I’m reading most of the time in common transport and offline, on my eBook reader. So part of my morning routine is to look for new articles to read, and send it to my reading device. Since this week, because of the new Readability updates, I can do this in only one click! Let me share this with you.
The Tooling
Readability
I’m using Readability to keep tracks of all the posts I’m reading. It also very useful, because it cleans everything and keeps only the text of the article. Readability can also send you automatically post to your device.
Readability extension for Chrome
I’m also using the Extension let you from anywhere send a page or a link to your reading list. No need to copy-paste the post’s URL. Since last week, options are also available in the context menu.
Feedly
To keep tracks of all the RSS I’m following I use Feedly. The interface is very polish and the application is always improving. The application is also available on iPhone and Android in addition to being a web app.
The Trick
Finally, because Feedly is running in a web browser, you can use the Readability extension. So from now on, when I found interesting article, I can left-click and send it to my eBook reader.
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.
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.
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.
Boxstarter - I really need to “box” my favourite applications, so each time I start working on a new VM all my stuff will be the way I like.
Service Bus Messaging Deep-Dive (Clemens V) - If you must see only one video about Service bus is that one. Great job! Know more from A to Z in one shot.
DevOps for Windows Azure (BuckWoody) - Great resources of references for all the devops needs. A post to bookmark.
Scaling Applications Using Windows Azure Cloud Services Poster
here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id =36837
you should also read this complete manual in preparation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh871440.aspx
Does Your Data Really Belong in Your SQL Database? - Nice post that answers a really good question. When an application is moved into the cloud, most of the time a re-structuration is needed to enjoy the cloud capabilities.
Cassandra with a Hint of Azure (Neil Mackenzie) - Nicepost that introduces Cassandra. Its architecture, pros and cons. Reference to another post that compare Cassandra to other NoSql databases are also mentioned.
Is It Possible to Have Too Many Ideas? (Chris Heivly) - Nice post that bust the myth by explaining that what's manner is what you do with that flow of ideas.
Continuous integration using TFS on the Cloud (Stephen Ebichondo) - For many people continuous integration sound so complicated that they don't want to try it. Here is an excellent tutorial that will guides you through your first build.
ASP.NET Web API Queryable with OData (Channel 9) (Brady Gaster Cory Fowler) - Nice show with a lot of info on new oData coming soon. Also, the first On Location interview Scott Hunter; tease of some new functionalities to come in VS.
DefinitelyTyped TypeScript definitions now on NuGet (Jason Jarrett) - Typescript is really powerful and easy to use. And these days it’s even easier to use with all those new DefinitelyTyped package for NuGet.
Polymorphism: Part 1 (John Teague) - Great tutorial that explains an important concept in programmation.
Learning Center - Wow, I just discover this web site, and I thought to share it because it's an incredible source of information well-structured and clear.
jQuery Mobile 1.3.0 Released - New release of jQuery Mobile the library to use for a Responsive Web Design (RWD) or for a mobile first approach.
Integration
What’s new in BizTalk360 v6.0? (Saravana Kumar) - Biztalk360 is holding his promises by releasing a new version after 4-5 month. This post list what the changes.
What's New? - Another release of AWS services this week; this one is about CloudFormation: a tool to enhance automatic task on EC2 instance to reduce the downtime when those tasks are to be execute.
Programming
Why I Write Tests (Jason Whaley) - If you don't understand the benefice of working in TDD, or if you don't know what's the utility of those unit Tests, is post is for you.
Getting Busy at Script Junkie (Michael Desmond) - Quick review of what have been done since the site has been moved "under" MSDN.
Teach your kids to be fans (Scott Hanselman) - Good lesson. Today it's simple to send/ publish hard critics about anything... It is also that easy to congratulations... so do it.
A Helping Hand Through the Building An App Maze (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Learn more about this great opportunity for developpers to get help and finally start the new pet project there thinking about...
Service Bus Notification Hubs-Part 4 The Solution (Kent Weare) - Last post of a great series that conclude how you could enhances BizTalk BAM Alert with a toast notification using Azure service bus notification hubs. If you missed this series here the other posts:
Testing Browser Compatibility Made Easy (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Great post that introduces a nice wizard and some even nicer offer. Something definitely to try.
Turn Your Future into a Hobby (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Great post. Read it and jump on some ideas of yours... start coding!
A Helping Hand Through the Building An App Maze (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Learn more about this great opportunity for developers to get help and finally start the new pet project there thinking about...
