Reading Notes #373

Cloud

• Reduced Pricing for Azure Container Instances (Mark Heath) - Nice post that compares VMs pricing with the new reduced prices of container instance.
• Announcing Amazon Transcribe streaming transcription support in the AWS SDK for Ruby | Amazon Web Services (Jingyi Chen) - Nice new SDK for Ruby... Its been a while since I code with this language but somehow I think I would like to try it.
• Avoiding Azure Functions Cold Starts (Mark Heath) - Does cold starts are affecting your solutions? Maybe not, but if they are this post lists three scenarios to reduce them as must as possible.
• Web and Azure Tool Updates in Visual Studio 2019 (Angelos Petropoulos) - Great new functionalities from Visual Studio IDE

Programming

• A Beginner's Guide to Test Automation (Angela Riggs) - Very nice and interesting post about unit tests.
• Debugging an ASP.NET Core Docker Container in Windows AND Linux (Jason Robert) - Learn why the Visual Studio family IS an great tool on any platforms to work with containers.
• Debugging your .NET Core in Docker applications with VS Code | LINQ to Fail (Aaron Powell) - Great tutorial, who don't need to debug...
• Exploring the .NET Core MCR Docker files (updated): runtime vs aspnet vs sdk (Andrew Lock) - This post is packed with update and advice for our Docker projects in Azure.

Books

Building a StoryBrand, Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen 

Donald Miller

A really interesting book that helps to focus and keep in mind the most important. I didn't read it with a purpose of business really, but it did make me remember past experiences and it was easy to make the relationship between success and when the story was clear. Take the time to read it, do the exercises/ reflections required... it's worth it.

~

Reading Notes #278

Cloud

• Penny Pinching in the Cloud: Lift and Shift vs App Services - When a VM in the Cloud isn't what you want (Scott Hanselman) - This post is about how to transform a lift and shift to a real cloud application. And for what I know it represents 90% of our starts in the cloud.
  
• Serverless like a Superhero with Azure Functions (Shayne Boyer) - Cool tutorial about leveraging Azure function to build an API.
  
• Turn your Postman Collection into a Microsoft integration (Asavari Tayal) - I just love it. How could I've not thought about it myself?

Programming

• Everything You Need to Build A Chatbot (Sage Franch) - Great post to read before starting to code your first bot.
  
• Ruby on Rails on Azure App Service (Web Sites) with Linux (and Ubuntu on Windows 10) (Scott Hanselman) - Interesting post on how to get Ruby to work using today's tooling... on Windows.

Miscellaneous

• Designing a Conversation (Alexandre Brisebois) - Interesting post that digs into the paradox where "us", humans have been communicated since our beginnings but still have trouble doing it, now we want to plan ahead and architect communication with machines.
  
• Introduction to Microsoft To-Do (Gunnar Peipman) - Interesting app Microsoft finally did his ToDo service.

Reading Notes #197

Suggestion of the week

• Deploying a VM using Azure Resource Manager – Part 1 (Marc Gagné) - Really great tutorial that is the perfect. How to deploy with Powershell using Azure Manager Resources 101.

Cloud

• A Complete List of Microsoft Azure Tools (Scott Ge) - Pretty good list of tools available today to work or plan your work with. Azure.
  
• What is the Azure Marketplace? (marc) - This is a good post to get started on Azure Market place.
  
• Ruby, TinyTDS, and Azure SQL Database update (Larry Franks) - Nice update, looking forward to upgrade some Ruby scripts of mine.
  
• Scheduling Azure Automation Runbooks with Azure Scheduler (Christopher Mank) - Great tutorial on Automation, very complete.
  
• Transitioning Application Insights from the VSO Portal to the Azure Portal (Dale Koetke) - We have until October to move our Application Insights in VSO to Azure. All you need to know to have a smooth migration is here.

Programming

• Five Common Daylight Saving Time Antipatterns of .NET Developers - Ah time, the more you play with the more confuse you can be. Interesting post to avoid common mistakes.
  
• Dependency injection in ASP.NET 5 - | Gunnar Peipman - Programming Blog - Dependency injection is a very good structure to facilitate testing. The new Asp.Net 5 help a lot going that way.
  
• 5 Tips for Dealing with Unreliable Web APIs - Summary of best practices when working with APIs.
  
• Continuous deployment (Gabriel Schenker) - Nice post to get started on continuous delivery and what it’s means.

Podcast

• .NET Rocks!  - I really like Glimpse, and it was nice to learn more about the journey of its creator and have a peek on what coming next.
  
• Systems Thinking: Less Coding, More Thinking with Kishau Rogers - Very stimulating episode, a lot of great ideas…

Miscellaneous

• Making the Complex Simple - Interesting thoughts about productivity traps.
  
• Making a clean exit – how to leave your company with friends, not dependencies - Interesting post on how to be professional when leaving.
  
• Apt-Get for Windows - OneGet and Chocolatey on Windows 10 - A new tool in Windows call OneGet… a package manager… manager.
  
• 10-minute workouts to improve your writing - Really interesting exercises… that are easy to fit in any schedule.
  
• New Package Roundup (izuzak) - Cool list of new Atom packages.
  
• Scrum or Kanban: Which form of Agile is best for you? - Nice post that explains the main differences between the two more popular Agile methods.

