Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

Log Parser Studio 2.0 now out (Log Parser GUI++)

2013-06-17T18:31:00.001-07:00

Exchange Team Blog - Log Parser Studio 2.0 is now available

Since the initial release of Log Parser Studio (LPS) there have been over 30,000 downloads and thousands of customers use the tool on a daily basis. In Exchange support many of our engineers use the tool to solve real world issues every day and in turn share with our customers, empowering them to solve the same issues themselves moving forward. LPS is still an active work in progress; based on both engineer and customer feedback many improvements have been made with multiple features added during the last year. Below is a short list of new features:

Improved import/export functionality

Search Query Results

Input/Output Format Support

Exchange Extensible Logging Support

Query Logging

Queries

PowerShell Export

Query Cancellation

Keyboard Shortcuts

...

There are literally hundreds of improvements and features; far too many to list here so be sure and check out our blog series with existing and upcoming tutorials, deep dives and more. If you are installing LPS for the first time you'll surely want to review the getting started series:

Getting started with Log Parser Studio

Getting started with Log Parser Studio, part 2

Getting started with Log Parser Studio, part 3

If you are already familiar with LPS and are installing this latest version, you'll want to check out the upgrade blog post here:

Log Parser Studio: upgrading from v1 to v2

..."

Log Parser Studio

Log Parser Studio is a utility that allows you to search through and create reports from your IIS, Event, EXADB and others types of logs. It builds on top of Log Parser 2.2 and has a full user interface for easy creation and management of related SQL queries.

...

Anyone who regularly uses Log Parser 2.2 knows just how useful and powerful it can be for obtaining valuable information from IIS (Internet Information Server) and other logs. In addition, adding the power of SQL allows explicit searching of gigabytes of logs returning only the data that is needed while filtering out the noise. The only thing missing is a great graphical user interface (GUI) to function as a front-end to Log Parser and a ‘Query Library’ in order to manage all those great queries and scripts that one builds up over time.

Log Parser Studio was created to fulfill this need; by allowing those who use Log Parser 2.2 (and even those who don’t due to lack of an interface) to work faster and more efficiently to get to the data they need with less “fiddling” with scripts and folders full of queries.

With Log Parser Studio (LPS for short) we can house all of our queries in a central location. We can edit and create new queries in the ‘Query Editor’ and save them for later. We can search for queries using free text search as well as export and import both libraries and queries in different formats allowing for easy collaboration as well as storing multiple types of separate libraries for different protocols.

If the Command Line Log Parser hurts your brain, then this is the tool for you...

Here's a look at the Microsoft Log Parser from a different point of view, from the Computer Forensics' side of the house OR Check out a 'Query Analyzer/SSMS' for Log Parser called Log Parser Lizard

Log Parser Ping Graph Fun (aka “Using Log Parser to parse command line output”)
SELECT * FROM Log... with the cool tool that’s been around for years, Log Parser!

Download details: Log Parser 2.2

The Unofficial Log Parser Support Site
IIS Diagnostics Toolkit (January 2006)
SQL Server 2000 Report Pack for IIS Logs

//build Windows Store App available

2013-06-17T18:14:00.001-07:00

XAMLGeek - BUILD app for Windows Store

In Bluefragments we love to do fun stuff. For the last couple of weeks we have been working on a BUILD app for Windows Store.

We wanted to build an app that is great to navigate through the content of the BUILD 13 conference. At the same time it should work as an archive over the previous BUILD conferences allowing the user to watch recorded sessions and published slides and demos. Last week we published first version [GD: The link is currently borked... Just search the Windows Store for build and you'll see it...]. We have got a lot of great feedback and the next version in certification at the moment. We expect it to be public within a few days.

We’re working hard to finish our BUILD app for Windows Phone as well. First version will include the BUILD 13 program. Stay tuned!

...

While //build 2013 is still empty (since no sessions have been announced) you can still use this app to view 2011 and 2012 //build sessions...

Booting Minecraft (or maybe Assembling Minecraft) - MineAssemble is a bootable Minecraft clone, written in mostly x86 assembly

2013-06-17T18:00:00.001-07:00

OS News - Bootable Minecraft clone written party in x86 assembly

"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time...."

Overv / MineAssemble

MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a "Hello World" bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time.

Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring.

Starting in assembly right away would be a bit too insane, so I first wrote a reference implementation in C using the SDL library, which can be found in the reference directory. I started writing it with the idea that if it was longer than 150 statements excluding boilerplate, it wouldn't be worth doing it in assembly. Like all estimates in the world of programming, this limit turned out to be a gross underestimate, reaching about 134 lines before adding the texture or even the input code.

After completing the reference code, I wrote the kernel boilerplate code (setting up VGA, interrupts, etc.) and changed the reference C code to work with this. Then I began slowly porting everything to handwritten assembly.

Unfortunately this turned out to be a lot more work than I expected, so currently a large fraction of the codebase is still in C. Slowly porting everything to assembly is an ongoing process. The code also isn't fully compatible with all systems yet. It seems to cause floating point exceptions on some setups.

How to play

QEMU

To run the game with QEMU, simply run make test This is a quick and easy way to play around with it.

Virtual machine

If you want to use virtualization software like VirtualBox, you can produce an .iso image with make iso and mount it. The virtual machine doesn't need a hard drive and requires no more than 4 MB of RAM.

You can also burn this image to a CD or DVD, but that is rather wasteful. Use the USB stick method to try it on real hardware unless it really isn't an option for some reason.

USB stick

Booting from an USB stick is an excellent way to try it on real hardware, but does involve a little bit more work. Note that this process will remove all data currently on the USB stick. Also, make sure to get the drive name right or you might accidentally wipe your hard drive!

Format your USB stick to FAT32 with 1 MB free space preceding.

Mount it using mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt where sdx is the drive name.

Turn it into a GRUB rescue disk with grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdx.

Run make iso and copy the contents of the iso directory to the USB stick.

Unmount with umount -l /dev/sdx1.

Now reboot your PC and boot from USB.

...

..."

That's officially cool. Got to love he released the source too...

POP goes the code review... Prince Of Persia Apple II Code Review Series

2013-06-14T17:55:00.001-07:00

Fabien Sanglard's Website - Prince Of Persia Code Review: Part 1 (Introduction)

Even though it is the Apple II version written in 6502 assembly language, it was a pleasant experience to dive in the code of that mythical game: As usual there were many fascinating software wizardries to discover.

The Apple II apparent poor environment for game programming was actually ground to unmatched innovation and creativity : From self-modifying code, in-house bootloader, clever floppy disc format to skewing lookup tables: Prince Of Persia features engineering treasures in every modules.

