Monday, November 17, 2014

Getting started with AzureML with the End-to-End tutorial...

Continuous Learning - End-to-End Predictive Model in AzureML using Linear Regression

Machine Learning (ML) is one of the most popular field in Computer Science discipline, but is also the most feared by developers. The fear is primarily because it is considered as a scientific field that requires deep mathematical expertise which most of us have forgotten. In today's world, ML has two disciplines: ML, and Applied ML. My goal is to make Machine Learning easier to understand for developers through simple applications. In other words, bridge the gap between a developer and a data scientist.  In this blog, I will provide you with a step-by-step guide for building a Linear Regression model in AzureML to predict the price of a car. You will also learn the basics of AzureML along the way, as well as its application it in real-world by creating a Windows Universal Client app.

What is AzureML?

AzureML is meant to democratize Machine Learning and build a new ecosystem and marketplace for monetizing algorithms.  You can find more information about AzureML here.

Why AzureML?

Because it is one of the simplest tools to use for Machine Learning. AzureML reduces the barriers to entry for anyone who wants to try out Machine Learning. You don’t have to be a data scientist to build Machine Learning models anymore.

Logical Machine Learning Flow

Figure below illustrates a typical machine learning process with end result in mind.

image

...

image

...

Conclusion

AzureML is a new and highly productive tool for Machine Learning. It may be the only tool that lets you publish a machine learning web service directly from your design environment. Machine Learning is a vast topic and Linear Regression models discussed in this article only scratches the surface of the topic. In this article, I went over a stale dataset to showcase AzureML as a predictive analytics tool. You can apply the same procedures and components for Classification and Clustering models. Finally, my goal was in writing about Applied Machine Learning. I am not a Data Scientist, but now with all the productive tools, I feel that I can put to work some of the great algorithms that scientists have already invented.

Some more Datasets you can play around with

  1. Daily and Sports Activities Data Set link
  2. Farm Ads Data Set link
  3. Arcene Data Set link
  4. Bag of Words Data Set link

...

There's a free tier for Azure ML that was announced week before last, so if you've been yearning to play in a Machine Learning sandbox, Azure ML and this post will get you started!

The USS Ponce gets some Laser punch! As in a drone killing laser...

NextGov - This US Navy Ship Is Now Armed With a Drone-Killing Laser Beam

image

The U.S. Navy now has a ship in the Persian gulf armed with a “laser gun.” That’s how the U.S. chief of naval operations described it, in passing, to a congressional hearing back in March.

The Laser Weapons System, as it’s officially called, has been mounted on the USS Ponce, which is a kind of floating helicopter pad designed to transport marines and equipment for amphibious assaults....

...

 Naval Technology.com - Laser quest: Phalanx, LaWs and the future of close-in weapon systems

...

The US Navy is set to take CIWS technology into unchartered territory this summer when it sea-tests a revolutionary directed-energy laser weapon on board the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf.

Scientists working under the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Quick Reaction Capability programme have proved that targets identified by a Phalanx CIWS can just as easily be tracked using the Laser Weapon System (LaWS). In 2011, an earlier version of the high-energy laser was used to defeat small boat threats from a destroyer and the following year LaWS downed multiple unmanned aircraft.

The system comprises a single laser weapon control console manned by a surface warfare weapons officer on board the USS Ponce, who can operate all functions of the laser and, if commanded, fire the weapon. Using a video-game-like controller, that sailor will be able to manage the laser's power to accomplish a range of effects against a threat, from disabling to complete destruction.

Experts believe that high-energy lasers now offer an affordable way to target asymmetric threats such as unmanned aircraft and small attack boats at the speed of light and with extreme precision.

...

My son-in-law is current in the Persian Gulf area so got excited when I saw this and had to double check which ship he was on. Nope, this isn't his... :( But hey, it's still lasers being deployed for "real"... :)

Friday, November 14, 2014

[Personal] That's my boy!

This would have been cool to post on Veteran's Day, but hey, when you're active or a vet, every day is Veteran's Day :)

Here's my boy, who's still deployed to Afghanistan, but we're hoping will be home (or at least in the States) for Christmas...

 IMG_20141024_172222

I so want one of the MRAPs. I'll see your Hummer and raise you an MRAP. lol

 

Related Past Post XRef:
[Personal] Special Microsoft This Week on Channel 9 Shout Out to Jacob
[Personal] Supporting my son in my own weird little way...

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Who's codealiking now? Limited number of Premium Access tokens for you? Gordon Beeming, that's who!

<gordon's blog/> - My Experience with Codealike

I have been using Codealike for a while now and thought I'd share my experience and things that I like about codealike with everyone. I did mention codealike on This Week on Ch9 when I hosted it last week with Greg Duncan.

What is codealike?

Codealike is a service that tracks your activity while you code normally. Once you've installed and signed in in your preferred IDE, the plugin will track, process and send the data to our servers so you can visualize it anytime you want to learn how you work and how to improve through trustworthy data.

...

Why should you use it?