Reading Notes #175

Cloud

• Running the Ruby Middleman Static Site Generator on Microsoft Azure (Scott Hanselman) - Really nice post. It looks very fun. It's amazing what we can do with git and Azure!

• Lift and Shift of a Windows Service to Microsoft #Azure (Alexandre Brisebois) - Nice tutorial with a lot of clear explications for every step.

• Another reason to like azure web sites - free analytics - Nice quick post that summarizes a great Azure Friday episode about statistics.

• Using Stream Analytics with Event Hubs (Kirk Evans) - Great post that plays with both Azure event hub and azure stream analytics.

Programming

• Proper benchmarking to diagnose and solve a .NET serialization bottleneck (Scott Hanselman) - Another great post that will help to ask ourselves some better question when it's time to investigate so performance issue.

• Atom-Shell for cross platform desktop apps with Paul Betts (Scott Hanselman, Paul Betts) - Nice episode that clarifies things around Atom-Shell.

• Bad Practices Building Microservices (Jan Stenberg) - Interesting post that talks about what why shouldn't be doing.

Miscellaneous

• Becoming Great Remote Developer - Interesting thoughts and tips about remote work.

• Microsoft or Google? - This post shares some thoughts about a very common question that a lot of people are asking.

~Frank

Reading Notes #115

Suggestion of the week

• Windows Azure: Import/Export Hard Drives, VM ACLs, Web Sockets, Remote Debugging, Continuous Delivery, New Relic, Billing Alerts and More - So many good news that I don't know where to start. Some of my clients are waiting for this features since long time... A post that you must read.
  
• How to install the nodejs Ghost blogging software on Azure Websites (Scott Hanselman) - Very exiting project. Thanks Scott to share all that with us.

Cloud

• Clone an Azure VM using Powershell - Powershell scripts are so useful, and code sample are always welcome.
  
• Getting started with Windows Azure - part 2 (Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed) - Second part of a serie that offer a nice tutorial.
  
• Evolving IT for Today and Tomorrow - Interesting event that's coming in many Canadian city...
  
• Announcing the Preview of Windows Azure Import/Export Service and Several Enhancements for Web and Mobile Solution Scenarios (Steven Martin) - Quick summary about the new Windows Azure release of this week.
  
• Programming Windows Azure Media Services - An Overview (Albert (Gong) Cheng) - Very clear introduction to what is Windows Azure Media.
  
• Azure Websites vs Cloud Services (Tyler Doerksen) - Great post that amazingly clarifies the differences between these two Azure services.
  
• Why does an Azure storage account have two access keys? - This post answered a more than often asked question.
  
• Amazon CTO: Open source software and the cloud allows startups to focus on innovation (Ben Woods) - Interesting thoughts: the cloud is more a business evolution than a technology evolution.
  
• My List of Windows Azure Podcasts (Alexandre Brisebois) - Nice Windows Azure podcast list.

Databases

• WebLog of Ken Cox - I find out that using the migration wazard was the best option in my case... Until they update Sql Management Studio.

UX

• Build a Responsive and Modern UI with CSS for WinJS Apps - Good article to start doing your apps with the good tools and best practices.

Programming

• Using ASTs with ISE to make scripting more productive - Great PowerShell 3 scripts, this idea is genial.
  
• Microsoft Swings Its Web Sword - This post explains the context of the "new" Katana project and its relation with OVNI, Aspnet MVC, etc.
  
• Why do my Font Awesome icons show up as blank squares? (Scott Hanselman) - Nice catch. A lot of time could be saved.
  
• Getting Started with Oak - This article describes the C# / Ruby projects this Oak. A project to follow.
  
• Getting Started with the Katana Project - Looking forward to see where this project is going. This post explains the basics.
  
  

Miscellaneous

• PowerCfg - The hidden energy and battery tool for Windows you're not using (Scott Hanselman) - Really interesting investion about power consuption.

~Frank

Reading Notes #108

Suggestion of the week

• Windows Azure IaaS Deployment Methodology with PowerShell Part One (YungChou) - First of a very promising series, this post explains that basic of a good Azure deployment.

Cloud

• Don’t Budget for Cloud (Jason Bloomberg) - Nice post that helps to understand how to budget for the IT future of companies; It could be in the cloud, could be not, and it could be a mix...
  
• Connecting Clouds – Creating a site-to-site Network with Amazon Web Services and Windows Azure (mwasham) - Great post! A post to bookmark, that a nice tutorial to build a fail over solution cross cloud provider.
  
• Dell mantra: one cloud, not even Amazon’s, doesn’t fit all - This post explained how deferent Dell wants to be in his cloud services.
  
• Architecture, Agile and Cloud Challenges - Good post that explains how we should analyses changes in our project architecture when deploying in the cloud. (Here it's Azure but it could be all other providers).
  
• Inside Dropbox’s Quest to Bury the Hard Drive (Marcus Wohlsen) - Interesting post to know more about what's planning this big player.
  
• WordPress with SQL Azure on Windows Azure Websites (mksunitha) - What1? It's that easy? No more excuse.
  
• Delivering push notifications to millions of devices with Windows Azure Notification Hubs - Create post that explains push notification and notification hubs in Windows Azure.

Programming

• Internal tools – cheap and tasteless? - DevOps definitively worth more of our attention.
  
• Top 10 ASP.NET MVC Interview Questions (Imran Abdul Ghani) - If you eared about asp.net mvc, and want to know more about it, here's the post for you.
  
