Reading Notes #671

From debugging Docker builds to refining your .NET setup, this week’s Reading Notes delivers a sharp mix of practical dev tips and forward-looking tech insights. We revisit jQuery’s place in today’s web stack, explore AI-enhancing MCP servers, and spotlight open-source projects shaping tomorrow’s tools. Plus, PowerToys gets a sleek upgrade to streamline your Windows workflow. 

Let’s check out the ideas and updates that keep your skills fresh and your systems humming.

Programming

• A quick look at Dev Tunnels (Mike Irving) - This post shares a very cool feature where you can make your local Host available to someone else to reproduce a bug or try an API without having to deploy. Pretty cool,

• 6 Steps for Setting Up a New .NET Project the Right Way (Milan Jovanović) - This nice post provides some simple best practices. It helps to keep the code consistent and efficient when the solution contains multiple projects or when multiple developers are involved.

• Debug Docker Builds with Visual Studio Code (Remy Suen) - Wow! Great update on this extension that will help us debug a dockerfile.

• Why I Still Use jQuery in 2025 (and When Not to) (Aniket Bhattacharyea) - I guess you know jQuery? If you do, this post tells us how to be sure when or not to use it. Nice.

AI

• 5 Essential MCP Servers That Give Claude & Cursor Real Superpowers (2025) (Prithwish Nath) - MCP servers are really powerful and really boost your compilot productivity. I wouldn't say they are essential, but definitely useful

• 9 open-source projects the GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code teams are sponsoring—and why they matter - Microsoft Open Source Blog (Stacey Haffner) - Those projects definitely need a look. They are very interesting if you're using mCP servers.

Miscellaneous

• PowerToys 0.95 is here: new Light Switch utility, faster Command Palette, and Peek with Spacebar (Niels Laute) - Lots of very interesting new features and a performance boost in this month's release.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~frank

Reading Notes #472

Cloud

• Announcing NubesGen, an Open Source tool to automate Azure deployments (Julien Dubois) - A very interesting project use can use it participate and learn.
• Azure Bicep Refreshed (Justin Yoo) - Infrastructure As Code with Bicep. It looks great.
• Effective ways to delete resources in a resource group on Azure in 2021 ( Stephane Lapointe) - Nice post that shows us how to be smarter even when we delete resources.
• Getting Started with Azure Web PubSub Service (Abhijit Jana) - This is a great new service and the cherry on the top... It's fully managed!
• What’s the most configurable Kubernetes service in the cloud? Does it matter? (Richard Seroter) - Interesting post that compares the configuration options of the different service providers. From my point of view (code focus), it's not who has the more options that are the more appealing. It's Who let me go with the fewer click with a good setup.

Programming

• Build and ship software better with GitHub and Microsoft Teams (Teams team) - I installed the app with pure curiosity, but I kept it because it is useful. I'm happy to see those new features.
• 10 Reasons to Attend DockerCon LIVE 2021 - Docker Blog (David Oro) - It's coming soon...
• Blazor - Component Mockup Library (Cody Merritt Anhorn) - Anice tutorial that explains how to get started with this lib.
• Securing an ASP.NET Core app and web API using windows authentication (Damien Bowden) - Nice tutorial with tons of code snippets.
• tabs ↹ over ␣ ␣ ␣ spaces (Jiri Cincura) - Experimenting is still one of the best ways to learn things. Just like in this post.

Podcasts

• Designing the Future with Brian Collins (A Bit of Optimism) - Great episode, very inspiring. How as more experienced humans can we help the younger ones to build a better future... And learn in the process.
• Use Storytelling to Get Ahead at Work (Modern Mentor) - Storytelling is important and this episode help to get started. Because the best stories are not improvised.
• Épisode 93 - Quand la santé tourne à l’obsession (Grand écart) - In French, with so many people that run... We need to stay focus and do it for the good reason. It an eye-opening episode.
• Hello World: April 22, 2021 - Special Hello Earth! (Hello World) - Shameless plug... Hello World is now available in Podcast!
• 252: Linux GUI Apps on Windows - WSLg (Merge Conflict) - I was happy when I saw the news about the WSL GUI Apps announcement, but didn't have the time to try anything. In this episode, Frank and James ask all the good questions and provide so many answers. Awesome.
• SPI 482: The 3-Second Rule That You Need to Know (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - Getting out of our comfort zone is hard. And introducing ourselves could be so challenging. I love the idea of that tips.
• Leadership, Radical Delegation, And Integrated Problem Solving with Admiral John Richardson (The Idealcast with Gene Kim by IT Revolution) - Interesting episode. The first thought was if the military can review their approach, everyone can. Great lesson.

Miscellaneous

• 10 Best Visual Studio Code Extensions for Increased Productivity (Dirk Strauss) - This post is so much more than a list of 10extensions...It explains some differences between Visual Studio and VS Code, and shares those extensions, and explains why there are so amazing.

~frank

Reading Notes #397

Suggestion of the week

• Visual Studio for Nintendo Switch? - FUZE4 Nintendo Switch is an amazing coding app (Scott Hanselman) - Whaaat?! If someone in your entourage or a citizen of your life ( like Scott says) owns a Nintendo switch...you MUST read this post.

Cloud

• SSL certificates management using Lets Encrypt, Azure Automation and Web Apps (Dominique St-Amand ) - Security, of course. Automatically ... I'm in! This post explains how to automate your renewing process.
• Serverless Deployment Best Practices (Fernando Medina Corey) - A nice post that shows some of the best practices for serverless and how AWS implements them.

