I’m going to talk about one of my favorite Windows 8 features – it’s one that everyone will love, but no one really knows much about.  In fact, it’s one that is so good, you’d think it’s a problem.  (Like, if you hit the power button and your machine _instantly_ slept, you’d think there is a problem, wouldn’t you?) I’ve got 2 disclaimers.  Obviously I work for MSFT so I’m biased, but the second one is, to Joe’s disgust, I actually have an iPad in house.  The excuse is that I have a large...

Peter Laudati , Brian Hitney and Windows Azure Technical Evangelist Brady Gaster conclude their Windows Azure Web Sites intro series by going over the differences between Azure and shared hosting, pricing, scaling, cpu consumption, the reserved vs. shared model, custom DNS, and much, much more. Watch Part 1 After watching this video, follow these next steps: Step #1 – Start Your Free 90 Day Trial of Windows Azure Step #2 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development Step #3 – Start building your own Apps...

Peter Laudati and Brian Hitney welcome Windows Azure Technical Evangelist Brady Gaster to the show as they discuss Windows Azure Web Sites . In part one of this series, tune in as they chat about what it is, what its key benefits are for web developers and agencies, how the Azure Web Sites infrastructure works for easier site deployment, an intro to the web sites gallery, as well as a special announcement for .NET applications. After watching this video, follow these next steps: Step #1 – Start Your Free 90...

Peter Laudati and I kick off our new Windows Azure series by giving us a tour of what’s new in Azure with Windows Azure Web sites, Virtual Machines and Mobile Services. Tune in as we provide a brief overview of Azure’s many services and features as well as how to get started with a free 90 day trial . After watching this video, follow these next steps: Step #1 – Start Your Free 90 Day Trial of Windows Azure Step #2 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for...

Don’t forget – we have our weekly Windows 8 DevCamp in Charlotte tomorrow, 10/12! In this week's DevCamp, we'll dive into Sharing, Settings, and Roaming. We will also cover some tips and tricks for developing Windows 8 applications using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Finally, we'll also spend a few hours going hands on to ensure the best experience for your app! For more information and to register, visit http://developersguild.org/ .

Here are some resources for the Windows 8 Events we’re doing today in Raleigh: Slides and Cookbook App:  https://bthtemp.blob.core.windows.net/misc/Win8-devcamp.zip Contoso Labs: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34619

In the first post , we introduced the problem.  We’re writing a program that solves the problem of finding 100 point words, where each letter in the word corresponds to its position in the alphabet (A=1, B=2, Z=26).  In the second post , we coded the basic solution that allows the user to enter a word, and we calculate the result. We have a bug, though, because we made the assumption that the letters passed in are lower case.  The word “automated” is a 100 point word, but “Automated” is displaying...

In my last post , I introduced the problem we’re trying to solve via an introductory computer program:  finding 100 point words where each letter of the alphabet corresponds to its place in the alphabet (A=1, B=2 … Z=26).  At this point, we’ve built the basic template for the app, but haven’t yet written any code.   It’s time to write some basic functions (or methods) that help solve this.  For coding veterans, remember – this initially is about solving the problem as a beginner and...

Microsoft RD Jim Duffy and I are hosting a series of events, kicking off with a Windows 8 DevCamp in Raleigh on Sept 25th!  I’m the brains, Jim is the talent, so don’t miss it.  Sign up here!  (Just kidding about Jim being the talent ) http://takenotewin8.eventbrite.com/ The DevCamp is designed to not only introduce you to developing on the platform, but also take active steps through the design, development, and submission phases to get your app into the marketplace.  Here’s the rundown...

My daughter, a 5th grader, has shown an occasional interest in programming but having so many frameworks and platforms available today is both a blessing and a curse.  I began to learn programming by hacking Maxit, Hunt the Wumpus, Adventure, and others.   There were no graphics, no internet, no multiplayer. I saw her doing working on something when it occurred to me this would be a fun afternoon project to solve via code.  She was looking for “dollar words” – words that added up to 100 points...

I have a Canon MP830 USB printer hooked up to my always on workstation at home, and this is shared so that anyone in the house can use it to print. I haven’t had any issues until trying to add the printer in Windows 8. When I tried to add the network printer: It looks like the printer is being added ok, but then I would be given the dreaded 0x00000002 error: This is a driver issue. But what I couldn’t quite understand is why. The drivers were all 64 bit, it’s USB … and I’ve...

[Post to be edited soon] This post contains all of the information needed for the Visual Studio 2012 and Windows Azure launch events. Download for the Azure Track Hands on Labs: http://bit.ly/vs2012azurelabs Windows Azure Free 90 Day Trial: http://bit.ly/WAFreeTrial

This coming Saturday, 9/8/12, we’re putting together a 1 day Windows 8 DevCamp! Check out the details here: http://developersguild.org What we decided to do is put the best content from ou Technorati Tags: windows 8 , development , charlotte , microsoft r other Win8 DevCamps (typically 2 day), and create an essential, what-you-need-to-know day of content to help you get an app up and running quickly. In addition, we decided to build the entire content around the Contoso Cookbook sample app, allowing...

