Reading Notes #34

 

Cloud

• Which is less expensive - Good post. Well explain. How to compare or understand the price different between a cloud solution and on premise.
• Grouping and Sorting in the New Azure Transform Designer (jmoons) - Really great post. Azure IEA can do what BizTalk 2010 cannot by grouping and sorting easily without XSLT.
• Evangelism for Microsoft ISVs, BizSpark Startups & Network Partners (SanjayJain369) - Nice the training kit January edition now contain labs on federations and use the new look.
• Amazon S3 Price Reduction - A reaction to a post that was comparing price between cloud and on premise solution. The cloud could be even more attractive by taking those advices.
• Connection Pool Fragmentation: Use Federations and you won’t need to learn about these nasty problems that come with sharding! (Cihan Biyikoglu) - Good post that explain what Azure SQL Federations manage for us.
• Review your SQL Azure security issues and Attack surface, Check out “SQL Azure security services” - Description of a great tools. An Azure labs that must by try.
• Windows Azure ISV Blog Series: sociobridge, by ReedRex (DavidMakogonMS) - Nice post to learn more about a good architecture when planning multi tenants structure.
• Announcing Reduced Pricing on SQL Azure and New 100MB Database Option (StevenMartinMS) - Great news a price drop for the SQL Azure.
• "Building Hybrid Applications in the Cloud on Windows Azure" free ebook and code (RC) - The third eBook from a series about Azure, this one about building a hybrid application. That exactly what most application will be today. And it's free.
• The Cost of Living in the Cloud - The author make a list of all the service that are need for is ideal setup being in the cloud.
• Keys to understand relationship between MapReduce and HDFS (Avkash Chauhan) - Well explain improve the relation between mapreduce and hdfs.
• Using Data Transaction Commitment Models for Design (BuckWoody) - In this nice post the author present different ways to store data in Azure. Depending on the situation one type of architecture could be preferred.
• Moving apps to the cloud - This great post help you to build a check list before, during and after moving to the cloud. Ask the good questions, found your spot in the cloud

Programming

• Selecting files that don’t contain specified content (tobint) - Quick script that could easily find a place in anyone's toolbox.
• Thinking LESS of this blog - This post present the open source project LESS that generate some css base on pre-compile instruction. It could run server or client side.
• So You Want To Be a Developer (Part 1) - Most of the developer I know love games. I'm sure part of it already at one point thing of joining this to "passion".

Miscellaneous

• Why we love our MVP’s (Paul Laberge) - Good post to learn more about our Canadian MVP and about the MVP programme.
• Know Your Limitations; You'll Lead Better (John Baldoni) - Nice quick post that remember us that the perseverance is the key of success

~Frank

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

Reading Notes #30

Cloud

• Secure Amazon EC2 instances (Shang) - A really simple and good way to secure your server.
  
• With Azure SDK 1.6, Azure Diagnostics is enabled by default can cause thousands of daily transections to Azure Storage - Good catch!
• Sending Messages to Azure AppFabric Service Bus Topics From Iron Foundry (Richard Seroter) - A nice tutorial creating a simple web application that use Azure AppFabric ServiseBus and how to deploy it in Iron foundry.

  “[…] the Service Bus Explorer tool which allows us to browse our Service Bus configuration […] “

• 6 Quick Steps for Windows/.NET Folks to Try Out Cloud Foundry (Richard Seroter)- Seroter present the Cloud Foundry (VMware's cloud). Using Ruby to show some basics steps.
• My First Impressions of node.js - It's not always all wonderful, sometime it's doesn't works.
• Using Symbolic links with local storage to store large amount of data in Windows Azure Application Drive (Avkash Chauhan) - A really nice workaround when having issue with big file in application drive.
• Setting Windows Azure Blob Storage (asv) as data source directly from Portal at Hadoop on Azure (Avkash Chauhan) - Nice quick sample.
• Managing cloud computing security requires planning - This post explain which question you should ask yourself about when planning your move to the cloud... or when you already there. Better later then never.
• Configuring SSL for an Application in Windows Azure - How to configure Azure application to to using https. Step by step (with screenshots) configure the SSL certificate.
• How to Associate a Certificate with a Service (MSDN) - Information about SSL certificate to use with Azure like supported algorithm or tools.

