Reading Notes #436

The suggestion of the week

• Learn Durable Functions with .NET Core and C#, stateful Serverless (Chris Noring) - A fascinating tutorial that teaches us how to get started with Azure Durable Functions and also explains how they work.

Cloud

• Azure Functions and App Service Authentication with Auth0 and other OpenID Connect providers (Anthony Chu) - A nice post that explains how to configure our function with the CLI.

• Using Key Vault and Managed Identities with Azure Functions (Damien Bod) - A very resourceful and tutorial post. The perfect place to get started.

Programming

• Bootstrap 5 alpha1 is here..! What is NEW? (Charuka herath) - Nice update.

• Securing Blazor WebAssembly Apps (Andrea Chiarelli) - A nice post with all the code.

• Windows Terminal Preview 1.2 Release (Kayla) - Very nice update of an open-source project...It's nice to see that.

Podcasts

• Stop Pushing Down Your Emotions (Developer Tea) - I think a lot of people are doing that, me included. Very interesting podcast about a real situation.

• How the OBS Project changed video forever with lead Hugh Bailey (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - I was trilled to listen to this podcast. I'm a regular user of OBS and it was wonderful to learn more about this project. I will definitely be lurking on the GitHub side...

• 480: Get Noticed Without Selling Out, with Laura Huang (Coaching for Leaders) - Interesting discussion. I never realize how “Be yourself” wasn't really useful...

• Episode 219: Remote crickets and Manager Careering (Soft Skills Engineering) - A really nice episode. Great topics answering diverse questions. One that kept my attention was about the magic manager and the time management...

• How to Improve Time Management with Angela Proffitt (Influencer Entrepreneurs with Jenny Melrose) - A few great tips to improve our efficiency at managing time. It's always good to have new ideas and ear how others are doing.

• #49: Erin Doyle - Beautiful Code and Accessibility (The Solo Coder Podcast) - A beautiful, very inspiring episode about how to make the world a better place for all.

Miscellaneous

• Azure DevOps Roadmap update for 2020 Q3 | Azure DevOps Blog (Sidi) - That looks pretty neat

• How to make separate Work and Personal Profiles with the New Microsoft Edge on Beyonce's Internet (Scott Hanselman) - The profiles are really awesome and very useful. I'd say it's a must.

• Microsoft is working on an Azure-powered Cloud PC service ( Mary Jo Foley) - Interesting..

• Sort Data With ASP.NET Core and Query Strings (Khalid Abuhakmeh) - A very cool tutorial with all thee e required code. Pretty cool.

• Top 7 OBS Studio Tricks for 2020 – and you won’t believe #4 (Jeff Fritz) - A wonderful list of accessible tips to improve our stream.

Reading Notes #433

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

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Azure Active Directory login extensions and errors you can come across (Dominique St-Amand) - An excellent post that regroups a few problems you may encounter when using the AAD extension with your VMs.
• Dependency Injection on Azure Functions: 5 Ways Selecting Instance from Instances of Same Interface (justin Yoo) - A very complete tutorial with all the code you need.
• How to incrementally update KeyVault access policies with ARM templates (Stephane Lapointe) - A nice ARM template sample to save our time.
• Implementing Multi-region Deployment and Disaster Recovery in Azure (wely lau) - A nice series of video tutorial that covers multiple different scenarios for our disaster recovery.

Programming

• Add Storage Queue Message (Paul Michaels) - Simple but efficient storage queue wrapper class.
• Do you know the differences between var, let and const in JavaScript? (Casimir) - A great little post that explains very clearly that feature.
• How To Setup Your Local Node.js Development Environment Using Docker (Peter MCKee) - The first part of a series to create a dev environment using Docker.

Podcast

• How Design Makes The World with Scott Berkun (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - An interesting discussion about design books and how this are thought then built.
• Elise Swopes - iPhone ONLY Artist w/ an UNBELIEVABLE Portfolio (Adobe, Nike, Google AND MORE) (That Creative Life) - So much talent, inspiring podcast... WHen you remove the barriers, we can do so much.
• Digital Security for Humans with Jessy Irwin (Screaming in the Cloud) - Security is so important and this podcast will present this topic in a different and interesting way.
• 476: How to Pivot Quickly, with Steve Blank (Coaching for Leaders) - With 2020, comes a new erra of businesses... True or dare?!
• All Things Azure with Dwayne Monroe (Screaming in the Cloud) - People asked me those questions very often: Why Azure? How did you start? Dwayne's answer is excellent... Great podcast honest and true.