Programming

• How partners like GitKraken use GitHub Actions (Marc Campbell) - So cool to see what people are doing with the GitHub Actions.
• How to make ASP.NET Core compile modified views (Gunnar Peipman) - Nice update of Asp.net core... Following the best practices
• How to make a pretty prompt in Windows Terminal with Powerline, Nerd Fonts, Cascadia Code, WSL, and oh-my-posh (Scott Hanselman) - It's great to have a step by step on how to install it. Even if the documentation is well done on Github, it could be confusing to set everything up altogether.
• Why jQuery is Obsolete and Time to Stop Using It (Chris Love) - Great post. I was a big user of jQuery, and these days I do less front end stuff, so it is nice to see how things have evolved and to understand the impact jQuery had.
• Getting Started with Git (Sarah Lean) - Great post that explains the basic functionalities of Git.

Miscellaneous

• Video Interview: Between Two Nerds ( Steve Carroll & Scott Hanselman) - Really cool and interesting video interview.

~

Reading Notes #394

Suggestion of the week

• How the .NET Team uses Azure Pipelines to produce Docker Images (Matt Thalman) - Woaaah! I knew there were many docker images, but I didn't think it was that much. It's Incredibly interesting to read everything that is in place to do all those images...automatically.

Cloud

• Announcing the Azure Repos app for Slack (Karthik RG) - Nice features.

Programming

• ASP.NET Core and Blazor updates in .NET Core 3.0 Preview 9 (Daniel Ruth) - Already Preview 9 with a ton of upgrades. This team is sick! Seriously, awesome work.

• Containerising a Blazor WebAssembly App (Chris Sainty) - Once more Docker is displayed as a very useful development tool.

• Git Graph Visualizes Branches in VS Code for Free (Steve Smith) - There so many great extension for VSCode, the community is amazing.

• Moving from jQuery to Vue (Shawn Wildermuth) - An interesting post that explains Vue and gives references from a jQuery user...like me.

Reading Notes #310

Cloud

• Benefits of migrating IaaS to Azure Resource Manager (Kay Singh) - So many good reasons to jump in... Everything Is there to help us moving forward.
• Take a Break with Azure Functions (Justin Clareburt (MSFT)) (Justin Clareburt) - I know the Holidays are passed, but it's always time to learn Azure Function. Do yourself a favor the next rainy or super cold weekend... Follow this "program".
• What part of your job can you automate? (Kevin Bah) - With time, all developers accumulate "tools" and these days with all those scripts and API capabilities... It's not a question of how can we do something, but more: where to do it...

Programming

• 5 tips to learn Docker in 2018 - Docker Blog (Victor Coisne) - While we are all pumped-up and refreshed from the holidays, let's get inspired to learn new stuff.
• How to handle BLANK in DAX measures (Marco Russo) - This great post will helps us to think about if blanks could by part of our data and how to manage them.
• Is jQuery still relevant? (Remy Sharp) - I've really appreciated this post that brings numbers to sustain his answer.

Miscellaneous

• Why Do People Fail at Work-Life Balance? This Study Says It Has Nothing to Do With Productivity (Tommy Mello Tommy Mello is the founder of A1 Garage Doors, a $30 million-plus home service business with over 200 employees in 9 states. Full bio @realtommymello Founde) - I don't know for you, but e if I'm pretty happy with "my balance" a few extra hints could not hurt.

Reading Notes #253

Suggestion of the week

• Why Can’t I View My Power BI Content Pack?  - This post is a big slice of answers, spiced with experience and a touch of wisdom.

Cloud

• Azure Managed Cache and In-Role Cache Service shutdown reminder (Ye Gu) - In less than two weeks your solution could be in big trouble if you didn't change the cache type...
  
• Top 4 reasons for using Azure Security Center for partner security solutions (Yair Tor) - Seriously, it worth try it.

Programming

• Is jQuery Still Relevant? (TJ VanToll) - Very interesting and instructive conversation about THE JavaScript framework that everyone knows:JQuery .
  
• Localization & Routing in ASP.NET Core 1.0 - Hisham - Nice post ,right to the point.

Databases

• Temporal Tables are generally available in Azure SQL Database (Borko Novakovic) - Useful new feature to track changes across time.
  
• SQL Server 2016 on Windows Server 2016 (Luis Vargas) - Woohoo the server is now available.

Reading Notes #137

Suggestion of the week

• Windows Phone 8.1 has my attention now - This update is really exciting. It not only removes some irritants but adds really nice polish new features.

Cloud

• Automating Environment Creation using Microsoft Azure PowerShell - Nice scrit!
  
• Static Internal IP Address for Virtual Machines (Corey Sanders) - This post answered to a very frequent question about static IP for Azure virtual machine.
  
• Stupid Azure Trick #10 – Use SSL on MSDN Visual Studio Azure VMs (Bill Wilder) - This post explains an easy solution to fix some certificate issue present in the current Azure VM image when using SSL.

Programming

• Download PowerShell Script Browser 1.0 - Developer Top Scenarios and Solutions - That's a great idea.
  
• A World of Scripts at your Fingertips – Introducing Script Browser - Really good idea a scripts gallery, now available inside the tool.
  
• Source Code Control with Git and Mercurial -- Visual Studio Magazine (Terrence Dorsey) - This post is really complete. It is the post to get started with distributes source control. Reference to other sources of information, tools, and online repository are 0also presented.
  
