Reading Notes #158

Suggestion of the week

• The Deploy to Azure Button - This post tells us about the evolution of an amazing idea to simplify the deployment to Azure.

Cloud

• Azure Private Cloud: Ship it - Interesting post that talks about how a private cloud could be a great option for your enterprise.

• Infonuagique et vie privée : je t’aime moi non plus! - Interesting post in French that talk about some security concerns related our personal information in the cloud.

• Available on AWSLabs - That's a great news for all Xamarin developers.

• Amazon DynamoDB now supports JSON document data structure and large items - Great new it's now event easier to use the DynamoDB.

• Introducing the Azure Automation Runbook Gallery (Beth Cooper) - Great post that introduces the Azure Runbook Gallery and explains how to use it and also how to add our Runbook to it.

• Designing for Big Scale in Azure (K. Dotchkoff) - Nice post that explains how we should change our design in the cloud and use logical container or scale units.

• Automating the tedious parts of open source on Azure (Scott Hanselman) - This post walks us through the new optimized process of GitHub CLA service account with Azure.

Programming

• Custom Login Scopes, Single Sign-On, new ASP.NET Web API – updates to the Azure Mobile Services .NET backend (Carlos Figueira) - Nice post that explains how to use some great feature of asp.net web API.

• Contributions to Azure documentation and SDK’s on GitHub just got simpler (Guy Burstein) - Because simpler is better. Nice update.

• Simple HTTP api for Executing PowerShell Scripts - Interesting alternative idea when you don't need any interaction with the user.

• Announcing Infragistics Xamarin.Forms! - Another good news for Xamrin developers, now your mockup could be closer to the final look.

• Challenges in handling date and time in REST API and distributed web applications (Saravana Kumar) - This post share with us the strategy they used to manage dates, and explained why they did it that way.

• Responding to Events with TypeScript and Backbone -- Visual Studio Magazine (Peter Vogel) - Nice tutorial, the third of a series, about building a single-page application. More to come.

• Building a Better NuGet (Edward Charbeneau) - Nice post that gives us the best practices when developing a NuGet package.

• Some challenges with Node.js on Windows - This post shares some workaround when developing in Node.js on a Windows environment.

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

Miscellaneous

• The Greenfield to Brownfield Transition -Interesting thoughts about how we should embrace different kinds of opportunity....

• Adding Custom Post Meta Data - Nice update to help with the ranking with Ghost blog.

• Plex for Xbox One is here and my life is complete - Plus Synology setup how-to (Scott Hanselman) - I'm a huge fan of Plex myself and just want to share this great news with everyone.

~Frank

Reading Notes #87

Suggestion of the week

• NuGet Package Source Discovery (Maarten Balliauw) - Wow an amazing idea. The potential is big, looking forward for other posts on that to see that devs are doing with it.
• Build great web apps, directly in Dropbox - Wow it cannot be more easy! Now everyone even no technical people can have their website on Azure, and for free!

 

Cloud

• Inserting & Modifying Large Amounts of Data in Windows Azure Table Storage Service (Alexandre Brisebois) - Nice post that explains best practices with Azure Table Storage.
  
• Size Matters! - Of course size matter, but the size of what? Excellent post that explains how to use to the maximum the available resources.
  
• Remote profiling Windows Azure Cloud Services with dotTrace (Maarten Balliauw) - Great tutorial that explains how to configures and use dotTrace with Windows Azure.
• Let there be Windows Azure HDInsight - Perfect post to keep in our bookmarks. It contains all kinds of reference to get started with Hadoop on Azure.
  
• Crunch Big Data in the Cloud with Windows Azure HDInsight Service(Craig Kitterman) - Details on the HDInsight likes prices and compatibility.
  
• Web Camp Session Video – Websites in the Cloud (Tyler Doerksen) - Nice video that shows 0everything about Azure website.

Programming

• How can I motivate coworkers to write unit tests? - Writing unit test is good. Here is all the tooling it needs to motivates other people( or even you) to do so.
  
• Dirk Strauss - Nice looking tool. It could be very interesting to compare the features with basiliq... more to come.
  
• Amazon Launches ‘Send to Kindle’ Button For Web Developers & WordPress Blogs - Great idea! Looking forward to more of these buttons.
  
