Reading Notes #236

Suggestion of the week

• Running .NET Core on Docker (Jurgis Pasukonis) - Really cool tutorial that puts many blocks to work together.

Cloud

• Turning on Windows features using Powershell DSC extension and Azure CLI (Kirpa Singh) - Clever method to activate Windows feature on multiple VM.
  
• Running Docker Container on Azure Batch (Yiding Zhou) - Nice post that explains why and how Azure batch and Docker can really work well together.
  
• Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer preview: June update (Cristy Gonzalez) - A great tool got updated and now supports all four storage services. A must for all Azure developers.
  
• Move Resources via ARM Portal (Edward Dake) - Many tips on how to move stuff around; very handy.
  
• Cloud War: Microsoft vs Amazon – Feature 2 Feature Comparisons - Great tools I wish I had that long time ago.

Programming

• ASP.NET - Writing Clean Code in ASP.NET Core with Dependency Injection - Very interesting post that explains why dependency injection is good and how to do it leveraging the new AspNetCore. I used to all that using Ninject, Moq and many other tools. Today, it's all included.

Miscellaneous

• Happiness is DevOps’ Cornerstone (Alexandre Brisebois) - Interesting post that asks a lot of questions... I would like to see some graph or pie chart about our answers.
  
• 5 Habits that Help Code Quality (View all posts by Erik Dietrich) - Yet another post about how to code better, but this one is refreshing. It explains why the opposite would be harmful and also give us a training plan for better chance of success.
  
• What’s in your highlights folder? (Marc Gagne) - Because life is not only mistakes and bad luck.Here good tips to help you giving some sunshine into your life when needed.

Reading Notes #235

Suggestion of the week

• Is technology killing curiosity? (Scott Hanselman) - Very interesting reflections. A post to read.

Cloud

• Diagnose and resolve issues with Azure Troubleshooting (Ritesh Garodia) - Nice post that helps us to know the troubleshooting tools available in Azure portal.
  
• Deploy a Geo-HA Service Fabric Cluster on Azure (Alexandre Brisebois) - Fantastic post. It may require a second read to catch all the information contained, but it is worth it.
  
• How to Load Balance Virtual Machines in Azure (Marc Gagne) - Nice tutorial t explains step by step how to create, and configure an environment with a load balancer.
  
• Azure Export Template – Your new best friend (Vincent-Philippe Lauzon) - True, this relatively new feature is a real benediction.
  
• Turning on Windows features using Powershell DSC extension and Azure CLI (Kirpa Singh) - This post explains a clever method to active Windows features on multiple VMs.

Reading Notes #215

Cloud

• Azure Learning Paths (Laurent Duveau) - Did you know that the Azure documentation site has a set of 25 learning paths? I didn't, and it's awesome.
  
• Using Azure Storage Queues from .NET - Nice post that explores the Azure queues through .net, and feature th very useful cloud config...
  
• Advanced Use of Azure Virtual Machine DSC Extensions - Very nice tutorial about how to troubleshooting.

Programming

• Exploring the new .NET (Scott Hanselman) - This is the first post I read about the "dotnet compile" since the MVP Summit, and it looks at as much interesting as before.
  
• Why build scripts? (Amir Barylko) - This post changed my mind about F#, now I'm looking forward to try it.
  
• Signing into Windows 10 with your Face - Using an Xbox One Kinect with Windows Hello (Scott Hanselman) - I didn't think it was that easy to setup a XBox Kinect to a Pc...
  
• Visual Studio Shortcuts: Comment Selection / Uncomment Selection (Jeremy) - Time to learn some little time saving tips with this short post.
  
• Visual Studio Shortcuts: Format Document (Jeremy) - Recently, I have been surprised to learn that some people are still not aware of that very powerful feature o VisualStudio.

Data

• More Power BI Feature Updates: Power BI Desktop December Update and new Power BI service features - This post detailed the features of th December update.

Miscellaneous

• 12 Most Influential Books Every Software Engineer Needs to Read (roelljr) - Fantastic list of essential books to read. A must.
  
• Google Spotlight Story Special Delivery is a nice YouTube gift for the holidays (Jeff Causey) - Really interesting little animation movie in a 360 degree environment.
  
• First Update Released for Open Live Writer (Richard Hay) - Awesome new, and it works!
  
• Announcing Programmer Tools! (Henry Spencer) - We all need some little tools from time to time. This post lists many useful tools, and what's nice about them is that they are available from everywhere because they are online tools.

Reading Notes #191

Suggestion of the week

• Free recorded webinar on Pluralsight: Why SQL Injection Remains the #1 Web Security Risk Today - Security is so important. This video helps us to remember and shows us some simple attacks.

Cloud

• Azure DSC Extension v2.0 released (PowerShell Team) - Details about the new version and how to upgrade.
  
• Calling Logic Apps from an HTTP Action (Jeff Hollan) - Very interesting post that shows a powerful and flexible scenario with the Azure Logic Apps.
  
• New Azure Billing APIs Available - Wow very useful API, looking forward to try it.

Programming

• How to use Process Monitor and Process Explorer - Great video that explains a lot. We often learn more than what we expect in a debugging session.
  
• Why TDD for PowerShell? Or why pester? Or why unit test a "scripting" language? - Very interesting thoughts... I wonder what is the opinion of my heavy script coder friends...
  
• Docker and Microsoft announce more innovation to cross platforms and win hearts (Corey Sanders) - This post resumes some key things that happen at DockerCon. Really interesting.
  
• Visual Studio Code and Docker (Chris Dias [MSFT], Mark Rendle, DvdBrink Sean McBreen [MSFT]) - Nice post, I am happy to see that great plugin are coming.

Miscellaneous

• Stop Worrying About How Much You Matter - Interesting thoughts in a world of instant gratification...

Image by FutUndBeidl / Flickr

Reading Notes #185

Suggestion of the week

• Building a Monster Virtual Machine on #Azure - Monster exists! Lear how to create an insane Azure VM with PowerShell in this nice tutorial.

Cloud

• Building a Monster Virtual Machine on #Azure - Monster exists! Lear how to create an insane Azure VM with PowerShell in this nice tutorial.
  
• Full-Text Search is now available for preview in Azure SQL Database (Mihaela Blendea) - Fantastic! This feature was missing for a long time.
  
• New DocumentDB Import Options (Stephen Baron) - If you didn't have tried DocumentDB yet, now will be a great time. With the import to that simplify the task... we have now more ways to bring our data in.
  
• BizTalk in Azure Platform as a Service - Fourth post of a series on Biztalk this one explains the fantastic tools we have in this PaaS world.
  
• A Custom DSC Module to Stripe Data Disks on (Alexandre Brisebois) - This post explains how to create Azure VMs with PowerShell using DSC, a new and powerful feature of Azure.

Programming

• Node.js Tools 1.0 on GitHub and VMs Available (Visual Studio Blog) - Very nice tool, if you are doing Nodejs it's a must. Even more since it's now included in the Azure community VMs...

~Frank