Reading Notes #359

Cloud

• GitLab 11.6 Supports Serverless Function Deployment (Sergio De Simone) - Interesting post that introduces a CI/CD tool that works really well with the serverless offering from all providers.
• How to migrate from AzureRM to Az in Azure PowerShell (Madeleine Clayton) - A mandatory read to migrate without hiccups.
• Great News, Azure Developers! Microsoft is Simplifying Your Path to Certification! (Liberty Munson ) - That's excellent news!

Programming

• 11 Of the Best Scrum Tools to Increase Your Team’s Productivity (Ben Aston) - Nice list of great tools. I would add Azure DevOps to it.
• Background jobs in ASP.NET Core made easy with Hangfire (Matthew D. Groves) - This post helps us to be quickly set up with hangfire.
• How to Use a jQuery Progress Bar in Your Web App (Alberta Williams) - This post shows many different ways to use some progress bar as long as you have Kendo UI.
• Introduction to Bash Scripting: Iterative Statements Using Loops (Daniel Farina) - Great introduction tutorial to the fundamental loops. This time it's in bash... Yeah, if you didn't know, you probably need it.
• Quick Introduction to C# Span. (Doug Mair) - A nice new feature in C# that is absolutely not related to the span in Html that we know....aaah!
• Using Visual Studio Code to program Circuit Python with an AdaFruit NeoTrellis M4 (Scott Hanselman) - Very cool son-dad project post and how to use the tool we like.
• When You SHOULD Comment Your Code (Peter Kellner) - Commenting or not commenting... Should it be THE question?

Databases

• MongoDB on Windows in Minutes with Docker (Jeremy Likness) - This post is a fantastic setup tutorial, perfect to get started in a snap! Using docker so easy...

Miscellaneous

• Enjoy some DOS Games this Christmas with DOSBox (Scott Hanselman) - With DOSBox and Retropie... We should be good for the holidays... If you don't have a Raspberry Pie this post is perfect for you since it focuses on DOSBox.

Books

How to Be a Bawse A Guide to Conquering Life
Lilly Singh
Not only the message is strong, but the way she delivers it is awesome. Many times I laugh and nod of the head... Definitely a great book to read at the end of the year when resolution time is not far...









~

Reading Notes #349

Cloud

• Deploying an ARM template with Atlas (Louis DeJardin) - Wow! That tool looks very interesting. I'll definitely give it a try.
• What's new in PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell | Blog | Microsoft Azure (Danny Maertens) - The cloud shell is a great tool, always there and accessible.

Programming

• How To Add A “Try In Play-With-Docker” Button To Your Github Project (Oren Yomtov) - Wow! I didn't know this project, but I'll definitely try it... And sooner than later trust me!
• Why I Use NodeJS for Basically Everything I Do. (Kieran Maher) - Interesting post, where the author shares with us the reason why he uses nodejs in all different situation.

Miscellaneous

• Installing Azure Data Studio (Steve Jones ) - A quick review of the tool. Personally, I love it, but I don't spend as much time in it as I use too when working with MSMS.
• What does Stack Overflow want to be when it grows up? (Jeff Atwood) - Very interesting article about Stack Overflow. We all use it and this is why it's so interesting to know where it comes from and where it goes.

~ Enjoy!

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.

Reading Notes #315

Suggestion of the week

• DAX optimization examples (Alberto Ferrari) - An incredible dive into a DAX performance analysis. I loved it.

Cloud

• Bing Speech API extends its text to speech support to 34 languages (Qinying Liao) - Great new languages supported.
• Brand Detection in Microsoft Video Indexer (Dr. Abed Asi) - This is a great addition to this service.
• In order event processing with Azure Functions (Jeff Hollan) - This post explains how to keep our Functions in control to respect the message order.
• Monitoring issues on Stack Overflow with serverless, CosmosDB and Teams (Shayne Boyer) - Awesome post that gives all the detail on how a reel life solution is built.

Programming

• Docker for Windows Desktop... Now With Kubernetes! - Docker Blog (Jim Armstrong) - This post explains all the wonderful things you will have only by checking one simple checkbox.

