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Darren McLeod

@darrenmcleod.com
33 followers 42 following 46 posts

Independent Consultant with expertise designing, developing, and deploying innovative technology solutions using C#. Hands-on Coder & Technology Evangelist.

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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 23/04/2026
I know I'm in the minority on this one but I'm not a fan of #cli 's. I don't know if it's because I started out when CLI's were the only option and I've been there done that. 1/x
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 05/04/2026
I built PurposeCompass after asking what should come next after achieving my goal of becoming an independent software development consultant. It helps you explore your values, strengths, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. play.google.com/store/apps/d...
play.google.com
PurposeCompass: Find Your Why - Apps on Google Play
Discover your life purpose in 7 days. Guided exercises to find meaning & clarity
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Nick Tune @nick-tune.me · 20/12/2025
Claude Code has a bias for working as the lone ranger. Asking a few questions and then generating a big plan. Sometimes thats on but often not. So I built a small command to make it work in a step-by-step mode. Pretty happy with the results github.com/NTCoding/cla...
github.com
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.NET @dot.net · 18/12/2025
.NET 10 brings smarter, faster networking to developers—think streamlined HTTP performance, upgraded WebSockets, and cleaner security improvements that make apps feel quicker and more reliable. Dive in to the blog and see what’s new! msft.it/63320tc7xa
.net bot in a submarine racecar.
text reads: .NET 10 Networking Improvements
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Particular Software @particular.net · 12/12/2025
You did microservices. But did you? Do you really have a distributed monolith instead? In this video, @DavidBoike provides a roadmap to microservices that avoid the pitfalls of coupling that slide toward the pit of distributed monoliths
particular.net
Microservices & Distributed Monoliths
🔗Transcription 00:00 David Boike All right, welcome everybody. Good morning. Welcome to the first day, the first full day of talks. My name is David Boike, and I'll be presenting Microservices and…
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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 13/12/2025
This is an increasing problem that needs regulation. The big tech co’s have become so big, so powerful, but also so careless. All while we’ve trusted them with more and more of our work and lives. Which they can take away in an instant, “without recourse.”
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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 13/12/2025
Gmail and Google Workspace emails cut off emails arbitrarily after they reach the 102kb limit. Then they make reading the full email a bad user experience. There is no way to turn this off - not even for paying Google Workspace customers. What email platforms do NOT do this?
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Virtual Domain-Driven Design @virtualddd.com · 11/12/2025
Curious about alternatives to Hexagonal Architecture? Revisit our session with Thomas Pierrain & @brunoboucard.bsky.social on using a Functional Core with an Imperative Shell to protect your domain. A great live-coding demonstration. Rewatch it on our website.
buff.ly
Beyond the hexagonal architecture: Functional Core & ...
There are a few ways to split and protect your domain code from the intrusion of the technical stacks and other IT fads. After having promoted Hexagonal Architecture during all those years, we would like...
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 17/11/2025
I didn't like having to hold 'alt' when clicking on the preview #markdown button in #vscode to get a full tab preview of the markdown file. So I vibe coded an extension. #ui #dx #vibecode marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemNa...
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Nick Tune @nick-tune.me · 15/11/2025
The modernization progress illusion is an almost universal pattern I've observed over the past decade. You can make quick progress early by building new things outside the legacy or extracting pieces on the edges that have few dependencies. Quick wins, low risk. 1/4
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.NET @dot.net · 10/11/2025
T-Minus 1 Day .NET Conf 2025 in on its way... #VisualStudio2026 is redefining dev! Join us tomorrow at .NET Conf to explore next-gen features. Free & virtual—don’t miss this future-focused event! Read the Visual Studio Blog for more info: msft.it/63321tHgx5
.NET Conf Title Slide
text reads: .NET Conf 2025 kicks off tomorrow…
Celebrate and learn about what you can do with .NET 10 and Visual Studio 2026 at the biggest .NET virtual event November 11 - 13
Set reminders for your favorite sessions
November 11 - 13
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ardalis (Steve Smith) @ardalis.com · 10/11/2025
Good abstractions hide the irrelevant and simplify the essential. Bad abstractions hide the essential and complicate the irrelevant.