As you can see from above there is a bunch of useful information that you can get out of codealike. If you have navigated to the codealike features page you would see that some of the cool features are premium features which you would normally need to pay about $12 a month or $100 a year. But if you email me I have a limited number of tokens that I am able to give out for Premium access to codealike, so what you waiting for? Send an email to me at [click through to his blog, please....] with preferable a link to who you are (blog, twitter, other social media, etc.) and if I have tokens left I'll forward them on to you =D.

image

First listen to Gordon chat about this on This Week on Channel 9 ([20-15]). Then read his post. And then [note to self] go get it! Even if he runs out of tokens, there's still the free version... :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Look who's talking now? My first primary hosting for This Week on Channel 9, "TWC9: Two Geeks and a Cube"

MVA (Microsoft Virtual Academy) Monthly - What's coming this month...

MVA Monthly: November 2014 Preview

Jerry Nixon and Colin Lyth are back and in this installment of our MVA Monthly series they discuss what’s new and upcoming for the month of November.

image

...

MVA (as you can see below) has been something I've been watching for a while now. And let me tell you, you are GOING to be seeing much more from them. They have very aggressive growth plans and are working hard on getting more courses, authors and content out to us... All still at the same price as today, free.

One tip, add their recent releases feed to your reader of choice. That, and Jerry and Colin's MVA Monthly series, will help you keep in the MVA loop...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Look, Microsoft Virtual Academy has a new look!

Microsoft Press Free eBooks now have a home in the Microsoft Virtual Academy
//build/ –> //learn/-> //publish/ -> //your free new training sessions/
11 for 12... 11 Free SQL Server 2012 Microsoft Virtual Academy Classes
Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) provides free Microsoft Cloud Tech training
Congratulations you can become a Microsoft Licensing Expert and earn MS Licensing Accreditation (no lie)
Developing with HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Jumpstart from the Microsoft Virtual Academy (free and a free exam voucher too!)
8 x 2 = 16 hours of instructor lead virtual Windows Phone 8 Dev training (That's free too!)
"Office 365 for the IT Pro - Platform" course now available on MVA
Microsoft Virtual Academy - Announcing the Release of the ‘Office 365 for the IT Pro – Platform” course to the
WAMVA - Windows Azure Microsoft Virtual Academy courses... (which are free of course)

Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) provides free Microsoft Cloud Tech training

Make sure you Connect(); On Demand. There's so much more than what was live streamed...

Sure, all you've been hearing about for the last couple days is the news and announcements from the Connect(); virtual event. You might have watched the live stream and read the many related posts.

But did you know there's a ton, I mean a boat-load ton, of more on-demand connect? We're talking 80 sessions... 90% all available now (the last 10% should be available tomorrow'ish)

image

Add the event feed to your feed catcher of choice, add them to your Channel 9 queue image or use the cool C9 apps, there's a great deal of free content here that will keep on top of the current wave...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Connect(); Build, Ignite- It's Conference Announcement Time!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Microsoft gets wild on GitHub - Repo-repo of the Day: microsoft.github.io

microsoft.github.io

image

image

image

image

Now that's allot of repo's. I had to smile that the code behind microsoft.github.io is, of course, hosted on GitHub.

image

image

So do you believe yet that Microsoft, well at least DevDiv, is going all OSS out?

DARPA wants to build “Aircraft Carriers in the Sky”

DARPA News - Wanted: Ideas for Transforming Planes into “Aircraft Carriers in the Sky”

image

DARPA invites input on how to enable existing large aircraft to carry, launch and recover multiple unmanned air systems for a variety of missions

Military air operations typically rely on large, manned, robust aircraft, but such missions put these expensive assets—and their pilots—at risk. While small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can reduce or eliminate such risks, they lack the speed, range and endurance of larger aircraft. These complementary traits suggest potential benefits in a blended approach—one in which larger aircraft would carry, launch and recover multiple small UAS. Such an approach could greatly extend the range of UAS operations, enhance overall safety, and cost-effectively enable groundbreaking capabilities for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other missions.

To explore and expedite the possible development of these potential benefits, DARPA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) (http://go.usa.gov/AWpm) seeking technical, security and business insights addressing the feasibility and potential value of an ability to launch and recover multiple small unmanned air systems from one or more types of existing large manned aircraft, such as C-130 transport planes.

“We want to find ways to make smaller aircraft more effective, and one promising idea is enabling existing large aircraft, with minimal modification, to become ‘aircraft carriers in the sky’,” said Dan Patt, DARPA program manager. “We envision innovative launch and recovery concepts for new UAS designs that would couple with recent advances in small payload design and collaborative technologies.”

The new RFI invites short (8 pages or less) responses that must address three primary areas:

  1. System-level technologies and concepts that would enable low-cost reusable small UAS platforms and airborne launch and recovery systems that would require minimal modification of existing large aircraft types. This area includes modeling and simulation as well as feasibility analysis, including substantiating preliminary data if available.
  1. Potentially high-payoff operational concepts and mission applications for distributed airborne capabilities and architectures, as well as relative capability and affordability compared to conventional approaches (e.g., monolithic aircraft and payloads or missile-based approaches). DARPA hopes to leverage significant investments in the area of precision relative navigation, which seeks to enable extremely coordinated flight activities among aircraft, as well as recent and ongoing development of small payloads (100 pounds or less).
  1. Proposed plans for achieving full-system flight demonstrations within four years...

Heck if we can jump out of C130's (Been there, done that) then it should be able to release and recover small drones, you'd think? Well get your thinking caps on, DARPA things so too!