Reading the source allowed me not only to learn about the game development process of the 80s but it also renewed my appreciation for things that we take for granted today.

As usual I took numerous notes that I have cleaned up on this page. I hope it will inspire others to read more source code and become better engineers.

Acknowledgment : I would like to thank Miles.J from 6502.org and Roland Gustafsson (author of RWTS18) for patiently sharing their knowledge with me.

Part I : Introduction
Part II : Bootloader
Part III : Code explained

Where to start ?

The source code is available in a GitHub repository and can be downloaded with one command:

...

..."

If you have any interest at all in looking back in time and seeing how far we've come, you've got to read this series...

Follow along and see the magic behind the Prince of Persia for C64 via its Development blog
Price of Persia... for the Commodore 64 (really)

So you want to be a dev at Microsoft? Here's two views from the inside...

2013-06-14T17:45:00.001-07:00

DamienG - Working at Microsoft

Ahmet Alp Balkan on the Microsoft Azure team reflected on his experiences at Microsoft. His experiences do not exactly match mine (initially on LINQ to SQL, then Entity Framework and finally xbox.com) but I recognize some of his points.

Here is some further discussion along with some other thoughts that have come up over the years. A lot of these don’t apply just to Microsoft and some are useful for people new to the industry to think about.

Firstly

People think of Microsoft as a single entity with a sole focus and one opinion.

That’s about the worst mistake you can make.

Microsoft is like hundreds of small companies that often work together but sometimes against each other. They have different processes, dynamics, attitudes and goals not only within the same division but also within the same building or floor.

Thinking your experience with one team is a reflection of the whole company is short sighted. Microsoft employs almost 100,000 people including over 40,000 in the Redmond area alone.

It’s like a small country.

...

..."

Ahmet Alp Balkan - 8 months in Microsoft, I learned these

Two years ago today, I started Microsoft Windows Azure as an intern, in the very same team I joined right after college and I am working for last 8 months.

I decided to summarize a few points I learned so far in this job during last 8 months. This may sound like the way things work are crappy, it is not. I learned that one will see this sort of problems in all large scale companies. Most of them are not specific to Microsoft at all. Every company has its own problems. I am not saying that I am unhappy and not complaining. These are purely a few lessons I was not aware of in the college (expectations vs reality sort of article). Read on:

...

..."

One day when I grow up I want to...

Wait, people I work with read my blog (sometimes)... um... err... um...

Well anyway, these two inside views seem to jive with other accounts I've heard and read. But they also jive with working at almost any monster sized company (or even some non-monster sized companies). A number of the points had me nodding, "Been there, done that and I wasn't even a Blue Badge!"(i.e. a Microsoftie).

One thing to consider is that I know a number of people on the inside and they really love it there. Perfect? No. Work is a four letter word for a reason, but sounds like there are much much worse places to be at ("Been there, done..." err... um... cough... DEL DEL DEL... )

"The Essential HTML5 Mobile" DZone Refcardz Cheat Sheet (reg-ware)

2013-06-14T17:26:00.001-07:00

DZone - Refcardz - 186: HTML5 Mobile Development

The Essential HTML5 Mobile Cheat Sheet

This Refcard is intended to bring you up to speed, and help you jump head-first into mobile HTML5 development. The card first covers the most important HTML5 mobile technologies, including key variations by platform and device, then offers a cream-of-the-crop selection from the vast ecosystem of tools, frameworks, and communities that have sprung up to support mobile HTML5 development. The card assumes basic knowledge of core web development technologies (JavaScript, HTML, CSS).

I still think this whole web thing is a fad, let alone mobile web... Oh wait, it's the whole native phone app thing that's a fad, yeah, that's it! (We can only hope ;) If you think this too, then this checsheet might come in handy for you...

WPF TextBlock vs Label, what's the diff?

2013-06-14T17:14:00.001-07:00

2,000 Things You Should Know About WPF - #842 – The Differences Between Label and TextBlock

You can use either Label or TextBlock elements to display text in an application.

The two elements appear to behave similarly, but there are a few differences:

A Label...

A TextBlock....

I love Sean's 2,000 Things You Should Know About WPF posts. "WPF? Isn't that dead?" No, not even. Mature, maybe, but hell so am I and I'm not dead (well, at least I like to think so... ;)

Anyway... I was asked this the other day and I gave a pretty lame answer. Now I can actually sound like I know something! I know, imagine that!

Dev:"But it's new and shinny! Let's upgrade!" DBA:"Over my..." - Preparing to upgrade your SQL Server

2013-06-13T18:38:00.003-07:00

simple talk - Database Administration - Preparing to Upgrade your SQL Server

It isn't a problem to use deprecated TSQL features until it comes to the time to move the database to a server with a newer version of SQL Server, because The Upgrade Adviser tool will tell you what needs to be changed. An alternative is to flush out the use of archaic features via scripting during the development process so there are no surprises later. Jonathan Allen shows how.

The job of preparing to upgrade SQL Server is one that DBAs look forward to but also dread in equal measure; on the one hand there is the delighted anticipation of new shiny things to work with, on the other hand the dread of knowing what to do if everything breaks or making sure that everything is ready for the changes? The problem is that your databases may be using features that don’t work in the version of SQL Server you’re upgrading to. If so, then they’ve got to be altered to get everything to work. Only if you make sure that all the databases will work on the new version of SQL Server can you look forward to a stress-free upgrade.

SQL Server makes things as easy as possible for you with various tools and features that let you know what if anything will cause problems and therefore stop working if you upgrade, and they will also warn you what features are likely to be problems in a version or two. There is the upgrade advisor tool, a dedicated application that will analyse all the components of SQL Server that you have installed and produce reports for you to review to guide you through an upgrade. This isn’t what we are going to look at, but I wholly recommend that you take a look at the Upgrade Advisor for the SQL Server version you intend to install, even if you are not intending to upgrade yet, and review what might be a problem and what information you will get out of it. Just so that you are one step ahead when the upgrade *does* get started. The SQL Server Upgrade Advisor can be found here:

...

Speaking of upgrading SQL Server servers, this looks like some great into for those looking to upgrade now or in the near future.

A quick look at the coming Los Angeles Light Rail and Subway lines/extensions (Yes, LA has subways)

2013-06-13T18:38:00.001-07:00

The [Los Angeles Metro Rail (Think LA Light Rail, Subway, Buses)] Source - New ‘under construction’ map for Metro Rail debuts

This is the latest “under construction” map produced by Metro’s Creative Services staff. As you can see, there are five rail projects shown that aren’t on the usual day-to-day rail map: the second phase of the Expo Line, the Gold Line Foothill Extension, the Crenshaw/LAX Line, the Regional Connector and Purple Line Extension of the subway.

