The (Did I Mention Weekdays Only) Daily Buzz In the Cloud
I Hope You Like Text
Before I forget again, Microsoft announced their new Bizspark program this past week, which gives qualifying software solutions startups free VSTS+MSDN Premium subscriptions, free Azure hosting, and free business use server and desktop licenses of Windows, SQL Server, Biz Talk Server 2006 R2, and a bunch of other goodies for up to three years! All for the extremely affordable price of $100 payable on exit from the program. Also participants get to keep the software they received upon exit.
The Program Guide explicitly says 1 license of the Expression Studio + MSDN Subscription, but does not state a limitation on the VSTS licenses. Combined with the DreamSpark program (which offers free software to students), and the Empower for ISV partner program, Microsoft pretty much is giving away the tools you need to start your software business (in the hopes that you’ll remember them when you’re all grown up).
When They Said “Utility Computing” They Didn’t Mean Literally
I, Cringely has a post called “Azure Blues” where he postulates that Microsoft’s strategy with Azure is akin to the electric company finding ways to stave off the impending deluge of renewable energy.
Self Plugging Is Acceptable
This weekend, fellow Azure Coder David Justice and I packaged the Silverlight Toolkit into an Azure Web App and deployed it to the Azure Coding playground. Well Justice did the packaging, I did the deploying.
Just Don’t Get Stung
OakLeaf Systems provided an illustrated walkthrough of setting up Windows Azure Services Platform (which they decided to dub WASP)…bitten by ASP or stung by WASP…which is worse?
Revenge of the Architects
The MSDN Architecture Community Center has aggregated a collection of PDC sessions with an architectural slant to them, notable entries include the Framework Design Guidelines session with Brad Abrams and Krzysztof Cwalina, and the Lap Around “Oslo” session. The post announcing the feature says they selected 45 sessions to highlight but there only seems to be about 15 at the portal. On the same blog I found an announcement regarding the availability of the Application Architecture Guidance 2.0 beta on Codeplex.
Oooh, Look at the Pretty Pictures
For those suffering from tl;dr syndrome. ZDNet provides a gallery of pictures from Windows 7, highlighting some of its new features. BTW this Pre-Beta release is incredibly stable…Almost tempted to make it my workstation…if Microsoft promised an upgrade path from it to beta to RC to RTM, I would.
The Missing PDC Session
Here is a session that didn’t make it to PDC, Manuvir Das talking about Azure. It’s a great, no frills presentation about Azure and what it does for you. I love the comparison between developing datacenter apps and building a workstation from components in order to create a spreadsheet app.
What a Show Off
Emmanuel Huna, whom I got to meet at PDC through Twitter, has posted a screencast that summarizes some of the cool tech announced/demonstrated at PDC.
The Last “What Is Azure” Link
If you’ve read my other (Pseudo) Daily Buzz posts, there has been a “What Is Azure” link in all of them. If you haven’t read any of the others, you probably won’t read this one…and most likely won’t read another. And even if you would…tough, find it on your own. With that, I give you Peter Blomqvist’s synopsis of Windows Azure.
The Disciples are Going to Kill Me
VS 2010 is using WPF! So now all the naysayers can stop saying “Why doesn’t Microsoft use WPF for their Apps?”
Looks like I finished this off before midnight…so I guess I’ll publish it today. But don’t get used to weekend editions :P