https://daron.blog/Recent content on Daron BlogHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usTue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/register-policing-the-new-culture-fit/Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/register-policing-the-new-culture-fit/Picture a regular staff meeting. Nothing dramatic on the calendar. No formal review. Just a document on the screen and a senior person deciding, in front of everyone, that a colleague’s writing does not sound right.https://daron.blog/2026/the-say-do-gap-is-not-always-hypocrisy/Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/the-say-do-gap-is-not-always-hypocrisy/Sometimes vision pulls reality forward. Sometimes it replaces reality entirely. Most people talk about the say-do gap as a moral failure.https://daron.blog/2026/your-interviewers-are-auditioning-for-themselves/Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/your-interviewers-are-auditioning-for-themselves/I’ve sat on both sides of enough interview tables to notice a pattern nobody talks about openly. Your interviewers, the engineers and senior ICs you pull into hiring loops, are often not evaluating candidates.https://daron.blog/2026/your-best-user-will-pay-500.-their-boss-wont-pay-50./Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/your-best-user-will-pay-500.-their-boss-wont-pay-50./In the spring of 2016, Hertz, the second-largest car rental company in the United States, hired Accenture, one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world, to redesign its website.https://daron.blog/2026/your-retrieval-system-needs-three-layers.-most-have-one./Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/your-retrieval-system-needs-three-layers.-most-have-one./Last month I argued that single-shot retrieval is dead and agentic search is what replaces it. That post drew a line between “search and hope” and “search, reason, search again.https://daron.blog/2026/founders-you-are-a-variable-in-the-equation/Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/founders-you-are-a-variable-in-the-equation/The founder sitting across from me had just made the best hire of his career. A sales director with twenty-three years of experience.https://daron.blog/2026/your-ai-agent-doesnt-need-a-better-prompt.-it-needs-a-better-manager./Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/your-ai-agent-doesnt-need-a-better-prompt.-it-needs-a-better-manager./A few months ago, I was on a coaching call with a software engineering lead in Istanbul. He’d just gotten a new director, someone from a product management background who’d never written a line of production code.https://daron.blog/2026/the-insider-fallacy-why-closing-the-door-to-external-senior-hires-wont-save-your-culture/Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/the-insider-fallacy-why-closing-the-door-to-external-senior-hires-wont-save-your-culture/A Conversation That Got Under My Skin I was in a consulting session recently with a VP-level leader at a large technology company.https://daron.blog/2026/the-leadership-of-not-responding/Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/the-leadership-of-not-responding/A colleague reached out to me recently. He was about to present product positioning to a customer for the first time and wanted to see my slide deck so he could model his approach after mine.https://daron.blog/2026/your-rag-pipeline-isnt-searching.-its-pattern-matching./Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/your-rag-pipeline-isnt-searching.-its-pattern-matching./I’ve been building retrieval systems for a while now. First it was keyword search. Then vector embeddings. Then hybrid. And now I keep hearing “agentic search” thrown around like it’s just another buzzword on top of the pile.https://daron.blog/2026/the-most-underrated-career-move-in-ai-studying-humans/Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/the-most-underrated-career-move-in-ai-studying-humans/Anthropic’s co-founder Daniela Amodei told Fortune this week that studying the humanities will be “more important than ever” in the age of AI.https://daron.blog/2026/the-martian-at-your-dinner-table/Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/the-martian-at-your-dinner-table/Picture this. A Martian lands on Earth. Looks human. Two eyes, a nose, walks upright. Sits across from you at a dinner table.https://daron.blog/2026/why-your-team-stopped-experimenting/Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/why-your-team-stopped-experimenting/There’s a pattern I keep seeing in my coaching conversations with founders and team leads, and it’s one of those things that’s invisible until someone names it.https://daron.blog/2026/the-c-suite-wash-when-everyone-becomes-a-chief-what-does-chief-even-mean/Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/the-c-suite-wash-when-everyone-becomes-a-chief-what-does-chief-even-mean/A colleague tagged me in a LinkedIn comment recently, drawing my attention to a post by Gary Hamel. The question he posed: “When did every SVP become a CxO, and what does this say about our organizations?https://daron.blog/2026/accountability-theater/Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/accountability-theater/After every major layoff, a predictable ritual unfolds. A senior leader steps forward, often in a carefully worded memo or an all-hands meeting, and declares:https://daron.blog/2026/the-leadership-wash/Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/the-leadership-wash/A friend on LinkedIn recently shared something that deserves more than a surface-level response: “The word ’leadership’ is getting