  “[…]The only thumbprint algorithm currently supported is sha1[…]”

• How to Configure an SSL Certificate on an HTTPS Endpoint - Nice post. help to configure SSL certificate in Azure but also how to test it.
• Complete Solution: Adding SSL Certificate with Windows Azure Application - I quick summary of what to do in order by be able to use https in Azure.
• From developer to cloud developer - Great! Finally we got more Azure stuff at Microsoft Learning.
• Windows Azure application VM and (virtual) IP Address (Avkash Chauhan) - Again good quick post from Avkash Chauhan that summarize this IP reality in Azure.
• Windows Azure Queues and Windows Azure Service Bus Queues - A complete source of information that should help developer and architect to use the better queue in a specific context. A post to bookmark.
• Getting Started with Windows Azure – part2 (ScottGu) - In this second post of a series Scott Gu is taking our hand to show how to get started for free and why we shouldn't worry about getting charge because of this new feature:the billing limit.

  “[…] Spending limits are a new feature we added to Windows Azure last month, and ensure that you never have to worry about accidentally going over the resources included in a free offer and being charged […]”

  “[…]You can learn more about the spending limit feature here[…]”

• One Azure Web Role, Multiple Websites - Great tutorial that explain how to have multiple website on the same instance, and how to test them.

Programming

• the Module pattern (part 4) – debugging - In this fourth post of the series is using a intrusive but really efficient method to debug the clock watch module.
• Using HTML5 Canvas for Data Visualization - This post present the HTML5 canvas by building a chart. It look a lot of work compare of using chart component, put we can do everything...
• 7 mistakes of software testing (Eleftheria Drosopoulou) - Seven really good tips to improve your tests.
• The (10) survival development tools - A list of good applications. Some that I didn't know about and that I will try.
• Don’t brag about your Visual Studio achievements! (yet?)(maartenballiauw) - Achievements yes, but only the good one... Fortunately this is only the beta...
• Not just because it’s new and shiny (thebeebs) - HTML5 is good to reach all platform, but it should be use (pick) for the good reasons.
• KidsRuby 1.0 Released - Great idea. hum what is your greatest realisation with Logo on Apple II?
• Testing framework is not just for writing… tests - Good idea! why I didn't think of this by my self? I will add this to my survival tools. 
• The Book of Ruby: A Hands-On Guide for the Adventurous (Huw Collingbourne) - This book jump straight into it.  Good way to learn by doing code. The example are simple and easy to understand.

Miscellaneous

• A geek with a hat » Why programmers work at night - I knew it I'm normal!

“[…] A popular saying goes that Programmers are machines that turn caffeine into code. […]”

• Lowering Higher Education - In this post David S Platt share is idea of what could be the future of Education.... And I like this!

“[…] Stanford University announced that its class on artificial intelligence will be available for free online […]”

• Agile Results for Time Management - This post present a summary of the method call Agile Result. A good way to improve your time management.
• 500! (Richard Ziade) - If you don't know Readability take few second you should be charmed.
• Missing Key to Unification (safeerm) - According to this post 2012 will by important in the unification processes.

~Franky

Reading Notes #29

Cloud

• Update: Deploying Ruby Applications to Windows Azure (Larry Franks) - Great post explaining every steps to have a simple Ruby application in Azure. I definitely need to try this.
• the question is not if, but when (Ken Terry) - Good post examining the tendency for the cloud from healthcare.
• Cloud is complex—deal with it (James Urquhart) - It’s up to people to make technologies that survive cloud as a complex system—one component at a time. That’s, well, how you deal with it.
• …So Isn’t the Root Database a Bottleneck for Federations in SQL Azure? (Cihan Biyikoglu) - Nice post that explain the magic of USE FEDERATION and how the process became decentralized so the master database don't come the bottleneck.
• Part 1-Cloud Architecture Series-Durable Messages using Windows Azure (Cloud) Service Bus Queues–Establishing your service through the Portal - Good post explaining the structure of pub-sub pattern and the first steps to start creating a project.
• How the Azure ServiceBus EAI & EDI Labs SDK impacts Microsoft integration - Nice post show the difference between regular BizTalk and the future Azure Service Bus EAI.
  • Kent Weare posted two articles (introduction & mapper) on his blog.
  • Rick Garibay discussed the various components in his blog post.
  • Mikael Håkansson showed the content based routing capabilities in this article.
  • Steef-Jan Wiggers added an overview TechNet wiki.
  • Harish Agarwal wrote an overview on EAI bridges.

The biggest missing link here, is the extensibility with custom components.  At this moment, it doesn’t look possible to have (de)batching, custom validation, zipping and all these other things we do in BizTalk pipeline components.

• Windows Azure Caching Strategies - Great article that demystify where we should cache our data by adding a layer of indirection.

  A good post about using the Windows Azure CDN can be found on Steve Marx’s blog.

  There are a couple of variations on that theme available, and I discussed one in a blog post from March 2010.

