - at least read and understood
M - put into practice. Either used in own project or described in own blog post
I - proficient enough to teach

Repository

https://itnext.io/what-i-dont-like-in-your-repo-a602577a526b - requirements for setting up github repository

Git

https://learngitbranching.js.org/ - game like learning git branching
https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/rewriting-history - rewriting git history

Icons

https://iconmonstr.com/ - really cool page that allows you to download solid color icons. It allows you to customise size, color and image type
https://thenounproject.com/ - mentioned by Nick Blumhardt when he was talking about finding images for your nuget packages
https://www.iconfinder.com/ - creative commons icons

Learning Java Script

https://javascript.info/ - comprehensive javascript tutorial. The comment secion claims that the original russian page is even better
http://jstherightway.org/ - other js tutorial
https://github.com/micromata/awesome-javascript-learning - Aggregate of links for JS learning
https://codeburst.io/understanding-generators-in-es6-javascript-with-examples-6728834016d5 - Understanding Generators in JavaScript with Examples
https://css-tricks.com/debouncing-throttling-explained-examples/ - Debouncing and Throttling Explained Through Examples

Tooltips

https://atomiks.github.io/tippyjs/
https://popper.js.org/

Multi select

https://select2.org/

SQL

https://github.com/olahallengren/sql-server-maintenance-solution/blob/master/README.md - SQL Server Maintenance Solution
https://trello.com/c/VCrcKatm/807-https-githubcom-brentozarultd-sql-server-first-responder-kit - DB HEalth Check
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/584820/how-do-you-perform-a-left-outer-join-using-linq-extension-methods - Left outer join in Linq
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7407650/can-i-change-a-column-from-not-null-to-null-without-dropping-it - Can I change a column from NOT NULL to NULL without dropping it?
https://daveaglick.com/posts/computed-properties-and-entity-framework - Computed Properties and Entity Framework
https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/152239/sql-server-how-can-varbinarymax-store-8000-bytes - SQL Server - How can varbinary(max) store > 8000 bytes?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/141682/how-do-i-find-a-default-constraint-using-information-schema - How do I find a default constraint using INFORMATIONSCHEMA?
https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1264/capturing-graphical-query-plans-with-sql-server-profiler/ - Capturing Graphical Query Plans with SQL Server Profiler
https://sqlperformance.com/2013/03/io-subsystem/chunk-deletes - Break large delete operations into chunks
https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/3347/drop-and-recreate-all-foreign-key-constraints-in-sql-server/ - Drop and Re-Create All Foreign Key Constraints in SQL Server
https://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/topic/disable-enable-all-triggers-on-all-tables-in-sql-server-2005 - Disable / Enable All triggers on all tables in sql server 2005
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11301383/automatically-drop-and-recreate-current-indexes - Automatically Drop and Recreate current indexes
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14972816/how-to-disable-constraints-for-all-the-tables-and-enable-it - How to disable Constraints for all the tables and enable it?
https://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/topic/trouble-printing-out-long-varcharmax-strings - Trouble printing out long VARCHAR(MAX) strings
https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1394/how-to-store-longer-sql-agent-job-step-output-messages/ - How to store longer SQL Agent Job Step output messages
https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/sql/learn-sql-server/introduction-to-change-data-capture-cdc-in-sql-server-2008/ - Introduction to Change Data Capture (CDC) in SQL Server 2008
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1251636/what-do-clustered-and-non-clustered-index-actually-mean - What do Clustered and Non clustered index actually mean https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11938044/what-are-the-best-practices-for-using-a-guid-as-a-primary-key-specifically-rega - best practices for using a GUID as a primary key, specifically regarding performance
https://littlekendra.com/2017/01/24/how-to-find-queries-using-an-index-and-queries-using-index-hints/ - How to Find Queries Using an Index
https://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/removing-tde - Removing Transparent data encryption (TDE)
https://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/topic/bankers-rounding-in-t-sql-like-math-round-in-net - Bankers rounding in SQL
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21425546/how-to-generate-a-range-of-numbers-between-two-numbers - How to generate a range of numbers between two numbers?
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/system-stored-procedures/sp-rename-transact-sql?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=sql-server-ver15 - sprename syntax

Tools

https://ngrok.com/ - Public URLs for exposing your local web server. Usueful for webhooks testing.
https://stackify.com/ - Monitor app performance in production
https://www.terraform.io - Infrastructure as Code Jeremy's NDC Sydney Talk
https://cakebuild.net - build definition as Code
https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ - managing open source project documantation
https://stripe.com/ - payment processor
https://www.checkout.com/ - payment processor
https://auth0.com/ - authentication as a service
https://www.xero.com - invoicing as a service
https://www.buxfer.com/ - budget management tool
https://www.zendesk.com/ - customer support
https://www.canva.com/ - awesome content design tool + brand creation tool
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/fuslogvw-exe-assembly-binding-log-viewer - Assembly Binding Log Viewer

How to

https://medium.com/microsoft-1es/reducing-vs-code-ci-build-times-e0c5872bfdde - Speed up Azure pipelines builds by caching the nuget packages/node_modeuls folders
https://medium.com/@Intelygenz/how-to-organize-your-css-with-oocss-bem-smacss-a2317fa083a7 - How to organize your CSS with OOCSS, BEM & SMACSS. Needs to be digested and converted into my own blog post.
https://deadlockempire.github.io/ - master concurency recommended by Andrew Best
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/africaapps/2013/06/07/how-to-serve-static-json-files-from-a-windows-azure-website/ - How to serve static .json files from a Windows Azure Website (used in new blog)
https://tatham.blog/2007/05/23/debugging-ssltls-problems-in-net/ - troubleshooting ssl handshake errors
https://offering.solutions/blog/articles/2018/03/08/create-build-pipeline-for-angular-and-aspnetcore-app-with-visual-studio-team-services/ - Create a build pipeline for Angular and ASP.NET Core apps with Visual Studio Team Services
https://superuser.com/questions/346372/how-do-i-know-what-proxy-server-im-using - How do I know what proxy server I'm using?
https://galaxyinternet.us/google-chrome-redirects-localhost-to-https-fix/ - HSTS fix for localhost in chrome
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/56257-add-remove-physical-hard-disk-hyper-v-virtual-machine.html - How to Add or Remove a Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine
https://help.github.com/en/articles/resolving-merge-conflicts-after-a-git-rebase - Resolving merge conflicts after Git rebase
https://docs.npmjs.com/creating-node-js-modules - Creating Node.js modules
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43849585/update-node-version-in-visual-studio-2017 - Update Node Version in Visual Studio
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32995066/how-can-i-configure-resharpers-language-level-for-ecmascript-6 - How can I configure Resharper's language level for ECMAScript 6?
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/6463/stupid-geek-tricks-how-to-open-the-start-menu-folder-in-windows-7/ - How to Open the Start Menu Folder in Windows 10
https://superuser.com/questions/1168835/starting-outlook-automatically-in-windows-10 - Starting Outlook automatically in Windows 10
https://thomaslevesque.com/2016/12/08/fun-with-the-httpclient-pipeline/ - How to use custom HttpClient pipeline
http://taligarsiel.com/Projects/howbrowserswork1.htm - How browsers work
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/CDNsFailButYourScriptsDontHaveToFallbackFromCDNToLocalJQuery.aspx - How to setup CDN fallback
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12084642/powershell-get-number-of-lines-of-big-large-file - PowerShell get number of lines of big (large) file
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17904088/disable-less-css-overwriting-calc - Disable LESS-CSS Overwriting calc()
https://www.thinktecture.com/en/entity-framework-core/use-transactionscope-with-caution-in-2-1/ - How System TransactionScope impacts DbContext queries and transactions
https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2019/05/02/remote-development - Remote development with vs code
https://www.kaels-kabbage.com/post/vs-vscode-tips-and-tricks/ - Visual Studio and VS Code Tips and Tricks
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53474431/ef-core-linq-and-conditional-include-and-theninclude-problem - EF Core linq and conditional include and theninclude problem
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/archive/blogs/sqlexpress/using-localdb-with-full-iis-part-2-instance-ownership - Using LocalDB with Full IIS, Part 2: Instance Ownership
https://www.netlify.com/blog/2018/09/12/the-rise-of-immer-in-react/ - The Rise of Immer in React
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32968332/how-do-i-prevent-the-error-index-signature-of-object-type-implicitly-has-an-an - How do I prevent the error "Index signature of object type implicitly has an 'any' type" when compiling typescript with noImplicitAny flag enabled?
https://www.39digits.com/migrate-g-suite-account-to-a-personal-google-account - Migrate G Suite account to a Personal Google Account
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/outlook-tool-bar-moved-and-i-cant-move-it-back/4207ee2a-bc1e-49c0-9607-38ce64587309 - Outlook toolbar moved and i can't move it back
https://github.com/lastpass/lastpass-cli/issues/428 - onloadwff.js consistently interrupts debugging in chrome devtools
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/a97ca3ec-140f-41f8-8ddf-a61f755c970f/application-map-shows-409-errors-for-azure-table-storage?forum=ApplicationInsights - Application Map shows 409 errors for Azure Table storage
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/AbortController/abort - How to abort fetch requets
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/userdefinedsnippets - Configure Code Snippets in Visual Studio Code
https://www.twilio.com/blog/building-blazing-fast-object-mapper-c-sharp-net-core - Building a Blazing Fast Object-to-Object Mapper in C# with .NET Core 3.1
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/hosted?view=azure-devops#use-a-microsoft-hosted-agent - Find the AzureDevOps hosted build agents images details
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23010944/auto-format-parameters-one-per-line - Resharper: Auto format parameters one per line