Databases

• Share reports with your teams and partners | Microsoft Power BI Blog | Microsoft Power BI (Lukasz Pawlowski) - Perfect, we can now share report directly like we could with dashboard.
• Power BI Desktop February Feature Summary | Microsoft Power BI Blog | Microsoft Power BI (Amanda Cofsky) - So my great new features!

Miscellaneous

• How Long is Long Enough? Minimum Password Lengths by the World's Top Sites (Troy Hunt) - Do you use good passwords? Because length is not the only thing.

Photo credit: nickpettican on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

Reading Notes #289

Cloud

• Gain business insights using Power BI reports for Azure Backup (Pallavi Joshi) - Nice Power Bi visualization, I know a few clients who are looking forward of using that.
• Microsoft Azure Stack is ready to order now (Mike Neil) - It worth the time we wait, now hybrid solutions will be so much more simple to create. And I will definitely try that ASDK (dev version)
• Nested Virtualization in Azure (Joy Fan) - A VM in a VM, it does sound like the movie Inception, but it's, in fact, very powerful.
• Processing Feedback Evaluations (paper) with OCR, Logic Apps, Azure Functions & Power BI (Jeff Hollan) - Great real-life overview using multiple Azure serverless services.
• Push your images to Azure CDN on publish with gulp (Shayne Boyer) - We all understand that CDN could seriously help our web application. Well, this post will show you that it could be really easy to implement and integrate to your CI/CD.
• Running Azure Batch jobs using the Azure CLI – no code required (Mark Scurrell) - A really cool example of what can be done by Azure CLI and batch.

Programming

• Ubuntu now in the Windows Store: Updates to Linux on Windows 10 and Important Tips (Scott Hanselman) - Right now, it's still only available in the developer's version, but this fall the new official version should include them... Pretty cool.

Databases

• Migrating to Azure SQL Database (Gavin Payne) - Very interesting and complete post that regroups references and gives details about some of the alternatives when it's migration time.

Reading Notes #283

Suggestion of the week

• Docker for .NET Developers (Part 2) - Steve Gordon's Blog (Steve Gordon) - Fantastic second part of a series of tutorials. This one focus on the building phase.

Cloud

• Create an Intelligent App With Google Cloud Speech and Natural Language APIs (Ashraff Hathibelagal) - A very nice tutorial that will help us to get started with Google API.
• Using Azure Automation with Multiple Subscriptions (John Knightly) - This post explains how to overpass a challenging barrier: executing a script in multiple subscriptions.

Programming

• Azure CLI 2.0: Make Bash Output More Readable (Chris Pietschmann) - Useful post.It not because we are using prompt that it must be difficult to ready the information.
• Azure CLI 2.0: Reset / Change Azure VM Password (Chris Pietschmann) - So simple when you know it...
• Choice amongst cross-platform .NET IDEs - VS Code, Visual Studio for Mac, JetBrains Rider (Scott Hanselman) - What I like the most is that you can now stay productive on different OS, because you are still using the same tools.
• Docker for .NET Developers (Part 1) - Steve Gordon's Blog (Steve Gordon) - This post is perfect for those who know nothing about Docker, and would like to understand the vocabulary before getting deeper.
• How a 650MB Node.js Image for Docker Uses Less Space Than a 50MB Image (Derick) - As unusual, the devil is in the details, and this post does an excellent job at explaining those details.
• Testing PowerShell with Pester (Adam Bertram) - I use Pester a little while ago and loved it. It's definitely a framework that worth a try.

Databases

• Azure Cosmos DB: Build a .NET application using the Table API (Benjamin Xue) - This post shares few tips to fix common issue when working with Cosmo DB.

Miscellaneous

• How to Build a Personal Brand and Reputation as a Software Developer (John Sonmez) - Nice article (chapter) that explains how to improve your life.

Reading Notes #281

Cloud

• 5 simple steps to create and test your first Azure Function App (Abhijit Jana) - It couldn't be simpler.
  
• Azure CLI 1.0 vs 2.0 Compared, Installation and Usage (Chris Pietschmann) - This is such a nice post. It compares side by side both versions.
  