• How Cloud Computing Will Affect Businesses in 2012 (cloudtimes.org) - A optimistic 2012 prediction of the cloud business.
• Accessing Windows Azure blob Storage as Network Drive (Avkash Chauhan) - This post present a product. Good idea of how Azure blob storage can be use.
• Self-service, security and storage tools for the private cloud - Nice post that present a lot of tools to use the cloud more safely and smartly.
• Book Excerpt: "To The Cloud: Cloud Powering an Enterprise" (Pankaj AroraMS) - Good post that recap what is "the cloud" and how it could be good for business. 
• SQL Azure Federations and the Entity Framework (dpblogs) – A good quick post to explain the plan of the Entity Framework looking forward to work with Sql Azure Federation. More detailed posts are referenced: SQL Azure Federations with Entity Framework Code-First and Understanding SQL Azure Federations No-MARS Support and Entity Framework.
• The Which, the When, and the How of Windows Azure Services: Websites - A well done post that highlight how different service can be used to meet certain requirement thru frequent scenarios.
• Node.JS on Windows Azure Part 1: Setting Up Your Environment - A really good tutorial than explain step by step how to install-create-try-publish your first Node.JS application in Azure. First of a promising series
• Azure Elasticity with Wasabi Application Block - Nice tutorial showing every step of project creation to monitor and auto-scale some Azure application, using Wasabi. Code and video.
• The Developers Guide To AppFabric October 2011  - A reference document for everyone doing or planning to use Azure AppFabric. bookmark it!

Programming

• Repository Pattern with Entity Framework 4.1 and Code First - Nice post that present the repository pattern. Once you understand the pattern a suggest you to use the magic nuGet package and the mcvScafofding. More here 
• JavaScript for C# developers: the Module Pattern (part 1) (blog.boyet.com) - I really like those JavaScript tutorial for C# people. very useful. part 2 part 3
• JavaScript Module Pattern - Another great tutorial about Module pattern in JavaScript.

Miscellaneous

• Your Blog is The Engine of Community (Scott Hanselman) - A great burning post, blogger must read. Other why are you not blogging?
• Be A Creator, Not a Consumer « Blankenblog - Good quick post 110% of prepping... Read it! it's the beginning a new years after all.

~Franky

Reading Notes #28

 

Cloud

• New Windows Azure Billing Portal (brianhprince.com) - Present a great new feature in Azure billing portal that will help a lot some users.
• Mobile & Global in 7 Steps with HTML5, MVC & Windows Azure (David Pallmann) – Explain in a great series how to pass from the static web page from the designer to a fully functional and responsive web designed web site.
  • Design: Design site front end
  • Web Project: Import into web template
  • Integrate: Add dynamic content
  • Cloud-ready: Set up for Windows Azure
  • Secured: Sign-in with web/social identity
  • Deployed: Deployed to the cloud
  • Global: Deployed worldwide with traffic management
• Assess your SQL Server to SQL Azure migration using SQL Azure Compatibility Assessment Tool by SQL Azure Labs - A really good news! Simply explain how to use the just release: SQL Azure Compatibility Assessment Tool.
• Microsoft to enable Linux on its Windows Azure cloud in 2012 - If it’s true, is will be nice, and it go with the new Microsoft philosophy.
• How do you synchronize a million to-do lists? (blog.maartenballiauw.be) - This post ask a good question that use some new Azure feature as service bus. Keep looking for the best answer.
• Update: Deploying Ruby Applications to Windows Azure (Larry Franks) - Great post explaining every steps to have a simple Ruby application in Azure. I definitely need to try this.

Programming

• Structuring Unit Tests - Since long time looking for a better way to do my testing. I will for sure try this.
• Structuring your Unit Tests, why? (Ayende Rahien) - Another way to structure our tests.
• Unit Testing ASP.Net Http Handlers and a discussion of Auto Mocking and the Testable pattern - Nicely explain how to auto mock with Moq in .Net. Good example to start strait with DI or IoC
• Créer un Gem Ruby en 2 minutes (pagedegeek.com) – A quick “abc” to create a gem in Ruby [French].
• Bonjour gem, Jeudi c’est SASS - Nice Ruby gem to auto generate CSS file. [French]

Miscellaneous

• Ten Things To Do to Secure an Important Person's Computer (or even Ashton's or a Kardashian's) (Scott Hanselman) - Simple and truly effaces
• There's no shame in code that is simply "good enough" - This post explain why it is correct to say: "Just make it works".
• 5 ways to get insane productivity boosts for coders – Yan Pritzker - Some quick idea to improve code speed production.
• 7 Steps to Incredible Personal Productivity (Jeff Haden) - Good post. some tips about how to act in a special day... like ending project, or a one day project.
• What Software Has in Common with Schrödinger’s Cat (testobsessed) - Interesting comparison. Good way to present some pros of Agile method.

