.NET Rocks!

Whatever happened to the future we were promised? Time for a Geek Out! To celebrate the end of the opening history bits, Richard pulls together all the most popular topics of "things we were supposed to get in the future." From flying and self-driving cars to fusion power, personal jetpacks, Star Trek replicators, space tourism, and more! While some things are coming true, in a form different from what was expected, other things continue to be very difficult - and there is no sign of when that future will come. The future is here, just not exactly the one we thought it would be!

It's Tray-Tober! Carl and Richard talk to Joe Finney about his latest project - building small, useful Windows apps that live in the system tray. Joe talks about his original project inspiration, Radio Tray - a way to have internet radio playing on his PC without creating a whole browser instance, because he needs that memory for AI! The conversation digs into how code is no longer the barrier to building; it's all about good ideas. What could the system tray do for you? Tray-Tober is about finding out - check out Tray Land on GitHub!

OpenSilver evolves! Carl and Richard talk to Giovanni Albani about how OpenSilver continues to help folks migrate Silverlight apps into a sustainable model not dependent on the plug-in - but now the focus is on WPF! Giovanni talks about XAML.io and its ability to turn WPF applications into WebAssembly apps that run in the browser with no plug-ins and no HTML or JavaScript coding required. The conversation also explores the role of AI in software development and the tooling XAML.io is developing to help senior developers add guardrails and tooling around domain experts using these tools to build secure, reliable software.

Can AI tech work in live television broadcasts? Carl and Richard talk to Tim Huckaby about his work building Duff Foreman, an AI-powered avatar for live golf programs. Tim talks about using AI to build AI, using M365 Copilot to architect and ultimately implement the AI avatar, pulling from golf statistics to provide a digital commentator for the sport. The conversation explores the stack of tools needed to build Duff, some of which Tim selected and some that were already in play for the project. And then there was that first live broadcast - Duff "sitting" with two human presenters during a minor PGA event. Lots of great stories and questions about the future of this tech!

The Critter Stack is growing! Carl and Richard talk with Jeremy Miller about the latest Critter Stack updates, including Marten, Wolverine, and more! First up is the stack's expansion with Polecat and Fisher, versions of Marten built for SQL Server 2025 and SQLite, respectively. Jeremy also talks about the evolution of event sourcing and how the framework continues to advance to take advantage of new approaches to managing fast, timely data flows. The conversation also digs into how AI is impacting frameworks, including the continued need for reliable frameworks so you can focus on providing value to your customer. But also in the AI vein is the AI Skills for the Critter Stack - so your AI development tools can work as effectively as possible, and get your application built!