• Book Review: Building Interactive Queries With LINQPad (Latish Sehgal) - Interesting book that introduces the very useful linqPad and the omnipresent LinQ.
  
• New Online Course: TDD and BDD in Ruby - 5 days to be up to speed with testing, mocking in Ruby... or get your money (35$) back.
  
• 30 Days of TDD: Day Three – Your First Test (James Bender) - Third post of a very promising series to learn from nothing how to build our tests (unit tests, integration tests, etc.) in a .Net environment. The tools used in the series are nunit, justmock, justcode and nuget of course.

Miscellaneous

• 10 Web apps to help you plan and promote a great event (Brinda Ayer) - Nice tools to know.
  
• Scott Hanselman - Interesting post, it's nice to see explication of what I though was happening.
  
• It’s not Scrum if… (Mark Levison) - Nice post that helps us to get back on the good path.
  
• Keeping Your Life Synced Up - Nice recap of the most popular tools to help us.
  
  

~ Frank

Reading Notes #101

Suggestion of the week

• Windows Azure Storage Best Practices - Great post that reviews the today's best practices to get the best of Azure Storage.

Cloud

• Scaling Up and Scaling Out in Windows Azure Web Sites (Craig Kitterman) - Nice post that clarified that scaling options from the Azure Website point of view.
  
• Windows Azure Storage Queue with error queues (Pascal Laurin) - Nice tutorial about using Azure Storage Queues in an asynchronous pattern. You just need to attach an alert from the new Azure Mobile Services to the Error queue, and you are in business! Until you get notified, then we will need the next post.
  
• Windows Azure SQL Database Automated Backups are Finally Here! - That really a good news! I cannot see any reason why anybody wouldn't use it.
  
• Linking a resource to your Cloud Service? What does that mean (Ashish Goyal) - Good clarification about what is exactly a link resource and what it's not.
  
• How to get a sticky load balancer in Windows Azure - Interesting post that comments the usage of sticky load balancer (to use session in a multi server context) and explains how to do it in Azure if you really need it.
  
• An Introduction to Windows Azure BLOB Storage (Mike Wood) - This incredibly complete post contains everything about Azure Blob storage. that the ultimate resource on that topics!
  
• Windows Azure SQL Database Automated Backup Frequency is in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) - Nice catch! so UTC it is...
  
• Dev/Test in the Cloud - Every developer should now what is available for them in Azure. It is so quick and simple! And if you stop your VMs when you are not developing, you stop paying for it!
  
• Windows Azure Web Sites: How Application Strings and Connection Strings Work(Craig_Kitterman) - Great post that explains how to get a more secure website by using application string.
  
• Turbo Charging Your Windows Azure Cloud Services - Interesting post where we can read about a real cost and performance optimization.

 

Integration

• Windows Azure BizTalk Services & BizTalk 2013 - comparing the mapper (Glenn Colpaert)- Very complete comparison of the two mappers that really shows the pros and cons of each of them.

Programming

• Deployment tool (Fredrik Normén) - Interesting "pet project": building is own deployment tool...
  
• Four Ways to Implement Lazy Loading in C# (Francesco Cariaggi) - Interesting post that gives alternative to the really handy lazy loading pattern.
  
• TypeScript 0.9 Preview Release (S.Somasegar) - Learn more about the new features (generics) that bring the last version of TypeScript released not long ago.
  
• Some of the Anti Patterns - Interesting post that identified some anti patterns that reflects bad practices. Knowing them helps to improve our code, so it's good to refresh our memory.
  
• Use PowerShell to Sort CSV Files in Order - Who don't need to sort stuff? Next time indeed of opening Excell I will type one command line; thanks to this post!
  
• The Great New Features in JustDecompile (James Bender) - Nice post that walkthru the new features included in the new release of this useful tool.
  
• Building static websites with Middleman - Very interesting code. I didn't know Middleman before I'll definitly look at it.

 

Database

• SQL – Difference Between INNER JOIN and JOIN (Pinal Dave) - Don't cheat and answer this frequently asked question before reading the post. And, did you got it?
  
• How to choose a No SQL Database - No Sql database with theirs pros and cons.

 

Miscellaneous

• Is Agile Really Cheaper? (Scott Sehlhorst) - I like this post because it puts words on though that I had. A good post to be more prepare next time a client asks you the question.

~Frank

Reading Notes #97

Suggestion of the week

• Is the Windows user ready for apt-get? - I'm a big fan of Chocolatey since long time, and I found it extremely useful. Give it a try, and see by yourself!
  
• 12 Non-caffeinated Ways to Wake Up at Work - I know, by definition a developer is someone who transforms coffee into code... but having an alternative is good ... and healthier.
  
• Continuing the Windows 8 vision with Windows 8.1 - Wow! A huge number of really great improvement. It looks like little things but all together, it transforms the experience. Stay tune for more details...
  

Cloud

• Spelunking Azure, What does it Cost? - Quick post that gives the base about Azure prices.
  
• How To: Setup Windows Azure PowerShell - Quick post that explains how to get ready to play with Azure with PowerShell.

 Databases

• Entity Framework Power Tool Tips to View Model (A Feature I Depend On!) : Don't Be Iffy (Name) - Very promising tool. Thanks for the author of this post we will be able to enjoy avoiding these little issues.