~Franky

del.icio.us Tags: Cloud,Azure,HTML5,AzureSQL,Migration,Ruby,TDD

Reading Notes #26

 

This is the last post of 2011. Happy Holidays to every one and see you next year for others Reading Notes!

Cloud

• Utiliser la puissance du Cloud Azure pour faire votre propre raytracer - Really nice idea and great demo of parallelism. Imagine this using the power of HPC. [french] 
• Announcing the Service Bus EAI & EDI Labs Release (ItaiRazMS) - Great release that arrived earlier than expected. This is a good timing to try the labs everything is free.
• SQL Azure Management Portal Tips and Tricks: Part I (R Syam Kumar) - After the portal face lift, it's good to have a walkthrough all the new capabilities. [video demo]
• SQL Azure Management Portal Tips and Tricks: Part II (R Syam Kumar) - Nice post. It past in detail all the novelties of the new SQL Azure Management Portal 
• How you can store decimal data in Windows Azure Table Storage? - Nice tricks that simplify a lot the usage of decimal.
• Developing Windows Azure Applications with Visual Studio - Nice presentation where Jay Schmelzer show how develop debug and of course deploy.
• Azure Service Bus Connect EAI and EDI “Integration Services” CTP (Rick Garibay) - I great post about the new release of EDI and AIS that is now available in labs.
• Microsoft's Scott Guthrie and his impact on Azure - As a .Net and Visual Studio user I'm happy with the current toolset... but I'm curious to see what will happen.
• How to get to SQL Azure Query Performance Data (mbenkov) - This post present the new UI of the Azure SQL management portal. A big improvement that for sure.
• Responsive Cloud Design (David Pallmann) - This nice post talk about a close future where a good Responsive Web Design (RWD) will be the key.
• Hands on Lab for Moving Applications to the Cloud - Starter kit for moving in the cloud. The post quickly present the labs.
• Important Announcements Regarding the Access Control Service (Himanshu_Singh) - Great news!
• An Introduction to EAI Bridges - This post present the news EAI Bridge capability in the last Labs release and explain how to get started.
• Windows Azure Resource: A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control, Second Edition - Introduce a free eBook about Claims-Based Identity and Access Control.
• Cloud Cover Show
• Episode 67 - Technical Computing with Windows Azure
• Live at  Learn Windows Azure event

Programming

• Create a Node.js App on Azure in 3 minutes - A Hello word demo in few words. Could not be simplify.
• Design pattern "Template" avec Ruby - Very clear post that explain the utility of inheritance.
• The Elements of Distributed Architecture (Clemens Vasters) – I just watch few minutes, but it look great! Introduction to the key elements of distributed software architecture. [video]

Miscellaneous

• Predictions for the future (Maarten Balliauw) - Maarten present is prediction and as usual... interesting.

~Franky

Reading Notes #25

Cloud

• The SQL Azure Team Unveils a New Server Management UI (Roger Jennings) - Nice "face lift" of the SQL Azure user interface.
• Windows Azure Table Storage- Partition or Row key length is limited to 256 characters in Storage Emulator (Avkash Chauhan) - Point one of the difference between Azure emulator and the “real” cloud. Ref to the doc.
• 5 Reasons Why Startups Should Use OAuth (Ruben)- Learn easily some lessons that they learned the hard way.
• Defense giant ditches Microsoft’s cloud citing Patriot Act fears - The patriot act is THE big show stopper for a lot of companies. Here some cases.
• How to Authenticate Web Users with Windows Azure Access Control Service - Everything you need to use ACS. A well done demo doing step by step with screenshots.
• Improved Developer Experience, Interoperability, and Scalability on Windows Azure - All the novelties on azure.

  Service Bus usage is now free through March 2012.

• Cloud Computing Boosts Indian Technology and Economy (Irmee Layo) - This post summarize what could be the impact/influence of the cloud in our mid-future.
• Building Large Scale Elastic Database Tiers with SQL Azure - First step using a SQL Azure Federation. Good first dipping.
• Ubuntu Cloud Live Offers Private Clouds via USB Drive - Good idea. I always like Ubuntu. it could be nice to have quickly (and any ware) some virtual machine to test or do stuff...
• How to get rich in the cloud (David Linthicum) - Ah ah! It's not that trivial, but look like going to the cloud is a good move...
• Billing Model for Federations in SQL Azure Explained! - Well explain. Since the “talking” about federation databases started, I was looking for those answers.
• Cloud Computing: A New Paradigm - Nice post. The story never really change... just adapt.
• Understanding the Total Cost of Ownership for Cloud-based Software (Christophe Primault) - Offering flexible options kind of complicate the pricing. In this post learn what you must don't forget when planning your move. Azure provide also two greats tools: TCO and the calculator.
• Moving My Data To The Cloud - In this nice post the author explain how he moved all is different data (photos, data, music, games, etc.) to different cloud solution.
• SQL Database Federations: Enhancing SQL to enable Data Sharding for Scalability in the Cloud - Quick start to SQL database Federation.
• SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release - Nice recap of all the new features and pricing that just coming out.

