Reading Notes #587

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Backing up files to Azure blob storage with azcopy (Andrew Lock) - A very interesting solution to a situation we are all facing. Nice to see the OSS project (I didn't know that one) and smart way to use Azure.

Low Code

• Building your own copilot – yes, but how? (Part 1 of 2) (Carlotta Castelluccio) - This is a cool tutorial to build a Copilot codeless style.If you prefer code style watch for part two coming soon.

Programming

• Structuring a Clean Architecture Folder (Adrián Bailador Panero) - Nice quick overview of the folder structure.

• Git Lesson: How to Use .gitignore and .gitkeep? (Rita Lyczywek) - Two important files indeed when using Git.

• Cookies vs Session Storage vs Local Storage (Royal Jain) - Clear post that explains the purpose and differences between 3 useful tools.

• 14 Things To Check Before Deploying a Website 👨‍💻🔥 (Arjun Vijay Prakash) - Quick sanity check before publishing.... It is always a good idea.

• Difference between CultureInfo.Get and new CultureInfo - Gérald Barré (Gérald Barré) - Short post how performance tip with cultureInfo.

• Simpler auth for Blazor Web Apps with Auth0? (Jon Hilton) - A wonderful tutorial very well detailed that explains how to use Auth0 with Blazor server app and search some gotchas so our experience goes smoother.

Miscellaneous

• Azure Communication Services January 2024 Feature Updates (Daysha Carter) - Improved management and a new data channel, great updates to start the year with a bang!

~Frank

Reading Notes #560

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

The suggestion of the week

• GitHub Copilot Fundamentals Learning Path - Your New AI programming friend! (Bruno Capuano ) - A free series of lessons to get to know how to use Copilot ( an AI partner application).

Cloud

• Azure Communication Services June 2023 Feature Updates (Daysha Carter) - A series of pretty cool new features from Azure communication services.

Low Code

• Power Apps Dataverse Offline Mode For Canvas Apps (Matthew Devaney) - This is a nice step-by-step tutorial that guides us to make our Apps offline capable.

Programming

• Should We Use Records With EF Core as Model Classes? (Code Maze ) - Fantastic post that not only explains how Records could be used with EF but also explains why they aren't always the best choice.

• Best Practices for Building Secure Micro Frontends (Grgur Grisogono) - Nice short post about security best practices.Because it's important everywhere and its the job of everyone.

• How to Start an Open Source Project with VS Code (Bekah) - This is a nice and simple tutorial that overviews how to get started.

Miscellaneous

• Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Is Betting Everything on AI (Steven Levy) - A great interview with a focus on AI technology.

~Frank

Reading Notes #549

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

The suggestion of the week

• Microsoft Teams: Advantages of the new architecture (Sumi Singh) - Nice journey on performance optimization, embracing the open source. Learn more about your new Teams and the details and effort to make it better in this post.

Cloud

• Downloading Files from Azure Container App to your Local Machine via Azure Blob Storage (Nikhil Vetteth) - This is a useful tip to extract our logs or other local files.

Programming

• Manage networking with Docker Compose (Eric Goebelbecker) - Nice post that explains with a sample how communication is possible between containers just by using Docker compose.

• Build custom communication experiences with Azure Communication Services UI Library for Microsoft Teams users (David de Matheu) - Nice new library for the Teams developers. You can now build more with less code by leveraging Azure Communication Services (ACS).

Podcasts

• The Wisdom of Anxiety with Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary (A Bit of Optimism) - A very interesting episode about mental fitness... I love it!

Miscellaneous

• Welcome to the new era of Microsoft Teams (Jeff Teper) - Get more memory and CPU back! I start using it and it makes a great difference. See you there.

• New Microsoft Loop app is built for co-creation | Microsoft 365 Blog (Wangui McKelvey) - I've been hearing about loop for a while now... I'm excited to finally try it.

~frank

Reading Notes #542

Cloud

• Adventures in Dapr: Episode 1 - Azure Service Bus (James Dawson) - In this post the author switch the pub sub service and it looks so simple. Interesting.

• Adventures in Dapr: Episode 0 - Introduction (James Dawson) - This first post of the series provides us details about the plans and why Dapr seams interesting as a resource for this project.

• Azure Communication Services February 2023 Feature Updates (Daysha Carter) - Happy to see the new release coming up packed with useful features and capability.

