Brownie Points

Getting Started With Azure Development

I have posted an overview of getting started with Windows Azure development, our first article in the Azure Development Series. I will update the series weekly with walkthroughs and tutorials on Azure Development.

Buzz In the Cloud November 25, 2008

Whoa...today is a doozy for buzzing, so let's get right to it.

I For One Welcome Our New Cloud Overlords

The latest Deep Fried Bytes episode (entitled "Windows Azure: the Overlord in the Cloud") includes an interview with Steve Marx, Program Manager for Windows Azure.

7's a Lucky Number

Oak Leaf Blog rounds out their Azure Storage Services Test Harness with a post on paging the LINQ query result sets and another on testing for table existence...hmm, maybe a management utility is in order to get rid of that pesky requirement. By the way, they also placed the harness up for your viewing pleasure.

If CTP Isn't Cutting Edge Enough

What's that you say? Living on the edge isn't enough for you? You want to jump off the edge with your bedroom sheets as your parachute? Okay, daredevil, I've got the fix for your thrill-seeking craving! Check out the SQL Services Labs where you'll find 7 projects in "incubation" status. Included in these projects are:

• Data Mining in the Cloud: Just what it sounds like, it's SQL Analysis Services over SDS. I hope this becomes a final product.
• URank: A search engine that lets "U Rank" the hits.
• Project Codename Anchorage: Or as I like to call it YASPFM
• Project Codename “Huron”: Sync Services for SQL Server...intriguing...
• Reporting against SQL Data Services: Again, not a very creative name but it definitely gets the point across. This one lets you point your internal SQL Server Reporting Server at an Azure SDS database.
• Codename “Astoria” Offline: Sync Services for SDS (not to be mistaken with Sync for SQL Server).
• Accessing SDS using ADO.NET Data Services: I believe one of the SDK samples does this, but this incubation looks like it's aiming to make it a standard part of the Azure SDK instead of just a sample

Overall, I see the utility of all these projects (outside of "Anchorage" it really has me confused). I think it would be good to have them all graduate from incubation. But if I had to pick one, it would be the ADO.NET data services over SDS.

Saving Lives One Cloud at a Time

Over at the Joy of Code, Josh Twist tells us about his adventures in the clouds while coding a proof of concept for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute). Basically, the software receives beacon data from fishing boats (relayed from satellites to the RNLI data center to the Cloud App). Should a fisherman go overboard, an alert signal is raised and the Coast Guard will have tracking data in order to send the proper assets to the right place. That is incredible if I must say so myself.

Two Pages We Have More Content in a Single Post

DevX finally decided that Windows Azure was worth space on their gargantuan site. So they wrote a two page introduction to Windows Azure. Oh wait, the introduction is on the entire Azure Services platform. Honestly, you'd be better served reading David Chappell's white paper. Heck the AzureWiki has more content than that introduction (with more on the way).

Chappell Show

I wonder how many people have hacked the pronunciation of poor David Chappell's name. To be honest, until I saw this interview, I was one of them. Now I know it's CHAPpell (like the Church) not ChapPELL (like the show). And knowing is half the battle.

Googling Azure

Dion Almaer, Googler and founder of Ajaxian, gives us a refreshingly honest view of PDC from a competitor's perspective. Our overlord in the cloud is pleased.

Must Have a Long Digestive Track

Kirk Evans writes a pretty insightful post on the PDC announcements in "The PDC That Took Weeks to Digest" He talks about letting it stew, simmer, and brew, but never eating. Maybe it would digest quicker if he hurry up and cook it.

Yet Another Blog Post About Silverlight and Azure

Although to give the author credit, it does discuss the limitations of Silverlight on the current release of Azure. Hey guys, can we get to working on that whole SSL certificate thing?

Okay that's enough for today's buzz. There's still a lot more that I could throw at you, but I'm getting fatigued. I'll be back tomorrow with more buzz.

The Synchronization Morass

Microsoft loves them some synchronization like a fat kid loves cake.

Yet another synchronization platform from Microsoft has emerged. This one appears to be an evolution of the Synctoy which was a desktop application that seemed oddly similar to Live Mesh. Codename "Anchorage", or as Redmond Pie calls it, "A SyncToy for the Cloud" If you're totally lost at this point, it's with good reason:

Codename "Anchorage" represents our current thinking of where to take SyncToy in the future that not only provides value as a generic sync hub but also - an easy to use application capable of keeping content synchronized across PCs, services, and devices through a rich plug-in mechanism based on the Microsoft Sync Framework.

