Hey, everyone, welcome to the Unhandled Exception podcast. I'm Dan Clark and this is the very
first episode.
So this is just a Hello World episode introducing the podcast and what it's all about as well
as who I am. I plan to release the second episode at the same time or shortly afterwards
so if you're listening to this then check out your podcast feed for episode number two.
So let's start with introducing the podcast. This is a software development podcast. If
you're a software developer then you probably already know this by the name Unhandled Exception
but if you're not a developer or you don't want to be one then you're probably in the
wrong place. I'm primarily a .NET developer. I do front end, architecte, Roger stuff too.
My background is that I started off doing 3D technologies over 20 years ago now and
the first half of my career was in the games industry doing CNC for the plus. The latter
half has been more focused on .NET. I've done both web and desktop development. So the
aim of this podcast is to cover a wide variety of developer topics. There's going to be
talk on .NET and Azure because I'm a .NET developer that uses Azure so I'm perhaps a little bit
bias but there's also going to be lots of other topics as well things like gait, docker,
Kubernetes, automated testing, best practices, all this kind of stuff. So the plan is I want
to have a mix of me doing talks like this where I'm talking about a particular topic
or some episodes will invite guests on.
There's not going to be a fixed schedule. Releases are going to be fairly ad hoc but hopefully
fairly frequent. If you click subscribe in your favorite podcast app then you'll get notified
when new episodes drop. And there's also a dedicated website unhandledexceptionpodcast.com
where there'll be show notes for each episode. So I'm a massive fan of podcasts. I've been an
avid listener for many years now and that's one of the reasons why I became so passionate
about software development. Hearing the passion that the hosts and the guests have in our industry
just became really contagious and then I started the blog danklark.com. This was years ago and
also later I started a .NET user group called .NET Oxford which has now been going for nearly
four years and I'll talk more about .NET Oxford in a minute. But as part of .NET Oxford I started
getting into public speaking and I've been thinking about starting a podcast for a while now.
And then at the start of lockdown with Covid because I knew I was going to be working remotely
full time and also had to host .NET Oxford virtually I decided to invest in a decent microphone.
I went with the Blue Yeti X and I'm really glad I did because the new contract I started shortly
afterwards was 100% remote and we pair programme all day long so the mic makes a big difference.
After the initial investment of getting the mic this is when I decided to start giving podcasting
an actual go. Unfortunately with me working all day and the kids being at home all day,
any free time before work, during lunch or after work just vanished. So it didn't happen
at the time but now the kids are back at school now I'm giving it a go. At this point it's just
an experiment so any feedback is really greatly appreciated. If you enjoy what you're hearing
please let me know, help spread the word on social media, if you don't please let me know
why as well so I can try and improve the podcast. The podcast is being sponsored by my own company
Everstack Limited. I'm a contractor and all my client work goes through Everstack. We do full stack
development and consultation services. You can check out everstack.com for more information.
So I mentioned .NET Oxford a couple of times now so let's before wrapping up let's talk a little
bit about that. So I started this nearly four years ago together with an ex-collegue, Matt Neal.
This has been a physical event up until the lockdown but it's been virtual ever since the
lockdown started. To be honest I've been really surprised with how well this has worked virtually.
We use Zoom, we have lots of people turning on the webcams and it's a really good community vibe.
We always have a virtual pub session afterwards so when it was physical a few of us went to a
real pub afterwards but now obviously that's not possible at the moment so when it's virtual
some people just hang around bringing their own drinks obviously and just have a geek out
afterwards. It's really great fun and I've just been amazed with how well it's continued to work
after the lockdown. If Covid had happened five, ten years earlier it would have been so different.
So I've personally been amazed by how well the .NET Oxford community has grown.
Over the four years I've met so many amazing people through doing it
and it's helped grow my career as well so to say that starting .NET Oxford has been life changing
is kind of a big understatement and if you're interested we do also have a slack group which
you can join via the website dotnetoxford.com. I was also involved in starting a second news group
last year about Azure and this was with someone I met through .NET Oxford, James World but we
decided to temporarily put this on hold when the lockdown started so I'm not sure what's going
to happen with this but we'll see. So I think this wraps up the very first episode. As I mentioned
earlier if you're listening to this the next episode should already be in your podcast feed
and the best way to get in touch with me is via Twitter. My handle is at drakan d-r-a-c-a-n
and my DMs are wide open and all my social links are on my blog danclout.com so please do
help me spread the word. As I mentioned earlier any feedback is greatly appreciated.
So thank you so much for listening and see you next time.