Programming

• Making Passwords Obsolete (Minda Zetlin) - Interesting idea. Look forward to see how I could use/test it.
  
• Create location aware apps using geolocation and Bing Maps (Windows 8 Team) - Nice tutorial about using geolocation in our application.
  
• Intermediate RubyGem Development - Nice tutorial covering tests and naming convention when developing our Ruby Gem. Different libraries a referred as examples.
  
• Performance Considerations - Quick post about thinks to take into consideration about EF 5.0. The post also introduce many alternatives ORMs.

• Dojo for jQuery Developers - Incredibly clear tutorial here that compares Dojo with jQuery to explain how things are done with Dojo. The perfect post to get started. 

Miscellaneous

• Cool Tools – How to Be Invisible - The book looks interesting and this post, invent if it goes in the completely opposite direction is really interesting too.
  
• The Most Overlooked Leadership Skill - Interedting post about leadership.
  
• Delayed Gratification: Make It a Better Pill to Swallow - This post is a review/ summary of what looks like a very promising book about self-control. In this world of instant trophies and game achievements, learning how to control your needs is a great strength.
  
• 3 Games That Can Teach You Business Skills (Leigh Buchanan) - I'm happy to see that "educational" game don't only exists for kids...
  
• So You Think You Have ADD... (Marla Tabaka) - Some tips to stay productive and fight procrastination.
  
• 5 Mentor Archetypes I’ve Met – And How to Spot Them (Jennifer Dulski) - Nice post where the author share is vision of goods mentors and how to "spot them".
  
• Reviews of Super Weird Mice:The Microsoft Arc Touch and Wedge Mouse - Nice review, it feels really objective and practical.
  
• Deconstructing Google's Strategy: Will Google Eat Your Business Next? (Steve Faktor) - Interesting post about the strategy behind free Google's stuff.
  
• Facebook IPO & the Dark, Dirty Secrets of Facebook vs. Google Data (Steve Faktor) - I really like the comparison. I didn't though about it before, but it really make sense.
  
• Business Lessons from ‘Google Instant’, the Waifish Temptress of Search (Steve Faktor) - Interesting marketing "secrets" that Google uses to make always more money.

 
~Frank

Reading Notes #96

Suggestion of the week

• ASP.NET Bad Practices: What you shouldn’t do in ASP.NET (Part 1) - Something different, the bad practices... A must-read post.
  
• Powerpoint 2013: Visualizations Part 2: Creating Data Infographics with Charts and Graphs - Really good post that gives a lot of tips to improve the look and effectiveness of our charts. A post to bookmark and re-read before your next presentation or blog post.

 

Cloud

• Introducing Amazon Cloud Player for Windows Desktop (Paul Thurrott) - Interesting product from Amazon: Cloud player.
  
• Windows Azure SDK 2.0 Released!) (Brian H. Prince) - Nice quick recap detailed just enough to really what's new.
  
• Windows Azure Cache - Pessimistic Concurrency Model (Ravi Verma) - Nice tutorial to have a better understanding of a useful pattern: pessimistic concurrency model.
  
• How to setup a Load Balanced Web Farm of Virtual Machines (Linux or otherwise) on Windows Azure (command line) (Scott Hanselman)- Very good post. We don't see that often article about Linux VM. This ones very complete and gives methods through the portal or by command line.
  
• Windows Azure Blob Storage Service - Migrating Blobs Between Accounts - Nice tutorial that explains how to build in C# a very useful tools. In the same idea in PowerShell could be found on my blog here.
  
• Faster Save Experience Editing Scripts in the Windows Azure Mobile Services Portal (Nick Harris) - Ooh yes! A so little thing that is a so good news!
  
• Dealing with Windows Azure Storage transient faults (Grigori Melnik MSFT) - Excellent post that present Topaz to manage transient fault connections in an Azure Storage context. It also compares Topaz to the default retry mechanisms.

 

Programming

• Smart Watches are finally going to happen - Pebble Watch Reviewed (Scott Hanselman)- Learn more about the great new type of watch that is The Pebble.
  
• Team Foundation Service my new default GIT repository - New great tool with all the good of our old friend.
  
• “Confident Ruby” now in Beta! (Avdi Grimm) - Promissing book about Ruby, still in pre-release so cheaper... a good deal.
  
• A first look at SignalR - Rick Strahl's Web Log - Powerful, easy to use and well documented, SignalR is a library that we should definitely look at.
  
• Redirecting ASP.NET Legacy URLs to Extensionless with the IIS Rewrite Module (Scott Hanselman)- A post to bookmark. Nice tutorial, very clear.

 

Miscellaneous

• How to write a great blog post - Devices, Services, Life (Simon May) - Interedting post about the nonofficial rules to write a great post.
  
• Startups – The Importance of Momentum (Iain Hunter) - Nicepost that gives 10 rules to follow when time is missing or when you need to do more with less.
  
• Blogging Best Practices - Concepts, Ideas and Motives - Part 1 - This nice post and video can help you to define your idea to start a Blog... Because sharing is important.
  
• How to Prospect for New Customers (Geoffrey James) - Nice post that helps to structure our search for new customers.
  
• Blogging Best Practices - Writing an Interesting Blog - Part 3 - Quick tips to help us in front of the "white page."
  
• How Blogging Helped My Pitch (Francesca Louise Fenzi) - Interesting though about what can blogging brings to business.
  
