 Hey, this is Christian Buckley with another MVP BuzzChat interview, and I'm talking today with Dara. Hello. Hi, Christian. How are you doing? It's evening over here. I'm sure you're doing fine. It should be afternoon over there. Yeah, it is just after lunch, though I've not, it's like the, you know, forgot that it was time to eat. So I've got another call behind this as it happens of my late afternoon first meal of the day. Yeah. I guess when you're doing something you love, you just forget to it. Yes. It's, and then usually if there's not the stomach pangs or something to, to notice, it's like having notifications. I'm focused. I'm working. If there's not the notifications coming in, I get the body notification. Yeah. But why don't you introduce yourself, who you are, what you do, and where you're located. Yeah, sure thing. I'm Dara. I'm a programmer, DevOps dude, well, that's what I call myself. I don't call myself a DevOps engineer. I just love DevOps, but mainly I tag myself as a programmer. Someone who just likes to write code to solve problems. I currently work at Kiwi Limited in the UK as a principal tech learning specialist. Well, that's a mouthful. What that means is that I train people every day on how to write code, how to do DevOps. I'm mainly responsible for creating learning pathways and teaching them to people who just come into the IT industry, fresh from universities, and also doing some specialized courses for trainees coming from different organizations like that. So I mainly teach C-Sharp, ASP.NET, Azure, and DevOps from day to day. Outside of work, I enjoy music, movies, and spending time with family. I'm fun fact, I'm also a saxophonist, so I do that from time to time. Very cool. So where are you in the UK? I'm based in London. Oh, you're in London? Yes. Yeah, it's a love getting over there. It's been two years since I've been able to travel. Well, actually, yeah, it was December of 2019. I was in London. That's about two years plus-ish. Yeah, I'd love to explore the area. So well, so I know that so you're a developer. Technology is MVP. How long have you had your MVP? This is my first MVP award. The reason for that probably maybe because I was at Microsoft until November last year. Ah. Yes, I was at Microsoft, well, in times of timeline, about five years, but living in between here and there. But I left Microsoft November 2020 then months after became an MVP. You know, it's funny. It used to be that you had to be away from Microsoft for a full year before you could even be considered. And but it's not true. I mean, obviously you earned your MVP and I know a couple others that have done the exact same thing. Good friend Ragnar Heil, for example, same thing. It was like within a month, month and a half and he earned his MVP because he had been so prolific in doing community activities, which were not part of his day job. Yeah. Part of his job description. I think what matters most is even after outside of being there's day jobs, just do something that you love outside of work, help people out there. And I think that is what mainly counts generally for me as just just having fun with tech. Right. Well, there's it. Well, that's that's the whole thing too is in and so people understand too, you know, there are plenty of companies, my company, I'm sure your company that are very supportive of like the community activities, but writing for my company blog, like it doesn't count towards that. For MVP, the things that you do are the things that you do above and beyond what you do in your job. Yeah, exactly. So it's yeah, so very cool. So another question for you. So this, some folks might not be aware that Microsoft just talked about maybe just shared it internally that they're actually creating a new focus area specifically around DevOps and GitHub. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's actually showed up. I was doing my contributions few days ago. So part of the contribution areas were DevOps was GitHub. And I think that's one thing I coincidentally, it's one of the things I plan to focus on the next couple of weeks with a friend to actually make some videos doing Kubernetes Docker and Docker Compose and all those kind of funny stuff with DevOps. So I think it's came at the right time. It's funny. It's like I for, you know, about a third of my career. So but many years ago, I was involved in co-authored three books on software configuration management. I was in, I don't know if you remember, rational software. And so Clearcase wrote a book for Clearcase yet IBM bought them. So it's a different platform and everything around that. But we never call it, you know, DevOps is so much of what I did in the IT world in support of engineering organizations would now be slated as DevOps systems in support of engineering. And, and, you know, so that's where your SCM or software configuration management is all around that code management and that kind of, I actually found my way into collaboration technology through that path, through kind of a demo. So you know, interesting