Reading Notes #18

Cloud

• Windows Azure: Startup task or OnStart(), which to choose? (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - Know the difference between starup task and onStart()
• Can Cloud Computing Reduce IT Cost Complexities?
• Packaging an Executable as a Windows Azure Application From the Command Line – Quick way using programEntryPoint of worker role
• New Article: How To Integrate a BizTalk Server Application with Service Bus Queues and Topics - This is looking promising, need to read the full article.
• Four key reasons to include cloud computing in your business strategy - To help some client to find if the cloud is good from them
• Cloud Cover Show: Episode 62 - Marketplace with Christian Liensberger – Great info about Marketplace.
• Cloud Cover Show: Episode 63 - Securely Sharing Files with Windows Azure – Really nice introduction of the BlobShare. 
• Six Reasons to Use Cloud Services for Small Business - Another list of arguments of why you should go in the cloud

Programming

• Bodega Sale Blog - A kind of American idol for developer... not a bad idea.
• Engine Yard Platform-as-a-Service – Difference between concurrency and parallelism by type of ruby
• Sandro Pereira BizTalk Blog - When an image IS thousand words
• Fire and Ice: David Pallmann's Web and Cloud Blog: Adventures in HTML5: Bouncy Bar Chart (David Pallmann) - If you're looking for a nice way to learn HTML5 then this how-to make a htmk5 version of Jelly bars is perfect for you.

Miscellaneous

• An analysis of four lazy years with an Amazon Kindle and no dead trees (Scott Hanselman) - Understand why you should go with a e Reader
• I know apps - Interesting point. Next time keep that in mind.

~Franky

Reading Notes #17

Cloud

• Announcing Improved In-place Updates (DrewMcDaniel) - A must to read to any Azure developer. this will improve the speed and lower the friction...
• Windows Azure In-place Upgrades (Year of Azure – Week16) (brentdacodemonkey) - Really interesting. A recap of where we where and where we are going. continue with the post.
• Questions About the Cloud? Learn from Windows Azure Partners And Accelerate Your Move to the Cloud  (blogs.msdn.com) - True stories. perfect to finish convincing someone to move to the cloud (is the cloud is a solution)
• Editing a Local Windows Azure Project with the Emulator Running (Nathan Totten)- Great news... Debugging will be lot less painful.
• Dark Side of the Cloud (Andy Singleton) - Its not always as perfect as it look. Some time the cloud is not the best solution.
• SQL Azure Federations: Building Scalable, Elastic, and Multi-tenant Database Solutions - To start learning about SQL Azure federations this is a good post. a lot of details and links
• Simple Database Migration to SQL Azure (David Pallmann) - Well explain, well packaged this very frequent scenario.
• Windows Azure VM downtime due to Host and Guest OS update and how to manage it in multi-instance Windows Azure Application (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - Explain different scenarios possible when Azure is doing an update.
• What is Amazon’s Secret for Success and Why is EC2 a Runaway Train? (Randy Bias) - Great post exposing the Amazon web service AWS secret.
• Microsoft Azure: B for effort, less for execution (Barb Darrow) - Very nice post where the author talk about where Azure is compare with is competitor.
• The Microsoft Private Cloud: A Technology Overview – Perfect post to start learning on private cloud, or should I say IaaS?
• Implementing Windows Azure Retry Logic (DavidAiken) – AzureSQL and Service Bus don't implement the retry. To have a good idea u cant use the framework explain in this post

Programming

• What Ruby’s ||= (Double Pipe / Or Equals) Really Does - Explain how really this particular operator works.
• Introducing the OData Library (dpblogs) - This post explain the new feature present in the new October CTP of oData.
• Cutting Edge - Objects and the Art of Data Modeling (Dino Esposito) - Good article, and by the side explain some EF stuff. Explain how to use the active record pattern and Domain Model Pattern with EF.

~Franky

Reading Notes #16

Cloud

• The Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus (Joseph Fultz) - A great and complete sample of a use of azure AppFabric service bus. code also available.
• Announcing The New SQL Azure Reporting CTP Release - all detail about the new CTP release.

"SQL Azure Reporting enables new hybrid IT scenarios - for example, customers can schedule automatic synchronization of on-premises databases with SQL Azure, and then deploy cloud-based BI reports based on the synchronized cloud-based data"

• On Not Using owner With the Azure AppFabric Service Bus (Neil Mackenzie) -Great post to get started on Access Control Service (acs) with out using owner as in CTP.
• Types of Cloud Computing (ArchieIndian) - if still confuse between SAAS IAAS PAAS then this the post.
• Reporting on Diagnostics Data(Joseph Fultz) – Wooo! A lot of stuff is going on here. grab your CTP access and download the code available in this article. great prove of concept.
• Field Note: Calling the Windows Azure Storage API Asynchronously  (Tejaswi Redkar) - Nice trick about accessing storage asynchronously.
• Static Web Site Migration to Windows Azure (David Pallmann) - If you didn't know yet, here packaged in a 30 minutes recipe how to migrate a static web site.  good way to move in the cloud AND saving money.
• The Developer’s Guide to AppFabric (Alan Smith) - This is the official release version of “The Developer’s Guide to AppFabric” and it’s free.

Programming

• Working with Lazy Loading in Entity Framework Code First  (stevesmithblog.com) - EF code first manage the lazy loading automatically. this post show you how to disable it when needed.
• Actions in OData (Alex James) - First post of a nice series talking about pushing farther oData by adding/using action.
• Do you know Ruby Doctest? - Great tool for units test in Ruby

Miscellaneous

•  Securing Service Bus with ACS - In this talk Clemens will discuss how to secure your Service Bus applications using ACS.
• Is BizTalk Server Going Away At Some Point? Yes. Dead? Nope (Richard Seroter) - Answering the question that every one have on her lips: Does Biztalk is dead?

"Microsoft’s Tony Meleg actually did an excellent job frankly discussing the future of the middle platform and their challenges of branding and cohesion.  I strongly encourage you to watch that session"

• How to Start Freelancing (Coby Chapple) – A series about doing some freelancing. the author share is experience. Read part1, part2, part3... still one more to come
• Cloud Cover Episode 61 - Updates to SQL Azure Database with Roger Doherty - In this episode, Roger Doherty, Technical Evangelist for SQL Server and SQL Azure, joins Steve and Wade to discuss recent updates to SQL Azure database.

~Franky