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

Reading Notes #52

Cloud

• Ridiculously Fast and Easy Migration to the Cloud with Windows Azure (David Pallmann) - Nice post that re-groups 7 scenarios that are perfect match for a cloud (Azure) migration.
• Azure Storage Explorer 5 Preview 1 Now Available with Logging & Monitoring Support (David Pallmann) - Amazing job on Azure Storage Explorer that is at is fifth version already. This post is introducing one of the new features: logs. Guys update your version and if you did have this tool, this is your «cue».
• Overview of Windows Azure Caching (Preview) - This new Azure Cache look very promising. Here is some information about how it works.
• Amazon Web Services – Each Service in plain English - Nice idea, a one line description of most Amazon Web Services AWS... in plain English.
• Windows Azure – Write, Run or Use Software - Nice post that explain the three types of Azure service and the services in each one.
• What is the new Windows Azure? - Nice graphics that contain a lot of information. Spend some time reading the graphic you will not be disappointed.
• Three cloud ops lessons you should learn before your next outage - This post is about how you learn from unpredicted event. You know that it will come, but you can control anything... except you.
• Windows Azure Website: Uploading/Downloading files over FTP and collecting Diagnostics logs (Avkash Chauhan) - Quick tip about using ftp with the new Azure web site.
• Chris Koenig (Chris Koenig) - Nice overview of what's new in the Windows Azure Training kit.
• REST Interface for Managing Service Bus EAI/EDI Labs (Nitin Mehrotra) - Regroup interesting links about the REST API of the Azure Service Bus.
• We Need a Good Developer Cloud (Andrew Binstock) - Interesting thoughts, a bit dark, of what really the cloud situation today and what it should be. Even if I don't agree with everything in this post, I should say that I agree with the fact that user shouldn’t have to care about redundancy. It make sense that it could be done be the provider.
• The AWS outage reveals bigger issue - Short post that says that if you planned and architected correctly you application, even big outage should affect you.
• How to point your own Custom Domain Name in Windows Azure – #Meet Azure Edition - Really useful tutorial that explain with nice screenshots how to configure your domain name. Nice job.
• Using EAI Bridges to Send Flat File Messages from FTP Server to On-Premise SQL Server - Good tutorial that provides more details about one Azure EAI Labs.
• Managing the Cloud from the Command Line (Hanselman) - Great post about available script option to "play" with Windows Azure for a Windows or Linux pc.

Programming

• Create and deploy a Node.js application to a Windows Azure Web Site - With these new websites combine with the new Git for Windows, I really need to find some spare time and give it a shot. This nice tutorial could be the perfect get started.
• Considerations when Sharding - When having hard time to find how to shard your data, this alternative could give you ideas.
• The Caching Application Block - This post is the starting point for any developer that wants to do caching. Great references.

[...]When Should I Use the Caching Application Block? This topic will help you to decide if the block is suitable for your requirements. It explains the benefits of using the block, and any alternative techniques you may consider. It also provides details of any limitations of the block that may affect your decision to use it.[...]

• PowerShell - grabbing values out of the registry and running them (Rob Farley) - Nice use of PowerShell.
• Adding Ninject to Web API (Peter Provost) - Nice tutorial about Ninject (great dependency injection framework). Ninject is also available thru NuGet.
• Why Your Links Should Never Say “Click Here” (Anthony) - Good tips that for sure will improve your UI and the user experience.
• Getting Started with Lucene.net (Ricci Gian Maria) - Nice tutorial that explain with a simple case how to get started with the great library Lucene.net.
• Rethinking Web Service Development (Matt Aimonetti) - Nice post that explains how we should build and document our API.

Miscellaneous

• How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead (Jeff Atwood) - Seriously not serious. Download the slides...Awesome.
• New Series for Beginner Game Masters. (The Chatty DM) - A fantastic idea! That exactly what I was looking for. And just before the big vacations it's perfect!
• Positive Thinking: 7 Easy Ways to Improve a Bad Day (Geoffrey James) - Positive thinking is important, 7 easy tips to improve your day... and it’s not magic thinking.
• The Emotional Adventure of Leadership (Peter) - Interesting post that explains why being a leader you need to manage strong emotions.

~ Frank

Quick question

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Reading Notes #51

The Cloud Storage

Cloud

• Setting up a webfarm using Windows Azure Virtual Machines (Maarten Balliauw) - Nice post that explains how to build a web farm with a free load balancer using the brand new Windows Azure. This post pass-through all steps putting the emphasis on important notion to have a nice web farm up and running.