The first two of those are under construction while utility relocations are underway on the other three.

It’s pretty impressive, given that prior to July 1990 — when the Blue Line opened — there was no Metro Rail. Check out this interactive map that shows how the system has grown in the past 23 years.

Metro Rail today has 87 miles of track and 80 stations and, of course, the system is set to expand beyond what’s shown above when other Measure R second and third decade projects are considered: the Eastside Gold Line Extension, the South Bay Green Line Extension, the Airport Metro Connector, the East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor, the West Santa Ana Branch Corridor and the Sepulveda Pass Transit Corridor. [GD: Post Leached in Full]

While you all might now care, I now ride the subway every workday so I care and since it's my blog... :P

We have a long way to go, but we're getting there, where public light rail/subway transportation really becomes viable for many areas of LA. The main problem. from my seat, is that it's still to hub focused. To focused on LA Union Station. But hey, again, there's hope with the new projects that even that will get better! :)

"Microsoft SQL Server 2014 CTP1 Product Guide" - One new SQL Server, 12 PDF's...

2013-06-13T18:23:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft® SQL Server® 2014 CTP1 Product Guide

Download the datasheets, white papers and technical presentations that will help you evaluate Microsoft SQL Server 2014 CTP1.

Version: 1.0

Date Published: 6/13/2013

File name: SQL_Server_2014_CTP1_Product_Guide.zip

File size: 23.6 MB

The SQL Server 2014 CTP1 Product Guide is now officially available to customers and partners. The guide is intended to help you get the most value out of Microsoft SQL Server 2014 CTP1.

Here's what's in the zip;

The StartHere page;

And finally the Datasheet;

Keeping my eyes open for the SQL Server 2008 RS to SQL Server 2014 story (I hope there is one, without have to go 2008 R2 - 2012 - 2014...)

Win8Templates now at 71 - 71 Windows 8 App Design Reference Templates and counting...

2013-06-13T18:16:00.001-07:00

CodePlex - win8templates

Here's the current list...

Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Baby Journal
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Basic Game
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Block Style Color
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Block Style Picture
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Blocks
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Brick Style
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Cook Book
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Drawing
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: E-Commerce Electronics
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: E-Commerce Fashion
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: ECommerce Jewellery
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Education Dark Banner
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Education Guide
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Finance
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Financial Adviser
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Fitness
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Food
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Food and Dining
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Food Light
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Food Variable
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Forum
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Health & Fitness
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Health Management
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Invitation
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Language Convertor
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Lifestyle
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Lifestyle Light
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Magazine
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Matching
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Measurement
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Music
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Music and video
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Music Zone
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: News
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: News and Weather
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: News Big Image
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: News Dark
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: News Grey
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: News Light Theme
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: News Variable Tile
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Notes
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Photo Browser
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Photo Viewer
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Pillar Block
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Planning Diary
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Product
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Recipe
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Restaurant
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Shoe Store
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Shopping
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Simple Grid
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Solution
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Standard Square
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Text Keyboard
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Tracking
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Translator
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Travel and Tourism
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Travel Dark Theme
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Travel Light Theme
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Travel Picture
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Trekking Planner
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Tutor
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Tutor Advanced
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Unit Convertor
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Variable Grid Style A
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Variable Grid Style B
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Variable Grid Style C
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Variable Grid Style D
Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Weather Clock
Windows 8 App Desing Reference Template: Education Big Picture
Winodws 8 App Design Reference Template: Social Feed

Should be enough to get you started doing about any kind of app? If not, keep watching as looks like more are added all the time...

Getting into the flow, surfing restaurant inspections with GeoFlow and Microsoft Data Explorer (Think "Web Data + Excel + 3D = Good Food")

2013-06-13T18:03:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Business Intelligence - Surfing Restaurant Inspections with Microsoft Data Explorer and GeoFlow

Father’s Day is approaching and you might be thinking about a good place to have a nice lunch with your Dad… We would like to show you how Data Explorer and Geoflow can help you gather some insights to make a good decision.

In order to achieve this, we will look at publicly available data about Food Establishment Inspections for the past 7 years and we will also leverage the Yelp API to bring ratings and reviews for restaurants. For the purpose of this post, we will focus on the King County area (WA) but you can try to find local data about Food Establishment inspections for your area too.

What you will need:

Data Explorer.

Geoflow.

Access to the following data:

Food Establishment Inspections data from datakc.org (more details):

We will link to this URL (which points to the CSV file version of the data) using Data Explorer: https://www.datakc.org/api/views/pph9-v8tz/rows.csv?accessType=DOWNLOAD

Yelp API (more details):

You will need to sign up for an API key before being able to connect. Please also make sure to read the Yelp API Terms of Use before using this API.

What you will learn in this post:

Import data from the Yelp Web API (JSON) using Data Explorer.

Import public data about Food Establishment Inspections from a CSV file.

Reshape the data in your queries.

Parameterize the Yelp query by turning it into a function, using the Data Explorer formula language, so you can reuse it to retrieve information about different types of restaurants as well as different geographical locations.

Invoke a function given a set of user-defined inputs in an Excel table.

Combine (Merge) two queries.

Load the final query into the Data Model.

Visualize the results in Geoflow.

...

You know you want to play with this... Just admit it. Makes me want to install Office 2013 just so I can... :)

Mash some web API's with your brain and Windows 8 and you get... (some free training)

2013-06-12T18:51:00.001-07:00

Devhammer's Den - Build Apps with APIs - Register Today for Upcoming Webcasts!

Join Microsoft Technical Evangelists for upcoming app mashup webcasts designed to walk you through start to finish for your Windows 8 app in one hour. Featuring starter kits based on APIs from Yelp, Bing, Mashery, Facebook, Twitter and Meetup, these workshops are great for students, hobbyists and professional developers who want to learn the basics of app development and publish their first app to the store.

Each session will run from Noon - 1pm EDT. Attend one or all four webcasts, you decide. For more details or to register, choose a webcast below.

...

6/12/2013 | Windows 8 App Mashup : Exploring the Social Networking APIs

6/19/2013 | Windows 8 App Mashup : Exploring the Yelp API

6/25/2013 | Windows 8 App Mashup : Exploring the Bing Maps API

I blogged about this on the Coding4Fun blog, Mash Windows 8 Store Apps, public web service API's and some starter kit code together and you have... "APIMASH Starter Kits", so thought a follow-up about getting some training on them would be nice...

BTW, if you miss it, looks like they will be available on-demand.