misused.https://daron.blog/2026/how-to-schedule-unifi-access-point-led-lights-with-home-assistant/Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/how-to-schedule-unifi-access-point-led-lights-with-home-assistant/UniFi access points feature a blue LED ring that indicates device status. While useful during the day, these lights can be distracting at night, especially in bedrooms or hallways.https://daron.blog/2026/why-leaderships-favorite-holiday-message-reveals-a-broken-philosophy-of-work/Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2026/why-leaderships-favorite-holiday-message-reveals-a-broken-philosophy-of-work/Every holiday season, without fail, the same message echoes through corporate communications: “Take this time to rest and recharge. Come back with full energy.https://daron.blog/2025/2025-report/Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2025/2025-report/What a year 2025 has been! If you’ve been following these annual reports, you know I teased “The Project” in my 2024 report.https://daron.blog/2025/should-you-tell-customers-which-cloud-provider-you-use/Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2025/should-you-tell-customers-which-cloud-provider-you-use/As a startup or a growing tech company, one of the subtle yet strategic decisions you’ll face is whether or not to publicly share which cloud provider powers your infrastructure.https://daron.blog/2025/coming-back-to-the-start-line-20-minutes-faster/Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2025/coming-back-to-the-start-line-20-minutes-faster/I ran my third marathon this summer, and it felt like coming home after a long detour. The last time I crossed a marathon finish line was Istanbul in 2022.https://daron.blog/2024/2024-report/Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2024/2024-report/What an incredible year 2024 has been! I always look forward to these end-of-year reports, particularly because they allow me to reflect on previous years and appreciate how far I’ve come.https://daron.blog/2023/2023-report/Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2023/2023-report/As we close out another year, it’s time to share my journey - a blend of vulnerability and optimism. Here’s a look back at the year that was and a peek into what’s next.https://daron.blog/2023/talking-at-5-google-devfests-in-5-cities/Sat, 30 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2023/talking-at-5-google-devfests-in-5-cities/This has become something of a tradition. Every year during the Google DevFest season (November-December), I am privileged to speak at several Google Developer Group (GDG) events.https://daron.blog/2023/i-got-sick-and-apple-watch-agrees/Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2023/i-got-sick-and-apple-watch-agrees/You might have heard of the incredible features that an Apple Watch offers, including its numerous sensors. Perhaps you’ve even watched a video or two about an Apple Watch saving lives.https://daron.blog/2022/2022-report/Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/2022-report/I really love writing these annual reports about my life. They help me reflect, build a better estimation of what I can accomplish during the span of a year, and be a record of time and progress, helping me feel grateful for the opportunities and the effort I put in daily.https://daron.blog/2022/talking-at-4-google-devfests-in-4-cities/Tue, 20 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/talking-at-4-google-devfests-in-4-cities/As a fan of Google Developer Group (GDG) events, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to speak at four events in four different cities this past month.https://daron.blog/2022/two-marathons-in-30-days/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/two-marathons-in-30-days/Another month went by, and I finished my second Marathon after finishing my first just three weeks ago. I was not planning to finish two marathons in 30 days.https://daron.blog/2022/finished-my-first-marathon/Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/finished-my-first-marathon/Yes! I did it! I’m now a member of the Marathon Finishers Club 😍 if such a thing exists. Anyways, I’m having a mixed bag of emotions.https://daron.blog/2022/talking-function-orchestration-at-xpand-conference-2022/Sun, 23 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/talking-function-orchestration-at-xpand-conference-2022/This weekend I had the privilege to join the xpand conference in Jordan as a speaker talking about function orchestration in the serverless world.https://daron.blog/2022/rushing-into-a-marathon-with-run-walk-run-trials/Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/rushing-into-a-marathon-with-run-walk-run-trials/After the craziness of August with all the IT-Band issues, September ended up being a sight of relief. To be honest, weight loss was not my focus this month and probably will never be from now on.https://daron.blog/2022/welcome-back-it-band/Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/welcome-back-it-band/Another exciting month with ups and downs. The highlight of this month is me getting a sore throat and then hitting my old friend, the IT band syndrome.https://daron.blog/2022/adding-percussive-therapy-to-running/Sun, 31 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/adding-percussive-therapy-to-running/Welcome to my monthly health report 😊. July has been the month of consistency 😊. I was able to keep up and execute pretty much everything I had planned for.https://daron.blog/2022/raising-the-bar-to-a-marathon/Fri, 01 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/raising-the-bar-to-a-marathon/Time flies! Doesn’t it? Another month and a new monthly report to go. In terms of weight