Thursday, May 08, 2014

The story of TFS - Pieter Gheysens' "The evolution of ALM/TFS" now in PDF form.

Into ALM with TFS - The evolution of ALM/TFS – pdf available for download

A few weeks ago, I started with publishing different parts of an article on the evolution of Application Lifecycle Management.

Part I: Introduction

Part II: Diving into the basics of ALM and how did Microsoft start with an ALM solution?

Part III: Heterogeneous Software Development

Part IV: A fully integrated testing experience with TFS 2010

Part V: TFS 2012 and Continuous Value Delivery

Part VI: TFS 2013 and Visual Studio Online

Part VII: Conclusion

You can now also download the full article in pdf-format [Click through for the PDF link] (25 pages in total – 2MB). [GD: Post leached in full]

imageimage

Being a host of RadioTFS and long time TFS guy (yes, I've been installing and using it since v1, VSTS 2005) it amazes me just how far this product line has come and that the improvement pace isn't just not slowing down, but is going faster!

I wonder if a new chapter is going to be written (announced, whatever) next week at TechEd North America 2014? We got the 2013 surprise last year, wonder about this year? Guess we'll see soon enough...

LinqPad... Kill! Using LinqPad to kill processes

Programming and Learning from SD - Use LinqPad to Kill Windows Processes

You can use the TaskManager and right click processes or you can use taskkill /im myprocess.exe /f in the command line or you can use LinqPad.

Open LinqPad, change to C# Statements, paste

image

Got to love the different kinds of use that LinqPad gets...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
[Book Review] "Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad"
[Book Review - Preview] "Building Interactive Queries with LINQPad"
Nothing like a little LinqPad fun for a Friday - "Hosting ASP.NET Web API in LinqPad"
Today's LINQPad fun, SelectExcept! (a tip on selecting all the fields, except...)
LINQPad is just for [no, not "breakfast"... ha.. fooled you] LINQ... Using LINQPad to execute code snippets.
.DumpJson() - LINQPad Extension Fun...
Playing with the TFS API via LINQPad (as in using LINQPad to query TFS via the TFS API)
LINQPad +50 - Adding 50 LINQ examples from DevCurry to LINQPad's sample pallet
Since we're talking about LINQPad... StreamInsight v1.2 Driver and samples for LINQPad
Jesse liberates our LINQ'ness - Learning LINQ, from LINQPad to Visual Studio
LINQ[Pad] to Twitter
LINQPad’ing into Dallas - The latest LINQPad now has “Dallas” support baked in.
OData my LINQPad – LINQPad (beta) now supports Data Services/OData (and there’s .Net 4 rev too)
Need an ad-hoc query tool for your Azure data tables? LINQPad to the rescue
This post title made me laugh, “I've Left Query Analyzer Hell For LINQPad Heaven”
LINQPad and the Entity Framework
Getting External with LINQPad – Advanced LINQPad Dimecast (aka part 3 of 3)
Fun with .Dump() in LINQPad – An intermediate level Dimecast for LINQPad
Link to LINQPad – A Dimecast LINQPad Walkthrough
LINQPad - A Free Interactive LINQ to SQL (and others) Utility (Think "SQL Query Analyzer for LINQ")

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

The Greg Needs This Guide to Node.js (aka "Absolute Beginner's Guide to Node.js")

Modulus - An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Node.js

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There's no shortage of Node.js tutorials out there, but most of them cover specific use cases or topics that only apply when you've already got Node up and running. I see comments every once and awhile that sound something like, "I've downloaded Node, now what?" This tutorial answers that question and explains how to get started from the very beginning.

What is Node.js?

A lot of the confusion for newcomers to Node is misunderstanding exactly what it is. The description on nodejs.org definitely doesn't help.

An important thing to realize is that Node is not a webserver. By itself it doesn't do anything. It doesn't work like Apache. There is no config file where you point it to you HTML files. If you want it to be a HTTP server, you have to write an HTTP server (with the help of its built-in libraries). Node.js is just another way to execute code on your computer. It is simply a JavaScript runtime.

Installing Node

...

image

A great guide for a guy like me who knows how to spell Node.js (mostly) but that's about it...