Also there's a number of in-person events too. To see everything, check out this search

Using .Net Settings? Hate it when you rev your app and the settings "go away"? Here's why and how to fix that (cough... "Settings.Upgrade()" cough)

2013-06-12T18:26:00.001-07:00

John's Workshop - Automatically upgrading user settings after an application version change

Suppose you’re building a .NET desktop or console application and are using the standard Settings file to keep track of any user-specific settings, as well as providing their default values. Then, suppose you upgrade your application version and notice that all of the user settings have been reset to their default values! Why does this happen and what can you do about it?

What Seems to Be the Problem?

...

Here’s the important part: the application version number is part of the path to the settings file containing the user modified values! So, if you upgrade the version number of the application to 2.0.0.0 and run it again, the application would no longer see the user-made changes from version 1.0.0.0. This is because the application can’t find a folder containing the exact version number and it falls back to the embedded default settings.

The Solution

Luckily, there is a rather simple solution to the whole problem: call the Settings.Upgrade() method. This will actually collect and merge all user-modified settings from previous versions of your application and store them in a new user.config file, mapped to the current application version. So, you could basically call Settings.Upgrade() every time your application starts, or you could use…

A Smarter Solution

Here is a neat little trick I’ve come up with, which will help you detect whether a settings upgrade is required. Let’s see the code snippet first, and then I’ll explain:

...

And there you go! Here’s how the whole thing works: The first time your application starts, the UpgradeRequired flag will be set. This means that the Upgrade() method will be called (which won’t really do anything at this point) and the flag will be cleared. If you start the application again, the flag will be cleared and no upgrade will be performed. When you do upgrade the application version, however, the default settings will be used – and the default value of the UpgradeRequired flag is again True. So, the settings file will be upgraded and the flag will be cleared again. That’s it!

ApplicationSettingsBase.Upgrade Method

"...

The Upgrade method performs two actions to assure smooth transition to a new version of an application:

It notifies all of the corresponding settings providers of the existence of the upgraded application through a call to their IApplicationSettingsProvider.Upgrade method, assuming they have implemented the IApplicationSettingsProvider interface. This action is not performed if the settings wrapper class is marked with NoSettingsVersionUpgradeAttribute.

It reloads the values for all of the application settings.

You can override the default behavior of Upgrade to implement custom upgrading or merging behavior. Use the GetPreviousVersion method to retrieve individual values for a setting for the previous version of the application. Examples of custom upgrade behavior include:

Using new policy defaults that override one or more of the previous user-specified values or previous defaults.

Special translation of old values to be compatible with newer ranges, a different settings property group, and so on.

..."

sigh... I hate my old brain. I've been using Settings for forever and never knew about this feature (which was added in .Net 2.0). Now I knew the why, that the app version was in the file path, but never realized there was an upgrade method.

Anyway, John provides a great post on the how and why of it and how to build an even better upgrade code snippet.

Tiny Tiny RSS WAMP, MAMP or LAMP installers, VM or even an Amazon/Azure cloud VM

2013-06-12T18:08:00.001-07:00

I Programmer - RSS Reader As Appliance - Easy Google Reader Replacement

BitNami has added Tiny Tiny RSS server to its collection of LAMP appliances. This makes it very easy to replace Google Reader with something you can rely on. Perhaps this is the way all software should transition to the cloud

...

Now we have an implementation of tt-rss as an appliance by BitNami. You can download a complete installer for Windows, OSX and Linux. You first use the BitNami WAMP, MAMP or LAMP installer and then install the application. While installing on a spare machine you might have around is reasonable, a more flexible option is to use one of the complete virtual machine images. All you need is WMware or VirtualBox and you can load the machine image and start working at once with everything installed and configured - right down to the passwords.

...

The final option is the one that might make the most sense for the most users - a cloud deployment. All you need in this case is a credit card.

The virtual machine images can be deployed to either Amazon EC2 or Windows Azure and all with minimum fuss. You can even have one server for free for a year, but after that its $24 per month plus Amazon or Azure charges for three servers. Note that using the installers or VM images without cloud hosting is free.

The only problem is that BitNami charges are in addition to the Amazon or Azure charges, which makes it more difficult to work out what the whole package will cost - but if you just want simplicity of deployment then this is the way to go.

...

BitNami Tiny Tiny RSS

BitNami Tiny Tiny RSS Stack provides a one-click install solution for Tiny Tiny RSS. Download installers and virtual machines or run your own Tiny Tiny RSS server in the cloud.

Tiny Tiny RSS is an open source web-based news feed (RSS/Atom) reader and aggregator, designed to allow you to read news from any location, while feeling as close to a real desktop application as possible.

While my current RSS service of choice is NewsBlur there's something VERY appealing about having my own cloud solution. Hum... Newsblur is OSS too, maybe I should... :P

WintellectNOW FTW - Wintellect now providing on-demand learning for everyone (and there's even a few free sessions too)

2013-06-07T08:58:00.001-07:00

Wintellect - Introducing WintellectNOW

Last week, we introduced WintellectNOW, a new on-demand learning service designed to make the same training content that we provide to Microsoft and other large customers available anywhere, any time.

Jeffrey Richter and a team of talented people at Wintellect designed and wrote the software, which we’re continuing to improve on a daily basis. We’ve done some streamlining on the registration process since launch, for example, and we have a cool library-search feature tested and ready to roll out to production. Videos are hosted by a third-party hosting service, while all the data the site uses, including the video metadata and registration information, is stored in Azure. We have some really cool stuff on the back end to make it easy for enterprise training managers to move people in and out of seats and to get metrics regarding seat usage, and of course, we offer volume discounts to enterprise customers. In short, we invested a lot of time and money into V1 of the software, and we’re already working on V2. We can’t wait to let the public see some of the stuff we have planned.

...

Most of the sessions available on WintellectNOW require a paid subscription, but we’re committed to providing free content as well. Currently, you can view the following videos without purchasing a subscription:

John Robbins deep dive into IntelliTrace, a talk that has proven wildly popular with our corporate customers

Jeffrey Richter’s introduction to all things Azure

My introduction to writing jQuery plugins

We’ll be publishing more free videos this summer and periodically rotating existing videos between the paid pool and the free pool. So keep your eye out for some great free content. And watch as the library expands to include individual sessions and complete courses on topics ranging from HTML5 and Azure to ALM and mobile development...

WintellectNOW

WintellectNOW - IntelliTrace

Geek's building learning tools for geeks so we can learn to be better geeks... Again, Wintellect FTW :)

Windows 8 Mail Tip - Pin Email accounts so you see what's new in what at a glance...

