We are hosting a number of startups in the Atlanta office that are interested in moving their web based applications to the Azure platform. At the end of the week we are going to have a panel of judges evaluate the various applications and choose a winner! It’s a great opportunity for some free exposure and a lot of PR around these startups products and solutions.
I will be participating as an advisor throughout the week. I can’t wait to see some of the innovative ideas that these companies bring to the table!
http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/NewsEvents/Pages/default.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/sanjayjain/archive/2009/10/07/microsoft-bizspark-incubation-week-for-windows-azure-atlanta-09nov09.aspx
The Innovation Showcase is a fantastic collection of the most compelling content that is of interest to the Architect Community.
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I just received some information from Ryan Dunn about the release of the Windows Azure Service Management PowerShell cmdlets. This is really great stuff for all of you PowerShell users out there! You can find these for download on Code Gallery. You can also find all the supported operations on the Code Gallery page.
With these cmdlets, you can script out and deploy, upgrade, and scale your Windows Azure applications. This also allows you to build automation processes around your Windows Azure services. The Service Management CmdLets closely mirror the service API, however given that this is Powershell, we can use pipelining and significantly cut down on our script.
Deploying New Services or Upgrading Existing Services
For example, here is how you can take an existing deployment, completely remove it and deploy again in just a few simple lines of script:
Similarly, when you don’t want to tear down your entire deployment, we can now upgrade a single role or the entire application very easily:
Scaling Your Service
Finally, you can easily scale your service up or down using the Service Management API:
Note, that during the CTP you can only scale to 2 instances using the API, regardless of token type.
Here are the latest headlines form the Innovation Showcase site:
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Several questions were asked during the Innovation Day today about how you can get Netflix on Windows Media Center in Windows 7. Apparently it will just appear! I pulled open Media Center after our discussion and behold:
There is was. More than likely there is some type of download, so be patient and it should arrive in short order.
Thanks to everyone who attended the Windows 7 Innovation Day in Atlanta! You can download the presentations here.
I blogged earlier on how to enable MOSS with .Net 3.5 and had a link to a project on CodePlex that is no longer valid. Once again, thanks to Kirk Evans for letting me know that the project has been rolled up into a single Codeplex project that has many different features for MOSS 2007. Here are some of the highlights:
Most Popular Features
Debugger Feature
Log Viewer
Print List
Toolbar Manager
Unique Column Policy (updated 3/3/2008)
Window Links
Developer-Oriented Features
Ajax.Config Feature
Content Type Hierarchy
Debug Config Feature
Global Web.config Feature
Minimal Master
Minimal Publishing Site
Placeholder Master
Silverlight (.NET 3.5) Config Feature
Regular Expression Validation Field (Added 6/11/2008)
Reset Theme (Updated 9/2/2008)
Theme Changer and ThemeChangerStaple
Variation Labels Field (Update 9/22/2008)
Administrator-Oriented Features (and supporting features for developers)
Clean Web Part Errors (Added 9/2/2008)
Manage Configuration Modifications Feature
Manage Form Users
Manage Hierarchical Object Store
Manage Application Configuration Feature (Added 12/9/2008)
Manage Layouts Site Map Feature
SharePoint Events Manager (Added 7/15/2008)
Site Creation in Target Database (Added 12/9/2008)
End User-Oriented Features
Anonymous Audience (Added 9/22/2008)
Presence Contact List
Task Alert
Task Mover (updated 3/11/2008)
Toolbar Manager
Unique Column Policy (updated 3/3/2008)
My teammates and I have launched a new site devoted to keeping you informed of the great solutions being created by our customers and partners using Windows 7, Windows Azure, Silverlight 3 and Internet Explorer 8 and of course Visual Studio 2010.
We will be posting articles about our customers and partners solutions, the relevant architecture patterns as well as opinion pieces and technical how to’s.
We are also running a monthly event series called The Innovation Showcase. The October events will be all about building compelling solutions on Windows 7.
We hope you find the content inspirational, enlightening and practical. Here are the latest headlines form the Innovation Showcase
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Come on over to our Innovation Showcase in Alpharetta coming up on October 22nd!