space. So what kind of things are you writing about actively talking about? And here's a bunch of videos as well to point out. Yes. I mainly focus on doing videos because, because I'm a visual learner, I try to use my style to teach others also because I realize most folks that I speak to, they love watching the videos. It's good to write a blog, but someone will probably not sit down and read about 50 pages on how to do DevOps, but they would watch a one hour video and how to do that. So I prefer to do a video rather than write on it. Yes. When I make the video, I write a short blog post on it and share with you, put the video embedded right there so you can watch it right from the website. But mainly I do videos sometimes, just sometimes I write specifically on some topics, mainly I stopped writing about tech, mainly I just write some motivational text stuff, but I'm getting back into that little by little. But mainly I focus on videos. I do two videos every week, one on Tuesdays, focusing on things like programming, Azure, program with Azure, program with DevOps in mind and all that. And on Saturdays, I call it one tech minute, where I just try to share a tech topic within one minute, define it, tell people about it, and we have to go get something. That's hard to do. To do a one minute video, so I know me that trying to do something that's short like that, it takes me as long or longer with the edits and trying to compose it all down there. To do the one minute video, then it would be just to do a 20 minute. Yeah. In 20 minutes you can talk all you like, but in one minute you know you have to be precise, add on point. And one thing I say, and one reason I actually started those one minute series was when I go for some charts, I tell myself, if you cannot explain the tech in one minute at an eye level, it's probably to add a tech. It's probably not what I'm talking about. So I should be able to tell you in one minute and convince you to be able to know more about the tech. And I was like, okay, this is a challenge I want to take on. Then I started it and then for about seven weeks now, I've been on it. Yeah, that's great. And so I know, so you've been, I mean, you have a lot of videos that are out there, a variety of topics. So, so what kind of got you started in doing the videos? I will, I'll probably say it's been an age-long dream. I think I got to start it in tech for officially six each years ago, unofficially maybe about 10, there about years ago when I was still a young boy. But I think one thing that got me started making those kind of videos was because the access I had to technology was a privilege. I grew up in Nigeria. Well, arguably I call it a village where there's not so much in my hand. I asked to go to cyber cafes to actually download stuff to read. I wasn't even quoting them. You just be able to know about the world. I will go with this three and a half, three-quarter inch floppy diskettes and then go to the cyber cafe, download some Wikipedia pages, go on, read about them. The next day go to the cyber cafe and come back. So I was like, okay, this is where I came from. There's a lot of kids who probably think all about complex sciences, fixing motorbots and then assembling stuff. Can I just interrupt you just point out like your experience in talking about like that, you know, the what you had to go through with older technology stuff like, like I'm a little bit older. Like that was my expert. That was like that was for the majority of the technology experience. And I mean, as a Gen Xer and coming up like through that is Atari and having an Apple 2e and then a Mac and kind of going into technology. I started my career in 1990, you know, with seeing it. So carrying around floppies like that was just part of life. That was part of I know we're much more advanced now. But I just want to point that out that that experience was similar to what a lot of us that have come up through this technology being developed. That's interesting because that tech came over to my region where probably after I was born and then I was like, okay, then I was like, okay, I think the kind of access I have is not what I want to do. So well, internet was getting more penetration and people were starting to have smarter devices. I can remember I think I had a Sajem phone back then. But I realized, okay, if I make it in this tech, I want to let others know about it. Mainly people from the grassroots. So I make videos specifically targeted towards them because what I realized is, yes, I could listen to all these videos from people like Scott Hanselman back then, Scott Godfrey used to make videos, Phil Arc, all those kind of guys. I listened to them. I understood what they talked about. But if I tell my friends about the black, meh. So what I try to do was get the stuff translated and digest and then share that knowledge with my kind of audiences. So that was pretty much what got me started. And then I think I've made my first tech video in 2015. I was on the internet, Microsoft. I made some videos on China. Well, I'm