Come again? Isn't that what Live Mesh does?

With Live Mesh, you can synchronize files with all of your devices, so you always have the latest versions handy. Access your files from any device or from the web, easily share them with others, and get notified whenever someone changes a file.

Here's where it gets really loopy:

With this project, providers will be able to register and be discovered in a variety of sync groups including contacts, files, favorites, videos, as well as synchronization across services such as the Live Mesh, PhotoBucket.com, Smugmug.com, and more. Powered by the Microsoft Sync Framework - this E2E and hub for sync providers has value for both consumers AND developers.

So wait a minute..."Anchorage" is an extensible synchronization platform that integrates with Live Mesh which itself is an extensible synchronization platform. (And from all indicators is ALSO built on top of the Sync Framework). Well at least Live Sync is a purely end user synchronization platform...at least we hope.

Another Use for Live Mesh

So here's the problem, you have about a bajillion sites that make you create your own account. Raise your hand if you use the same 2 or 3 passwords across those sites. If you're good, you might have a more "secure" password for your email account, and another one for online banking (that way if your password to that micro-gaming site is compromised, they won't get your important account).

Well I can say honestly that I don't suffer from that problem. I have a different password for every site I visit regularly. Heck I even have a different password for every site I visit irregularly. Even better, I don't even know these passwords. Okay I lie, I know my Windows Live account password...but I have to know that one. My secret is simple: Password Safe + Live Mesh. Password Safe stores your passwords in a Blowfish Encrypted master file protected by a master key password. Live Mesh allows you to synchronize that master file across machines. The result, other than your Master Key Password and your Live ID password, you can remain blissfully ignorant of your passwords while still keeping them unique and safe.

Buzz In the Cloud November 21, 2008

Well, my fellow cloud dwellers, there's only one thing standing between me and a weekend of what I like to call heaven on 7. So let's get this party started!

New Bits for Your Meshification Pleasure

The first post on the Live Framework Team's fresh new blog (other than "Hello") is an announcement of fresh bits for the LiveFX CTP. Get your mesh on!

Would You Blog Inside a Box? Would You Blog Next to a Fox?

There are a lot of tips coming out for using Live Mesh to synchronize everything from your homework to your Tweetdeck settings. I was going to write a tip for people who want to synchronize their Live Writer posts/drafts. But Sarah Perez beat me to it. Actually I sync my entire Documents folder like Sarah does. So I got Live Writer posts for free.

More On Table Services Programming

Oak Leaf continues their series on creating a test harness for the Azure Table Services API. I think LIMOG would be useful even if you weren't using table services

Azure Storage Services Test Harness: Table Services 5 – Generating Classes/Collection Initializers with LIMOG v2

Azure Storage Services Test Harness- Table Services 4 – Programming the Table Services API

Azure Storage Services Test Harness- Table Services 3 –Starting the Test Harness Project

The series is definitely turning into a good read for getting a grasp on programming for Table Services.

Is It Sync Or Is It Mesh?

There is a lot of confusion regarding foldershare's transition to Live Sync. I got it straight from the source. Says Angus Logan "Live Sync and Live Mesh clients are different for now." I'm not sure how much we should read into the for now. But they're two separate apps...for now.

Using an Existing SQL Instance With Azure SDK

David Justice provided this tip on his blog. But if you already have access to a SQL Server Installation, you're not limited to using SQL Express. You don't even have to use a local SQL installation.  Just open developmentstorage.exe.config in your Azure SDK Bin directory and change the two lines that refer to sqlexpress to point to the instance you want.

Also there is a command line parameter for devtablegen that you have to pass in order to get it to generate the tables on an instance other than the default SQLExpress. Passing /server:<myserver[\myinstancename]> to devtablegen will cause it to generate your table storage on a SQL instance with the same name. In fact, if you're going to be using the Samples with a predetermined SQL Instance, you might as well change it so that rundevstore.cmd will generate the tables for you. I did the digging so you don't have to. First we want to change the Microsoft.Samples.ServiceHosting.Targets file. This file is ultimately responsible for calling devtablegen.