• Why Katana should be on your radar (AnhPhan, Tom Dykstra - MSFT, Joost de Nijs, Yatajga, Ralph Rick_Anderson) - If you never eared about Katana, this post is for you.

Mobile

• Why jQuery Mobile didn’t succeed - Interesting thoughs about jQuery mobile.
  
• "Windows Phone 8.1 for Developers" series with 19 posts so far... - Nice reference to a great source of tutorial.

Miscellaneous

• Pas de croissance sans marketing (David Chabot) - Interesting post about what's really suppose to be the marketing.

~Frank

Reading Notes #111

Cloud

• Dev and Test in the Cloud: Explained (Jonathan Rozenblit) - For dev and tests environment, windows Azure is a must.
  
• Quick Script: Copy All Blobs to New Storage Account Using PowerShell (Tyler Doerksen) - Nice and useful script.

Programming

• jQuery UI Demystified: Part 1 - Since jquery and jqueryUI are so often used use these days, avoid just doing copy-paste. Take few minutes and read this nice tutorials that explains how to use the jqueryUI widget.
  
• Tools: SlowCheetah - XML Transforms (Igor Zalmanovich ) - Definitively, a tool to have.
  
• Sorting with LINQ, Dynamically -- Visual Studio Magazine (Peter Vogel) - Nice quick tips to sort a grid by any columns dynamically.
  
• HTML5 Sparkline chart for data-intense, small-scale Data Visualization - Evangelism - Great tool, it looks easy to use and powerful enough for many different situations. Looking forward to trying it.
  
• How to Get Started with the Ignite UI Layout Manager - Interesting "UI organizer" and look simple to use.

Database

• ASP.NET MVC: Configuring ASP.NET MVC 4 Membership with a SQL CE Database - Nice tutorial that shows how to configure SqlCe to be used as a database for membership.
  
• Creating NONCLUSTERED INDEXES on Massive Tables in Windows Azure SQL Database - Nice post that demystify the indexes and explains why we should use them.
  
• SQL Server Compact 4 desktop app with simple Private Deployment and LINQ to SQL (ErikEJ) - Very complete tutorial that explains an easy deployment with SQLCE.

Miscellaneous

• Why You Should Be Able to Work from Home - Interesting thoughts about working from home and how it would be good for you, and your work.
  
• Stop asking people what they think! (and start watching what they do) - I agree. How many times did I ear don't give what the clients asks but what they needs.
  
• Have you seen Google Trekker? (Baffin Paddler) - Wow! Google always found a new way to impress me.
  

~Frank

Reading Notes #97

Suggestion of the week

• Is the Windows user ready for apt-get? - I'm a big fan of Chocolatey since long time, and I found it extremely useful. Give it a try, and see by yourself!
  
• 12 Non-caffeinated Ways to Wake Up at Work - I know, by definition a developer is someone who transforms coffee into code... but having an alternative is good ... and healthier.
  
• Continuing the Windows 8 vision with Windows 8.1 - Wow! A huge number of really great improvement. It looks like little things but all together, it transforms the experience. Stay tune for more details...
  

Cloud

• Spelunking Azure, What does it Cost? - Quick post that gives the base about Azure prices.
  
• How To: Setup Windows Azure PowerShell - Quick post that explains how to get ready to play with Azure with PowerShell.

 Databases

• Entity Framework Power Tool Tips to View Model (A Feature I Depend On!) : Don't Be Iffy (Name) - Very promising tool. Thanks for the author of this post we will be able to enjoy avoiding these little issues.

Programming

• Making Passwords Obsolete (Minda Zetlin) - Interesting idea. Look forward to see how I could use/test it.
  
• Create location aware apps using geolocation and Bing Maps (Windows 8 Team) - Nice tutorial about using geolocation in our application.
  
• Intermediate RubyGem Development - Nice tutorial covering tests and naming convention when developing our Ruby Gem. Different libraries a referred as examples.
  
• Performance Considerations - Quick post about thinks to take into consideration about EF 5.0. The post also introduce many alternatives ORMs.

• Dojo for jQuery Developers - Incredibly clear tutorial here that compares Dojo with jQuery to explain how things are done with Dojo. The perfect post to get started. 

Miscellaneous

• Cool Tools – How to Be Invisible - The book looks interesting and this post, invent if it goes in the completely opposite direction is really interesting too.
  
• The Most Overlooked Leadership Skill - Interedting post about leadership.
  
• Delayed Gratification: Make It a Better Pill to Swallow - This post is a review/ summary of what looks like a very promising book about self-control. In this world of instant trophies and game achievements, learning how to control your needs is a great strength.
  
• 3 Games That Can Teach You Business Skills (Leigh Buchanan) - I'm happy to see that "educational" game don't only exists for kids...
  
• So You Think You Have ADD... (Marla Tabaka) - Some tips to stay productive and fight procrastination.
  
• 5 Mentor Archetypes I’ve Met – And How to Spot Them (Jennifer Dulski) - Nice post where the author share is vision of goods mentors and how to "spot them".
  
• Reviews of Super Weird Mice:The Microsoft Arc Touch and Wedge Mouse - Nice review, it feels really objective and practical.
  
• Deconstructing Google's Strategy: Will Google Eat Your Business Next? (Steve Faktor) - Interesting post about the strategy behind free Google's stuff.
  
• Facebook IPO & the Dark, Dirty Secrets of Facebook vs. Google Data (Steve Faktor) - I really like the comparison. I didn't though about it before, but it really make sense.
  