not so proud of those videos now. If I look at them, but I know there's a point between them and now. And I think I've seen the impacts because a lot of people just message me and say that I saw your video about getting started with C sharp. I like it. I like to get an internship. Can you guide me this kind of things? I just want me going making such kind of video. So I mainly focus on making beginner level stuff. Of course, I can teach advanced stuff if I want to. But my course is teaching beginners to get started to come into the lights so that they can make their own lives better by doing the tech that I do. Well, that's it. It's a great space. And I mean, I mean, obviously you have a much broader audience of brand new people into the technology arena versus those that are looking for the more focused and a lot of the people that once they get past a certain point, they're more self directed. They know where to go for the information. They can take advantage of a lot of the other like the Microsoft resources for training with that. But for that, the broad user base, it really is up to the community to develop a lot of that content. One thing I would just point out, like, are you going back? Are you removing those old videos? Are you leaving it all in place? I live the videos there. Well, I'm not so proud of them, but hey, it shows growth. Exactly, right? So I've had this argument with some people like, so I've been blogging on the same site since 2002. And I have gone through and because it does impact your performance and SEO to have all this old content if there's no traffic. And I've gone through and I've removed, like if I do a blog post where I'm talking about doing a conference in a week and coming up, I'll remove those, which there's no value. But an article that's written or I will walk through where I explain a piece of technology, I'm leaving it there because it's part of the history. It's having the archives, having that path. And same thing with video. I think it's important to leave that history out there. Yeah, definitely. One thing I learned also is as I improve on myself in making these videos, I like to go up and just say, oh, that is a good job. Put myself on the back. And then also, if someone comes and tells me that I want to start making videos, I only have a phone and a very crappy laptop. I'll tell you, go watch my videos from six years back. My audio was terrible. Terrible is an understatement. I was like, I'm telling you before we started recording is like, I was using one of those, what was it? A little flip phone. The camcorders. Not even a flip phone, it's just a flip camera. So a little tiny, like 780, you know, camera. And I would do that stuff on the road and I'd just turn it around and interview myself or interview people. The microphone was on the opposite side. So it was great if I was filming you and narrating it, but if I flipped it around, then I'd sound like I was off in the distance. So the sound was terrible, usually. Yeah. But, hey, you have to start somewhere and capture the conversation. Definitely, definitely. And now I make videos, I do podcasts, I do lots of stuff. I even get to review microphones now. So I get lots of toys. I got mics here. I got some in the box over there. It's just fun now. For those that haven't seen like on your site and stuff, there's some pictures, and I think you had on Instagram, like a picture of your studio, your setup there. You know, and I know a lot of people are really good about that. I think that they're just a suggestion. There should be more sharing, more content about how to set up like your rig, like your setup. For there's a lot of people like, I do a tremendous amount of videos, but I do it one way. I want to improve the quality of the things that I go and do. But I just haven't made the time to go and research and figure the stuff out. And I would be much better. Like if you had a video that walked through, here's my setup, I'm gonna walk you through each of the pieces and why, like I would watch that video. Okay. Okay. I made an old one that was way back in Nigeria, but of course, because it's improved, I need to make an updated version of it. But of course, now that you remind me, I'll definitely make one just because of you. Awesome. Yeah. Let me know when that's live. Because I want that. Well, other stuff. So here we are at the beginning of Microsoft's fiscal year. And so they've got like the announcements and things that are out there. And of course we've got Ignite that's happening later in the year. So what's the stuff that you're excited about that you're most passionate about? What's coming up? Obviously be aware of NDAs are in place. Definitely. Definitely. Your point you're talking about, yeah. I ain't gonna talk about it if I'm public. Right. Yeah, I think the thing I'm most excited for, even though I've not gotten my hands on it yet, is get up cool pilots. That A.I. direct code for you. I don't see how cool it is. Code species is another thing I really wanna see. I've been to just think of