Programming

• What’s the deal with mapping foreign keys using the Entity Framework? (Arthur Vickers) - With EF it is so easy to map relations. But is it a good or a bad practice? Should we do it?
• Design of a Domain Model - This article show the issue and difficulties that could give mapping foreign keys when using EF in a design domain model.
• Agile? You’re doing it wrong. (Timon Vonk) – Timon take the most common reason why people fail to be Agile and suggest solution.
• Building Apps with HTML5 – Desktop, Tablet, Phone !(Joe Stagner) - J. Stagner in is post express is opinion and goods questions about HTML5 and Microsoft.
• Just because you can test it doesn’t mean you should (Windows Live Tester) - Good post. it's sometime difficult to know what need to be tested and from where. Nice recap.
  

  A wise test lead once said to me, “Do as little as possible while still ensuring quality”.

• A short round-up of PowerShell Quick Reference Guides & Cheat Sheets - A well done cheat sheets.
• Decoding jQuery - Nice series. quick and clear.

Miscellaneous

• A comic book geek returns after twenty years away to a brave new digital world (Scott Hanselman) - Reading is always good, and fun. Discover more digital content with Scott Hanselman.
• Top 5 Ways to Kill Your Credibility (Geoffrey James) - After reading this, it may be a good idea to make a quick jump to your profile... Just in case.
• 9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money (Ilya Pozin) - My boss is evil... but I like that.
• Apps are too much like 1990's CD-ROMs and not enough like the Web (Scott Hanselman) – Scott explain what he think could be the next version of apps or web apps or does it make a difference...
• Munn and Done | How To Train A Developer - A lot of options to train a dev team are presented by the author.
  

  “If we didn’t like learning we wouldn’t be in this profession.”

~Franky

Reading Notes #24

Cloud

• Using CSPACK to create Windows Azure Package returns error “Error CloudServices050 - Here how to avoid one of the common problem using CsPack.
• Common Windows Azure Tips (Michael D. Dunn) - Simple and really good tips. They are all best practice.
• Enterprise Library 5.0 Integration Pack for Windows Azure (Nikosan) - A lot of good stuff: new cmdlets, autoscaling tools, encryption tools and more...
• mszCool's thoughts and cents revealed (mszCool [mario]) - Introduction of a strategy advisor for Azure that look promising.
• Techniques for real-time client-server communication on the web (SignalR to the rescue) (Maarten Balliauw) - Explain why SignalR could be the solution until WebSocket is available in a browser close to you.
• How you can choose what is needed and how much it will cost? - Display in detail two type of Azure "package" and analyse there cost.
• Autoscaling with Enterprise Library Integration Pack for Windows Azure - Good post to start learning more info about Wasabi. Also link thru a demo.
• The 4 Myths of Cloud Computing in Business (Leslie Guevarra) - Everything is in the title.

  Myth 1: The cloud is just another name for outsourcing.

  Myth 2: The cloud is the future for everything.

  Myth 3: The cloud saves you money.

  Myth 4: The cloud is not secure.