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“Windows 7 is what a modern managed desktop should be. It helps us increase productivity, reduce costs, and provide enhanced desktop security”
- Doug Miller, Practice Architect, CDW
Join us at Microsoft’s Windows 7 Innovation Showcase where you can explore how Windows 7 delivers ‘the new efficiency” by growing your business through cost savings, productivity and innovation! Register today to see what Innovation can do for you!
Areas covered include:
· Address top seven business values of Windows 7 that enterprise customers care about
· Take advantage of the advancements in the Windows 7 user experience to make your application more compelling to users
and your users more productive in the tasks they care about
· Dive into the business scenarios and technical details of Multi-Touch and the Sensor and Location API on Windows 7
· Ease of Migrating to Windows 7
| City/State | Date | Microsoft Location | Registration Link |
| Farmington, CT | October 15, 2009 | Farmington Directions | Farmington Registration Link |
| Waltham, MA | October 20, 2009 | Waltham Directions | Waltham Registration Link |
| Reston, VA | October 20, 2009 | Reston Directions | Reston Registration Link |
| New York, NY | October 21, 2009 | New York Directions | NY Registration Link |
| Rochester, NY | October 22, 2009 | Rochester Directions | Rochester Registration Link |
| Alpharetta, GA | October 22, 2009 | Alpharetta Directions | Alpharetta Registration Link |
| Ft Lauderdale, FL | October 26, 2009 | Ft Lauderdale Directions | Ft Lauderdale Registration Link |
| Malvern, PA | October 29, 2009 | Malvern Directions | Malvern Registration Link |
I had a great time at the Atlanta Windows 7 launch event. I have posted my session deck up to SkyDrive. I also had a number of requests about how to get the sensor board I used in the demonstration. Its actually a board from FreeScale and you can get it for around $50.
Thanks to everyone who attended the Charlotte Innovation Showcase on Silverlight 3 and IE8. It was great event with lots of really good questions. I have uploaded my content to SkyDrive.
Just as an FYI - we have another Innovation Showcase on Windows 7 coming up in Atlanta on October 22nd. Hope to see you there!
Brian Hitney - a fellow devloper evangelist - has put together a fairly amazing tool called Worldmaps. Its an amaizing application of our technology set, and its fairly cool to boot. But by far the best part of the application is something he calls the Worldmaps Stumbler. Essentially its a Silverlight/Bing Maps control that plots out the active hits on your website. While mine is not all that exciting, check out Brian's Stumbler.
Sign up for Worldmaps today - its free and a really cool example of ASP.Net/Silverlight/Bing Maps!
http://blog.structuretoobig.com/post/2009/04/06/Worldmaps-Stumbler.aspx
As I am doing my game prep this morning, and I know that Georgia Tech is not going to be on TV, I tuned in to their atheletic site. I then clicked on the Gameday Central link. After then clicking on Listen Live, I was greeted with the now familiar Silverlight loading screen!
I still have to log in and pay $9.95 or some such, which I elected not to do. But, still it is nice to see that Silverlight is penetrating so deeply into the marketplace, that its replacing Flash in venues such as this one. Feel free to comment back on other interesting Silverlight locations!
Go Jackets!!!
Thanks to everyone in Huntsville and Atlanta for making the Roadshow a successful event. We have a great turnout at both venues! I have uploaded my content to SkyDrive:
http://cid-f94e5578f397f00b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Roadshow/RoadshowPRISMFinal.pptx
The current financial downturn has affected businesses at all levels and IT decision makers are feeling the pain. With restrictions on IT budget and a concomitant demand for higher levels of service, there has never been a better time to turn our attention to the fundamental value opportunities presented by Microsoft’s platform architecture and strategic roadmap. Microsoft is presenting a series of architect councils this Spring that will focus on our platform architecture and how it addresses the current business environment. These councils will provide a comprehensive view of real world business challenges faced by IT and how Microsoft’s platform architecture has been successfully used to address them and how it is positioned to do so in the future. Strategy and solution architects will participate in 5 talks, each covering a key pillar of Microsoft’s platform.
· Platform 2009: The Client
· Microsoft’s Server Platform
· 2009 Services Platform: Azure, Live Mesh and Live Services
· Software + Services: The Microsoft Architecture and Platform
· The Platform for Application Lifecycle Management
Event Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Please register today by clicking on the registration link below or you may call 877-673-8368 and reference the appropriate Event ID (1032408954). Space is limited!
Please register here for the Atlanta Architect Council.