• Business Lessons from ‘Google Instant’, the Waifish Temptress of Search (Steve Faktor) - Interesting marketing "secrets" that Google uses to make always more money.

 
~Frank

Reading Notes #91

Suggestion of the week

• Streaming Diagnostics Trace Logging from the Azure Command Line (plus Glimpse!) (Scott Hanselman)- Great post that shows us a lot of possibilities to trace our cloud application. I really like the stream log from Azure command line.
  
• Walkthrough to Configure System Center Management Pack for Windows Azure Fabric Preview for SCOM 2012 SP1 (Walter Myers) - As it says in this post: The wait is over. Don't miss the important news. Share it.
  
• Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service General Availability (Bart Vande Ghinste) - Hurray! The IaaS is now ready for production and got a significant price reduction!!!

Cloud

• Walkthrough #3: Developing Multi-Tenant Web Applications with Windows Azure AD (vibro) - This post summarize the third par of an unavoidable tutorial about Azure and Active Directory.
  
• Creating a Windows Azure Virtual Machine - the RIGHT Way (Buck Woody) - Creating a VM is easy, but it's important to know how to do it correctly to get what we expect.
  
• Windows Azure IaaS is Live and BizTalk Server 2013 Hourly Pricing Released(Stephen W. Thomas) - This post explains how to calculus, our fees when running Azure BizTalk VM.
  
• Django now available on Windows Azure - Good news for Python developers.

Integration

• Service Bus Explorer 2.0 released (Paolo Salvatori) - Impressive tool that gives a lot of options to manage our Azure Service Bus.

Programming

• View your Kanban board - Nice post that gives more details on one of the new supported Visual Studio features. Really interesting and useful.
  
• jQuery 2.0 Released  - Good news. However, don't forget that the branch 2.x is met to support new browser. For IE 6, 7, 8 the branch 1.x will continue to be supported.

System Management

• Adding a Custom Domain to your Windows Azure AD (vibro) - Useful post that explains all steps of a common scenario when using AD.
  
• Why monitor Windows Azure with System Center? - Good question. And the answer is ev0en better... Thankfully.

Miscellaneous

• Rule No. 1: Get to the Point (Geoffrey James) - Quick and clear.
  
• Simple Trick to Finding Extraordinary Employees (Marla Tabaka) - Nice tips. Easy to use.
  
• Effectiveness and Efficiency - Nice post. It is, in fact, a good starting point to become better at what you do... or what you should be doing.

~Frank

Reading Notes #90

Suggestion of the week

• My New Pluralsight Course – Patterns of Cloud Integration – Is Now Live - Very promising training, looking forward to watch this.
  
• Visual Studio ‒ It Just Keeps Getting Better (Marc Gagné) - Wow! So many great features in one thing... The news that makes my day.
  
  

Cloud

• azure-scripty – Azure CLI scripting made even easier (Glenn Block) - Automating repetitive tasks is a must and Azure-scripty is surely a tool that should find a place in your toolbox.
  
• Windows Azure: Active Directory Release, New Backup Service + Web Site Monitoring and Log Improvements - Great new features in Windows Azure. This post details this new stuff with also updates on previous release.
  
• Affinity Groups are Important on Windows Azure - Good explanation of a very important feature. A post to share...
  
• How Cloud Computing Influences Digital Marketing (Xath Cruz) - Nice post that gives a real example of company using / moving to Windows Azure.
  
• But what can I do with Windows Azure? Create (Free) Websites and Applications - Nice tutorial that explains how you could easily install a free application on Azure by installing DotNetNuke.
  
• Large-scale Implementation on Azure Platform (Ajay Solanki) - One of the larger-scale implementation and surly very critical on Azure was the US election. This post explains how this application was design.
  
• Document oriented database with Azure Table Storage Service (Pascal Laurin) – Good tutorial that explains all the code needed for the exercises.
  
• Walkthrough #1: Adding Sign-On to Your Web Application Using Windows Azure AD (vibro) - Quick recap of an unavoidable tutorial about single sign-on.

• Episode 104: Building cross platform Android and Windows Store apps using Windows Azure Mobile Services (Channel 9) (Nick Harris Nathan Totten) - Don't miss this episode; it contains a very complete demo where you can see full connected application on Windows8 and Android. 

Integration

• BizTalk 2013 worldwide launch events by Impack - Learn more about this important event that you shouldn't miss. 

Programming

• Using jQuery to POST [FromBody] parameters to Web API » Encosia) (Dave Ward) - Useful tutorial that explains what to do and why.
  
• Créé une application Windows 8 pour votre site Wordpress - Offre limitée - Windows 8 achieved great things, and one of them is changing technology so it is accessible by everyone.
  
• EF6: Nested types and more for Code First (Arthur Vickers) - This post explains new features of the Entity Frameworks EF code first.
  
• SymbolSource support for NuGet Package Source Discovery (Maarten Balliauw) - How to be lazy in a professional manner...

• Confreaks - Really interesting video about the best practices of making library.
  
• Can You “Over Organize” JavaScript? - Interesting post questioning the re-factorization of JavaScript code.
  
• A Month of PowerShell – Day 12 (Logins, Users and Roles) (Wayne Sheffield) - This post gives useful tips to manipulate database users. A good example of practical scenario.

• The Art of Writing Functional Specs (Part 1) – What is a Functional Specification? - Promising series that propose to explains the art of being understood by technical people
  
• The Art of Writing Functional Specs (Part 2) – The Most Important Thing About A Spec - The key is simple, but easy to miss. This post highlight some traps to avoid.
  