• Truths about Cloud Computing People may not Know (Irmee Layo) - It surprise me how many people use the cloud and don't known about it. This post demystify where is the cloud.
• Uploading Windows Azure Blobs From Silverlight (Steve Marx)
  • Part 1: Shared Access Signatures - About building a safe Silverlight client to access Azure storage.
  • Part 2: Enabling Cross-Domain Access to Blobs - Adding the config file that enabled the cross-domain access without failure.
  • Part 3: Handling Big Files by Using the Block APIs - Putting everything together.
• Four Questions With … Clemens Vasters (seroter)- Interesting topics in this interview with one of the public face of Azure team about different topic.
• MVC on Azure for Beginner (Henry He) - Definitively a good starting point for everyone want to start or try Azure and Asp.Net MVC.
• Introducing Microsoft Sync Framework - A good product that is the core of the new Azure Data Sync. If you want a better configuration capability you will need sync framework.
• How to avoid chaos in the cloud - We are at a time were the cloud is only beginning and nobody know how it will grow... this post ask so questions about the near future
• Thoughts on Agile Software Engineering and Beyond (Grigori Melnik MSFT) - Great wasabi is a nice platform to build auto scaling rules
• New SQL Azure lab available (How to move data to SQL Azure) (Susan Ibach) - Microsoft Codename “Data Transfer” Tutorial (Liam Cavanagh - MSFT)- Nice tools quick and simple. However I got some hard time trying it, my Excel or csv file was not process. Finally I discover that the problem was my column name. Don't use ID as name for a column. Use something less generic like CustomerID... and it will work just fine.
• A Highly Available Cloud Storage Service with Strong Consistency « Systems We Make - Remove the magic of the Azure Storage by explaining how thing works. interesting post.
• Now Available: Workflow Foundation Activity Pack for Windows Azure CTP 1(AppFabric Team) - Nice. I read about people waiting for this Azure version of the Workflow Foundation (WF)... but still it is a CTP.
• BlazeMeter: Launching the JMeter Testing Cloud (gevaperry) - This tool look great. A really quick way to get nice looking info.
• Testing Ruby Applications on Windows Azure - First post of a promising series... testing ruby in Azure...
• Synchronizing Files to Windows Azure Storage Using Microsoft Sync Framework - Really useful post. since this was with a older version of sync fw maybe now it's fully integrated... The full sample code is available here.
• Windows Azure Diagnostics with SDK 1.6 for WebRoles (Iain) - Excellent starting point about how to include Azure diagnostics in your next project
• Using SignalR to broadcast a slide deck (Maarten Balliauw) – Wow, a really nice demo, and a excellent wait to learn more on SignalR.

Programming

• Designing a Secure REST (Web) API without OAuth (Riyad Kalla) - A really nice post about security with Rest API .
• Entity Framework 4.1 managing relations - Simply explain how to manage 1:n relation with EF 1.4
• Devenez un ninja avec Ruby #2 (SANCHEZ Benjamin) – [fr] Excellent, some base tips in Ruby about array and hash. Hash Tricks
• Web Storage - HTML5 (sumit.gupta) - Introduction to the html5 webstorage and the advantage compare to cookies

  Web Storage is one of the best features in HTML5 which overcomes several drawbacks of cookies

• Tester son idée en quelques heures – [fr]Ten tips to validate a startup idea.
• OData, RSS, Ifttt.com for your Nuget's - This is an excellent example how you can put together butch of stuff and archive your goals. Entity types supported by the Entity Framework (Arthur Vickers) - Really good.  Post about how the EF works and a little of historic in the same time. nice post.

 

Miscellaneous

• A Twitter Adventure (Chatty DM) - Waiting somewhere... play a little rpg game on twitter...
• Dropbox's attention to detail on their download page (Scott Hanselman) - Really cleaver. Little details are always helping even if you don't notice them (consciously)
• Dilbert - Haha I like this one...

~Franky

Reading Notes #23

 

Cloud

• Implementing 5 important principles of REST using WCF Services (Shivprasad koirala) - Good post about the REST base.
  
• My Application Platform Quotes (Nikosan) - List of what you will need to start with Azure high performance computing (HPC)
  
• The cloud giveth and the cloud taketh away - The cloud sometime is hard with us, here a example: www.theshallowsbook.com
  
• Connecting BizTalk with a mobile app using Azure Appfabric ServiceBus Queues, REST and WCF (Magnus) - Nice implementation of the AppFabric service bus queues in a integration application.
  
• SQL Azure Reporting Server – Windows Azure platform (sqlblog) - First step to use the Azure Reporting Server - Creation of a server. This post is the first one of a series, more to come.
  
• How to integrate a BizTalk Server application with Service Bus Queues and Topics (msdn.microsoft.com) - Learn what needs to be done so you can use Azure Service bus queues with BizTalk, in this very (and i mean very) well done and detailed post.
  
• Connection Modes (msdn.microsoft.com) - Good post explaining the many Azure Service bus connectivity options.
  
• Windows Azure Best Practices: Affinity Groups (BuckWoody) - Quick tips about affinity groups.
  
• Completing the Trip with AppFabric Queues - Part 2 of 2 on a quick demo playing with the AppFabric queues.
  
• Unable to find assembly references that are compatible with the target framework ‘Silverlight,Version=v4.0, Profile=WindowsPhone71′ (wadewegner.com) - Useful tips on a very easy to have issue with NuGet
• Cloud Cover Show: Episode 66 - Using Windows Azure Storage from the Windows Phone -  A nice walks through the NuGet packages: Windows Azure storage and Windows Phone.