Structured learning

https://codeburst.io/the-2018-web-developer-roadmap-826b1b806e8d - An illustrated guide to becoming a Frontend or Backend Developer with links to courses
https://codeburst.io/the-ultimate-guide-to-learning-full-stack-web-development-in-6-months-for-30-72b3854a7458 - The 2019 Guide to Learning Web Development.
https://integrationmadeeasy.org/2020/03/05/my-approach-to-developing-net-core-web-apis/amp/ - My Approach to Developing .Net Core Web APIs – Introduction

Teaching

https://www.troyhunt.com/kids-and-code-object-orientated-programming-with-code-combat/ - Kids and Code: Object Oriented Programming with Code Combat

Learning how to code

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/me - LinkedIn learning (previously Lynda.com) - meh
https://egghead.io/ - Egghead - mainly js
https://www.pluralsight.com/ - Pluralsight - everything
https://leetcode.com/ - algorithms; recommended by Jarek
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ - MSDN - probably too broad
https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr/tree/master/Documentation/botr - .NET Book of the Runtime
https://github.com/thangchung/awesome-dotnet-core - A collection of awesome .NET core libraries, tools, frameworks and software
https://www.learnentityframeworkcore.com/ - Good EF Core starting point
https://qhmit.com/ - Some frontend tutorials (basic level). I need to check it's quality (I haven't used it yet)
https://www.udemy.com/user/maximilian-schwarzmuller/ - Maximilian Schwarzmüller courses (recommended by a distant friend)
https://www.samanthaming.com/ - Small examples of how to do things in front end
http://programming-motherfucker.com/ - selection of links to learnign reources

Prototyping

https://codesandbox.io - pretty sweet. Code can be saved to github
https://webmaker.app/ - I didn't have a change to play with this one yet

Good practices

https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/blob/master/Documentation/coding-guidelines/coding-style.md - C# Coding Style
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/design-guidelines/ - Framework Design Guidelines
https://12factor.net/ - methodology for building software-as-a-service apps
https://monzo.com/blog/2018/06/29/engineering-principles - Engineering Principles at Monzo
https://jamesclear.com/beginners-guide-deliberate-practice - Deliberate practice
https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory - 12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory

Authentication related

https://www.scottbrady91.com/OAuth/Why-the-Resource-Owner-Password-Credentials-Grant-Type-is-not-Authentication-nor-Suitable-for-Modern-Applications - Why the Resource Owner Password Credentials Grant Type is not Authentication nor Suitable for Modern Applications
https://www.scottbrady91.com/OAuth/The-Wrong-Ways-to-Protect-an-API - The Wrong Ways to Protect an API
https://vimeo.com/113604459 - Unifying Authentication & Delegated API Access for Mobile, Web and the Desktop with OpenID Connect and OAuth2 by Dominick Baier
https://blogs.forgerock.org/petermajor/2013/02/single-sign-on-the-basic-concepts/ - Single Sign-On – the basic concepts
https://www.andrew-best.com/posts/learn-auth-the-hard-way-part-one/ - Learn Authentication The Hard Way: Part One

Security related

https://lockmedown.com/preventing-xss-in-asp-net-made-easy/#client - Preventing XSS in ASP.NET Made Easy
https://github.com/mganss/HtmlSanitizer - HtmlSanitizer

Concepts

http://www.clivemaxfield.com/diycalculator/sp-round.shtml - Various roundings

Architectures

https://aws.amazon.com/builders-library/challenges-with-distributed-systems/ - Challenges with distributed systems
https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/dynein-building-a-distributed-delayed-job-queueing-system-93ab10f05f99 - Dynein: Building an Open-source Distributed Delayed Job Queueing System
https://alexpareto.com/scalability/systems/2020/02/03/scaling-100k.html - Scaling to 100k Users
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/architectures/ - Reference Architectures and Solution Ideas

Dependency injection

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cesardelatorre/comparing-asp-net-core-ioc-service-life-times-and-autofac-ioc-instance-scopes/ - Comparing ASP.NET Core IoC container service lifetimes with Autofac IoC container instance scopes
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/dependency-injection - Dependency injection in ASP.NET Core

Frameworks

https://aspnetzero.com/# - building blocks for modern website
https://zurb.com/ - building blocks from creators of Foundation framework
http://websharper.com/ - project templates for reactive applications

Website templates

https://html5up.net/ - I used one of the templates as my blog template

Libraries

https://nodatime.org/ - managing "date" and "time" in the c# app I love that one
https://github.com/App-vNext/Polly - resilence policies for .net
https://github.com/AutoFixture/AutoFixture - Creating fake data for tests never used yet
https://clipboardjs.com/ - copy to clipboard for js apps

Investing

https://www.spaceship.com.au/
https://www.coinbase.com/ - Crypto currency trading. Mainly for US
https://www.coinspot.com.au/ - Crypt currency trading. Mainly for AU
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/082914/basics-buying-and-investing-bitcoin.asp - How to Invest in Bitcoin
https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-au/ - full blown investing platform recommended by Maciek

Recruiting

https://www.technicallycompatible.com/

Discounts

https://www.joinhoney.com/ - Honey chrome extension
https://www.retailmenot.com - RetailMeNot

Branding

https://www.spreadshirt.com.au/ - custom T-Shirts

Learning english

https://ielts.com.au/study-for-ielts/writing/ - IELTS Writing assist - didn't work as expected as payment didn't go through
https://www.toastmasters.org/ - Public speaking practice

Website benchmarking

https://tools.pingdom.com/ - page load benchmark

Blog frameworks

https://hexo.io/ - Hexo
https://gohugo.io/ - Hugo - used by Andrew Best and Kael Larkin
https://github.com/Sandra/Sandra.Snow - Sandra Snow - used by me
https://ghost.org/ - Ghost
https://www.staticgen.com/ - A List of Static Site Generators for JAMstack Sites

Extensions

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MadsKristensen.WebPackTaskRunner - WebPack Task Runner used long time ago
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MadsKristensen.NPMTaskRunner - NPM Task Runner used long time ago
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/resource-override/pkoacgokdfckfpndoffpifphamojphii - Chrome - Resource Override (to reduce the need for backend server)