(via codeship - The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Node.js)

"Become a Social Developer" Yes, you! Learn how to become a mini-Scott Hanselman (well...)

GET INVOLVED IN TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY with Scott Hanselman

In this feature-length production, Scott Hanselman and Rob Conery offer suggestions and advice on how you can get out there, and get involved. Blogging, Twitter, Github, StackOverflow, User Groups and Conferences: all of this can make you a happier, more productive developer and inspire you to take your career to the next level.

You certainly don't have to be social to be better at writing code - but sharpening your skills this way helps you when it comes time for a job interview, a yearly review where a promotion is on the line, or when you want to start running an Open Source project.

image

What will you learn?

For this production we sought out the people who are very active and well known in the social arena:

...

We put an immense amount of work into this production and I really think you'll enjoy it. You can watch this video FREE at Pluralsight, and if you like, enjoy our another productions like "The Art of Speaking." ...

Additional Free Reading

If you're interested in learning more about how to give technical presentations, check out some of Scott's blog posts on these topics over the years.

...

You've seen him present, and if you haven't you're missing out on a great presenter, you've read his blog, listened to his podcasts, now he's going to help you become your own little social juggernaut...

Turing your Surface RT into a Pro, via the power of the Cloud (and RemoteApps, Remote Desktop and more... think DIY DaaS)

Team blog of MCS @ Middle East and Africa - How to Convert your Surface RT to Surface Pro - Part 3

Links to All Parts:

Part 1: Install Remote Desktop Services

Part 2: Configure RemoteApp

Part 3: Configure Surface

 

In Part 1: I’ve explained how to install Remote Desktop services on the server and fix common error that you may face, in Part 2 we finished configuring Remote Desktop Services and publish RemoteApp.

This part we will test from client side machine by browsing to the RDWA and will configure Surface with RemoteApp.

...

ITPro: How to Convert your Surface RT to Surface Pro – Part 1

From long time I’ve started to have all my labs on Windows Azure (will share that experience in another blog), my main motive was to get rid of my heavy ugly laptop to a light and thin one. My first pilot was to use Surface as the replacement of my laptop.

For some reason (I don’t remember it now) I’ve decided to get Surface RT not Surface Pro, I’m trying to convince myself now that RT lighter, RT is 676 grams compared to 907 grams for the Pro.

But anyway here it is my RT device, I loved the experience and the display but the second day I looked for PowerShell ISE and couldn’t find it, PowerShell ISE was my magical solution to connect to Office 365 so it’s mandatory for me. The result: PowerShell ISE is not built in with Windows RT and can’t be installed from the store.

Ok no ISE let’s install the PowerShell Module for Azure (Windows Azure VMs cmdlets) and PowerShell Module Windows Azure AD (Office 365 module), obviously you can’t install anything to RT.

The huge one when I started to look for Visio and Project Pro, and yes both are not part of Office pro which installed on the Surface and are not available on the Store. Now it’s serious I can’t work without these programs.

I started to look for a solution and first thing came to my mind is to RDP to another machine running on Azure that have everything I need, nice Idea and worked fine but annoying as you need to share the files (copy it or send it by email) between the 2 PCs, didn’t like the overall experience.

I was reading some of the new staff on Windows 2012 when I thought of RemoteAPP, what if I’ve a server on Azure running Remote App and I can use all my applications.

First things first, what is RemoteApp:

...

Hum... Since I've got my MSDN credits that I'm not currently using, this sounds kind of cool to try out.

Visual Studio Image Library updated, now includes VS 2013 style and is now over 10,000+ images

Microsoft Downloads - Visual Studio Image Library

The Visual Studio Image Library contains application images that appear in Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Windows, the Office system and other Microsoft software.

image

The Visual Studio Image Library contains application images that appear in Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Windows, the Office system and other Microsoft software. The libraries for both Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio 2013 are available and each library contains over 5,000 images which can be used to create applications that look visually consistent with Microsoft software

image

SNAGHTMLf91e0c

SNAGHTMLf991d4

Something every developer needs... Don't spelunk the EXE or DLL for image resources, just grab this...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Visual Studio 2012 Image Library - 5,000+ images downloadable now... (Think, flat "modern" images...)