Programming

• Software Disasters: Recovery and Prevention Strategies - Dollars spent in prevention are worth more than dollars spent in recovery.
• oData Binding for Navigation Controls (ASP.NET AJAX) - UI control that support oData binding with the usual Telerik quality... nice
• Binding to oData with jQuery Grid - The Infragistics version of a grid using oData.
• Method chaining and lazy evaluation in Ruby (Jeff Kreeftmeijer) - Nice post. Give some good tips about structure.
• How To Write Plugin in jQuery (Shakeel Iqbal | 28 Nov 2011 | Unedited contribution) - Yet another tutorial about creating a jQuery plugin. What is nice in this one is that is doing by iteration, starting with an empty plugin then adding bit of code to finish with some really great.

Miscellaneous

• Guide to Freeing up Disk Space under Windows 7 (Scott Hanselman) - A nice reminder…
• Chatty’s Dream Design Project - This is looking good as a coop pet project... It could use the last Azure social game SDK... any one?
• Repaving your PC: the easier way(maartenba) - Very smart use of chocolate and PowerShell... I will use it.

~Franky

Reading Notes #22

Cloud

• Creating and Publishing a Web Application to Windows Azure in 15 Minutes (PubSec) - See how the last update really did boost vs2010.
• How to consume RESTful Services using jQuery and/or Javascript (BrunoTerkaly) - Nice sample/code snippet of JQuery to call a service using RESTful
• A few tips to get up and running with the Azure AppFabric Access Control Service - Save some pain, here are great tips about using AppFabric ACS.
• Sticky Azure WCF service roles (SailingRock) - Nice work around to connectivity issue when using Azure.
• Azure Service Bus Tester (Roman Kiss | 20 Nov 2011) - An amazing demo very well explain and detail about Azure Service Bus.
• Moving Channel9.msdn.com to Windows Azure - A real case: moving to the cloud. A great story.
• Securing AppFabric Service bus with ACS - Quick introduction to the new Access Control Service (ACS).

  Clemens Vasters recorded a great video describing all these capabilities in details.

• Resources to run Open Source Stacks on Windows Azure (blogs.msdn.com) - You can use many different languages with Azure (that why it's so great) here some resources for: java, apache. php. node.js  and ruby.
• Basic Patterns for Everyday Programming (laktek.com) - Five bests practices that should be in your day to day.
• What the Heck Are Document Databases? - Really interesting article, that explain not only what are NoSql database but what you can do with it and some differences between them.
  

  • MongoDB (mongodb.org)
  • CouchDB (couchdb.apache.org)
  • RavenDB (ravendb.net)

  An Alternative, Not a Replacement, for Relational Databases

• Federation Metadata in SQL Azure Part 1 – Federations and Federation Members (Cihan Biyikoglu - SQL Azure) - Great post to start to demystify where is the metadata when using federation with Azure Sql. sql code.
• Communication between Windows Azure Roles (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) – Links on other nice post about communication in Azure. 

  Only role instances that are part of the same Windows Azure application can communicate with each other

• New Azure SDK, JLint, TFS, and guest host Martin Woodward - Nice podcast that review the actuality
• Partitions in Windows Azure Table - Good starting point to learn the basic and some best practices about partitioning.
• BlobShare Sample: ACS-Protected File Sharing (Vittorio Bertocci - MSFT) - Nice complement to the Cover Cloud Show (episode 63). This post explain how the access control service works with BlobShare by following a scenario.
• Implementing 5 important principles of REST using WCF Services (Shivprasad koirala) - Good post about the REST base.

Programming

• Ajax Control Toolkit November 2011 Release - Nice tooltips balloon and featured tabs are presented in this post.
• Ruby Golf - This post give some tricks to shortened your code, and introduce a competition... Dare you?
• Manage Project Libraries with NuGet - Everything you should know (and more) about the great NuGet
• Devenez un ninja avec Ruby #1 (SANCHEZ Benjamin) - Quick tips how to play with operators || and &&. In French.
• 6 Cool #VS2010 Quick Tips you should know when working with Visual Studio 2010 - VS2010 is a great tools, this post will show some great feature. May be like me one that you didn't know about!
• Introducing gem_git: tiny tools for working with gems’ code via Git (omgbloglol) - Really nice idea.

Miscellaneous

• Nico and Rory’s Stories (Chatty DM) - This is how we all should do. Bravo Chatty!
• 5 Unusual Ways to Become a Better Speaker (Jeff Haden) - How to level up your “preacher” skill

~Franky

Reading Notes # 20

 