2013-06-07T08:48:00.001-07:00

Rohit's Tech World - Windows 8: Pin Individual Email Account to Start Screen

We have seen that the mail application comes as a default application in Windows 8. In the mail application, you will be able to add several Mail accounts such as Gmail, Hotmail, YahooMail, etc. However, When u open the mail application, you get to see only one mail accounts. You can also check other mail accounts by selecting the configured mail accounts in the bottom left of the app. Do you know that you can create a separate client for each of the mail account. Let’s see how can we do this:

...

Sometimes you want a single, unified mailbox view, but sometimes you want to know only if you get mail in a specific account.

Personally I didn't like the unified view. I want to see, at a glance, which box has how many new messages (i.e. "can I ignore it or not at" at a glance). This is how Windows Phone 8 works and I love it. I missed it on Windows 8. That is until I saw this tip.

Here's my screen and now I'm a happier camper... :)

Gov Webicons - Your one shop, 41 Agency stop for US Government agencies icons (SVG/PNG)

2013-06-04T16:14:00.001-07:00

open.NASA - Introducing Gov Webicons

...

After doing some research on SVG images on the web, I came across FC Webicons, a set of social media icons presented in SVG with PNG fallbacks for older browsers that don’t support SVG images. As that code is open source, I adopted it to present NASA’s logo in a futuristic, resolution independent way…but decided, hey, it was so much fun, why stop there?

I’m happy to introduce today Gov Webicons, a set of 41 federal agency icons that you can use on your website with just two lines of code. Creating a dashboard of agencies? Include them all. Want to just update your own agency’s icon? Take out just the code and images you need and have fun living in the future.

Gov Webicons is open source and hosted on GitHub. I’d love to include additional federal agencies and can do so as long as there is a publicly available SVG version of their graphic online. Any tips on improving Gov Webicons or ideas for more agencies to add? Drop me a line in the comments below, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

seanherron / Gov-Webicons

Gov Webicons Set is a set of resolution-independent social icons for use on your website. They use feature-detected SVG graphics (with PNG fallbacks) to display the icons over their appropriate negatively indented anchor titles.

If you have icon suggestions, either submit a pull request or open an issue with a link to the SVG file of the agency you wish to see included.

Enjoy Gov Webicons!

Based on FC Webicons by http://fairheadcreative.com. (Code is CC-Attrib; attrib to http://fairheadcreative.com)

Usage

Include gov-webicons.css in your HTML

Use the following code to include a federal agency icon:

...

Included Agencies

Air Force

Archives

Army

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Coast Guard

Congress

Department of Homeland Security

Department of Commerce

Department of Defense

Department of Energy

Department of Justice

Department of Transportation

Environmental Protection Agency

Food and Drug Administration

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Government Accountability Office

General Services Administration

Health and Human Services

Housing and Urban Development

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Department of Interior

Department of Labor

Library of Congress

National Aeronautics And Space Administration

Navy

National Institute of Standards and Technology

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Office of Personnel Management

Office of Science and Technology Management

Peace Corps

Executive Office of the President

Patent and Trademark Office

Small Business Administration

Secret Service

State Department

U.S. Treasury

Seal of the United States

United States Agency for International Development

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Veterans Administration

..."

Come on, you know you've wanted a NASA, DEA, US Treasury, Secret Service, etc web icon on your site...

With yesterday's TechEd VS/TFS announcements, does that mean there's nothing new for //build? Nope! We've only heard "about half"...

2013-06-04T14:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, right after the keynote, Brian Harry and Brian Keller had their Modern Application Lifecycle Management session. At the start of that session Brian Harry mentioned that we've only heard about half of the story only about the ALM stuff and that "we'll do a similarly large set of announcements" and "there's going to be allot of announcements".

So stayed tuned folks!

TechEd NA 2013 Day 1 Announcement Round-up - VS 2013, TFS 2013, InRelease, SQL 2014, Server 2012 R2, BizTalk Services, Azure-in-a-box and even more Azure...

2013-06-03T14:42:00.001-07:00

Brian Harry's blog - Visual Studio 2013

Hold on to your seat, this is going to be a long one…

Today at TechEd, I announced Visual Studio 2013 and Team Foundation Server 2013 and many of the Application Lifecycle Management features that they include. Today, we enabled some of those features on Team Foundation Service for you to try out immediately and I announced that a preview of VS 2013 and TFS 2013 will be available at the Build conference later this month.

It’s an exciting time now that we can start talking more openly about what’s coming in our next major release. As usual, there’s so much I will only be able to just skim the surface with this post. Stay tuned for many more posts on my blog, the ALM blog, the Visual Studio blog ...

ALM and Beyond - Visual Studio 2013

Today, Microsoft announced Visual Studio 2013, the next release of is integrated developer tools solution for building modern applications for devices, the cloud and on the client. Visual Studio 2013 Preview software will be released at Build 2013.

Visual Studio 2013 will incorporate a wave of new hybrid Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) features, many of which were released today through Team Foundation Service, that help development teams be more productive, improve collaboration through agile development practices, ensure the creation of quality, high performing applications, and accelerate delivery times and resolving issues in production through the support of DevOps capabilities.

Available today, Microsoft also announced updates to its Team Foundation Service with the addition of Agile Portfolio Management, Team Room, Cloud Load Testing, Code Commenting, enhanced Web Test Case Management features and more.

Additionally as of today MSDN subscribers will have access to new benefits that will enable them to develop and test more easily on Windows Azure. This new benefit includes up to $150 worth of Windows Azure platform services per month at no additional cost for Visual Studio Professional, Premium or Ultimate MSDN subscribers, and use rights to run selected MSDN software in the cloud.

...

Somasegar’s blog - Visual Studio 2013, ALM, and DevOps

...

In this vein, today marks the start of TechEd North America 2013, and with it I’m excited to announce several key advances related to the modern application lifecycle.

Visual Studio 2013

I’m thrilled to share that our next major release, Visual Studio 2013, will be available later this year, with a preview build publicly available at Build 2013 in San Francisco at the end of the month. In his keynote demo and follow-on foundational session today at TechEd, Brian Harry highlighted some of the new ALM capabilities coming in this release and in the cloud, including new features focused on business agility, quality enablement, and DevOps. Here are a few of my favorites:

Agile portfolio management, which enables you to plan your agile projects “at scale” by showing the hierarchical relationship between work being done in multiple teams across your organization.

Cloud-based load testing, a new capability of Team Foundation Service that takes advantage of the elastic scalability of Windows Azure to generate traffic, simulating thousands of simultaneous virtual users so as to help you understand how your web applications and services operate under load.

Code information indicators that provide information about unit tests, work items, code references, and more, all directly within the code editor in Visual Studio, increasing developer productivity by enabling project-related contextual information to be viewed and consumed without leaving the editor.

A team room integrated into TFS, improving the collaboration amongst team members via a real-time and persistent chat room that integrates with data and interactions elsewhere in TFS.