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

.NET SDKs, Targeting Packs and Downloads Information and Links

.NET SDKs and Downloads

You can build apps for many platforms and services by downloading .NET Framework targeting packs and SDKs and using them with Visual Studio. Check out the .NET Framework blog for information on new releases.

The downloads available differ by Visual Studio version. Pick your Visual Studio version ...

SNAGHTML18d958e

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Given today's, Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 Released, I appreciated the timing on this information...

There be Dragons here... or My Dragon is bigger than your Dragon... Or Dragon Size[d] Cheatsheet

The Daily Dot - An illustrated guide to the biggest dragons in fantasy

...

George R.R. Martin, whose A Song of Ice and Fire novels are the basis for Game of Thrones, is currently writing a companion guide to the books, called A World of Ice and Fire. He’s recently published an extract of this guide on his blog, chronicling the history of the Targaryen invasion of Westeros, which took place several hundred years before the events of the books and the show.

It’s got some badass dragon art, too. You can see Aegon the Conqueror standing astride his dragon mount, Balerion, the “Black Dread.” Turns out these dragons get really freaking big.

But seeing this picture got us thinking. Just how big is this dragon, and how does this bode for Daenerys’s own dragons? And how does it measure up to other famous fictional fire-breathers?

Here’s how we figured it out.

...

image

Smaug isn't the biggest!... :(

(via technabob - The Dragon Size Comparison Chart)

Crypto101 - Programmer focused introduction to cryptography

404 Tech Support - Crypto 101, a free intro to encryption for developers

Crypto 101 is an introductory course on cryptography intended to help programmers understand encryption in order to write better code. It is currently available in a DRM-free PDF with EPUB and Mobi also listed on the website. Crypto 101 uses Python for exercises which can run on OS X, Windows, and Linux.

The book is available now in its pre-release form with a Creative Commons – Attribution-Noncommercial license. It is being written as an open-source project using github. The 252 page book, written by Laurens Van Houtven, is almost entirely complete at this point. It stems from an extension of a presentation given at PyCon 2013.

...

Crypto101

Crypto 101 is an introductory course on cryptography, freely available for programmers of all ages and skill levels.

Start to finish.

Comes with everything you need to understand complete systems such as SSL/TLS: block ciphers, stream ciphers, hash functions, message authentication codes, public key encryption, key agreement protocols, and signature algorithms.

Learn by doing.

Learn how to exploit common cryptographic flaws, armed with nothing but a little time and your favorite programming language.

Forge administrator cookies, recover passwords, and even backdoor your own random number generator.

Works everywhere.

DRM-free and available in all common formats:

Exercises run on OS X, Windows, Linux and BSDs.

Donations

Crypto 101 is available for everyone, for free, forever. Development is hosted on Github, funded by free time and your donations. You are free to donate any amount you want, and all donations are of course entirely voluntary. Learn more about contributing. ...

image

CHAPTER 1. ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book is intended as an introduction to cryptography for programmers of any skill level. It’s a continuation of a talk of the same name, which was given by the author at PyCon 2013.

The structure of this book is very similar: it starts with very simple primitives, and gradually introduces new ones, demonstrating why they’re necessary. Eventually, all of this is put together into complete, practical cryptosystems, such as TLS, GPG and OTR. T

he goal of this book is not to make anyone a cryptographer or a security researcher. The goal of this book is to understand how complete cryptosystems work from a bird’s eye view, and how to apply them in real software.

The exercises accompanying this book focus on teaching cryptography by breaking inferior systems. That way, you won’t just “know” that some particular thing is broken; you’ll know exactly how it’s broken, and that you, yourself, armed with little more than some spare time and your favorite programming language, can break them. By seeing how these ostensibly secure systems are actually completely broken, you will understand why all these primitives and constructions are necessary for complete cryptosystems. Hopefully, these exercises will also leave you with healthy distrust of DIY cryptography in all its forms

This book hopes to be a bridge: to teach everyday programmers from any field or specialization to understand just enough cryptography to do their jobs, or maybe just satisfy their appetite.

