Recent posts

Azure Essentials: publishing an ASP.NET Core 2 MVC application

In this post about the very basics of Microsoft Azure, I’ll show how to publish an ASP.NET Core 2 MVC application to the cloud. We’ll be using Visual Studio for this.  read full post

Azure Essentials: getting started with SQL Server

In this post about the very basics of Microsoft Azure, I’ll show how to provision and use an SQL Server and database in the cloud. Which is just like a regular SQL Server, except it’s in the cloud.  read full post

Phones I've owned

To belatedly mourn the death of Windows Phone (I needed time, okay?), as well as to celebrate me finally joining the Android Master Race, I’ve decided to look back at the various phones that I’ve owned throughout the years.  read full post

Go home

Even though I like my job (seriously, I do!), I’m very strict about keeping a healthy work-life balance. After all, I work to live; not the other way around. I guess this makes me a “9-to-5 developer” or a “5:01 developer”, or whatever you want to call a nerd who’s good at time management. I put in my 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and then I go home. Work is already second only to sleeping in how much of my life is spent on it, and I see absolutely no reason to tip the scales any further in the wrong direction than they already are. I simply cannot imagine lying on my deathbed and thinking to myself, “gee, I wish I’d spent more time at the office.”  read full post

2017 according to Google Analytics

I’ve got Google Analytics running on my site, because I’m curious about the traffic I get. 2017 has been the first full year I’ve had GA running, so I figured I’d take some time to look back at how the last year has been from the perspective of my website.  read full post

Some 70-461 exam tips

I passed the Microsoft 70-461 exam today with a score of 885 points. Obviously I can’t speak about the contents of the exam (yay NDA), but here are some general tips on passing this exam:  read full post

Debugging the broken SQL Server 2017 installer

Today I tried installing the latest Express Edition of SQL Server: version 2017. Sadly, Microsoft no longer seems to offer offline installers. If you look at their download page, you’ll only find the option for downloading a small, 5 MB bootstrapper that will then take care of downloading the actual installation files. Even Scott Hanselman’s famous page only links to it now, instead of any real installation media.  read full post