• The Art of Writing Functional Specs (Part 3) – Spec Shapes (Saveen Reddy) - This post briefly categorizes specs and gives details for each type.
  
  

Miscellaneous

• Social Media: Not the Productivity Killer You Thought (Francesca Louise Fenzi) - Wow! I really surprised, and happy... ;)
  
• Why You Should Take the Blame - Good lesson that teaches us how to learn for our mistake.
  
• Five must-try cloud-based utilities (Jack Wallen) - Interesting tools, particularly Asana that I didn't know.
  
• The Importance of Scheduling Nothing – Interesting post that explains why scheduling nothing doesn't mean doing nothing.

~Frank

Reading Notes #84

Suggestion of the week

• Focus Your To-Do List - It's so true and the solution is so simple, but not that easy to do.

Cloud

• Working with Windows Azure SQL Database in PhpStorm (Maarten Balliauw) - Nice tool that provides a lots of useful features.
• Detecting Expired PKI Certificates (Wade) - Detail on the disruption of service for Windows Azure.
• Announcing AWS OpsWorks - Wow another release this week! This time it's some diagnostics beta tools.
• Developer Tools — Including Github, Zencoder, AWS (Natasha Lomas) - Great news for young start-ups companies: Starter Pack is back with a second edition.
• Glass Half Empty: Understanding Cloud Computing SLAs (David Pallmann) - This post demystifies the 9s in the SLA and attaches them to more real value.
• Windows Azure Store: The Services You Need, Where You Need Them (Himanshu Singh) - Nice list of Azure third party and data provider available right now on the Windows Azure Store.
• New Add-ons in the Windows Azure Store - 4 very promising new add-ons to Azure and I would suggest also New Relic.
• Practical Azure #13: Windows Azure Queue Storage - Nice overview video. All the features are well explained.

Programming

• DefinitelyTyped TypeScript definitions now on NuGet (Jason Jarrett) - Typescript is really powerful and easy to use. And these days it’s even easier to use with all those new DefinitelyTyped package for NuGet.
• Polymorphism: Part 1 (John Teague) - Great tutorial that explains an important concept in programmation.
• jQuery Tutorial – Getting Started: Basics & Selectors (James Bruce) - A lot of people are using jQuery this day, put do you use it efficiently? This post brings some 101 best practices and is quick to read...
• Survey: Most Developers Now Prefer HTML5 For Cross-Platform Development (Frederic Lardinois) - Nice post that shows who quick the HTML5 is adopted by developers.
• Ruby 2.0.0-p0 is released - Good news. Here is an overview of the new features in this new release.
• Learning Center - Wow, I just discover this web site, and I thought to share it because it's an incredible source of information well-structured and clear.
• jQuery Mobile 1.3.0 Released - New release of jQuery Mobile the library to use for a Responsive Web Design (RWD) or for a mobile first approach.

Integration

• What’s new in BizTalk360 v6.0? (Saravana Kumar) - Biztalk360 is holding his promises by releasing a new version after 4-5 month. This post list what the changes.

Database

• Is Access to Big Data Limited to Big Players? (Saroj Kar) - This post demystifies the idea of big data equal big application. Nice reading.
• Why am I Getting so Many Deadlocks From Windows Azure SQL Database? (alexandrebrisebois.wordpress.com) - Really great post that explains every detail of the problem and of its solution, even for EF.

Miscellaneous

• What Recruiters Want To See On Your LinkedIn Profile (Levo League Jaime Petkanics) - Nice post to help doing a quick check up of your LinkedIn profile.
• Being a Remote Worker Sucks - Long Live the Remote Worker (Scott Hanselman) - Interesting post that highlight the challenge of working remote and how to define them.
• Want To Be Taken Seriously? Become a Better Writer - Delete
• What does "Future Perfect English" mean? (Lynda Hurcomb) - Indeed! Learning another language is not as easy as saying hello, but much more rewarding.
• How to make files searchable in Google Drive - Ah! Simple AND useful.
• The Key to Being On Time - I don’t know for you but that his example look likes to have been taken from my life.
• Evernote resets user passwords after being hit by “coordinated” hack (Nathan Mattise) - Learn more about the Evernote attach and what are the "risk."

~Frank

Reading Notes #82

Suggestion of the week

• Chasing an active Social Engineering Fraud at Amazon Kindle (Scott Hanselman) - Scary story... If you own a Kindle, you must read this post.
• Choosing between SQL Server in Windows Azure VM & Windows Azure SQL Database (Madhan Arumugam Ramakrishnan) - Great post to make your mind of the differences between the various scenarios and the pros and cons of each of them.

Cloud

• Three New AWS Reference Architectures for E-Commerce - Quick access to three good architectures using different AWS components.
• Windows Azure Virtual Machines - Common Questions (Narahari Dogiparthi) - Significant source of information important to know before planning to use IaaS.

This blog post summarizes the best practices to be used to protect Windows Azure Virtual Machines.

• All Things Distributed (Werner Vogels) - Good references on AWS Elastic Transcoder in video, perfect to make you a better idea of the beast.
• Windows Azure Powershell 0.6.10 is out and check out $DebugPreference feature to get Request and Response on PS console (Avkash Chauhan) - Great news! It's fantastic to see how active the Azure / PowerShell teams are.
• Windows Azure Guest OS Updates (Abhishek Anand) - Reference to stay updated on guest OS.
• Episode 100 - Introduction to the Windows Azure Service Bus Notification Hubs (Channel 9) - A lot of fun in this 100th show. Of course, it's not only about jokes since they are also doing a demo of Azure Service Bus Notification Hubs.

