Reading Notes #415

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". Those are the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

Cloud

• Creating a RESTful Serverless API with Azure Functions and MongoDB (Will Velida) - This is a great tutorial that uses Azure function mongo and c# to build a project from scratch. It is simple enough to make sense and be easy to understand.

• Running Containers in Azure with Rancher (Tom Callway) - This post introduces Rancher, a tool thatt looks really interesting.

• Step-by-Step: Finding and Analyzing Microsoft Azure Cloud Usage Costs (Sonia Cuff ) - Great post that provides a few tips to better see or highlight some cost sending in Azure.

Programming

• Build your own Azure CLI Extensions (Michael Crump) - A very cool tutorial that explains how to do our own extension.

• How to set up Docker within Windows System for Linux (WSL2) on Windows 10 (Scott Hanselman) - Nice update; tons of info about wsl, docker, ssh and more.

• Pulling your DEV.TO Stats into a Google Sheet (Jeremy Morgan) - That's a cool little project, and I'm pretty sure it can be used by a lot of authors...on devto.

• Using Cognitive Services: Custom Vision Service with Azure IoT Edge - Cloud | Mobile | Edge (Jared Rhodes) - A nice tutorial that shows how to use Python and vscode to create an awesome app.

• What's New in Visual Studio Online | Visual Studio Blog (Allison Buchholtz-Au) - Wow, a turbo mode! But this time(remember the turbo on our old 486 beige pc), it makes totally sens...

Miscellaneous

• What are Azure CLI Extensions? (Michael Crump) - An interesting first article of a series. This one introduces us to the extension... Hmmm. I think I have an idea.

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Reading Notes #382

Cloud

• Getting Started with the Cognitive Services Computer Vision API - The Wit and Ramblings of David Giard (David Giard ) - Nice little tutorial to get started quickly with the Vision API.
• Kubernetes: What it is and what it isn’t (Jason Haley) - Cool source of resources related to how to learn Kubernetes
• Sync Folder with Azure Blob Storage (Thomas Maurer) - Wow, this is so sick! Very happy about this feature.
• Using Entity Framework with Azure Functions (Jeff Hollan) - Pretty cool demo about the new dependency injection feature of Azure Function.

Programming

• Clever little C# and ASP.NET Core features that make me happy (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post about some C# gems...If I can say that.
• 10 Top Blazor Tools Just a NuGet Away -- Visual Studio Magazine (David Ramel) - Wow, so many great projects...
• Top 10 C# Developer Books for Summer 2019 (Claudio Bernasconi) - Great list of books to get started with C# or as a developer. I'll definitely refer people to it when asked where to start.

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Reading Notes #381

Suggestion of the week

• Running a Minecraft Server in Azure Container Instances (Mark Heath) - A cool real-life story where Azure Container Instance ACI is very useful.

Cloud

• Automating Azure Container Instances with PowerShell Azure Functions (Mark Heath) - Cool schedule Azure functions demo with PowerShell.
• 
  Deploy a scalable API and Backend with Serverless, Express, and Node.js (Bryan Killian) - A nice tutorial that explains how to build efficient APIs using lambda.

Programming

• Docker - from the beginning, Part IV (Chris Noring) - Part 4 of 5 this series is still a great read. This one shows the transition to docker compose.
• 
  Postman 7.1: Manage your APIs within Postman (Nikita) - So many great features are present in the new version. This post is the perfect quick overview.

Miscellaneous

• 
  Presentation Tips for Technical Talks (Tanya Janca) - This post is filled with great and simple tips that will for sure improve the experience of your attendees and ours.
• 
  Using The Microsoft Face API to Create Mario Kart “Astrology” (Chloe Condon) - Funny project that leverages the Azure cognitive services and python. How cool is that!

Books

Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong 

Author: Eric Barker

Nice book. There is always a good story to make a correlation with his current point. Then it could go in a different direction with another story. All the stories are complementary and are adding layer by layer to the more complex message that is delivered to us. Easy to read, enjoyable from the beginning until the last word.

Reading Notes #357

Suggestion of the week

• Use Azure Cognitive Services to recognize karting images with Custom Vision service (Vivien Chevallier) - Really cool post that explains how to build an API and trained it.

Cloud

• ARM - Etendre vos templates grâce à Azure Function (Wilfried Woivré) - A very clever way to leverage some services resources it ARM.

Programming

• How to set up ASP.NET Core 2.2 Health Checks with BeatPulse's AspNetCore.Diagnostics.HealthChecks (Scott Hanselman) - This is a nice quick tutorial perfect to get started.
• Finding your next .NET Open Source project using the command line (Shayne Boyer) - Really cool tool/ project to get started.
• Ghost : A Father-Daughter Project, Part 1 (David Pallmann) - This is both a nice tutorial to build a simple game and a great project to do with new developers.
• Visual Studio 2019 Preview .NET Productivity (Kendra Havens) - This is a nice overview of what Was announced at Connect.

Miscellaneous

• A crash course on Serverless with AWS — Running Node.js 11 on Lambda (Adnan Rahić) - Great tutorial that will take you from zero to definitely knowing enough to be dangerous.