Blogs

https://blog.anarks2.com/ Ben Hockley
https://www.kaels-kabbage.com Kael Larkin
https://www.mehdi-khalili.com/ Mehdi Khalili
https://www.andrew-best.com/ Andrew Best
https://www.rahulpnath.com/ Rahul Nath
https://devstyle.pl/ Maciej Aniserowicz
http://www.jeremycade.com Jeremy Cade
https://michael-wolfenden.github.io/ The Wolf Report (Michael Wolfenden)
http://paulstovell.com/ Paul Stovell
https://www.justinshield.com/ Justin Shield
https://jcooney.net/ Joseph Cooney
https://blog.mcilreavy.com/ Paul Mcilreavy
https://blog.codinghorror.com/ - Jeff Atwood
https://bnek.github.io/ - Banjamin Meyer
https://calebporzio.com/ - Caleb Porzio
https://sgryphon.gamertheory.net/ - Sly Gryphon

Photography

https://www.dxo.com/ - lightroom alternative recommended by Bartosz
https://skylum.com/ - Luminar - possibel alternative
https://witharsenal.com/ - Camera asistant
https://www.darktable.org/ - lightroom alternative recommended by Kuba

Photo related apps (used by AgaCyka)

https://www.pixellu.com/smartslides/ - Slide shows
https://pixieset.com/ - Photo galeries

Video Editing

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/davinciresolve/ DaVinci Resolve - recommended by Ania, I use it at the moment
https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html VideoPad - I was using it before DaVinci
https://shotcut.org/ Shortcut - had trouble with using graphic card to speed up rendering
https://clipchamp.com/en/ - Product developed by company where Szymon works
https://obsproject.com/ - Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.

Screen to gif

https://www.screentogif.com/ - recommened by vs code docs maintainers (for windows) on github
https://getkap.co/ - recommened by vs code docs maintainers (for mac) with github repo
https://www.cockos.com/licecap/ - found on the net, not used yet
http://www.lcdf.org/gifsicle/ - gif size optimisation

Fiddles

http://jsfiddle.net/SAWsA/13441/ - custom angular.js table paging, sorting and searching

Maintaining docs

https://readme.com/
https://readthedocs.org/

Drone

https://courses.phantomfilmschool.com/courses/sample-course-of-phantomfilmschool1 - Sample course of Phantom Filmschool 1
https://flylitchi.com/ - Autonomous flight app for DJI drones
https://geoawesomeness.com/must-have-drone-apps-for-every-drone-pilot/ - Must have Drone Apps for every Drone Pilot
https://www.drones.com.au/store/pgy-tech-mrc-uv-filter-for-dji-mavic-mini.html - PGY Tech MRC-UV Filter for DJI Mavic Mini

Mark down cheat sheet

2019-04-25T00:00:00Z

Markdown cheat scheet

Headers

# H1
## H2
### H3
#### H4
##### H5
###### H6

New Line

(In this example, leading and trailing spaces are shown with with dots: ⋅)

two spaces at the end⋅⋅

Emphasis

*italics*
**bold**
~~strikethrough~~

Links

[I'm an inline-style link](https://www.google.com)
![alt text](https://github.com/icon48.png "Logo Title Text 1")

Code blocks

Inline `code`
```
fenced code block
```
    code block can also be created by four spaces indent

Block quotes

> Blockquotes are very handy in email to emulate reply text.
> This line is part of the same quote.

Quote break.

> This is a very long line that will still be quoted     properly when it wraps. Oh boy let's keep writing to make     sure this is long enough to actually wrap for everyone. Oh,     you can *put* **Markdown** into a blockquote.

Horizontal lines

--- or ***

Lists

(In this example, leading and trailing spaces are shown with with dots: ⋅)

1. First ordered list item
2. Another item
⋅⋅* Unordered sub-list. 
1. Actual numbers don't matter, just that it's a number
⋅⋅1. Ordered sub-list
4. And another item.

⋅⋅⋅You can have properly indented paragraphs within list     items. Notice the blank line above, and the leading spaces     (at least one, but we'll use three here to also align the     raw Markdown).

⋅⋅⋅To have a line break without a paragraph, you will need     to use two trailing spaces.⋅⋅
⋅⋅⋅Note that this line is separate, but within the same     paragraph.⋅⋅
⋅⋅⋅(This is contrary to the typical GFM line break     behaviour, where trailing spaces are not required.)

* Unordered list can use asterisks
- Or minuses
+ Or pluses

Tables

Tables aren't part of the core Markdown spec, but some markdown engines support them

Colons can be used to align columns.

| Tables        | Are           | Cool  |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| col 3 is      | right-aligned | $1600 |
| col 2 is      | centered      |   $12 |
| zebra stripes | are neat      |    $1 |

There must be at least 3 dashes separating each header cell.
The outer pipes (|) are optional, and you don't need to     make the raw Markdown line up prettily. You can also use     inline Markdown.

Markdown | Less | Pretty
--- | --- | ---
*Still* | `renders` | **nicely**
1 | 2 | 3

Escape characters

You can use an extra backtick at the start and end to make sure it escapes correctly:

``List`1``

When inline it will display as List`1

Markdown provides backslash escapes for the following characters:

\   backslash
`   backtick
*   asterisk
_   underscore
{}  curly braces
[]  square brackets
()  parentheses
#   hash mark
+   plus sign
-   minus sign (hyphen)
.   dot
!   exclamation mark

for example, this:

## \\ \` \* \_ \{ \} \[ \] \( \) \# \+ \- \. \!

returns:

\ ` * _ { } [ ] ( ) # + - . !

For fenced code blocks, the prescription is more backticks.

This Markdown

````
```
Example of Markdown syntax for fenced code block with triple back ticks
```
````

will be rendered like this

```
Example of Markdown syntax for fenced code block with triple back ticks
```

taken from https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet
and https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/82718/how-do-i-escape-a-backtick-within-in-line-code-in-markdown
the extended syntax has also support for checkboxes and header links https://www.markdownguide.org/extended-syntax/

Running SSMS as different user

2019-04-25T00:00:00Z

Running SSMS as different user

runas /user:<domain>\<username> /netonly "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\Ssms.exe"

Sandra snow cheat sheet

2019-04-25T00:00:00Z

Sandra snow cheat scheet

TL/DR

---
category: how to, sandra snow
title: Sandra snow
published: true
---
Sandra snow cheat scheet

<!--excerpt-->

Published options

true - True, this is optional, but its basically the same as not supplying the published state at all. It will compile your post and make it publicly available.
private - Private is a post that will not be compiled at all, this will stay as markdown, good for when you want to begin writing something but not have it show up online yet.
draft - Draft is basically a finished or rough cut blog post that you will publish soon, it will be compiled to /drafts URL and be publicly accessible (either via a known page or the direct URL)

Full Docs

Project site > Wiki

Kill database connections

2018-09-28T00:00:00Z

Kill database connections script. Usefull before db restore.

Kill all connections to database

For MS SQL Server 2012 and above

USE [master];

DECLARE @kill varchar(8000) = '';  
SELECT @kill = @kill + 'kill ' + CONVERT(varchar(5), session_id) + ';'  
FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions
WHERE database_id  = db_id('MyDB')

EXEC(@kill);

For MS SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008

USE master;

DECLARE @kill varchar(8000); SET @kill = '';  
SELECT @kill = @kill + 'kill ' + CONVERT(varchar(5), spid) + ';'  
FROM master..sysprocesses  
WHERE dbid = db_id('MyDB')

EXEC(@kill);

Kill all connections apart form yours

DECLARE @Table TABLE(
    SPID INT,
    ECID INT,
    Status VARCHAR(MAX),
    LoginName VARCHAR(MAX),
    HostName VARCHAR(MAX),
    BlkBy VARCHAR(MAX),
    DBName VARCHAR(MAX),
    CMD VARCHAR(MAX),
    REQUESTID INT
)

INSERT INTO @Table EXEC sp_who

SELECT  *
FROM    @Table

select @@SPID

SELECT  SPID
FROM    @Table
where hostname = 'DESKTOP-N16OGI7' and spid <> @@SPID

declare users cursor for
SELECT  SPID
FROM    @Table
where hostname = 'DESKTOP-N16OGI7' and spid <> @@SPID

declare @userSpid int
DECLARE @kill varchar(8000); SET @kill = '';
open users
fetch users into @userSpid
while @@fetch_status=0
begin
    SET @kill = 'kill '+ CONVERT(varchar(5), @userSpid) + ';'
    print @kill
    EXEC(@kill);
    fetch users into @userSpid
end

close users
deallocate users

To see the dirty data that is not yet commited

SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED

Further reading
Script to kill all connections to a database
KILL (Transact-SQL)
@@SPID (Transact-SQL)
Rollback: What happens when you KILL a session?
How to kill or rollback active transaction?
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL (Transact-SQL)