[…]Sysprep ensures the machine can be cloned into a new machine, getting its own settings like a hostname and IP address. A non-sysprepped machine can thus never be cloned.[…]

• GitHub for Windows Azure Websites (Maarten Balliauw) - This tutorial is very easy to follow and will help to to setup a Windows Azure Website that will use Git as sources instead of regular package.
• Windows Azure Service Management API Cheat Sheet with PowerShell (Michael Washam) - Nice PowerShell script sample that show how easy it is to manage the new Azure capabilities thru the API.
• Reintroducing Windows Azure, Part 1: The New Management Portal (David Pallmann) - Nice first post of a series of four this one introduce the new Azure portal with also a quick recap of the "stuff".
• Reintroducing Windows Azure, Part 2: Windows Azure Web Sites (David Pallmann) - This second post of the nice series presents all the new features around the Windows Azure Websites. Enjoy!
• Microsoft Gives Windows Azure Amazonian Facelift (Cade Metz) - After June 7, Windows Azure is definitely a cloud platform or cloud infrastructure or cloud... something that must be considerate if you planning to go in the cloud.
• Episode 83 - Windows Azure June 2012 Release - This is the longest episode of the Cloud Cover Show, but a great one! It talks about so many things... Find the time, it's a must.
• Updates to Windows Azure Storage – Reduced Transaction Pricing and Geo Replication (Gaurav) - Everything you need to know on Azure Storage and is geo replication feature (this post as been updated).
• 10x Price Reduction for Windows Azure Storage Transactions - Nice recap of all the novelties about Azure Storage.
• Thoughts on AWS (Arthur) - Nice post. A real AWS environment is break down to expose every part and the author gives is opinion about it.
• Can you use BizTalk in Azure Virtual machine for production use? (saravana) - Nice post that explain the details that you must know before using the cloud for your production environment. This is following this one.
• The cloud will cost you, but you’ll be happy to pay (Service Mesh Dave Roberts) - Very interesting post that explain the Jevons paradox and is application the cloud computing.
• Loading data to SQL Azure the fast way - Incredibly complete post. The perfect post to before you get started with massive data import into SqlAzure.
• Windows Azure Virtual Machines (Michael Washam) - Amazing post that wrap-up everything about the brand new Azure virtual machine and virtual network. All the features are deeply explains. A must for all it peoples.
• Reintroducing Windows Azure, Part 3: Virtual Machines (David Pallmann) - Third post in the series this one focus on windows VM. How to create, configure, connect and use them.
• Reintroducing Windows Azure, Part 4: Linux Virtual Machines (David Pallmann) - Same thing as the previous one except this one is about Linux VM.
• Windows Azure SQL Reporting is now available - That great news a good reporting tool is always important. More to come.

Programming

• Marked As Pertinent - The perfect post to read when looking for a NoSql (or a key/value store), because this post compare a lot of them.
• Nuno Filipe Godinho - Very nice feature. You don’t need any more to uninstall Azure SDK to install a new one! Even more you have a new dropdownlist that will act as a filter in visual studio when creating your new project.
• DFW Ajax Users Group - Nice post that presents the characteristics of the two main architecture of site (with sample) and explains why most actual sites are in fact hybrid.
• Using the Windows Azure Cache Preview with SDK 1.7 - Nice demo of Azure Cache preview and a quick fix on a potential problem you could have trying it with the emulator.

Miscellaneous

• 4 Things Great Leaders Do Better Than You (Les McKeown) - Inspiring post.
• What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (Laura Vanderkam) - Nice post. I'm a morning guy since I was a teenager and I kept this morning habit. It’s incredible how many things we can do!

[…]Come up with a plan and assemble what you need, but whatever you do, don’t label this vision as impossible[…]

• How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead (Jeff Atwood) - Seriously not serious. download the slides...Awesome.

~Frank

Reading Notes #50

Cloud

• 5 Reasons Why Your Company Is Safer in the Cloud - This is only 5 reasons why your data is safer in the cloud but 5 good one. What do YOU do to make your data safe?
• Simple .NET Database Programming using SQL Azure - Nice tutorial to get started with Azure SQL when developing an application.
• Cool Azure InfoGraphic - See how the cloud is creating job...
• Azure Store XRay - Great tool that improve the simplicity to work with Azure Storage Analytics. Available on CodePlex, a project to follow.
• Windows Azure Multi-Tenant (Hosted) Sample - Another nice Codeplex project that will require our attention.
• Outside-the-Box Pizza, Part 5: Hosting the Front End in the Cloud (David Pallmann) - I like this series about buildind a complete application. This post is focusing on how to structure your front end to be cost efficient and stay scalable.
• Announcing New Windows Azure Services to Deliver “Hybrid Cloud” (blogs.msdn.com) - This is a great news! Joy Joy Joy! (this is me dancing the happy dance) When this note will be posted the Meet Windows Azure event will be past, I hope you didn't miss it.
• New - Programmatic Access to AWS Billing Data - Good idea, this could be very useful for a multi-tenant solution. With this tool you can parse your billing data and breakdown the information to generate some invoices.
• Meet the New Windows Azure - Really nice summary of the keynotes. If you can’t watch the video (or want shorter version) then this post is for you.

Programming

• Site44 Turns Dropbox Folders Into Websites - Really good initiative! It couldn't be easier to build AND maintain a web site than doing it using DropBox.... brilliant.
• Using GitHub for Windows with non-GitHub repositories - Get started with GitHub for Windows. This post is doing step by step everything so be connected with a Codeplex project.
• Marked As Pertinent - The perfect post to read when looking for a NoSql (or a key/value store), because this post compare a lot of them.

Miscellaneous

• How to Speak More Strategically (Peter) - Nice post and nice reflection too.
• You're Not Trying Hard Enough (Dave Jafari) - Nice post that explains working harder is less efficient than working smartly.
• It’s not about them, it’s about you - Easier to say then to do. It's true that the ideas of what other people will think is difficult or forget, but if you succeed you will be free.