loss, June was not very fruitful.https://daron.blog/2022/stepping-up-the-running/Wed, 01 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/stepping-up-the-running/Another month went by, and I decided to start my monthly health update posts again 😊 May ended up being interesting with some sickness and a step up in my running.https://daron.blog/2022/up-and-down-50kgs/Sun, 01 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/up-and-down-50kgs/It’s been a long time since my last fitness update 😊 Wondering why? It’s the sinusoidal life. Mid-December 2019, I was down to 83kgs / 183lbs from 153kgs / 337lbs.https://daron.blog/2022/keeping-an-eye-on-your-azure-costs-in-under-2-minutes/Sat, 30 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/keeping-an-eye-on-your-azure-costs-in-under-2-minutes/Using cloud services provides various conveniences. One of which is the transparent auto-scaling of the infrastructure. Especially with the event-driven architecture approaches, we enjoy deeper sleep during the night while our app and the underlying platform flex their muscles to serve our customers.https://daron.blog/2022/switching-back-to-desktop-as-my-day-to-day-driver/Sat, 12 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/switching-back-to-desktop-as-my-day-to-day-driver/Finally said good by to my Dell Precision 5520. I was thinking about what would be next for a while, and considering the home office situation getting more prominence, I decided to roll with a full-blown desktop after 15 years of laptop life.https://daron.blog/2022/using-fiddler-with-azure-load-testing/Fri, 25 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2022/using-fiddler-with-azure-load-testing/A couple of days ago, I needed to test the scalability of a system by simply hitting it through its REST APIs and observing how it scales in the backend.https://daron.blog/2021/2021-report/Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2021/2021-report/Wow. Another year went by, and we are still in the COVID world. Does not that pretty much summarizes the situation?https://daron.blog/2021/day-to-day-accessibility-tips-and-tricks/Sat, 11 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2021/day-to-day-accessibility-tips-and-tricks/Wait, what? You are telling me I should explain why I have that arrow shape in the slide? This is where my accessibility awareness journey started pretty much around a year ago when I built my first trainer deck for one of the Microsoft Cloud Workshops.https://daron.blog/2021/analyzing-large-documents-with-azure-text-analytics/Sat, 09 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2021/analyzing-large-documents-with-azure-text-analytics/A day ago, I saw Anuraj, a fellow MVP, researching the document size limitations of Azure Text Analytics. If you look at the official documentation, the answer is pretty straightforward, and in some sense, not so helpful.https://daron.blog/2021/tools-for-online-training-and-conference-presentations/Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2021/tools-for-online-training-and-conference-presentations/Conference talks, training classes, interviews all moved online thanks to COVID. You might have seen that friend on Twitter that has literally a production quality studio at home.https://daron.blog/2021/backup-and-restore-azure-cognitive-search-indexes-with-powershell/Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2021/backup-and-restore-azure-cognitive-search-indexes-with-powershell/For me, the story started with the need for prepopulating some Azure Cognitive Search indexes. I had a beautiful index loaded up from various CSV files and enhanced with Cognitive Skills.https://daron.blog/2020/2020-report/Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/2020-report/Do I really have to write an annual self-report? Can’t we skip 2020? :) Isn’t that how everyone feels right now?https://daron.blog/2020/talking-function-orchestration-at-microsoft-reactor-abu-dhabi/Thu, 08 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/talking-function-orchestration-at-microsoft-reactor-abu-dhabi/Azure Durable Functions is always a fun topic to talk about, and there is not a better way to find a reason for it other than introducing it with Logic Apps for function orchestration in Azure.https://daron.blog/2020/your-2020-azure-storage-update/Sat, 03 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/your-2020-azure-storage-update/If you are like me, working on Azure for more than five years, in my case 10+, you might be thinking storage is just storage, what can be new?https://daron.blog/2020/mute-your-microphone-with-a-keyboard-shortcut/Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/mute-your-microphone-with-a-keyboard-shortcut/Online audio meetings are not news to my life, but full-day online training is! Recently, I found myself in the instructor chair for multi-day online training events.https://daron.blog/2020/global-azure-virtual-2020-conference/Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/global-azure-virtual-2020-conference/Yesterday I presented two sessions at the Global Azure Virtual 2020 conference. By the way, the conference is still going strong.https://daron.blog/2020/hidden-gem-teams-live-events/Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/hidden-gem-teams-live-events/With the current COVID-19 “stay-at-home” circumstances, online meeting and collaboration tools are in high demand. Things get trickier if you start looking for a tool where you can invite thousands of people.https://daron.blog/2020/from-office-365-to-my-living-room/Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/from-office-365-to-my-living-room/Working from