• Upgrade classic Backup and Site Recovery vaults to ARM Recovery Services vaults (Aruna Somendra) - Nice post that shares a good overview of all the news related to vault.

Programming

• BUILD 2017 Conference Rollup for .NET Developers - Scott Hanselman (Scott Hanselman) - I'm sure we'll continue to see more of those MsBuild summaries, but this one is from Scott directly and focuses on .Net.

Databases

• Dear DocumentDB customers, welcome to Azure Cosmos DB! (Rimma Nehme) - This post explains where CosmoDB is coming from.
  
• Introducing Per Minute (RU/m) provisioning to lower your cost, increase your performance (Arnaud Comet) - Great post that explains the relation between RU/m and RU/s two very important notion in CosmoBD.
  
• Migrating to Azure Data Sync 2.0 (Joshua Gnanayutham) - I always found that tool useful, and I'm happy to see it continues to evolve.

Miscellaneous

• Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update, just don't (Troy Hunt) - A very interesting post about a painful situation, and user's obligations.
  
• Is There a Correct Way to Comment Your Code? - NDepend (Erik Dietrich) - Interesting post that tries to find the answer of the eternal question comment or not comment.
  
• Note-taking made easier for everyone—redesigning OneNote (OneNote Team) - Nice new features. To unload your Onenote, simply click on file (or th left arrow), then account, and finally the update button.
  
• Suggestions and Tips for attending your first tech conference - Scott Hanselman (Scott Hanselman) - I think I will do a copy of that one, and I will share-it with people who come with me on an event. Really nice.

Reading Notes #280

Cloud

• Announcing AzCopy on Linux Preview (Sercan Guler) - Fantastic news! One tool for everywhere.
  
• At Build, Microsoft expands its Cognitive Services collection of intelligent APIs (Microsoft Azure) - The Microsoft Build is always full of announcements, and this year wasn't an exception. Many novelties in the world of AI from new services to a new MVP category.
  
• Build a Serverless MBaaS with Azure Functions (shellmonger) - Nice tutorial that shows how to leverage Azure function with DocumentDB and node.js.
  
• What’s new for Serverless at Microsoft Build 2017 (Raman Sharma) - Another post that shares the novelties announced at Build, this time with serverless in mind.

Miscellaneous

• Login and Authentication for your ASP.NET Core Web API – The Big Picture (Jon Hilton) - Nice quick post about the different options regarding authentication and authorization for our API with also an explanation of the difference between them.
  
• Microsoft Flow + Azure Storage + WebJobs + MailChimp + Outlook (Troy Hunt) - Great post about a real life integration story.

Reading Notes #279

Cloud

• 5 Tips for Successful Azure App Development (Alex Bennett) - Nice simple tips to get started on th good foot and get the best of cloud architecture.
  
• Deployment made easy with Zeit (Scott Hanselman) - Interesting podcast. I will definitely try both hyper console and that new deployment tool.
  
• Enabling Azure CDN from Azure web app and storage account portal extension (Manling Zhang) - Configuring a CDN as never been that easy. Awsome.
  
• In-order delivery of correlated messages in Logic Apps by using Service Bus sessions (Aprana Seth) - This post explains all the details on how to respect the message's publishing order when using LogicApp in your integration solution.
  
• Tactical Integration with Logic Apps (Michael Stephenson) - Interesting post about the advantages of doing integration using PaaS on Azure.

Programming

• Contributing to .NET for Dummies (Rion Williams) - Another post where the author shares his experience (I love those. That's the real life); this one about participating in an open-source project.

Databases

• Introduction to Azure PowerShell Modules for the SQL Server DBA Part 4 (Edwin Sarmiento) - Of course, things could be created outside of the Azure portal. This last post of the series puts all the pieces together... and even gives us the full script.
  
• Mashup: SQL Server on Linux in Docker on a Mac with Visual Studio Code (Julie Lerman) - Cool post where Julia shares with us the results of her "database in a container" experience.

Miscellaneous

• Reckon you've seen some stupid security things? Here, hold my beer... (Troy Hunt) - Ouf..... I'm not sure if I'm more scared or shocked.

Reading Notes #272

Cloud

• Cloud Messaging – Amazon or Azure? (Steve Smith) - Great post that suggests an answer to the eternal question.
  
