Videos, blogs, and podcasts for a .NET developer

Video

In one of his articles, Bjarne Straustrup (dad C ++) admitted that he does not recognize video materials as a source for self-education. And it's hard not to agree with him when it comes to learning from scratch a programming language or technology. I really doubt that you can defeat a monster like C ++ or become a WPF guru lying on the couch and watching a learning video like "Learn everything in 24 hours." But if you set yourself a goal to get acquainted with some technology or a new programming language opportunity, or just listen to the philosophical and computer thoughts of a smart comrade, then in this case web caste, conference recordings or other type of video materials can be very useful.

If you try to find an instructional video (and not just interviews or speeches from conferences) for a .NET developer, then Pluralsight will be the first and perhaps the only source.

Pluralsight

Most of the Pluralsight courses are dedicated to Microsoft technologies: .NET, C #, F #, WCF, SQL Server, Windows Azure, Windows 8, etc. Other courses are devoted to fundamental knowledge and are not tied to specific technologies: HTTP Fundamentals, NoSQL, Source Control, software development practices, etc .; there are even courses on Java, Ruby, development for iOS and Android (in a word, in the catalog you can find a course on almost all the popular bazvords).
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Not all courses may be equally useful. Attempting to fully explore a new technology (I watched courses on WPF) may lead nowhere, since video is still not the best source for a full study. But a number of topics are suitable for this type of training. All architectural and philosophical topics, courses on design patterns and review courses look great. I really liked courses on Resharper, RavenDB and architecture.

Courses are paid; a personal license costs $ 300-500.

Channel 9

In contrast to Pluralsight, the materials on Channel 9 are not training courses in the usual sense; rather, it is a training channel with different programs (the name hints at this). Some programs are devoted to one topic (for example, C # language training or the library of reactive extensions (Rx - Reactive Extensions)), other programs consist of interviews with well-known experts, and others are records of well-known events in software development.

Headings

1. Going deep . One of the most interesting headings on Channel 9; here you can hear firsthand about the structure of the CLR, the problems of asynchrony, the internal structure of the Windows kernel, functional programming, the future of C ++ and much more. It is enough to scroll through this rubric in the search for a topic of interest or simply start with the most popular speeches.
   
2. Expert to Expert . But what if one “crazy geek” in a “tear out-eye” T-shirt (Erik Meijer plays this role) comes to visit another crazy geek to reflect on languages ​​or programming paradigms, on the future or in general, to fray about life? Something like this happens in the Expert to Expert category (more precisely, this is the Going Deep subheading), the result is not always clear, but almost always interesting.
   
3. Visual Studio Toolbox . In this section, you can hear about the new features of Visual Studio 11 or about old proven tools, such as ReSharper or CodeRush.
   
4. C9 :: GoingNative . Many developers have long been reconciled that their old C ++ background can be buried deep under the ground, but the events of last year showed that this is not worth doing. The release of Windows 8, the adoption of the standard C ++ 11, all this returns public interest to the “old man” C ++, and in this section you can find a lot of information about all this.
   

Developments

1. Lang.NEXT 2012 . Most of the conferences held by Microsoft are dedicated primarily to their own products, but this conference is an exception to the rule. It brought together leading designers of popular programming languages ​​to talk about future development; Here you can hear about Java, C ++, Haskell, Scala, D, F # and of course, C # and VB.
   
2. GoingNative 2012 . This conference took place on February 2-3, 2012 and was devoted exclusively to the C ++ 11 language.
   
3. BUILD 2011 . It was at this conference that the main features were presented, the output of which we are waiting for this year, in particular, Windows 8, Metro Style App, C ++ 11, C # & VB Async Stuff, Roslyn etc.
   

It is worth paying attention to the category of events entirely, since new events occur quite often, so that they become obsolete rather quickly.

Educational programs

1. C # Fundamentals: Development for Absolute Beginners . As the name suggests, this is a set of C # video tutorials for absolute beginners.
   
