Two areas I am looking at right now are SQL Azure and Entity Framework 4. PDC had plenty of content on both these areas. Just need to find the time to watch some of it! I have added direct links to the standard definition WMV and the PPTs to download (which is what I am doing right now). SQL Azure SQL...

A big thanks to all those who attended last night to hear about SQL Azure and SQL Server 2008 R2. I really enjoyed it and once again “Merry Christmas”! Links http://bit.ly/startazure   takes you to the getting started page for SQL Azure (and Windows Azure) Download SQL Server Management Studio R2...

As I mentioned earlier this week , we now have a CTP release of a version of SSMS that is SQL Azure aware. I thought it might be useful to share my first few minutes with it. First up, I cleared out my SQL Azure account using the portal (dropped all my databases). And I made sure the firewall setting...

I have had a bit of a “SQL Azure” day at TechEd Europe. I sat through David Robinsons excellent intro to SQL Azure development (smooth, on time, great Q&A), caught up with David afterwards to exchange stories on SQL Azure and find out what I will be missing at PDC next week and then grabbed the chance...

Also knows as “that’s where I left my shoe” (you will need to listen to understand that) This is a bonus edition of the podcast recorded on the 6th of October in London with Steve Marx , Technical Strategist working on Windows Azure. It starts slow, it needed a few edits (deletes!) as we battled with...

David and I hosted David Chappell and Steve Marx in London on the 6th of October in a packed day with early adopters of azure (ISVs and System Integrators) David interviewed David (!) and I interviewed Steve for our MSDN Podcast . Unfortunately the podcast with Steve isn’t yet published as it needs a...

Well not exactly free but definitely extremely welcome and a great benefit . The introductory offer includes a huge 750 hours of compute time – which rather nicely is how much you need to run a node 24x7 for the whole month. Another great reason to sign up for an MSDN subscription or to join BizSpark...

I delivered a session on Windows Azure Storage and SQL Azure Database at the UK Azure user group on the 6th of October. A big thanks to everyone who attended – and for putting up with my last minute improvisation when we realised that 2/3rd of the audience were actually brand new to Windows Azure (and...

You might have been following this series of posts on my preparation for Software Architect 2009. Well, this evening while sitting in a small hotel room in London (with no window and a dodgy tv) I completed both presentations and made them available for download on Slideshare. You can find them both...

This is one of a series of posts on my preparations for sessions on Azure and ORMs at Software Architect 2009. The plan vs actual for day five (The last day): Play, play, play with the technology.  PART DONE Produce outline skeleton demo sequence for both sessions PART DONE Produce a backup VM ...

This is one of a series of posts on my preparations for sessions on Azure and ORMs at Software Architect 2009. The plan vs actual for day four (Thursday): Produce final drafts of each deck and post them so delegates can check out what I’m covering. DONE (link below) Play, play, play with the technology...

This is one of a series of posts on my preparations for sessions on Azure and ORMs at Software Architect 2009. The plan for day three: Nearly got it all done. However I ended up spending more time on EF4 than I had planned as … there is a lot of it! Gather up good posts and samples for EF 4 (will likely...

This is one of a series of posts on my preparations for sessions on Azure and ORMs at Software Architect 2009. The plan for day two: The Tuesday plan vs actual was … 100% spot on. Install Entity Framework CTP on Windows XP Mode. SUCCESS Install VS2010 into a Boot from HD Windows 7 VHD...

This is one of a series of posts on my preparations for sessions on Azure and ORMs at Software Architect 2009. One of the things that has been added to Windows Azure while i have been “elsewhere” is the Service Management API which the team introduced on the 17th of this month (Sept 2009). This is a...

This is the second in a series of posts on my preparations for sessions on Azure and ORMs at Software Architect 2009. In case you don’t want to skim through the whole post, the main things I learnt in day one are: 1. Never forget that install errors can be caused by something as simple as a corrupt file...

This show is a bonus edition. It includes a brief overview of the announcements this week around Azure at the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans and then a 30minute interview recorded at Qcon 2009 in London earlier this year. This time around, I am the interviewee for a change. Many thanks to...

We answered a lot of questions on Azure at day 2 of the Worldwide Partner Conference yesterday (Tues 14th July 2009). The conference is being streamed live this week (or at least parts of it) at http://www.digitalwpc.com/ Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and .NET Services will be available for purchase before...

In March 2008 we announced SQL Server Data Services. In October 2008 we renamed it to SQL Data Services, part of SQL Services. In July 2009 we renamed it to SQL Azure Database , part of SQL Azure. Same technology, same team – smarter naming :-) Smarter because people were getting confused between SQL...

Had a great time Wednesday night delivering a session on Azure and SQL Data Services at GL.NET . Admittedly I run over hugely but I enjoyed it and I much prefer lots of questions along the way. The venue is very good. The MessageLabs offices offer a pretty decent sized room, wireless internet and a good...

Back in March I presented at Qcon 2009 in London which is a great conference although I had a little moan ( Does Microsoft smell ?). I also was interviewed which is now up on InfoQ. TBH – it isn’t a bad interview yet at the time it felt awful right from the first moment when after agreeing the opening...

Just about finished putting together my session for the FOWA tour in Bristol . I have only 50minutes. Which means I need to speak fast + demo fast + … remove some slides by 9:30 tomorrow :-) Slides: Windows Azure - Ericnel View more OpenOffice presentations from ukdpe . Links: Learn about the Azure Services...

My former role was working with ISVs. ISVs get their own site, http://www.isvinnovation.com/ which contains some great online webcasts. If you are a developer and you are new to Azure Services Platform ,then there are five great Webcasts to take a look at. Part: 1 Azure Services for Developers: Fundamentals...