Reading Notes #53

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

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

~Frank

Cloud

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

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

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

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

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

Programming

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

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

Miscellaneous

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

~Frank

Reading Notes #51

The Cloud Storage

Cloud

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

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

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

Programming

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

Miscellaneous

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

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

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

~Frank

Reading Notes #43

Cloud

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

Programming

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

Miscellaneous

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

Reading Notes #39

Cloud

• Amazon data center size - Interesting post that gives an opportunity to put numbers on the cloud architecture, in this case AWS servers.
• Using Import-Subscription in WAPPSCmdlets 2.2.2 - Explains quickly one of the new features of Azure PowerShell Cmdlets last release: caching the Azure subscription by importing it.
• Windows Azure Security Best Practices – Part 7: Tips, Tools, Coding Best Practices (Bruce Kyle) - Again a lot of really good advices about security with Azure and many good references.

[…]shows a friendly face to customers and still provides the detailed technical information developers will need in his article Rich Custom Error Handling with ASP.NET. […]

[…]Wade Wegner describes the steps he recommends in his post Using ELMAH in Windows Azure with Table Storage. […]
[…]To learn more about ELMAH, see the MSDN article Using HTTP Modules and Handlers to Create Pluggable ASP.NET Components by Scott Mitchell and Atif Aziz.[…]

• Building Hybrid Applications in the Cloud on Windows Azure (Ferglo) - The third book of a series about Windows Azure. A lot good information, scenarios and details about hybrid application.
• Do We Need A Desktop OS Anymore? - A nice reflection about our future.
• Azure Storage and its Various Abstractions (Chris Clayton) - Nice post that explain how to configure and use local storage in an Azure WebRole.
• Versioning SQL Azure Schemas by Using Federations - Wow this is a really good idea. Using Azure SQL federation to maintain different schemas version in a single or multi-tenant scenario.
• The Hidden Risk of a Meltdown in the Cloud - Interesting post that explain why companies should think about moving to the cloud to see if they saw (and understand) all the pros and cons.
• 'Personal Cloud' to Replace PC by 2014, Says Gartner - This nice post talks about the emergence of the "personal cloud" and is progression against PC.
• New Tools for Windows Identify Foundation and ACS (Wade Wegner) - Great show (Cloud cover Show) again this week, with Wake and David that present a lot of nice functionalities of the Windows Identity Foundation (WIF).
• Windows Azure™ and X509 Certificates (Chris Clayton) - A very useful post from Chris that specify all steps you need to do (screenshots and code snippet) in order to setup your X509 certificates.
• My Disappointments with Amazon DynamoDB - DynamoDB is a pretty young product, but still some of the limitations look disappointing. However I think that is this king of database binaries, images and big files shouldn't be in. They should be in storage and the url/path is in the db.
• Leaving Microsoft (Wade Wegner) - Another big evangelist of Windows Azure is leaving Microsoft. Wade is someone to follow.
• Using CSPack and CSRun With a Worker Role (Jason Haley) - Nice post where Jason try to fix a result discrepancy between using Visual Studio or CSPack-CSRun to create a Azure project. But the question remains...
• How Do I Get Started On My Developer Workstation? - Nice tutorial to get started with Windows Azure. Or to setup a new clean VM.
• Beware Fake Clouds - Good post that help to demystify what the cloud is computing and what is not be by hi-lighting the differences.
• Why do I need two Instances in Windows Azure? - This is a really important fact to understand when planning/developing a project with Windows Azure. A clear answer for a good question.
• The Microsoft Private Cloud whitepaper (Nikosan) – A reference to a PDF document that contains a lot a info about all the options you have if you planning to go with Private cloud.
• Best practices for migration to the cloud - Nice post that contain all the link you need in one place to read all the best practice and useful information on migration to the cloud.

Programming

• Improving Launch Performance for Your Desktop Applications (Brandon Bray) - See how the and witch new tools in Visual Studio 11 will improve the launching speed of our application.
• EF Code First Migrations, Update-Database outside of Visual Studio - Nice! This post introduces a great console tool that gives the opportunity to update a database using PowerShell.
• EF Code First Migrations Update-Database Parameters Documentation? - Useful information about all the parameters of the EF Migration tool.

Miscellaneous

• 3 Great Things My Mentors Taught Me - Great thought. Simple and efficient.