Identity integrated into Visual Studio, such that the IDE is connected to backend services that support, for example, roaming the developer’s settings as the developer moves from installation to installation.

Support in TFS for integrated code comments that facilitate code reviews with increased transparency and traceability.

A .NET memory dump analyzer, which enables developers to easily explore .NET objects in a memory dump and to compare two memory dumps in pursuit of finding and fixing memory leaks.

Git support built into Visual Studio 2013, both on the client and on the server, including in the on-premises Team Foundation Server 2013.

...

InRelease

DevOps is an increasingly important part of application lifecycle management and is a growing area of interest as businesses need to develop and deploy quality applications at a faster pace. We continue to invest in improving the modern application lifecycle, with a particular focus on DevOps.

As part of this increased focus, today I’m excited to announce Microsoft’s agreement to acquire InCycle’s InRelease Business Unit, a leading release management solution for .NET and Windows Server applications. InCycle’s InRelease product is a continuous delivery solution that automates the release process through all of your environments from TFS through to production, all in one solution, and all integrated with TFS.

...

MSDN and Dev/Test on Windows Azure

The technical improvements we’re making to Visual Studio represent just one facet of the work we’re doing to improve the productivity and success of teams using Microsoft platforms.

For example, we’ve improved the Windows Azure benefit available as part of eligible MSDN subscriptions; you now have a choice as to how you use your Windows Azure credits for development and test, whether you apply them for Virtual Machines, Web Sites, Cloud Services, Mobile Services, Media Services, HDInsight, or beyond. The Windows Azure MSDN benefit includes access to virtual machine images preconfigured with MSDN subscription software, such as SQL Server and BizTalk Server, and alternatively supports uploading your own virtual machine with your MSDN software.

...

Matt's ALM space - Team Rooms in Team Foundation Service

So now after the Tech.Ed announcement the Team Rooms are available :)

They are not just a chit-chat tool for conversations into the team. They are an invaluable tool for collaboration.

First of all, we can configure it as a broadcast messenger for certain events

Brian H. Prince's Blog - Stop the presses! Stopped VMs are no longer charged, MSDN benefits improved, and more!

Wow, some truly exciting announcements were made today. I will summarize them here, but once again, for the nitty-gritty details, please see the original post.

1- If you stop a VM, you won’t be charged. This is very new. ....

2- Charged by the minute. ...

3- MSDN subscribers receive free credits. Up until today MSDN subscribers receive ‘free Azure time’. This was expressed as a grid, with a certain amount of free time, allocated per service. You might get 750 hours of free CPU, and then 1GB of free data, etc. etc. This was very complicated, and we were always tuning the ‘right amount’ of each free resource to make sure that it was useful by the developer.

Today we are shifting to a free credit per month plan. ...

4- Additions to the support VPN devices list. VPN devices from F5, Citrix and WatchGuard are now supported for point-to-site networking, in addition to already supported devices from Cisco and Juniper.

5- New datacenters being developed.

...

Brian H. Prince's Blog - But wait! That’s not all! More Azure Awesomeness!

And the updates and news about Windows Azure keeps rolling in today. We are making tons of announcements at TechEd this week. Here are some more:

You should read part one of these announcements.

1. MSDN licenses are now officially allowed to be used in Windows Azure environments (for dev/test).

2. MSDN subscribers get big discounts on Azure costs. A subscriber can spin up any number of Windows Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and BizTalk Server VMs for Dev/Test scenarios using Windows Azure and pay only 6 cents/hr when running them....

3. The Azure management portal will now tell you how many MSDN credits you have left for the month, and when it resets.

4. Web Sites now has SSL support. During the preview, Windows Azure Web Sites could do SSL...

5. Updates to Windows Azure Active Directory. ...

6. Free Trials are now easier! Until now, the free trial was like the MSDN benefits. You received a certain amount of access to each service. That was both complicated, and hard to understand. Now, each trial receives $200 per month of service credit! Yes, $200!

...

Totally go sign up for a free trial now, at http://aka.ms/AzureForFree.

7. We announced the preview of BizTalk Services. ...

ScottGu's Blog - Windows Azure: Announcing Major Improvements for Dev/Test in the Cloud

Windows Azure provides a great environment for dev/test. This is true both for scenarios where you want to dev/test in the cloud and then run the production app in the cloud, as well as for scenarios where you want to dev/test in the cloud and then run the production app using an existing on-premises Windows Server environment.

Windows Azure’s new IaaS and Virtual Networking capabilities make it really easy to enable enterprise development teams to use the cloud to do this. Using the cloud for dev/test enables development teams to work in a flexible, agile, way without ever being bottlenecked waiting for resources from the IT department. Development teams can instead use the cloud in a self-service way to spin up or down resources in minutes. And then when they are ready to deploy their apps they can choose to do so using their existing on-premises servers. This makes it really easy to start leveraging the cloud even without having to fully bet on it yet for production scenarios.

Today we are announcing a number of enhancements to Windows Azure that make it an even better environment in which to do dev/test:

No Charge for Stopped VMs

Pay by the Minute Billing

MSDN Use Rights now supported on Windows Azure

Heavily Discounted MSDN Dev/Test Rates

MSDN Monetary Credits

Portal Support for Better Tracking MSDN Monetary Credit Usage

Below are details on each of the above improvements. The combination enables an amazing Dev/Test cloud solution, and an unbeatable offer for all MSDN customers.

Brent Ozar - (Almost) Everything You Need to Know About SQL Server 2014

Just when you thought SQL Server couldn’t get better, Microsoft is announcing the features for SQL Server 2014. They haven’t announced the licensing/pricing, but I’ll tell you what I do know so far.

First, open this in another tab and hit play so you’ve got some background music while you read. Done with the commercial? Okay, let’s get to it:

Cache frequently used data on SSDs. ...

More online maintenance operations. Got ....

AlwaysOn Availability Groups get more secondaries. If ...

AlwaysOn AG readable secondaries will be more reliable. In ....

Use Azure VMs as AlwaysOn AG replicas. ....

Failover Cluster Support for Clustered Shared Volumes. ...

Smart Backup to Azure ...

On-premise SQL Server with data/log files in Azure storage. ...

Hekaton: specialized in-memory OLTP tables. ...

Other cool improvements: ...

To BizTalk and Beyond! - BizTalk Services is LIVE!

Windows Azure BizTalk Services (aka BizTalk Services, aka WABS) is now available as a Preview on Windows Azure. I've had the opportunity to work with WABS since the beginning. I'm in awe of how much WABS has improved. For example:

The BizTalk Services portal has a much better flow for adding partners and creating EDI agreements.

