Reading Notes #545

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

• Azure portal January 2023 updates (Allison Cordle) - Noce quick update from the portal.A few new features related to VMs.

• Creating a Configuration Module for your Infrastructure as Code (Sam Cogan) - This is a great post to help us be more efficient in our DevOps practices when writing IaC.

• Fetching Credentials with the Azure CLI (Mark Heath) - Awesome post that shares very useful commands. Add this on your cheatsheet or bookmark that post.

• Host WordPress in Microsoft Azure with App Service (PaaS hosting) (Chris Pietschmann ) - When we are interested in WordPress, we are looking for a key in-hand experience. We don't want to manage code and connections and too much technical stuff. Having it hosted in PaaS Azure simplifies even more this.

Programming

• Docker Desktop 4.17: New development functionality (Alyssa Shames) - Learn more about how this new release helps us to be more secure and track the details of our containers in the post.

• Dapr 1.10 - More steps in the right direction (Mark Heath) - This is great! I'm happy to see the multi-app functionality as I was totally waiting for it. And the workflow is definitely something that interests me.

• What To Be Wary of With Iterators and Collections in C# (Nick Cosentino) - An interesting deep comparison between different ways to fetch and manipulate data in C#.

~ frank

Reading Notes #173

Suggestion of the week

• Building Your Resume Like a Boss with CI (Steven Edouard) - I had so much fun playing with this…

Cloud

• Azure Data Factory Updates: Diagram View Enhancements (Gaurav Malhotra) - Really good work from Azure Data Factory team here, those changes are amazing.
  
• Enabling WP CLI in Azure Websites - Nice post that introduces some Azure WebSite Extension, and plays with Kudu.
  
• How to enable a Site Extension in Azure Websites - Nice post that explains the power of the Azure website extension.
  
• Get Started with the Enterprise Mobility Suite in Minutes (Simon May) - Nice post that gives a lot of very useful informations.
  
• Connecting on-premises Active Directory to Azure AD can give your org these 5 great advantages (Simon May) - Perfect pst to understand how azure active directory could be the perfect extension you are missing…
  
• Saving #Azure Resource Manager Templates to JSON files on disk (Alexandre Brisebois) - Useful post, learn how to manage your Azure resources…

Books

C# Tips
By Jason Roberts
Publisher: Leanpub
Released: December 2014

This book it undoubtedly for people who already know C#. If you want to learn C# by doing the best practices, I would strongly suggest to start with something else. However, if you already know how to code, and you want to improve your, or got this little plus; this book is a must.

It’s not a very big book, but all the zones are covered. It’s split into three parts. The first one will provides many good this to improve the performance of your code, customizes your debug experience, and more. The second part will focus on the very useful design patterns that we should all have in our back pocket. Finally, the third and last section introduces tools and frameworks (NUnits, Moq, etc.) to facilitate your work.

I would definitely recommend this book to any developer. The book is available in all the digital format for free, but if you like it consider giving a donation. :)

Miscellaneous

• Finding an Invisible NAS on a Network (Alexandre Brisebois) - I like those stories where people, like us, learn something the “hard way” , and share their fresh experience.

~Frank Boucher

Reading Notes #152

Suggestion of the week

• Azure: New DocumentDB NoSQL Service, New Search Service, New SQL AlwaysOn VM Template, and more (Scott Guthrie) - Here is the detailed description of all the new features in the Azure August release.

Cloud

• Microsoft NoSQL database and full-text search service previews available on Azure (Mary Jo Foley) - Quick introduction of the two last Azure services.
  
• Azure DocumentDB (Ayende Rahien) - A pretty hard review of the new Azure DocumentDB. Compare to RavenDB to make us understand the issues.
  
• Use Distributed Cache in Microsoft Azure - Great post that describes all the options we have to store our session state, and explains how to do it.
  
• Microsoft Azure Media Services - This article explains how works Azure Media Services by following a real case step by step.

Programming

• Getting Started with Git and GitHub (Dhananjay Kumar) - Very clear and simple tutorial that explains the basic command of Git Prompt and Git in VisualStudio.