...

With all that's been happening in the past weeks, months, years, I thought you might find interesting...

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 Released

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 Developer Pack for Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 SP2 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2

The .NET Framework 4.5.2 Developer Pack installs the multi-targeting pack for .NET Framework 4.5.2. Developers can build applications targeting the .NET Framework 4.5.2 using either Visual Studio 2013, Visual Studio 2012 or third party IDEs. You need to download the web installer instead of this package if you intend to redistribute .NET Framework 4.5.2.

Version: 4.5.2

File Name: NDP452-KB2901951-x86-x64-DevPack.exe

Date Published: 5/6/2014

File Size: 328.3 MB

The .NET Framework 4.5.2 Developer Pack is a single package that installs .NET Framework Multi-targeting pack for .NET Framework 4.5.2 and also .NET Framework 4.5.2. Developers can build applications targeting the .NET Framework 4.5.2 using either Visual Studio 2013, Visual Studio 2012 or third party IDEs.

You need to download the web installer from here instead of this package if you intend to redistribute .NET Framework 4.5.2.

This package installs the following components:

  • .NET Framework 4.5.2
  • .NET Framework 4.5.2 Multi-Targeting Pack:Contains the reference assemblies needed to build apps that target the .NET Framework 4.5.2
  • .NET Framework 4.5.2 Language Packs
  • .NET Framework 4.5.2 Multi-Targeting Pack Language Packs: Contains the IntelliSense files to display help while building apps that target the .NET Framework 4.5.2 through Visual Studio and third party IDEs.

...

The .NET Framework 4.5.2 runs side-by-side with the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and earlier versions of the .NET Framework. However, the .NET Framework 4.5.2 is an in-place update to the .NET Framework 4.5.1, the .NET Framework 4.5, and the .NET Framework 4.

Please see the Knowledge Base Article KB2901951 for more information.
For important information about this release, see the .NET Framework 4.5.2 Readme File.

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NOTE: As of my posting, the above KB and ReadMe are not yet online.
UPDATE: ReadMe and KB's are coming online as I write this...

I wonder if this was released early? I'd have thought that this would have been released next week, during TechEd NA? Not sure yet what's actually in it, more to follow as it becomes available...
UPDATE: According to my sources, the release was intention.

Update: What's New in the .NET Framework 4.5, 4.5.1, and 4.5.2

  • New APIs for ASP.NET apps. ...

  • Resizing in Windows Forms controls. This feature has been expanded. You can now use the system DPI setting to resize components of the following additional controls (for example, the drop-down arrow in combo boxes):

    ComboBox
    ToolStripComboBox
    ToolStripMenuItem
    Cursor
    DataGridView
    DataGridViewComboBoxColumn

    This is an opt-in feature. To enable it, set the EnableWindowsFormsHighDpiAutoResizing element to true in the application configuration (app.config) file:...

  • New workflow feature. A resource manager that's using ...

  • Profiling improvements. The following new unmanaged profiling APIs provide more robust profiling: ...

  • Debugging improvements. The following new unmanaged debugging APIs provide better integration with a profiler. You can now access metadata inserted by the profiler as well as local variables and code produced by compiler ReJIT requests when dump debugging.

    ....

  • Event tracing changes. The .NET Framework 4.5.2 enables out-of-process, Event Tracing for Windows (ETW)-based activity tracing for a larger surface area. This enables Advanced Power Management (APM) vendors to provide lightweight tools that accurately track the costs of individual requests and activities that cross threads. These events are raised only ...

 

Related Downloads:

Monday, May 05, 2014

[24 hours only] On the Day Against DRM (May 6th, 2014) all Packt eBooks for $10 for 24 hours only

Packt Press Release - Day Against DRM Sale (http://bit.ly/1q6bpha)

DRM-Landing-Page-Banner

Packt celebrates International Day Against DRM, May 6th 2014

Packt Publishing firmly believes that you should be able to read and interact with your content when you want, where you want, and how you want – to that end they have been advocates of DRM-free content since their very first eBook was published back in 2004.

