Reading Notes #103

Suggestion of the week

• Architecture Patterns for Data Upload to Windows Azure (K. Dotchkoff) - Nice description of many patterns with their pros and cons. A post to read.

Cloud

• SQL Azure: Automated Database Export (Tara Shankar Jana) - Nice post that details all you need to know about the new Sql Azure Automated export: options, cost, etc.
  
• Cloud Service Fundamentals – Introduction into Fault-Tolerant Data Access Layer (AzureCAT) - Good post about the best practices.
  
• **Service Bus Error: The maximum entity size has been reached or exceeded for Topic (Ravi Verma) - Quick fix for a common error message. Be aware of the Default life time value.
  
• Meter and Autoscale Multi-Tenant Applications in Windows Azure (Bruno Terkaly, Ricardo Villalobos) - Great articles that explains how to setup diagnostics to be able to autoscale in a multi-tenant context. The article also refers different resources for more details and tools.
  
• Announcing the release of the Windows Azure SDK 2.1 for .NET (Scott Guthrie) - Learn more about all the enhancements and great new featured inside this last release.

Programming

• Just released: MvcSiteMapProvider 4.0 (Maarten Balliauw) - Sitemaps is a great tool, learn more about it and how easy it is to add why in your project.
  
• Don't fear the shell... - "Getting Started with PowerShell 3.0" jumpstart series - Mostly everything can be done with PowerShell, here a great list of tutorials to get started...
  
• Get started with some basic TFBuild Scripts - Great post that will gives you a new image about build scripts.
  
• Securing a Web API with Windows Azure AD and Katana (vibro) - Very complete post and tutorial that explains what is OWIN and project Katana (both in preview), and how to use it.
  
• July 2013 Release of the Ajax Control Toolkit - This post details all the great new features in the last release of Ajax Control Toolkit. So many useful tools...

Databases

• Fragmentation in SQL Azure! (Dilkush-MSFT) - Wow, a really interesting post that goes deeper than usual and explains database fragmentation in Azure.
  
• Take Control - Windows Azure SQL Database Application Life Cycle Management Made Easy! (Alexandre Brisebois) - The SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is definitely a must for all projects with a database.

Miscellaneous

• When You Have Nothing Unique to Say… (Darren Rowse) - A little blogger's pep talk.
  
• 5 Tips for Launching a Product On Your Blog Without Annoying Your Readers (Darren Rowse) - Great post where the author share is experience about a product launch and how do it «the right way».
  
  

~Frank

Reading Notes #102

Suggestion of the week

• 3 Rarely Discussed, But Valuable, Uses for Cloud Object Storage - Very interesting post that gives good ideas of how to use the to storage at our benefits.
• Windows Azure Virtual Machines – Stopped doesn’t equal Stopped Deallocated (Stephen W. Thomas) - Very well explain. Now it's clear what need to be done to save money.

Cloud

• Turbo Charging Your Windows Azure Cloud Services - Interesting post where we can read about a real cost and performance optimization.
• Windows Azure July Updates: SQL Database, Traffic Manager, AutoScale, Virtual Machines - Great news. I'm looking forward to try these new features.
• Windows Azure Traffic Manager – High Performance, Availability & Resiliency - Nice tutorial to use the new Azure Traffic Manager.
• Windows Azure Traffic Manager Explained (Maarten Balliauw) - Nice post about the Traffic Manager that explains what it is and why we should care.
• SQL Azure: Automated Database Export (Tara Shankar Jana) - Nice post that details all you need to know about the new Sql Azure Automated export: options, cost, etc.
• Handling Azure Storage Queue poison messages (Pascal Laurin) - Interesting second post of a series this one explains why we shouldn't delete our error message.

Databases

• Database Versioning and Source Control (m kramar) - Interesting solution to a common situation.

Programming

• If you're not using Glimpse with ASP.NET for debugging and profiling, you're missing out - This post remembers me that I still didn't use this great tool, and I just have the perfect project to try it.
• 12 Lessons I learned using unit tests/TDD - Interesting post that promotes all the benefits of writing unit tests.
• Performance Tip: A few words on ASP.NET session state (Frédéric Rivain) - Interesting post to remember what we should have in mind to get the best performance.

