Brent Laster
Global author, trainer and founder of Tech Skills Transformations LLC
Hi, I'm Brent Laster - a global trainer and book author, experienced corporate technology developer and leader, and founder and president of Tech Skills Transformations LLC. I've been working with and presenting at NFJS events for many years now and it is always exciting and interesting.
Through my decades in programming and management,I've always tried to make time to learn and develop both technical and leadership skills and share them with others Regardless of the topic or technology, my belief is that there is no substitute for the excitement and sense of potential that come from providing others with the knowledge they need to help them accomplish their goals.
In my spare time, I hang out with my wife Anne-Marie, 4 children and 2 small dogs in Cary, North Carolina where I design and conduct trainings and write books. You can find me on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/brentlaster), Twitter (@brentclaster) or through my company's website at www.getskillsnow.com.
Presentations
GitHub Security
Monday, 5:00 PM EST
Security is a fundamental concern and requirement in all aspects of software development today. And GitHub is the industry-leading collaboration platform for software development. So, it’s crucial that anyone working with/in GitHub understands how to use it securely. In this session, author and trainer Brent Laster will provide a brief overview of the key GitHub security features available to you for free and through GitHub Advanced Security.
This session will cover authentication via keys and tokens, guarding your branches and tags with protection rules and rulesets, code scanning, and secret scanning. We’ll also touch on security logging, creating security policies, and security alerts.
What's new and exciting with GitHub Copilot?
Tuesday, 11:00 AM EST
In this presentation, we'll cover some of the latest developments and feature additions in GitHub Copilot as rolled out in recent months and at GitHub Universe. Join author, trainer, technologist, and author of the upcoming book “Learning GitHub Copilot” from O'Reilly, Brent Laster to learn what's new and exciting with this popular generative AI tool!
GitHub Copilot continues to evolve as a popular AI coding assistant, adding features and functionality regularly. But there are more significant changes that have been rolled out recently, including wider Copilot integration in the individual GitHub plan for things like indexing repos, pull request and issue summaries. Also, there's new functionality for reviewing code, agent edits, vision features, giving Copilot custom instructions that will apply to every chat, and more!
Gen AI: Testing with GitHub Copilot - hands-on workshop - bring a laptop
Tuesday, 1:30 PM EST
In this workshop, we'll cover the options, tips, and tricks for using GitHub Copilot to help us identify how to test code, generate tests for existing code, and generate tests before the code.
Join global trainer, speaker, and author of the upcoming book, Learning GitHub Copilot, Brent Laster as he presents material on multiple ways to leverage Copilot for testing your code on any platform and framework.
Have you wondered what options GitHub Copilot can provide for helping to not only write your code, but test your code? In this session, we'll examine some key ways that Copilot can support you in ensuring you have the basic testing needs covered. In particular, we'll cover:
- A quick overview of GitHub Copilot
- Letting Copilot tell you how to get started testing for a new language
- Creating tests for existing code through one-step commands
- Creating tests for existing code with comments
- Creating tests for existing code with explicit prompts
- Validating inputs to functions using Copilot
- Using Copilot to build out tests for edge cases
- Leveraging testing frameworks
- Building tests before the code - TDD with Copilot
Gen AI: Testing with GitHub Copilot - hands-on workshop - bring a laptop
Tuesday, 3:15 PM EST
In this workshop, we'll cover the options, tips, and tricks for using GitHub Copilot to help us identify how to test code, generate tests for existing code, and generate tests before the code.
Join global trainer, speaker, and author of the upcoming book, Learning GitHub Copilot, Brent Laster as he presents material on multiple ways to leverage Copilot for testing your code on any platform and framework.
Have you wondered what options GitHub Copilot can provide for helping to not only write your code, but test your code? In this session, we'll examine some key ways that Copilot can support you in ensuring you have the basic testing needs covered. In particular, we'll cover:
- A quick overview of GitHub Copilot
- Letting Copilot tell you how to get started testing for a new language
- Creating tests for existing code through one-step commands
- Creating tests for existing code with comments
- Creating tests for existing code with explicit prompts
- Validating inputs to functions using Copilot
- Using Copilot to build out tests for edge cases
- Leveraging testing frameworks
- Building tests before the code - TDD with Copilot
Gen AI: Working with Hugging Face - the "GitHub" for Large Language Models
Tuesday, 5:00 PM EST
HuggingFace.co is the premier site for all things around large language models (LLMs). It has free and open source models and datasets to easily access, download and start working with. As well, it provides the well-known Transformers library of functions that you can use with Python to code up quick and simple apps that interface with LLMs for chatbots, sentiment analysis, classification, etc. And it also allows for direct access to use some models with no coding necessary.
Join expert Brent Laster for an exploration of the site and learn how to navigate it and use its many features. We'll also see how to use its models and the Transformers library with simple Python coding to do typical LLM interactions.
Books
Jenkins 2 - Up and Running
by Brent Laster
- All about Jenkins 2, Pipelines-As-Code, CI/CD, etc.
Professional Git
by Brent Laster
-
Leverage the power of Git to smooth out the development cycle
Professional Git takes a professional approach to learning this massively popular software development tool, and provides an up-to-date guide for new users. More than just a development manual, this book helps you get into the Git mindset—extensive discussion of corollaries to traditional systems as well as considerations unique to Git help you draw upon existing skills while looking out—and planning for—the differences. Connected labs and exercises are interspersed at key points to reinforce important concepts and deepen your understanding, and a focus on the practical goes beyond technical tutorials to help you integrate the Git model into your real-world workflow.
Git greatly simplifies the software development cycle, enabling users to create, use, and switch between versions as easily as you switch between files. This book shows you how to harness that power and flexibility to streamline your development cycle.
- Understand the basic Git model and overall workflow
- Learn the Git versions of common source management concepts and commands
- Track changes, work with branches, and take advantage of Git's full functionality
- Avoid trip-ups and missteps common to new users
Git works with the most popular software development tools and is used by almost all of the major technology companies. More than 40 percent of software developers use it as their primary source control tool, and that number continues to grow; the ability to work effectively with Git is rapidly approaching must-have status, and Professional Git is the comprehensive guide you need to get up to speed quickly.