Reading Notes #594

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

• Managing your Azure Resources with Deployment Stacks (John Kilmister) - That's a very useful tool, and nicely documented.

Programming

• Extract Method Refactoring Technique in C# – What You Need To Know (Nick Cosentino) - Great post that go over one of the most powerful method that every developers will be using all along their career. Simple and so useful, it's a must!

• Dapr v1.13 is now available (Dapr project maintainers) - I really like those post that goes over the news and also named all the contributors. This is when you see how many people are involved.

• Are Containers Only for Microservices? Myth Debunked (Zubair Aslam, Jay Schmidt) - Interesting post that demystify the myth about container by in only for micro services.

• Marten 7.0 is Released! (Jeremy D. Miller) - Nice update. Version 7 already...

• How to Fix CORS Error With AnyOrigin and AllowCredentials (Code Maze) - Anyone who work or build API go that error message about CORS. Here is a nice post to learn more about it and understand who we can fix it in an API.

AI

• RAG is Dead. Long Live RAG! (David Myriel) - Nice post that explains the differences between two type of AI RAG and LLM.

Databases

• Get Started with Milvus Vector DB in .NET - .NET Blog (Luis Quintanilla) - This post starts by explaining what's a vector databases and than show a nice example with movies.

~Frank

Reading Notes #473

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!

Suggestion of the week

• Transform C# objects to a flat string dictionary (Josef Ottoson) - I love so much those developer's coding journey. We learn so much more than if only the "happy path " was shared. Great post thank you for sharing.

Cloud

• Develop production-scale modern web apps quickly with Azure Static Web Apps (Daria Grigoriu) - Nice summary of what is an Azure Static web app and what and all the included features since it reached Global Availability this week.
• The New Azure Logo - Microsoft Azure Icon (Abhijit Jana) - This is my favorite so far.
• Using Auth0 with Static Web Apps (Aaron Powell) - Ah wonderful! I noticed this new feature in Azure static web App this week. This post details how it works and gives a great example.

Programming

• VS Code shortcuts that you must know! (Mac and Windows) (Raynaldo Sutisna) - Learning new shortcuts is always nice.
• 4 Tips on How to Refactor Code in Visual Studio Code (Alex Omeyer) - Nice! I didn't know about that cool extension.
• 5 Ways to Improve the Performance of C# Code for Free (Sasha Mathews) - Interesting deep dive in the performance of our code and the why it goes fast or could go faster.
• Add a README to Your NuGet Package (Christopher Gill) - Now I understand! I noticed that, earlier this week, and thought: Wow, this is wonderful, why they are not all doing that! Now it all makes sense.
• How To Customize Azure DevOps Projects Process Templates? (Abhijit Jana) - Azure DevOps is a very very powerful tool. This post and video will show you how to start customizing it.
• What Do You Mean By Automated Tests And Continuous Integration? (Charles L Flatt) - Great answer.

Podcasts

• Bonus: Understanding Digital Body Language (Modern Mentor) - That we wanted or not, we need to get better with those new tools: the webcam, the microphone. We need to understand how to use them correctly and how to understand what the person on the other hand is really sharing. Great episode.
• Social Robots with De'Aira Bryant (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Okay I crack at... If only they knew! A very interesting episode about... yes robots!
• Write Great APIs (Coding Blocks) - What's an API, what's a good API, why it's good, or why it's bad... Great episode that may me think... I really need to get back to my code and update a few things.

~frank

Reading Notes #351

Cloud

• Azure Functions Labs – Information and setup instructions (Bbenjamin Perkins) - Excellent post that explains how works Azure functions and why they works like that.
• Azure Functions: Choosing between queues and event hubs (Jeff Hollan) - Very interesting post that describes very well different possibilities of architecture.
• Deploying and Managing Containers on Azure (Mark Heath) - This post lists the topics covered in the tons of incredible course available on Plurasing... For free.
• How I built a dashboard in Azure Portal to track Gitflow feature branches (Utkarsh Shigihalli) - Pretty clever way to create dashboard in the Azure Portal.

Programming

• When and why to clean up your code: now, later, never (Itamar Turner-Trauring) - This is an interesting post that shares rules to improve or code management. Or at lease feel better with it.
• You might not need Kubernetes (Jessie Frazelle) - Nice quick post. Yep Kubernetes are great tool but not the tool for everything.

