Callisto: A control toolkit for Windows 8 XAML applications.

Building Windows 8 applications can be hard, there is a lot of stuff you need to implement to pass the Application Certification process. So every tool,framework or library that can help you save some time and focus on the application experience itself is more then welcome.

One of these libraries is Callisto. If we look on the project page on GitHub, we’ll find following information:

What Is It?

Callisto is a library for use in Windows 8 XAML applications (aka Metro style apps). The XAML framework in Windows.UI.Xaml is great, but has some functionality that isn't provided in-the-box in a few controls and APIs. Callisto provides added functionality on top of the XAML UI framework for Windows.

What's In It?

So far Callisto includes:

Flyout - a primitive that includes positioning and 'light dismiss' logic
NumericUpDownControl - a "spinner" control for numeric values
WatermarkTextBox - derivative of TextBox that adds only the functionality of providing a default text 'hint' in the text input area if no text exists
FlipViewIndicator - providing some hinting UI to the user where they are in the navigation of items within a FlipView
SettingsManagement API making it easier to do app-wide registration of SettingsFlyout elements
Menu - primarily to be used from AppBar, contains the base for providing, well, a Menu
MenuItem - an item for a menu, including separators and contains the command point for the menu item
SettingsFlyout - an item to create a custom settings pane UI
Rating - a ratings control for Metro UI
LiveTile - an in-app tile experience to give you animated or 'live' tiles
Tilt - an effect to provide the tilt experience when clicked on edges/corners
OAuth helpers - a set of helpers to create OAuth 1.0 signatures/headers for those sites that hate OAuth 2.0 :-)
BooleanToVisibilityConverter - a converter to well, convert boolean to visibility, very common use
LengthToBooleanConverter - a converter to examine a string length to convert to boolean (simple validation helper)
RelativeTimeConverter - a converter to show time as relative string, i.e., 'about an hour ago'
Extensions - some extension method helpers (i.e., bind html content to a WebView)

Probably the easiest way to start using it, is by installing it through NuGet. Also have a look at the project wiki.

(I only used the SettingsFlyout so far, so if you used other parts of the toolkit and want to share your experience, let me know…)

Kubernetes–Limit your environmental impact

Reducing the carbon footprint and CO2 emission of our (cloud) workloads, is a responsibility of all of us. If you are running a Kubernetes cluster, have a look at Kube-Green . kube-green is a simple Kubernetes operator that automatically shuts down (some of) your pods when you don't need them. A single pod produces about 11 Kg CO2eq per year( here the calculation). Reason enough to give it a try! Installing kube-green in your cluster The easiest way to install the operator in your cluster is through kubectl. We first need to install a cert-manager: kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.14.5/cert-manager.yaml Remark: Wait a minute before you continue as it can take some time before the cert-manager is up & running inside your cluster. Now we can install the kube-green operator: kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kube-green/kube-green/releases/latest/download/kube-green.yaml Now in the namespace where we want t

The art of simplicity

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