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) - February 2023 Release (Savannah Ostrowski) - Wow! The Dev CLI is kicking the new year with a big release. New templates on many languages and new features.

• General availability: Mount Azure Storage as a local share in App Service Windows Code (Unknown) - Important milestone reached. Congrats!

Programming

• A Fancy Hover Effect For Your Avatar (Temani Afif) - Wow! From my point of views this look loke magic. With only one HTML element and a few lines of CSS... Bravo!

• Blazor and Azure OpenAI (Michael Washington) - Cool demo using OpenAI API. Because yes ChatGPT is fun but there are APIs to build real apps.

• How to use Entity Framework Core in ASP.NET Core (Khalid Abuhakmeh) - This is a very nice tutorial that guides us each steps along the way. Clear detailed, very nice.

• Merging Git repositories without losing history (Dennis Doomen) - Great tutorial that not only provides the solution but explains step by steps why we do each of them.

Podcasts

• 341: Frank Masters In-App Subscriptions (Merge Conflict) - A big thank you to Frank and James for sharing that journey. We too often only ear about the happy path, and it's great to listen to all those challenges you incountered and how you managed to move forward.
• Embracing The Fall with Carla Hall (A Bit of Optimism) - YES! So true! Falling instead of failling. Like a very wise man told me long time ago, the important is to bounce; get back on your feet and standup.
• Alice and Bob Learn App Security with Tanya Janca (.NET Rocks!) - Great great episode with the amazing Tanya. Looking forward for that next book!
• 49. Using Azure Container Apps, KEDA, Infrastructure as Code and ARM - with Eduard Keilholz (Betatalks the podcast) - From the MVP stories, to the infrastructure as code with the detour around the bulletproof demo or candies... This episode is indeed like a delicious candy.

~Frank

Reading Notes #465

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". Those are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Announcing Az Predictor preview 2 (Damien Caro) - Already preview 2 it looks so great.

• Ask About Azure: Why do resource groups need a location? | Dave Brock (Dave Brock) - Brilliant! This question is asked so many times, and the answer is perfect.

• Azure Communications Voice Calling QuickStart (Dan Wahlin) - Wonderful solution and I know some dev who is now very happy that they now have this tool.

• Azure REST API through Logic App (Brad Watts) - I love Logic Apps I think it's a tool that is overviewed by too many. Great post.

• Penny Pinching in the Cloud: Azure Static Web Apps are saving me money (Scott Hanselman) - Azure static web app for the win! Seriously they are amazing I use them a lot. It's still in preview. But all good.

Programming

• Easily nuke secrets from your Git history | Dominique St-Amand (Dominique St-Amand) - Interesting post going deep into Git spelunking artifact from our history.

• Installing Docker Desktop for Windows and WSL 2 (Andrew Lock) - This post guides ys in the installations of WLS2 with Docker on Windows. It is now kind of simple... But a lot of us are still afraid. We shouldn't, give it a try!

• Your Open Source Project Needs a devcontainer - Here's Why | LINQ to Fail (Aaron Powell) - The dev container tools are pure madness. BUT on the positive side. It is incredibly useful and easy to use. Pair with Codespace its magic. I'm looking forward to seeing the public release.

Miscellaneous

• How to: Deploy GitHub Pages on a Schedule to Publish Future Posts (Sean Killeen) - Omg! So simple. A wonderful post. Thank you so much for this.

~Frank

Reading Notes #287

Cloud

• .NET: Manage Azure Container Service, Cosmos DB, Active Directory Graph and more (Asir Selvasingh) - I'm a bit scared about this .Net new feature, but at the same time curious to see where it will go.
• Azure Redis Cache Geo-Replication in Public Preview (Ye Gu) - Nice tutorial that will help to have a better disaster recovery plan.
• Deploying Applications to Azure Container Service (atulm) - Great tutorial to start orchestrating containers on Azure.
• Designing Globally Resilient Apps with Azure App Service – Opsgility (Chris Pietschmann) - Great post that lists a lot of tools available in Azure to get a better architecture for your solution.
• Enhanced app usage monitoring and investigative features in Azure Application Insights (Rahul Bagaria) - Wow, so many new features, exactly what I needed!
• Microsoft’s Logic Apps Aims to Bring Serverless Functionality to Non-Coders (Mark Boyd) - Nice post that gives a glimpse at the Logic Apps future.
• Receive emails from Azure WebJobs when errors are detected (Vivien Chevallier) - Nice tutorial that explains how to manage error in a webjob and implement the best practices.