not having a super powerful computer. And then just having to write that code on the cloud. Windows 365, I think I'm gonna love it because my machine is crying for a change and I don't wanna change it. So I can have a powerful machine in the cloud, maybe take two gigabytes of RAM, one terabyte of drive, just sitting there. I can remote from literally any device. I'm excited for that. I think those three, then of course, GitHub Actions is one thing I'm really excited about. I've been learning about it and making some practice with it. In coming weeks, I'll probably make some videos or blog posts about it. But I'm enjoying it right now. I'm little by little moving it from Azure DevOps, kind of, I'm moving to the GitHub Actions because I think that is where the focus is going. I might be wrong, but it's fun to learn anyways. And having that kind of mix in between the old Azure DevOps and the new GitHub Action, I think it's fun for me. And of course, co-pilot, I wanna see that. I wanna actually put my hands on it and actually write code with it. Yeah, pretty much Windows 365, Windows 11 is actually more fun to work with. I actually based the bullet and installed it on all my machines. Oh, wow. All of it. Yes. Problems or has it been? No problems. It's been smooth and on points. I use it for my actually, because my work machine is a personal build each kind of machine. So I actually installed on my work machine too. No issues whatsoever. All my work apps do fine. If there is any issue, I create a VM in the cloud and I remote into it and then life is back to normal. That's the worst that could happen. That's, you know, I have, so I also worked at Microsoft. I was there for three and a half years and I'm back in the, when I was, you know, we were required to dog food and I had a lot of customer facing meetings all the time. It constantly broke things. I couldn't get into meetings that I was the host of and just a lot of different problems with that. And I've always been, I like being out ahead, trying things out, but for my production system, you know, I'm always a little wary. I'm like one phase behind that. I pay attention to those blog posts that compare, you know, and talk about gaps and iterations. I've read a couple of two, two articles, two blog posts that try to do a comparison. Hey, here's what you lose by, with the stage that Windows 11 isn't like, it really wasn't much of a difference though. Yeah, because mainly the tools I use, I probably never ever see some of the stuff they complain about cause my tools are just my tools. I probably never see the stack menu more than twice a day. Yeah, it's an awesome stack menu. Don't get me wrong, I don't say it, I do my Windows R, type in my command, boom, off I go. And then I'm up every day. So, and I think for me, being a developer, I want to actually be there to give the feedback to Microsoft. I want to be part of it, but I make Windows better for me. Right. I'm not doing it because, not because I like Microsoft, but because I want to make Windows better for me. That is why I'm using it. The logs have been sent to Microsoft. Even if I don't give the feedback to get the logs anyways, because I opted in for that diagnostic data. And even though I was a Microsoft, I dug for the logs because since Windows 10, no, Windows 8 10 car preview was the time I set the dog food in Windows. I was still a student back in the university back then, that was about nine years ago. I would ping the DX guy then, she know, I'd be like, hey, my Windows is not working. It was my only laptop, the only thing I had in the entire world. And I was still install that stuff on it. And I think for me, it was just fun. I don't mind breaking stuff. What's that call upon restore Windows? Well, again, that's one of the things as an MVP. I mean, being able to go and find things that are broken. If there's a workaround, or if there's not a workaround and to talk about that stuff, it's providing the feedback back to Microsoft, of course. But it's also providing that feedback, that guidance on how I worked around that problem for the community as well. And to talk through that stuff. So, well, very cool. Well, listen, I really appreciate your time getting to know you. And yeah, we'll definitely have to talk. And let me know when that blog post goes over the video. If it goes live, I'll be watching that for sure. But folks that want to be able to follow you or get in touch with you, what are the best ways to reach you? I am there a lot of people on social media. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, where else? TikTok, yeah, I'm on TikTok. YouTube. Are you doing videos on TikTok? Is that? I do tech. Sometimes I just do a random, nice video. But mainly I just post on TikTok. I think there's an opportunity to work in whatever the latest dance move is with tech. So somehow, you know. Yeah, those dance things I do with my wife on all of our accounts. And then we just have a bit of fun moving the body. Well, hey, it was great getting to know you. And we'll connect soon. Definitely.