~ Frank

Reading Notes #49

 

Cloud

• IaaS and PaaS Are Merging – Thoughts on CloudFoundry, Microsoft, Amazon (Xath Cruz) - Windows Azure, Amazon Web Services, VMWare Cloud Foudry are figthing to have the biggest part of the cake... good for us, but it is harder to keep track of all those new services/products.
• Using the Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket (and Codename “Data Hub”) Add-In for Excel (CTP3) - Nice tool and great idea. Take the well-known tool and extended it with that cloud.
• Managing session state in Windows Azure: What are the options? - This post is answering a very popular question about what is is best way to manage my sessions state... answer it' depends.
• Microsoft Silverlight 5 and Windows Azure Enterprise Integration (Neil Mackenzie) - I also read the preview of this book and I remember it was very promising. It is close to the top of my to-read stack and I will not let go "deeper". I'm happy to found someone else confirm my pre-evaluation.
• Update Your Windows Azure Website in Just Seconds by Syncing with Blob Storage - Great idea! By thinking outside of the box you can do nice things and here a good sample.
• Architectural Patterns for the Cloud (Channel 9) (Anthony de Bruyn) - I know 56 minutes is a bit long but this is a good one. Maarten is doing a nice recap of what is Azure, what working or not working in the cloud and how it's working. The slides are also available to download.
• Think You Know Windows Azure? Think Again (Jonathan Rozenblit) - A lot of new things are coming for Windows Azure in June. Learn all the dates and the details here. The spring is finish in beauty.

Programming

• Quick Status of Your Windows Azure Apps with PowerShell - Really nice script. Thanks Steve!
• Awesome use of AND operator - Be aware of the risk of brain melting. This post explains a clever JavaScript loop.
• OData soumis à l’OASIS pour standardisation (OGDI France Team) - The version 3 of oData will be release soon. This post is an invitation to participate to the standardisation of this great protocol.
• Goodbye Photoshop, Hello Cloudinary (techcrunch.com) - I like the API idea .You can have more functionality in your own application without having to code them.

Miscellaneous

• 5 Ways To Prep For Your Next, Better Job (Alice Korngold) - Nice post, however I would change the title for 5 ways to prep your working life.
• Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously - Good comparison between workout and working. it is not because someone famous is doing something that doing this thing will make you famous.
• Programmers are optimists - Funny and completely thru... What do you think?
• She let me take the computer home. - How did you get started in computers and programming? (Scott Hanselman) - Amazing story about Scott techno-birth. The force was strong in this one.
• 8 Great Twitter Tools You Aren't Using - Great tools to maximize your twitter experience. And some that I didn't know about...
• How to Speak More Strategically (Peter) - Nice post and nice reflection too.

~ Frank

Reading Notes #48

Cloud

• Windows Azure Start-up Tasks Part 1 - First of a series this nice post explain the basics of start-up task when deploying in Windows Azure.
• Windows Azure Start-up Tasks Part 2 - Great post that gives a lot of information on Azure start-up tasks: environment variables, useful xPath query, important tips that will save you a lot troubles.
• Windows Azure Myths - Nice post that demystify 5 important myths about Windows Azure.
• Cloud SLAs: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You - SLAs are an important topic. Here is a good post to have a better understanding of it. This post talk about SLAs in general so you will also need to get more info from your cloud provider.
• Amazon Attracts Windows and .NET Developers to the AWS Cloud (Saroj Kar) - Amazon is really pushing harder to be attractive for the .Net developer. That good news since it will give you more options ;)
• My CDN Progression - Great post about true life experience. This post will definitely help people, looking for a CDN, to take better decision or at least start their search with more wisdom.
• Debugging Windows Azure Web Role Application_Start() method in Global.asax.cs (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - Nice quick tips to reach break point in Application_Start().
• 5 Issues Cloud Computing Can’t Solve (Xath Cruz) - The cloud is good but not magic. Here are 5 frequent ideas where in fact the cloud (whoever is your provider) can’t help you.

Programming

• Automating Visual Studio 2010 builds and deployments with Nant.Builder (Iain Hunter) - Really interesting series. The steps are simple and well explained. In the next one deploy to Azure...
• [MONITORING] Les 10 raisons de développer son application en HTML5 (Web App) (Gamorlive) - If you agree with the fact that your user must be connected (like when looking your web site), then here are 10 reasons why you should do your new application in HTML5.
• Le Monkey Patching - I'm new to the idea of dynamic code, and I tend to use it to help me testing/ mocking. These posts illustrate how it could be very useful in other situation.
• Quick Status of Your Windows Azure Apps with PowerShell - Really nice script. Thanks Steve!

Miscellaneous

• I took Hanselman's advice and now look at me... - Nice post a thru story telling how by following Scott Handselman advice someone become more productive.
• Cool Tools: How to Find Free and Cheap Ebooks - Good references of tools to get eBooks and also to search them.