2. Rx Workshop . A set of lessons on the rather popular library of reactive extensions (Rx - Reactive Extensions) from its authors: Bart De Smet (Bart De Smet) and Wes Dyer (Wes Dyer)
   

I would recommend to follow the new arrivals of materials via RSS, or via twitter @ ch9 , since an interesting video comes out quite often.

Other

Separately, I would recommend watching the speeches of Robert Martin, the author of the principles of SOLID (or rather the abbreviation itself) and many popular books (for example, Clean Code). "Uncle" Bob has tremendous charisma, and although not all of his ideas can be accepted, watching his performances is very interesting. Here are a few appearances for starters.

1. Bad Code, Craftsmanship, Engineering, and Certification
   
2. Craftsmanship and ethics
   
3. Video in google
   

Blogs

In English:

1. Fabulous Adventures in Coding . Eric Lippert’s blog is mainly about C # language design and capabilities.
   
2. Jon Skeet: Coding Blog . The blog of John Skeet, guru of StackOverflow.com and author of one of the best books on C # ( C # In Depth ).
   
3. ScottGu's Blog . Scott Guthrie's blog, mainly about ASP.NET and Azure, but there is a lot more to it.
   
4. Ayende @ Rahien . The very popular blog of the author Rhyno Mocks, Raven DB and one of the main developers of NHibernate; deals mainly with architectural issues and patterns. Highly recommend!
   
5. Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen . Another famous blog; It is dedicated not only to the .NET platform, but also to general issues of programming and computer-related topics.
   
6. Parallel Programming with .NET . Very interesting parallel programming blog; contains many interesting articles about TPL and new "asynchronous" features of C # 5.0
   
7. Sutter's Mill . The emblem of the Sutter, a C ++ guru and multithreading blog, writes mostly about C ++, but not C ++ programmers should pay attention to his articles.

Not very active now, but with a huge number of interesting posts:

1. B # .NET BLOG. Bart de Smet's On-line Blog . One of the most powerful blogs on C # /. NET. Bart doesn’t write often, but the topic is revealed at the deepest level, so don’t be alarmed if something is unclear even from the third time.
   
2. Yet Another Language Geek . Highly recommend to anyone who is interested in functional programming.
   
3. Chris Burrow's Blog . Basically about the C # language; Unfortunately Chris left Microsoft, so now his blog can only be used as an archive.
   
4. Joe Duffy's Weblog . The focus is on multithreading.
   
5. Igor Ostrovsky Blogging . The blog of another representative of the Parallel Computing Team; The blog is dedicated to multithreaded programming, but there are interesting articles about the C # language.

In Russian

1. Eric Lippert. Incredible Adventures in the code . Russian-language version of the blog Eric Lippert.
   
2. Control :: Flow . Functional-sisharpo-phsharpno-giknuty blog. Highly recommend.
   
3. Programming Stuff . The blog is dedicated to C #, .NET, architecture and development principles; In general, the content reflects the name of the blog.

Podcasts

Podcasts are somewhat more complicated than with video materials or blogs. The easiest way to choose to listen to something on the road is to rummage through the links below and find the topic that interests you, or choose a dialogue with a famous person.

1. Code Cast - The Late Night Show For .NET Developers
   
2. DotNetRocks
   
3. Hanselminutes
   
4. Software engineering radio
   
5. Pragmatic podcasts

For starters, here are a couple of interesting podcasts:

1. Interview with Kent Beck on SE-Radio
   
2. Interview with Ward Cunningham on the Pragmatic Podcast
   
3. Interview with Bob Martin on Hanselminutes
   
4. Interview with Eric Lippert on DotNetRocks

Conclusion

Of course, this is not a complete list of where and how you can learn in the field of .NET, so I'm waiting for additions and clarifications. By the way, if we are talking about a full-fledged study of a language or technology, then at first I would recommend paying attention to the “classic books” on .NET / C # , and then using video speeches or blogs to close gaps.