To show their continuing support for Day Against DRM, Packt Publishing is offering all its DRM-free content at $10 for 24 hours only on May 6th – that’s all 2000+ eBooks and Videos at www.packtpub.com.

“Our top priority at Packt has always been to meet the evolving needs of developers in the most practical way possible, while at the same time protecting the hard work of our authors. DRM-free content continues to be instrumental in making that happen, providing the flexibility and freedom that is essential for an efficient and enhanced learning experience. That’s why we’ve been DRM-free from the beginning – we’ll never put limits on the innovation of our users.”

– Dave Maclean, Managing Director

Advocates of Day Against DRM are invited to spread the word and celebrate on May 6th by exploring the full range of DRM-free content at www.packtpub.com, where all eBooks and Videos will be $10 for 24 hours.

$10 is a great deal for the books in the Packt catalog. And you've got to love you can view them on any device you own. Check out their latest releases here...

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe my readers will enjoy. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Thursday, May 01, 2014

Not Nuclear, not War Games, just a time lapse of earthquakes for the first four months of the year...

Gizmodo - A Timelapse of All the Earthquakes From This Record-Breaking April

...

According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) which issues alerts for tsunamis, April was a very busy month for the earth's crust. Of course there are earthquakes every hour of every day, but the world usually only sees one or two earthquakes per month that are 6.5-magnitude or higher. This April there were 13, including five that were higher than 7.8, prompting tsunami warnings. "Easily a record for this institution," reports PTWC.

Watch this animation of January through April of this year. Everything seems pretty normal until you hit April 1 when you can see the 8.2-magnitude earthquake (and its many aftershocks) rock northern Chile. Suddenly the world lights up like the paparazzi and it doesn't let up all month:

...

hc68admvact6j3a1nhs6

..."

Remember, prepare now. Just a little at a time and over time you'll be surprised how much you have. Preparedness is a journey...

Free your mind... from worrying about paying for some great images ... IM Free

Andy Sowards - IM Free – Your Supply of Dazzling Free Images

"Earlier this week, I was combing through all sorts of microstock agencies, searching for authentic photos to use in my everyday design projects. It’s never easy, because most stock photos are bland, and those that really caught my eye look very familiar. No wonder they do, I’ve spotted them in countless other places on the web. You’ve probably found yourself in the same predicament many times by now, and spent too much on low quality stock photos. You’ll never have to do that again.

IMCreator is a widely acclaimed site building platform that helps both amateurs and professional designers build excellent websites. This ingenious online software has recently launched a service that overruns the way we used to acquire commercial images. It curates loads of exquisite photographs taken from Flickr. Each of these items belongs to real photographers, who entrust you with their works for free.

IM Free is a miscellaneous body of collections stacked with royalty-free photos, and it’s immediately accessible. You don’t have to create an account or impart any kind of personal information before getting your hands on those treats. The only thing that is expected of you is that you give credit to the authors each time you use one of their items, which is an essential step, because it’s the only way to maintain this costless model.

...

As a side note, IM Free is a fast-growing collection of free designer resources that will also be integrated into the website builder’s page editor before long. In other words, IMCreator users gain firsthand access to the finest source of free photos, and no longer have to waste their time searching online markets for top-grade imagery.

..."

IM Free

image

image

This looks like an awesome resource for some great images...

"Deploying Windows Azure Pack" series

Windows Networking.com - Deploying Windows Azure Pack (Part 6)

"The sixth and final article in this series completes the walkthrough of the express deployment of Windows Azure Pack.

If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:

Reviewing the deployment scenario

Figure 1 shows where we are in our scenario for performing an express deployment of Windows Azure Pack. So far we have completed the following tasks in our contoso.com virtual test environment running on the Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V host named HOST30:

...

At this point we are now ready to install Windows Azure Pack on WAP01 using the express deployment scenario approach. The sections below cover the following:

  • Installing Windows Azure Pack
  • Configuring the installation
  • Verifying the installation

Installing Windows Azure Pack

To install Windows Azure Pack you must use the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. The latest version of this installer is version 4.6 and it can be obtained from the Microsoft Download Center. Once you've download the installer, double-click on it to launch it. The initial screen of the installer will look something like this:

...

image..."