Retrieving tracked data in the BizTalk Services portal is much easier.

In the Visual Studio project (specifically BizTalk Services project), creating a Connection in the Bridge design area is easier.

Scope of the Loop map operations in a Transform has a much better UI experience.

TAP customer feedback directly added to the product, including Refreshing the BizTalk Service instead of doing a full deployment and adding XSLT.

...

All About Microsoft - Microsoft finds a new way to deliver a private cloud in a box

...

On June 3 at its TechEd conference, Microsoft officials announced a new product called Windows Azure Pack. For all intents and purposes, as cloud expert Roger Jennings said to me via Twitter today, the Azure Pack delivers what Microsoft promised with the Azure Appliance.

Microsoft's own Web site description of the new Azure Pack basically corroborates this. "The Windows Azure Pack delivers Windows Azure technologies for you to run inside your datacenter, enabling you to offer rich, self-service, multi-tenant services that are consistent with Windows Azure," the introduction notes.

As Microsoft itself explains in its free, downloadable white paper on Windows Azure Pack (thanks for the link @ehorley), the Windows Azure Pack is a superset of the horribly named "Windows Azure Services for Windows Server" technology, which Microsoft announced back in July 2012, and which it made generally available in January 2013.

Windows Azure Services for Windows Server is a set of select features that originally debuted as part of Windows Azure which Microsoft made available to its service providers. The core set of technologies in this were hosted Linux and Windows Server virtual machines; support for high-density Web sites (the complement of Windows Azure Web Sites, codenamed "Antares"); Service Management Portal; and a Service Management application programming interface (codenamed Katal).

The components in the Azure Pack include ...

That's enough reading for now... (and I think my copy-n-paste fingers are bleeding... ;)

Brian (and Infragistics) is having a theme give-away... As in giving away some of their WPF and Silverlight themes

2013-05-31T12:18:00.001-07:00

Brian Lagunas - FREE Metro Light and Dark Themes for WPF and Silverlight Microsoft Controls

The quest for a good application theme never ends. You spend hours scouring the realms of Google and Bing looking for a clean, modern, and touch friendly theme to use in your application. That is, until now! If you have been looking for a free Metro theme for WPF and Silverlight, then look no further.

Infragistics ships a number of great themes with their NetAdvantage for WPF and Silverlight products. As the Product Manager for these controls, I started asking myself, “Why should we keep these great themes to ourselves?”. If you know me, you know I am a hard core XAML developer and I am all about community. Heck, I single handedly wrote the most popular Extended WPF toolkit in the world, and I provided it to everyone for free. So starting today, I am excited to announce that I am going to be giving away, all of our themes for the standard WPF and Silverlight Microsoft controls. Yes, I said GIVING AWAY, as in FREE.

There is a catch though. We will NOT support every single Microsoft control. Why? Well, because we would prefer for you to use our controls instead. For example, we will not be providing a style for the Microsoft DataGrid because we have a much better xamDataGrid control. You get the idea. Also, I am not going to give them to you all at once. I am going to release them a one at a time. Why? Well, I want to see what kind of response I get from the community. If I get zero response or support from the community, then there is no need to keep releasing themes. I don’t want to waste my time, or the developers who create these themes time. On the other hand, if the community gives me an overwhelming show of support, then I will be releasing more themes. Seems fair, wouldn’t you agree?

Today’s free theme is a clean, modern, touch friendly theme in the form of the Infragistics’ Metro Theme. You will be getting both a Light and Dark version. ...

...

Silverlight

You can see the full list of supported controls in the list below.

Accordion

AutoCompleteBox

BusyIndicator

Button

CheckBox

ComboBox

Expander

GridSplitter

Label

ListBox

PasswordBox

ProgressBar

RadioButton

Rating

RepeatButton

Slider

TabControl

TextBox

ToggleButton

Tooltip

...

WPF

Next up is the WPF version of the Infragistics’ Metro Theme. Just like the Silverlight version, we are providing you with styles for the primitive WPF controls that appear in the Visual Studio toolbox, as well as some controls in the WPF Toolkit. Just like for the Silverlight version, we organized the themes by their respective source so that if you don’t use the WPF toolkit, there will be no need for your code to take a dependency on it..

Here is the full list of support controls:

Accordion

AutoCompleteBox

Button

CheckBox

ComboBox

Expander

GridSplitter

GroupBox

Label

ListBox

PasswordBox

ProgressBar

RadioButton

Rating

RepeatButton

Slider

TextBox

ToggleButton

Tooltip

...

..."

This made me chuckle, "There is a catch though. We will NOT support every single Microsoft control. Why? Well, because we would prefer for you to use our controls instead..." GOT to love that kind of clear and honest answer. Will that me everyone happy? No, it's the internet. I'm sure someone will whine... But hey, what do you want for free, your money back?

I applaud them for looking at their stuff and saying, "you know, this isn't directly revenue generating and we could do something nice for the community by giving some of our theme's away." Or they could have been thinking, "OMG the WPF app's I'm seeing are pretty darn fugly. Maybe if we gave our themes away..." Or more likely, "Brian, will you shut the heck up and stop bugging us about 'community' if we give something away? Like maybe our themes?"

Anyway, no matter what they were thinking, I'm glad they are doing it.

Finally I also like that it's a a little WPF and Silverlight love... :)

MarraLAB for Visual Studio, your new DDE (Debugging, Deployment Environment)

2013-05-31T09:50:00.001-07:00

Visual Studio Gallery - MarraLAB for Visual Studio

Traditionally, esoteric knowledge on how to tear down, troubleshoot and debug applications has been difficult to surface, discover and reuse among teams: MarraLAB solves this problem. MarraLAB helps teams graphically surface solution-specific scripts, processes and workflows ...

CREATED BY: Grey Ham (BrekIT)

SUPPORTS Visual Studio 2012

LAST UPDATED 5/31/2013

VERSION 0.5

...

Please see the extensive Getting Started guide which covers most of the functionality of MarraLAB in a Walkthrough / Tutorial style.

MarraLAB tightly integrates into Visual Studio to help developers automate their repetitive programming and debugging tasks when working across physical/virtual machines and devices.

...

Do I need MarraLAB?

Would you like to 'Attach to Process...' with a single click on local and remote processes?

Would you like to build and deploy projects by dragging a Visual Studio Project onto a running machine?

Would you like to be able to run complex scripts to setup target machines for debugging?

Would you like to automate mundane development and debugging tasks and allow your development team to easily reuse that knowledge?

If your answer to any of those question is "Yes", then consider trying MarraLAB. This version is FREE!

What does MarraLAB do?