1. Insert a line after the opening for the property group at the top of the file (line 3)
2. Paste these lines into the file

<!-- Allow user to pass the server parameter to devtablegen -->
<DevStoreParam Condition="'$(InstanceName)'!=''">/server:$(InstanceName)</DevStoreParam>
<DevStoreParam Condition="'$(InstanceName)'==''"></DevStoreParam>

3. Replace the UpdateSamplesTableDB (do a search but should be near line 130) with the following

<Target Name="UpdateSamplesTableDB" DependsOnTargets="BuildSubProjects">
    <Message Text="$(DevTableGenCommand) $(DevStoreParam) /database:$(SamplesDBName) $(DevtableGenForceCreateFlag) @(DevTableGenAssemblies)"/>
    <Exec Condition="'$(SamplesDBName)'!=''"
            Command="$(DevTableGenCommand) $(DevStoreParam)  /database:$(SamplesDBName) $(DevtableGenForceCreateFlag) @(DevTableGenAssemblies)"
    WorkingDirectory="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)"/>
  </Target>

What we did here was allow a parameter called InstanceName to be passed into MSBuild that will be passed to devtablegen. All we have to do now is update rundevstore.cmd to pass in the parameter. Replace line 21 in rundevstore.cmd with the following:

%msbuild% MSBuild\BuildAll.proj   /t:RunDevStoreOnSamplesTableDB /p:SamplesDBName=ServiceHostingSDKSamples;ForceTableCreate=true;InstanceName=.

Replace . at the end with your instance name (unless it's the default instance on local, in that case . is the shortcut for that). Open your Windows Azure SDK Prompt, navigate to your samples directory, execute rundevstore and voila, you've broken the chains to SQL Express.

What's that you say, too lazy to do all that file opening, cutting and pasting? Have no fear! Here are the sample files for your convenience.

Microsoft.Samples.ServiceHosting.targets

rundevstore.cmd

No Buzz Tonight

Between speaking about Azure at a local user group and working on a useful Azure sample, I haven't had time to collect the interesting news for today. Again, if you have something that you feel will be pertinent to the site, send a message to me. Also, in case anyone is wondering, I do read and/or watch everything before I write about it here. Hopefully, I'll have a note about what I'm writing tonight in tomorrow's buzz. If you really must have something to read tonight, check out Angus Logan's blog. He has a TON of posts about the Live Framework.

Buzz In the Cloud November 19, 2008

I'm at Champp's with some fellow geeks chatting about code. A few conversations are going on around me, so I decided to give you today's buzz. This one is definitely shorter than normal, but you'll probably want to get to your IDE by the time I'm done. So I won't hold you for long.

Live Mesh Development For Dummies

No there isn't a "For Dummies" books for Live Mesh...yet. But Katrien De Graeve, a developer evangelist at Microsoft, gives us step by step instructions on building your first Mesh/Live Framework App. Again I must reiterate how being an Evangelist has to be the sweetest job in the world.

"Hi honey, how was your day?"

"Oh I had to present some sample code for a user group on how to use Microsoft's latest technology."

"Oh poor baby, here let me get you a beer so you can relax, you know you've got that talk on Windows Azure coming up next week."

"I know, it's going to be tough."

No I'm not bitter, I'm really not. I'm just saying if I ever hear an Evangelist complaining about their "job" I'll have to punch him/her. Yes I'm talking to you too, Larry.

Journey to the Live Side

On LiveSide.NET, they have posted an article on...developing for Live Framework. This one is a bit more interesting because it discusses how to include Live ID integration within your LiveFx app.

Flickr, I Barely Knowr

Long Zheng has done it again! Today/Tomorrow (according to his blog) he has posted/will post a sample showing how to integrate Flickr into Windows Search Federation. If you don't know what that is head over to his post and prepare to geek out over the awesomeness!

Well, I've got to get back to the tough job of drinking with some of Indy's greatest geeks, Eric Willeke and Dan Rigsby. Have a good evening and cheers!

Buzz in the Cloud November 18, 2008

Today's buzz is a little shorter than the rest. I guess people are busy playing with Azure instead of writing about it. However, there are some very interesting posts/articles out there today. So let's get on with today's news so you can get back to feeling blue.

Go Ahead I Dare You

After given an excellent overview of Azure (sans marketing hype), Dare Obasanjo does it again with the Live Framework. He does admit to having difficulty seeing the benefit of the client side Live Operating Environment, so I will attempt to clarify. Leveraging the client side LOE (formerly Mesh Operating Environment) allows your code to fire and forget in an occasionally connected scenario. The sync framework takes over from there. I'll be talking about this more soon.