Integration

• How to Create your First SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Package - Part 1 (Md. Marufuzzaman) - For people who don't know SSIS, this is the perfect get started tutorial.
• BizTalk360 Windows 8 application is available in the app store (Saravana Kumar) - This great post announces not only the release of version 2 of BizTalk360 and it presence in Windows Store, but also describes most of its features.

Programming

• Unfortunate Things with JSON, jQuery UI Datepicker, and Dates - Because we all one day or another play with date and DatePicker, it's good to read what other have done.
• TFS, Automated Testing and Continuous Integration (Hamada Shather) - Interesting tutorial that explains how to use TFS as a test framework.
• PowerShell Remoting – The Double Hop Problem And A Solution - This post explains a solution to a problem when running remote PowerShell script using Credds.
• Elegant Code » It’s Markdown, no, PowerShell. Wait its Markdown formatted PowerShell. (Jason Jarrett) - Nice mix of Markdown and PowerShell.
• Update to VS Git tooling - Stay updated on Visual Studio add-ons.
• Responsive web design – Convertir rapidement un site web en une version mobile (lorys pognon) - Simple tutorial that shows how to use "less" (the language) to produce a Responsive We Design.
• Gérer les dépendances de vos librairies JavaScript avec Bower (Thierry LAU) - Great node.js tool that can simplify the JavaScript library management.
• jQuery Object Quacks like an Array Duck (Elijah Manor) - Interesting sharing about jQuery "inner code."
• Working with SqlBulkCopy - Nice async functionality in C# 5 and other great features of SqlBulkCopy class.
• Behind the scenes of PowerShell and SQL (Rob Farley) - Very interesting post that shows how PowerShell use SQL.
• Is Big Data the New Black Gold? (Arvind Singh) - Interesting thoughts about the value of Big Data and its future.

Miscellaneous

• Copy as path instead of a send to program - Cool tips. I didn't know that one.
• Markdown - I'm playing around for 2-3 weeks now with Markdown, and I thought of sharing this for those who like me, didn't know about it.

~Frank

Reading Notes #79

Suggestion of the week

• A personal approach to organizational time management - This is the most realistic and logic time management idea I heard from long time.
• Using the VM Depot - Get started with VM Depot.

Cloud

• The Right Way to Handle Azure OnStop Events (Craig Kitterman) - This post contains a lot of details information about the Azure stop event.
• All Your Base Are Belong To Us - Create example of what can be done using Windows Azure Media Services.
• Find, deploy and share images for Windows Azure - Learn more about VM Depot this brand new community-drive web catalog.
• Broadcast push notifications to millions of mobile devices using Windows Azure Notification Hubs (Scott Gu) - Great addition to the Windows Services, this post explains how to get started.
• How to redeploy a deleted Windows Azure Virtual Machine - Good catch!
• ‘Pay for what you use’ cloud services may change the culture of IT project management in small businesses, for better - See how Windows Azure could help you in your next project by reading this true story about Datownia the winner of the UK Government Technology Strategy Board research and Development grant.
• The truth about PaaS vertical scaling and why you are being “oversold” (Ruslan Synytsky) - This post introduces Jelastic PaaS. A cloud solution for Java and explains how it is elastic.
• Windows Azure Store: New add-ons and expanded availability (Scott Gu) - Great new features! Learn everything about the newly available Windows Azure Store.

Database

• SQL SERVER – Select the Most Optimal Backup Methods for Server - While I was looking for backup detail in the cloud I found this article. It is a good review/explanation of all on-premise possibilities.
• SQL Server Backup and Restore to Cloud Simplified (Craig Kitterman) - This post explain how to backup our on-premise database in Azure. This way you have easily a backup offsite. Even more, since this backup can be restore on premise or directly in the cloud!

Practice

• All Effective Enterprise Architects Are Agile - Interesting post about the strength of Agile methodology.

Integration

• Windows Azure Service Bus EAI EDI Labs April Release – How can I Get Start - If you didn't have the chance to try Windows Azure Enterprise application Integration (EAI) part, this is your chance.

Programming

• The Mobility Iceberg (David Pallmann) - Interesting post that describes what is a superior mobile application.
• Build Yourself a Windows 8 App Dev Lab (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Perfect post to get started and build your first Windows 8 app.
• 10 Bonnes Pratiques JavaScript (Christophe Porteneuve) - A must to read. 10 simple best practices to improve your code.
• éco-conception logicielle : 10 fois moins de serveurs pour LinkedIn - Very interesting article about the design of LinkedIn and why it is so performan.
• Things I learnt creating a jQuery Plugin (Part I) - First post of a series, this post get you started with the best practice of a jQuery plugin structure.

Miscellaneous

• Managing Programs With Agile and Traditional Projects (Johanna) - Good tips about how we could manage a mixte of agile and no-agile projects.
• How to Refresh Your Brain--in 10 Minutes (Francesca Fenzi) - 10 minutes that's easy!
• You are not your code. (Scott Hanselman) – Nice pep-talk that motivate us to share. I can agree more.

