Brian H. Prince

I had a great time, as always, at the fifth CodeMash last week. I want to thank everyone for coming to my session on Windows Server AppFabric – Cache. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the talk.

You can download the slides from my SkyDrive account.

Starting in March 2011, we’re rolling out a series of 12 Web Camps in the Central US. Microsoft's Web Camps are events designed to teach you all about building websites using ASP.NET MVC, WebMatrix, OData and more. We’ve held Web Camps all around the world over the past few years, but we’re taking them to the next level this year with more of one- and two-day events in Central Region, and one just might be near you.

If you’re near Austin, TX or Chicago, IL, you’ll want to join us for a special two-day Web Camp. We’ll cover ASP.NET MVC in-depth on day one and help you get hands-on on day two, facilitating smaller groups through labs, live-coding exercises, or even collaborating on your apps! If you can’t make a two-day event, never fear! We have a series of one-day camps in March, April, May and June throughout the region.

Join Clark Sell and Brandon Satrom for a special WebMatrix and ASP.NET MVC Web Camp you don’t want to miss. No matter your expertise in web development, these Web Camps are the perfect opportunity to get hands-on experience and 'unleash your coding genius'.

Our interactive sessions will:

• Introduce ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web Pages and WebMatrix; discuss possible uses of these
• Explore new features of ASP.NET MVC 3
• Take a dive deep into jQuery
• Facilitate an in-depth discussion on when to migrate ASP.NET WebPages applications to ASP.NET MVC
• Discuss configuration and deployment of web applications.

This event is a unique opportunity, partnering classroom learning with hands-on-labs, and leveraging experts to help you build new and exciting websites.

1-Day Event Agenda:

Start Time	Duration	Topic
9:00 AM	10’	Welcome and agenda for the day
9:10 AM	50’	Web Stack Introduction
10:00 AM	50’	Building a Site in WebMatrix
10:50 AM	10’	Break
11:00 AM	60’	ASP.NET MVC Introduction
12:00 PM	60’	Lunch
1:00 PM	60’	Migrating from WebMatrix to ASP.NET MVC
2:00 PM	60’	jQuery Introduction
3:00 PM	1.5 hours	Instructor-Led Labs
4:30 PM	10’	Evals

 

Two-Day Event Agenda

Start Time	Duration	Topic
Day 1
9:00 AM	60’	MVC Fundamentals
10:00 AM	60’	Data Access and Modeling with Entity Framework
11:00 AM	15’	Break
11:15 AM	60’	Metadata, Validation and Localization
12:15 PM	45’	Lunch
1:00 PM	60’	MVC and Ajax, jQuery Templating, jQuery Globalization
2:00 PM	60’	Using Dependency Injection and Global Action Filters
3:00 PM	15’	Break
3:15 PM	60’	Testing and Custom Validation
4:15 PM	45’	Q&A and Evals
Day 2
8:30 AM	2.5 Hours	Smaller Working Groups/Development
11:00 AM	15’	Break
11:15 AM	60’	Smaller Working Groups/Development
12:15 PM	45’	Lunch
1:00 PM	3 Hours	Smaller Working Groups/Development
4:00 PM	30’	Q&A and Evals

Locations (Space is limited, so sign up now):

Date	City, State	Speakers	Registration Link
March 7 & 8, 2011	Austin, TX	James Senior, Scott Hanselman, Brandon Satrom, Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/fHDEb2 http://bit.ly/hF4uE0
March 17, 2011	Clive, IA	Javier Lozano	http://bit.ly/h1jNgO
April 27, 2011	Franklin, TN	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/eFvMPO
April 29, 2011	Columbus, OH	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/h0T0iN
May 16, 2011	Irving, TX	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/f1Qfsl
May 18, 2011	Little Rock, AR	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/emn6Ch
May 20, 2011	St. Louis, MO	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/fi4xpU
May 24, 2011	Brookfield, MN	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/i9agUK
May 25, 2011	Waukesha, WI	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/hQ8Rjo
May 26 & 27, 2010	Chicago, IL	Brandon Satrom & Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/fHTXAr http://bit.ly/gII54c
June 2, 2011	Southfield, MI	Clark Sell	http://bit.ly/gCNiPE
June 2, 2011	Tulsa, OK	Brandon Satrom	http://bit.ly/fdvSEF

All of the above registration links can be found in this link bundle as well: http://bit.ly/bundles/csell/5.  Of course balloons on a map are cool too:

Space is limited so sign up now.