I've Got All This Stuff, Where Do I Put It

On the Oak Leaf Blog, they have started a series on Azure Storage Services centered around a test harness they are building for the platform. The first post gives an overview of the platform architecture (under the guise of introducing the test harness), and the second post discusses the REST API. Fortunately there is a .NET wrapper around all of this so you don't have to build REST calls by hand, although it's a good idea to understand what's going on so you can debug when things go south.

So How Does This Stuff REALLY Work

In one of the PDC sessions, Microsoft pulled back the curtains and revealed some of the magic behind the cloud. This is an extremely technical presentation and goes into details that the average Azure developer will not need to know. It does an extremely good job at showing just what Microsoft means when they call Azure a Cloud OS (i.e. this is stuff you'd have to deal with if you attempted to roll your own).

We Get the Hand Me Downs

On the vinternals blog, the author talks about how Microsoft deploys the host machines for Azure. Unfortunately, the post quickly turns into VMWare fanboyism. Hmm, you're critiquing Microsoft for "making us wait" until 2010 to get a feature that...VMWare doesn't even have yet. He even has the gall to say that "of course [VMWare ESXi] has a *massive* advantage over Windows in this scenario..." (that is if you ignore the fact that VMWare doesn't support this scenario btw, you do realize that HTML supports things like bold text and underlining don't you?). It's interesting to note that the ability of Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 to natively boot VHD's is another feature driven by Azure (as is Live Migration).

For You Command Line Zealots Out there

The Powershell Guy points out that there are Powershell samples (albeit rudimentary) in the Azure Training Kit. I think the Azure Services Management Tools is what he's looking for. It includes an MMC snap-in for managing Azure as well as Powershell cmdlets.

Well it looks like I lied, there was a bit more content here than I anticipated. Don't forget to keep your head in the Cloud.

I Love My VX Nano

I can't stand the standard mice that come with computers. When my Microsoft Optical Trackball met its demise at the hands of my daughters, I was left looking for a new mouse for my everyday use.  I really liked the Logitech MX Revolution because of it's flyweight scroll wheel. But wasn't too crazy about the size. If only they could take the MX and make it smaller for use with notebooks.

On the way back from the PDC this year, I saw the VX Nano in an airport shop. It's a laptop mouse so it's smaller. And the optics on there are incredible. I use 4 screens at work, 3 of the 4 screens are for separate machines, I have them connected using Synergy. I tuned the acceleration on that guy so I can cross from the far left screen to the far right with a flick of my wrist. I've always liked Logitech's ergonomic design, from their wireless controller on the original Xbox, to the rebranded Microsoft optical trackball, and now the VX Nano. It's very well balanced and lightweight.

Like I said, the optics on the Nano are incredible...you can use your leg as a mouse pad in a crunch (like say you're on a flight and your laptop is too big for the tray by itself). And the flywheel will prevent scroll fatigue when reading long documents.

Buzz in the Cloud November 17, 2008

Sorry I've lapsed in giving you your daily fix of Azure related news. If you followed me on twitter, you wouldn't have to wait for this stuff. Anyway I've collected a ton of news for you in the interim. Hope you've got a monstrous appetite for this stuff because here it comes!

From the Language That Brought You Y2K

In what will probably be seen by some as a huge win for Microsoft, Micro Focus is creating a port of its CICS transaction manager to run on Azure. This will enable mainframe applications to be exposed to the cloud easily. There were a number of frameworks around the turn of the century attempting to do something similar. Unfortunately, they were ahead of their time. An example of these mainframe to web bridge frameworks was a product called Web Objects for Legacy Functions (WOLF). There were several companies formed around similar products. Maybe they should dust off their code and try again.

Where's the "MakeMyAppPrettyControl"

Via Adam Kinney, we find a ten minute demonstration by Celso Gomez in which he dramatically redesigns a twitter client, giving it a fresh experience. Now if only the same could be done for our economy.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

InfoQ...the treasure trove of knowledge that it is, finally answers the question: How do Azure, Amazon Web Service, and Google App Engine compare? Azure shares qualities of both platforms (IMHO the best qualities). GAE has a very streamlined load balancing and deployment story. AWS has unfettered access to the platform beneath. Azure has both, and then some. How does Microsoft manage to get involved in these 3 way battles on all fronts. First the Xbox, then WPF/Silverlight, now Azure (I won't mention Standard Windows because there's not much of a battle there) ;)

Well D'uh

According to their headline, TechCrunch didn't see this coming:

Sweeping Changes At Live.com: It’s A Social Network!