Create and analyze Azure Web App memory dump

2018-07-09T00:00:00Z

Create and analyze Azure Web App memory dump

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/archive/blogs/benjaminperkins/create-a-memory-dump-for-your-slow-performing-web-app - Create a memory dump for your slow performing Web App
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/archive/blogs/waws/debugging-a-w3wp-memory-dump-of-a-slow-performing-asp-net-azure-web-app - Debugging a W3WP memory dump of a slow performing ASP.NET Azure Web App

Running sql commands only on primary server in high availability group

2018-05-28T00:00:00Z

Running sql commands only on primary server in high availability group

DECLARE @isPrimary bit = 0

IF SERVERPROPERTY ('IsHadrEnabled') = 1
BEGIN
    SELECT
    @isPrimary = 1
    FROM
    sys.availability_groups_cluster AS AGC
    INNER JOIN sys.dm_hadr_availability_replica_cluster_states AS RCS ON RCS.group_id = AGC.group_id
    INNER JOIN sys.dm_hadr_availability_replica_states AS ARS ON ARS.replica_id = RCS.replica_id
    INNER JOIN sys.availability_group_listeners AS AGL ON AGL.group_id = ARS.group_id
    WHERE
        ARS.role_desc = 'PRIMARY' and RCS.replica_server_name = @@SERVERNAME
END
ELSE
BEGIN
    set @isPrimary = 1
END

IF @isPrimary = 1
BEGIN
    -- your script here        
END

Further reading
Finding Primary Replicas for SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups with PowerShell
@@SERVERNAME
sys.fnhadrisprimaryreplica

Deep compare

2018-05-27T00:00:00Z

Simple method for deep comparing objects in .net

Requires CompareNETObjects nuget package from GregFinzer

public static class ObjectExtensions
{
    public static bool IsDeeplyEqualTo(this object actual, object expected)
    {
        CompareLogic compareLogic = new CompareLogic();
        compareLogic.Config.MaxDifferences = 100;
        ComparisonResult result = compareLogic.Compare(expected, actual);
        if (result.AreEqual)
            return true;
        throw new ObjectsNotEqualException(result.DifferencesString);
    }
}

.net core integration testing

2018-05-27T00:00:00Z

Links to good articles about .net core 2.1 integration testing

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/EasierFunctionalAndIntegrationTestingOfASPNETCoreApplications.aspx - Easier functional and integration testing of ASP.NET Core applications
https://www.dotnetcurry.com/aspnet-core/1420/integration-testing-aspnet-core - Integration Testing for ASP.NET Core Applications

Project management

2018-04-17T00:00:00Z

Bunch of links about managing software projects.

Assesing tech debt with SQALE and some recommended tools
Start with Why: Creating a value proposition with the Golden Circle model
Simon Sinek - how great leaders inspire action
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable - by Patrick M. Lencioni
The Lean Startup - by Eric Ries
The Phoenix Project - by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
Engineering Principles at Monzo
The Practice of Management - by Peter F Drucker‎

TeamCity and Octopus SSIS package pipeline

2018-03-28T00:00:00Z

Bunch of links about configuring CI/CD pipeline for SSIS packages

Building and packaging SSIS projects in TeamCity
Deploying SSIS projects with Octopus Deploy
Auto-Deploy SSIS packages with VSTS and Octopus Deploy
Parameterizing Connections and Values at Runtime Using SSIS Environment Variables
Getting Started with Parameters, Variables & Configurations in SSIS 2012
A Better Way To Execute SSIS Packages With T-SQL
Octopus Deploy Library - Deploy ispac SSIS project from a package

Installing and Executing SSIS packages with T-SQL

DECLARE @execution_id BIGINT
EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[create_execution] 
    @package_name = N'<package_name>.dtsx'
    , @project_name = N'<project_name>'
    , @folder_name = N'<folder_name>'
    , @use32bitruntime = False
    , @reference_id = NULL
    , @execution_id = @execution_id OUTPUT

-- System parameters
EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value] 
    @execution_id
    , @object_type = 50 -- System parameter
    , @parameter_name = N'<parameter_name>'
    , @parameter_value = <parameter_value>

-- Execute the package
EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[start_execution] @execution_id

-- Check package status, and fail script if the package failed
IF 7 <> (SELECT [status] FROM [SSISDB].[catalog].[executions] WHERE execution_id = @execution_id)
RAISERROR('The package failed. Check the SSIS catalog logs for more information', 16, 1)

Joel Spolsky on managing projects

2018-03-14T00:00:00Z

Bunch of links about managing software projects by Joel Spolsky.

Evidence Based Scheduling
The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code
Things You Should Never Do, Part I
Two Stories
Three Management Methods (Introduction)
The Command and Control Management Method
The Econ 101 Management Method
The Identity Management Method
The Development Abstraction Layer
Lord Palmerston on Programming

IT Projects Estimation

2018-02-06T00:00:00Z

2018-02-06T00:00:00Z2018-02-06T00:00:00Z

Office stretching exercises

2018-01-09T00:00:00Z

2018-01-09T00:00:00Z2018-01-09T00:00:00Z

Raspberry pi links

2017-12-05T00:00:00Z

Bunch of links related to raspberry pi that I did not have much time to play with.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/
http://raspi.tv/2016/how-to-free-up-some-space-on-your-raspbian-sd-card-remove-wolfram-libreoffice
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspbian-stretch/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/introducing-pixel/
https://opensource.com/article/17/12/raspberry-pi-cryptocurrency-mining - Mining cryptocurrency with Raspberry Pi and Storj

Clean query cache

2017-11-01T00:00:00Z

Clean query cache. Repost from Glenn Berry's SQL Server Performance blog

-- Example 1 (Sledgehammer)
-- Remove all elements from the plan cache for the entire instance 
DBCC FREEPROCCACHE;

-- Flush the cache and suppress the regular completion message
-- "DBCC execution completed. If DBCC printed error messages, contact your system administrator." 
DBCC FREEPROCCACHE WITH NO_INFOMSGS;


-- Example 2 (Ballpeen hammer)
-- Remove all elements from the plan cache for one database  
-- Get DBID from one database name first
DECLARE @intDBID INT;
SET @intDBID = (SELECT [dbid] 
                FROM master.dbo.sysdatabases 
                WHERE name = 'AdventureWorks');

-- Flush the procedure cache for one database only
DBCC FLUSHPROCINDB (@intDBID);


-- Example 3 (Scalpel)
-- Remove one plan from the cache
-- Get the plan handle for a cached plan
SELECT cp.plan_handle, st.[text]
FROM sys.dm_exec_cached_plans AS cp 
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(plan_handle) AS st
WHERE [text] LIKE N'%/* GetOnlineSearchResultsMonday %';

-- Remove the specific plan from the cache using the plan handle
DBCC FREEPROCCACHE (0x05000800F7BA926C40C15055070000000000000000000000);

Find queries using index

2017-10-31T00:00:00Z

Find queries using index. Initially used to detect queries that were using eager spooling

can be used for index optimization as well

SELECT
querystats.plan_handle,
querystats.query_hash,
SUBSTRING(sqltext.text, (querystats.statement_start_offset / 2) + 1,
(CASE querystats.statement_end_offset
WHEN -1 THEN DATALENGTH(sqltext.text)
ELSE querystats.statement_end_offset
END - querystats.statement_start_offset) / 2 + 1) AS sqltext,
querystats.execution_count,
querystats.total_logical_reads,
querystats.total_logical_writes,
querystats.creation_time,
querystats.last_execution_time,
CAST(query_plan AS xml) as plan_xml
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats as querystats
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_text_query_plan
(querystats.plan_handle, querystats.statement_start_offset, querystats.statement_end_offset)
as textplan
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(querystats.sql_handle) AS sqltext
WHERE
textplan.query_plan like '%missing%'
ORDER BY querystats.last_execution_time DESC
OPTION (RECOMPILE);
GO