~Frank

Reading Notes #76

 
Suggestion of the week

• Subscribe! (Clement Vasters) - An amazing new series about the Windows Azure Service Bus, really good video.
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 1: The Portal
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 2: .NET SDK and Visual Studio
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 3: Service Bus Explorer
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 4: Queues
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 5: Topics
• Getting Started with Service Bus. (Final) Part 6: Relay

Cloud

• New Windows Azure PowerShell Update – December 2012 (Michael Washam) - Nice update to the Azure PowerShell tool that gives more options to manage Virtual machine and Service Bus.
• Table Storage 2.0 (Tyler Doerksen) - Nice post that explains the new structure of the namespace in the library and gives some samples of code how to use it.
• Practical Azure #5: Windows Azure SQL Database - Perfect get started video about Azure Sql Database.
• Storing user uploads in Windows Azure blob storage (Maarten Balliauw) - Great solution to a simple real word question. Easily scalable and secure. I really like it!
• Azure Remote PowerShell (Dustin Metzgar) - This post explains how the author managed to get more information from an instance running in Azure. The code sample is also available.
• PaaS not cheap enough? AppFog has a deal for you! (Barb Darrow) - New lower prices for Cloud Foundry.
• Applications are now open for the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure – 2013 (Scott Gu)- Great opportunity for business to start using Azure with a lot of resources.
• Cross-Post: Announcing Windows Azure Media Player framework Preview for iOS (Craig Kitterman) - Great new for iOS developers that can now enjoy the awesome Azure Media Services.
• Deploy an on-premise VM to Windows Azure with App Controller (John Joyner) - Hurray! A lot of people were waiting for this feature!

Integration

• BizTalk360 Deployment and Configuration best practices (Saravana Kumar) - Use must read/bookmark the great post. It explains all the best practices related to BizTalk360, all in one single post.

Database

• Windows Azure Import/Export Service and External References - Important notice that can save you a lot of time when exporting a database in Windows Azure.
• Available Today: SSDT—December 2012 - New updated version of Sql Server Data Tool (SSDT) now support unit testing.
• Getting Started with SQL Server Database Unit Testing in SSDT - Nice post that explains how to get started with the new testing features available in Sql Server Data Tool. From converting the 2010 test projects to customization.

Programming

• 10 skills for developers to focus on in 2013 (Justin James) - Developers if you didn't see these coming, here is the top list of what you should learn/ improve in 2013.
• Why All The Lambdas? - This post explains very clearly how the lambdas are so useful by using a well use sample of code in Asp. Net MVC @Html.TextBoxFor(Model.Rating).
• Use Big Data to gain insight about small business customers (David Gitonga) - Interesting post that explains how BigData could be you in your business... even if you are in a small company.
• What Refactoring is, and what it isn’t - According to Kent Beck and Martin Fowler (Jim Bird) - While doing some refac****. I mean re writing in a project I found this post to be really interesting... and actual.
• 10 Tools To Get Kids Excited About Programming (Saikat Basu) - Wow those are great! I'm exited to show some of these to my kid. It's always good to transit passion ;)
• Essential Command-Line Tools for Web Developers - Interesting tools that can saves a lot of times doing repetitive tasks, specially during web development.
• JQUERY 1.9 BETA 1 RELEASED - Nice jQuery 1.9 is coming. Learn all about the new features ex: the multiple getter. Since big structural changes are maid in this version the jQuery team is providing migration tools. Learn where to find these and how-to uses them in this post.
• Recreate a VM .. over and over again (Priyo Lahiri) - Nice script that is a time saver. I would have liked to have it one month ago when I was testing deployment... Let's keep it for the future.
• So long and thanks for the all the Expression... Expression Design & Web are End of Life'd (but now free) [oh, and the rest of the Expression Suite is dead too] - If you still using VS2010 it's a good time to download Blend now. Also I wonder what application will replace/take the lead instead of SuperPreview (in Expression Web)?

Miscellaneous

• 15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success (Georgina Laidlaw) - This post suggested simple "rules" that are easy to follow, and that will make you more likeable on social media.
• Surface & iPad Collision Course  - Nice post that compares what could be compared between an iPad and a Surface... Nothing unexpected put still something to read.
• Backing Up WordPress? Don’t Make These 9 Mistakes - If you are a developer, you probably backup your machines and your code. That good. Do you do the same for your blog? You should, here is how-to do it the good way.

~Frank

Reading Notes # 72

Cloud

• Practical Azure #2: What About Blob? - Great video on everything you should know on Azure Blob.
• A phone call from the cloud: Windows Azure, SignalR & Twilio (Maarten Balliauw) - Great tutorial very complete on account validation process.
• Cloudy Thoughts by SyntaxC4 - Good new continuous development with website Azure now supported private repository with github and bitbucket.
• Microsoft announces Big Compute capabilities for Windows Azure (Kenneth van Surksum) - Windows Azure now have a lot bigger instance type available.
• Scaling cloud apps with the .NET Framework 4.5 - Really great post, that introduce some new features of the .Net framework 4.5 (now available in Azure web site) and how to use them in a scaling perspective using async.
• How does Windows Azure PowerShell import publishsettings using Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile command? (Avkash Chauhan) - Quick useful tips when playing around with Azure and PowerShell.
• Windows Server 2012 Now Available on AWS - A new series called Windows Wednesdays just kicked off with this nice post about the new availability of Windows Server 2012 on AWS.
• More Great Improvements to the Windows Azure Management Portal - Explain the new features in Windows Azure Portal such like new SQL Database Metrics, website enhancement, media services new options, custom CNAME for Azure storage, etc.
• Complete walkthrough: Setting up a ADFS 2.0 Server on Windows Azure IaaS and Configuring it as an Identity Provider in Windows Azure ACS (Haishi) - Great tutorial to setup and test a Azure IaaS website using Identity Provider.