Seriously, was I the only one who knew about this? No one else saw a striking resemblance between "Live Spaces" and "MySpace"?

You Forgot One

Alan Dean has a 13 page list of links related to Windows Azure. I was going to feel bad that we only made page 2, until I realized that we are ahead of Azure.Com itself. Simple oversight, or a testament to the fact that we are more important in the Azure ecosystem than Microsoft's official portal? You decide ;)

They Did Everything Right Except

Microsoft released a PressPass recap of PDC featuring Mr. WCF himself, Dan Rigsby. Unfortunately, they spelled his name wrong throughout the article. Interesting to note, they gave the estimated attendance as well. 6500, that's a lot of geek power in one place!

Luckiest Guy in the World

So you thought you were lucky working in IT? How can it get any better than getting paid to do your favorite thing? What if you got paid for drumming up interest in Microsoft Technology? That's what the Microsoft Tech Evangelists do. How does it get any better? What if you were a tech evangelist for Windows Azure? Well that's what James Senior does. Other than living in a mansion with three hot girlfriends, life doesn't get much better than that.

One Day, I'll Make a Single List

In the uncovering Azure related Microsoft Blogs department, I've got a few more to add to the list:

• Gus Perez a Development Lead (sorry PRINCIPAL Development Lead) on the Azure Tools team (which we learned before includes Jim Nakashima and Chewie). In one of his posts, Gus mentions how excited he is over the quickly developing Azure community, giving us more link love!
• Douglass Purdy, a product unit manager with "Oslo" (which he hints has significant implications for Azure).
• Live Framework Team is a combined blog for all of the members of the Live Framework team.

Curiosity Abounds

There are already a few questions on StackOverflow about Windows Azure. Hopefully, as people start diving in, they will become more technical in nature instead of being the What is Azure variety.

Well, I don't know about you but, my fingers are exhausted from all this typing. Oh that's right, all you have to do is read and click :P That's all for today. Join us tomorrow for more buzz...Promise ;)

Missed It By that Much

Sorry for not giving you the daily buzz today (technically yesterday). I was busy installing Windows 7 on "Jeri", a hot rod desktop replacement we just purchased at the office. Jeri hasn't been commissioned yet, so I figured it'd be the perfect machine to test Windows 7 on bare metal with. The picture to the right is "Jeri" with a Gen1 Zune for reference. Jeri is a Gateway P-172X FX. Now I know what you're thinking. Gateway seriously? They've come a long way. Here are the stats for this beast of a machine:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.4 GHz)
• 4 GB RAM
• nVidia 8800M GTS with 512 MB RAM
• 17" Monitor (up to 1920x1200 Resolution)
• Two 150GB SATA Drives (currently striped)
• Full Keyboard with numeric keypad
• 802.11 N/Bluetooth/Gig E
• FireWire/E-SATA and of course USB 2.0
• VGA and HDMI! output
• DVD R/W, Fingerprint Scanner, Built-in Webcam

Probably some other crap that I'm forgetting. This machine would make a good gaming rig. And I get to let loose on it with Windows 7! Let's do this!

Pre-amble

This is a Pre-Beta build of Windows 7. However, even with that said, it is very impressive and responsive even when run in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine (with 1GB of RAM allocated to it). It sings like a canary on Jeri. The machine was not given to me by anyone, like I said before my company purchased it. The copy of Windows 7 was "given" to me by Microsoft...after my employer shelled out a hefty chunk of change to send me to PDC. With that out the way, let me assure you dear reader that if this sounds like an advertisement or endorsement for any particular product, it's because I truly like that product. I'm getting no personal gain from this post. So on to the good stuff!

ACT 1: The Install

Installation was uneventful. The installer had no problem seeing the RAID, formatting and kicking off. Didn't really require much input from me other than asking for a computer/username and initial password and (required) password hint. After that, I was ready to boot Windows 7.

ACT 2: Drivers

Without any effort on my part, Windows 7 recognized most of the devices on my machine...it even proceeded to download the video driver from nVidia and update it for me. The only devices that did not register were the webcam and fingerprint scanner. I was able to get the drivers from the Gateway site (for some reason they don't acknowledge the P-172X FX but it's practically the SAME machine as the P-173X FX (and because it's discontinued, you can get it for a steal which is why we have one here).