• Connect Tableau to an Azure Analysis Services server (Josh Caplan) - Nice integration.
  
• Visual Studio Talk Show - Les données et Azure (Guy Barrette) - It was really pleasant to record that podcast. I hope it is also to listen.
  
• Leverage the Azure CLI with these examples (Brian Benz) - If you would like to help Azure CLI to get better, this post explains how you could help.
  
• Using templates to customize restored VMs from Azure Backup (Trinadh Kotturu) - This post shares nice tips to get the maximum of our VMs backup.

Programming

• ASP.NET Core Error Management with elmah.io (Damien Bod) - Elmah is a fantastic tool. This tutorial explains how to use it with .NetCore.
  
• Options for CSS and JS Bundling and Minification with ASP.NET Core (Scott Hanselman) - Nice tutorial that shows the how to find our sweet spot with the minification in VS2017.
  
• ZEIT now deployments of open source ASP.NET Core web apps with Docker - Scott Hanselman (hanselman.com) - Interesting new tools. I'm looking forward to trying it myself.

Databases

• Planet scale aggregates with Azure DocumentDB (Aravind Ramachandran Program Manager) - Fantastic news that was requested a lot by all the users. Get all the details in this post about all these new capabilities.

Reading Notes #271

 

 

Suggestion of the week

• Azure Functions vs Web Jobs: How to choose? (Chris Pietschmann) - Wow! This is the best post I've read about Azure Function. It really describes clearly the differences between the two. A must for every cloud developer.

Cloud

• Creating Azure Key Vault with logging using Azure Resource Manager ARM templates (Stéphane Lapointe) - Nice post that shows how to use the quick template and explains how pieces work together.

Programming

• Announcing New ASP.NET Core and Web Development Features in Visual Studio 2017 (Jeffrey T. Fritz ) - With the release of VS2017this week comes also a lot of great improvements in the .Net Core tooling, and that a good news.
  
• Azure App Service Authentication in an ASP.NET Core Application (Adrian Hall) - Interesting tutorial to learn more about security (authentification) with Asp.Net Core.
  
• Azure Functions Visual Studio Tools Preview (Chris Pietschmann) - Great improvement, we can now work, code, and debug in our "home " comfort.
  
• Simplifying Bundling and Minification in ASP.NET Core (Shayne Boyer) - This post is the perfect tutorial, short and complete. After reading it, you will be ready to use this package.

Databases

• Azure Data Lake Tools for VSCode (Preview) - March Update (Jenny Jiang) - Really cool extension.

Miscellaneous

• Azure Data Sync update (Joshua Gnanayutham) - This post shares the road map of a very useful tool. Glad to see it coming in the new Azure Portal.
  
• Microsoft has created an A.I. that can write its own code (QuHarrison Terry) - Interesting innovation, it will be nice to see where that will bring us.
  
• Swarm Mode with Fleet Management and Collaboration now in public beta, powered by Docker Cloud (Borja Burgos) - Interesting new feature available on all the main "Docker platform".

Reading Notes #270

Suggestion of the week

• Azure Command Line 2.0 now generally available (Kamaljit Bath) - Azurecli definitely made a great jump in this version 2.0. With it reaching GA, we should all start using it.

Cloud

• Azure Managed Disk–Overview (Vincent-Philippe Lauzon ) - This post is a nice quick introduction on what are managed disks.
  
• Azure brings 5 new services to Canada (Chelsea Carter) - Good news for our clients that need to stay in Canadian Data centers, they now have a lot more tools in their box.
  
• Deploying ARM Templates using Visual Studio Team Services (Jakob Ehn) - This post shows how to automate Azure deployments. It doesn't do it with the usual happy path, but with a very common situation where we need access Key and other information from the deployed resources to complete the deployment.
  
• Deploying a web app and an Azure SQL database with ARM template without providing any password (Vivien Chevallier) - Great tutorial that gives us a very good opportunity to learn some best practices.
  
• Integrating SharePoint With Other Services Using Azure Logic Apps - Part One (Nakkeeran Natarajan) - Nice quick intro to the SharePoint connector in Logic Apps.
  