Programming

• Docker for .NET Developers (Part 4) - Steve Gordon's Blog (Steve Gordon) - This post of the series explains the Docker file and few useful commands. I really like this series.
• Porting a 15 year old .NET 1.1 Virtual CPU Tiny Operating System school project to .NET Core 2.0 (Scott Hanselman) - We all have those prehistoric pieces of code, and it required lots of courage to share them with the public. However, what all of us learn from it, is priceless. Thank you, Scott.
• Speed of dotnet run vs the speed of dotnet for published apps (plus self-contained .NET Core apps) (Scott Hanselman) - Great post that explains a few differences between the published and just builds performance.

Miscellaneous

• How to Get into the Habit of Time Tracking - Toggl Blog (Liza Plotnikova) - I don't count the times where Toogl "saved my life" when it was time to do my timesheet. A tool to try.

Reading Notes # 72

Cloud

• Practical Azure #2: What About Blob? - Great video on everything you should know on Azure Blob.
• A phone call from the cloud: Windows Azure, SignalR & Twilio (Maarten Balliauw) - Great tutorial very complete on account validation process.
• Cloudy Thoughts by SyntaxC4 - Good new continuous development with website Azure now supported private repository with github and bitbucket.
• Microsoft announces Big Compute capabilities for Windows Azure (Kenneth van Surksum) - Windows Azure now have a lot bigger instance type available.
• Scaling cloud apps with the .NET Framework 4.5 - Really great post, that introduce some new features of the .Net framework 4.5 (now available in Azure web site) and how to use them in a scaling perspective using async.
• How does Windows Azure PowerShell import publishsettings using Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile command? (Avkash Chauhan) - Quick useful tips when playing around with Azure and PowerShell.
• Windows Server 2012 Now Available on AWS - A new series called Windows Wednesdays just kicked off with this nice post about the new availability of Windows Server 2012 on AWS.
• More Great Improvements to the Windows Azure Management Portal - Explain the new features in Windows Azure Portal such like new SQL Database Metrics, website enhancement, media services new options, custom CNAME for Azure storage, etc.
• Complete walkthrough: Setting up a ADFS 2.0 Server on Windows Azure IaaS and Configuring it as an Identity Provider in Windows Azure ACS (Haishi) - Great tutorial to setup and test a Azure IaaS website using Identity Provider.

Integration

• AppFabric - Frequently Asked Development Questions (Ed Price - MSFT Ed Price - MSFT Microsoft MSFT 122,146 Points 25 20 17 Recent Achievements Proposed Answerer III Gallery Contributor II Wiki Ninja View Profile) - Good questions... with their answers.

Programming

• Changes in ADFS 2.1 from ADFS 2.0 - Important things to know when migrating in addition to remember where you saved the artifacts creation scripts.
• Use Big Data to gain insight about small business customers (David Gitonga) - Interesting post that explain how Big Data could be you in your business... even if you are in a small company.

Miscellaneous

• How to set up CrashPlan Cloud Backup headless on a Synology NAS - Backup Strategies (Scott Hanselman) - Nice demonstration of how to setup a backup solution. It also give us alternative ideas.
• How to be a Consultant, Part 1: The Difference Between a Developer and a Consultant (David Pallmann) - First of a serie this post hi-light the difference between a developer and a consultant by explaining what more you need to be from a developer to be a consultant with a capital "c".
• How to be a Consultant, Part 2: Travel - One if By Land... (David Pallmann) - A lots of good advice and tips when traveling by land about schedule, rental cars, and equipment.
• How to be a Consultant, Part 3: How to Travel (Gonna Fly Now) (David Pallmann) - This post is all about sharing fly experience tips and giving advice of "rules" when traveling by air.
• Do More Faster: 10 Best Apps & Tools (Frank Addante) - Nice apps for different platform that make the day easier.

~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 #33

Cloud

• Using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) from a node express app - A well done tutorial that explain all the steps to setup your Azure Access Control Service (ASC) in a Node.js environment.