Miscellaneous

• You're tired because your lizard brain knows that Zoom meetings aren't natural (Scott Hanselman) - Yes its a thing, and not just because Scott said so.
• 15 Statistics You Should Know About A Career In UX Design (Ben Aston) - Interesting post that does the tour of the UX job. I wished I had that kind of information on all types of jobs back in the day. If you are considering UX its a must.
• 3 Ways to Customize Your Windows Terminal - Windows Developer Blog (Windows Developer Team) - What!? You are not using the new terminal already... simple, clean, efficient, and easy.
• Windows Terminal Preview 1.1 Release | Windows Command Line (Kayla) - Nice few updates coming our way.

☁

Reading Notes #216

Cloud

• Best practices: How to handle sensitive data in Azure Resource Manager templates using Key Vault (Stephane Lapointe) - Good first post of a very promising series about Azure Key Vault.
  
• Azure Automation: Graphical and textual runbook authoring (Chris Sanders) - Nice post that shows th nice graphical interface available to edit our Azure cookbooks.
  
• New book: Modern Authentication with Azure Active Directory for Web Applications (Kim Spilker) - Another book that goes on my to read stacks...

Programming

• What’s New in Fiddler 4.6.2 (Eric Law) - In today's world of connectivity, a tool like Fiddler is a must. This post shared the features of the last release, and what need to be done once you upgrade.
  
• 10 Visual Studio tips to improve your development productivity - This post group 10 useful article that explain ho to can customize VS to be more productive.(or at least more comfortable).

Data

• Introducing a simplified configuration experience for SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines (Ninar Nuemah) - Wow, this is very convenient upgrade... Really cool.

Podcast

• .NET Rocks! vNext - Really interesting podcast episode. I think it's the clearer and more comprehensible explanation of Git I have ever eared.

Miscellaneous

• No, you can’t join my wifi network (Troy Hunt) - Just after the holidays, after a lot of people visit others to their houses... This is a scary but really interesting post to read.
  
• It’s 2016 already, how are websites still screwing up these user experiences?! (Troy Hunt) - Nice post about the not so nice reality of today's internet.
  
• Join us in congratulating MVP awardees! - Congratulations to all of you.
  
• A Project Guide to UX Design And Content Strategy - Very nice document that tells us how a team organizes their work to create a great user experience. Step by step, we pass what look like a real case.
  
• New Year, new Git release - Can an awesome tool become even more amazing? Learn how Git did it.

Reading Notes #120

Suggestion of the week

• Working with 154 million records on Azure Table Storage – the story of “Have I been pwned?” - Truly one of the best posts a read about azure windows storage. Thanks to Tom Walker (@Tinytoot) for the suggestion.
  
• Windows Azure: New Scheduler Service, Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage, and Monitoring Updates (Scott Gu) - Great update from Windows Azure, I'm really happy about the scheduler release. It's a very useful feature.

Cloud

• The Truth About Windows Azure PowerShell (wordpress.com) - Your right.
  
• AWS Migration Patterns (Frank Kelly) - Really interesting post. And you, how do you prefer to do your migration the "big bang" way or bit by bit.
  
• Application settings in Azure Mobile Services (CarlosFigueira) - Nice tutorial with a real case and good code sample.
  
• ASP.NET MVC–Azure Websites and EF Model First Connection Strings when Deploying from Github - Useful tutorial about how to manage our code when deploying from source control directly in Azure.
  
• Le cloud, les nuages et puis quoi encore (Frank) - Quick French introduction about the cloud that a wrote on my new blog.
  
• Building a Windows 8.1 Developer Environment in Windows Azure - Great workaround to be able to build win8 or 8.1 application in an Azure VM.

Programming

• **Be a productive coder with Productivity Power Tools 2013 (Lori Lalonde, Tom Walker) - I'm a big fan of VisualStudio productivity power tools since vs2010. If you did try it yet it time more than ever.
  
