Reading Notes #186

I finally watch most of the recorded sessions from Build, Ignite and MVPvConf, and I had more time to read.

Suggestion of the week

• Learning to git bisect (Rural) - Very, very interesting walkthrough, I never knew Git got that kind of feature.

Cloud

• Azure preview portal support for Cloud Services (Nick Harris) - +1 for the Preview portal.
  
• Azure Bits #1 - Up and Running (Rik Robinson) - Nice little tutorial that implement an asp.net website with queue and tasks.
  
• Azure Automation: New Graphical and Textual Authoring Features (Chris Sanders) - Perfect post to get started on Azure Automatiom.
  
• Azure PowerShell DSC Extension v1.10 released (Kris Bash) - Cool
  
• A taste of DocumentDB through our Query Playground (Andrew Hoh) - This post is a quick introduction of an interesting tool available for free on the Azure website.
  
• .NET Rocks! - Episode 1137 (Carl Franklin and Richard Cambell) - Nice episode where Sam Vanhoutte shares with us his impression about BizTalk in Azure in all it's different flavor: VM, SaaS, LogicApp.
  
• Debugging Desired State Configuration (DSC) on (Alexandre Brisebois) - This post explains every step of a debugging session with DSC using PowerShell.
  
• A Monster VM Azure Resource Manager Template (Alexandre Brisebois) - Nice deep dive into how to create a custom template for the Azure Resources Manager.
  
• Microsoft – the only vendor named a leader in Gartner Magic Quadrants for IaaS, Application PaaS, and Cloud Storage (Nicole Herskowitz) - Very interesting post that summarizes the Gatner document about today cloud leaders.

Microsoft is currently the only vendor to be positioned as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrants for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service , Application Platform as a Service , Cloud Storage Services and Server Virtualization

• Getting Started with Azure Notification Hubs (xximjasonxx) - This is a nice post to get started with Azure Hub and nice tool Service Bus Explorer (available online).

Programming

• JustDecompile Engine Becomes Open Source (Iana Tsolova) - Time to go checks what's under the hood.
  
• Create Node Task for Visual Studio Code (Steve Michelotti) - Nice post that explains clearly how create a task in VisualStudio Code.
  
• Customize ASP.NET MVC 6 View Location Easily (Jeff) - Nice tips, and a very simple solution to make the Shared folder more visible.

Miscellaneous

• Task Management for Teams (JD Meier) - Interesting thoughts about the size of our planned periods.
  
• Getting Started with Azure Notification Hubs (xximjasonxx) - This is a nice post to get started with Azure Hub and nice tool
  
• Open Source: A Small Guide for Newcomers (Felix Rieseberg) - If you already know your base with git and would like to jump-on the open-source wave, this post is the perfect start point. It provides nice advices and good references for more detail information.

~Frank

Note about the image of this week: This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request here.

Reading Notes #185

Suggestion of the week

• Building a Monster Virtual Machine on #Azure - Monster exists! Lear how to create an insane Azure VM with PowerShell in this nice tutorial.

Cloud

• Building a Monster Virtual Machine on #Azure - Monster exists! Lear how to create an insane Azure VM with PowerShell in this nice tutorial.
  
• Full-Text Search is now available for preview in Azure SQL Database (Mihaela Blendea) - Fantastic! This feature was missing for a long time.
  
• New DocumentDB Import Options (Stephen Baron) - If you didn't have tried DocumentDB yet, now will be a great time. With the import to that simplify the task... we have now more ways to bring our data in.
  
• BizTalk in Azure Platform as a Service - Fourth post of a series on Biztalk this one explains the fantastic tools we have in this PaaS world.
  
• A Custom DSC Module to Stripe Data Disks on (Alexandre Brisebois) - This post explains how to create Azure VMs with PowerShell using DSC, a new and powerful feature of Azure.

Programming

• Node.js Tools 1.0 on GitHub and VMs Available (Visual Studio Blog) - Very nice tool, if you are doing Nodejs it's a must. Even more since it's now included in the Azure community VMs...