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What do WPF, Silverlight 4, and Internet Explorer 9 have in common? No, that's not a riddle. Really, it's not a riddle. They are all FTW. What I mean by that is they all offer developers unique ways to exploit the power of Windows 7, such as integrating with the taskbar, leveraging jump lists, or offering the ability to exploit multi-touch or hardware sensors.

This is going to be a great tour. It’s cool to see Jennifer take all of these platforms and stitch them together.

FTW?
And why am I even talking about this? Well closely following on the heels of our Windows Azure Boot Camp announcement, we are gearing up another boot camp series: For the Win: Window 7 Development Boot Camp. This new series of events will include evangelist-led presentations by none other than the purely awesome Jennifer Marsman as well as hands-on labs to help you really dig into developing client-centric applications using WPF and XAML, Silverlight, and Internet Explorer 9 (yes, client-centric integrations from your web site with just a touch of HTML5).

What's Covered?
Jennifer will cover application compatibility and transitioning your application to Windows 7, leveraging the Windows taskbar and jump lists, exploiting the taskbar and jump lists from your web site using IE9, taking advantage of new sensor, location and multi-touch functionality, and creating Silverlight 4 out of browser applications. Each boot camp will last a full day, starting off right at 8am local time, include lunch, several sessions and a couple of hands-on labs to help you really get a feel for how to take advantage of Windows 7 capabilities in your applications.

So, yes, this is a BYOL (bring your own laptop) event. Windows 7 is required, as is several other pieces of software: Visual Studio 2008 or 2010, Windows API Code Pack, Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers, IE9, and Silverlight 4.

What Cities?

• Waukesha, WI on 1/17/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Downers Grove, IL on 1/18/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Indianapolis, IN on 1/19/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Independence, OH on 1/24/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Columbus, OH on 1/25/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Mason, OK on 1/27/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Franklin, TN on 2/3/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Southfield, MI on 2/7/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Bloomington, MN on 2/14/2011 at 8:00 AM
• St. Louis, MO on 2/15/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Overland Park, KS on 2/16/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Des Moines, IA on 2/17/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Houston, TX on 2/21/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Irving, TX on 2/22/2011 at 8:00 AM
• Austin, TX on 2/24/2011 at 8:00 AM

*** In all fairness, the bulk of this post was written by the awesometastic Brian Moore. He did such a good job I chose to reuse his post.

Mike Benkovich invited me to be on his MSDN Radio show (with Mithun Dar) to discuss announcements at the PDC (see prior post here). It was only 30 minutes long, and was a lot of fun to do. I like the easy conversation without a lot of slides and canned lines.

Recording is located in the interwebs here: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mseventsbmo/view?id=1032468481&role=attend&pw=B92F6029

Here is a list of PDC announcements made by Bob Muglia during the PDC 2010 Keynote (http://www.mcirosoftpdc.com). Remember that you can watch not only the keynotes and all of the sessions online.

Calendar Year 2010

· Virtual Machine (VM) role: increases flexibility to run software of your choice (stateless server components) on Azure platform. Database server is an example of a stateful server which you can’t run on VM role.

· Full IIS: allows multiple web sites per Web role and makes it possible to configure the ASP.NET pipeline

· Elevated Privileges: This allows you to temporarily elevate your privilege (e.g. installation of a software component that requires admin privileges), install a piece of software and downgrade the privileges in preparation for running the application.

· Remote Desktop: Enables the connection into a running Azure role instance for close inspection of the run time aspects of the application and debugging.

· Windows Azure Virtual Network: a collection of network services starting with Windows Azure Connect (formerly Project Sidney) which allows the establishment of IP Sec tunnel for enabling on-premise/cloud hybrid environments

· Extra Small Windows Azure Instance: provides developers a cost effective development and training option

· Windows Azure Marketplace: online marketplace for you to share, buy and sell building block components, premium data sets, training and services needed to build Windows Azure platform applications

The above features will be available by the end of calendar year 2010.

Calendar Year 2011

· Dynamic Content Caching: this capability allows you to cache application generated information in CDN edge nodes. Previously CDN only was able to pull content from Azure Storage.

· CDN SSL Delivery: allows the CDN delivery of content through TLS/SSL links

· Constructing VM role images in the cloud: in future IT Pros will be able to compose VM images on Azure instead of today’s on-premise composition and uploading to Azure

· Windows Server 2003 and 2008 SP2 in VM Role: more gust OS options

· Improved Java Enablement: Java will be a first-class citizen through a set of performance enhancing improvements to Azure roles, Eclipse tooling and Java client libraries for Windows Azure.