Databases

• Documents, Databases and Eventual Consistency - A very interesting article about different types of database and their utilities.

UX

• 5 Strategies for Building Mobile Apps with Telerik (Cody Lindley) - Interesting post that explains different ways to build mobile app using Kendo UI.

Miscellaneous

• The Plague of Methods and Frameworks (Jurgen Appelo) - Interesting point of view.
  
• 10 Vital WordPress Security Tips (Guest Blogger) - This post provides the perfect quick review of our security knowledge when blogging.

~Frank

Reading Notes #151

Suggestion of the week

• How I’ve started loving PowerShell (Fabien Dibot) - This nice post is a real pep-talk. And gives references for more information about PowerShell.
  
• MSDN magazine brings you a wealth of practical info about Azure Websites (Erez Benari) - Here why we soundn't miss the July's MSDN Magazine if we are interested to cloud computing...
  
• Automating Integration Testing with Microsoft Azure - This post gives a lot of detail on how a test environment could e build in Azure, iteration by iteration. Really interesting.

Cloud

• Introducing Azure Web Sites Services - This post describes an overview of the current Microft Azure Website situation.
  
• Building Cloud Apps with Microsoft Azure - This book fantastic, and fill with important pattern and best practices. Even more because it's a free book!
  
• Desktop in the cloud: synchronize user logon and log off with Microsoft Azure - Interesting trick to get one step further in automating the Azure VM start stop process. Simple but cleaver.
  
• Azure Mobile Services .NET Updates (Henrik Frystyk Nielsen) - Great new update in the azure services, learn more here.
  
• Architect for the Cloud Using Azure Web Sites - That the article we need to read before doing our website on Azure. From A to Z, everything is explained to plan exactly what we need.
  
• Hybrid Connectivity: Connecting Azure Web Sites to LOB Apps Using PortBridge - Excellent deep-dive post / tutorial about a connection on a premise to the cloud.
  
• Azure Storage Explorer Preview 3 Now Available: Queue Support, Blob and Table Enhancements (David Pallmann) - Very happy about these new features.

Programming

• NuGet Package of the Week: MarkdownLog makes log files much prettier - I like markdown I found it very easy to read or edit on any platforms or devices. This package could be very useful.
  
• ASP.NET MVC 6: New HttpContext - Interesting post that talks about what is coming next in the MVC framework.
  
• Kendo UI Grid Custom Columns: How to Show a List of Links (Rachel Hagerman) - Nice tutorial for my co-worker that are on a project where Kendo grid is really present...;)
  
• Tips for Best Practices in WordPress Development - Tuts+ Code Article (Damian Logghe) - This post explains the best practices to follow when "playing" with WordPress. It's true that some info are available on the WordPress website, but here is a little "je ne sais quoi" that make it very clear.
  
• Migrating from Subversion to Git with svn2git on Windows (the tricky bits explained) (Troy Hunt) - Useful walkthrough.

UX

• Hey Developers - is it UI, UX, UI/UX or Something - Very interesting post that explains things clearly.

Miscellaneous

• The Experience Paradox -How to Get a Job Without Experience (simpleprogrammer.com) - Great post that can help junior developers to get started, or even the not so young to continue...
  
• How to create a file with a . dot prefix in Windows Explorer - Nice tip!
  
• Surface Pro 3 - Initial Impressions - Really good review of the Surface 3 from a user / tech guy point of view.

~Frank

Reading Notes #147

Suggestion of the week

• What happened to Code Spaces could happen to you. On Amazon, Azure and any host out there. (Maarten Balliauw) - Great post that highlight today's security concerns and responsibilities.
  
• Day 12: Implement Search Using Inline Forms and AJAX (James Chambers) - Great tutorial to build a Ajax control in an Asp.Net MVC context.
  

Cloud

• Deploying WordPress on Azure and using MySQL in a VM (Chris) - Nice post where the author tells us his journey when he was looking for a new blog engine and how effortless it was to get it online.
  
• Microsoft #Azure – Where Should I Start? - This post is a great starting point for anyone looking for good references: books, e-books, podcast, websites, etc.
  