~Frank

Reading notes #183

Suggestion of the week

• Announcing Azure Service Fabric: Reducing Complexity in a Hyper-scale World (Mark Russinovich) - A very exiting news. I am looking forward to play with that Azure Service Fabric.

Cloud

• Think #Microservices - Very interesting post that explains why microservices are so promissing.
  
• BizTalk in Azure Infrastructure as a Service - Nice post that shares all kinds of scenario for BizTalk in an Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) context.
  
• UPDATED for 2015: How to install the nodejs Ghost blog software on Azure Web Apps (and the Deploy to Azure Button) (Scott Hanselman) - It can be that easy, right? Well, it is!
  
• With Machine Learning, Amazon Wants to Multiply the Power of Big Data (Saroj Kar) - Amazon is joining the machine learning market. the future promise to be interesting.
  
• Tutorial: Using Ant and Jenkins to automate the deployment of Java projects from the Azure Toolkit for Eclipse - MS Open Tech (Martin Sawicki) - Very nice tutorial when java is your thing and Azureyour destination.
  
• Announcing General Availability of Azure Premium Storage - Good news, now we can get more performance from our storage.
  
• Azure PowerShell 101 - Managing the Cloud from the Command Line (Channel 9) (Scott Hanselman) - Great video that shows few tricks to get started with Azure powershell commands.

Programming

• Mobile app privacy insanity – we’re still failing massively at this - Interesting and scaring post about the lack of security in mobile apps.
  
• IoT: Do you really should have knowledge in electronics? (Sergiy Baydachnyy) - Interesting thoughts about how to get started.

Databases

• MongoDB vs. Azure DocumentDB - Interesting post that compares the new kid on the block with an older one.

Miscellaneous

• Windows 10 - The Fast Ring and BUILD 10061 (Scott Hanselman) - Nice video that shows us the evolution of the very processing windows 10.

Reading Notes #182

Suggestion of the week

• Orchestrating massive parallelisation of Azure WebJobs for fun and profit (Troy Hunt) - An awesome post. I really like those post where we learn step by step what has been tried and failed, and how to move from point A to Z.

Cloud

• Azure Mobile Services and APIs – RESTful and Custom (Adarsha Datta) - Nice tutorial about how to use Azure service Api and customizes it.
• How Azure Web Apps Hosts an ASP.NET 5 Application (tugberkugurlu.com) - Interesting post th0at shows how aspnet works with Azure under the hood.
  
• NoSQL database service Azure DocumentDB now Generally Available (John Macintyre) - Know everything you need to get started on DocumetDB, now in GA. Nice free import tool was also released.

released the DocumentDB Data Migration tool, an open source solution that imports data from a variety of sources, including JSON files, CSV files, SQL Server, MongoDB and existing DocumentDB collections.

• Mostly Cloudy - April 14th - This post is a nice overview of the Azure actuality for April.
  
• Think #Microservices - Very interesting post that explains why microservices could be so promising.

Programming

• How to Update a Forked Repository (blog.falafel.com) - Nice little how to for Github and sourcetree.
  
• Understanding Internationalization in ASP.NET MVC (About the Author) - Nice tutorial that explains the difference between: Internationalization, localisation, globalisation and how to use them to build a nice app.net website.
  
• New book: Node.js for .NET Developers (KimSpilker Kim Spilker) - Today nodejs is an unavoidable language, this book explains how it works from a c# point of view.

Miscellaneous

• Free ebook: Managing Agile Open-Source Software Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Online (KimSpilker Kim Spilker) - A free book, that's always welcome.
  
• Avoiding Common Executive DevOps Mistakes (Ericka Chickowski) - Interesting post about common mistakes when people are trying to do agile methodology.
  
• Microsoft BUILD Announces #BuildTour (MVP Award Program) - Great news!
  
• Dropbox can now open documents straight into Microsoft Office Online (Dave Yin) - Now that what I call a reel int0egration, and a great feature!

~Frank B.

Reading Notes #180

Suggestion of the week

• Microsoft Azure dev/test scenario considerations (Graham Smith, Kim Spilker) - Very useful articl0e with a lot of information. Many deferent scenarios are explained.