Check it out there's a roadmap for WPF (and no, it's not to the cemetery ;)

.NET Framework Blog - The Roadmap for WPF

When we introduced WPF back in 2006 (.NET 3.0), the response was absolutely phenomenal. Enterprises, ISV’s, and Microsoft Partners have made the technology central to their business, building amazing vertical solutions and mission critical applications for their customers. This momentum carries forward to today – 10% of all newly created projects in Visual Studio 2013 over the past 60 days are WPF. WPF has amassed a passionate, vibrant, community that uses it to build data-centric desktop business applications on Windows. A recent example of this would be a new WPF application that was developed by our partners at InterKnowlogy. This application was recently used by CNN producers in the mid-term elections to upload, validate, and configure the data seen in the on-air election application. The election data is presented on CNN’s Magic Wall, which Microsoft’s Bing Pulse team helped to develop.

This post will address the roadmap for the WPF platform, including areas of investment we’re prioritizing and tooling improvements for upcoming releases of Visual Studio.

Areas of Platform Investment

Based on a survey we conducted at the //build conference earlier this year, UserVoice suggestions, and interviews with a large number of WPF developers across a variety of market segments over the past few months, we’ve prioritized the following areas for future investments to make WPF a better platform.

Performance: While WPF is actively being used to build large-scale, high performance applications like Visual Studio and Blend, further improving the performance of the platform based on customer feedback is a priority for us. Some key scenarios we are looking to optimize in this context are application startup, scrolling and virtualization performance of ItemsControls.

DirectX interoperability: The primary scenario of interest here is to make it seamless for WPF applications to interoperate with newer versions of DirectX.

Supporting modern hardware: Technologies like touch and high density displays are ubiquitous on modern devices. To support upgrading to newer hardware, it’s important that existing WPF applications can adapt to new hardware capabilities coming to desktop machines.

Tooling: We will continue to co-evolve the tools for WPF when appropriate, alongside new platforms like .NET/WINRT. This commitment is reflected in the tooling investments section of this post.

Investments in some of these areas might introduce dependencies on a particular OS version and/or have compatibility risks. For these cases, the features will light up based on the host OS and/or might require you to opt in to use the feature.

Current Progress on WPF

Let’s first address a common question regarding support: WPF is a quintessential part of the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is defined as a component of the operating system, instead of an independent product. So, support for .NET Framework is driven by the support lifecycle policy of the Windows operating system. Extended support for the current recommended version of .NET (4.5.2) on Windows 8.1 is available till 2023. We will continue to fix security issues and bugs reported by customers that impact a large cross-section of our WPF customers.

... [Click through for the rest]

image

..."

Okay maybe this isn't a ringing endorsement or announcement for a big bang release, but heck at least there IS a roadmap and we ARE getting fixes and features! I think this is the first WPF news, truly WPF news, that I've seen in a while and it's good to see... :)

Who can use VS 2013 Community Edition for free? (No, it's not everyone) Here's the official word...

Earlier today the Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition was announced, This IS the Visual Studio you've been looking for... Hello Visual Studio Community Edition!. The question is, who can legally use this edition?

Well funny enough, there's a new version of Visual Studio and MSDN Licensing White Paper that covers just that...

Visual Studio and MSDN Licensing White Paper 

This white paper provides an overview of the Visual Studio product line, including MSDN subscriptions, and the licensing requirements for those products in common deployment scenarios.

Version: 1.0

File Name:

Visual Studio 2013 and MSDN Licensing Whitepaper - November-2014.docx

Visual Studio 2013 and MSDN Licensing Whitepaper - November-2014.pdf

Date Published: 11/12/2014

This white paper provides an overview of the Visual Studio product line and the licensing requirements for those products in common deployment scenarios. For a definitive guide to licensing terms and conditions for products licensed through Microsoft Volume Licensing, see the Microsoft Licensing Product Use Rights (PUR) document and applicable licensing agreements. For retail customers the license terms are specified in the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) included with your product or with your MSDN subscription.

Here's a snip directly from the doc;

Visual Studio Community 2013

Visual Studio Community 2013 is a free, full-featured IDE for any developer building non-enterprise apps across any platform or device. It includes all the capabilities needed to create compelling non-enterprise applications, including powerful productivity features, mobile development tools for Windows, iOS and Android, and access to thousands of extensions.

Who can use the software

Rights to use Visual Studio Community depend on the customer segment and usage scenarios as explained below.

Individual developers

Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community, to create their own free or paid apps.

Organizations

· An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source projects.

· For all other usage scenarios: In non-enterprise organizations up to 5 users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or > $1M in annual revenue) no use is permitted for employees as well as contractors beyond the open source, academic research and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.

Example 1: A University wants to use Visual Studio Community 2013 for training students enrolled in the “Data structures and Programming” course and for a “Big Data” academic research project that requires building a cross-platform mobile application. Further the University also plans to customize its ERP software and automate processes through its internal LOB applications. Visual Studio Community 2013 use is allowed by academic institutions for classroom learning environment and academic research and hence the University can use the software for its coursework and the research project. However Visual Studio Community 2013 cannot be used for developing and testing its internal LOB applications.

Example 2: A Fortune 500 firm has outsourced the development of its store-locator mobile application to a small agency. The application is not an open source project. The agency has 5 employees working on the project and would like to use Visual Studio Community 2013. Since the agency is a contractor developing this application for the Fortune 500 firm, and since the application is not an open source project, the agency cannot use Visual Studio Community 2013 for developing and testing the application.

Example 3: A Fortune 500 ISV is working on a mobile application which is released under the Open Source Institute (OSI)-approved open source software licenses. Employees and contractors developing and testing this application may use Visual Studio Community 2013.

...

For more information, details, TFS, VSO and more, please check out the entire 37 page document...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
This IS the Visual Studio you've been looking for... Hello Visual Studio Community Edition!

Hey, it's everyone's favorite topic! Licensing VS and MSDN... :|
Visual Studio 2013 and MSDN Licensing Whitepaper
"Visual Studio 2012 and MSDN Licensing White Paper"
Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN Licensing Whitepaper Updated
Visual Studio 2010 Licensing White Paper (includes Team Foundation Server, Lab Management and IntelliTrace)

This IS the Visual Studio you've been looking for... Hello Visual Studio Community Edition!

While Visual Studio Express (Web, Windows, Windows Desktop) is nice and better since they moved from Language Express editions, the fact that the Express editions have always been pretty locked down only a very few VS Extensions were available made them kind of half-empty editions.

Today that changes.

The three Express editions are still available but we now also have a new expanded, and extendable, Visual Studio Community Edition (VSCE)! Best of all VSCE is available at the same price point of the Express editions, that is, free!

Free for indie's, single programmers, oss and such. Enterprises? You (we) still need to buy Pro/Premier/Ultimate to comply with the license.

This is essentially VS Pro, but free. Now, no more barriers, get your coding on!

Visual Studio Community 2013 with Update 4

Download Visual Studio Community for a free, full-featured IDE with powerful coding productivity features, cross-platform mobile development tools for Windows, iOS and Android, and access to thousands of extensions. This edition of Visual Studio is available at no cost for non-enterprise application development.

Sign in to Visual Studio within 30 days with your Microsoft account to synchronize your settings across multiple machines and register your product.

image

Sunday, November 09, 2014

Look who's talking now? My first primary hosting for This Week on Channel 9, "TWC9: Two Geeks and a Cube"

While up at the MS MVP Summit last week, I had the opportunity to be the primary host for This Week on Channel 9. With me was Gordon Beeming where we geeked out for 20'ish minutes in one of the cooler spaces available, the Microsoft Maker Garage.

WP_20141106_010image

I've got to thank Jeremy Foster for suggesting this space, getting us in and to Matthew Pew for his awesome recording and editing. He made us look like pros!

Anyway, here's the show... :)

TWC9: Two Geeks and a Cube

image

 

Related Past Post XRef:
TWC9 (This Week on Channel 9) and me...
A Feed You Should Read #4 – This Week on Channel 9
This Week C9 at TechEd 2009 with Jeff Hadfield and Greg Duncan

Saturday, November 01, 2014

Microsoft MVP Summit (If you're there and you see this guy, say Hi!)

Profile-Shaved-500x473

This week I'm at my first Microsoft MVP Summit (woot!), here to as much attend the sessions as to try to network. As I look at the MS MVP roster, as I've said before, it's pretty darn humbling. I mean, these guys and gals are pretty darn awesome! Maybe if I hang out with you/them long enough, some of that awesome will rub off. :)

If you see me, please say "Hi" (if I don't say howdy first ;) and let's chat. And let me buy you a beer or two...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
MVP Showcase at the Microsoft MVP Summit 2014 (Think "Wow, I wanna talk to... and... and... and... and..."

Guess who's a newly minted Microsoft MVP?
Microsoft MVP Award Unboxing

Want to be a Microsoft MVP? Here's a couple what, where and how's...
Aidan's "Beginners Guide To The MVP Summit"
Hey Microsoft MVP’s, pluralsight has got a great deal for you! A complimentary 1-Year Standard subscription to the entire Pluralsight On-Demand training library

[Bucket List item checked off] I'm the DZone Featured MVP of the week!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

MVP Showcase at the Microsoft MVP Summit 2014 (Think "Wow, I wanna talk to... and... and... and... and..." )

The Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog - MVP Showcase at the MVP Summit

What has quickly become a favorite among attendees at the MVP Global Summit is gearing up for its third installment.  The MVP Showcase, happening this Sunday from 16:00-19:00 at the Hyatt in Bellevue, gives MVPs the opportunity to share their current projects, network and discuss new technological trends.

"The MVP Showcase adds an additional layer of networking, collaboration and fun to the MVP Summit," says Community Program Manager and MVP Showcase organizer, Kari Finn.

MVP Presenters (in alphabetical order):

image

image..."

THIS is one of the best things about being a MS MVP, being able to chat and connect with all these MVP's (among so many of the other MVPs.... it's actually pretty darn humbling) and the connection to the Product Teams/Groups. I mean, it's like... wow...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Guess who's a newly minted Microsoft MVP?
Microsoft MVP Award Unboxing

[Bucket List item checked off] I'm the DZone Featured MVP of the week!
Want to be a Microsoft MVP? Here's a couple what, where and how's...
Aidan's "Beginners Guide To The MVP Summit"
Hey Microsoft MVP’s, pluralsight has got a great deal for you! A complimentary 1-Year Standard subscription to the entire Pluralsight On-Demand training library

A glimpse at how Infragistics uses a C# to JavaScript transcompiler, powered by "Roslyn" (.NET Compiler Platform)

Infragistics - Mike Dour's Blog - Client-Side Excel Library CTP

If you haven’t seen it already, we recently released a 100% JavaScript-only, client-side Excel library for Ignite UI and I’m super excited about it. It allows you to read, write, and manipulate Excel workbooks. You can even create and solve formulas, all from inside the browser!! It was released in 14.2 as a CTP so we could get your feedback on it, but we will be releasing a complete RTM version in 15.1. You can find information and a live sample of it here. Definitely check out the overview page, which is packed with important information for using this library.

But that’s not even the coolest part. Not only did we deliver a purely JavaScript library for Excel workbooks, but it has all the features of our existing .NET Excel libraries. Did we re-write the entire C# Excel library in JavaScript to provide this level of feature parity? We could have, but it would have taken a lot of effort getting there not to mention the ongoing challenge of maintaining feature parity between the versions and addressing bugs in both implementations. So we came up with something better. We built a C# to JavaScript source-to-source compiler, or transcompiler. We have actually been using this for a few releases now to deliver some of the Ignite UI controls, but it was missing support for some constructs being used in the C# Excel library. So we really beefed up its language support as well as changed its semantic analysis engine. Now based on Microsoft’s .NET Compiler Platform ("Roslyn") for C# semantic analysis, our transcompiler is able to read in our existing C# Excel library and generate semantically equivalent JavaScript code. There are still a few rough edges to smooth out, but we are currently addressing these issues to deliver the highest quality Excel library we can in the next release.

Unfortunately, one of those rough edges was in documentation. ...

...

So hopefully this can help you get started with the Client-Side Excel library preview. There are a few things that don’t work properly yet (such as loading files with dates), but what we have provided should give you a good sense of what’s to come in 15.1. Please let us know what you think and if there are any pain points with the API or ways you think we can do better to make this library as easy as possible to use. Let us know at igniteui@infragistics.com. We look forward to your feedback. Thanks!

While you guys know I have something of a fanboy crush on Infragistics (come on, I've been using their stuff, in many forms since its VBX days... ;) that's not why I'm blogging about this. What I wanted to highlight is how they are using .NET Compiler Platform ("Roslyn") as their transcompiler to take the C# and generate JavaScript...

"...We built a C# to JavaScript source-to-source compiler, or transcompiler. We have actually been using this for a few releases now to deliver some of the Ignite UI controls, but it was missing support for some constructs being used in the C# Excel library. So we really beefed up its language support as well as changed its semantic analysis engine. Now based on Microsoft’s .NET Compiler Platform ("Roslyn") for C# semantic analysis, our transcompiler is able to read in our existing C# Excel library and generate semantically equivalent JavaScript code. ..."

That's just cool. And something I wonder if they will productize? (If so, that wouldn't be cheap as I bet that's some serious IP). Still the fact they even share that this is some of their secret sauce is nice (see, I'm not a fanboy for just any reason.... ;)

The Brent Ozar New All-in-One Download Pack (and discount on their commercial stuff secret)

Brent Ozar - Announcing Our New All-in-One Download Pack

We give away a lot of stuff – scripts, setup checklists, e-books, posters, you name it.

But we kept hearing a theme from folks: “Wow, I’ve seen one of your tools before, but I had no idea there were so many others!” In order to get everything, they had to go all over the place in our site.

To fix that, we’ve got a new easy button: our free SQL Server download pack. Now when you get anything, you’ll get everything in a single zip file, plus get email notifications whenever there’s a new version.

Enjoy, and hope we make your job suck just a little less.

image

[GD: POST Leached in FULL... Come on, it was just a few sentences!]

All of the awesome free Brent Ozar and team downloads in one? Yeah, that's cool.

The discount secret? You have to subscribe to their RSS Feed to see... :)

What if Windows 3.1 had a baby with Windows 95? Windows 93 (and you can play with in your browser...)

OSNews - Try Windows 93 Today

What if Microsoft released an operating system in the chasm between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95? It might look something like Windows 93, an interactive art project by Jankenpopp and Zombectro that you can try right in your browser.

Try Windows 93: The Hilarious OS That Never Was

If you didn’t live through the jump, it can be hard to describe the cultural revolution between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Its taskbar ussured in an era of “multitasking”; its built-in web browser put the world’s information at your fingertips; its “Start” menu, complete with its own ~$10 million Rolling Stones song, was pure optimism rendered in bits.

But what if Microsoft released an operating system in the chasm between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95? It might look something like Windows 93, an interactive art project by Jankenpopp and Zombectro that you can try right in your browser.

The experience of the OS is hard to put into words--it’s Windows imagined in some parallel universe, with plenty of retro homages to the weird OS quirks of yore.

...

It’s surprising just how deep you can dig in Windows 93, thanks to content like GameBoy emulators and pixel editors that have actually been pulled from various sources across the web. I spent a shameful amount of time giggling nostalgically, until suddenly, a beach ball of death showed up on my screen. At first, I figured it was just another one of Windows 93’s jokes until, moments later, Chrome froze and then crashed.

...

image..."

http://www.windows93.net/

image

What is very ironic is that, for me at least, the site seems to work better in Chrome. :/

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Visual Studio Online RESTs, crosses the Pond and gets Hooked...

Visual Studio - European Datacenter & REST 1.0

European Datacenter

By popular demand, with today’s update, you can now create VS Online accounts in the Azure “West Europe” region, based in the Netherlands. You can get started by going to http://visualstudio.com and creating a new account. The account creation page will auto detect the data center that’s nearest to you, or you can click the “change options” link to override the choice

image

...

Visual Studio Online REST API version 1.0 is here

In May, we announced the public preview of a new set of REST APIs for Visual Studio Online. Today, we are happy to announce that these APIs have graduated to 1.0 release status. This marks an important milestone in our journey to support easier integration between Visual Studio Online and other services, including your own custom tools and services.

The 1.0 designation means we have locked these APIs from any breaking changes going forward. As a developer, this means you can bind your app to the 1.0 API version and sleep well at night knowing future Visual Studio Online deployments won’t break your app.

Although the 1.0 set is locked from a breaking change standpoint, it is not locked from a feature standpoint. New APIs can be added to the 1.0 set and nonbreaking enhancements may even be introduced to APIs already released. A few existing preview APIs (like Git Pull Requests) remain in preview today, but will eventually graduate into the 1.0 set (this is mainly due to significant changes coming soon).

To learn more about how to use the APIs, check out Get started with the REST APIs.

To explore the available APIs, see the Visual Studio Online REST API Reference.

Developers with existing apps using the 1.0 preview APIs: you should start migrating to the release 1.0 APIs as soon as possible.

...

Service hooks is out of preview

I am also happy to announce that the service hooks features is out of preview and is a fully supported feature of Visual Studio Online. Service hooks let your app or service get notified instantly when an event happens in Visual Studio Online. With service hooks your app or service can avoid continuously polling to check for changes, such as completed builds, commits or check-ins, or work item changes.

Visual Studio Online supports 14 services out of the box, including ...

Not to be lost in the TechEd Europe news stream, VSO has rolled out two important updates, the REST API v1 and Service Hooks. I love me my official API's! :)

High Five to 5! HTML5 is Done (and what a ride it's been...)

MS Open Tech - W3C Charts a Course for the Future of the Open Web by Finalizing HTML5 Standard

Imagining what the Web might (not) have become without standards, and you will understand why we all must support an open web platform for the future.

Today marks a significant milestone for a great many of my colleagues around the world with whom I have had the privilege of working within the W3C HTML Working Group. Several of us have taken on new roles and responsibilities, changed companies, launched new businesses, or become parents – or in my case, a grandparent - since I joined the W3C HTML Working Group as a co-chair in 2009. Yet we continued to work as a community to produce the W3C Recommendation announced today for the HTML 5.0 open standard.

As a Co-Chair of the W3C HTML Working Group, I have seen firsthand the remarkable commitment that people and organizations from all over the world have contributed to this effort. It has been an open and intensely collaborative process, encompassing a great many passionate and brilliant minds.

Although many of the HTML5 features standardized today were sketched out several years ago, it took a lot of hard work to get the details right. Since 2007, the Working Group has resolved more than 4,000 errors, ambiguities, and controversies recorded in the WG bug lists. The email archive at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/ shows that it took over 45,000 messages since March 2007 to get the job done!

...

html5Doctor - The ride to 5

image

In recent weeks I contacted around 40 people, a cross section of those who have banged away at, or banged on about, HTML5. I asked them for their perspectives on HTML5 becoming a W3C Recommendation. Below are the words of the 28 people who responded, pretty much in the order they hit my inbox:

image..."

IEBlog - Celebrating HTML5 Recommendation with the W3C

Today, while several Internet Explorer team members are at W3C TPAC 2014, the IE team is happy to join Microsoft Open Technologies, other browser vendors, and the web community at large in celebrating the HTML5 specification reaching W3C Recommendation.

This milestone represents many years of commitment from people and organizations around the world to produce and stabilize the next generation of the W3C Open Web Platform. The IE team believes that the standards process is vital to creating an interoperable Web and ensuring that the web just works for everyone.

We’d also like to congratulate the W3C on its 20th anniversary and ...

HTML Guy or not, you have to admit it has changed the way we interact with the web and the world. HTML5 is when we, the internet industry, players and consumers finally grew up a little. The web world is far from perfect, but compared to the past, it's night and day...

SharpDevelop 5.0 is Final as in Final, but "... not the final version of SharpDevelop"

SharpDevelop - SharpDevelop 5.0 Final

After five Betas and one RC we are finally hitting release for SharpDevelop 5.0. Here is a recap of some of the most important features and changes from the various development stages (in short):

Item #1 in this list definitely begs the question "What about VB.NET?" I'd like to extend this question to "What's in the future of SharpDevelop?"

We have componentized SharpDevelop intentionally for what is coming now - the as-of-today core team moving to specific areas of our ecosystem. Think ILSpy. Think AvalonEdit. Yes, this means that the IDE iself is going to take a back seat. There are a couple of reasons for this decision...

...

Long story short - SharpDevelop is far from "done" (we'd never claim that), but we (the current core team) are realigning our efforts for visibility in the near term. This does not mean SharpDevelop is on "life support" or "dead". It means that bug fixing, small improvements and minor features have priority. Big shiny new things are up to contributions which we are more than happy to accept and help with, simply ping us on the developer mailing list to get started.

Like the post title says: 5.0 final, and not the final version of SharpDevelop. ...

image

I've only been watching this project for a decade and they are only on v5? (cough.... slow pokes... cough)? Just Kidding! These guys rock, with not only an awesome IDE (that's free and OSS), but in all other projects under their belt, like Avalon, ILSpy, etc. And their call out to the community for contributions is very valid. If there's a missing feature, "Don't whine, do..." :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
SharpDevelop 5 goes MIT and Beta 1 too!
SharpDevelop gets T4 support
NuGet isn’t just for Visual Studio anymore… NuGet coming soon to SharpDevelop
NuGet your Avalon (SharpDevelop’s AvalonEdit and ICSharpCode.TextEditor, plus samples, are now available via NuGet)
SharpDevelop (aka #develop) 3.0 RTM’s
SharpDevelop for Applications (SDA)
Web Development with SharpDevelop, Web Matrix, and DBGCLR
SourceForge.net: #develop 1.0.2a stopgap release
SourceForge.net: #develop 1.0.2 available for download
SharpDevelop 1.0 Released

Monday, October 27, 2014

".NET Serializers Comparison Chart" - Six Serializers compared

manski's blog - .NET Serializers Comparison Chart

There are many object serializers in C#/.NET but their details are often not so obvious, for example:

  • Does my class need a parameterless constructor?
  • Can I serialize private fields?
  • Can I serialize readonly fields?

So, I’ve compiled a comparison chart in this article that will compare the various serializers and their capabilities.

Table of Contents

...

image

image

Great post comparing native and one of the bellwether third party components. Great write-up, presentation and content.

"AMBITION" - One of the coolest space mission "communication" short films of the year

blastr - The full version of that mysterious sci-fi short, Ambition, is finally live

Remember that extremely cool sci-fi project we told you about a while back, starring Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen? Well the whole thing has arrived — and here’s what it’s all about.

Though it seemed like the Ambition project might be the set up to a feature film, we guessed it was probably a digital short film. Turns out, we were right. But, what we didn’t know was what the film was created to promote: The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, which plans to be the first-ever man-made device to land on a comet.

...

AMBITION - The Film

image

www.esa.int/rosetta
www.ambitionfilm.com
Tomek BagiÅ„ski’s AMBITION, starring Aidan Gillen (GAME OF THRONES) and Aisling Franciosi (THE FALL), plays a key part in supporting the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Rosetta mission (www.esa.int/rosetta).

The short film tells the story of one of the most important space exploration endeavours of this decade. Just as Gillen’s enigmatic Master encourages Franciosi’s Apprentice to seek out the key to life amidst a rugged alien landscape, ESA has been on a decade-long ambitious journey of its own, to unlock the mysteries of a comet and the origins of our Solar System with its Rosetta spacecraft, hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth.

AMBITION complements the ongoing communication about Rosetta and adds a “human dimension” to the scientific and technological achievements of the mission, which include curiosity, drive and ambition.

In a word, "Holly crap, that's awesome!"

TFS Cheat Sheet every TFS power user will want - "TFS Command-line Cheat Sheet"

TFS Command-line Cheat Sheet

Project Description
This project provide a Cheat Sheet listing for all Team Foundation Server Built-in and Third tools Command-line.

Built-in

  • Tf utility
  • Tfs Build
  • Tfs Security
  • Tfs and Project Server
  • Tfs Delete Project
  • Tcm (Microsoft Test Manager)
  • Tfs Config
  • Tfs Lab Config
  • Tfs Service Control
  • Tfs Field Mapping
  • WitAdmin

Third tools command-line

  • TFS Power tools
  • WiqAdmin
  • TfsClean
  • TfsCreateBuild
  • TfsExport
  • TfsMoveDescription
  • TfsReg

imageimage

image

How cool is that!

One James McCaffrey, Two Succinctly's - "Machine Learning Using C# Succinctly" & "Neural Networks Using C# Succinctly" (& 50 free eBooks)

Machine Learning Using C# Succinctly

image

In Machine Learning Using C# Succinctly, you’ll learn several different approaches to applying machine learning to data analysis and prediction problems. Author James McCaffrey demonstrates different clustering and classification techniques, and explains the many decisions that must be made during development that determine how effective these techniques can be. McCaffrey provides thorough examples of applying k-means clustering to group strictly numerical data, calculating category utility to cluster both qualitative and quantitative information, and even using neural network classification to predict the output of previously unseen data.

Table of Contents
  1. k-Means Clustering
  2. Categorical Data Clustering
  3. Logistic Regression Classification
  4. Naïve Bayes Classification
  5. Neural Network Classification

Neural Networks Using C# Succinctly

image

Neural networks are an exciting field of software development used to calculate outputs from input data. While the idea seems simple enough, the implications of such networks are staggering—think optical character recognition, speech recognition, and regression analysis. With Neural Networks Using C# Succinctly by James McCaffrey, you'll learn how to create your own neural network to solve classification problems, or problems where the outcomes can only be one of several values. Learn about encoding and normalizing data, activation functions and how to choose the right one, and ultimately how to train a neural network to find weights and bias values that provide accurate predictions. Download the book today!

Table of Contents
  1. Neural Networks
  2. Perceptrons
  3. Feed-Forward
  4. Back-Propagation
  5. Training

Two pretty deep drives for you today. Also an interesting milestone, Machine Learning Using C# Succinctly is Syncfusion's 50th free ebook!

 

Related Past Post XRef:
"Localization for .NET Succinctly"
"Visual Studio 2013 Succinctly" free [reg-ware] now available from... you guessed it, Syncfusion
"Windows Phone 8 Succinctly - The practical approach to Windows Phone 8 development" eBook (Reg-ware)
Succinctly eBook of the Day: "Twitter Bootstrap Succinctly" [Reg-ware]
Need some help up the WPF learning curve? "WPF Succinctly" from Syncfusion is now available (and free :)
TypeScript Succinctly - Free [Name/email-ware] eBook
Getting sharp with F# with the free "F# Succinctly" eBook [reg-ware]
Syncfusion helps shed a little succinct light on LightSwitch with "LightSwitch Succinctly" (Reg-ware)
"JavaScript Succinctly" - Another free (reg-ware) eBook from Syncfusion
Get into sync with HTTP with the new free (reg-ware) Syncfusion Succinctly eBook, "HTTP Succinctly"
Spelunk the technical details of the PDF format with "PDF Succinctly" from Syncfusion (Free/reg-ware PDF/Mobi ebook)
"Git Succinctly" Free/reg-ware PDF/Mobi ebook)
jQuery Succinctly - Free eBook (reg-ware, PDF and/or Mobi)

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Live Tiles live another day... 52 Patent clams ruled invalid in Microsoft's favor

WindowsITPro - Microsoft Wins Suit to Keep Live Tiles

In 2012, a company called SurfCast filed a suit against Microsoft that issued 52 different claims of patent infringement (U.S. Patent Numbers 6,724,403 and 7,933,632). The company claimed that it owned patents on a "computer display that organizes content from a variety of sources into a grid of tiles that is constantly updated." In Microsoft's circumstance, this is what we've all come to know as "Live Tiles" in both Windows 8.x and Windows Phone.

The case settled on October 15th, with the New York Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruling that all 52 of the suit's claims are invalid, handing SurfCast a resounding defeat and allowing Microsoft to retain and develop its Live Tile functionality.

...

image

Law360 - Microsoft Gets SurfCast Display Patent Nixed In AIA Review [Paywalled]

Law360, New York (October 15, 2014, 2:48 PM ET) -- The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled Tuesday that a SurfCast Inc. graphical user interface patent is invalid, in a win for Microsoft Corp., whose Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 operating systems are accused of infringing the patent.

All 52 claims of SurfCast's patent,...

Love them, or hate them, looks like they live another day. Personally I love them, but hey, that's just me... :)

About the OpenXML SDK... Episode 020 of the Office 365 Developer Podcast

O365 Dev Podcast - Office 365 Developer Podcast: Episode 020 about Open XML SDK

In episode 20, Jeremy Thake chats to Doug Mahugh, Eric White and Chris Rae about the Open XML SDK.

...

Show Notes

...

image

..."

I've blogged about OpenXML enough (as you can see below) to think it was pretty cool to see the podcast post (does that make me weird? Na.... there's a bunch ELSE that makes me weird... lol :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Did you know you could update/contribute to some (OpenXML for now) MSDN Doc's via a GitHub repo?
Using the OpenXML SDK Productivity Tool to "decompile" Office documents (Turn *X files into the C# OpenXML SDK code that would generate them)

Open Sesame - Open XML SDK is now open source

Using OpenXML to load an Excel Worksheet into a DataTable (or just how different OpenXML is from the old Excel API we're used too)

Using OpenXML SDK to generate Word documents via templates (and without Word being installed)
Checking for Microsoft Word DocX/DocM Revisions/Track Changes without using Word... (via OpenXML SDK, LINQ to XML or XML DOM)
LINQ to XlsX... Using VB.Net, LINQ, the OpenXML SDK and a little C# helper, to query an Excel XlsX
Using native OpenXML to create an XlsX (Which provides an example of why I highlight tools that make OpenXML easier...)
Generating Xlsx's on the Server? You're using OpenXML, right? With help from the PowerTools for OpenXML?

Official boat-load, as in supertanker, sized OpenXML content list (Insert "One OpenXML content list to rule them all" here)
So how do I get from here to OpenXML? Got a map for you, an Open XML SDK Blog Map…
Where to go to scratch your OpenXML dev info itch…
"Open XML Explained" Free eBook (PDF)
The Noob's Guide to Open XML Dev (If you know how to spell OpenXML but that's about it, this is your Getting Started guide...)

Reusing the PowerShell PowerTools for Open XML in your C# or VB.Net world
PowerShell, OpenXML, WMI and the PowerTools for OpenXML = Doc generation for our inner geek
Because it’s a PowerShell kind of day… PowerTools for Open XML V1.1 Released
OpenXML PowerTools updated – Cell your Excel via PowerShell
Powering into OpenXML with PowerShell

Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office Released – Automate Office documents without Office

Open XML 2.0 Code Snippets for VS2010 (and VS2008 too)
Open XML Format SDK 2.0 Code Snippets for Visual Studio 2008 – 52 C#/VB Code Snippets to help ease your Open XML coding
Open XML File Format Code Snippets for Visual Studio 2005 (Office 2007 NOT required)

Open XML SDK v1 Released

OpenXML Viewer 1.0 Released – Open source DocX to HTML conversion, with IE, Firefox and Opera (and/or command line) support