  If you want to know how it works and how it was implemented read Implementing Windows Azure ACS with everyauth

• Amazon Web Services Blog - Amazon announce new edge location.
• Cloud Data Services - This is definitely a series to follow. A thru story with all learning steps put in evidence.
• Amazon Web Services Blog - Another price reduction for Amazon Web Service AWS, does it mean that Azure is doing some damage.
• Mastering the Cloud.. with Windows Azure Curricula Resources (Lee Stott) - What needed to by prepare to be a cloud designer.
• 4 ways Microsoft can make Azure better for startups (Marcelo Calbucci) - Things that Microsoft is doing and should do to help startups to jump in Azure.
• Cloud Architecture Series – CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)– Part 01 (Bruno Terkaly) - First of a series, this post explain the evolution of the architecture...
• NEW! Wiki launched for Apache Hadoop on Windows Azure (Michele Hart) - This is a great news documentation is always welcome.
• How many copies of your blob is stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage? (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - Well explain when multiple copy don't rime with backup.
• Outbound ports that have to be opened for Azure development (Bruno Terkaly) - The page MUST be bookmarked. The list of port by Azure application.
• Introducing Microsoft Research’s Excel Cloud Data Analytics (Roger Jennings) - Great idea that use the calculation power of Azure through excel to analyze your data. This project is still in CTP.
• Windows #Azure Caching – Performance considerations - Great post to demystify the different caching options with Azure. then everything you need to get started and learn even more.
• Windows Azure Demos with Steve Marx (Wade Wegner) - Last cover cloud show of Steve Mark, so they pass through all is demos.

Programming

• A Few of My Favorite Things... in the Entity Framework 4.2 DbContext - Present three features: Find, Local and AsNoTracking include in the EF Code first DbContext.
• Alexander Beletsky's Development Blog - Present three really good tools to add to test toolkit

  FluentAssertions

  NSubstitute

  NCrunch

• Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team - Amazon is working hard to keep is part of the cake.
• MVP is not an excuse to make shitty software - Minimum viable product is more about the V then the M
• Why You Should Build Your Website Using Static .html Files - Using only static HTML page solve some regular issues: speed, portability,connections. Hera a project on Github try to push this idea as far as possible.
  
  
  

~Franky

Reading Notes #32

Cloud

Let The Clouds Make Your Life Easier - Geek and poke

• Is VMware the new Microsoft in the PaaS World? - Nice post that talk about the story of .Net framework and Java. What they where, what they are and what there fighting for.
• 8 Essential Best Practices in Windows Azure Blob Storage - Great post explaining clearly 8 best practices when using Azure Blob Storage.
• Managing environments in a distributed, Azure, or other cloud based Visual Studio solution (Igor Papirov) - Nice Visual Studio solution structure, that once it's done could save a lot of time.
• an opportunity to get application security right - Nice post discussing about in the beginning of the Internet where enterprises didn't taken seriously the security menace. Today with a lot of people going to the cloud we shouldn't make the same mistake.
• Tips and Important Steps for Migrating Apps to Windows Azure - Great check list to move an application in the cloud. I would add to check if you need https at some point and take a look of your database collation.
• Taking specific Windows Azure Instance offline (Avkash Chauhan) - Those cmdlets are amazing. do what you cannot do with the management portal in only few line
• Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games Version 1.2.2 Released - Announce of the new release of the Toolkit with some explication about how-to get started with Github
• Before jumping into cloud, learn from the SOA experience - This post explain how having a service object architecture (SOA) could help to be more ready when moving to the cloud.
• Visual Studio Achievements - Remember Kids They're Just For Fun (View blog authority) - Achievements in Visual Studio... pros and cons.
• Handling two known issues with Windows Azure node.js SDK 0.5.2 (Avkash Chauhan) - Nice workaround to be able to debug with the Azure emulator when using node.js and to be able to deploy with a MongoDB enabled
• NougakuDoCompanion: A “Ruby on Rails” companion for Windows Azure (Avkash Chauhan) - Introduce a ruby companion package available on codeplex, it look nice.
• Amazon Web Services Blog - Amazon announce a new free product/feature the cloudWatch Metrics that will help to visualize how your part of the cloud is use.
• Utiliser SSIS pour pousser des données vers SQL Azure (Benjamin GUINEBERTIERE) - Good work explaining step by step how to use SSIS for a data migration.

  SSIS package needs an outbound access to port 1433

• The “NoSQL” Gene in SQL Azure Federations (Cihan Biyikoglu) - Great post. A bit old, but it explain a lot of key concept about the NoSql of the new Azure Federation.
• Windows Azure Storage Emulator Account Name and Key - Nice catch. how to manage the different credential of a "legacy" Azure application.

