Reading Notes #33

Cloud

• Using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) from a node express app - A well done tutorial that explain all the steps to setup your Azure Access Control Service (ASC) in a Node.js environment.

  If you want to know how it works and how it was implemented read Implementing Windows Azure ACS with everyauth

• Amazon Web Services Blog - Amazon announce new edge location.
• Cloud Data Services - This is definitely a series to follow. A thru story with all learning steps put in evidence.
• Amazon Web Services Blog - Another price reduction for Amazon Web Service AWS, does it mean that Azure is doing some damage.
• Mastering the Cloud.. with Windows Azure Curricula Resources (Lee Stott) - What needed to by prepare to be a cloud designer.
• 4 ways Microsoft can make Azure better for startups (Marcelo Calbucci) - Things that Microsoft is doing and should do to help startups to jump in Azure.
• Cloud Architecture Series – CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)– Part 01 (Bruno Terkaly) - First of a series, this post explain the evolution of the architecture...
• NEW! Wiki launched for Apache Hadoop on Windows Azure (Michele Hart) - This is a great news documentation is always welcome.
• How many copies of your blob is stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage? (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - Well explain when multiple copy don't rime with backup.
• Outbound ports that have to be opened for Azure development (Bruno Terkaly) - The page MUST be bookmarked. The list of port by Azure application.
• Introducing Microsoft Research’s Excel Cloud Data Analytics (Roger Jennings) - Great idea that use the calculation power of Azure through excel to analyze your data. This project is still in CTP.
• Windows #Azure Caching – Performance considerations - Great post to demystify the different caching options with Azure. then everything you need to get started and learn even more.
• Windows Azure Demos with Steve Marx (Wade Wegner) - Last cover cloud show of Steve Mark, so they pass through all is demos.

Programming

• A Few of My Favorite Things... in the Entity Framework 4.2 DbContext - Present three features: Find, Local and AsNoTracking include in the EF Code first DbContext.
• Alexander Beletsky's Development Blog - Present three really good tools to add to test toolkit

  FluentAssertions

  NSubstitute

  NCrunch

• Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team - Amazon is working hard to keep is part of the cake.
• MVP is not an excuse to make shitty software - Minimum viable product is more about the V then the M
• Why You Should Build Your Website Using Static .html Files - Using only static HTML page solve some regular issues: speed, portability,connections. Hera a project on Github try to push this idea as far as possible.
  
  
  

~Franky

Reading Notes #32

Cloud

Let The Clouds Make Your Life Easier - Geek and poke

• Is VMware the new Microsoft in the PaaS World? - Nice post that talk about the story of .Net framework and Java. What they where, what they are and what there fighting for.
• 8 Essential Best Practices in Windows Azure Blob Storage - Great post explaining clearly 8 best practices when using Azure Blob Storage.
• Managing environments in a distributed, Azure, or other cloud based Visual Studio solution (Igor Papirov) - Nice Visual Studio solution structure, that once it's done could save a lot of time.
• an opportunity to get application security right - Nice post discussing about in the beginning of the Internet where enterprises didn't taken seriously the security menace. Today with a lot of people going to the cloud we shouldn't make the same mistake.
• Tips and Important Steps for Migrating Apps to Windows Azure - Great check list to move an application in the cloud. I would add to check if you need https at some point and take a look of your database collation.
• Taking specific Windows Azure Instance offline (Avkash Chauhan) - Those cmdlets are amazing. do what you cannot do with the management portal in only few line
• Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games Version 1.2.2 Released - Announce of the new release of the Toolkit with some explication about how-to get started with Github
• Before jumping into cloud, learn from the SOA experience - This post explain how having a service object architecture (SOA) could help to be more ready when moving to the cloud.
• Visual Studio Achievements - Remember Kids They're Just For Fun (View blog authority) - Achievements in Visual Studio... pros and cons.
• Handling two known issues with Windows Azure node.js SDK 0.5.2 (Avkash Chauhan) - Nice workaround to be able to debug with the Azure emulator when using node.js and to be able to deploy with a MongoDB enabled
• NougakuDoCompanion: A “Ruby on Rails” companion for Windows Azure (Avkash Chauhan) - Introduce a ruby companion package available on codeplex, it look nice.
• Amazon Web Services Blog - Amazon announce a new free product/feature the cloudWatch Metrics that will help to visualize how your part of the cloud is use.
• Utiliser SSIS pour pousser des données vers SQL Azure (Benjamin GUINEBERTIERE) - Good work explaining step by step how to use SSIS for a data migration.

  SSIS package needs an outbound access to port 1433

• The “NoSQL” Gene in SQL Azure Federations (Cihan Biyikoglu) - Great post. A bit old, but it explain a lot of key concept about the NoSql of the new Azure Federation.
• Windows Azure Storage Emulator Account Name and Key - Nice catch. how to manage the different credential of a "legacy" Azure application.

  Microsoft has provided the storage credentials for the local Storage Emulator on MSDN. Here’s a quick place to copy the default name and key: AccountName AccountKey

• Get Started with Node.js + Windows Azure: Resources - Everything you need to get started doing Node.js in Azure. A lot of reference: tools, IDE, database,etc..
• Cloud computing looks to be future of disaster management - A professor is building a system to be help the people to communicate in case of a disaster in the cloud.
• Using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) from a node express app - A well done tutorial that explain all the steps to setup your Azure Access Control Service (ASC) in a Node.js environment.