[…]Sources, InkMesh is the best search engine I have found for identifying if an author or a book is available in eBook form,[…]

 
~ Frank

Reading Notes #47

Cloud

• Is AWS or Windows Azure the Right Choice? It’s Not That Easy. - Really good question that compare AWS with Azure.
• Downloading Windows Azure Publish Settings (Subscription Configuration) file (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - Time saver quick tips to retrieve Azure Publish settings in one click.
• Avoiding cloud lock-in - Nice post that explain why it is important keep our application loosely couple. Or if we don't to know what we do.
• Corporate Filesharing with Security and Control - This is the perfect alternative for a super private "DropBox" and it is true that it make full of sense in a corporate perspective.
• WordPress on S3: run a beautiful website on Amazon S3 cloud storage (Artem Livshits) - Great initiative! This is a perfect example of a application that take the advantage of the cloud safe cheap and that will grow with your need.
• Comparing Windows Azure Blob Storage and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)–Summary (Gaurav) - Very long and exhaustive comparison between those 2 services. I didn't even know some features... Nice post.
• Episode 80 - Getting Started with SQL Azure Data Sync Preview (Channel 9) (Nick Harris Nathan Totten) - Really nice episode. I try the Azure Data Sync in one of my project (I should post something about it...) it is a very promising tool.
• Maarten Balliauw {blog} (maartenba) - Nice post about the changes that append now because of the cloud computing.
• Why You Need Compuware for Application Performance Monitoring - This looks like a very useful tool.
• Comparing Windows Azure Blob Storage and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)–Part I (Gaurav) - Amazing post that covers ALL features of both Windows and Amazon cloud service. This is the part 1 of a series and it focus on containers and buckets.
• CloudTip #13-What do you need to know to get started? (mbenkov) - Great post that presents all 9 screencasts of soup of nuts. If you like watching video to quickly get started, you will like this one.
• Comparing Windows Azure Blob Storage and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)–Part II (Gaurav) - Second part of a series, this one compares Azures blob storage to Amazon Simple storage. It covers all details even the different methods to upload and download files.
• Cloud Ninja Metering Block - Really promising project that provides tools to measuring a multi-tenants Azure solution. More to come.
• Windows Azure Service Bus EAI Doesn’t Support Multicast Messaging. Should It? - The Azure service bus EAI is still at a hurly stage right now, but Seroter is highlighting a good point... It should.
• An Introduction to Windows Azure (Part 2) - Really nice post part 2 of 2 this introduction post is focussing on available services in Windows Azure.
• Scott Guthrie on Cloud-Powered Revolutions (scottgu, Jonathan Rozenblit) - Really nice (and funny) introduction of Azure by the great Scott Gu. (1h video)

Programming

• An Introduction to NuGet - Nice post that explain quickly what is NuGet and witch tools are available.
• Why I Hate Unit Testing - What a nightmare! I'm not sure that this post will help the undecided to join the unit testing but this JusMock tool deserved a look.

"This is easy to do with Telerik JustMock. I wrote about using JustMock to get you started in From Legacy to Dependency Injection.
Steve Forte and Joel Semeniuk have a great presentation on this called The Agile Buffet Table."

• Automating Visual Studio 2010 builds and deployments with Nant.Builder (Iain Hunter) - Really interesting series. The steps are simple and well explained. In the next one deploy to Azure...

Miscellaneous

• A Super-Efficient Email Process (Peter) - Explain a simple method to be more productive and efficient with e-mail management.
• the Continuous Client (Joshua Topolsky) - So true, I'm looking for a continuous Twitter client for a long time now. I don't understand why this isn't in all application. Congratulation to Kindle for this! You can start reading on one device and continue to another one without effort.
• 9 Steps to Take When You Loathe Your Own Blog (Guest Blogger) - Having a blog is a lot work. Here are 9 tips to keep you inspired and proliferates.
• 5 Things to Ask Your Cloud Backup Services Provider - I'm a Mozy user and really happy with it. Of course this post is also a sales pitch but the questions are the good one and should be considered when selecting your backup solution. When did you do your last backup?
• 5 Steps To Choosing The Right Challenges (Brendon Burchard) - Nice post that give good tips to identify good challenges.

~Frank

Reading Notes #46

 

Cloud

• War in the Cloud ! (Pradeep) - Today few big players are fighting to get their part of the cake. This post try to found how could be the winner.
• Article: I’ve built a SaaS solution on Windows Azure: now, how do I know what to charge my customers? - Great idea. A tool to help monitoring our application.
• Preparation is key to a successful cloud deployment - This post gives some advice to prepare our cloud life
• 5 Reasons to Start Working with Windows Azure - Highlight some keys features of Windows Azure especially debugging tools.
• Automating Azure deployment with Windows PowerShell (adambird.com) - Quick intro and nice script to get started about using Azure PowerShell cmdlets to deploy.
• All Things Distributed (Werner Vogels) - Big announcement from AWS for the .Net community. Amazon is releasing is RDS for MSSQL and a tools kit for Visual Studio.
• Cloud is a corporate strategy, not a tactical solution (Switch Mark Thiele) - Nice post that will help you to focus on the good things and ask you the good questions when planning your cloud adventure.
• Is AWS or Windows Azure the Right Choice? It’s Not That Easy. - Really good question that compare AWS with Azure.

 

Programming

• Ajax Control Toolkit May 2012 Release - Great! The timing is perfect. One day after this new release some project arrived and they need exactly this new version of the upload control... thanks!
• Request Filtering, URLScan With Windows Azure Web Role (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - Simple script for start-up task to install URLScan since it's not there by default with IIS7.
• Create a Continuous Client Using Portable Class Libraries - Very nice article. By following the realisation of an application to solve a real world problem, the author introduces the client portable library “cpl” that gives the opportunity to easily write a cross platform application.