Data

• Best practices for alerting on metrics with Azure Database for PostgreSQL monitoring (Harini Gupta) - Nice post that covers the most important point to cover when monitoring a database (not only PostgreSQL).

~

Reading Notes #327

Cloud

• Create Azure Functions using Visual Studio and deploy it to Azure (Abhijit Jana) - Nice little visual studio tutorial to create an Azure Function.
• Why you should use Durable Functions sub-orchestrations (Mark Heath) - Nice post.A lot of very useful pieces of information.
• Yes you can! develop on AWS using .NET (Dror Helper) - This post is a great invitation for .Net developers to try AWS.

Programming

• Announcing .NET Core 2.1 RC 1 Go Live AND .NET Core 3.0 Futures (Scott Hanselman) - The future with .Net Core looks very promising, learn why in this post.
• Using LazyCache for clean and simple .NET Core in-memory caching (Scott Hanselman) - New post in the series where Scott shares with us things he try while refactoring his website.I loved it.
• Web Performance Optimization is Simple 5535756836 - Can Your Developers Execute? 5535657166 (Chris Love) - Interesting post, learn from true stories. Simple thing can make a big difference.

Databases

• Azure SQL Database Table Partitioning Example (John Miner) - Wow, this post is a very completed tutorial that provides all steps and explanations.

Miscellaneous

• Ask Tim - Should I say "I Don't Know" to an Interviewer? (Tim Corey) - Great post. I apply this no bullshit rules to all my conversation.
• Five Things That Every Leader Could Use to be a Better Leader (Joan Pepin) - Interesting post about leadership and how we grow with our challenges.

Books

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (Mark Manson) -Damn it's good!
  The title of the book let's me thought it will be very negative. Not giving a fu#*... But it's really not. Quite the opposite in fact. I really like the book and I'm planning to read/listen it another time in... One year. To see what changed.
  

Reading Notes #99

 Suggestion of the week

• Windows Azure: Major Updates for Mobile Backend Development (Scott Gu) - Another big release for Windows Azure that boost the Mobile Services offers.

Cloud

• Azure VM Access Control with PowerShell (Tyler Doerksen) - Great with this post we now know all the new features that came up last week: PowerShell command.
• 10 Dos and Don'ts for Running Proof-of-Concept Projects in the Cloud - Nice post that highlights the pros and cons.
• Conflicts: Windows Azure Mobile Service to SQLite Data Sync for Windows Phone and WinRT with Portable Class Libraries - Nice post about possible sync conflicts.
• BASE Jumping in the Cloud (Jason Bloomberg) - Interesting post that explains why a re-architecture is more than often needed when moving our application in the cloud.

Programming

• Using Duck Typing to Avoid Conditionals in JavaScript - Good explication of Duck Typing method by refractory code step by step.
• Introduction to Unit Testing (Don’t Worry, Your Secret is Safe with Me) (Erik Dietrich) - Interesting post about unit testing. What is it, and what it isn't.
• Claim based Authentication and WIF : Part 1 - First of a series, this post describes what is a claim base process and who are the players involve in it.
• Stop Doing Internet Wrong (Scott Hanselman)- Interesting list of some simple things to do to get a better experience online.
• Using Azure Mobile Services in SharpDevelop - Nice alternative to Visual Studio. Check out the video here to see it developing with Azure.

Databases

• Amazon RDS Lowers On-Demand and Reserved Instance Prices Globally - And the battle for the lowest price continues (that's good for us) this time the databases are targeted.

User eXperience (UX)

• Bundling and Minification in ASP.NET MVC (Suprotim Agarwal) - Minification is a important process to have a nice UX. It's now easier than ever.

Miscellaneous

• Marketing 101 for developers (Phil Cross, saraallison Natasha Joseph) - Why a developer should care about marketing? Because we need it? This post answers the question.
• The Importance of Closed Captioning - How To and Why Subtitle (Scott Hanselman) - Really interesting post. Doing subtile look like a lot of effort, but it's worth it. This post contains sample, tutorial and tools references.
• 8+ Practical Tips for Avoiding Pickpockets - Simple tips that can save you a lot of problems when you are traveling.

