Reading Notes #245

Cloud

• Application Insights: Track an Analytics query in a dashboard (Dan Hadari) - Nice quick intro to Azure analytics.
• Logging and Error Handling in Logic Apps - Interesting post that shares a solution for real-life problem, by using document DB.
• Visualizing your Azure enterprise costs with Power BI - PowerBI is fantastic to visualize data consumption, this post explains how EA subscription owner can now use it easily.

Miscellaneous

• 5 Reasons Your Daily Scrum is Boring - So simple and so hard to achieve. This post explains how to avoid common mistakes.
• How Do I Write Good Code? (Erik Dietrich) - Simple tips that will make our code rocks.

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.

Reading Notes #145

Suggestion of the week

• Thinking About Strings, Quotes, Tokens, And Tildes In Less CSS - Less CSS seams really interesting. Next web projects, I seriously think use it.

Cloud

• Lessons Learned – On #Azure, Log Everything!s (Alexandre Briseboi) - Great post about how we should use the Event Trace Windows (ETW) to do our logs.
• Using Time-based Partition Keys in #Azure Table Storage (Alexandre Briseboi) - Nice tips about how saving our logs in Azure.
• How to get notifications from a Windows Azure website - Wow, this is truly amazing and really easy to do.

Programming

• How to connect your Windows Phone 8 & 8.1 app to Yammer - Nice short tutorial to learn how connect Windows Phone (wp) apps to Yammer.
• PowerShell Tools - v0.8.0 - Now with REPL! - Time to get or update this great add-ons in our Visual Studio.
• Thinktecture.IdentityManager as a replacement for the ASP.NET WebSite Administration tool (Scott Hanselman) - This post introduces a great project to manage our memberships in our Asp.Net projects through a nice interface.

Mobile

• Windows First: A New Strategy for Mobile Development and Beyond - Programming multi platform application is becoming much easier. This post explains some of your options.

Architecture

• The Open Group Open Platform 3.0™ Starts to Take Shape (The Open Group Blog) - This post talks about an interesting white paper. What’s good in it and why we should read it. This new 3.0 platform look very promising.

Miscellaneous

• How to use an Xbox One controller on your Windows PC (Scott Hanselman) - Really.?! That simple? That’s great!
• Windows Live Writer going Open Source? - This post explains why our help is needed in order to give a future to Windows Live Writer.

Reading Notes #63

This week a little bit less of notes since I went to the Windows Azure Global Summit at Seattle, where I met many interesting persons. A lot of amazing things are coming for Windows Azure... but this is for another post!  

Cloud

• Great Free Courses on Building HTML5 apps using ASP.NET Web API, Knockout.js and jQuery (Scott Gu) - Great post with a lot of amazing news for all developers.

[…] 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.[…]

• BizTalk 2010 R2 CTP: Azure Service Bus Integration–Part 1 (Kent Weare) - Great tutorial, easy to follow that show new features included in the BizTalk 2010 R2.
• BizTalk 2010 R2 CTP: Azure Service Bus Integration–Part 2 Brokered Message Properties (Kent Weare) - Nice tutorial, good way to bind those two great tools such as Biztalk and Azure. More two come in this serie about service bus and topics.
• Deploying Azure Websites with Git (Tyler) - Nice tutorial that how easy it is to manage our website with the new Github integration into the Windows Azure portal.
• What is the Difference Between Apprenda and Windows Azure? (Toddy Mladenov) - Interesting comparison between Windows Azure and Apprenda. I didn't know that last one, but it looks nice. It needs more investigation.
• Windows Azure Mobile Services Preview Walkthrough–Part 4: Customizing the Windows Store App’s UI (Roger Jennings) - Nice tutorial. This is the fourth of a serie but it could be read easily alone if you only interested of deploying an app in the Windows store.
• Logging Using Azure Table Storage (Michael R Duffy) - I'm use to see more logging solution using the Windows Azure storage with blob than with table. But it makes sense since now storage is so cheap. Great post.
• Connecting to Windows Azure Service Bus from BizTalk Server 2010 R2 CTP - Great post that explain how to leverage BizTalk using the Windows Azure Service Bus with topics.
• Innovation Across Multiple Screens and How Your App Idea Fits In (Paul Laberge) - Quick post about a more and more popular idea: 3 screens and a cloud.

Programming

• Generate Kindle (MOBI) ebooks with your ASP.NET Web API - Nice demo that show the pipeline of how those "send to Kindle" services.
• Why I’m done with Scrum (Jimmy Bogard) - Interesting thoughts about Agile method. Pros and cons.

Miscellaneous

• Turns out I’ll be writing a book - Nice idea. I hope this book will be published. I will love read this book.
• Everything's broken and nobody's upset (Scott Hanselman) - It is good to know you’re not alone. Scott told all the issue he as in... One week!?
• Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy (Richard Seroter)- Nice reply to the post of Scott Hanselman. I'm must say I going on Seroter side. ;)
• The Art of Writing Functional Specs (Part 1) – What is a Functional Specification? (Saveen Reddy) - Interesting thoughts about how should be written functional specs.
• What to Do When You Have to Work with Someone You Don’t Like (Peter) - Nice post, which forces us to think about our self.