Another great series to get you going with Azure Pack. Remember, Azure Pack is a way to bring the cloud inside your firewall...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Step-by-Step into your own private cloud, with the Windows Azure Pack and System Center
Deploying your own little cloud... "Deploying Windows Azure Pack" series
Windows Azure Pack (#WAPack), Related Blogs, Videos and TechNet Articles wiki round-up
Taking the Bus to the next stop... Why you, Dev and IT, should be looking at the Windows Azure Pack.
TechEd NA 2013 Day 1 Announcement Round-up - VS 2013, TFS 2013, InRelease, SQL 2014, Server 2012 R2, BizTalk Services, Azure-in-a-box and even more Azure...

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Web Camps Training Kit, March 2014 Edition

Microsoft Downloads - Web Camps Training Kit - March 2014

Version: March 2014

Date Published: 4/29/2014

WebCampsTK-Package-WebCampsTrainingKit.exe, 114 KB

The kit includes all the content presented around the world at the recent Web Camps events; presentations, demos, labs and more. Inside the new kit you’ll find content that covers the following technologies:

  • ASP.NET 4.5
  • ASP.NET MVC 4
  • ASP.NET Web API
  • jQuery
  • SignalR
  • Entity Framework
  • Visual Studio 2013
  • Internet Explorer 11 and HTML5
  • Building apps for Office with HTML5
  • Cloud application services

 

imageimage

image

Internal or external, if you're doing any kind of Microsoft Web Stack Training, presenting or attending, this is a great resource...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Web Camps Training Kit Updated
“Web Camps Training Kit” Don’t re-invent, re-use…

Prism 5.0 for WPF eBook (epub, mobi, pdf)

Microsoft Downloads - Prism 5.0 for WPF - Book Download

Version:5

Date Published: 4/29/2014

Prism5forWPF.epub

Prism5forWPF.mobi

Prism5forWPF.pdf

Prism provides guidance designed to help you more easily design and build rich, flexible, and easy to maintain Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) desktop applications. Using design patterns that embody important architectural design principles, such as separation of concerns and loose coupling, Prism helps you to design and build applications using loosely coupled components that can evolve independently but which can be easily and seamlessly integrated into the overall application. Such applications are often referred to as composite applications.

imageimage

This lets you take the online doc's offline and read them in your reader of choice...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Prism continues its Windows Desktop/WPF/MVVM Love with v5

The XAML Illustrated Timeline

Jeremy Alles Blog - An history of 11 years of XAML stacks

Today I’m releasing something I’m a bit excited about… I call this the XAML timeline !

It’s an interactive history of 11 years of XAML development at Microsoft, from a .Net developer point of view (me!). Remember Avalon ? Longhorn ?

Feel free to click on the following picture to open the timeline in a new tab:

image

The web page has a few interesting things under the hood:

  • ...

This is an awesomely cool view of the XAML timeline...

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Kurt's Tips, Tricks and Links for Windows Phone 8.1

Kurt Shintaku's Blog - INFO: Windows Phone 8.1 Links, Tips & Tricks

Here’s a few things to keep in mind as you explore Windows Phone 8.1:

Annnnd I also found this list of tips that might be useful for those of you that are just now getting interested in Windows Phone 8.1.

// Update

Q: How can I update my Windows Phone to 8.1 now?
A: Visit the App Studio site and register with your Microsoft Account details. Once that’s done, download the Preview for Developers app  from the Store. Once installed, open the app, sign in with the same Microsoft Account credentials and tick the ‘Enable Preview for Developers’ box. Then go to Setting > Phone Update > Check for Updates.
Q: What’s new on Windows Phone 8.1?
A: Look here to get started, continue here, and then look here if you want to go deep.

// Where did it go? ...

// Cortana ...

// Music and Video ...

// Shortcuts ...

// Keyboard ...

// Settings ...

// Notifications ...

image

An additional thing related to this point;

Q: I don’t see Cortana? And Search just looks like a Bing page?
A: If Cortana isn’t in the list of applications or on the Home screen, chances are she’s not available for your region yet. If you’re happy to experiment, in Settings, you can add the United States Language and Region, and Cortana should appear.

