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

Reading Notes #54

Cloud

• Windows Azure - When do I use What? (Andrew Coates) - Nice quick post that demystify when it's the time to use a Azure website, a webrole or a VM.
• Update on the Windows Azure Accelerators (Nathan Totten) - Important notice that explain why the Windows Azure Accelerators project is has become depreciated to be replaced by Azure Website.
• Run your blog on Windows Azure (Brian H. Prince) - Quick tutorial to create a Wordpress blog with the new Azure Website services.
• Windows Azure Web Sites vs. Cloud Apps (Brian H. Prince) - This post explain the differences (pros and cons) about Azure website, cloud apps and VM.
• Windows Azure is a 3-Lane Highway: How to Drive It (David Pallmann) - Great post that clarifies how each parts of Azure service are working. Amazing works and the reference to the highway make it even clearer. Put it into your to read list.
• Hadoop on Windows Azure - Wow, a fantastic post/tutorial that explain how Hadoop is working and how do some task with it.
• Mixing Node.js into Your Windows Azure Solution - Real nice article that show how to manage files with Node.js using shared access signature.
• 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.

Programming

• Creating Inheritance Relationships in Entity Framework - Nice tutorial about improving your entities generated by EF.
• 5 ways to roll out a product faster - Nice article that gives 5 tips to focus and delivery a prototype as quick as possible.
• Create and Consume JSON-Formatted OData - Great article that introduce a tool / framework call datajs. With datajs you can manage easily your oData directly in JavaScript.
• Python on Windows Azure – a Match Made in the Clouds! (Shahrokh Mortazavi) - Nice post about tools needed to get started using Python with Azure. A lot of options available.
• Windows 8: Top 10 Reasons why I choose XAML over HTML5 - Nice post that put the emphasis on the top 10 strength of XAML.
• Windows 8: 15 More Reasons why I choose XAML over HTML5 - Great post that add some key features support by XAML to the previous top10.
• DNC Magazine for .NET Developers - Launch Edition – Nice free magazine with a lot of content.

Miscellaneous

• Defend Your Sweet Spot (Peter) - Interesting post by Peter Bregman, the author of 18 minutes, that explains why finding and keeping your sweet spot is important.

[…] time management isn’t primarily about using minutes well, it’s about using yourself well.[…]

• 7 Things You're Doing Wrong on LinkedIn (Tom Searcy) - Nice tips that will help you (or confirm you) how to use LinkedIn in the best way.

~Frank

Reading Notes #53

This post is an important milestone for this blog. It completes the first year of Reading Notes, since a year as 52 weeks and it’s also the 100th post!

Thanks for being there and continue reading, a lot of good stuff is coming…

~Frank

Cloud

• Cloud Strategy Begins with Value and Balances Risk (Microsoft Enterprise Team) - Nice post that help to identify risks. The information is display in tables that helps.
• Windows Azure Performance: Best Practices (Rick Saling) - Good reference to more detail video on the topic.

[…]great video of a presentation on Federations by Cihan Biyikoglu at the 2012 US Tech Ed conference in Orlando. […]

• Windows Azure PowerShell and Ruby Cloud Services - Great post where updating is RubyRole project the author make interesting discovery. Learn more about some new functionality available in the Azure SDK 1.7.
• Deploying Windows Azure Website using Visual Studio Web Publish wizard - Nice quick tip to use Visual Studio with the new Azure website.
• Data Series: SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machine vs. SQL Database - Great big post that cover every difference between those two Sql database. Perfect reading to stop being confuse.
• Windows Azure Websites, Virtual Machines, and More « Jonathan Rozenblit - Great! If you missed the conference at Toronto on June 20th this is your chance to catch-up. The full conference is available to watch by steaming or offline by downloading.
• 10 Questions to ask when Outsourcing to Azure (Surf4Fun) - Good questions.
• Data Synchronization using SQL Azure Data Sync (Félix Martínez Retama) - Nice post first of a serie. This one is illustrating few possible scenarios of synchronisation with Azure Data Sync.
• Data Series: Exploring Windows Azure Drives, Disks, and Images (BradCalder) - Amazing article that pass throut all details about Azure drive, disk, image and cache. A must to all cloud developer.
• New Article: Windows Azure Queues and Windows Azure Service Bus Queues (Valery Mizonov) - Very good article that perfectly summarises the content of the longer MSDN article about the difference between Azure queues and Azure Service Bus Queues. Simple easy to read and accurate.

[…]Following is the high-level technology selection considerations section from the full article on MSDN. […]

• Windows Azure - When do I use What? (Andrew Coates [MSFT]) - Nice quick post that demystify when it's the time to use a Azure website, webrole or a VM.

Programming

• JQuery 1.8 beta 1: See What’s Coming - Wow, a lot of things are coming with the next version of JQuery. This a good post to catch the big picture.

[…]new build system based on Ben Alman’s awesome grunt tool. […]

Miscellaneous

• Reminder, basic quick fixes for troubled gear - Nice check list for no-technical people of what they can do by them self before calling you to rescue when they computer/gadget stop working. ;)
• ScrumMaster Tales – Learning How to Estimate (Mark Levison) - Interesting post that relates the experience of an Agile team. Also refers some other post of that still.

~Frank