Trying to understand webforms

2017-09-20T00:00:00Z

Might be obsolete right now Used to get to know how to modernize web forms and mix it with some modern auth mechanisms

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.web.security.formsauthenticationticket?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=netframework-4.8 - FormsAuthenticationTicket Class docs
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/910443/understanding-the-forms-authentication-ticket-and-cookie - Understanding the Forms Authentication Ticket and Cookie
https://leanpub.com/evolvinglegacyaspnetapplications - Evolving ASP.net Applications
https://www.davepaquette.com/archive/2013/12/30/so-you-inherited-an-asp-net-web-forms-application.aspx - So you inherited an ASP.NET Web Forms application
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/identity/overview/getting-started/adding-aspnet-identity-to-an-empty-or-existing-web-forms-project - Adding ASP.NET Identity to an Empty or Existing Web Forms Project
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/IntroducingASPNETFriendlyUrlsCleanerURLsEasierRoutingAndMobileViewsForASPNETWebForms.aspx - Introducing ASP.NET FriendlyUrls - cleaner URLs, easier Routing, and Mobile Views for ASP.NET Web Forms
https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNet.FriendlyUrls/ - Microsoft.AspNet.FriendlyUrls
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-forms/overview/getting-started/getting-started-with-aspnet-45-web-forms/ - Getting Started with ASP.NET 4.5 Web Forms and Visual Studio 2013
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-forms/overview/security/ - Security, Authentication, and Authorization in ASP.NET Web Forms
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20737578/asp-net-sessionid-owin-cookies-do-not-send-to-browser - ASP.NET_SessionId + OWIN Cookies do not send to browser
https://blog.martincostello.com/ensuring-your-asp-net-website-is-secure/ - Ensuring Your ASP.NET Website Is Secure
https://rhastastudio.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/owin-authentication-and-session-store/ - OWIN Form Authentication and Session store
https://brockallen.com/2013/10/24/a-primer-on-owin-cookie-authentication-middleware-for-the-asp-net-developer/ - A primer on OWIN cookie authentication middleware for the ASP.NET developer
https://brockallen.com/2013/10/27/host-authentication-and-web-api-with-owin-and-active-vs-passive-authentication-middleware/ - Host authentication and Web API with OWIN and active vs. passive authentication middleware
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29075497/wrong-wsdl-url-in-webservice-asmxdisco-when-proxy-is-use - Wrong wsdl URL in webservice.asmx?disco when proxy is use

Custom identity server ef migration project

2017-09-19T00:00:00Z

Might be obsolete right now Created for .net core 1.0.1

# Source
# https://identityserver.github.io/Documentation/docsv2/ef/migrations.html

# Enable migrations
Enable-Migrations -ProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -ContextAssemblyName IdentityServer3.EntityFramework -ContextTypeName ScopeConfigurationDbContext -StartUpProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -MigrationsDirectory Migrations\ScopeConfiguration -ConnectionString "<connection_string>" -ConnectionProviderName System.Data.SqlClient
Enable-Migrations -ProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -ContextAssemblyName IdentityServer3.EntityFramework -ContextTypeName ClientConfigurationDbContext -StartUpProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -MigrationsDirectory Migrations\ClientConfiguration -ConnectionString "<connection_string>" -ConnectionProviderName System.Data.SqlClient
Enable-Migrations -ProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -ContextAssemblyName IdentityServer3.EntityFramework -ContextTypeName OperationalDbContext -StartUpProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -MigrationsDirectory Migrations\OperationalConfiguration -ConnectionString "<connection_string>" -ConnectionProviderName System.Data.SqlClient

# Add migrations
Add-Migration -StartUpProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -Name InitialCreate -ConfigurationTypeName IdentityServer.DbUp.Migrations.ScopeConfiguration.Configuration -ConnectionString "<connection_string>" -ConnectionProviderName System.Data.SqlClient
Add-Migration -StartUpProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -Name InitialCreate -ConfigurationTypeName IdentityServer.DbUp.Migrations.ClientConfiguration.Configuration -ConnectionString "<connection_string>" -ConnectionProviderName System.Data.SqlClient
Add-Migration -StartUpProjectName IdentityServer.DbUp -Name InitialCreate -ConfigurationTypeName IdentityServer.DbUp.Migrations.OperationalConfiguration.Configuration -ConnectionString "<connection_string>" -ConnectionProviderName System.Data.SqlClient

#Custom directory
Add-Migration -Name InitialIdentityServerPersistedGrantDbMigration -Context PersistedGrantDbContext -OutputDir Migrations/PersistedGrantDb -StartupProject IdentityServer.DbUp
Add-Migration -Name InitialIdentityServerConfigurationDbMigration -Context ConfigurationDbContext -OutputDir Migrations/ConfigurationDb -StartupProject IdentityServer.DbUp

EF Core Links
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/miscellaneous/cli/dotnet#installation
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/miscellaneous/cli/powershell
http://docs.identityserver.io/en/release/quickstarts/8entityframework.html
http://www.michael-whelan.net/ef-core-101-migrations-in-separate-assembly/
https://codingblast.com/entityframework-core-idesigntimedbcontextfactory/
https://www.learnentityframeworkcore.com/migrations/commands/pmc-commands

Import certificate chain

2017-08-29T00:00:00Z

Import certificate chain

#import cert chain
$p7b = '\\dc2012\CertEnroll\FoxDeployCAChain.p7b'
Import-Certificate -FilePath $p7b -CertStoreLocation Cert:\LocalMachine\Root

use

$error[0].Exception.InnerException

to check exception details

Managing IIS from powershell

2017-08-29T00:00:00Z

Managing IIS from powershell

Start aspnet_state service

get-service | Where {$_.Name -eq 'aspnet_state'}
get-service | Where {$_.Name -eq 'aspnet_state'} | Start-Service
start-service aspnet_state

Set custom app pool identity

get-module
get-module -ListAvailable
import-module webadministration
import-module iisadministration
$appPool= get-iisapppool DefaultAppPool
$appPool.ProcessModel.IdentityType
$appPool.ProcessModel.UserName = "domain\username"
$appPool.ProcessModel.Password = ""
$appPool.ProcessModel.IdentityType = 3 # or $appPool.ProcessModel.IdentityType = "SpecificUser"

Getting configuration information about a module docs

IIS:\> Get-WebGlobalModule -Name "UriCacheModule"

Bunch of docker links and scripts

2017-08-28T00:00:00Z

Bunch of docker links and scripts

Setting up a Docker Hub registry mirror on a Synology NAS

Moving the Docker image directory on Windows and deleting old images folder with magic utility

Create custom local domains for the docker images

function Update-DockerHosts()
{
    $processfile=$args[0]
    $defaultHostsFile = "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts"

    if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($processfile))
    {
        $processfile = $defaultHostsFile
    }
    if (-not (Test-Path $processFile))
    {
        Echo "File $processfile not found"
        return
    }
    $tmpfile=$processFile+".tmp"

    #
    # for all running docker containers
    #
    $containers = docker ps -q
    Foreach ($container in $containers)
    {
        Echo $container
        #
        # Extract the servicename and ipaddress
        #
        $servicename = (docker inspect --format '{{ .Config.Image }}' $container).split("/")[-1]
        $ipaddress = docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.Networks.nat.IPAddress }}' $container

        Echo $servicename
        Echo $ipaddress

        #
        # if there is a service name and ipaddress
        #
    if ((-not ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($servicename))) -And (-not ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($ipaddress))))
    {       
            # remove the service name from the process file, and add it again
            get-content $processfile | select-string -notmatch ".*$servicename.*" | % {$_.ToString()} | echo > $tmpfile
            echo "$ipaddress`t$servicename.local" >> $tmpfile
            mv -Force $tmpfile $processfile
        }
    }
}

Docker run on IIS

FROM microsoft/aspnet:4.6.2

COPY  obj/Publish/Website-Test /inetpub/wwwroot

RUN ECHO 'start-service aspnet_state' >> start.ps1

RUN ECHO 'C:\ServiceMonitor.exe w3svc' >> start.ps1

ENTRYPOINT .\start.ps1

EXPOSE 80

Docker run on custom port on IIS

FROM microsoft/aspnet:4.6.2

WORKDIR /Website-Test

COPY  bin/Publish/ .