Programming

• NuGet Package of the Week: ASP.NET Web API Caching with CacheCow and CacheOutput (Scoot Hanselman) - Useful Nuget package to manage the cache.
  
• Day 8: Semi-Automatic Bootstrap – Editor Templates (James Chambers) - Nice post. simple and efficient. Day 10: HtmlHelper Extension Methods - Nice tutorial on how to create a Html Helper using Gravatar as context.
  
• CodeLens for Git improvements in Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate Update 3 RC (Real McCoy, Peter Jean-Marc Prieur) - Really amazing add-ons this CodeLens. I hope the next project I will work on will be on Git so I can try it. ;)
  
• ASP.NET Session State using SQL Server In-Memory (Ken Kilty) - Interesting introduction to a new feature that come with SQL Server 2014.
  

Miscellaneous

• Creating custom data graphics in Visio (Visio Team) - Nice tutorial that explains how to improve our diagrams very easily.

~Frank

Reading Notes #98

Suggestion of the week

• Windows Azure: Announcing New Dev/Test Offering, BizTalk Services, SSL Support with Web Sites, AD Improvements, Per Minute Billing (Scott Guthrie)- This post is a mandatory reading. Know from the source what's new! So many good things, that I don't know where to start...
• Announcing "Get Involved" from Tekpub - Enhance your career by engaging with your peers (Scott Hanselman & Rob Conery) - Really great video that explains how to be involve in the community, the good way. Really nice work.

 

Cloud

• How To: Setup Windows Azure PowerShell  - Quick post that explains how to get ready to play with Azure with PowerShell.
• Cloud Cover Show, Episode 109 - Using Windows Azure Active Directory from Windows Store apps - Nice episode with V. Bertocci that get us up to date on all the news Windows Azure Active Directory (AD) features.
• Running WordPress with SQL Azure - That a great workaround! It could be super if we had this option when creating the application.
• Is Amazon becoming the Microsoft of cloud? Hold that thought | ZDNet (Service Oriented Joe McKendrick) - Interesting post about the future of the major players who wants to rules the cloud.
• Microsoft’s “Understanding the Microsoft Cloud” White Paper Misses the Windows Azure IaaS Boat (Roger Jennings) - Hard critic of a Microsoft White Paper. However, it's true that this paper does reflect Azure IaaS reality.
• Cloudy Thoughts by SyntaxC4 - Quick post that introduces some cool new feature for PHP in Azure...
• Windows Azure PowerShell June 2013 Update for IaaS and PaaS (Michael Washam) - With new Azure capabilities comes great PowerShell functionality... this post is all about that. Also Michal Washam is announcing that he is quitting Microsoft.
• Cloud Cover Show, Episode 110 - Windows Azure BizTalk Services - Great show with a demo done by no other one then Guru Venkataraman.
• Checking Azure Cloud Service SDK Version with PowerShell (Tyler Doerksen) - Nice and useful script.
• 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 cmommand.

 

Programming

• ELMAH: Error Logging Modules and Handlers for ASP.NET (and MVC too!) (Scott Hanselman) - This post is not really recent, but really interesting. If you still don't ELMAH this post is for you.
• Making Computer Science Cool (Jonathan Rozenblit) - Really good resources post that gives place to get started based on our level of confort. It could also be use at home for our kids... I wonder if this kind of information is also available in other languages...
• TypeScript: Scaling Up JavaScript - Great video from TechEd, it was hard to wait until the end to start doing TypeScript...

Databases

• Azure does Powershell too (Grant Fritchey) - Nice quick introduction to Azure Sql PowerShell cmdlets.

 

Integration

• Walkthrough of New Windows Azure BizTalk Services - Again a great post/ tutorial from Seroter. This is THE place to start to know more about the Biztalk services (WABS)

 

Miscellaneous

• Are you secure? WiFi Honeypots, Pineapples and SSL with Troy Hunt - And I though a knew the danger of the WiFi. You must spend 30 minutes and listen this post... and re-share!
• Live Demonstration: Hacker Tools You Should Know and Worry About (Hasain Alshakarti, Marcus Murray) - Wow! Very "perturbing" video that shows a lot of different tools to help you... or not.

~Frank