[SideburnsOfDoom]

> Git in visual studio does not work well. I'm using the built-in stuff in VS2013. ... I find myself resorting to msysgit a lot

You can use the git cli if you like, you can use TortoiseGit or GitExtensions. They all interoperate really well. That's the strong point of a popular open-source system. I never saw the reason why the source control system has to be integrated into the IDE before it's usable. They all operate on files and file systems, not on compilers. Why is it hard to do the commit in a different window to the coding?

> want to make an HTTP request? Have it done in a worker thread, because your HTTP library is blocking.

I'm having great results with .Net 4.5 and "var response = await httpClient.GetAsync(url)" The HttpClient and async/await came out in August last year. Is that kind of code what you mean when you say "Have it done in a worker thread, because your HTTP library is blocking" or are you using a prior version?