• I Was Wrong About JavaScript and Responsive Design - Interesting post where the author share how he realizes that javascript and responsive UI was indeed important.

Databases

• [Video] The Secrets of TempDB - Wow, that an explication. You must see this video. It will probably change the way you write you're SQL queries.
  
• Colored Status Bar in SQL Server Management Studio - Nice tips to differentiate different environments, and who knows maybe saving you from a big mistake in prod...
  
• NoSQL Data Modeling Techniques - Good post to get started with NoSql. It could definitely help before starting designing your database.

Architecture

• Composite Pattern (Gunnar Peipman) - Good post that explains clearly a pattern with code sample.

Miscellaneous

• To Feedly readers - Really? What kind of things, ads? I must to some screen capture compare.
  
• Feedly WAS (is) Hijacking Shared Links And Cutting Out Original Publishers (Nate Hoffelder) - Interesting thoughts about Feedly new "feature" that you should know.
  
• Three all new Windows 8.1 video tutorials - what's new in 8.1, keyboard shortcuts, and managing windows (Scott Hanselman) - Great video, very clear and instructive for a super user or a complete newbie.
  
• 10 Ways to Switch Your Brain to Writing Mode When Working From Home (Stacey Roberts) - Nice useful tips that help to get you started.

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 #92

Suggestion of the week

• BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack v1.5 - New version available with 7 new functoids - Great utility Pack that will save us a lot of time, and it's free!

Cloud

• NoSQL Data in the Cloud with Windows Azure Tables - Really great article that explains all aspects the Azure Storage Table from the architecture to the querying.
  
• Cloud Cover Show - Episode 105 - General Availability of Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service - Great show. I really liked the code presentation; it gives a lot of details.
  
• How To Find a Certificate in the Certificate Store - Nice helper, be sure to save this somewhere close.
  
• New Preview Features for Windows Azure Active Directory (TheRockyH) - This post gives more details about the new capabilities of Active Directory.
  
• Publishing from Dropbox to Windows Azure Web Sites (Kaushal Kumar Panday) - It couldn't be more clearly explained. A screenshot by step you will learn how to deploy a website on Azure with Dropbox as the repository.
  
• Building Windows Azure Cloud Services App with Web Role, Worker Role, Table Storage and Service Bus - Great tutorial that shows how to build a multi-tier application. The code is also available.
• Improvements to Virtual Networks, Virtual Machines, Cloud Services and a new Ruby SDK (Scott Gu)- New features like Remote PowerShell, Linux SSH provisioning enhancements, and a new Ruby SDK to play with Azure Storage and Service Bus.

Programming

• 88% of spreadsheets have errors (Jeremy Olshan) - This post gives you suggestions to stay in the few spreadsheets that doesn't contains error.
  
• How to Write a Chrome App for your Website in 5 Minutes (Amit Agarwal) - Interesting post. Some testing or diagnostic tool could be useful for web developer team. It's 5 minutes wisely spent.
  
• Running Bash Commands From Ruby - Useful tips that all coder should now.
  
• Ruby Versions Demystified - Very interesting post that explains in one article all the differences between Ruby's components versions.
  
• Introducing: Practical JavaScript (Peter Vogel) - Nice post that describes quickly the evolution of JavaScript. This post could be the first of an interesting series about using JavaScript (and some framework) today in real projects.
  
• Penny Pinching in the Cloud: How to run a two day Virtual Conference for $10 - Wow interesting project that combines a lots of really good stuff.

• Metaprogramming Fibonacci (Eno Compton) - A fun exercise with recursively in Ruby.

UX

• Magic Numbers in CSS - If you are doing web development this reading is a must. For all the other read it, you will learn important css base.
  
• Stop Your Console App The Nice Way) (Mike Hadlow) - This post some best practice to do a better management of the console application. It's not because it's a console app that UX is not important.

Miscellaneous

• The Blog of Scott Hanselman - Interesting post for all bloggers, you are not alone...
  
• How to Make a Decision When Your Team Doesn't Agree (Margaret Heffernan) - Interesting post on well kwon situation.
  
• What to Do When You’ve Made Someone Angry - Nice and simple. This advice could have a big impact on your entourage.

~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