BTW, don't go looking on Gateway's or nVidia's site for Windows 7 drivers. You won't find them. But the Vista Drivers work just fine (even on 64 bit Windows 7). There definitely should be fewer issues with incompatible hardware when Windows 7 is released. This is a huge plus for Windows 7, it can take advantage of the drivers that already exist for Windows Vista. So it's very likely that your laptop from 2007 will run 7 just fine in two years (perhaps even better, but more on that later).

ACT 3: Enter Aero

After I installed the SuperBar hack and rebooted, It was time to get the rating and enable Aero. My eyes almost popped out when I saw the numbers. That's right, you're looking at a 7.9 for Aero! The memory is dragging my performance index down to a 5.1. Anyway, everything looks beautiful! all of the bells and whistles of Vista Aero are here, plus a few extras like the new SuperBar.

ACT 4: The Honeymoon

There is a big caveat for this PRE-BETA version of Windows 7. It doesn't play well with Active Directory domains right now (at least not our particular domain, YMMV). It also doesn't seem to be a fan of sleep mode Other than that, everything runs fine! I've got it loaded up with VS 2008 (installed in 5 minutes!!) and all of my development tools. Enso, Synergy, and all of my other power tools work fine with it. I can even use Virtual Clone Drive to Mount the ISOs from my. I haven't tried mounting/booting from a VHD yet but will.

So far, Windows 7 seems very stable. Aside from the aforementioned issues, I haven't had any problems. If we could get commitment from Microsoft on an upgrade path from 6801 to Beta to RC to RTM, I would switch over now. But if I had to choose between time being spent on enabling that scenario or spent on more features/stability/performance in RTM, I'd go for the latter.

I'll have more screenshots and maybe even some video for you later. For now, I have to hop in the shower and get to work!

Daily Buzz In the Cloud November 11, 2008

Well you're lucky. I'm waiting for my Hyper-V virtual machines to migrate from my test box to our new Hyper-V test bed -- two Xeon E7300 (Quad Core), 32 GB RAM -- so I can install Windows 7 directly on a machine. I've already tried it out in a VM...I'm happy with its performance so far. So now I want to unleash it. Anyway, while I'm waiting for the VMs to transfer, there's no better time to give you today's buzz.

What Would Be on a Cloud’s Todo List

Tanzim Saqib has posted an article on building applications for Windows Azure entitled appropriately enough “Building Applications for Windows Azure.” He shows how to build a todo list for the clouds including connecting the application to SQL Services for data storage. It’s a great article and an excellent starting point for learning Windows Azure.

PDC Live Blogger

Lars Wilhelmsen, kept a live blog of the keynotes and sessions he attended at PDC. It’s interesting to compare and contrast his notes with another PDC Live Blogger we all know and love. Although you can watch the keynotes and sessions for yourself, the live blogs might help you to skip forward to an interesting point in the presentation.

Notes From the Trenches

Shan McArthur, senior architect of ADXSTUDIO CMS (the first Windows Azure enabled CMS), shares his notes on designing for the cloud. It's especially interesting to note how good design practices on the existing code base enabled an easy transistion to the cloud for their application. The only caveat regarding his post was his admonition that there are no Stored Procedures in the Cloud. A member of the Azure team pointed out that resource scripts can run on the cloud and can act as SDS Stored Procedures if so desired.

Extra Extra...

Ryan Dunn has a blog that you should add to your reader...like yesterday. He has been writing about his experiences with "Astoria"/ADO.NET Data Services/SQL Data Services since the original CTP. You'll find a lot of good content on his site.

Sorry if the buzz has been a little lighter these past two days than normal. There is more news out there to share I'm just a little distracted...oops VMs are done, time for fun! I'll catch you all later...keep your head in the cloud!

The (More Consistently) Daily Buzz November 10

Today’s buzz has a lot more “look what I can do with Azure” than “what is Windows Azure” buzz. It’s also going to be a quickie because I’ve got some coding to do. Hopefully you’ll forgive me later.

ASP.NET MVC on Azure Pt. 2

Jim Nakashima posted an updated solution for ASP.NET MVC on Windows Azure. The first solution did not have Azure ready ASP.NET Providers. This one does.

That Was So Last Week

Aaron Lerch points out that he posted his solution (with project template no less) last week.