Make sure you have Location on. If off, no Cortana, which also makes this a quick switch to bring back the Bing search if you want it (say to use Bing Image Search...)

PowerShell 10k - PowerShell Script Browser and Analyzer v1.1 released (easily access 10k PS Scripts, right from the ISE...)

Microsoft All-In-One Script Framework - Here Comes the Update of Script Browser & Script Analyzer 1.1

The Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE has received thousands of downloads since it was released a week ago. Based on your feedbacks, today we release the 1.1 update to respond to the highly needed features. The team is committed to making the Script Browser and Script Analyzer useful. Your feedback is very important to us.

Download Script Browser & Script Analyzer 1.1
(If you have already installed the 1.0 version, you will get an update notification when you launch Windows PowerShell ISE.)

1. Options to Turn on / Turn off Script Analyzer Rules

You can either select to turn on or turn off the rules in the Settings window of Script Analyzer.

image

You can also suggest a new Script Analyzer rule or vote for others’ suggestions. Our team monitors the forum closely. Based on your suggestions and votes, we will provide the corresponding Script Analyzer rules in future updates. We are also looking into the capability for you to write your own Script Analyzer rules and plug into the Script Analyzer.

..."

Windows PowerShell Blog - A World of Scripts at your Fingertips – Introducing Script Browser

To reuse script samples on the Internet, the following steps seem quite familiar to IT Pros: wandering through different script galleries, forums and blogs, switching back and forth between webpages and scripting environment, and countless download, copy and paste operations. But all of these will drive one as dizzy as a goose. Need a simpler way of searching and reusing scripts? Try out the new Script Browser add-in for PowerShell ISE!

image

Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE is an app developed by Microsoft Customer Services & Support (CSS) with assistance from the PowerShell team and the Garage to save IT Pros from the painful process of searching and reusing scripts. We start from the 9,000+ script samples on TechNet Script Center. Script Browser allows users to directly search, learn, and download TechNet scripts from within PowerShell ISE – your scripting environment. Starting from this month, Script Browser for PowerShell ISE will be available for download. If you are a PowerShell scripter or are about to be one, Script Browser is a highly-recommended add-in for you.

Nearly 10,000 scripts on TechNet are available at your fingertips. You can search, download and learn scripts from this ever-growing sample repository.

...

Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE

Version: 1.1
File Name: ScriptBrowser.exe
Date Published: 4/29/2014
File Size: 1.4 MB

Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE enables you to search for over 9000 script samples in the TechNet Script Center from within the scripting environment. You can mark the script samples as favorites and download the script samples for later use. You will also get the chance to try out another new pilot function bundled with Script Browser - 'Script Analyzer'. We hope to learn your feedback.

One of those, you've got-to-have tool for PowerShell'ers

Nine to Mine - Nine free Data Mining/Analysis eBooks

CodeCondo - 9 Free Books for Learning Data Mining & Data Analysis

Data mining, data analysis, these are the two terms that very often make the impressions of being very hard to understand – complex – and that you’re required to have the highest grade education in order to understand them.

...

By learning from these books, you will quickly uncover the ‘secrets’ of data mining and data analysis, and hopefully be able to make better judgement of what they do, and how they can help you in your working projects, both now and in the future.

I just want to say that, in order to learn these complex subjects, you need to have a completely open mind, be open to every possibility, because that is usually where all the learning happens, and no doubt your brain is going to set itself on fire; multiple times.

...

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Learn Data Science from Free Books

There is no better way to learn than from books, and then going out in the world and putting that newly found knowledge to the test, or otherwise we’re bound to forget what we actually had learned. This is a beautiful list of books that every aspiring data scientist should take note of, and add to his list of learning materials.

What books have you read in order to help you begin your own journey in data mining and analysis? I’m sure that the community would love to hear more, and I’m eager to see what I potentially let slip through my fingers myself.

Some light reading for the week...

(via KDNuggets - 9 Free Books for Learning Data Mining and Data Analysis)

 

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