• Cool Tools – How to Be Invisible - The book looks interesting and this post, invent if it goes in the completely opposite direction is really interesting too.
  
  

~Frank

Reading Notes #93

Suggestion of the week

• Announcing the release of Windows Azure SDK 2.0 for .NET (Scott Gu)- Wow! Don't miss this post. It's a big one, but it's filled with a lot of good stuff. Enjoy!
  
• Released: Windows Azure Training Kit – April 2013 (SyntaxC4)- Yeah! New update of the Widows Azure Training Kit (WATK). Learn what updated in this post.
  
• Building a live blog app in Windows Azure - That why the cloud is so fantastic, we can build incredible stuff without big money! Great post!
  
• A Responsible Programmer - Excellent post. These are, in fact, the best practices to be a good programmer/ developer.

 

Cloud

• Help! I Cannot Attach My Azure Data Disk to my Windows Azure Virtual Machine (Stephen W) - Nice catch, the list of available disk and the reasons why some or unavailable could be clearer.
  
• Subscribe to Windows Azure Using Your Organization ID - Nice update, we can now sign-in as an organization to Windows Azure and use our AD credential.
  
• The Windows Azure SDK for Ruby (Larry Franks) - Nice post that details what is available for Ruby developers in Azure.
  
• Setting up software based Site-to-Site VPN for Windows Azure with Windows Server 2012 Routing and Remote Access - Nice tutorial about the new site-to-site feature of Azure.
  
• Just released - Microsoft Enterprise Library 6 (Grigori Melnik) - Nice update. If you don't know Enterprise Library (EntLib) it time to jump in! And for Azure developers check out the integration pack! It's a must.
  
• Episode 106 - Scott Guthrie Discusses Windows Azure SDK 2.0 (Channel 9) (Scott Guthrie) - Excellent presentation of the novelties.
  
• Copy files >2GB to your cloud VM (Paul Lou) - Very useful post that gives a solution to a very annoying problem.

 

Programming

• Script to automatically configuring Remote PowerShell for Windows Azure Virtual Machines on your machine - Useful PowerShell script shared.
  
• NuGet your Enterprise? - Interesting thoughts about NuGet.
  
• Visual Studio Tools for Git Update available (Brian Harry) - This post details the update of the VisualStudio extension. An extension to try.
  
• Utilize Roslyn to create the next level plugin capability (Filip Ekberg) - Nice presentation about this great idea: a compiler as a service! Roslyn
  
• Git Explained: For Beginners - If you don't know Git, or you still not familiar with it? This is definitely the post for you. From vocabulary to code sample this tutorial explains all you need to knows.

 

UX

• April Showers Lead to May Flowers…and an Updated Windows Store App (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Nice update to windows app due to the not so nice weather.

Miscellaneous

• The thoughtLEADERS Blog - Mentoring is gaining in popularity, and I'm happy with that because it really a win-win scenario.
  
• Upgrade Your Blogging Skills (Aaron Aders) - This post summarize an interesting book that easly found is place in my to-read stack.
  
• Swipe launches into beta as a Web app to create and share presentations to anyone on any device) (Ken Yeung) - This application look very promising. I really look forward to see what will come out of that.
  
• 8 Risks When You Ignore Social Media (Hollis Thomases) - Social media for business is an interesting discussion topic, but this article brings something that sure: ignoring is not a good solution.
  
• The “Consumerization” of IT and the Dark Side of the Cloud (Bob Buck Woody) - Interesting thoughts about relation between IT and business.
  
• Moving 4th & Mayor to Windows Azure Web Sites - Interesting story of someone migrating, he's application from AWS to Windows Azure.

~Frank

Reading Notes #90

Suggestion of the week

• My New Pluralsight Course – Patterns of Cloud Integration – Is Now Live - Very promising training, looking forward to watch this.
  
• Visual Studio ‒ It Just Keeps Getting Better (Marc Gagné) - Wow! So many great features in one thing... The news that makes my day.
  
  

Cloud

• azure-scripty – Azure CLI scripting made even easier (Glenn Block) - Automating repetitive tasks is a must and Azure-scripty is surely a tool that should find a place in your toolbox.
  
• Windows Azure: Active Directory Release, New Backup Service + Web Site Monitoring and Log Improvements - Great new features in Windows Azure. This post details this new stuff with also updates on previous release.
  
• Affinity Groups are Important on Windows Azure - Good explanation of a very important feature. A post to share...
  
• How Cloud Computing Influences Digital Marketing (Xath Cruz) - Nice post that gives a real example of company using / moving to Windows Azure.
  
• But what can I do with Windows Azure? Create (Free) Websites and Applications - Nice tutorial that explains how you could easily install a free application on Azure by installing DotNetNuke.
  
• Large-scale Implementation on Azure Platform (Ajay Solanki) - One of the larger-scale implementation and surly very critical on Azure was the US election. This post explains how this application was design.
  
• Document oriented database with Azure Table Storage Service (Pascal Laurin) – Good tutorial that explains all the code needed for the exercises.
  
• Walkthrough #1: Adding Sign-On to Your Web Application Using Windows Azure AD (vibro) - Quick recap of an unavoidable tutorial about single sign-on.

• Episode 104: Building cross platform Android and Windows Store apps using Windows Azure Mobile Services (Channel 9) (Nick Harris Nathan Totten) - Don't miss this episode; it contains a very complete demo where you can see full connected application on Windows8 and Android. 