• How to configure diff and Merge tool in Visual Studio Git Tools - Useful tips to have a better configuration and have your favourite tools working together.
  
• A Month of PowerShell (Wayne Sheffield) – Great series that I started reading. I liked the format (short post). It gives you time to practice a little everyday.
• Day 1 (Getting Started) - Learn why you should learn PowerShell and few basics explorative cmdlets in the first post of a series.
• Day 2 (Variables and Operators)  - Nice for the explanation about the quote double quote.
  
• Day 3 (Security) - Useful tips if you try doing PowerShell you will hit the problem solved in this post.
  
• Day 4 (Scripting) - The base of script structure: function, module, try-catch, and param.
  
• Day 5 (Scripting – Putting it together) - Nice post the puts all the things presented in previous posts in a sample script.

 

Databases

• implicit data type conversion and COALESCE - This great post explains how quickly and simply improve our SQL query. Any developers who writes query should definitely read that one.

Miscellaneous

• What a 14-Year-Old Can Teach You About Management - It's never too late or too early to learn something. A nice post that will show you your from in a different angle.
  
• 7 Simple Steps to Writing Great ‘How To’ Content on Your Blog - Good post explaining the good way to write a how to post.
  
• 9 Steps to Creating a Successful e-Course) (Darren Rowse) - A lot of useful information in this post to create interesting lessons.
  
• It’s Not Just Reader – Google Kills Its RSS Subscription Browser Extension, Too (Sarah Perez) - Last week was full of Google reader news, but the thing is bigger than that. Why this move?

~Frank

Reading Notes #55

Cloud

• Monitoring your Windows Azure Web Site (Brian H. Prince) - Nice post that explain how to see the statistics of your servers with the new Azure graphic interface.
  
• Overview of the Windows Azure Platform (Neil Mackenzie) - Great overview in this post about all the features of Windows Azure, specifying the advantages of each one.
  
• Azure for Developers: Introduction to the Tutorial - Wow great job! This series of 8 post will explains all the basics (and more) about Windows Azure by constructing, step by step a real application. A perfect get started for all developer.
  
• Windows Azure IaaS Overload (Michael Washam) - All regroup in one posts a lot of videos about crash course on Windows Azure IaaS.
  
• Windows Azure Caching (Preview) and Ruby Cloud Services - Nice job from Larry Franks to the brand new Azure Cache with Ruby.
  
• Migrated to Azure Web Sites - Nice post, all the steps needed to move an existing Wordpress blog to Windows Azure.
  
• Switching to Windows Azure - Interesting post, from someone who changes is mind, and went to Windows Azure.
  
• Announcing the Developer Preview of Windows Azure Active Directory - Great news, even if it's in a very early age this is very interesting... now let's play with it!
  
• Comparing Windows Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage (Gaurav) - Always very interesting those posts where two or more products are compared...

Programming

• Is recursion really bad? - Interesting demo about efficiency of recursive code compare to loop and stack. I would have liked to see the code that was used to test.
  
• Azure CDN Cache busting CSS image references and minification (Iain Hunter) - Interesting tricks to take advantage of the Azure CDN with minified css using pre-build event.
  
• Rhino Mocks Isn’t Complicated (Jim Cooper) - This post by doing code sample comparison between convinces me to try it again. It's true that a Rhino mocks has change since last time I worked with it. The "new" syntax is really clearer.
  
• Why LINQ Matters: Cloud Composability Guaranteed - Nice post very detailed that show how powerful is LINQ.
  
• Create Reminders in Windows 7 Without Outlook (groovypost.com) - Nice reminder ;) about the one of the great tools available on windows platform the task scheduler.
  
• Integrating Balsamiq Mockups with Google Drive (googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.ca) - Great news! I'm a big fan of Balsamiq and this "move" really makes sense.

Miscellaneous

• Microsoft Announces New Cloud Opportunities for Partners - Interesting post about the WPC that append on the week on July 10th.
  
• 10 crazy IT security tricks that actually work (Roger A. Grimes) - Good tips about security, even if some of them are for servers the other are simple to apply and should be very efficient.
  
• The Best Strategy for Reducing Stress (Peter) - Great post, in today's word being able to manage is stress could be life saver.
  
• Motivate Employees: 4 Techniques to Try (John Baldoni) - Interesting thoughts about some technics you use to motivate people you work with.

~Frank