Integration

• AppFabric - Frequently Asked Development Questions (Ed Price - MSFT Ed Price - MSFT Microsoft MSFT 122,146 Points 25 20 17 Recent Achievements Proposed Answerer III Gallery Contributor II Wiki Ninja View Profile) - Good questions... with their answers.

Programming

• Changes in ADFS 2.1 from ADFS 2.0 - Important things to know when migrating in addition to remember where you saved the artifacts creation scripts.
• Use Big Data to gain insight about small business customers (David Gitonga) - Interesting post that explain how Big Data could be you in your business... even if you are in a small company.

Miscellaneous

• How to set up CrashPlan Cloud Backup headless on a Synology NAS - Backup Strategies (Scott Hanselman) - Nice demonstration of how to setup a backup solution. It also give us alternative ideas.
• How to be a Consultant, Part 1: The Difference Between a Developer and a Consultant (David Pallmann) - First of a serie this post hi-light the difference between a developer and a consultant by explaining what more you need to be from a developer to be a consultant with a capital "c".
• How to be a Consultant, Part 2: Travel - One if By Land... (David Pallmann) - A lots of good advice and tips when traveling by land about schedule, rental cars, and equipment.
• How to be a Consultant, Part 3: How to Travel (Gonna Fly Now) (David Pallmann) - This post is all about sharing fly experience tips and giving advice of "rules" when traveling by air.
• Do More Faster: 10 Best Apps & Tools (Frank Addante) - Nice apps for different platform that make the day easier.

~Frank

Reading Notes #62

Cloud

• David Pallmann Demonstrates azureQuery (Channel 9) (Brady Gaster Cory Fowler) - Nice video where the project azureQuery is introduced. A project to follow.
• Max Pool Size Setting and Federations in Windows Azure SQL Database - Nice quick tips with Azure Sql connection.
• Best Ways to Optimize Diagnostics Using Windows Azure – Part 1 - 5 tips from experimented user.
• Windows Azure Mobile Services Preview Walkthrough–Part 2: Authenticating Windows 8 App Users (C#) (Roger Jennings) - Nice demo in 2 parts with code and a lot of screenshots.
• Getting Started with SendGrid on Windows Azure - Well done tutorial. Building an application that send mail never locked that easy.
• Running a Windows Azure Virtual Machine Locally with Hyper-V or VMware 8 / VMware 9 (Stephen W. Thomas) - Nice... Exactly what I was looking for.
• Importing Azure Marketplace Data into Excel 2013 with Web Queries - Great tutorial that build a dynamic url to fetch data in Azure Marketplace.
• Cloud - Interesting post about the security of the data in the cloud.
• The Windows Azure Software Development Kit (SDK) and the Windows Azure Training Kit (WATK) (Buck Woody) - It's true that some people were mix matching those two. Re-share...

Programming

• EAI Bridge Message Sender and Queue Message Receive tool - Nice tool.
• Introducing ASP.NET FriendlyUrls - cleaner URLs, easier Routing, and Mobile Views for ASP.NET Web Forms (Scott Hanselman) - Gorgeous! Wow you can now so easily in web form do the routing like in Asp.net MVC only with one NuGet call!
• 5 points developers should know about WinRT / Windows 8 - Now that Windows 8 is there developers are starting to do more code using WinRT. So here some quick things about it.
• How to migrate your TFS Repository to GitHub - Nice, simple and quick tutorial to start using git and in the meantime try Chocolately. (a kind of NuGet but for Windows instead of Visual Studio)
• Your Colorful Visual Studio 2012 with the Color Theme Editor (VS2010 colors, too) (Scott Hanselman) - Great add in to Visual Studio that gives... Nothing except happiness.
• FREE: Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop (Scott Hanselman) - Ye! Visual Studio gets free for all kind of project! It makes more sense to do this when supporting open source community.
• ScottGu's Blog - Good promo, no obligation, no credit card, good product... until the September 18.

[…]Read this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build (in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “To-do List” app that is cloud enabled using Windows Azure Mobile Services. Or watch this video of me showing how to do it step by step.[…]

• Stop Validating Email Addresses With Your Complex Regex - I agree 100% I don't remember how many site told that my e-mail was invalid because tagged: frank+tag@sample.com.
• When Is a Set Better Than an Array in Ruby? - Great post, the Set are very useful and powerful but are also under know.

Miscellaneous

• Escaping from Desktop: Online Document Editing Tools for Bloggers (Guest Blogger) - Interesting review of different online text editor that compare the pros and cons of each of them. Check TeamLab.
• 10 free tools for admins on a tight budget (Jack Wallen) - Even if you may now some, you can also find a new precious tool.
• Automatically Backup your Gmail account on a schedule with GMVault and Windows Task Scheduler (Scott Hanselman) - Nice advice. The power of task scheduler, ignore you should not.
• Goodbye Fax, Hello Personal Cloud | Cloudline - A real nightmare, but do you think it will be ending soon? I hope so.
• 10 Tips for Giving a Kick Ass Keynote (Mitch Ditkoff) - 10 good tips that I will practice in my next presentation.
• Your resume vs. your LinkedIn profile (Thomas Wolff) - Nice advice about how we should use LinkedIn with our resume. They should complement each other not be the same.
• Turns out I’ll be writing a book - Nice idea. I hope this book will be published. I will love read this book.