Integration

• BizTalk 2013 worldwide launch events by Impack - Learn more about this important event that you shouldn't miss. 

Programming

• Using jQuery to POST [FromBody] parameters to Web API » Encosia) (Dave Ward) - Useful tutorial that explains what to do and why.
  
• Créé une application Windows 8 pour votre site Wordpress - Offre limitée - Windows 8 achieved great things, and one of them is changing technology so it is accessible by everyone.
  
• EF6: Nested types and more for Code First (Arthur Vickers) - This post explains new features of the Entity Frameworks EF code first.
  
• SymbolSource support for NuGet Package Source Discovery (Maarten Balliauw) - How to be lazy in a professional manner...

• Confreaks - Really interesting video about the best practices of making library.
  
• Can You “Over Organize” JavaScript? - Interesting post questioning the re-factorization of JavaScript code.
  
• A Month of PowerShell – Day 12 (Logins, Users and Roles) (Wayne Sheffield) - This post gives useful tips to manipulate database users. A good example of practical scenario.

• The Art of Writing Functional Specs (Part 1) – What is a Functional Specification? - Promising series that propose to explains the art of being understood by technical people
  
• The Art of Writing Functional Specs (Part 2) – The Most Important Thing About A Spec - The key is simple, but easy to miss. This post highlight some traps to avoid.
  
• The Art of Writing Functional Specs (Part 3) – Spec Shapes (Saveen Reddy) - This post briefly categorizes specs and gives details for each type.
  
  

Miscellaneous

• Social Media: Not the Productivity Killer You Thought (Francesca Louise Fenzi) - Wow! I really surprised, and happy... ;)
  
• Why You Should Take the Blame - Good lesson that teaches us how to learn for our mistake.
  
• Five must-try cloud-based utilities (Jack Wallen) - Interesting tools, particularly Asana that I didn't know.
  
• The Importance of Scheduling Nothing – Interesting post that explains why scheduling nothing doesn't mean doing nothing.

~Frank

Reading Notes #88

Cloud

• Avoid these five cloud storage pitfalls (Rick Vanover) - Good advices that will help thinking through a cloud migration.
• Tips for a successful submission to Windows Azure App Gallery (mksunitha) - Great tutorial that explains every step to create and submit a Windows Azure application, so it can be part of the Azure app Gallery.
• Windows Azure Mobile Services - for Organizations and the Enterprise (Channel 9)(Clemens V) - Nice video that focuses on the business capability of the services.
• 10 reasons to outsource your cloud (Jack Wallen) - Nice post. These are really the top reasons.
• New blob storage cmdlets in Azure PowerShell 0.6.12 (Abhishek Anand) - This post lists the great new features included in the new version of Azure PowerShell.
• 12 reasons why public clouds are better than private clouds | ZDNet (Joe McKendrick) - Aaah Musphy's law; I was talking about that just yesterday with a client. Nice post.
• Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets Now Supports Storage! (Michael Washam) - Yeah! they finally been integrated (and more polish) in the Azure PowerShell cmdlets! (before only available in azure command line, and less friendly)
• Optimized Windows Azure IaaS Disk Mobility with Save-AzureVhd (Michael Washam) - Another quick post that demonstrates how to upload a VHD in Azure storage using the new Azure cmdlets feature.

Programming

• Taking It to the Next Level(Jonathan Rozenblit) - Nice post that explains how to can use the Ads from Microsoft to get more from your developer's skill training.
• TFS as perfect tool for Scrum (Part 1) - Introduction in Scrum and TFS - A promising series about Scrum methodologies and how it could be used with TFS.
• A Month of PowerShell – Day 6 (Exporting and Importing) (Wayne Sheffield) - Ah. What if I want to full text in one variable?
• A Month of PowerShell – Day 7 (Script Input/Output) (Wayne Sheffield) - Very useful cmdlets in this one to improve trace and user experience: interacting, getting feedback, etc....
• Changing ASP.NET web.config inheritance when mixing versions of child applications (Scott Hanselman) - Nice catch! A good trick to know.
• Nice Tool for Presenters who use Visual Studio 2012 - Great! I'm already using the productivity tool, but I didn't know about this feature.
• A Month of PowerShell – Day 8 (Working with Snippets in the ISE) (Wayne Sheffield) - Presenting snipetsType and their utilities.
• Understanding method lookup in Ruby 2.0 – Interesting post that goes under the hood of Ruby Language.
• A Month of PowerShell – Day 9 (Getting Started with SMO) (Wayne Sheffield) - This post focuses on MsSql tools (SMO).
• Building Single Page Apps on the Microsoft Stack (Stephen Walther) - Nice post and presentation to get started.

Database

• Diagnosing differences between production and development - Get a better ideas of what are your options to compare database schemas.
• The ODataLib Dependency Issues in the Storage Client Library for .NET are Now Resolved - Learn why you should be happy about this new version.

System Management

• But what can I do with Windows Azure? Backups (Buck Woody) - Know better your options when it comes to backup using the cloud (Azure).

Miscellaneous

• The 30 Minute Meeting (Janine Popick) - Interesting thoughts about long meeting.
• Introducing: The New Readability for Chrome and Tags in iOS (blog.readability.com) - Wow the speed improvement of the new chrome extension is amazing.
• //BUILD 2013 Announced (David Jung MSFT) - Time to plan... ;)
• How to Use Temptation to Strengthen Your Willpower - Interesting post. Try to rest eating while reading it...
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Charles Duhigg) – I was very impressed by this book. I learned a lot about the brain and how it’s possible to re-program the brain.