“there is, as Joshua Topolsky puts it, “a missing link in our computing experience” (engt.co/9GVeKl). “

• The key to AddOrUpdate (Arthur Vickers) - While waiting for the next release of EF this post explain very clearly how to implement an extension method to help use in a more generic context when we want the same functionality of the DbSet.Find in a AddUpdateEntity method.
• Mocking Dependencies != IoC (or at least it doesn’t have to) (Vincent-Philippe Lauzon) - Interesting tutorial that explains an alternative to mock without using dependency injection IoC by using the Lazy.

 

Integration

• Michael Stephenson - Tips on when not using BizTalk config file and reference on another post to more details.

"I wrote a blog post a few years ago around the options for where you could put configuration settings in BizTalk (Click here)."

 

Miscellaneous

• The Blog of Scott Hanselman - Interesting post here Scott explain how he did introduce Star Wars to is kids. I like the 20 minutes segment idea.
• The Myth of Informed Consent - I agree, how many times did you got a firewall or anti-virus popup asking to approve something that you really don't know about? That why we install them, so they should take the decision...
• The key to AddOrUpdate (Arthur Vickers) - While waiting for the next release of EF this post explain very clearly how to implement
• The Floppy Disk means Save, and 14 other old people Icons that don't make sense anymore (hanselman.com) - Really funny, if you are older than 30... So just for fun ask around to the junior people if they know about those techs.

~Frank

Reading Notes #45

Cloud

• 5 tips for surviving a cloud outage (Brandon Butler) - More focus in Amazon web services this post in fact is saying don't put all your eggs in the same basket.
• Say Hello to Windows Azure, The World’s Most Misunderstood Cloud (Cade Metz) - Azure is different. It represents the new Microsoft. This post relates two stories of companies that move from Amazon to Azure.

“Azure lets us focus on our product rather than focusing on how we need to scale the application”

• Windows Azure Storage for the ASP.NET Developer (Adam Hoffman) - What a nice post. Clear explanations, with great references and it come from a series.

“For a rich comparison of SQL Azure and Windows Azure Table storage, see Joseph Fultz’s MSDN Magazine article at: http://aka.ms/SQLAzureVsAzureTables.”

• Scale-First Approach to Database Design with Federations: Part 2 – Annotating and Deploying Schema for Federations (Cihan Biyikoglu) - Second part of a series about Azure SQL Federations, this post explain all the particularities of the database to know before deploying for a optimum results.
• Joining the dots in the cloud - Nice post about the new collection of cloud tools that will help you to connect services or applications together and the things you should be aware of.
• CloudDrive: Possible Data Loss when calling Create() or CreateIfNotExist() on existing drives - Hopefully the SDK 1.7 is coming soon and the "feature" will be fix. However this is a excellent workaround.
• Load Testing in cloud using Visual Studio (Vignesh C) - Good idea for a load test using Azure.

“This blog has three posts that give detailed explanation of how a test rig with Controller and Agents can be created in Windows Azure.”

• Networking in the Cloud–Understanding Windows Azure Traffic Manager - Great post to get started with the Azure Traffic Manager. Of course to master it you should do the lab, but this post will help to understand the high level concepts.
• Four Different Ways to Get Windows Azure Accounts and Services - I'm sure there one that fits you.
• Run the Azure worker role in elevated mode to register HttpListener - Nice workaround to be able to use Raven in an Azure worker role.
• Windows Azure Learning Path–Start Here (Brian H. Prince) - Preface of the great learn Azure post series and introduce a contest.
• Windows Azure Learning Path–Level 100 (Brian H. Prince) - First of a series that regroup a lot of information to get started on Windows Azure.
• Windows Azure Learning Path–Level 200 (Brian H. Prince) - Great exercises about storage
• Windows Azure Learning Path–Level 300 (Brian H. Prince) - Third of a series, this post regroup advanced exercises reference (level 300) about the Azure connectivity options.
• Part I of III - How to access an Azure OAuth v2 ACS secured service with Java (mbutler01) - First post of series of three about how to use oAuth v2 with Java using ACS.

“There does not seem to be any good working OAUTH v2 examples for Java using ACS”

• Windows Azure App Scaling to Need (Grigori Melnik, Julian Dominguez) - Very nice video about Wasabi the Windows auto-scaling Application block. A must.
• How to Use Windows Azure for a Small Web Site (avsol) - Good tutorial that give a lot of tips on how you could do you setup for a small web site.

Programming

• Introducing Workspace Reloader - A Visual Studio AddIn to save your open files across project reloads - Nice post about a little Visual Studio Add-in that will keep your files open when the solution is re-loaded.
• Ruby tricks: Array syntax (chatgris) - Quick post quick tricks... now I looking forward the next time I will try it.
• Ajax Control Toolkit May 2012 Release - Great! The timing is perfect. One day after this new release some project arrived and they need exactly this new version of the upload control... thanks!

