Buzz In the Cloud November 25, 2008
Whoa...today is a doozy for buzzing, so let's get right to it.
I For One Welcome Our New Cloud Overlords
The latest Deep Fried Bytes episode (entitled "Windows Azure: the Overlord in the Cloud") includes an interview with Steve Marx, Program Manager for Windows Azure.
7's a Lucky Number
Oak Leaf Blog rounds out their Azure Storage Services Test Harness with a post on paging the LINQ query result sets and another on testing for table existence...hmm, maybe a management utility is in order to get rid of that pesky requirement. By the way, they also placed the harness up for your viewing pleasure.
If CTP Isn't Cutting Edge Enough
What's that you say? Living on the edge isn't enough for you? You want to jump off the edge with your bedroom sheets as your parachute? Okay, daredevil, I've got the fix for your thrill-seeking craving! Check out the SQL Services Labs where you'll find 7 projects in "incubation" status. Included in these projects are:
Overall, I see the utility of all these projects (outside of "Anchorage" it really has me confused). I think it would be good to have them all graduate from incubation. But if I had to pick one, it would be the ADO.NET data services over SDS.
Saving Lives One Cloud at a Time
Over at the Joy of Code, Josh Twist tells us about his adventures in the clouds while coding a proof of concept for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute). Basically, the software receives beacon data from fishing boats (relayed from satellites to the RNLI data center to the Cloud App). Should a fisherman go overboard, an alert signal is raised and the Coast Guard will have tracking data in order to send the proper assets to the right place. That is incredible if I must say so myself.
Two Pages We Have More Content in a Single Post
DevX finally decided that Windows Azure was worth space on their gargantuan site. So they wrote a two page introduction to Windows Azure. Oh wait, the introduction is on the entire Azure Services platform. Honestly, you'd be better served reading David Chappell's white paper. Heck the AzureWiki has more content than that introduction (with more on the way).
Chappell Show
I wonder how many people have hacked the pronunciation of poor David Chappell's name. To be honest, until I saw this interview, I was one of them. Now I know it's CHAPpell (like the Church) not ChapPELL (like the show). And knowing is half the battle.
Googling Azure
Dion Almaer, Googler and founder of Ajaxian, gives us a refreshingly honest view of PDC from a competitor's perspective. Our overlord in the cloud is pleased.
Must Have a Long Digestive Track
Kirk Evans writes a pretty insightful post on the PDC announcements in "The PDC That Took Weeks to Digest" He talks about letting it stew, simmer, and brew, but never eating. Maybe it would digest quicker if he hurry up and cook it.
Yet Another Blog Post About Silverlight and Azure
Although to give the author credit, it does discuss the limitations of Silverlight on the current release of Azure. Hey guys, can we get to working on that whole SSL certificate thing?
Okay that's enough for today's buzz. There's still a lot more that I could throw at you, but I'm getting fatigued. I'll be back tomorrow with more buzz.