Cloud

• Microsoft Virtual Academy presents Developing Solutions with Azure DocumentDB (Ryan CrawCour) - A date to mark on our calendar. A free deepdive on DocumentDB.
  
• Azure, Cloud and Enterprise Icon Set - Nice icon pack.
  
• Azure Resource Explorer: a new tool to discover the Azure API (David Ebbo) - Nice post that introduces a nice tool. Azure Ressources Explorer is in preview but looks very promising.
  
• Delphi Automotive - Interesting post about IoT and the cloud.
  
• Microsoft Virtual Academy presents Developing Solutions with Azure DocumentDB (Ryan CrawCour) - Free training about documentDB... on the April 7.
  
• Getting interesting data into Azure Machine Learning (AzureML) (jennmar) - Nice post that explains what we needto get started with AzureML.

Programming

• What’s New in Fiddler 4.5 (Eric Lawrence) - Great news, this fantastic tool has just been updated.
  
• Node.js Tools 1.0 for Visual Studios - Nice post that explains how this new addon to Visual studio is helping us to debug our Node.js code.
  
• Continuous Integration for Node.js Projects with TeamCity - Nice tutorial that explains what are our free options to get started.
  
• Getting to know the new ASP.NET 5 configuration framework (Andrei Dzimchuk)- Great post that explains what are the new configuration options with the new .Net and how it works.
  
• On the importance of OpenSearch (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post. Looking forward to see more sites (and blog) using this feature.

Miscellaneous

• 9 Fundamental Laws of Effective Communication Skills - Interesting post about essentials skills.
  
• Microsoft reveals Surface 3 with Windows 8.1, starting at $499 and on sale May 5 - Nothing more to say...
  
• Deconstruct websites, get hired: hiding recruitment messages in source code (Troy Hunt) - Interesting post, and funny facts about site code.

~Frank B.

Reading Notes #166

Suggestion of the week

• Unit Testing Asynchronous Code - This post is a wonderful source of information about how to test ascyn code following the best practices.

Cloud

• Security and Identity Management with Azure Mobile Services - Great article from MSDN Mag that provides important information.

• Comparing Clouds : IaaS Scalability Options (Richard Seroter) - Very interesting article that compares one the key feature: scalability between the biggest cloud providers.

• Scaling a Multi-Tenant Application with Azure DocumentDB (John Macintyre) - Very good post that reviews and explains different scaling strategies in the NoSql context.

• Applied Azure: Infographic of how “Have I been pwned?” orchestrates Microsoft’s cloud services - One year after the launch of Have I been pwned, see what this service has become, and what was learned during this journey.

Programming

• 5 Incredible Features in the Visual Studio 2015 Preview - (Michael Crump) - Still didn't try visual studio 2015? This post will describe so of his greatest new features.

• ASP.NET 5: Using POCO controllers - Very interesting tutorial that explains some functionalities of Asp. Net MVC 5.

• 3 Useful Tools for Local Development & Testing - (Brian Rinaldi) - It's always nice to find new toys.

• Getting ready for the future with the Microsoft .NET Portability Analyzer (Scott Hanselman) - So many great tools that can help us are available easily and for free.

Miscellaneous

• How to Use Google in the Most Unusual Way to Make Your Self-Editing Faster, and Better (Guest Blogger) - Nice and very clever tips.

• 5 Quick Questions with Robert Scoble: What Makes a Great Tech Blog? (Stacey Roberts) - Everything about how to have a good tech blog.

• This is your bank, please verify your details – No, you verify YOUR details! - This situation arrived to frequently. I got in the same situation and mostly at the equivalent conclusion... how about you?

• The Small Personal Risks That Actually Change Behavior - Interesting post where the author shares his life, experience, inspiring.

• Is Blogging Dead? How Blogs are changing and How You Can Stay on Top (Stacey Roberts) - Very interesting post about the evolution of the blogging platform as medium and suggestion n how bloggers should be adapted to today's reality.