Miscellaneous

• Thinking The Wrong Things About E-Book Pricing - Interesting topic: How much should cost a e-book?
• Trust Me, I'm Lying (Jeff Atwood) - Interesting post. Why lying is necessary.
• SlideShare and LinkedIn sitting in a tree… (rashmi) - Great new for both SlideShare and LinkedIn... A perfect match.

~Frank

Reading Notes #44

They will bring you in the cloud.

Cloud

• “You Complete Me” Says SharePoint to Windows Azure (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Really nice post that just open the possibilities on how could be implanted Azure with other application and in this case with SharePoint.
• Services Hosted in Windows Azure Service Bus (Stephen Kaufman) - This is definitely something to remember... How to work with proxies and Azure.
• Cloud Computing is Designing For Failure - Nice short post about the why using cloud computing instead of the other more common web server developing.
• A world of pretty cloud drive icons - SkyDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, BitBucket and GitHub (Scott Hanselman) - Nice free icons for ours cloud storage.
• SkyDrive brings your personal cloud across devices (Steve Clayton) - Great new, it will become a lot easier to share or "backup" files with this new tool.
• Why Infrastructure As A Service Is A Bad Deal - It could be difficult to have a idea of the saving you could do going in the cloud. This post only looks the storage scenario. You could be surprise of the result, but I bet that the arrival of Google Drive and is aggressive pricing will makes thing moved.
• Using Windows Azure Caching for Session State can make the application slow if right programming practices are not followed (Farida Bharmal) - Nice tips. Simple once you know it.
• Five ways to reduce Azure Costs - Really good advice, this post is a must! It also contain ref to good tools or more detailed articles.
• Amazon: Cloud computing to be the norm in future - Nice post that show how easy and cheap to do a gigantic task using the cloud computing.
• Google Drive vs. Dropbox, SkyDrive, SugarSync, and others: a cloud sync storage face-off (Ellis Hamburger) - The most complete and detailed comparison ever. Really nice post. Pick the best tool(s) for your needs.
• Windows Azure Diagnostics–From the Ground Up (Greg Oliver) - Really nice post with a lot of good references and a lot of information. Perfect to get started or have a better understanding of Azure diagnostics.
• Fun with the Service Bus (Part 1) - What a great tutorial! This post is covering a lot a material by doing for a to z an application where the heart is Azure Service Bus.
• Announcing Windows Azure Achievements for Visual Studio (Karsten Januszewski) - Nice update even more since the achievements are good things.
• Auto-scaling Azure with WASABi–From the Ground Up (Greg Oliver) - Great tutorial about Wasabi framework.
• Greenpeace Cloud Protest: Do Amazon, Microsoft Deserve the Doghouse? - Those giants need to take care of the environment and also they need us to remember it.

Programming

• Code First model builder versions (Arthur Vickers) - This post explain how to configure EF code first to avoid any breaking code when updating the framework to a newer version. Nice work.
• Créer son propre Gem et le publier - Very nice tutorial (in French) that explain in detail with a simple case how to create and also publish a Ruby Gem.

Miscellaneous

• 5 Tricks for a Killer Company Blog - Five simple tips to get started blogging in a business perspective.
• Hit the Presentation Sweet Spot - Twenty minutes is very short. Maybe it is a good idea for a specific type of presentation... How do you plan a 2-3 formation?
• Your Personal Brand as a Developer: Implementing (Part 2 of 2) (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Part 2 on an unusual topic but important. Our brand, as a person. On the internet everything is amplified and could be seen by a lot of people very quickly. A post to read "before it is too late".
• Coping with Email Overload (Peter) - This could be a good advice for a lot of people. While I'm working on a project where co-workers are across the country I not sure I can do this but maybe tweaking it with rules for only those people.

Reading Notes #43

Cloud

• Readers: What’s Your Cloud Strategy? - Learn more about some cloud services offered and that are or will be open source.
• Return Empty Set Instead of ResourceNotFound from Table Storage (Wade Wegner) - Great catch. This little thing is easy to forget, but if you don’t want throwing exception when querying Azure Storage you should read this post.
• The Rising Value of Cloud Computing - Nice post that talk about the future of the cloud provider and what those companies needs to stay in the race.
• Microsoft's answer to Amazon's CloudSearch - The fight continue and this is good for the users. Its mean more products for cheaper.
• Outside-the-Box Pizza, Part 4: Social Integration with Twitter (David Pallmann) - I never thought that a pizzeria could be on Twitter or any social network. This post proved me wrong by explaining the why and the very simple how.
• Comparing IAAS and PAAS: A Developer’s Perspective - Nice post very clear. It explains all the differences between the two more popular cloud «as a service» model.
• What's New? Introducing AWS Marketplace - Nice this 1-click deployment button in the brand new AWS Marketplace.
• Logging in Azure: Part 1 (Tyler Doerksen) - Very nice post that show how to implement, with a simple twist, how to log with Log4Net (or transform an application using it) in an Azure Blob storage. Part 1 of a series.
• Logging in Azure: Part 2–Table Storage (Tyler Doerksen) - Second post of a series that explain how to implement a solution so that Log4Net write in an Azure storage table. This leverage the search for a particular type of error.
• Scale Data Applications with Sql Azure - Short post that hi-light the advantage of using SQL Azure and Sharding to scale out your application.