Cloud

• Hybrid Reference Implementation Using BizTalk Server, Windows Azure, Service Bus and SQL Azure - A nice sample of using Biztalk with Azure
• Practical Development - Introducing unit of scale. very clear post
• An HTML5-Windows Azure Dashboard, Part 1 - In this post David Pallmann is starting a new project that will integrate HTML5, Javascript, JSon, JQuery and Azure
• Minimizing Connection Pool errors in SQL Azure - Here goes a best practices
• Windows Azure Drive Snapshot and Updating Azure Drive - Definition and description of Azure snapshot drive and it’s features, in a easy to read bullet form.
• Windows Azure for Social Applications - This post is about high level communication between cloud instance.
• A Comprehensive Introduction to Cloud Computing - This is a good introduction to what is the Cloud computing, using a real life analogy as starting point. (Unfortunately because of a blog restructuration the link is currently broken, but Wely did tell me that he will but it back soon.)
• Cloud Computing and the Reason for Hybrid Versions - A lot of good stats about the cloud computing, but I'm curious to see their sources...
• How To Easily Enable Windows Azure Diagnostics Remotely - Amazing post with a lot of great PowerShell script. Bookmark this one...
• A Game of Risk- Explain about WinRT

  Microsoft announced the Windows Runtime (WinRT) stack at the heart of Windows 8 during the BUILD conference keynote in September, everyone in the room knew the game had changed.

• How To Clean up old Windows Azure diagnostics - Another amazing post that merite to be bookmarked.
• Your users don't care if you use Web Sockets - Most user don't care about the tech used. They care about the result. Here and example.

  You can use the lovely CanIUse web site to find out if you browser supports something

• How to access Service Configuration settings in Windows Azure Startup Task - Good code snippet if you need to check config
• Azure Storage Analytics - A good list of links to code post.
• Deploying Node.js Applications to Windows Azure via Blobs or Git Sync - Quick explanation of the use of nodeRole project. Thanks to Steve Mark how made great tools projects.
• Le Bulletin Azure - épisode 1 - First video podcast in a series about Azure's actualities in french.

Programming

• Web Essentials from Mads Kristensen - This is definitely a most. Even more for people our doing not so often web development.

• SQL in the Wild - I didn't know about this "filtered index" feature available in MSSQL 2008. Really nice feature.

Miscellaneous

• Profanity doesn't work - Does swearing is a good thing in a technical presentation, or in a blog? S. Hanselman answer the question in this post
• Your images are a virus. They are EVERYWHERE on the Internet - 1 image, 227 copies, 4 years... images spread..
• The #1 Thing That Successful Freelancers Always Do - Business look for some one how can do better then them self.

~Franky

Reading Notes #19

 Cloud

• How to Detect If You Are Connected To A Federation Root (Herve Roggero) - Will be useful when federation will come out.
• Mixpanel Engineering - The cloud is not for all business, here the Mixpanel’s story .
• Unable to connect to one(or few) of the Windows Azure role instnaces using remote desktop (RDP) option - Nice tips.
• Enabling Support for 32-bit IIS Applications in Windows Azure - Perfect! Simple to do and simple to use.
• Article: Introducing Queues and Topics in Azure Service Bus - A lot of new exiting stuff for the middleware and integration.
• Free Databases in the Window Azure Marketplace - Nice place to start playing with oData and/or the Marketplace
• Windows Azure PowerShell Extensions - I look forward to see those extensions...

  PowerShell is a very powerful tool for your developer tool belt,

  For an overview of the Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets, watch this video

• Windows Azure, Fiddler and netmf - Nice to know. since it's not done by default.
• 10 Predictions About Cloud Computing - This is a good question. What will became the cloud in a long-term? Good post.
• SQL Azure PowerShell for Developers on the Run! - This is a most. A really sharp idea.

  “Quickly create firewall rules for where ever you are”

• Roger Doherty's SQL Server Evangelism Blog - Great new labs for migration. reporting. sync and federation. really good update. More info about the Data-tier Application Framework or DAC Fx.
• Windows Azure Traffic Manager - I know exactly in witch project i could use this...
• Reading configuration entries using System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager class in a Windows Azure Application - A well done 101 about read config in Azure project.
• 10 Enterprise Cloud Storage Options - A 10 list of cloud storage option... but no syng of Google or Azure?
• Deadlettering in Azure AppFabric Service Bus Brokered Messaging - A great introduction to the message architecture and how to use it with the new Azure AppFabric coming in.

  “The Developer’s Guide to AppFabric”, a free e-book on Azure AppFabric development. Available for download here.

  The Enterprise Integration Patterns website provides a description of the Dead Letter Channel pattern here.

• CloudCover Show: Episode 64 - Adding Push Notifications to Windows Phone Apps – Wade explain all the new stuff for Windows Phone apps by using composable NuGet packages with Windows Azure.
  
• Using Windows Azure Service Bus Messaging (Roman Kiss) – Everything you should know about Azure service bus, write inn one amazing post.

 

Miscellaneous

• Google+ Ripples brings something interesting to the table - Trying to but together something append 2 weeks ago on Twitter... nah forget it. but see how is it possible on Google +

~Franky