• Top Blogging Tools For the Blogger’s Soul (Matt Banner) - A nice list of online tools.

• The real and complete story - Does Windows defragment your SSD? (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post that removes the voile on a great "mystery".

~Frank B.

Reading Notes #159

Suggestion of the week

• Azure: Redis Cache, Disaster Recovery to Azure, Tagging Support, Elastic Scale for SQLDB, DocDB (asp.net) - Great news features. One of my favorites is not to optimize the production but the ability to attribute tags to resources.

 

Cloud

• Ghost, Node.js, and Azure Websites: Not a Pretty Picture (Shawn Wildermuth) - Interesting... I though it was because I mess something that I got issue last time I update my blog.

• Cloud usage flavors for Development and Test teams - Quick post that enum how a team could use the cloud.

• Comparing Clouds: IaaS Provisioning Experience (Richard Seroter) - Great review of different cloud eco-systems.

• Azure BizTalk Services Introduction for BizTalk Devs (Matt Milner) - Great article that explains how BizTalk works in Zure as PaaS or IaaS.

• What is Azure DocumentDB (Dhananjay Kumar) - This post presents Windows Azure DocumentDB with a lot of screenshots.

 

Programming

• Exciting Things About ASP.NET vNext Series: MVC View Components - This post explores Asp.Net vNext and his View components.

• Raygun.io and ignoring specific Web API exception types (Troy Hunt) - Since web APIs are very common, this post explains how to fix what could be a very common problem.

• Running ASP.NET MVC 6 on Linux - It not as simple as double-click, then next..next...next but it looks like not that hard.

 

Database

• DocumentDB Studio first (beta) release (Vincent-Philippe Lauzon) - Wonderful idea! I can't wait to see the next version with querying capability.

 

Miscellaneous

• Using a Surface Pro 3 full time for two months (Scott Hanselman) - Great post that gives us the pros and cons of the surface pro 3.

~Frank Boucher

Reading Notes #156

Suggestion of the week

• Your Azure website CPU is going nuts and it’s not your fault (Troy Hunt) - This post tells us about a troubleshoot on Azure when looking for the casu of CPU spikes.

Cloud

• Enabling Hybrid Scenarios on Microsoft Azure (haishibai.blogspot.ca) - Nice post that presents five hybrid cloud scenarios with Azure.
  
• #Azure Talk - Working with Microsoft Azure Resources - Useful post that compares many different tools that manage Azure resources.
  
• Azure Websites for the Enterprise with Virtual Networks - Nice quick tutorial about connecting an Azure website with an un-premises computer.
  
• Mostly Cloudy – Sept 19th, 2014 - This post introduces some nice opensource project and reminds us to update our OS Familly in Azure.
  
• How I used Azure Mobile Services in my Unity game (Mickey MacDonald) - This post shows us some of the options available to simplify our life when we want to use Azure Mobile Service in our mobile apps.
  
• Soup to Nuts: From Raw Hardware to Cloud-Enabled Device - Excellent article that gives very exiting Raspberry Pi project that uses Azure Services.

Programming

• Choosing a JavaScript Framework with Craig McKeachie - Really interesting episode talking on key features to pick a Javascript framework, base on our projects or code that you like .
  
• Jump-Location - A Change Directory (CD) PowerShell Command that reads your mind (Scott Hanselman) - Great little tools to have.
  
• Towards a better console - PSReadLine for PowerShell command line editing (Scott Hanselman) - Two really nice PowerShell tools in one post.
  
• Web API Documentation Tools -- Visual Studio Magazine (Terrence Dorsey) - Many great tools to generate API documentation.

Miscellaneous

• **Scaled Agile Framework: Using TFS to support epics, release trains, and multiple backlogs whitepaper (Gregg Boer) - This post introduces us to an interesting whitepaper.

~Frank

Reading Notes #154

 

Suggestion of the week

• New handy Visual Studio extensions - Three great extensions that add this little thing that simplify our life...

Cloud

• Azure Automation: Reliable, Fault-Tolerant Runbook Execution Using Checkpoints (Chris Sanders) - Really interesting and complete post about automation in Azure and how to follow the best practices.
  