Are you having fun? (futureperfectenglish.blogspot.ca) - Motivating post that gives some ideas to set motivated when learning a new language.
4 Ways to Train Your Brain for Positivity (Jessica Stillman) - Nice post that suggests simple exercises to improve our brain and gives more references for a dipper knowledge.
Windows Azure VM Development: Part 1 (Bryan Bolling) - Great post about how to get started working with VM in Azure. First post of a promising series.
YouTrack — Agile Issue & Project Tracker - Great tutorial that explains a steps from A to Z how install YouTrack in an Azure VM to enjoy Agile project tracking.
Announcing Amazon Elastic Transcoder - Amazon is replying to the Windows Azure Media Services that was releasing last week by announcing a service of the same kind.
Maarten Balliauw {blog} (Maarten Balliauw) - Get tutorial for continuous development. I'm looking forward to see more tools/framework from .Net that will be supported.
SQL Server Backup and Restore to Cloud Simplified (Craig Kitterman) - This post explain how to backup our on-premise database in Azure. This way you have easily a backup offsite. Even more, since this backup can be restore on premise or directly in the cloud!
(An updated version of this post is available in both English and français)
First of all, why would you want to copy Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) or a blob from a Windows Azure subscription to another? It could be for: doing backups, because your Windows Azure trial is ending, to get a copy of a client’s VM to investigate a problem. So, when one of my client asked me if it was possible to do it, my answer was: “Yes it is, using command line tools”. But since he was looking for a simple solution, I wrote him a little script that I will share here so everyone can enjoy it.
Get Started
To do the copy, you only need to do one PowerShell command. But, in order to execute this command, you need to have Windows Azure command-line tool already installed. At the end of this post, the script to install the Windows Azure command-line tool will be provided.
The command
Having installed the required tool, you can execute this one line of code from the Windows Azure command-line:
azure vm disk upload <source-path> <target-blob-url> <target-storage-account-key>
Get the source
In this command, you must replace <source-path> by the url of the VHD or blob that you want to copy from.
You can get this url through the Windows Azure Portal, using your account where you want to copy from.
On the left side of the screen click on the Storage icon.
Then click on the storage name.
From the top of the screen click on Containers
And when the container list appears click on the name of the container to get the details view.
Get the destination
Now that the "from" as been identified, we need to specify the “to”. We must replace the <target-blob-url> by the url of the Windows Azure Storage container in the destination Azure subscription. If the Blob container already exists, just connect to this account and follow the previous steps. Otherwise, you need to create a new one by using the “+” imbutton on the bottom left of the screen.
The easiest way is to set the container with a public access at the time of the transfer. You can set this option when creating or editing the container using the button at the bottom of the screen.
Then specify the access propriety to Public Container.
Get the key
Last part but not the less important we must specify the storage account key and replace the <target-storage-account-key> with it. You can find it by accessing the Manage Keys button from the dashboard of the Storage. You can use either the primary or the secondary access key.
Install the Windows Azure command-line tool
Here is a little script that you should put in a “.cmd” or “.bat” file. It will install the Windows Azure command-line tool with Node.js and Chocolatey. After running the script, a console window that looks like this should be open.
@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('http://bit.ly/psChocInstall'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%systemdrive%\chocolatey\bin
@powershell "cinst nodejs.install" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ProgramFiles(x86)%\nodejs
@powershell -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted "npm install azure -g" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm\
@powershell azure
pause
The Missing Windows 8 Instructional Video (Scott Hanselman) - Finally! Someone did it. Great video that helps to get started with Windows 8. Bookmark, share and re-share.
WordPress Database Error on Azure (Schwammy) - Nice catch. These tips will save a lot of time to anyone having a Wordpress blog hosted on windows Azure.
Manage your subscriptions with the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio - This post explains the features of the new available tools Studio to manage our Azure. Since Vs is the principal tool for all the .Net developers and that this add-on is very powerful, I highly recommend to read this post.
8 Tips to Sell Windows Store App - Nice post that complete all those how-to build your app to the windows store. This one explains how to maximize your impact and get as many download as possible.
Backing Up WordPress? Don’t Make These 9 Mistakes - If you are a developer, you probably backup your machine and your code. That's good. Do you do the same for your blog? You should, here is how to do it the good way.
iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet? (Scott Hanselman) - The comparison we were all waiting for. A MUST READ post. I’m a little sad that no Android device has been included. I think the Asus transformer could be confederates. a bit sad that any Android device was included. I think the Asus Transformer could be ferly confederated.
Suggestion of the week 