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Reading Notes #348

Cloud

• Announcing the public preview of Azure Digital Twins (Daniel Escapa) - Learn more about this new product for our IoT projects.
• Move Managed Disks to another Subscription (Eric Leonard) - Cool post that explains the new easy way to do it.
• Tackling Costs in Azure (K. Scott Allen) - This post explains why the answer to: "How much will that cost?" Is always ...well it depends.
• Top 10 Azure Cognitive Services (Cristopher Burge) - Don't reinvent the wheel see all the incredible tool at your disposal.

Programming

• Where Should I Put My Logic? (Adam Storr) - Interesting post that provides a few answers.
• Performance tuning an Azure DevOps build configuration (Jeffrey Palermo) - Really interesting post packed with great tips to improve our builds performance.
• Using ASP.NET Core with MongoDB in containers for local dev, CosmosDB for production (Shayne Boyer) - This is an excellent tutorial to get started with asp.net core container and mongo or cosmoDB.
• What to focus on when learning ASP.NET Core? (Jon Hilton) - This is an excellent post to get inspired, remove the fear of a false start and help us to get started.
• elementary OS 5 Juno is Here – elementary – Medium (Cassidy James Blaede) - ELementary was already one of my favorite Linux distribution. With this new version named Juno it's just... Hmmmm so smooth and beautiful. Try it you will see.

Data

• Spinning Up a PostgreSQL Database on Azure Using Bash (Rob Conery) - None only this post is a great tutorial, but it's also a nice story.

Miscellaneous

• Azure PowerShell – Cross-platform “Az” module replacing “AzureRM” (Mark Cowlishaw) - Nice update of the Azure PowerShell, a shorter name is always a good idea. However, how could we make the difference with Azure CLI now?
• Creating the perfect MVP Summit (Charles Sterling) - The MVP summit is a very special event. However, these suggestions are also applicable to other technical event.
• Why you aren’t drowning in recruiters, too - A geek with a hat (Swizec Teller) - Interesting post that brings a more realistic perspective to those moments.

~enjoy!

Reading Notes #321

Suggestion of the week

• Creating an ASP.NET Core Markdown TagHelper and Parser (Rick Strahl) - Amazing post that shares a cool taghelper for our projects, and explains all steps to build it.

Cloud

• Beyond The Obvious With API Vision On Cognitive Services (Víctor Moreno ) - This post is a nice and details overview of the cognitive services.
• Deployment Pipelines For Versioned Azure Resource Manager Template Deployments ( Peter Groenewegen) - Great post that explains all the best practices to manage healthy ARM template.
• Differences between Azure Functions v1 and v2 in C# (Damien Guard) - Nice overview showing the differences in the code.
• Secure your backups, not just your data! (Aruna Somendra) - I do most of that already...but yeah not all of it. What's YOUR backup plan?

Programming

• Azure vs GCP part 15: Microservices (Kenichiro Nakamura) - Interesting post that compares two microservice platforms... A must.
• Converting a Ghost blog to a Progressive Web App (Dean Hume) - Very interesting post that explains every step in its conversion journey.
• How to deploy Angular application to GitHub (Dhananjay Kumar) - Nice post to get started with Angular and Angular CLI.
• Demystifying Serverless with Cecil Phillip (Scott Hanselman) - Very interesting discussion about serverless or less server programming...

Databases

• The world of Automatic Tuning – SQL Server 2017 | All About SQL on WordPress.com (blobeater) - I was also surprised, but yes it's true the auto tunning really works.

Miscellaneous

• From Windows to the Cloud (Tim Sneath) - Wow! Well... Speechless, just read it.

Books

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (Daniel H. Pink)

A really amazing book packed of very interesting advice. Things that you kind of already knew, or at least had a feeling you maybe knew are clearly explained to you.

After reading (or listening) this book, you will know why, and you can decide to fight it or change the when... improve your performance and use your time and energy on something else.

ISBN: 0525589333

Reading Notes #317

Suggestion of the week

• Migrating to Azure SQL Database with zero downtime for read-only workloads (Joseph Sack) - Learn the best practices and more about the tools available to you in this great post.

Cloud

• Analyzing a karting image with Azure Cognitive Services (Vivien Chevallier) - It's time to play with these Cognitive services. This post is a nice quick start.
• Microsoft updates Cognitive Services terms (Microsoft Azure) - Good to know.
• Oops! I Deleted My Blobs! What Can I Do? (Gaurav Mantri) - A nice new feature! Is it time to upgrade all our cloud solutions to use it? It could be a good idea.

Programming

• az webapp new - Azure CLI extension to create and deploy a .NET Core or nodejs site in one command (Scott Hanselman) - Azure CLI is a super handy tool. New commands are being created, it's time for us developers to get involve read this post and clone that GitHub repo!

Miscellaneous

• 10 Characteristics of a Successful Internal IT Champion (Richard Seroter) - Awesome post! Next time changes are in the pipeline, you should think about these 10 little things.
• Azure Cosmos DB training webinars | Azure Roadmap | Microsoft Azure (Microsoft Team) - Fantastic news, I know a lot of people were waiting for this kind of training.