home is a skill everyone is mastering nowadays. One of the difficulties of this new lifestyle is to create spatial separation between work and family.https://daron.blog/2020/global-ai-community-virtual-tour-2020/Fri, 10 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/global-ai-community-virtual-tour-2020/A virtual event that goes for 30 hours, non-stop! That’s it, that is more than enough to respect what the organizers accomplished here :) Running a global event, non-stop for 30 hours with speakers from all around the world, is a huge accomplishment.https://daron.blog/2020/a-full-day-of-azure-cognitive-services/Sun, 08 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/a-full-day-of-azure-cognitive-services/Yesterday was another busy Saturday :) A full day of Azure Cognitive Services Training is what happened. Look at the agenda below, isn’t that beautiful?https://daron.blog/2020/karabuk-university-it-days-2020/Thu, 05 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/karabuk-university-it-days-2020/This past weekend I was in Safranbolu. In case you have never heard about the city, it is a town in the Black Sea region of northern Turkey and has its place on the UNESCO World Heritage List.https://daron.blog/2020/geekday-2020/Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/geekday-2020/Yesterday, I did a short round trip to Gebze, Kocaeli, for the GeekDay conference at Gebze Technical University. My session for the day was titled “Serverless Boost for Your Next Startup.https://daron.blog/2020/devops-paas-and-serverless-for-education/Sat, 22 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2020/devops-paas-and-serverless-for-education/A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation to Microsoft Turkey’s Education Roundtable events as a speaker. The audience for these events is IT Managers and technical decision-makers from various universities in Turkey.https://daron.blog/2019/2019-report/Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/2019-report/This has been an exciting year with some excellent achievements. My weight loss journey got completed, and I transitioned into a healthy living mindset.https://daron.blog/2019/talking-at-14-google-devfests-in-14-cities/Sun, 29 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/talking-at-14-google-devfests-in-14-cities/I feel so honored to be invited to speak at Google DevFest events in 14 different cities in Turkey. It all happened pretty much in a month, 34 days to be exact.https://daron.blog/2019/global-ai-bootcamp-istanbul-2019/Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/global-ai-bootcamp-istanbul-2019/This was a challenging one. Let me explain. When we do events with our team at Teknolot, we do not charge people for attendance, and we do not hunt for sponsorship.https://daron.blog/2019/adana-software-and-technologies-summit-2019/Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/adana-software-and-technologies-summit-2019/Recently, most of my weekends are booked with speaking engagements. I’m joining various Google Developer Groups taking the stage in their DevFest events.https://daron.blog/2019/keeping-up-the-cardio-getting-through-physiotherapy/Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/keeping-up-the-cardio-getting-through-physiotherapy/With every monthly health update, I get to look back to the past 30 days and always feel like saying, “What a month!https://daron.blog/2019/using-ai-for-abnormal-behavior-detection-at-ict-summit-turkey-2019/Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/using-ai-for-abnormal-behavior-detection-at-ict-summit-turkey-2019/When they told me I had only 15 minutes for my session, I can’t do demos because, for some reason, there will be no internet connectivity for speakers, and worst, I can’t use my laptop for the presentation; I ended up pretty depressed.https://daron.blog/2019/microsoft-and-setur-datathon-2019/Sun, 10 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/microsoft-and-setur-datathon-2019/This past weekend was a busy one :) One other event I was invited to was the “Setur Travel Datathon” organized in collaboration with Microsoft.https://daron.blog/2019/cozumpark-tech-talks-2019/Sat, 09 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/cozumpark-tech-talks-2019/Eight parallel tracks and 64+ sessions in a single day is what CozumPark Tech Talks was about. I’m so lucky to be part of this event leading the AI Track and having awesome speakers join me, making the day an excellent experience!https://daron.blog/2019/the-month-of-shoulder-impingement/Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/the-month-of-shoulder-impingement/There I’m with another month’s update. I kind of like my latest updates for a couple of months, highlighting the difficulties I’m having with my health despite trying my best to stay in shape and healthy :) I’m just happy to observe in myself and be a good example of consistency against whatever life brings upon us.https://daron.blog/2019/cozumpark-career-day-talk-how-to-mother-yourself/Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/cozumpark-career-day-talk-how-to-mother-yourself/I love to talk about soft skills :) If you can read Turkish, you might be interested in my book titled “One Shot Before Sleep.https://daron.blog/2019/serverlessdays-istanbul-2019/Thu, 10 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/serverlessdays-istanbul-2019/Here is the deal, when you are invited to an international conference outside your country, there is a big chance you book a full day with no meetings, no work time involved, and dedicate your day embracing the whole experience of attending and speaking at a