~ Frank

Reading Notes # 20

 

Cloud

• Hybrid Reference Implementation Using BizTalk Server, Windows Azure, Service Bus and SQL Azure - A nice sample of using Biztalk with Azure
• Practical Development - Introducing unit of scale. very clear post
• An HTML5-Windows Azure Dashboard, Part 1 - In this post David Pallmann is starting a new project that will integrate HTML5, Javascript, JSon, JQuery and Azure
• Minimizing Connection Pool errors in SQL Azure - Here goes a best practices
• Windows Azure Drive Snapshot and Updating Azure Drive - Definition and description of Azure snapshot drive and it’s features, in a easy to read bullet form.
• Windows Azure for Social Applications - This post is about high level communication between cloud instance.
• A Comprehensive Introduction to Cloud Computing - This is a good introduction to what is the Cloud computing, using a real life analogy as starting point. (Unfortunately because of a blog restructuration the link is currently broken, but Wely did tell me that he will but it back soon.)
• Cloud Computing and the Reason for Hybrid Versions - A lot of good stats about the cloud computing, but I'm curious to see their sources...
• How To Easily Enable Windows Azure Diagnostics Remotely - Amazing post with a lot of great PowerShell script. Bookmark this one...
• A Game of Risk- Explain about WinRT

  Microsoft announced the Windows Runtime (WinRT) stack at the heart of Windows 8 during the BUILD conference keynote in September, everyone in the room knew the game had changed.

• How To Clean up old Windows Azure diagnostics - Another amazing post that merite to be bookmarked.
• Your users don't care if you use Web Sockets - Most user don't care about the tech used. They care about the result. Here and example.

  You can use the lovely CanIUse web site to find out if you browser supports something

• How to access Service Configuration settings in Windows Azure Startup Task - Good code snippet if you need to check config
• Azure Storage Analytics - A good list of links to code post.
• Deploying Node.js Applications to Windows Azure via Blobs or Git Sync - Quick explanation of the use of nodeRole project. Thanks to Steve Mark how made great tools projects.
• Le Bulletin Azure - épisode 1 - First video podcast in a series about Azure's actualities in french.

Programming

• Web Essentials from Mads Kristensen - This is definitely a most. Even more for people our doing not so often web development.

• SQL in the Wild - I didn't know about this "filtered index" feature available in MSSQL 2008. Really nice feature.

Miscellaneous

• Profanity doesn't work - Does swearing is a good thing in a technical presentation, or in a blog? S. Hanselman answer the question in this post
• Your images are a virus. They are EVERYWHERE on the Internet - 1 image, 227 copies, 4 years... images spread..
• The #1 Thing That Successful Freelancers Always Do - Business look for some one how can do better then them self.

~Franky

Reading Notes #16

Cloud

• The Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus (Joseph Fultz) - A great and complete sample of a use of azure AppFabric service bus. code also available.
• Announcing The New SQL Azure Reporting CTP Release - all detail about the new CTP release.

"SQL Azure Reporting enables new hybrid IT scenarios - for example, customers can schedule automatic synchronization of on-premises databases with SQL Azure, and then deploy cloud-based BI reports based on the synchronized cloud-based data"

• On Not Using owner With the Azure AppFabric Service Bus (Neil Mackenzie) -Great post to get started on Access Control Service (acs) with out using owner as in CTP.
• Types of Cloud Computing (ArchieIndian) - if still confuse between SAAS IAAS PAAS then this the post.
• Reporting on Diagnostics Data(Joseph Fultz) – Wooo! A lot of stuff is going on here. grab your CTP access and download the code available in this article. great prove of concept.
• Field Note: Calling the Windows Azure Storage API Asynchronously  (Tejaswi Redkar) - Nice trick about accessing storage asynchronously.
• Static Web Site Migration to Windows Azure (David Pallmann) - If you didn't know yet, here packaged in a 30 minutes recipe how to migrate a static web site.  good way to move in the cloud AND saving money.
• The Developer’s Guide to AppFabric (Alan Smith) - This is the official release version of “The Developer’s Guide to AppFabric” and it’s free.

Programming

• Working with Lazy Loading in Entity Framework Code First  (stevesmithblog.com) - EF code first manage the lazy loading automatically. this post show you how to disable it when needed.
• Actions in OData (Alex James) - First post of a nice series talking about pushing farther oData by adding/using action.
• Do you know Ruby Doctest? - Great tool for units test in Ruby

Miscellaneous

•  Securing Service Bus with ACS - In this talk Clemens will discuss how to secure your Service Bus applications using ACS.
• Is BizTalk Server Going Away At Some Point? Yes. Dead? Nope (Richard Seroter) - Answering the question that every one have on her lips: Does Biztalk is dead?

