Category Archives: Office

RELEASE: ASP .NET Core A-Z eBook

By Shahed C on July 29, 2019

As promised, below is the initial release of the ASP .NET Core A-Z ebook. This combines the 26 blog posts from the series of ASP .NET Core articles on this website.

ASPNETCoreLogo-300x267 A – Z of ASP .NET Core!

eBook cover

eBook cover

You can find the complete ebook on GitHub using one of the links below:

Don’t miss my guest appearance on the .NET Community Standup:

    • With Jon Galloway, Damian Edwards and Scott Hanselman.
    • 5:07 -> video starts
    • 18:58 to 36:20 -> my segment
    • 36:20 to end -> just chatting

Things to note (updated):

  • The cover image was generated using the Canva mobile app
  • The eBook is still a work in progress 🙂
  • I’m using my Worker Service sample to auto-generate Word documents from each blog post by converting each article’s HTML into Word format using MariGold.OpenXHTML
  • After some tweaking, images have been manually resized per chapter. Automatic resizing doesn’t seem to work between HTML to Word conversions, but feel free to submit a Pull Request if you have suggestions on how to fix it.
  • Animated GIF images don’t work in the ebook, so a link to each original source has been included where they appear in a few chapters.
  • The content currently covers a combination of ASP .NET Core 2.2 and 3.0 (Preview). In the weeks/months ahead, the content will be updated to include Core 3.0 across the entire series.

Why Microsoft?

By Shahed C on March 17, 2016

To celebrate my 2-year anniversary at Microsoft as a Sr. Technical Evangelist, I wanted to put my thoughts down in a blog post and discuss it in a video. This post also answers the question “Why Did I Choose Microsoft?” In today’s open-source, cross-platform world, Microsoft is becoming more and more relevant, from cloud services (hosting Windows and Linux servers) to mobile app services (supporting iOS and Android) and everything in between.

Wake Up And Code!

Jump to Video: https://youtu.be/bPnWf2HKVMw

video-teleport

 

mslogo Why Microsoft?

Sometimes, people ask me “Hey, you are promoting Microsoft products just because you work for Microsoft?” I usually respond “Actually no, I joined Microsoft because I enjoy using and promoting Microsoft products.” You see, today’s Microsoft supports many operating systems, programing languages and platforms that crosses overs in way that turns competition into collaboration”

As a consumer, I started using DOS and Windows 3.1 when I first learned how to use a computer. I jumped onto Windows 95 along with the rest of the world. I picked up productivity apps like WordPerfect and Quattro Pro, but was introduced to Office products such as Word and Excel. Today, I have multiple devices running Windows 10, including my Xbox One! 🙂

As an enterprise developer, I have been using Microsoft software development tools and business applications for almost 2 decades now. My first real job was in the Summer of 1997 when I used Active Server Pages to develop database-driven web applications. Today, I’m using Visual Studio 2015 to work on everything from ASP .NET Core 1.0 web applications to Windows 10 apps/games, and even games developed in Unity. Having tried out other dev tools, I would happily admit that Visual Studio is arguably the best IDE out there. For a lighter code editor, there’s Visual Studio Code for PC, Mac and Linux users.

Screenshot of photo and caption from IGC :-)

Screenshot of photo and caption from IGC 🙂

As an indie developer, I started making silly little games for Xbox 360 using XNA and C# within Visual Studio for Xbox Live Indie Games. I even got slayed by Indie Gamer Chick, but survived to write 2 articles for her blog (Earning Your Keep and Redefining Indie Success). I followed up my indie games with free dev tools for XBLIG developers around the world, which really got me involved in the dev community. Long before my colleague Dave Voyles and I joined Microsoft, he wrote up a couple of reviews on my dev tools (XBLIG Sales Data Analyzer and XNA Basic Starter Kit) before we had even known each other.

As a community leader, I created Facebook groups for Construct 2, Unity, and Xbox One. I wasn’t sure which would take off, but all three of them are very active today. I recently launched a new group for HoloLens, and also run a real-life Meetup group for DC/MD/VA developers using Microsoft tools, technologies and platforms. It’s great to see continued interest from my audience in everything form cloud services to game development tools.

I was even fortunate enough to get mentioned in the Official Xbox Magazine, in the same month that I was selected for the Microsoft MVP program and offered a job at Microsoft as a Technical Evangelist!

Source: Official Xbox Magazine, March 2014, Page 65

Source: Official Xbox Magazine, March 2014, Page 65

As a technical evangelist, I have been working with students, startups and developers all over DC/MD/VA, coast to coast across the US and around the world via in-person events and online videos. Looking for one of my videos? Head on over to MSDN Channel 9, where you’ll find plenty of videos for all things Microsoft and more!

My colleague James Quick and I also have 2 sets of videos on Microsoft Virtual Academy, with the 3rd set coming soon!

  1. Construct 2: http://aka.ms/mva-construct2
  2. Advanced Construct 2: http://aka.ms/mva-construct2-advanced
  3. Windows 10 Games with Construct 2: (Coming Soon!)

So, why did I choose Microsoft? I followed my passions, and this is where it led me. 😎

To wrap things up, check out this video of me talking with my friend Frank La Vigne, a Technology Evangelist at Microsoft, on his YouTube Channel Frank’s World TV.

YouTube Video on FWTV: https://youtu.be/bPnWf2HKVMw

BUT WAIT, THERE’s MORE!!!

In my latest Channel 9 video, check out my other video with Frank where we discuss how to get started with game development!

 

Microsoft Dev Camps in June 2015

By Shahed C on May 11, 2015

Looking for free developers events to learn more about Microsoft Office and Azure Cloud Data?

  

Check out these Dev Camps at the Chevy Chase MD office! (DC Metro accessible)

DevCamp: Microsoft Office

DevCamp: Azure Cloud Data