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 31/10/2025
New blog post about my cognitive challenge with the Facebook Link Preview I encountered trying to help my wife promote her new online course www.darrenmcleod.com/2025/10/my-w...
darrenmcleod.com
My Wife's Cognitive Challenge
A blog about programming in Visual Studio .NET, ASP.NET, C# and related subjects.
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Nick Tune @nick-tune.me · 18/10/2025
Legacy-leveraged learning phase is the name I use for a pattern we've been using at PayFit in a few places recently. This pattern is controversial because it violates my most important modernization principle: respect domain boundaries. 1/4 #legacyModernization #dddDesign
Phase 1: Learn

Domain A accesses Domain B's data in the legacy directlyPhase 2: Migrate
The concept is validated, so migrate required logic to Domain B, create an interface, and migrate Domain A's dependency on the legacy to the new interface.
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Making a free cycling game @dfeldman.org · 05/10/2025
Dev: creates a simple intuitive UI
(Picture of a normal white teapot and teacup)
User: (a goofy looking man blowing into the top of a teapot with his mouth completely sealing the opening in order to squirt water out the spout forming a perfect arc into a teacup)
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Lutz Hühnken @huehnken.de · 14/08/2025
I'm trying to assemble the ~20 best resources (talks, articles, books) around Event-Driven Architecture: codeberg.org/lutzh/awesom... What do you think is missing? Also, if you could give it a ⭐ that would help, too 🙏 . #eventdrivenarchitecture #eda #softwarearchitecture
codeberg.org
awesome-event-driven-architecture
A curated list of resources on event-driven architecture.
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Mathias Verraes @mathiasverraes.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
No, Your Domains and Bounded Contexts Don’t Map 1 on 1. It sounds clean and logical, but it’s wrong. Read about it in my latest article: verraes.net/2025/08/doma...
verraes.net
No, Your Domains and Bounded Contexts Don’t Map 1 on 1
Bounded Contexts are a design choice to suit engineering needs
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David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 26/08/2025
Every service class in a piece of software I see is just a place where mid-devs hide proceedural implementation due to chronic under-design. Can't name the thing? Service! Don't know what your abstraction is? Service! Anemic, undiscoverable, procedural code every time. ManagerClass for 2010-2025.
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Sarah Drasner @sarahedo.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
The book Upstream by Dan Heath is worth a read (author of Switch and Made to Stick) The premise is thinking upstream to solve systemic issues to avoid “problem blindness” (when you can’t see something right in front of you because you’re so used to the problem) I love systems thinking.
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John Cutler @johncutle.fish · 21/08/2025
Do This. Not This. Or ... Day 5/30 sharing my favorite doodles and drawings.
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Jason Gorman @jasongorman.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
"The problem with OOP is <complete misunderstanding of OOP>"
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Mathias Verraes @mathiasverraes.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
There are only two hard problems in distributed systems: 2. Exactly-once delivery 1. Guaranteed order of messages 2. Exactly-once delivery
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.NET @dot.net · 13/08/2025
TODAY at 10AM PT! 〰️ .NET AI Community Standup 〰️ Today, we explore how to take AI workloads traditionally built in Python and turbocharge them using #dotNET. Join us. 🎥 msft.it/63325s3r9z
spot art.
Photo of presenter(s).
text reads: .NET AI Community Standup: ⚡Blazing-Fast AI Inference on a Budget
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Jason Gorman @jasongorman.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
I talk to teams about the "self-fulfilling prophecies" of Test-Driven Development, but there's one that's implied but I don't know if I've seen it explicitly stated before. If we're only writing code needed to pass our tests, then *all* of our code will be in the call stack of the tests (1/)
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Putting all your controllers in one directory and your views in another Is like putting the cortisone and hemorrhoid cream in the drawer with toothpaste because they're all tubes.
