Betatalks the podcast

In this episode, we talk to Dylan Beattie, who is a Microsoft MVP and international keynote speaker. He is the director of Ursatile, the creator of the Rockstar programming language, and has performed his software-themed parodies of classic rock songs all over the world as Dylan Beattie and the Linebreakers. We talk about his programming language – Rockstar - in which he writes programs that resemble bad song lyrics. It started as a joke, but it actually worked and went viral. And how it made him use technologies like Rust, Scala and Python, or techniques like building interpreters in JavaScript, parsing expression grammar, recursive descent parsing, continuation passing, flow control, and more. We dive deeper into the fact that people do better work when they are enjoying themselves. Real software development is a craft, where we solve problems that have never been solved before. It can be a difficult and frustrating process; you get stuck and we underestimate how much time it can take. Sometimes you have to step back and do something else to get that creative process going again – tip: take a notebook with you so you don’t forget your good ideas. We also discuss the basics every developer should know, what skills a developer should have, and how there are three kinds of software that you might write. And, last but not least, we talk about how Windows as a development platform has gotten a lot better in the last 25 years, about different programming languages, especially C# and .NET, about (programming) language proficiency versus fluency, about translating programming expertise from one language to another, and his love for JavaScript.
About this episode, and Dylan Beattie in particular: you can find @dylanbeattie on Twitter and GitHub. Check out his website dylanbeattie.net and The Rockstar programming language at codewithrockstar.com. And, listen to 'Dylan Beattie and the Linebreakers' music on his YouTube channel.
About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

In this episode, we speak with Niels Swimberghe, a Belgian-American software engineer and content creator at Twilio. Of course, we want to know what Twilio is all about, known for, and why people should use it. How do they help developers build stuff with Twilio? Always striving to create the best experience for customers, getting feedback, and sharing as much technical content as possible. We talk about the developer products, the features, and the integrations Twilio provides, its connection to Azure, and its distinction from Azure Communication Services. In particular, we dive into Twilio Voice combined with Twilio Phone Numbers; what can you do with the APIs? And we look back at the tremendous developments in telephony and its technical achievements. Furthermore, we share our experience and love for Visual Studio Code and JetBrains Rider.
About this episode, and Niels in particular: you can find @RealSwimburger on Twitter or check out some of his blogs and videos on swimburger.net

About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

In this episode, we talk to Rik Hepworth. As Microsoft Azure MVP, member of the Microsoft Regional Director program, and Chief Consulting Officer at Black Marble, he helps organizations make better use of the cloud. We talk about his role at Black Marble and how it is a development shop at heart; helping customers reach a higher level of maturity in terms of Application Lifecycle Management or DevOps, and helping them with app modernization, cloud adoption and migration. And we dive into the entire process of getting an on-premises solution ready for migration to the cloud in small baby steps. Talking about the reasons their customers need to move to the cloud, the difficulties and challenges they face with migration projects, and how to deal with them; he has broken this down into five stages of app migration. Subsequent, he explains that organizations need to be aware of two great things: business value and risk. And business value has got to be the principal driver for pushing you to the cloud, but in doing so, you need to minimize risk. That might mean foregoing a full cloud migration, opting for a hybrid solution and experimenting with an agile model of migration. Because a big plus of cloud computing is experimentation, trying out cloud services and solutions, just to switch it off if it doesn’t work. Which is more difficult with hardware. And as Rik explains, most businesses don’t realize how big of a deal this is; they need to start their migration project years before they decommission their database (licenses) and hardware. You need to look forward, because businesses and IT are evolving rapidly, especially in the last 10 years. Thus, are you ready for cloud migration?
About this episode, and Rik Hepworth in particular: you can find @rikhepworth on Twitter and GitHub. Check out his website and read his blogs.
About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

In this episode, we talk with Sherry List. She has worked with a variety of web technologies in the past and currently works as Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. Apart from her everyday job, she is chairperson of the board at Hack Your Future. She is also a co-founder of Synthetic AI Data and of the ngVikings and ngSpain conference, as well as some Meetups groups, such as ngCopenhagen, Women Techmakers Denmark and ForDevs. We talk about her work at Microsoft managing the Learn platform. They discuss how Learn brings together documentation, tutorials, Q&A, and the Architecture Center. Sherry also talks about her side projects - she is a co-founder of a startup called Synthetic AI Data that generates synthetic images to train AI models, and she is chairperson of HYF (Hack Your Future), an organization in Denmark that helps people from disadvantaged groups become web developers. We also dive into Sherry's motivations for helping others and the impact of her work.
About this episode, and Sherry List in particular: you can find @sherrrylst on X and LinkedIn. Also, check out HYF and her company website Synthetic AI Data.

About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

In this episode, we talk with Pete Gallagher, a full stack manager at Avanade and an Azure and IoT MVP. We discuss the evolution of IoT technology and Microsoft's approach. As IoT has matured, the focus has shifted from standalone hype to integrating these capabilities into broader data platforms. We explore how services like Azure, IoT, Grid, and Azure Arc are now preferred over past favorites like IoT Hub, while ensuring existing investments remain supported. We also highlight the underutilized Event Grid platform and share experiences building scalable solutions leveraging Azure's full suite of services. Additionally, we dive into creative hands-on projects that combine hardware, code, and cloud skills, encouraging listeners to pursue diverse interests in fun IoT endeavors, including areas like robotics and automation.
About this episode, and Pete Gallagher in particular: you can find Pete on X @pete_codes and GitHub. You can also look at his website to read all his interesting blogs, courses, and more.
About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn.