Connect the IoT Dot's with help from ConnectTheDots.io (Connect your tiny IoT devices to Azure...)

MSOpenTech/connectthedots

ConnectTheDots.io is an open source project by Microsoft Open Technologies created to help you get tiny devices connected to Microsoft Azure and implement great IoT solutions taking advantage of Microsoft Azure services such as Azure Stream Analytics, Machine Learning or HD Insight.

As part of the project you will find code samples, configuration scripts and guides that will help you set up tiny devices and configure Microsoft Azure services to make the most out of the data produced by your devices.

Starting with a basic scenario, the intent is to make the project grow with more devices types, more scripts to provision and configure Azure services and more "Getting Started" guides to help you implement full end to end solutions yourself.

As a first sample, we have created a simple end to end solution, from device all the way to a Website, that consists in displaying in real time on a web page raw temperature and humidity data generated from an Arduino board equipped with a weather Shield as well as alerts and processed data generated by Microsoft Azure Stream analytics based on the raw data from the device. We are using a Raspberry Pi, acting as a gateway, to send the data from the sensor up to Microsoft Azure Event Hub service. Azure Stream Analytics

Check out the Wiki to try out your first project!

Connect The Dots - Quick Start

The MS Open Tech ConnectTheDots.io project illustrates how to connect sensors and devices to the Microsoft Azure Cloud, and use Microsoft Azure to analyze and visualize the resulting data streams.

In a typical topology, sensors (here several Arduino Uno R3 boards with Arduino Weather Shields) connect to one or more local IoT Gateways (here Raspberry PI devices), which relay the data to Microsoft Azure Event Hubs. Once in the cloud, the data streams are fed into a web dashboard and to near real-time analytics engines (here Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics, in this case to generate averages and alerts across all devices). The real-time data streams, average, and alerts are then visualized in a Microsoft Azure Website, which can be viewed with any HTML5-capable browser. The high level architecture for the ConnectTheDots.IO project is shown in the figure below

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I've only been doing my Coding4Fun Hardware Friday posts for how long (Hint: I start my 5th year next month) and this is the first I've seen this project. Oh sure, it's only been out a few months, but still this is a space I watch out for and I'm just now seeing this? You know what this says? Says we need more IoT blogs and shows! Funny that Channel 9 is doing just that, with the Internet of Things Show :)

 

[Found via Secret Microsoft Communications - IOT: Connect the dots by MS Open Tech, gets your UNO connected to the cloud!]

Writing Bug Reports that won't bug you...(or the dev that picks it up)

QuickLeft - How to make friends and write a proper bug report

Imagine coming home from a day at work, and there's a note from your spouse that reads:

"Fix the light, it's broken"

You have no idea where to start. Which light is it? Did they mean lamp? Which part is broken? How did it break? Is it outdoors or indoors?

When your spouse returns home, they ask, "How come you didn't fix the light? Didn't you see my note?"

Now think about how the developers on your team feel when they get a bug ticket that reads like this:

"The buttons on the homepage are broken"

I'm embarrassed to say, this is an actual bug report I filed recently. I didn't describe how it could be reproduced nor in what context I'd found the bug. Needless to say, the developer who'd been assigned the ticket had no idea where to start. Truthfully, it even took me a while to remember what this bug was about!

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Is there a class/video/dime-cast/Plural sight/Khan Academy/etc./etc. thing on writing bug reports? Why is it so hard to do well? And why do we, even very experienced dev's even have hard times remembering to do them well (let alone "users")?

One reason is that they might not be the recipient, required to take action on them, enough? One of those walk in a dev's shoes thing?

Or is that we all seem to have to re-invent this wheel?

Or that so much that could be automatitcally gathered, isn't?

Or that enough guidance isn't provided?

Or are we all just lazy?

Or a little of all of the above?

 

In any case, you want to get your bug or issue fixed? Want to get some bug crushing love from a dev? Give them as complete and detailed bug report as you can! You can't provide too much detail, information, already taken troubleshooting steps... Really, you probably can't... 

Regular Expression Explorer, v2.1 released (i.e. VS 2012, 2013 version)

Visual Studio Gallery - Regular Expression Explorer

Test regular expressions against sample text. Select preset suggested patterns or create and save your own. Copy the pattern to the clipboard for pasting into your code. Share your patterns with FaustWare to be added to future releases for all to use.

 

Current Version is 2.1

See the change log below for more details.

RegEx Explorer is a visual studio addin which lets you create or modify regular expressions and test them with any text. Matches are highlighted by surrounding each with a red box. A dropdown list of suggestions is available with choices for email, GUID, URL, etc. Any pattern you create can be added to the suggestion list. Existing suggestions can be removed by pressing DEL on a selected name.

Checkboxes are available for Ignore Case, Multiline and to auto-add or remove a ^$ wrapper. Patterns can be saved to be future suggestions. Patterns can be copied to the clipboard with a button press for pasting into your code. Matches are displayed in real-time as you type.

Read the README file for more information.

This add-in is offered for free, but donations are welcome (and encouraged!) if you like the utility. Also, please report any issues or make suggestions for changes.

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Changes in 2.1:
- Created Extension for Visual Studio 2012, 2013

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I blogged about this Extension 5 1/2 years ago, Free regular expression addin for Visual Studio - Regular Expression Explorer and I think what stuck me most was how the Gallery has changed since then.

Then (Aug, 2009)

Now (Dev 2014)

Welcome to the world of the clean web... :)

XBOOK Duo - One XBox 360 and one XBox One crammed into one semi-portable "book"

Make: - The XBOOK Duo: A Custom Gaming Console Ready for the Road

A guy by the name of Ed has created a beautiful custom gaming laptop that contains an Xbox 360 and an XBox One, thus solving the backwards compatibility issue of the original system.

Gamers can now play both new and old games with a simple flip of a switch while they are on the go!

The inside fits all the circuitry, wires, HDMI outputs, and a built in 22″ Vizio 1080p LED LCD monitor allowing for a splitter to alternate between the two consoles. Surprisingly only one power supply and power cord is needed, and so far Ed hasn’t encountered any overheating problems despite all the that is found within.

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How crazy is that! Man, I wish I had these kinds of skills. Awesome that he spent the time to show us all how to build our own too... :)

While this is still pretty big, I think my first notebook was bigger and about 1/10,000th of the power...lol

RIP Dr. Dobb's

Farewell, Dr. Dobb's

After 38 years of glory, the long run of Dr. Dobb's has come to an end.

This year, our website will deliver almost 10.3 million page views, which is an unprecedented number for Dr. Dobb's. It's up from 9 million last year and 8 million three years ago. That kind of growth is somewhat unusual for a site that has not changed its look or its mission, nor indulged in tawdry tricks like click-bait headlines or slideshows promising 9 quick tips for choosing a coding style. The numbers confirm that there is a deep thirst in the programmer community for long-form technical content featuring algorithms and code, as well as strong demand for explanations of new developer technologies and reliable reviews of books and tools.

If I were so inclined, this might be the right time for me to move on, and so leave, as they say in sports, "at the top of my game." And indeed I will be leaving Dr. Dobb's at the end of the year. But it would be more accurate to say that it is Dr. Dobb's that is leaving: Our parent company, United Business Media (UBM), has decided to sunset Dr. Dobb's. "Sunset" sounds like a marketing euphemism to avoid saying "closing down," but in this context, it has a specific meaning that "closing" does not convey. That is, that there will be no new content after year end; however, all current content will be accessible and links to existing Dr. Dobb's articles will continue to work correctly. It is the equivalent of a product coming to end of life. It still runs, but no new features will be added.

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Why?

Why would a well-known site, dearly loved by its readers and coming off a year of record page views, be sunset by its owner?

In one word, revenue. Four years ago, when I came to Dr. Dobb's, we had healthy profits and revenue, almost all of it from advertising...

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Dr. Dobb's subsequent popularity meant that it became a worldwide means of sharing curated, high-quality programming info. The advent of the Web, which offered a vast array of new information sources, meant that Dr. Dobb's was no longer the central access point — a complicated transition for the team, but one wholly in keeping with the original mission. With the advent of Hacker News and Proggit and other aggregators, developers themselves began curating content from numerous sources, and in a certain way, our mission is now complete.

This should not suggest that there is no role anymore for Dr. Dobb's. As our page views show, the need for an independent site with in-depth articles, code, algorithms, and reliable product reviews is still very much present. And I will dearly miss that content. I wish I could point you to another site that does similar work, but alas, I know of none.

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I saw this recently and it made me kind of sad and feel kind of old.. We'll miss you Dr. Dobb's (and all those other print-turned digital-turned dead publications)  :(