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The New Stack @thenewstack.io · 06/08/2025
Vibe coding promises easy AI-generated software but creates massive shadow IT risks for enterprises. Learn why this trend threatens security, compliance and scale.
bit.ly
Vibe Coding: The Shadow IT Problem No One Saw Coming
Vibe coding promises easy AI-generated software but creates massive shadow IT risks for enterprises. Learn why this trend threatens security, compliance and scale.
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Jason Moore @moorejh.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Happy birthday to the 6502! hackaday.com/2025/08/04/h... #retrocomputing
hackaday.com
Happy Birthday 6502
The MOS Technology 6502 is a microprocessor which casts a long shadow over the world of computing. Many of you will know it as the beating heart of so many famous 8-bit machines from the likes of C…
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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 03/08/2025
What is a book you learned a lot from related to software engineering? (Aka one you'd recommend)
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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 01/08/2025
An educated guess is this is a migration gone terribly wrong… again, thanks to assuming they can do a sloppy migration with long downtime. The way you do migrations well is planning for zero downtime. Or the very least have a robust rollback plan. More: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/migrations
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
Migrations Done Well
A guide for executing migrations well, at both small and large scales.
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 31/07/2025
Good article on #fp in #csharp www.telerik.com/blogs/functi...
telerik.com
Functional Programming in C#—Exploring Advanced Topics
Using functional programming can result in more reliable, less buggy software. See five advanced functional programming concepts in practice in ASP.NET Core.
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 26/07/2025
There is a software development methodology that uses a Kanban board, but it isn’t called Kanban because Kanban isn’t a methodology(kanban.university/kanban-guide/). It’s just a method, a board with columns and stickies to track work, www.darrenmcleod.com/2025/07/kanb... 1/n
darrenmcleod.com
Kanban and the Methodology With No Name
A blog about programming in Visual Studio .NET, ASP.NET, C# and related subjects.
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Trunk-Based Thierry (they/them) @tdpauw.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Published: Why do Teams not practice Continuous Integration? Everyone in the IT industry agrees that Continuous Integration is a required practice to realise quality and stability. Yet, few teams have truly implemented Continuous Integration. Why is that? thinkinglabs.io/articles/202...
thinkinglabs.io
Why do Teams not practice Continuous Integration?
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Trunk-Based Thierry (they/them) @tdpauw.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Published an update to: On the Benefits of Trunk-based development Added the missing: - enables incremental software engineering skills - encourages refactoring - this has worked for regulated industries and large IT systems thinkinglabs.io/articles/202...
thinkinglabs.io
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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 21/07/2025
The BI article: www.businessinsider.com/amazon-engin... The full podcast: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/what-is-a-... Parts I thought were more interesting: - Why Amazon moved to microservices - The Principal Engineering community at Amazon - Why it's SO hard to get promoted to Principal
businessinsider.com
Former Amazon principal engineer says he spent '1-4 hours' reading daily — and it's part of the company's 'secret sauce'
Steve Huynh was a principal engineer at Amazon. He praised its culture of writing and reading 6-page memos, a practice that began under Jeff Bezos.
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 11/07/2025
What a brilliant name for a tool that finds dead code: Reaper - An open-source SDK for finding dead code blog.sentry.io/an-open-sour...
blog.sentry.io
Reaper - An open-source SDK for finding dead code
Writing code is easier than ever. We want to make deleting code just as easy – introducing Reaper for iOS and Android. Reaper was an Emerge Tools product that h...
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ardalis (Steve Smith) @ardalis.com · 08/07/2025
TIL. Also, why it’s important for your UI to have affordances (like tooltips on hover) that teach users about non-obvious UX features.
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Dr Milan Milanović @milanmilanovic.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝘁𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗲? First, when 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗽 drags performance into the basement, then again when the “temporary” fixes you shipped turn into fresh debt. 🧵
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Mike Hadlow @mikehadlow.com · 06/07/2025
Oh, this is interesting, a new extension that turns VS Code into a PostgreSQL IDE. techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/adforpo...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Announcing a new IDE for PostgreSQL in VS Code from Microsoft | Microsoft Community Hub
We are excited to announce the public preview of the brand-new PostgreSQL extension for Visual Studio Code (VS Code), designed to simplify PostgreSQL...