• Serverless architecture with Azure - Simple Talk (Christos Matskas) - Good post that does a little tour of the serverless services in Azure.However, I would disagree on the simplistic view of Logic Apps and its limitation. Furthermore, I would have talked more about are extremely powerful these services can become if put together in a solution.

Databases

• Loading files from Azure Blob Storage into Azure SQL Database (Jovan Popovic) - Cool. This bulk command has been so useful on-premises; it's great to have them back.
  
• Deploy Docker Container to Oracle Cloud Service (Arun Gupta) - Great post that explains a lot on how to use databases in dicker containers.

Miscellaneous

• GitKraken vs the CLI (Brett Goldman) - Cool comparison between the Git prompt and GitKranken.
  
• Introducing Raspberry Pi Zero W - Great news from Raspberry Pi this week, this new version is simply gorgeous.

Reading Notes #266

Suggestion of the week

• 22 tips to lower Azure pricing and optimize hosting costs (Matt Watson) - Fantastic list that overviews a lot of opportunities to lower the total of our Azure receipt.

Cloud

• Announcing the new Azure Marketplace experience (Shankar Sivadasan) - Another proof that Microsoft is really listening to his customers and partners, nice improvement.
  
• Azure Application Insights – An essential part of Microsoft DevOps Strategy (Subodh Sohoni) - Excellent post that explains why Application Insights is a must for all DevOps.
  
• Calling a Logic App from an HTML form (Jeff Hollan) - Nice usage of the HTTP trigger.
  
• Now available: Azure invoices emailed direct to your inbox (Adam Pickersgill) - Sweet! Now we talk.
  
• Understanding the Azure App Service Editor (Ken Cenerelli) - My first reaction was: No way, this is awesome! And it is. E was in place to implement this cool tool. However, remember that this is only to do some quick fix, because, at the next deployment, these changes will be lost.

Programming

• If You Automate Your Tests, Automate Your Code Review (Erik Dietrich) - Interesting post that explains the idea about automating our code reviews. It gives a book as suggestions to learn more about it.

Databases

• SQL Database Query Editor available in Azure Portal (Ninar Nuemah) - I was looking for this since the old query tool was removed. I will probably continue to use SQL studio management or VsCode, put what a time saving, and you are investigating a problem... Open a blade right from the Azure portal and voila!

Miscellaneous

• MVP API Intro (Daron Yöndem) - I love it! I already have few ideas in mind, and I'm curious to see what you will do guys.

Reading Notes #265

Suggestion of the week

• Dockerizing a real world asp.net core application (Thien Nguyen) - Fantastic post. I really like it when authors are sharing with us their trials and errors because it the best way to really learn something.

Cloud

• How Azure Functions Pricing Works (Chris Pietschmann) - This post cannot explain more clearly and simply the pricing formulas. At least for this service...
  
• How to download a file from Blob Storage using Azure API Management? (Alexander Laysha) - Great post that explains how we can optimize or performance without lowering our security.
  
• Job Handlers and Dependency Injection in Azure WebJobs (Vivien Chevallier) - A very useful tutorial that closes a series on Azure Web jobs.
  
• Manage App Service, SQL Database, and more - Azure Management Libraries for .NET (Asir Selvasingh) - It's time to try the new fluent interface. A good way to build an easy to read a script, that will build our solution.
  
• Single Instance VMs Now With 99.9% SLA - Good news, double with good SLAs.

Programming

• Calling Windows 10 APIs From a Desktop Application (Michael Crump) - Great! Windows IoT for all!
  
• Docker for Devs Part 1: Containerizing Your Application - Lock Me Down (Thien Nguyen) - Amazing post, first of series that explains how to use containers and Docker tools.

Databases

• Loading data into Azure SQL Data Warehouse just got easier (Casey Karst) - Interesting tips that can save us so much time...

Miscellaneous

• VIDEO: How to get started with technical public speaking! (Scott Hanselman) - This one-hour video is a great way to relief yourself a lot of pressure if you are, or want to start giving talks... It's definitely a good investment of your time.