~Frank

Reading Notes #76

 
Suggestion of the week

• Subscribe! (Clement Vasters) - An amazing new series about the Windows Azure Service Bus, really good video.
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 1: The Portal
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 2: .NET SDK and Visual Studio
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 3: Service Bus Explorer
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 4: Queues
• Getting Started with Service Bus. Part 5: Topics
• Getting Started with Service Bus. (Final) Part 6: Relay

Cloud

• New Windows Azure PowerShell Update – December 2012 (Michael Washam) - Nice update to the Azure PowerShell tool that gives more options to manage Virtual machine and Service Bus.
• Table Storage 2.0 (Tyler Doerksen) - Nice post that explains the new structure of the namespace in the library and gives some samples of code how to use it.
• Practical Azure #5: Windows Azure SQL Database - Perfect get started video about Azure Sql Database.
• Storing user uploads in Windows Azure blob storage (Maarten Balliauw) - Great solution to a simple real word question. Easily scalable and secure. I really like it!
• Azure Remote PowerShell (Dustin Metzgar) - This post explains how the author managed to get more information from an instance running in Azure. The code sample is also available.
• PaaS not cheap enough? AppFog has a deal for you! (Barb Darrow) - New lower prices for Cloud Foundry.
• Applications are now open for the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure – 2013 (Scott Gu)- Great opportunity for business to start using Azure with a lot of resources.
• Cross-Post: Announcing Windows Azure Media Player framework Preview for iOS (Craig Kitterman) - Great new for iOS developers that can now enjoy the awesome Azure Media Services.
• Deploy an on-premise VM to Windows Azure with App Controller (John Joyner) - Hurray! A lot of people were waiting for this feature!

Integration

• BizTalk360 Deployment and Configuration best practices (Saravana Kumar) - Use must read/bookmark the great post. It explains all the best practices related to BizTalk360, all in one single post.

Database

• Windows Azure Import/Export Service and External References - Important notice that can save you a lot of time when exporting a database in Windows Azure.
• Available Today: SSDT—December 2012 - New updated version of Sql Server Data Tool (SSDT) now support unit testing.
• Getting Started with SQL Server Database Unit Testing in SSDT - Nice post that explains how to get started with the new testing features available in Sql Server Data Tool. From converting the 2010 test projects to customization.

Programming

• 10 skills for developers to focus on in 2013 (Justin James) - Developers if you didn't see these coming, here is the top list of what you should learn/ improve in 2013.
• Why All The Lambdas? - This post explains very clearly how the lambdas are so useful by using a well use sample of code in Asp. Net MVC @Html.TextBoxFor(Model.Rating).
• Use Big Data to gain insight about small business customers (David Gitonga) - Interesting post that explains how BigData could be you in your business... even if you are in a small company.
• What Refactoring is, and what it isn’t - According to Kent Beck and Martin Fowler (Jim Bird) - While doing some refac****. I mean re writing in a project I found this post to be really interesting... and actual.
• 10 Tools To Get Kids Excited About Programming (Saikat Basu) - Wow those are great! I'm exited to show some of these to my kid. It's always good to transit passion ;)
• Essential Command-Line Tools for Web Developers - Interesting tools that can saves a lot of times doing repetitive tasks, specially during web development.
• JQUERY 1.9 BETA 1 RELEASED - Nice jQuery 1.9 is coming. Learn all about the new features ex: the multiple getter. Since big structural changes are maid in this version the jQuery team is providing migration tools. Learn where to find these and how-to uses them in this post.
• Recreate a VM .. over and over again (Priyo Lahiri) - Nice script that is a time saver. I would have liked to have it one month ago when I was testing deployment... Let's keep it for the future.
• So long and thanks for the all the Expression... Expression Design & Web are End of Life'd (but now free) [oh, and the rest of the Expression Suite is dead too] - If you still using VS2010 it's a good time to download Blend now. Also I wonder what application will replace/take the lead instead of SuperPreview (in Expression Web)?

Miscellaneous

• 15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success (Georgina Laidlaw) - This post suggested simple "rules" that are easy to follow, and that will make you more likeable on social media.
• Surface & iPad Collision Course  - Nice post that compares what could be compared between an iPad and a Surface... Nothing unexpected put still something to read.
• Backing Up WordPress? Don’t Make These 9 Mistakes - If you are a developer, you probably backup your machines and your code. That good. Do you do the same for your blog? You should, here is how-to do it the good way.

~Frank