~Frank

Reading Notes #84

Suggestion of the week

• Focus Your To-Do List - It's so true and the solution is so simple, but not that easy to do.

Cloud

• Working with Windows Azure SQL Database in PhpStorm (Maarten Balliauw) - Nice tool that provides a lots of useful features.
• Detecting Expired PKI Certificates (Wade) - Detail on the disruption of service for Windows Azure.
• Announcing AWS OpsWorks - Wow another release this week! This time it's some diagnostics beta tools.
• Developer Tools — Including Github, Zencoder, AWS (Natasha Lomas) - Great news for young start-ups companies: Starter Pack is back with a second edition.
• Glass Half Empty: Understanding Cloud Computing SLAs (David Pallmann) - This post demystifies the 9s in the SLA and attaches them to more real value.
• Windows Azure Store: The Services You Need, Where You Need Them (Himanshu Singh) - Nice list of Azure third party and data provider available right now on the Windows Azure Store.
• New Add-ons in the Windows Azure Store - 4 very promising new add-ons to Azure and I would suggest also New Relic.
• Practical Azure #13: Windows Azure Queue Storage - Nice overview video. All the features are well explained.

Programming

• 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.
• jQuery Tutorial – Getting Started: Basics & Selectors (James Bruce) - A lot of people are using jQuery this day, put do you use it efficiently? This post brings some 101 best practices and is quick to read...
• Survey: Most Developers Now Prefer HTML5 For Cross-Platform Development (Frederic Lardinois) - Nice post that shows who quick the HTML5 is adopted by developers.
• Ruby 2.0.0-p0 is released - Good news. Here is an overview of the new features in this new release.
• 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.

Database

• Is Access to Big Data Limited to Big Players? (Saroj Kar) - This post demystifies the idea of big data equal big application. Nice reading.
• Why am I Getting so Many Deadlocks From Windows Azure SQL Database? (alexandrebrisebois.wordpress.com) - Really great post that explains every detail of the problem and of its solution, even for EF.

Miscellaneous

• What Recruiters Want To See On Your LinkedIn Profile (Levo League Jaime Petkanics) - Nice post to help doing a quick check up of your LinkedIn profile.
• Being a Remote Worker Sucks - Long Live the Remote Worker (Scott Hanselman) - Interesting post that highlight the challenge of working remote and how to define them.
• Want To Be Taken Seriously? Become a Better Writer - Delete
• What does "Future Perfect English" mean? (Lynda Hurcomb) - Indeed! Learning another language is not as easy as saying hello, but much more rewarding.
• How to make files searchable in Google Drive - Ah! Simple AND useful.
• The Key to Being On Time - I don’t know for you but that his example look likes to have been taken from my life.
• Evernote resets user passwords after being hit by “coordinated” hack (Nathan Mattise) - Learn more about the Evernote attach and what are the "risk."

~Frank

Reading Notes #81

 
Suggestion of the week

• Make your own gem - Very useful post that explain very clearly, with code sample, what need to be done in order to create a Gem (...in Ruby).

Cloud

• Cloud Latency Issues? Dedicated Network Connections Will Help (Jelle Frank van der Zwet and David Strom) - Good post to understand why some latency is to be expected in the cloud and what to do to keep it at the minimum.
• SQL Reporting Services Pricing Update (Steven Martin) - Woohoo 82% less, that’s something!
• Powershell script to detect the Windows Azure SDK in Azure Cloud Service VM and fix the Powershell execution issue (Avkash Chauhan) - A script to keep for sure.
• 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...
• Windows Azure and VM Depot – Better Together (Craig Kitterman) - Aaah that great. Nice new little add-on to the windows Azure portal.
• IAAS Preview – Unable to delete VHD, “There is currently a lease on the blob…” - Simple steps, but SOOO useful...
• [Sample Of Feb 6th] Azure WebRole for frontend + backend work (Philip Fu) - Very good idea. It's always nice to have those code sample to see how other did things. Or just to speed-up some POC we are doing. A site to subscribe, or bookmark.
• Three New AWS Reference Architectures for E-Commerce - Quick access to 3 good architectures using different AWS components.
• What's Coming in the Command Line Tools for Windows Azure with Glenn Block – Great great show… Looking forward to have more cmdlets!

Integration

• 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:
• Service Bus Notification Hubs – Part 1
• Service Bus Notification Hubs–Part 2 Improving Customer Engagement
• Service Bus Notification Hubs–Part 3 My Solution Overview

Database

• Why you should be Using SQL Prompt! - I agree with the author of this post give it a try, you will wonder how you got along without it.

Programming

• 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!
• Simultaneous Editing for Visual Studio with the free MultiEdit extension (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post that introduces a useful add-on to Visual Studio.
• Publishing your gem - Perfect post to get started about publishing in Ruby. This post gives different options that are easily available.
• Productivity Add-Ins: Bruce Lee vs Batman (Erik Dietrich) - Interesting thought about productivity tools and black-belt coder.
• Automating ClickOnce Deployment (Joe Wrobel) - Great tutorial (and rare) that gives all the details you need to build outside VS.