• Mostly Cloudy – Sept 5th, 2014 - Really interesting post that resumes the last release of Azure. It also gives a reference for every feature to get more detail.
  
• How do You Like Your Pizzas Delivered? - #Azure #PaaS - A short and simple explanation of what is in the cloud.
  
• Cloud Cover 152: Azure Search with Liam Cavanagh (Channel 9) (Chris Haishi Bai) - A really excellent web episode and a great demo of the new Azure Search.
  
• Making Azure Blob Storage Searchable Using Azure Search Service (Gaurav) - Great tutorial about the new Azure Search with a lot of details. The code is available online.
  
• Writing a Site Extension for Azure Websites (Elliott Hamai) - Great tutorial that explains how to build and test our Site Extention. It also explains how to publish it privately or publicly.
  
• Azure DocumentDB: first use cases (Vincent-Philippe Lauzon) - Interesting post that places the new DocumentDb compares to the other solution in Azure.
  
• Azure DocumentDB: Working with Microsoft's NoSQL Database in the Cloud (Gastón Hillar) - This post is a great tutorial to get started with Azure DocumentDB in C#.
  
• IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS ? - Nice images to see the differences between each of them.

Programming

• #PowerShell Invoke-RestMethod - the underlying connection was closed - Useful tips to save some headache while developing.
  
• A chatroom for all! Part 1 - Introduction to Node.js - This post is the first tutorial of a series about developing a real application in Node.js and putting it to Azure. In this one, learns how to setup your Windows environment.
  
• Public Data Sources – finding them and using them - Useful post that lists different data sources.
  
• Introduction to Machine Learning Studio - Great article that introduces Machine Learning ML and shows us how to do a simple application in ML Studio...
  
• Two free video courses: Intro to ASP.NET MVC and Responsive UI with Bootstrap - Nice two courses (part of the Microsoft Virtual Academy) about an unavoidable tool these days: Bootsrap.
  
• Integrating OneDrive into Your Windows Store Apps - Excellent post that gets us started with the Live SDK, so we can add One Drive capabilities to all our applications.

Miscellaneous

• Can you hear me now? Unmute your microphone (Scott Hanselman) - This post published a useful tool that we should include in all our meeting description: HowToUnmute.com.
  
• Don't Check Your Email in the Morning (Scott Hanselman) - Who will raise this challenge?
  
• I can't hear you over the sound of how small your fonts are (Aaron Bertrand, JK Wood, lkh, Dandy Weyn BuckWoody) - Quick tips and indispensable tools for all speakers.

~Frank

Reading Notes #152

Suggestion of the week

• Azure: New DocumentDB NoSQL Service, New Search Service, New SQL AlwaysOn VM Template, and more (Scott Guthrie) - Here is the detailed description of all the new features in the Azure August release.

Cloud

• Microsoft NoSQL database and full-text search service previews available on Azure (Mary Jo Foley) - Quick introduction of the two last Azure services.
  
• Azure DocumentDB (Ayende Rahien) - A pretty hard review of the new Azure DocumentDB. Compare to RavenDB to make us understand the issues.
  
• Use Distributed Cache in Microsoft Azure - Great post that describes all the options we have to store our session state, and explains how to do it.
  
• Microsoft Azure Media Services - This article explains how works Azure Media Services by following a real case step by step.

Programming

• Getting Started with Git and GitHub (Dhananjay Kumar) - Very clear and simple tutorial that explains the basic command of Git Prompt and Git in VisualStudio.

Databases

• Documents, Databases and Eventual Consistency - A very interesting article about different types of database and their utilities.

UX

• 5 Strategies for Building Mobile Apps with Telerik (Cody Lindley) - Interesting post that explains different ways to build mobile app using Kendo UI.

Miscellaneous

• The Plague of Methods and Frameworks (Jurgen Appelo) - Interesting point of view.
  
• 10 Vital WordPress Security Tips (Guest Blogger) - This post provides the perfect quick review of our security knowledge when blogging.

~Frank