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Tom Oram @tomoram.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
I extracted two sub packages out of a larger one today. I only did it to improve code organisation, however, it had a very positive effect on the overall design because the new boundaries made it much clearer where things weren’t quite right.
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 03/07/2025
#CSS conditionals with a new if() function. What?!? Someone pinch me am I dreaming? developer.chrome.com/blog/if-arti...
developer.chrome.com
CSS conditionals with the new if() function  |  Blog  |  Chrome for Developers
Learn about the new CSS if function, which enables a cleaner developer interface for dynamic styles like style queries and media queries.
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Kenny (Baas) Schwegler @kenny.weave-it.org · 26/06/2025
When teams truly own their domain and design architecture through Domain-Driven Design, combined with Team Topologies and solid Continuous Delivery/DevOps practices, Product Owners get to do so much more actual product management.
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Darren McLeod @darrenmcleod.com · 08/06/2025
For a long time, when I first started writing tests, I felt so unproductive writing tests. I would try to write the test as fast as possible so I could move on to the "real" code. Then one day when a production deployment failed due to missing a simple test I... www.darrenmcleod.com/2025/06/test...
darrenmcleod.com
Test Code
A blog about programming in Visual Studio .NET, ASP.NET, VB.Net and related subjects.
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Peter Hilton @hilton.org.uk · 20/05/2025
97 Jokes Every Programmer Should Know: the missing anthology of developer cultural heritage #programming #humour hilton.org.uk/blog/97-jokes
hilton.org.uk
97 Jokes Every Programmer Should Know
The missing anthology of developer cultural heritage
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Dave Farley @davefarley77.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
AVAILABLE NOW 🎥 @davefarley77 | 3 Reasons Your CI/CD Pipeline Isn't Working As It Should... ➡️ youtu.be/m1oMj29P--Y Image
youtu.be
3 Reasons Your CI/CD Pipeline Isn't Working As It Should...
YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering
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Jen Gentleman @jenmsft.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
May the fourth be with you
Two panel star wars comic. Young soldier talking to Han solo says "git push --force". Han Solo gets a serious look on his face and says "that's not how the force works"
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John Lokerse | Microsoft MVP @johnlokerse.dev · 22/04/2025
Pro tip! I learned that you can use a shortcut to switch between Ask, Edit and Agent mode in GitHub Copilot using @vscode.dev. MacOS: command + . Windows: CTRL + . Will save you a few clicks a day:
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Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 15/04/2025
Why you’ve probably got Object-Oriented Programming wrong all this time 🤯 Most of us were taught OOP meant classes, inheritance, and exposing state via getters/setters - leading to bloated, brittle systems full of side effects and tight coupling. But that was never the original intention! 1/5 🧵
blog.robbowley.net
Why you’ve probably got Object-Oriented Programming wrong all this time 🤯 | Rob Bowley
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David Fowler @davidfowl.com · 10/04/2025
We just shipped .NET Aspire 9.2! learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet... Lots of cool features in this release and a step towards deploying to a lot more places! We're also shipping a new aspire command line tool! #dotnet #aspire
learn.microsoft.com
What's new in .NET Aspire 9.2 - .NET Aspire
Learn what's new in the official general availability release of .NET Aspire 9.2.
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Trunk-Based Thierry (they/them) @tdpauw.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
The slide deck for “Non-Blocking Continuous Code Reviews” at FlowCon France @flowcon.bsky.social #FlowCon How a novice team found ways to improve delivery performance. Key takeaway: Features arrive in production even before a review started. thinkinglabs.io/talks/2024/0...
thinkinglabs.io
Non-Blocking Continuous Code Reviews - a Case Study
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Scott Hanselman 🌮 @scott.hanselman.com · 01/04/2025
AM radios in cars have buttons where the button press is exclusive. When you press another button physically hard and mechanically in order to select a different station it forcibly presses up all the other buttons, thereby forcing an exclusive or-Radio buttons are effectively “car AM radio buttons”
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