I’ve given a lot of thought over the past few weeks to application migration scenarios.  I did a lot of this with the cloud when Windows Azure first launched in 2009, doing a number of blog posts and presentations about moving ASP/.NET code to the cloud.  Now, I’ve been thinking more about moving applications to Windows 8, and given the choices and frameworks available today, I’m often asked what I would do in various situations.  Let’s start with an overview of Windows 8, using this graphic from...

As I travel around, I’ve met many people who are familiar with the Windows Phone application certification and submission process – it’s been around for a couple of years now!   Perhaps not surprising, though, is that few people I’ve met have the same comfort level with understanding the Windows 8 Store and understanding how that differs from traditional desktop applications and web applications. In this post, I’m looking not so much at converting an app (that will be another post) but instead looking...

A new series of Windows 8 developer events are coming soon! These are special two-day events , with a DevCamp on day one featuring a full day of sessions plus an InstallFest, followed on day two by a Hackathon with Lightning Talks where you can bring app ideas to life with Microsoft and community experts on hand to help. Windows 8 changes everything. Combining the broad reach of Windows, best-in-class developer tools, a re‑imagined user experience, support for new chipsets, and a built-in store with industry...

Andrew, Peter, and myself in the latest DevRadio show! Abstract: In today’s episode Developer Evangelists Andrew Duthie, Brian Hitney and Peter Laudati recap the “Rock, Paper, Azure” – (#BeatTheGu) challenge from this year’s TechEd as well as how they built a Windows 8 App for the competition. Tune in for this lessons learned session on what considerations and features Andrew took into the design of the app. Next Steps: Step #1 – Download Windows 8 Release Preview and Windows 8 SDK Step #2 – Start building your...

I was recently asked to do a presentation on managing Windows Azure applications with PowerShell by the Charlotte PowerShell users group .   At first I was a bit unsure about doing the presentation – with Jim Christopher and Ed Wilson in the group as well as other PowerShell gurus, it can be tough to ramp up to a respectable level of knowledge.  But, these guys are awesome and Ed welcomed me to pen a blog post for them, so check it out on the Hey, Scripting Guy! blog . I learned a ton in the process...

My colleague Andrew put together a great post on the Windows Store, developing for Windows 8, and what you need to know to get started – including some great ways to get hands on experience.  By now, most developers are aware that Windows 8 is available in a consumer preview , with a new release coming in early June.  Windows 8 not only presents developers with a new environment, it also presents a new distribution channel via the Windows Store.   Let’s dive into things: What The "What"...

It’s that time – Windows Azure Dev Camps are coming really soon.  Here’s the schedule: Date Location   May 24th, 2012 Alpharetta, GA Register May 30th, 2012 Reston, VA Register May 31st, 2012 Iselin, NJ Register We’re pretty excited to mix up the format a little, with some time to jump into some new areas we haven’t typically talked about in our previous shows: 1. The Azure Platform – An Overview (60 minutes) Let’s start off the day with a dive into Windows Azure. We’ll talk about what Windows Azure...

The Windows Azure team recently posted about the Windows Azure Trust Center .   One of the most frequent conversations that comes up when discussing moving applications to the cloud revolves around security and compliance, and it’s also one of the most challenging conversations to have.  What makes it particularly challenging is the fact that the responsibility of compliance is typically shared between the hardware, platform, and software. The site has a few sections that in particular drill down...

Want to run @home with Azure for another team or use a more powerful CPU? For the true geeks out there, running the Folding@home client involves tweaking, high performance computing, and knowing the difference between the GPU and CPU clients.  We heard from a couple of folks about maximizing their Windows Azure usage, and Jim made some changes to the client piece to accommodate.  In truth, we did a little of this last time we ran @home, but we didn’t draw much attention to it for fear it would just...

Thursday, April 5th, at noon, we’ll be having our second from the last @home webcast , this time focusing on debugging and diagnostics in the cloud.   While a lot of what we show is in the context of our @home app… … much of what we’ll be doing is fairly general in nature, especially some of the diagnostics material we’ll be covering this week.  From this week’s abstract: In this third webcast episode, we talk about debugging your application. We look at debugging locally and how the emulator...

Windows Azure has a great caching service that allows applications (whether or not they are hosted in Azure) to share in-memory cache as a middle tier service.  If you’ve followed the ol’ Velocity project , then you’re likely aware this was a distributed cache service you could install on Windows Server to build out a middle tier cache.  This was ultimately rolled into the Windows Server AppFabric , and is (with a few exceptions) the same that is offered in Windows Azure. The problem with a traditional...

On most (or perhaps even all?) of the production servers I’ve worked on, antivirus/antimalware detection apps are often not installed for a variety of reasons – performance, risk of false positives or certain processes getting closed down unexpectedly, or the simple fact most production machines are under strict access control and deployment restrictions. Still, it’s a nice option to have, and it’s now possible to set this up easily in Windows Azure roles.   Somewhat quietly, the team released a CTP...