The (Not Quite Daily) Buzz In the Cloud - Nov. 7
I finally got some hands on time with Windows Azure. No I don't mean using the SDK and the Hands-on Labs that you can get from the Azure Developer Center on MSDN. (You have downloaded them already haven't you?) I mean my application is actually running, in the cloud, as I type. For right now, it's just some sample code I'm building up for demos and presentations. In a little while, it will be more...fun.
Anyway, now you know why I've been quiet for the past few days. There's still a lot of buzz in the cloud to share. So let's get to it right now.
In Case You Were Under a Rock
America (USA so that I don't sound presumptuous), elected our 44th President earlier this week. Congratulations to Barack Obama for a hard earned victory!
I Haz a MSDN Fourem Wanna See?
Windows Azure, Windows 7, and the other announcements at PDC brought the a huge flux of visitors to the MSDN Forums. This unexpected spike (I'm sure the community team was expecting a response, but not like this...not like this), brought the Forums to its knees. Someone was posting (Windows Azure forums has over 700 posts in its one week of existence already...no not Azure services...Windows Azure specifically), but it wasn't me, nor a number of other Tweeters who reported 500 errors a plenty. Jeremy Kelly and company appear to have compensated, and I was able to add to the growing list of "When is my Azure Key Coming?" posts. I also answered a question or two. Maybe if the Forums were hosted on Azure, they would have been able to scale up like bluehoo.com (as if they need the extra plug, being shown off at the keynote).
I Can Haz Laive Fraymwerk Markitplays?
Okay...I promise that's the last Lolcat reference for today. Now that I can see the Forums, I read a few interesting threads. Like this one suggesting that developers be able to submit their Live Framework apps to a centralized "MarketPlace" where users can search for and download apps. A member of the Live Framework team responds that it's already in the works.
The Great Big Data Context in the Cloud (All Data Goes to Heaven?)
Steve Godbold, an Australian developer with Readify, wrote two posts about using LINQ with the Live Framework to enable an automatically synchronizing data repository in your application. It reminded me of a post by Rob Conery advocating an agnostic approach to persistence. Steve, if you get an opportunity say "G'day" to Joseph and Paul for me.
Mine Is Smaller Than Yours Is
Speaking of Joseph, he just wrote a post about Running Windows 7 on a EEE (do you pronounce it Tripoli)! I guess Microsoft wasn't lying when they said they are focused on resource conservation with 7. I want to see it on the OLPC...hand cranked Windows 7 FTW!
While We're Talking About Small Things
Through Peter Nowak we find a series of tutorials by Alex Feinman about using the Live Services API from the .NET Compact Framework:
Of course with the Live Framework coming to Windows Mobile, there will be a more simplified API for doing all of this. Peter also provides a post about a Mobile Developer's perspective of PDC
Multi Touch...Without the Touching Part
Want to get the Multi-touch experience of Windows 7 without Windows 7, and without touching? Look at the Touchless SDK. This toolkit uses your webcam to track the movement of objects and translate that into manipulation of your software. Think of the Sony Eyetoy or Xbox 360 Live Vision camera and you'll get an impression of what's going on.
Nice Try, But Not Really
Ars Technica wrote some coverage on Windows Azure, and appeared to have missed the mark. An example of one error is:
Conversely, Azure has extended HyperV to make it use hardware virtualization support (it wasn't specified, but presumably things like VT-d and NPT/EPT) to increase its scalability; this change is being propagated back to the Core OS group and should become a part of future Windows Server and/or HyperV releases
Win 2k8 Hyper-V already uses hardware assisted virtualization. It will however receive live migration support thanks to the advances necessary to support cloud computing. Their closing comment that Azure is an immature product sounds a bit off base. The buzz that I'm hearing is that people want to go live with it today.
Chakkaradeep Says 'Hello World'
Chakkaradeep (along with dozens of other developers) gave a quick tutorial regarding .NET Services on his blog. Also, from the buzz it sounds like a number of people are prepping Azure presentations. So if you're still on the fence about Azure, (how did you find yourself reading this) you can let someone else who has taken the plunge tell you about it at work or your local .NET User Group.
You Want Links? You've Got 'Em
Sriram Krishnan, a Program Manager on the Azure Services team provides a comprehensive list of Azure links for your perusal. He also gave a presentation at PDC on Azure Development Best Practices. If you're into that sort of thing you can add his blog to your reader too 
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Coming Out Party
Practically every Microsoft blogger on the Azure teams had a post recently saying "Sorry for being so quiet lately, now you know why." Then preceded to dump their brains across the vast series of tubes. It's very interesting reading. I'll collect the URLs of the Azure Team bloggers as I find them and post them...um somewhere on here.
Seriously, Silverlight Streaming Didn't Give You Enough Storage?
Jim Nakashima, one of those Azure team members I was telling you about continues his blitz on the InterWebs with a piece he calls "Silverlight MediaElement Playing a Video Stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage" One guess as to what this one is about. Can anybody say Azure based Youtube clone...except you can actually see the video at full screen. Also, we found the Cloud Computing Tools team Blog from a trackback on the SMEPVSWABS article.
Attack of The Clones
People are speculating what the killer demo app for Azure will be. For example, there are now ten thousand more RSS readers than we need because of WPF. Will people go out and build their own Twitter services? (Of course Twitter might do well to move to Azure after their scaling issues with RoR).
Power to the People
So now that I have a Windows Azure key (finally!) to go along with the .NET Services and Live Framework keys, I figured that I will do something interesting. First I want you to tell me what application you would like to see on Azure. Then I am going to start a Codeplex project and invite you to come help me build it. That's right it will be the first open source Azure application. I have some thoughts in mind on what I would like to see and if you're too quiet, that's what I'm going to do.
There's still a lot more news I can report on, but then I'd be stuck here typing away for the next 12 hours instead of playing with Azure. So without further ado, I bid you good evening. And don't forget to keep your head in the Cloud!