Programming

• Need A Cloud Monkey? Netflix Unleashes Simian Army - Monkeys is the name of all those programmes or applications that are used by Netflix to watch their system. This post report that Netflix announce they will give the code as open source.
• Outside-the-Box Pizza, Part 3: Mobility & Responsive Web Design (David Pallmann) - In this post all the CSS tricks to support the Responsive web design will be explains. The goal is to support the army of different mobile devices.
• Why you need to learn async in .NET (weblogs.asp.net) - Nice post with a code sample that illustrate the advantage of using the async framework. Let’s the code represents “the what” of what you want to do not “the how”.
• WCF-SQL Adapter and permissions - Well explain. I got this once, and I remember spending few minutes trying to understand this error message... It's a shame that it's not the good one that is display first...
• Lowering the Barriers to Code Generation with T4 - If you are not already using T4 or if you think code generation is only for "big project", this post is for you. This very nice tutorial shows how to use T4 to improve the quality, the stability and the readability of your code. A must for all serious .Net developer.

Miscellaneous

• Defining Your Personal Brand as a Developer (Part 1 of 2) (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Interesting, let’s see what append in part 2.
• Most Valuable Professionals? Give Me A Break. (Davy Brion) - It couldn’t be that bad! I agree that like in any sphere some people are lazy or surf on some appearance but I hope that not reflecting the majority.
• What Microsoft MVP means to me « Inviting Epiphany - I don't know if this post is the answer to the other one, but in my head this is more likely what is a real MVP.
• Introducing Iris: A Big Leap Forward in Drawing Meaning from the Web (Chris Dary) - I'm using Readability for a long time now. I but tools using their API. I ask them a lot of questions. And one thing keeps coming back: improved. They always answer my questions. They are listening the developers, trying to make the API or their tools better. A big thumb up to Readability. Try it by yourself you'll see.
• How to Attend a Conference as Yourself (Peter) - Interesting point of view. When you are at a conference, who are you?

Reading Notes #42

Cloud

• MCSE is Back–and Better Than Ever!! - Important new from Microsoft this week: certifications for the cloud. This post is a good summary of this new reality.
• An Up-Close Examination of the Microsoft RDP Vulnerability (Guest Author) - Important RDP vulnerability was fixed in the March patch. Since in Azure the remote is disabled by default and that some firewall rules protect some connections, if you use Azure you are now safe and probably you were never really in danger. But if you are using an image on AWS you probably should apply you Windows Updates...
• Announcing the Refresh of Service Bus EAI & EDI Labs (Harish Agarwal) - The Windows Azure team listened to our feedback and new features and a lot of performance improvements in the updated version of the EAI & EDI labs.

• Illustrating the CQRS Pattern with Windows Azure and MVC4 Web API (David Pallmann) - Nice sample to understand the advantage of the pattern CQRS over the more common CRUD.
• What The Cloud Doesn’t Do (Alexander Haislip) - Nice post explaining why on-premise computer are not obsolete since the cloud arrives. Nice comparison with the evolution of the radio and the TV.

• What is Azure Subscription and How to Setup a Windows Azure Subscription? (Arun Rakwal) - Nice post that gives a way to structures your Windows Azure subscription.
• Using the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network - This is the perfect post to get started with windows Azure CDN. It’s also providing some best practices when using Azure CDN.
• Let Power Users Create Their Own oData Feeds (Julie Lerman) - What a amazing tool! The Data Explorer is still in CTP but if you are like me go to Azure Labs and try it now.
• Azure Service Bus Pusher (Roman Kiss) - An amazing post from Roman. Everything is explained from the model to how to test your Azure Service Bus.

• Three cloud models; three very different risks - A different way to present the difference between SaaS, PaaS and IaaS: the security/ risk.
• Azure Deployment hangs with Status "Preparing to upload, please wait" (Arun Rakwal Arun Rakwal Microsoft MSFT 10 Points 2 0 0 Recent Achievements First Forums Reply New Blogger View Profile) - Good to know before we got this type of issue.
• There’s no need to be a one-cloud company (Switch Mark Thiele) - Nice post. Being in the cloud with one provider is easier but it's like putting all our eggs in the same basket. Do we have other options?

Programming

• Why NoSQL Equals NoSecurity - Great post with a lot of information about many different NoSQL databases. It also suggests some best practices to get a correct level of security on your NoSQL database.
• Dynamic Image Generation, ASP.NET Controllers, Routing, IHttpHandlers, and runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests (Scott Hanselman) - Nice tips about the dynamic element generation in web development.

• A geek with a hat » What Refactoring is, and what it isn’t - Nice quick post that explain perfectly the difference between refactoring and ... other things ;)
• Becoming A Better Developer - This is definitely a good question and the author of this post takes the time to give a good answer.

[…] Are people who speak at conferences speaking because they are the best, or are they the best because they are speaking…[…]

[…]The best way to learn is to teach.[…]

• The Big Glossary of Open Source JavaScript and Web Frameworks with Cool Names (Scott Hanselman) - Wow so many open source projects that look awesome... take a peek.
• Professional WCF 4: Windows Communication Foundation with .NET 4 – With a lot of code samples this great book explain all the facets of the Windows Communication Foundation WCF. The authors put all pieces together so block by block we are prepared to build a Service Oriented Application SOA.