MarraLAB associates rules and scripts with files, filetypes (ie: by extension or file pattern) or Visual Studio Projects. When projects or files are dropped onto a target device (thumbnail) you are given the choice of executing any associated scripts.

That's it!

These scripts are written by yourself (with lots of help from MarraLAB) and might include building a project and deploying it to the drop target. The script might know that dropping a .REG file onto a device means to import its contents into the remote registry. That a file with a .MSI extensions needs to be installed. And as the scripts are written in PowerShell, there is no limit to what you can do: with creativity, you can use the same principles to deploy troubleshooting tools and configuration changes to a remote machine.

And all of this knowledge can be surfaced graphically and shared with your team.

...

Some examples please...

For example: out of the box, MarraLAB provides a generic 'copy' Rule that knows how to deploy any File or Folder dropped on a target device - the user is given the option of which script to execute for the matched file pattern:

MarraLAB can also be used to automate the building and deploying of a Visual Studio Project/Solution or the installation of your common Troubleshooting Tools. For example:

...

To get the best out of MarraLAB, it is recommended the MarraLAB Agent (provided inside the VSIX download) be installed on your target machines (Vista SP2+). The Agent is a lightweight, native C++/ATL/COM/HTTPS-based System Service that provides a much better experience for developers using MarraLAB: instead of worrying about configuring file permissions, opening ports and modifying your system to cater for remote administration, the Agent opens up a single port on the remote test machine and provides powerful file transfer, process and session management functionality.

...

Supported Operating Systems

The MarraLAB Visual Studio Package is supported on Visual Studio 2012 Professional and above. MarraLAB will not work with Visual Studio 2012 Express.

The MarraLAB Agent (optional - but recommended for devtest machines) is supported on all operating systems from Windows Vista SP2+ and above.

Future Development

This is the first Beta release of MarraLAB. An entirely free version of MarraLAB with unlimited usage rights will always be available in future that provides "at least" the functionality available in this Beta.

A paid "Professional" Version will be made available around August/September 2013 that will provide much more functionality. More on that and what it will contain nearer the time.

..."

Don't see something like this, with this level of features, every day. Looks pretty darn cool and I like the option for the Agent. I've been there, done that, where creating a local agent as a command proxy is just so much easier than trying to get remote admin stuff all configured and working.

TechEd Reveal - Looks like BizTalk ain't dead yet... BizTalk Services on Azure to be announced next week?

2013-05-30T12:06:00.001-07:00

Winson's Technical Multiverse - BizTalk Services (on Windows Azure) prequel

Once the NDA lifts, I will be able to provide additional information on what is known as BizTalk Services.

This should be in early next week. ...

Interesting! Good to see BizTalk isn't dead and is being "cloudified"... Depending on price, options, etc, this might spur adoption. Then again, thinking about how I've heard of BizTalk being used, getting the biz to buy off on it being in the cloud might be interesting. Then again, it might be a no brainer too.

Looks like next week's going to be an interesting week.

From A to W... The US Gov goes Git (and API crazy too). There's an insane about of data, API's and OSS projects from the US Government...

2013-05-24T10:57:00.001-07:00

Nextgov - White House Releases New Tools for Digital Strategy Anniversary

The White House marked the one-year anniversary of its digital government strategy Thursday with a slate of new releases, including a catalog of government APIs, a toolkit for developing government mobile apps and a new framework for ensuring the security of government mobile devices.

Those releases correspond with three main goals for the digital strategy: make more information available to the public; serve customers better; and improve the security of federal computing.

...

DATA.Gov - Developer Resources

Government Open Source Projects

That list of API's and projects just blows my mind... I mean... wow. If you're looking to wander through some code, there HAS to be something here that you'll find interesting. There's something for every language, platform and interest, I think...

Windows 8.1 Pre-beta WinRT API Spelunking (Think, "What's new in the Win8.1 WinRT API's" or "Wow, this is a ton of information..." or "OMG, Justin needs a life..." ;)

2013-05-24T10:35:00.001-07:00

Justin Angel - Pre-beta Windows 8.1 WinRT Developer APIs

In this article we’ll review new developer WinRT features that’ll be released in the upcoming Windows 8 release (dubbed “Windows 8.1” / “Windows Blue”). Microsoft recently announced that during June 2013’s BUILD conference a developer preview of Windows 8.1 will be released for download. In the meanwhile many Windows 8.1 “leaked” images are available online. These “leaked” images allows us to get a sneak preview of the featuresets that’ll be announced in BUILD conference. For the length of this article we’ll go over those features.

Methodology: How was this research done?

Windows 8.1 images contain WinMD files describing their embedded Windows 8.1 developers APIs. It’s possible to get to Win8.1’s WinMD files and then compare them to the existing Windows 8 RTM WinMD files. This entire article is based upon using Reflection to see those API differences.

Download the latest Windows 8.1 “leaked” image. This article was based on an image named “9385.0.FBL_PARTNER_OUT17.130415-2049_X86FRE_CLIENT_EN-US-PL-PL-RU-RU.ISO”.

Create a bootable USB drive from the ISO file and Install it on a nearby machine.

Win8.1’s WinMD files can be found under the following directory: C:\Windows\System32\WinMetadata

Using Microsoft’s Framework Design Studio it’s then possible to compare the WinMD files from a WIndows 8.1 “leaked” image and Windows 8 RTM.

...

Table of Contents

Bluetooth 4.0 RfComm and GATT support

Point of sale: Barcode scanners and Magnetic card readers

Smart Cards

Lock screen Image Apps

VPN support for Metro apps

Scanner APIs and apps

Support for any External / USB device

Native PDF rendering in apps

Multiple screens projection support in apps

XAML/WinJS: New resolution scaling support / Super-high resolution tablets

Camera: Low-lag cameras / HDR

New Metro App Types: Appointments, LockScreen, Contacts and GeoLoc

New App Type: GeoFenced activation

New App Type: Lock screen call

New App Type: Appointments Provider

Text-to-speech

Read-write access to Camera roll, Saved pictures and playlists

XAML/WinJS: new SearchBox control

XAML/WinJS: Hubs for SemanticZoom

XAML: DatePicker and TimePicker

XAML: Flyout, MenuFlyout and SettingsMenuFlyout

XAML: AppBar simplification

XAML: DataBinding Improvements

Globalization: Currencies, Numeral systems and Numerical formatters

Other minor but important Win8.1 features

How to code Win8.1 C# apps before public beta?

How to develop Win8.1 WinJS apps before public beta?

Disclaimer: Please don’t sue me

This is a book length, "omg, this looks like a ton of work" look at the unreleased Windows 8.1 WinRT changes

(via Windows Enterprise Desktop - Analysis of Windows 8.1 “Blue” APIs Reveals Cool Coming Attractions)