SHELL ["powershell"]

RUN Import-module IISAdministration; \
    New-IISSite -Name "Website-Test" -PhysicalPath C:\Website-Test -BindingInformation "*:8000:"

EXPOSE 8000

Build and publish the dotnet core app for docker deployment

msbuild /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=Docker.pubxml

Turning Bits On or Off

2017-08-15T00:00:00Z

Original article

JIC copy

Problem

You have a numeric value or an enumeration that contains bit flags. You need a method to turn on (set the bit to 1) or turn off (set the bit to 0) one or more of these bit flags. In addition, you also want a method to flip one or more bit flag values; that is, change the bit(s) to their opposite value.

Solution

The following method turns one or more bits on:

public static int TurnBitOn(int value, int bitToTurnOn)
{
    return (value | bitToTurnOn);
}

The following method turns one or more bits off:

public static int TurnBitOff(int value, int bitToTurnOff)
{
    return (value & ~bitToTurnOff);
}

The following method flips a bit to its opposite value:

public static int FlipBit(int value, int bitToFlip)
{
    return (value ^ bitToFlip);
}

Disable database initiatization in LinqPad

2017-08-11T00:00:00Z

Original code gist

JIC copy

public class MyDbContext : DbContext
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref=“T:MyDbContext"/> class.
    /// </summary>
    public MyDbContext( )
        : base( "DefaultConnection" )
    {
        // This must be called in the *instance* constructor
        // and not the static constructor as is normally done.
        DisableDatabaseInitialization( );
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// Calls the <see cref="T:Database.SetInitializer[T]"/> method using the concrete type of the
    /// current instance to disable the EF default behavior of creating a database schema that
    /// does not already exist.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// Typically, one would call <see cref="T:Database.SetInitializer[T]"/> with a compile-time type
    /// of the context class. However, if the context type is not sealed, it is possible that a
    /// subclass will be used instead, rendering the call to SetInitializer useless. This can be the
    /// case when using a EF data context assembly with LINQPad, which creates a subclass of the
    /// context class using the code typed into the interface. This can result in a database being
    /// created, even though the intent was to NOT create a database.
    /// This method uses reflection to call the SetInitializer method with the runtime type of the
    /// current instance. This should be called immediately in the instance constructor, before a
    /// connection is made to the underlying database server.
    /// </remarks>
    private void DisableDatabaseInitialization( )
    {
        var databaseType = typeof( Database );
        var setInitializer = databaseType.GetMethod( "SetInitializer", BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public );
        var thisType = GetType( );
        var setInitializerT = setInitializer.MakeGenericMethod( thisType );
        setInitializerT.Invoke( null, new object[] { null } );
    }
}

.net core web api learning plan

2017-07-14T00:00:00Z

Probably obsolete right now .net core web api learning plan

How to check your windows 10 license and product key

2016-12-10T00:00:00Z

When it comes to purchasing licenses for Windows there are a number of different channels that you can purchase through. The most common license types are Retail (FPP (Full Packaged Product)), OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), and Volume Licensing. Each Windows license type confers rights and imposes restrictions based on the Microsoft Software License Terms.

License Type	Description
Retail	This when you buy a Full Packaged Product (FPP), commonly known as a "boxed copy", of Windows from a retail merchant or purchases Windows online from the Microsoft Store. Product keys can be transferred to another PC.
OEM	Product keys are issued by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and are not-for-resale and may not be transferred to another computer. They may, however, be transferred with the computer if the computer is transferred to new ownership. If the OEM PC came preinstalled with Windows 8 or Windows 10, then the product key will be embedded in the UEFI firmware chip.
Volume	KMS Client and Volume MAK product keys, are volume license keys that are not-for-resale. They are issued by organizations for use on client computers associated in some way with the organization. Volume license keys may not be transferred with the computer if the computer changes ownership. This form of licensing typically applies for business, government and educational institutions, with prices for volume licensing varying depending on the type, quantity and applicable subscription-term. A volume license key (VLK) denotes the product key used when installing software licensed in bulk, which allows a single product key to be used for multiple installations. For example, the Windows Enterprise edition is activated with a volume license key.

Original Source: Windows 10 Forums

Command to check license type:

slmgr -dli

If you have Retail version of Windows you will get following information

The partial produckt key returned for this license type does not com from your actual product key - it comes from one of the generic Microsoft keys

Windows 10 Home	YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7
Windows 10 Home SL	BT79Q-G7N6G-PGBYW-4YWX6-6F4BT
Windows 10 Pro	VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Windows 10 Pro VL-MAK	QJNXR-7D97Q-K7WH4-RYWQ8-6MT6Y

Original Source: Reddit

For OEM version you will get

Command to check Windows 10 product key

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

For retail version

For oem version

Original Source: The Windows Club

Migrating from TFVC to git

2016-11-19T00:00:00Z

In case you would like to move old projects from TFVC to git.

There is nice command line utility git-tfs that allows you to move projects source history from tfvc to git (it also allows you to do whole bunch of other things).

This post requires Chocolatey to be installed on your system

#install git-tfs with chocolatey
choco install gittfs -y

#get all project branches to git repository 
#git-tfs clone "<your tfs collection url>" "<your tfs project branch>" --branches=all
git-tfs clone "https://mateuszligeza.visualstudio.com/DefaultCollection" "$/BranchingTest/master" --branches=all

#add new remote for repository
git remote add origin https://mateuszligeza.visualstudio.com/DefaultCollection/_git/BranchingTestGit

#push all local branches to origin
git push -u origin --all

Remote working tips and tricks

2016-11-12T00:00:00Z

Bunch of configuration tips that make remoting to the servers more pleasant.

Disable annoying Server Manager window on Windows Server 2008

Disable annoying Server Manager window on Windows Server 2012

Enable remote desktop on all screens and hide blue connection bar from the top.

To get back to your desktop when you don't have the connection bar use Ctrl+Alt+Pause/Break. On laptops that don't have the Pause/Break key you can use Ctrl+Alt+Fn+B it apparently works on dell and lenovo PCs. You can also use Ctrl+Alt+Home to show the connection bar.

On remote desktop Ctrl+Alt+Delete shourtcut is replaced with Ctrl+Alt+End

other shourtcuts can be found here

Feature driven architecture reading list

2016-05-08T00:00:00Z

List of articles, videos and repositories related to feature driven architecture

Jimmy Bogard blog post: NDC talk on SOLID in slices not layers

Jimmy Bogard vimeo: SOLID Architecture in Slices not Layers

Jimmy Bogard blog post: CQRS with MediatR and AutoMapper

Jimmy Bogard blog post: Tackling cross-cutting concerns with a mediator pipeline

Jimmy Bogard blog post: A better domain events pattern

Jimmy Bogard blog post: Validation inside or outside entities?

Jimmy Bogard blog post: Combating the lava-layer anti-pattern with rolling refactoring

Jimmy Bogard github repository: MediatR

Andrew Harcourt github repository: Mediator implementation from DDD Brisbane 2015 talk

PCI 3.1 and TLS 1.2

2016-05-08T00:00:00Z

The newest revision of the PCI Security Standards Council policy, PCI-DSS 3.1, establishes a new baseline for strong cryptography, specifically TLS (formerly SSL), required to secure payment card related traffic – TLS 1.2.