conference.https://daron.blog/2019/running-in-the-dark-and-the-sore-throat/Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/running-in-the-dark-and-the-sore-throat/12K in the dark, with a headlamp, in a forest… what can go wrong? Nothing did, except this only photo, I have from the race not looking like a photo from a race!https://daron.blog/2019/talked-about-serverless-at-.net-conf-2019-istanbul/Sun, 29 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/talked-about-serverless-at-.net-conf-2019-istanbul/What a day it was! Two hundred forty-seven people showed up at around 9 AM on a Saturday. That is a turnaround we call extraordinary around here.https://daron.blog/2019/talking-ai-on-the-edge-at-global-ai-night-istanbul/Sat, 07 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/talking-ai-on-the-edge-at-global-ai-night-istanbul/Global AI Night Istanbul happened this past Thursday under the umbrella of Teknolot User Group. Being the organizer for the day, I picked to the most unpopular time slot for myself impersonating a servant organizer of yours :) I started at 10 PM and finished around no one remembers :) My session was about bringing AI to the Edge and running containerized AI within edge devices with Azure IoT Hub and IoT Edge Runtime.https://daron.blog/2019/one-year-of-healthy-living/Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/one-year-of-healthy-living/It’s been a full year! Remember when I started? I was 150KGs, 330lbs. So, where am I now? Well, I have lost a total of 58KGs / 128lbs.https://daron.blog/2019/buying-a-heating-coffee-mug-helped-me-drinking-less-coffee/Thu, 15 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/buying-a-heating-coffee-mug-helped-me-drinking-less-coffee/I’m crazy about coffee! I love it. I’m pretty picky about it. I spend a bunch of money buying the best coffee beans, grinding myself fresh, and my favorite is the simple doppio!https://daron.blog/2019/what-does-a-service-level-agreement-sla-mean-for-your-startup/Sun, 11 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/what-does-a-service-level-agreement-sla-mean-for-your-startup/You have started with a POC, or maybe an MVP and not moving over the steps of being a mature startup.https://daron.blog/2019/real-time-chromakey-for-webview-in-uwp/Fri, 02 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/real-time-chromakey-for-webview-in-uwp/A couple of days ago I had this crazy request “Can we make the browser transparent?”. Let me give you some context :) At Xogo we were are building a digital signage product.https://daron.blog/2019/11-months-and-lost-53kgs-/-117lbs/Thu, 01 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/11-months-and-lost-53kgs-/-117lbs/Did you notice that? No weight loss this month :) I was wondering when this would happen. After increasing my caloric intake to 2200 cal/day to match with the weight training additions to my weekly plans, I was expecting to put some weight.https://daron.blog/2019/10-months-and-lost-53kgs-/-117lbs/Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/10-months-and-lost-53kgs-/-117lbs/Don’t worry, I have already started thinking about how I should title these monthly health update posts on my blog :) I know it does not make sense to count months and weight loss progress anymore.https://daron.blog/2019/9-months-and-lost-51kgs-/-113lbs/Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/9-months-and-lost-51kgs-/-113lbs/This has been a really interesting month :) At this point, I’m not sure if I can explain what was going on this month from a dieting perspective.https://daron.blog/2019/microsoft-regional-director-for-2019-2021/Tue, 21 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/microsoft-regional-director-for-2019-2021/Ten years have gone by :) The first time I received the Microsoft Regional Director recognition was in 2009. Thanks to the program during the past ten years, I got the chance to witness the transformation Microsoft has gone through from a very front row seat :) One of the perks of being in such close proximity to Microsoft executives for ten years is to observe your feedback and influence come into fruition.https://daron.blog/2019/rumblings-from-build-2019/Wed, 08 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/rumblings-from-build-2019/Let me start with how it feels to be at Build this year :) Worse :) and I’m not joking.https://daron.blog/2019/8-months-and-lost-49kgs-/-108lbs/Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/8-months-and-lost-49kgs-/-108lbs/There we go; another crazy month went by. For the first half of the month I was in Patagonia doing photography, hence the photo above :) That trip totally messed up with my running schedule.https://daron.blog/2019/running-in-seattle-during-a-conference/Sun, 28 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/running-in-seattle-during-a-conference/It’s been more than 10 years now I visit Seattle a couple of times a year. The usual suspects are Microsoft’s annual developer conference and the MVP Summit.https://daron.blog/2019/talking-ai-for-everyone-at-arena-and-cozumpark-techdays-2019-in-istanbul/Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/talking-ai-for-everyone-at-arena-and-cozumpark-techdays-2019-in-istanbul/In case it is not apparent yet :) I love talking about Azure Cognitive Services. I love anything that has a comparatively colossal ROI.https://daron.blog/2019/visual-studio-2019-community-launch-istanbul/Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/visual-studio-2019-community-launch-istanbul/That’s a hefty title :) following a pretty big event. Yesterday we had our local Visual Studio 2019 Community