Reading Notes #264

Cloud

• Azure Logic App Updates January 2017 (Chris Pietschmann) - You through the number of new features would be less because of holidays Guess again, once again this team delivers tons of new stuff.
  
• Collaboration and federation: Azure Service Bus Messaging on-premises futures (Clemens Vasters) - Important announcement about Service Bus and his sibling's future.
  
• DevOps with Azure Functions - a holistic approach (Christos Matskas ) - Excellent post that explains why so many people love and use Azure Functions (or any serverless options).
  
• Easily Manage Azure Web App Connection Strings using PowerShell | Opsgility (Chris Pietschmann) - Great tutorial in PowerShell that provides guidance on editing AppSetting in Azure.
  
• How to enable the public preview of IaaS backups with Recovery Services in Canada using PowerShell (Stéphane Lapointe) - You want backup capabilities today, and you live in Canada? This is the post for you.

Programming

• Introducing Docker 1.13 (Docker Core Engineering) - This post summarizes all the great features added in the new release and shows again why Docker is such a fantastic tool in the containers' world.

Databases

• Automated Partition Management with Azure Analysis Services (Christian Wade) - Interesting ideas ready to be reviewed... more to come.

Miscellaneous

• Atom on Windows (Damien Guard) - Nice update.

Reading Notes #225

Cloud

• Reduce Cloud Data Costs and Improve System Performance in Azure (Marc Dugas) - Useful post that shares good tips to save more.
  
• Developer's introduction to Azure IoT (Olivier Bloch) - Great post that explains what is IoT and the strengths o the Azure flavor.
  
• Using PowerShell to manage API Connections (Kevin Lam) - Quick tip to do some clean-up in our connections.

Programming

• Conditional Workflows in Postman (ankit) - First post of a promising series, it sets the table listing the tools required to have a dynamic workflow.
  
• Using Web Deploy in Visual Studio Team Services Release Management (Jakob Ehn) - Nice post that demystifies MSBuild deployment on VSTS.
  
• Almost everyone is doing the API economy wrong (Ed Anuff) - Interesting point of view, if you do API, it's a must.

Databases

• Public preview: JSON in Azure SQL Database - Interesting, we will be able to do json query directly in the Sql Database.
  
• Simple and reliable data movement with Azure Data Factory Copy Wizard (Anand Subbaraj) - Since all cloud projects included data migration, any reliable tool is a good news. I'm looking forward to try this one.

Reading Notes #210

Suggestion of the week

• Connect(); // 2015 - All keynotes, Q&A and the technical videos are here...

Cloud

• Load data into Azure Search with zero code required (Evan Boyle) - Great news the Azure Search team had been working very hard, and they give us a super data import tool.
  
• Deep Diagnostics for Web Apps with Application Insights (Merav Davidson) - This post does a very good summary of the announcement yesterday at the Connect about the role that play Application Insights into the ALM.
  
• Announcing the Azure SDK 2.8 for .NET (Brady Gaster) - This post explains all the new featutes that are included in the new SDK 2.8.
  
• Azure Diagnostics Integration with Application Insights (Harel Broitman) - Nice post that shows how Application Insights can help us to find the bottleneck while debugging, thanks to the new SDK upgrade.
  
• Using Azure PowerShell 1.0 to Deploy an ARM Template - Awesome post that gives a good example with the new Azure PowerShell v 1.0.
  
• Azure App Service Updates – November 2015 (Jeffrey Fritz) - This post shares the last news of azure app services.
  
• Using Azure Automation in Azure - everywhere (Gary Keong) - Interesting post that highlights the difference between different Azure cloud and how to adapt our scripts.
  
• Azure Mobile Apps November 2015 Update (Matthew Henderson) - Great news features are all explains in this post.

Databases

• Using Power BI with SQL Data Warehouse (Drew DiPalma) - Another nice example how to connect PowerBI to something else to get awesome results.

Reading Notes #209

Cloud

• Microsoft and Red Hat partner to deliver more flexibility and choice (Scott Guthrie) - Great news.
  
• Using Redis as a Service in Azure to speed up ASP.NET applications - Nice post that shares some good reasons why we should use Redis cache (Azure SaaS).
  