This post covers PCI recommendations, information how to check your current SSL/TLS configuration and how to prepare your .NET applications for TLS 1.2

Recommendations

CloudFlare page that tracks PCI 3.1 and TLS 1.2 announcements and summarize recommendations:

https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/205043158-PCI-3-1-and-TLS-1-2

PCI documents library

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documentlibrary?category=pcidss&document=pcidss

PCI document summarizing information regarding migration from SSL and early TLS versions to TLS 1.2

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/MigratingfromSSLEarlyTLSInformation%20Supplementv1.pdf

NIST TLS recommendations

http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-52r1.pdf

Check your configuration

You can use Qualys SSL labs to check you SSL/TLS certificate information. This tool is used by Troy Hunt in his various articles, for example: Do you really want “bank grade” security in your SSL? Here’s how Aussie banks fare, Disabling SSL 3 in Azure websites, Everything you need to know about the POODLE SSL bug and Troy’s ultimate list of security links

To check your server or your pc SSL/TLS configuration on Windows you can use Windows Registry directly or use this free IIS Crypto tool that provides GUI for all those settings.

Configure your apps

In order to configure your .NET apps to support TLS 1.2 you will have to update your .NET framework to version 4.5 and run following code when application starts

System.Net.ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

You can allow multiple versions of the SSL/TLS protocol at once:

System.Net.ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Tls | SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

You can also change Windows Registry settings to overrite default behaviour, but I find the code version more suitable.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319 
Value: SchUseStrongCrypto

With windows registry based solution you need to change different keys for 32 and 64 .NET versions and you introduce external dependency to your app.

More information can be found in this StackOverflow article and in following posts from John Louros blog: Enabling strong cryptography for all .Net applications, Disabling cryptographic protocols for PCI compliance (focused on SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0).

NOTE: Retargetting nuget packages
You may find following StackOverflow article handy during .NET framework version change: Retargeting solution from .Net 4.0 to 4.5 - how to retarget the NuGet packages?

My favourite Troy Hunt blog posts

2016-05-08T00:00:00Z

Links to Troy Hunt blog posts

Troy’s ultimate list of security links

10 ways to make your .NET projects play nice with others

The 10 commandments of good source control management

Azure Functions in practice

ASP.NET 5 on Windows

2016-03-30T00:00:00Z

Original post

To be able to run commands you should have ExecutionPolicy set to unrestricted. You can go to administrator powershell console and check your execution policy with

Get-ExecutionPolicy

command and change it with

Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted

to go back to defaults use

Set-ExecutionPolicy restricted

You can also wrap your commands with

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "&{}"

for example

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "&{iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aspnet/Home/dev/dnvminstall.ps1'))}"

Install DNVM

iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aspnet/Home/dev/dnvminstall.ps1'))
Install .NET Core

dnvm upgrade -r coreclr

Nancy works only with clr at the moment so if you want to use it run

dnvm upgrade -r clr

Install Yeoman and Yeoman asp template

//if you need to install npm use chocolatey command //choco install nodejs.install -y

npm install -g yo generator-aspnet

//if you will be using bower and gulp install them first //npm install bower gulp
Generate code from template

yo aspnet
Go to created folder

cd
Restore packages

dnu restore
Run website

dnx web

Delete directories with long paths

2016-03-30T00:00:00Z

If you ever get this error The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters. this is what you can do to solve it.

Update:
new versions of Windows 10 doesn't have the path length limit

Open powershell console, create empty directory and use robocopy to mirror it content to directory you want to delete. Robocopy will delete all files from desired directory and then you will be able to delete both directories.

md <new_empty_dir>
robocopy <new_empty_dir> <dir_you_want_to_delete> /MIR
rm <new_empty_dir> <dir_you_want_to_delete>

Command reference: md robocopy rm

You can also invoke cmd command from powershell console (some claim it not always work)

Cmd /C "rmdir /S /Q <dir_you_want_to_delete>"

Original source: StackOverflow

Windows keyboard shortcuts

2016-03-30T00:00:00Z

Usefull shortcut reference. All shortcurts available here

| Keyboard shortcut | meaning | | --- | --- | | WIN + CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT | Switch to previous or next desktop | | WIN + CTRL + D | Create a new desktop | | WIN + CTRL + F4 | Close the current desktop | | WIN + TAB | Launch task view | | WIN + D | Show desktop | | WIN + L | Lock your PC | | WIN + UP/DOWN/RIGHT/LEFT | Move active window around | | ALT + TAB | Switch between windows | | WIN | open search bar | | WIN + R | open "run" window | | WIN + . | open emoji keyboard | | WIN + E | open explorer | | Ctrl + Alt + Home | show the connection bar on remote desktop | | WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B | restart graphic driver (in case of black screen after sleep) | | WIN + SHIFT + S | open snipping tool |

Mirroring drives with robocopy

2016-03-28T00:00:00Z

Following command can be used to mirror content between drives

robocopy e:\ z:\ /mir /xd "`$RECYCLE.BIN" "System Volume Information"
//  usage
//  robocopy <source> <destination>  [<File>[ ...]] [<Options>]
//  /mir                    - create exact mirror
//  /xd <directory>[...]    - exclude directories

All parameters reference available in official documentation

Using rawgit as CDN

2016-03-23T00:00:00Z

RawGit can turn github repo into CDN

WARNING
This project is no longer maintained

As I switched the repo to be private I can no longer use that approach anyway.

Git already allows you to see raw files - See this stack overflow answer

Useful git commands

2016-03-22T00:00:00Z

List of various git commands that often can save the day.

Create new repository

git init

More: git init

Get remote repository

git clone <repository-url>

More: git clone

Add all files from current directory to next commit

git add . -A

More: git add

Check changes prepared for next commit

git status

More: git status

Clean working directory

git clean
//-f      delete non-ignored untracked files
//-fx     delete all untracked files
//-fX     delete ignored files
//-d      also remove directories
//-n      list files that will be deleted

Most commonly used as a pair

git clean -dfxn
git clean -dfx

More: git clean, tortoise git manual

Add remote repository to local repository

git remote add <remote-name> <repository-url>

More: git remote

Detach remote repository from local repository

git remote remove <remote-name> <repository-url>

More: git remote

Push changes from local branch to remote repository

git push -u <remote-name> <branch-name>

More: git push

Push all local branches to remote repository

git push -u <remote-name> -all

More: git push

Force update of remote branch with your changes (after altering the history) (with making sure that you don't affect others)

git push --force-with-lease

More: git push

Change current branch

git checkout <branch-name>

More: git checkout

Create branch

git branch <branch-name>

More: git branch

List all branches

git branch
//-r      also show remote branches

More: git branch

Delete branch

git branch -D <branch-name>

More: git branch

Add git submodule

git submodule add <repository-url> <local-path>
// local-path can have nested folders folder/subfolder/repo-name
// to change the commit to which submoduel points just navigate to the submodule repo folder and do regular git checkout

More: Atlassian git tutorials: git-submodule

Git Pull with Submodule

// For a repo with submodules, we can pull all submodules using
git submodule update --init --recursive

// To update submodules
git pull --recurse-submodules

More: Git Pull with Submodule

Remove all local changes done to a branch

git reset --hard <remote-name>/<branch-name>

More: git reset, StackOverflow: Throw away local commits in git

Merge with merge commit

git merge --no-ff

More: git merge

Merge with squash

git merge --squash

More: git merge

Undo uncommited merge that has conflicts

git merge --abort

//prior to git 1.7.4
git reset --merge

//prior to git 1.6.2
git reset --hard

More: git merge, git reset, StackOverflow: How to undo a git merge with conflicts

Revert commited merge

git revert -m [1 or 2] [merge commit hash]
// the 1 and 2 refer to the parents of the merge - check git history to know which one to use

More: Undo a pushed merge with git

Alter last commit files without changing commit message

git commit --amend --no-edit

More : git revert, Git Tools - Rewriting History, StackOverflow: How to revert a merge commit that's already pushed to remote branch?