Launch.https://daron.blog/2019/at-7-months-and-lost-46kgs-/-101lbs/Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/at-7-months-and-lost-46kgs-/-101lbs/Holy cow! I was not expecting to lose 6kgs / 13lbs this month. Remember, I planned to take it easy.https://daron.blog/2019/talking-about-iot-on-azure/Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/talking-about-iot-on-azure/Yesterday I was the guest of a CozumPark event focused around IoT on Azure. For those of you, living outside of Turkey, CozumPark is one of the biggest IT Communities in Turkey :) I did a pretty short, 20 minutes talk introducing IoT Hub from scratch answering some fundamental questions like “why does it exist?https://daron.blog/2019/mvp-rd-summit-2019/Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/mvp-rd-summit-2019/It’s been a very busy week. Last week-end I flew to Seattle for the MVP and RD Summits that happened during the past week.https://daron.blog/2019/talking-to-high-school-students-at-mektebim-schools/Thu, 14 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/talking-to-high-school-students-at-mektebim-schools/Not every day I get the chance to present about the life of a software developer to High School students :) That was exactly the topic of my visit to Mektebim Schools.https://daron.blog/2019/talking-ai-and-compute-at-microsoft-turkey-it-summit-2019/Fri, 08 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/talking-ai-and-compute-at-microsoft-turkey-it-summit-2019/What a title :) Yesterday was a big day. 3000 people came together for the biggest Microsoft owned IT conference in the country.https://daron.blog/2019/karabuk-university-ai-talk/Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/karabuk-university-ai-talk/Sometimes people ask me “how can one be an MVP?” I guess you need to be a little out of your line to want to help people out.https://daron.blog/2019/architecture-101-for-mobile-backend-developers-on-azure/Sun, 03 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/architecture-101-for-mobile-backend-developers-on-azure/That is a pretty long title, right? :) Yesterday we had a meetup to celebrate the third anniversary of our local Xamarin User Group.https://daron.blog/2019/6-months-gone-lost-40kgs-/-88lbs/Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/6-months-gone-lost-40kgs-/-88lbs/What a journey has that been :) A half year has passed and I lost a total of 40kgs / 88lbs.https://daron.blog/2019/teknolot-february-2019-meetup/Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/teknolot-february-2019-meetup/Yesterday we hosted the first meetup of 2019 for our Teknolot meetup group. When we first started with the planning, we didn’t have a specific topic in mind.https://daron.blog/2019/hiit-for-lazy-days/Sun, 17 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/hiit-for-lazy-days/Some days I just feel lazy. I just feel like I have a lot to do and I will be more productive on my laptop instead of getting shoes on and do some running outside.https://daron.blog/2019/2018-report/Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/2018-report/Finally found some time to do some catch up with my blog here :) Currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean back from a US trip.https://daron.blog/2019/5-months-gone-lost-37.4kgs-/-82.4lbs/Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/5-months-gone-lost-37.4kgs-/-82.4lbs/This was a very challenging month. I was out of town for ten days on a business trip. That made a couple of things really difficult to accomplish.https://daron.blog/2019/indoor-cycling-tracking-tools-and-sites-i-use/Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/indoor-cycling-tracking-tools-and-sites-i-use/If you are following me, if not you should :) you know that I’m on a weight loss journey :) I started my diet with no exercise.https://daron.blog/2019/books-i-have-read-from-2018/Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2019/books-i-have-read-from-2018/I love using GoodReads. Most of the books I read are either e-books, or audiobooks, and GoodReads is a beautiful place to keep a digital library.https://daron.blog/2018/4-months-gone-lost-32.6kgs-/-71.8lbs/Mon, 31 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/4-months-gone-lost-32.6kgs-/-71.8lbs/Let me admit; this was a slow month. Not in the context of activities :) I had two international trips and many local travels to do.https://daron.blog/2018/microsoft-connect-istanbul-2018/Sun, 30 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/microsoft-connect-istanbul-2018/You might have heard about Microsoft Connect. It is an online conference globally organized by Microsoft. It does not have its localized versions like the Build Tour, or Ignite.https://daron.blog/2018/global-ai-bootcamp-istanbul-2018/Sun, 16 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/global-ai-bootcamp-istanbul-2018/Yesterday was the day of Global AI Bootcamp for Istanbul. You might have noticed that I’m a big fan of Azure Cognitive Services, mostly talking about it at every opportunity, user group meeting, or conference :) I think it is the type of high-level service set that is going to enable most of us delivering value through the implementation of AI into common software.https://daron.blog/2018/azure-devops-days-istanbul-2018/Sun, 09 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/azure-devops-days-istanbul-2018/Yesterday was crazy! I had two events to speak in two separated cities :) Both events deserve separate blog posts, so there we go with the first one.https://daron.blog/2018/mediterranean-it-summit-2018/Sun, 09 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/mediterranean-it-summit-2018/Yesterday’s second half