.NET Rocks!

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!

What happens to your digital assets after you pass away? Carl and Richard talk with Mattias Karlsson about his experience navigating the challenges of losing a friend and having to reorganize their digital assets. There are the immediate issues around access to email, authenticators, and the like, but also the long-term items like GitHub maintainer roles. Mattias talks about looking through your projects and deciding what is actually just for you and can pass with you, as opposed to what others need and value, and what needs a good succession plan. Many products (including GitHub) have successor systems - check them out and make a plan.

How about a cloud-native AI assistant? That's RockBot! Carl and Richard talk with Rocky Lhotka about RockBot, Rocky's own variant of the OpenClaw/Hermes type personal assistant. Rocky talks about being uncomfortable with the security approaches the other agents have taken, so he went full enterprise architect on the problem and built RockBot as a set of containers behind the Kubernetes orchestrator. Cloud architecture without the requirement of the cloud! The conversation dives into how to give RockBot controlled access to services like calendar, email, etc. And it's all .NET and open source, so if you want to make changes or contribute, go for it!

Whether quantum computers are around the corner or not, the message is clear: the time for post-quantum cryptography is coming fast. Carl and Richard talk to Michael Howard about Microsoft's efforts to make post-quantum cryptography available to everyone by 2029. Howard discusses the quantum computing and cryptography issue, specifically the ability of quantum computers to run Shor's algorithm quickly enough to break RSA encryption. While it isn't possible just yet, the harvest-and-decrypt-later concerns are real. And the solution is pretty straightforward- move to TLS 1.3, and be prepared for a wave of changing encryption algorithms as they roll out and are found wanting. A crazy time is coming soon!