  Microsoft has provided the storage credentials for the local Storage Emulator on MSDN. Here’s a quick place to copy the default name and key: AccountName AccountKey

• Get Started with Node.js + Windows Azure: Resources - Everything you need to get started doing Node.js in Azure. A lot of reference: tools, IDE, database,etc..
• Cloud computing looks to be future of disaster management - A professor is building a system to be help the people to communicate in case of a disaster in the cloud.
• Using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) from a node express app - A well done tutorial that explain all the steps to setup your Azure Access Control Service (ASC) in a Node.js environment.

  If you want to know how it works and how it was implemented read Implementing Windows Azure ACS with everyauth

• Cloud Cover Show - Episode 69 - SQL Azure Federations with George Huey – Recap of the news and discuss how to scale-out with SQL Azure Federations.

Programming

• Using oData with jQuery Hierarchical Grid - Good presentation of the grid control of NetAdvantage using jquery and oData.
• Even Better Git (and Mercurial) with PowerShell (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post, presentation great project using Powershell to leverage git and mercurial source control.
• 24 Extremely Useful Ruby Gems for Web Development - Great list of Ruby's Gems. I will definitely include Bundler in my list on tools to have.

  Bundler is a tool that manages gem dependencies for your ruby application.

• Explaining Include and Extend - Really good post. Go deeper then the usual.

  If you want a more details about what the interpreter is doing I recommend watching Patrick Farley’s talk on Ruby Internals.

Miscellaneous

• How the Kindle replaced my iPad...for book reading (Scott Stein) - I agree completely. When I try the eBook reader... I fall in love.
• Agile Results with Evernote (JD Meier) - Explain how to use EverNote as a simple folder/list structure to manage goals in the Agile Result method
• comment obtenir plus de clics avec vos tweets (Benoit Descary) - Some simple strategies to be more efficient when twitting(fr).
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs of Software Development (Scott Hanselman) - Nice Maslow's pyramid apply to development , event more because it do fit.
• Don't Get Me Started – Ring Around My Neck (David Platt) - A reflection about if thing have gone too far.

~Franky

Reading Notes #26

 

This is the last post of 2011. Happy Holidays to every one and see you next year for others Reading Notes!

Cloud

• Utiliser la puissance du Cloud Azure pour faire votre propre raytracer - Really nice idea and great demo of parallelism. Imagine this using the power of HPC. [french] 
• Announcing the Service Bus EAI & EDI Labs Release (ItaiRazMS) - Great release that arrived earlier than expected. This is a good timing to try the labs everything is free.
• SQL Azure Management Portal Tips and Tricks: Part I (R Syam Kumar) - After the portal face lift, it's good to have a walkthrough all the new capabilities. [video demo]
• SQL Azure Management Portal Tips and Tricks: Part II (R Syam Kumar) - Nice post. It past in detail all the novelties of the new SQL Azure Management Portal 
• How you can store decimal data in Windows Azure Table Storage? - Nice tricks that simplify a lot the usage of decimal.
• Developing Windows Azure Applications with Visual Studio - Nice presentation where Jay Schmelzer show how develop debug and of course deploy.
• Azure Service Bus Connect EAI and EDI “Integration Services” CTP (Rick Garibay) - I great post about the new release of EDI and AIS that is now available in labs.
• Microsoft's Scott Guthrie and his impact on Azure - As a .Net and Visual Studio user I'm happy with the current toolset... but I'm curious to see what will happen.
• How to get to SQL Azure Query Performance Data (mbenkov) - This post present the new UI of the Azure SQL management portal. A big improvement that for sure.
• Responsive Cloud Design (David Pallmann) - This nice post talk about a close future where a good Responsive Web Design (RWD) will be the key.
• Hands on Lab for Moving Applications to the Cloud - Starter kit for moving in the cloud. The post quickly present the labs.
• Important Announcements Regarding the Access Control Service (Himanshu_Singh) - Great news!
• An Introduction to EAI Bridges - This post present the news EAI Bridge capability in the last Labs release and explain how to get started.
• Windows Azure Resource: A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control, Second Edition - Introduce a free eBook about Claims-Based Identity and Access Control.
• Cloud Cover Show
• Episode 67 - Technical Computing with Windows Azure
• Live at  Learn Windows Azure event

Programming

• Create a Node.js App on Azure in 3 minutes - A Hello word demo in few words. Could not be simplify.
• Design pattern "Template" avec Ruby - Very clear post that explain the utility of inheritance.
• The Elements of Distributed Architecture (Clemens Vasters) – I just watch few minutes, but it look great! Introduction to the key elements of distributed software architecture. [video]

Miscellaneous

• Predictions for the future (Maarten Balliauw) - Maarten present is prediction and as usual... interesting.