started with a flight to Antalya, Turkey. In case you missed the first half, look at my previous post :) This time I was not alone on my trip to Antalya.https://daron.blog/2018/google-developer-group-devfest-kutahya-2018/Tue, 04 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/google-developer-group-devfest-kutahya-2018/Woohoo :) This is my 3rd GDG this quarter. Really enjoying the hospitality of Google all over these student communities. For more than 10 years I have been invited to many Microsoft sponsored/supported student events, but would never think of speaking in so many Google supported events and still be able to share what I know without worrying about if it aligns with Google’s trends/targets or whatever corporate verbiage you prefer :) Google is really doing a fantastic job here.https://daron.blog/2018/3-months-gone-lost-26.6kgs-/-58.6lbs/Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/3-months-gone-lost-26.6kgs-/-58.6lbs/Wow, it’s been three months I have started with my diet. To be honest, after switching o intermitted fasting I don’t even feel the diet.https://daron.blog/2018/my-cosmosdb-talk-at-espc18/Fri, 30 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/my-cosmosdb-talk-at-espc18/This week I was at ESPC 2018 in Copenhagen to talk about CosmosDB. What a conference that was?!? I will be honest, at one point I was so jealous, I fancied to start working on Sharepoint :) I still can’t believe that such a small team can organize such a professional conference at that size.https://daron.blog/2018/google-developer-group-devfest-izmir-2018/Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/google-developer-group-devfest-izmir-2018/Another legendary weekend went :) After my session at Google DevFest Antalya I got invited to another city, Izmir for another Google DevFest.https://daron.blog/2018/2-months-gone-lost-17.9kgs-/-39.5lbs/Thu, 01 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/2-months-gone-lost-17.9kgs-/-39.5lbs/It’s been two months I have started dieting :) To be honest, It has been a while that I don’t feel any hunger or craving about anything.https://daron.blog/2018/week-7-status-135.2kg-/-298lbs/Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/week-7-status-135.2kg-/-298lbs/Reporting a day early here :) Unfortunately for the next two weeks it is what’s going to happen. I will have no chance to weight myself during weekends for a while.https://daron.blog/2018/google-developer-group-devfest-antalya-2018/Sun, 14 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/google-developer-group-devfest-antalya-2018/What a weekend! Yesterday I took a one-hour long flight to Antalya, Turkey for the annual Google Developer Community DevFest conference.https://daron.blog/2018/week-6-status-137.2kg-/-302lbs/Sat, 13 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/week-6-status-137.2kg-/-302lbs/This has been a hard week. Not that I had a hard time to stick with my diet, it was just hard to watch my weight hover around the same numbers.https://daron.blog/2018/week-5-status-138.1kg-/-304.5lbs/Sat, 06 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/week-5-status-138.1kg-/-304.5lbs/Another week has gone. I have lost a total of 1.3kgs / 2.8lbs for this week. It is not huge, but its a step forward.https://daron.blog/2018/week-4-status-139.4kg-/-307lbs/Sat, 29 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/week-4-status-139.4kg-/-307lbs/It’s been a month! To be correct, four weeks :) A month with no starchy food, no bread, no sugar and (mostly) no eating after 6 PM.https://daron.blog/2018/week-3-status-142kg-/-313lbs/Sat, 22 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/week-3-status-142kg-/-313lbs/Not a very exciting result right? I simply lost only 0.7kg/1.5lbs during the last week. Compared to previous weeks this might look like a disappointment, but in reality, this is pretty much steady progress.https://daron.blog/2018/function-orchestration-meetup/Thu, 20 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/function-orchestration-meetup/Yesterday I had the chance to speak in our local Xamarin Meetup Group. The meetup group is primarily managed by one of my favorite MVPs; Yiğit Özaksüt.https://daron.blog/2018/microsoft-future-summit/Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/microsoft-future-summit/28 hours of flight for 28 hours of stay and 1 hour of talk. Remember this if you ever get jealous of a speaker traveling around the world :) It is not always that pretty.https://daron.blog/2018/week-2-status-142.7kgs-/-314.6lbs/Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/week-2-status-142.7kgs-/-314.6lbs/First off, this week was hectic :) I had one travel out to another city in Turkey, and another out to Cape Town, South Africa.https://daron.blog/2018/week-1-status-144.4kgs-/-318lbs/Sat, 08 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/week-1-status-144.4kgs-/-318lbs/You might have noticed that at the end of my last post I specifically said: “I will focus on my next three days.https://daron.blog/2018/starting-at-150kgs-330lbs/Sat, 01 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/starting-at-150kgs-330lbs/If you are one of the people, who start dieting every Monday you will understand how much willpower it takes beginning to diet on the 1st of a month which is a Saturday :) My inner voice says “why don’t you give a fresh start on Monday?https://daron.blog/2018/serverless-meetup-istanbul/Thu, 22 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/serverless-meetup-istanbul/Yesterday was the day of Serverless Meetup for Istanbul. Last month I had the chance to speak about Azure Functions at the Serverless Meetup in