Filling the Void

With the recent announcement that Team Data will be rolled into Team Developer, Microsoft needed to introduce a new SKU to make Suite appealing. At Tech-Ed Europe, they announced such a SKU. Team Lab sounds like Hyper-V/SCVMM on Steroids. It integrates into Camano and provides virtual lab management. The video also shows off the new custom interface to TFS that is targeted toward testers.

Speaking of Performance Enhancers

One of the PDC Sessions talks about the future of RDP…including (get this) Remote 3D acceleration. Don’t ask me how they do it…just watch the video and prepare to say “Whoa!”

And I Thought I Blogged Too Much

Martin Shoemaker (the self-proclaimed UML Guy) Has a blog where he discusses UML in depth, including a comic series that teaches UML the fun way. He has pretty consistently provided a very lengthy post daily.

Links for Beginning With Azure

Hey Brownie, why don’t you provide a set of links for someone who is just getting started with Azure? Sure here you go.

That’s it for tonight, there’s more out there, I just have a freshly installed IDE and an Azure account calling to me. Have fun and keep your head in the clouds.

The (Did I Mention Weekdays Only) Daily Buzz In the Cloud

I Hope You Like Text

Before I forget again, Microsoft announced their new Bizspark program this past week, which gives qualifying software solutions startups free VSTS+MSDN Premium subscriptions, free Azure hosting, and free business use server and desktop licenses of Windows, SQL Server, Biz Talk Server 2006 R2, and a bunch of other goodies for up to three years! All for the extremely affordable price of $100 payable on exit from the program. Also participants get to keep the software they received upon exit.

The Program Guide explicitly says 1 license of the Expression Studio + MSDN Subscription, but does not state a limitation on the VSTS licenses. Combined with the DreamSpark program (which offers free software to students), and the Empower for ISV partner program, Microsoft pretty much is giving away the tools you need to start your software business (in the hopes that you’ll remember them when you’re all grown up).

When They Said “Utility Computing” They Didn’t Mean Literally

I, Cringely has a post called “Azure Blues” where he postulates that Microsoft’s strategy with Azure is akin to the electric company finding ways to stave off the impending deluge of renewable energy.

Self Plugging Is Acceptable

This weekend, fellow Azure Coder David Justice and I packaged the Silverlight Toolkit into an Azure Web App and deployed it to the Azure Coding playground. Well Justice did the packaging, I did the deploying.

Just Don’t Get Stung

OakLeaf Systems provided an illustrated walkthrough of setting up Windows Azure Services Platform (which they decided to dub WASP)…bitten by ASP or stung by WASP…which is worse?

Revenge of the Architects

The MSDN Architecture Community Center has aggregated a collection of PDC sessions with an architectural slant to them, notable entries include the Framework Design Guidelines session with Brad Abrams and Krzysztof Cwalina, and the Lap Around “Oslo” session. The post announcing the feature says they selected 45 sessions to highlight but there only seems to be about 15 at the portal. On the same blog I found an announcement regarding the availability of the Application Architecture Guidance 2.0 beta on Codeplex.

Oooh, Look at the Pretty Pictures

For those suffering from tl;dr syndrome. ZDNet provides a gallery of pictures from Windows 7, highlighting some of its new features. BTW this Pre-Beta release is incredibly stable…Almost tempted to make it my workstation…if Microsoft promised an upgrade path from it to beta to RC to RTM, I would.

The Missing PDC Session

Here is a session that didn’t make it to PDC, Manuvir Das talking about Azure. It’s a great, no frills presentation about Azure and what it does for you. I love the comparison between developing datacenter apps and building a workstation from components in order to create a spreadsheet app.

What a Show Off

Emmanuel Huna, whom I got to meet at PDC through Twitter, has posted a screencast that summarizes some of the cool tech announced/demonstrated at PDC.

The Last “What Is Azure” Link

If you’ve read my other (Pseudo) Daily Buzz posts, there has been a “What Is Azure” link in all of them. If you haven’t read any of the others, you probably won’t read this one…and most likely won’t read another. And even if you would…tough, find it on your own. With that, I give you Peter Blomqvist’s synopsis of Windows Azure.

The Disciples are Going to Kill Me

VS 2010 is using WPF! So now all the naysayers can stop saying “Why doesn’t Microsoft use WPF for their Apps?”

Looks like I finished this off before midnight…so I guess I’ll publish it today. But don’t get used to weekend editions :P