Miscellaneous

• Succeeding with Agile - Nice tip that look simple and efficient.
• My car ships with crapware (Scott Hanselman) - Hilarious and true, why we can have a super dual-core computer in our pocket but our car come with a so crap old "computer"?
• 5 Presentation Apps to Try - Quick list of nice tools helping us to pass through a presentation or after to share some files.
• 12 Ways to Attack Any Challenge - Facing difficulties is good. It's mean you are challenging yourself. That you try to become better. This nice post is refreshing your memories about ways to overcome those challenges.
• More of What You Came For (Michael Desmond) - The team of the MSDN Magazine are since ... forever trying to always offer more. This time is by giving more content (some exclusively) on their web site. Like the column Azure by Bruno Terkaly.
• 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done (Peter Bregman) – A great book that explain a lot of little think that we could do every day to help to focus on the thing we want to accomplish. Nothing magic but it help to take better decision. Peter use a lot of personal story to explain is thoughts and that improve a lot the comprehension. It was my first experience with audio book, and I really like it. It was done by Peter Bregme himself.

~Frank

Reading Notes #41

Cloud

• Single-Tenant Vs Multi-Tenant SaaS Invoicing Models (David) - Describe both single and multi-tenant architecture and explain the real power of the multi-tenant in the cloud.
• Quantifying and Avoiding Risk on the Windows Azure platform (Richard S. Parker) - Great post that identifies different types of risk and help to understand each of them. It’s also explained how you should manage the risk by not being dependant of Microsoft SLA.
• HTML5, CSS and Browser Compatibility (David Pallmann) - Second of a series, this post describes the HTML structure of the main page.
• Microsoft Research and Windows Azure Partner to Influence Discovery and Sharing (Himanshu Singh) - Nice post that introduces three projects of Partners have done in Windows Azure.
• Microsoft offers free cloud backup beta for Windows Server "8" (Sean Gallagher) - Great idea. I hope this service could be used by the other windows version.
• Transactional Messaging in the Windows Azure Service Bus - Really nice post that explains how could works a resequencer, why one could be needed and how to test it.
• Windows Azure Dev Fabric (Rodrigo De Castro) - Good tips using a ip:port mapper tool to access remotely to a compute emulator.
• Protecting Your Data in SQL Azure: New Best Practices Documentation Now Available (Gregory Leake) - Well best practices are always welcome, a must.
• Cloud Tip #5-Secure your settings in Web.config with Encryption (mbenkov) - Nice quick tip! Add a little more security to your config file.
• Announcing SQL Azure Data Sync Preview Update (GregoryLeake) - This is a great news! not being able to update sync group was REALLY painful... Otherwise Azure Data Sync is a great application.
• How We're Using Amazon Web Services - Moustach.io is sharing their experience of the cloud by showing how they use the AWS. Nice true story.
• Exploring Cloud Architecture - A really nice recap of different architectures in the cloud. Putting them in context with cost efficiency.

[…]cost efficiency doesn’t equate to cheap or even free. You can determine the cost to be efficient when the equation can’t be changed to reduce cost without also reducing the services or functionality—meaning[…]

• 4 Cloud Computing Pain Points That Still Hurt - Interesting post. Contain other post references and important cloud facts.
• Why (or Why Not) to Migrate to the Cloud - Great post that hi-light the pros and cons of the cloud migration.
• Migrating an on-premise database from SQL Server to SQL Azure using SSIS (zafarx) - Really well done tutorial using SSIS instead of the other tools to migrate a database to SQL Azure. By doing it that way you have the possibility do more with your schemas before moving them.
• Getting Acquainted with NoSQL on Windows Azure (Bruce Kyle) - A real good post. It compares different noSQL databases and explains how they work. A lot of other good posts and tutorials are also referred. Definitely perfect to get started.
• Announcing SQL Azure Data Sync Preview Update (Gregory Leake) - This is a great news. Not being able to edit the sync group in my previous projects was really painful. I can’t wait to try the new version...
• Announcing New Datacenter Options for Windows Azure (Cameron Rogers) - Always good to have more and more options. Maybe, some day one will be in Canada. We have a good temperature and plenty of water...
• An Up-Close Examination of the Microsoft RDP Vulnerability (Guest Author) - Important RDP vulnerability was fixed in the March patch. Since in Azure the remote is disables by default and that some firewall rules protect some connections, if you use Azure you are now safe and probably you were never really in danger. But if you are using an image on AWS you probably should apply you Windows Updates...

Programming

• Why You Should Be Excited About Garbage Collection in Ruby 2.0 - Garbage collector is not the more glamour feature, but it's nice to go under the hood and see that some innovation are going on. Very well explain.

Miscellaneous

• I'm Sure It Will Only Take You A Few Days To Code - Interesting, I didn't think our usual or natural sensor to estimate the complexity of something cannot be use when it comes to estimate software... but it makes senses!
• What geeks need to tell our parents about shopping online safely and securely (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post. read this post than go talk to your parent, uncle, brothers and sisters all those people that call you when they did nothing but the PC doesn't works anymore... ;)

[…]HTTPS (SSL) doesn't mean "I can trust this site," it means "this conversation is private." You still might be having a private conversation with Satan. - Scott Hanselman Trust[…]