Ankara.https://daron.blog/2018/serverless-meetup-ankara/Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/serverless-meetup-ankara/Yesterday, I made a day trip to Ankara. To be honest, It was just a half day trip. Took a flight to Ankara around 2 PM and got back around 1 AM in the night.https://daron.blog/2018/serverless-and-azure-functions-in-izmir/Mon, 19 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2018/serverless-and-azure-functions-in-izmir/It’s been just three months I visited Izmir, Yasar University for their Google Developer Groups DevDays Conference. To be honest, that’s actually when their IEEE Student Branch convinced me to join them again, but this time for their conference called “Today’s Technologies 2018”.https://daron.blog/2017/2017-report/Fri, 29 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/2017-report/It’s been one hell of a busy year. Don’t get me wrong 2018 will be worse, and that’s a good thing.https://daron.blog/2017/serverless-training-and-meetup-in-istanbul/Thu, 21 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/serverless-training-and-meetup-in-istanbul/Serverless is catching up! I just hosted a one-day serverless training for Microsoft Turkey this week, which might be the first one ever in the country.https://daron.blog/2017/nigeria-microsoft-devops-day/Tue, 19 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/nigeria-microsoft-devops-day/Yesterday I was in Lagos, Nigeria for the Microsoft Master Development Series DevOps event. We talked about CI/CD with VSTS, Containers, Docker, Azure Container Instances and Azure Container Registry.https://daron.blog/2017/hour-of-code-at-istek-bilge-kagan-k12-schools/Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/hour-of-code-at-istek-bilge-kagan-k12-schools/It was the “HourOfCode” time of the year again. Every year between 4-10 December it is The Computer Science Education Week, and that’s when HourOfCode happens.https://daron.blog/2017/google-developer-groups-devfest-izmir-2017/Mon, 04 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/google-developer-groups-devfest-izmir-2017/Yesterday I was in Izmir, Turkey for the annual Google Developer Groups DevFest conference. Initially, I got invited to present my motivational speech titled “Better work for nothing, than staying idle” (Excuse my poor translation of a Turkish Proverb “Boş Durma, Boşa Çalış”).https://daron.blog/2017/jordan-cloud-empowerment-summit/Tue, 28 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/jordan-cloud-empowerment-summit/Yesterday I was in Amman, Jordan, talking (again :)) at the Cloud Empowerment Summit about DevOps, CI/CD with VSTS, Containers, Azure Container Instances and Azure Container Registry.https://daron.blog/2017/pakistan-cloud-empowerment-summit/Fri, 24 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/pakistan-cloud-empowerment-summit/Yesterday I was in Karachi, Pakistan, talking at the Cloud Empowerment Summit about DevOps, CI/CD with VSTS, Containers, Azure Container Instances and Azure Container Registry.https://daron.blog/2017/talking-serverless-at-webrazzi-developer-2017-conference/Sun, 19 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/talking-serverless-at-webrazzi-developer-2017-conference/A couple of weeks ago I received a pretty challenging invitation to a large and prestigious conference in Turkey. I didn’t just have to fit my talk into a short, twenty minutes slot.https://daron.blog/2017/cosmosdb-at-spark-day-istanbul/Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/cosmosdb-at-spark-day-istanbul/Today, I was at the Spark Day Istanbul hosting a session about CosmosDB and mainly how it can be used in conjunction with Spark.https://daron.blog/2017/lebanon-cloud-empowerment-summit/Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/lebanon-cloud-empowerment-summit/Yesterday I was in Beirut, Lebanon. I had the opportunity to speak at the Lebanon Cloud Empowerment Summit. My sessions were about DevOps, including topics like CI/CD with VSTS, Containers, Azure Container Instances and Azure Container Registry.https://daron.blog/2017/cosmosdb-at-sql-saturday-in-istanbul/Sun, 05 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/cosmosdb-at-sql-saturday-in-istanbul/Yesterday was the day of SQL Saturday for Istanbul. Thanks to an invitation from my RD peer Koray Kocabaş I had the chance to talk about CosmosDB.https://daron.blog/2017/dubai-devops-day/Fri, 27 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/dubai-devops-day/Yesterday I was in Dubai hosting the Microsoft DevOps Day, part of the Microsoft Master Development Series. The full day consisted of six sessions ranging from IaC to Containers.https://daron.blog/2017/talking-serverless-framework-at-voxxeddays-belgrade/Sat, 21 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/talking-serverless-framework-at-voxxeddays-belgrade/This week I was in Belgrade for the VoxxedDays Belgrade conference. This might be my second, or third VoxxedDays so far.https://daron.blog/2017/what-has-azure-to-offer-to-iot-developers/Mon, 16 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/what-has-azure-to-offer-to-iot-developers/This past weekend I had the chance to speak at the online IoT With The Best Conference. Apparently, my session was just after the keynote, a usually popular spot :) The thing I love about the With The Best conference is how they stay vendor-free.https://daron.blog/2017/12-years-later-a-new-blog/Tue, 04 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://daron.blog/2017/12-years-later-a-new-blog/Roughly 12 (11.5) years ago I started my first blog at daron.yondem.com. The idea was simple :) Take a look at my first blog post back in 2005.