Miscellaneous

• 10 Apps for Creativity - Nice tools... more to come.
• 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.

~Frank

Reading Notes #75

Cloud

• Bulk Database Migration from On-Premise SQL Server to SQL Azure - Step 1: Bulk .bacpac Export - First post of a series about exporting many databases on-premise to move then in Azure with a script of course.
• Azure VMs - Managing, Resizing & Interacting with VHDs! (David Baliles) - Nice post, with some good tips and tricks about Azure VM.
• 3 best practices for Windows Azure SQL Reporting development (Craig Kitterman) - Simple rules easy to apply that will make your project to follow best practices.
• Windows Azure IaaS Webcast Series: Part Four Creating Virtual Machines with PowerShell (Michael Washam) - Good serie of webcast series (video) that cover a lot about Azure virtual machine.
• Migrating from a relational to a NoSQL cloud database - Good advices about things to think before doing a migration from relational database to NoSQL.
• Windows Azure Active Directory Supports JSON Web Tokens (Alex Simons) - Good news, more features with Windows Azure Active Directory.
• Updated: Known Issues for Windows Azure Storage Client Library 2.0 for .NET and Windows Runtime - Keep tracks of the changes on the library. The team is working hard to fix these issues.
• Amazon Redshift - The New AWS Data Warehouse - Learn more about the brand-new Redshift from Amazon and how this new AWS data warehouse could help you.
• Monitoring Windows Azure with Foglight (James Newton-King) - That looks like a really good tool. I must try it... Stay tune…
• I Could Sure Use Some Windows Azure Code Samples… (Buck Woody) - Learn more about all the tools and code samples easily (and freely) available for you.
• Windows Azure Active Directory: Making it easier to establish Identity Management in the cloud - Great news about Active directory that announce free features.
• Using existing database with Azure Mobile Services - Nice trick that gives the opportunity to works with Windows Azure Mobile Services and existent database.
• Welcome Windows Azure Insider - Learn more about a new Azure column in the MSDN Magazine and about its authors.
• Windows Azure Service Bus: Messaging Patterns Using Sessions - Great article that explains how to build a messaging application with the Azure Service Bus using Topic. A great complement to the Servise Bus Lab in the Windows Azure Training Kit (WATK).
• Azure table storage WCF custom transport channel (Dustin Metzgar) - Nice post with a full coded solution that explains how to use Azure storage with WCF.
• Managing Multiple Windows Azure Web Site Environments using Visual Studio Publishing Profiles - Nice post that explains how to get the maximum of the publish profiles of Visual Studio and Azure.

Integration

• worldwide integration alliance announced - Congratulation to Breeze, Codit and Matricis Informatique for this worldwide alliance. Long life to Impack Alliance!
• Exploring REST Capabilities of BizTalk Server 2013: Exposing REST Endpoints - Great tutorial that explores the REST features of BizTalk 2013 with synch and asynch processes.
• Exploring REST Capabilities of BizTalk Server 2013: Consuming REST Endpoints - Second part of a nice tutorial. This time exploring how to consume services (Get, Delete).
• BizTalk Summit 2012, Redmond–Experience (Saravana Kumar) - Quick summary of what happens at the BizTalk Summit this year. More to come...
• BizTalk Server 2013 Image Available on Windows Azure Virtual Machines - Hurray! It finally arrive! Quick go to Windows Azure portal.
• BizTalk Mapper Patterns: How to map values from a repeating node into a single node using conditions – Again a great post to improve our mapping skills. Most of the time the clients prefer that we keep using only the functoids. This post may gives you arguments to go other ways and get real performance.

Programming

• Full Tagging Support Now Available in the Readability API (David Sleight) - Yeah! It's time to update my script. More to come in a future blog post.
• Updating my Windows Phone App to Windows Phone 8 (Scott Hanselman) - Nice tutorial that highlight some key features that need to be addressed in order to build a nice Windows Phone 8 applications.
• Comparing two techniques in .NET Asynchronous Coordination Primitives (Scott Hanselman) - The logical following of the previous post ... in this one Scott is comparing different methods to do async.
• Announcing the ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 Release Candidate (Scott Gu)- Details on what's in the new Entity Framework EF 6 beta 2.
• Do You Really Want To Be Agile? (Marc Clifton) - A long but very complete post/story/tutorial about building an application using agile.
• SQL Server Data-Tier Application Framework (November 2012) Available - More details about what new or fixed in the new release of DACFx.
• ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 (Release Candidate) (Scott Hanselman) - Learn more about the new release of web tools that the asp.net team move to open source. And if you ever want to know why they’re doing that, this is the post to read.

Miscellaneous

• Big Data - Very interesting thoughts about what should be "smart application" today since the so much information is easily accessible thru Big Data.
• Try Meditation to Strengthen Your Resilience - If the resilience is good for our code, it should be good for ourselves too!? Nice post that tip-off how to improve our resilience.
• Windows Surface RT: Pros & Cons (John Brandon) - Interesting thoughts about popularity in the tablet device word.
• How to be a Consultant, Part 5: Verbal Communication Skills (David Pallmann) - Great add-on to the serie: How to be a Consultant. This post gives good tips to improve the communication skills. This is for everyone since nobody works alone in his basement without seeing someone once in a while.
• Painting the Walls, with IdeaPaint - What a nice idea! We always need more space on the dry board...

~Frank