UX

• Why People Don't Understand How to Use Your Software - Interesting thought about how to keep our clear vision.
• Making Readability More Responsive (Tyler Gaw) - Nice improvement on the user experience from this great tool. This post explains the reasons behind these change.

Integration

• Using SendGrid with BizTalk360 for Easy Emails on IaaS - It always good to see application that "works together" (that are so easily compatible) for our benefit.

Miscellaneous

• Touch: Where Microsoft Went Wrong (Frederic Lardinois) - Interesting thought about Microsoft and its moves to "touch". In my case, I really enjoy Windows surface. It's not perfect, but I like it.
• Write Less, Say More - Nice post that proof that once again the proverb quality not quantity rules.
• Pluralsight Summer Watch List - Nice suggestions to refresh our knowledge, or learn new things.
• The impact of a compliment (Scott Hanselman)- Interesting thought about compliment.format(ComplimentType.Professional).
• Choosing the right Portable Power Phone/Tablet/Gadget Battery Charger (Scott Hanselman) - Nice review so many options "just" for charging device's batteries.

~Frank

Reading Notes #101

Suggestion of the week

• Windows Azure Storage Best Practices - Great post that reviews the today's best practices to get the best of Azure Storage.

Cloud

• Scaling Up and Scaling Out in Windows Azure Web Sites (Craig Kitterman) - Nice post that clarified that scaling options from the Azure Website point of view.
  
• Windows Azure Storage Queue with error queues (Pascal Laurin) - Nice tutorial about using Azure Storage Queues in an asynchronous pattern. You just need to attach an alert from the new Azure Mobile Services to the Error queue, and you are in business! Until you get notified, then we will need the next post.
  
• Windows Azure SQL Database Automated Backups are Finally Here! - That really a good news! I cannot see any reason why anybody wouldn't use it.
  
• Linking a resource to your Cloud Service? What does that mean (Ashish Goyal) - Good clarification about what is exactly a link resource and what it's not.
  
• How to get a sticky load balancer in Windows Azure - Interesting post that comments the usage of sticky load balancer (to use session in a multi server context) and explains how to do it in Azure if you really need it.
  
• An Introduction to Windows Azure BLOB Storage (Mike Wood) - This incredibly complete post contains everything about Azure Blob storage. that the ultimate resource on that topics!
  
• Windows Azure SQL Database Automated Backup Frequency is in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) - Nice catch! so UTC it is...
  
• Dev/Test in the Cloud - Every developer should now what is available for them in Azure. It is so quick and simple! And if you stop your VMs when you are not developing, you stop paying for it!
  
• Windows Azure Web Sites: How Application Strings and Connection Strings Work(Craig_Kitterman) - Great post that explains how to get a more secure website by using application string.
  
• Turbo Charging Your Windows Azure Cloud Services - Interesting post where we can read about a real cost and performance optimization.

 

Integration

• Windows Azure BizTalk Services & BizTalk 2013 - comparing the mapper (Glenn Colpaert)- Very complete comparison of the two mappers that really shows the pros and cons of each of them.

Programming

• Deployment tool (Fredrik Normén) - Interesting "pet project": building is own deployment tool...
  
• Four Ways to Implement Lazy Loading in C# (Francesco Cariaggi) - Interesting post that gives alternative to the really handy lazy loading pattern.
  
• TypeScript 0.9 Preview Release (S.Somasegar) - Learn more about the new features (generics) that bring the last version of TypeScript released not long ago.
  
• Some of the Anti Patterns - Interesting post that identified some anti patterns that reflects bad practices. Knowing them helps to improve our code, so it's good to refresh our memory.
  
• Use PowerShell to Sort CSV Files in Order - Who don't need to sort stuff? Next time indeed of opening Excell I will type one command line; thanks to this post!
  
• The Great New Features in JustDecompile (James Bender) - Nice post that walkthru the new features included in the new release of this useful tool.
  
• Building static websites with Middleman - Very interesting code. I didn't know Middleman before I'll definitly look at it.

 

Database

• SQL – Difference Between INNER JOIN and JOIN (Pinal Dave) - Don't cheat and answer this frequently asked question before reading the post. And, did you got it?
  
• How to choose a No SQL Database - No Sql database with theirs pros and cons.

 

Miscellaneous

• Is Agile Really Cheaper? (Scott Sehlhorst) - I like this post because it puts words on though that I had. A good post to be more prepare next time a client asks you the question.

~Frank