Find when a file was deleted

git log -- [file path]

More: git log, StackOverflow: Find when a file was deleted in Git

Find changes to the file beyond renamas

git log --follow [file path]

More: git log

Check git configuration

git config --global --edit

More: git config

Change git line endings to work on windows

git config --global core.autocrlf true

More: git config, StackOverflow: How to change line-ending settings, gitBook: Formatting and Whitespace

Git reading list
Vogella Git Tutorial
Atlassian Git Tutorial
GitHub Guides

Windows 10 PackageManagement

2016-03-22T00:00:00Z

Windows 10 comes with nice feature - OneGet - Manager of Package managers. It simplifies way of installing software on a PC and what is more important - it allows to make it scriptable. I'm big fan of Chocolatey so I was glad to learn that Microsoft took care of integrating it with OneGet. Basic info can be found in Scott Hanselman blog post Apt-Get for Windows - OneGet and Chocolatey on Windows 10 and on Microsoft TechNet blog post Introducing PackageManagement in Windows 10.

WARNING
Chocolatey provider is broken and at the moment it only downloads packages to C:\Chocolatey\lib folder, but doesn't install them properly
As a workaround you can use following script (run it elevated powershell console)

To get started first configure Chocolatey as a package provider

Get-PackageProvider -Name Chocolatey
Set-PackageSource -Name Chocolatey -Trusted

Example

PS C:\Users\Mateusz> Get-PackageProvider -Name Chocolatey

The provider 'chocolatey v2.8.5.130' is not installed.
chocolatey may be manually downloaded from https://az818661.vo.msecnd.net/providers/ChocolateyPrototype-2.8.5.130.exe and installed.
Would you like PackageManagement to automatically download and install 'chocolatey' now?
[Y] Yes  [N] No  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y

Name                     Version          DynamicOptions
----                     -------          --------------
Chocolatey               2.8.5.130        SkipDependencies, ContinueOnFailure, ...

PS C:\Users\Mateusz> Set-PackageSource -Name Chocolatey -Trusted

Name                             ProviderName     IsTrusted  IsRegistered IsValidated  Location
----                             ------------     ---------  ------------ -----------  --------
chocolatey                       Chocolatey       True       True         True         http://chocolatey.org/api/v2/

Check that Chocolatey is installed with command

Get-PackageProvider

Example

PS C:\Users\Mateusz> Get-PackageProvider

Name                     Version          DynamicOptions
----                     -------          --------------
Chocolatey               2.8.5.130        SkipDependencies, ContinueOnFailure, ...
msi                      3.0.0.0          AdditionalArguments
msu                      3.0.0.0
PowerShellGet            1.0.0.1          PackageManagementProvider, Type, Scope, ...
Programs                 3.0.0.0          IncludeWindowsInstaller, ...

As a test install git with command

Find-Package git
Install-Package git

Note:
You may be prompted to install NuGet package provider

Example

PS C:\Users\Mateusz> Find-Package git

The provider 'nuget v2.8.5.202' is not installed.
nuget may be manually downloaded from https://az818661.vo.msecnd.net/providers/Microsoft.PackageManagement.NuGetProvider-2.8.5.202.dll and installed.
Would you like PackageManagement to automatically download and install 'nuget' now?
[Y] Yes  [N] No  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y

Name                           Version          Source                         Summary
----                           -------          ------                         -------
git                            2.7.4            chocolatey                     Git (for Windows) – Fast Version Control

PS C:\Users\Mateusz> Install-Package git

Name                           Version          Source                         Summary
----                           -------          ------                         -------
git                            2.7.4            chocolatey                     Git (for Windows) – Fast Version Control

My first blog

2016-03-12T00:00:00Z

Inspired by Scott Hanselman I decided to create my own blog.

As Scott explains in his posts YourWordsAreWasted and YourBlogIsTheEngineOfCommunity, blog is a great way to preserve your knowledge.

I started paying more attention to what other people I value are using as their blog platforms. Most notably Troy Hunt, Scott Hanselman, Phil Haack and Paul Stovell.

I wanted to have something simple that I will be able to host on Azure preferably on free tier. First I tried ghost as it was available in Azure Websites gallery. It was nice to use but I was concerned by the fact, that I would have to use ssl to be able to securely log in and write posts. My other concern was that all created content would be only in Azure and I would have to come with some backup strategy to be able to move my content somewhere else if needed. Also ghost is running on a different technolgy stack that I am used to so running it locally would be troublesome. More over migrating to newer versions of ghost seem to be difficult as well.

So I decided to use something else, that will be open source and based on .Net - this is when I discovered BlogEngine.NET. After couple of minutes I had it up and running on my localhost. I was sure that it will be easier to maintain and update thatn ghost but still I would have to use ssl and some backups to be sure that I don't loose my content (and external plugins). Other drawback was that it wasn't using Markdown - and after using ghost I realy started to like it.

Both BlogEngine.NET and ghost seemed to be overkill to what I wanted to have. I wanted sleek and simple blog as the onw Paul Stovell has (have you seen his nice and simple html?). Then I heard about jeckyll - it allows you to have Markdown based, source controlled blog post that are complied to pure html after you commit changes to your repository. I found this post about file based blog using markdown and aspnet mvc3. At first I decided that I will try to write something simmilar by myself - I started looking at some Markdown engines - MarkdownSharp and CommonMark.Net. After reeding this article about WebEssentials using CommonMark.NET I decided to use CommonMark.NET along with highlight.js - it allowed me to use GitHub flawored Markdown with language hints instead of indentation (like ```cs) and easily change between syntax coloring styles. The only drawback was that it didn't support line numbering (and I liked that feature since I'm using Confluence which allows that in its code makro).

But before I fent fully ahead and reinvent the weel I decided I will do some research on GitHub for the similar projects. This is how I found pretzel and Sandra.Snow. To my surprise I discovered that default Sandra.Snow theme (the theme used by author of the repo Phillip Haydon) is the same as Paul Stovell is using! I was on a right track. This blog engine would allow me to have all that I wanted and it was already written with Azure in mind.

Nice thing about Sandra.Snow is that it allows you to easily enhance your blog with Disqus, Google Analytics and AddThis

After I played around with Sandra.Snow I realized that I will not be able to use highlight.js with it - Sandra.Snow is using Nancy.ViewEngines.Markdown to parse markdown files - and it uses MarkdownSharp that doesn't support GitHub flavored syntax (and ```cs language hints). So at the moment I'm bound to using Prettify and indentation to have my code nicely highlighted.

Next step was to create my own blog theme. After looking what free responponsive html templates are available on HTML5 UP and Scoop I decided to use Stripped theme. For the code highlighting I searched for some nice prettify skin in default skin gallery but I wasn't satisfied and I finally settled with this monokai theme.

Update:
I changed the theme - this time I created it from scratch using Bootstrap - Scoop theme wasn't displaying nicely on mobile devices. I also added support for rawgit cdn. For code highlighting I used GitHub prettify theme from jmblog

After blog was ready I started thinking about hosting. To be able to use custom domain name in Azure you need to use at least Shared app service plan. Here is where Visual Studio Dev Essentials comes to a rescue with it's $25/month free Azure credits. So I bought my domain on Namecheap and configured continuous deployment using Git (Kudu came to be very handy where it comed to troubleshooting deployment script - more about how to access it here). As a final step I had only configure Namecheap DNS records to play nicely with Azure.

Note:
When configuring DNS entires remember that you shouldn't put CNAME record on your root domain

Note:
When you want to point Multiple Domain Names to one website read How to Avoid Search Engine Problems When Doing So

Note:
Basic differences between the A and CNAME records are explained here

It sure need more tweeks but at the moment I'm pretty satisfied with the result.

var minions = new []{"Bob", "Stuart", "Kevin"};
foreach(var minion in minions)
{
    Console.WriteLine(minion);
}

Bunch of interesting links (for me to remember how it works internally)

https://github.com/projectkudu/kudu
https://github.com/projectkudu/kudu/wiki/Accessing-the-kudu-service
https://github.com/projectkudu/kudu/wiki/Deployment-hooks
https://github.com/projectkudu/kudu/wiki/Customizing-deployments
https://github.com/projectkudu/KuduScript/tree/master/lib/templates
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18309941/what-does-it-mean-by-command-cd-d-dp0-in-windows
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6679907/setlocal-and-enabledelayedexpansion-usage-question
https://github.com/Sandra/Sandra.Snow/wiki