• Azure Runbook – A complete (simple) example (Vincent-Philippe Lauzon) - This post is a great introduction to Azure automation (aka runbook).
  
• Azure Logic Apps Automation - Nice quick post to tease us about what we can do with Azure Logic App.
  
• Application Insights Content Pack for Power BI (Dale Koetke) - Really cool content pack that was announced.

Databases

• DocumentDB: The move towards NOSQL – Part 1 (Adarsha Datta) - Nice little post of a series to get us started about documentDB.

Programming

• Visual Studio Update 1 RC - It's already the time of an new release...
  
• Trace your Application Insights events inside Visual Studio Diagnostic tools (Abhijit Jana) - Wow! Application Insights alone is awesome, with the new VS2015 it's just turn it to eleven.

Reading Notes #207

Suggestion of the week

• A Beginner’s Mind - A very inspiring article, especially for the younger, but also for the more experienced, that want to keep their interior flame.

Cloud

• Build it, Use it, Destroy it! - Interesting thoughts about a different approach when working with VMs.
  
• Public Cloud Anxiety – Dealing with maintenance & failures of VMs (marc) - Very nice pot that explains how Azure can be stable even during "bad" events.
  
• How to Incorporate Application Insights into a JavaScript Web App (Mansib Rahman) - An incredibly detail and precise tutorial about Application Insights.
  
• Playing with Azure Connectors (Adarsha Datta) - Twilio IFTTT and Logic App are incredible connectors.

Databases

• How to create a MySQL Database on Azure (Susan Ibach) - Excellent post that explains how to have a MySQL database in Azure.
  
• October update for Azure SQL Data Warehouse (Matt Usher) - Learn more about the latest improvements.

Programming

• Lazy Loading Images on the Web - (Brian Rinaldi) - Very cool post that share (and explains) a lot of tools and frameworks to implement a lazy loading process.
  
• Integrating Visual Studio Code with dnx-watch to develop ASP.NET 5 applications - Cool task in VsCode to auto-refresh asp.net website.
  
• It's happening - OpenSSH for Windows...from Microsoft - Great news for any and every PowerShell user. We are moving forward!
  
• An Introduction to the new TFS/VSO Build System (Lachezar Arabadzhiev) - Great video that will give you everything you need for doing your next project in VSO.
  
• ASP.NET - ASP.NET 5 Anywhere with OmniSharp and Yeoman - Amazing post, the perfect starting point to all developers on Mac... or Linux.
  
• Visual Studio - Bower: Modern Tools for Web Development - Fantastic post that demystify bower and an excellent tutorial.
  
• How to use Visual Studio Online to Streamline Your Application Development with Agile Methodology (Mansib Rahman) - Great tutorial that gives us a little tour of VSO work section.

Miscellaneous

• My Story: How I work, the services I use (Simon May) - Interesting post where the author shares his favourite tools and how he uses them.

Reading Notes #201

Cloud

• Tracing and logging with Application Insights (Andrei Dzimchuk) - You know the 101 about App Insights and you are looking for something more specific? This post if a must it shows how to transform an ordinary logger in a great source of information.

Programming

• Usage of into and let keyword in Query Expression C# – Humble bits (Ashish Kumar) - This post gives a very clear explanation of the key work let.
  
• Node v4.0.0 - This post explains the major features included in the last release of Node.js.
  
• Elastic database client library now open sourced (Silvia Doomra) - Nice post that explains the reason why a Microsoft library would like to be open source, gives a quick definition of the elastic database, of course. course.

Databases

• Moving Your SQL Databases to Azure – Things to Know - Fantastic post that explains, well, everything we must know to get started with Azure SQL Database.

Miscellaneous

• How to turn one tiny thought into a blog post worth reading - I like this post, it gives a lot of tips on how turn your brain dump (ideas) in something more productive.
  
• A Remote Worker's Guide To Staying Healthy - This is definitely not a technical post. However, since are all working sitting in front of a computer, it's time for a little reminder.
  
• Creating a Portable Windows 10 Environment with Windows To Go - Interesting... I knew this was possible with some Linux distribution, but I didn't know it was possible with Windows.
  
• Not in my job description (Marc) - I just love it. Nice post.