~Franky

Reading Notes #25

Cloud

• The SQL Azure Team Unveils a New Server Management UI (Roger Jennings) - Nice "face lift" of the SQL Azure user interface.
• Windows Azure Table Storage- Partition or Row key length is limited to 256 characters in Storage Emulator (Avkash Chauhan) - Point one of the difference between Azure emulator and the “real” cloud. Ref to the doc.
• 5 Reasons Why Startups Should Use OAuth (Ruben)- Learn easily some lessons that they learned the hard way.
• Defense giant ditches Microsoft’s cloud citing Patriot Act fears - The patriot act is THE big show stopper for a lot of companies. Here some cases.
• How to Authenticate Web Users with Windows Azure Access Control Service - Everything you need to use ACS. A well done demo doing step by step with screenshots.
• Improved Developer Experience, Interoperability, and Scalability on Windows Azure - All the novelties on azure.

  Service Bus usage is now free through March 2012.

• Cloud Computing Boosts Indian Technology and Economy (Irmee Layo) - This post summarize what could be the impact/influence of the cloud in our mid-future.
• Building Large Scale Elastic Database Tiers with SQL Azure - First step using a SQL Azure Federation. Good first dipping.
• Ubuntu Cloud Live Offers Private Clouds via USB Drive - Good idea. I always like Ubuntu. it could be nice to have quickly (and any ware) some virtual machine to test or do stuff...
• How to get rich in the cloud (David Linthicum) - Ah ah! It's not that trivial, but look like going to the cloud is a good move...
• Billing Model for Federations in SQL Azure Explained! - Well explain. Since the “talking” about federation databases started, I was looking for those answers.
• Cloud Computing: A New Paradigm - Nice post. The story never really change... just adapt.
• Understanding the Total Cost of Ownership for Cloud-based Software (Christophe Primault) - Offering flexible options kind of complicate the pricing. In this post learn what you must don't forget when planning your move. Azure provide also two greats tools: TCO and the calculator.
• Moving My Data To The Cloud - In this nice post the author explain how he moved all is different data (photos, data, music, games, etc.) to different cloud solution.
• SQL Database Federations: Enhancing SQL to enable Data Sharding for Scalability in the Cloud - Quick start to SQL database Federation.
• SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release - Nice recap of all the new features and pricing that just coming out.

Programming

• What’s the deal with mapping foreign keys using the Entity Framework? (Arthur Vickers) - With EF it is so easy to map relations. But is it a good or a bad practice? Should we do it?
• Design of a Domain Model - This article show the issue and difficulties that could give mapping foreign keys when using EF in a design domain model.
• Agile? You’re doing it wrong. (Timon Vonk) – Timon take the most common reason why people fail to be Agile and suggest solution.
• Building Apps with HTML5 – Desktop, Tablet, Phone !(Joe Stagner) - J. Stagner in is post express is opinion and goods questions about HTML5 and Microsoft.
• Just because you can test it doesn’t mean you should (Windows Live Tester) - Good post. it's sometime difficult to know what need to be tested and from where. Nice recap.
  

  A wise test lead once said to me, “Do as little as possible while still ensuring quality”.

• A short round-up of PowerShell Quick Reference Guides & Cheat Sheets - A well done cheat sheets.
• Decoding jQuery - Nice series. quick and clear.

Miscellaneous

• A comic book geek returns after twenty years away to a brave new digital world (Scott Hanselman) - Reading is always good, and fun. Discover more digital content with Scott Hanselman.
• Top 5 Ways to Kill Your Credibility (Geoffrey James) - After reading this, it may be a good idea to make a quick jump to your profile... Just in case.
• 9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money (Ilya Pozin) - My boss is evil... but I like that.
• Apps are too much like 1990's CD-ROMs and not enough like the Web (Scott Hanselman) – Scott explain what he think could be the next version of apps or web apps or does it make a difference...
• Munn and Done | How To Train A Developer - A lot of options to train a dev team are presented by the author.
  

  “If we didn’t like learning we wouldn’t be in this profession.”

~Franky