  If you want to know how it works and how it was implemented read Implementing Windows Azure ACS with everyauth

• Cloud Cover Show - Episode 69 - SQL Azure Federations with George Huey – Recap of the news and discuss how to scale-out with SQL Azure Federations.

Programming

• Using oData with jQuery Hierarchical Grid - Good presentation of the grid control of NetAdvantage using jquery and oData.
• Even Better Git (and Mercurial) with PowerShell (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post, presentation great project using Powershell to leverage git and mercurial source control.
• 24 Extremely Useful Ruby Gems for Web Development - Great list of Ruby's Gems. I will definitely include Bundler in my list on tools to have.

  Bundler is a tool that manages gem dependencies for your ruby application.

• Explaining Include and Extend - Really good post. Go deeper then the usual.

  If you want a more details about what the interpreter is doing I recommend watching Patrick Farley’s talk on Ruby Internals.

Miscellaneous

• How the Kindle replaced my iPad...for book reading (Scott Stein) - I agree completely. When I try the eBook reader... I fall in love.
• Agile Results with Evernote (JD Meier) - Explain how to use EverNote as a simple folder/list structure to manage goals in the Agile Result method
• comment obtenir plus de clics avec vos tweets (Benoit Descary) - Some simple strategies to be more efficient when twitting(fr).
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs of Software Development (Scott Hanselman) - Nice Maslow's pyramid apply to development , event more because it do fit.
• Don't Get Me Started – Ring Around My Neck (David Platt) - A reflection about if thing have gone too far.

~Franky

Reading Notes #31

Cloud

• mszCool's thoughts and cents revealed (mszCool) - Nice post that study a real scenario and explain what could be a good hybrid architecture.
• Adding code that'll run before, during, and after (SeenDaBean) - Great tutorial that give us a lot the options when downloading from Azure blob storage.
• AWS Toolkits for Eclipse and Visual Studio Now Support DynamoDB - A great post that introduce DynamoDB the new NoSQL database of Amazon web services.
• Testing Ruby Applications on Windows Azure (Larry Franks) - Nice tutorial to make unit test under Ruby in Azure server. 
• Making Windows Azure Drive Letter Persistent (Shawn Cicoria) - Amazing post. Great job. Learn how to get Azure drive letter persistent.
• Introducing Microsoft Codename “Cloud Numerics” from SQL Azure Labs (Roger Jennings) - Great post introducing cloud numeric talking about pros and cons and finishing by a tutorial.
• Parallel Uploads to Windows Azure Blob Storage via a Silverlight Control (msdn.microsoft.com) - Really good tool/control to upload quickly files in Azure blob storage in Silverlight. This post explain how the control is working.
• Cloud9 Delivers Cloud-Based IDE Support for Windows Azure (Darryl K. Taft) - Great new! Last January 24 Cloud9 announce our development IDE available in the cloud to develops from anywhere in Node.js
• Cloud Computing – The Democratization of IT (Part 1) (Linda Bernardi) - A good article that show why the cloud is so nice and why start-up should really look at it to see if there business fit.
• AzureWatch vs. Azure Fabric Controller. (Kurt Claeys) - By answering a question about the difference between AzureWatch (a product from Paraleap) and Azure Fabric this post introduce a really good tool to monitor and help to scaleup your system.
• New Azure ServiceBus Demo Available (Briand Loesgen) - Great work. A really good demo. Only few step to make it works in our environment.
• Setting up SSL on a Microsoft Azure application - Good advice and excellent reference.
• Exporting and Restoring a PFX file to IIS - I really well illustrated tutorial to "play" with certificates.
• Announcing SQL Azure Data Sync Preview Refresh (Gregory Leake) - Good news. This will became a great tool. It's already a good one simple and efficient. Don't forget to update your sync agent.
• Improving Performance by Batching Azure Table Storage Inserts (Brian Swan) - Good test. Azure storage table is suppose to be faster... now prove it.
• Throttling in SQL Azure with Scott Klein (Wade Wegner Steve Marx ) - Nice show. explains how to diagnose throttling in SQLAzure.

Programming

• Amazon Web Services Blog - Great new toolkit for vs2010 to play with DynamoDB.
• My love affair with Visual Studio (Susan Ibach) - Nice tip with the Error correction feature.
• The State of NoSQL in 2012 - Nice post that present some of the more popular NoSql database with there pros and cons
• CSS3 is the new Flash (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post about the questioning of Flash vs. HTML5.
  

  It brought us sites like this one and, of course, the greatest flash site in history.

• How to contribute a patch to a GitHub hosted Open Source project like Code 52 (Scott Hanselman) - The message is clear. get involve. you want to improve your skills, make your resume more attractive, get a feature in an application... get involve, it's simple.
• The REST of the Story « Open Sourcery - Nice post that explain clear the structure of a REST

Miscellaneous

• Public speaking for normal people - Nice tips to perform when talking for of public.
• How to get up to speed with a new technology (Frédéric Harper) - Quick tips about where to start when you want to learn a new language or technologies.

~Franky