Other

TFS on Windows Azure: this is multi-tenant hosted TFS service which enables the integration of globally deployed development teams into a logical one. This is pretty offers same level of functionality as the on-premise equivalent.

For more details, please visit Windows Azure team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2010/10/28/you-spoke-we-listened-and-responded.aspx.

Brian Harry’s blog for TFS cloud service: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2010/10/28/tfs-on-windows-azure-at-the-pdc.aspx

Imagine Cup is a student competition for developers. You can write an application, or a game. Teams can include high school, undergraduate or graduate students. You may not be a student, but you probably know a professor or teacher or student. Help them start a team, and help them win.

Jennifer did a great job covering all of the details on her blog, so I am just going to send you over there.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jennifer/archive/2010/11/02/imagine-cup-become-an-industry-advisor.aspx

Cal Evans is throwing together an online event focusing on soft skills that developers need to move forward in their career, and be happy. If you read this blog, or follow me in any manner you know this is something I have had a lot of passion for for many years.

Since the event is online you can take part no matter where you are. If you attend, you will even be able to watch the sessions later on. This will be held on November 6th from 9a – 5p. There is a great lineup of speakers, including:

9:00 AM
Josh Holmes
“So you want to be an architect”

10:15 AM
Elizabeth Naramore
“Technical Writing”

1:00 PM
Scott Gordon
“Rocking your resume”

2:15 PM
Brian Prince
Actively managing your career

3:30 PM
Lorna Jane Mitchell
“Open Source your career”

Go to the site to get all of the details and sign up. Watch my twitter feed. I have to FREE passes to give away.When I mention I have a free pass, be the first to respond and it is yours.

You know you want to go to this. Holy cow! WP7 is almost out the door, and we can’t wait. With a record number of downloads of the SDK, an awesome array of apps and games going into the marketplace, Xbox and Zune integration, this is going to be awesome.

This is a two day event to get you ready. There are only four of these in our area, and Detroit is the closest.

Location:
Westin Book Cadillac Hotel
October 12 - 13, 2010

Register for Day 1

Register for Day 2

Get to the event, learn what you need to learn, and see some really cool stuff.

Microsoft has partnered with Cumulux to hold a series of webinars covering Windows Azure. If you can’t take two days to attend a full boot camp then these 90 minute webinars might be just the thing for you.

They will go over what cloud computing is, what Windows Azure is, how to use the Azure portal, and step you through deploying your very own first cloud application. A free temporary Azure account will be provided to each attendee.

You can find all of the information at http://www.cumulux.com/azurewebinars/.

What does it cost me?

There is NO cost to participate in this training.

The Agenda:

· Overview of Cloud Computing
· Introduction to Windows Azure
· Tour of the Azure Portal
· Uploading your first Azure package
· Real world Scenario
· Experiencing your first cloud app & behind the scenes
· Q & A

How do I attend:

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Friday, April 30, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Friday, May 7, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Monday, May 10, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Wednesday, May 12, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Friday, May 14, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Monday, May 17, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Wednesday, May 19, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Friday, May 21, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Monday, May 24, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Friday, May 28, 2010
11:00-12:30pm
Register Here

Need more information: http://bit.ly/azure_training

Rob Gillen has just posted a great article on his blog about the performance testing he has been doing at work on the performance of the Windows Azure Storage system. Namely, accessing it from outside the cloud, to upload massive amounts of test data. He works at a national science lab that has pipes to the Internet so big you could literally transfer a DVD through them!

I got to see some of these results while he was running the tests, and even got to be part of the conversation as he was interacting with the Azure Storage team to tune his code.

This article is a great read. I especially like the attention to how the test was done These guys are scientists full time, so I would expect the test to run like a real scientific test, not the ad-hoc testing I might do in my spare time.

The Summary:

Summary: for those who don’t like to read detailed posts or don’t have time, the synopsis is that if you are uploading data to Azure, block your data (even down to 1MB) and upload in parallel. Set your block size based on your source file size, but if you must choose a fixed value, use 1MB. Following the above will result in significant performance gains… upwards of 10x-24x and a reduction in overall file transfer time of upwards of 90% (eg, uploading a 1GB file averaged 46.37 minutes prior to optimizations and averaged 1.86 minutes afterwards).

You should definitely go read it. http://rob.gillenfamily.net/post/External-File-Upload-Optimizations-for-Windows-Azure.aspx