"Microsoft’s Tony Meleg actually did an excellent job frankly discussing the future of the middle platform and their challenges of branding and cohesion.  I strongly encourage you to watch that session"

• How to Start Freelancing (Coby Chapple) – A series about doing some freelancing. the author share is experience. Read part1, part2, part3... still one more to come
• Cloud Cover Episode 61 - Updates to SQL Azure Database with Roger Doherty - In this episode, Roger Doherty, Technical Evangelist for SQL Server and SQL Azure, joins Steve and Wade to discuss recent updates to SQL Azure database.

~Franky

Reading Notes #13

 Azure

• Now Available: Geo-Replication and new Blob, Table and Queue features for Windows Azure Storage (BradCalder) - The blob storage get a new version, more polish,  with some new features improving the final user experience.
• Data Service in the Cloud (Julie Lerman) - Another tutorial as first Azure app. Yes it was publish in April 2011 but all the base are covered.
• White Paper Series Helps You Get a Start on Windows Azure Pricing (Bruce Kyle) - A list of reference to white paper making different scenarios on the needs of different applications in the cloud.
• Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus Brokered Messaging (Neil Mackenzie) - Take a breath. In this fabulous post are a lot of information. Of good links and a lot of sample.
• The Cloud Responsibility Crisis (Cody) - The cloud is so easy that it comes close impossible to not get lost.
• 5 Things That Are Toxic to Scalability (hullsean) – Be prepare for scalability, by knowing how to avoid traps.
• Extension Methods for the August 2011 Windows Azure Storage Features (Steve Marx) - Explain the new features in this good library.
• Deploying an OData Service in Windows Azure (Shayne Burgess) - It is surprisingly simple to deploy a oData sevice in Azure. A well done tutorial.
• Now Available: The Service Bus September 2011 Release (Clemens Vasters) - great news
• TFS Azure–Technical Access Preview Experience! (Tarun Arora) - Last week I read a post that was explaining how TFS socks. But today when I read and I see all the progress they did, I say that I would love to work with Azure TFS.

SQLAzure

• What’s New in SQL Azure Management Portal? (Part II of II) (Gregory Leake) – Those news change are welcome...
• How to Backup SQL Azure Database to Windows Azure Blob Storage directly from your own machine (Avkash Chauhan - MSFT) - This post explain how to backup in the cloud... So really low cost.
• SQL Azure, the bacpac & Storage Containers - I need to check this because I didn't get any trouble doing my backup.

PowerShell

• Automate It! Deploying a Windows Azure Service Package from PowerShell. (Michael Washam) - It's time to improve your PowerShell skill because more than ever it is very useful.

Ruby

• Deploying Ruby in Windows Azure (Thomas Conte) - Very quick walkthrough to deploy a Ruby application in Azure.
• Some Updates to Waz-Cmd (Ruby Command-Line Tool for Windows Azure) (Steve Marx) - Cross platform tool to manage Azure storage.

~Franky

Reading Notes #11

• Sync Framework Toolkit now available for download - This toolkit allows other platforms to be used for offline clients such as Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, and Windows Mobile; in addition, non-Microsoft platforms such as iPhone, Android, and Blackberry can be utilized as well as HTML.
•  #1 Cause of Startup Death? Premature Scaling – Good post from the author of the book: Nail It then Scale It, tell is opinion about the risk of scaling too fast.
• Experiment with Role.Instances Collection and creating all Role Instances Order – Nice experience.
• How to become a great software developer - 13 points to be a better developer. Do you agree with all of them?
• Cloud Programming Concepts – Detailed post about everything. From the definition of the cloud, historic to a first application.
• Visualize Your Data: Charts in Google Apps Script!  - I use to know Google chart in the query string but now you can create them by script! Sample code.
• Entity Framework Tips and Tricks: Use GetObjectByKey When Querying a Single Entity - Good tips to use the caching instead of poking the database each time with the EF.
• SQL Azure Essentials for the Database Developer - Good starting point of SQL Azure from a sql geek.
• Managing Concurrency in Windows Azure with Leases - Great sample. See the library (smarx.WazStorageExtensions) in action.
• Building a Task Scheduler in Windows Azure - Quick and easy way to start task scheduling in Azure.
• A basic non-cloud-based personal backup strategy - The cloud is not mandatory... here a good example.
• Using Co-Administrators with your Windows Azure Subscription - Very nice and more secure.
• Cloud computing: the triple fallacy - A lot of questions that don't highlight the usual.

~Franky