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!

...

..."

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.

...

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

...

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.

...

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.

...

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...

...

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)  :(

Have a Very Merry Robotic Christmas

(via How Robots Celebrate Christmas)

It's confirmed, Office 365 Public Web Sites are going away...

I mentioned this first here, Two Microsoft RIP's today - Public Office 365 Sites and Office Clip Art and have been waiting for confirmation. Well, we've got it.

Information about upcoming changes to the SharePoint Online Public Website

Starting in January 2015, Microsoft is making changes to the SharePoint Online Public Website feature. Customers who currently use this feature will continue to have access to the feature for a minimum of two years following the changeover date. New customers who subscribe to Office 365 after the changeover date won't have access to this feature. Moving forward, Office 365 customers will have access to third-party offerings that will enable them to easily integrate their public presence with their Office 365 service. Additional details about these solutions will be made available in January 2015.

Why is Microsoft making this change?

As part of the evolution of the Office 365 service, we periodically evaluate the capabilities of the service to make sure that we’re delivering the utmost value to customers. Today, we're making a difficult decision to discontinue the SharePoint Online Public Website feature. This lets us then focus on future investments while broadening our partnership with industry leaders.

What does this mean for existing customers of Office 365 plans?

Office 365 customers who currently use the SharePoint Online Public Website feature will continue to have access to the feature for a minimum of two years following the change. Moving forward, customers will have the option to subscribe to third-party solutions for public website functionality. Customers should plan to move to one of these third-party solution within the next two years.

What does this mean for new customers of Office 365 plans?

As of the changeover date, Microsoft will no longer be offering the SharePoint Online Public Website feature to new customers. New customers who subscribe to Office 365 after the changeover date won't have access to this feature. Moving forward, Office 365 customers will have the option to subscribe to third-party solutions by using links from Office 365.

How will this change be communicated to Office 365 customers?

All Office 365 administrators who currently have provisioned SharePoint Online will receive a notification in the Office 365 Message Center.

Overview of third-party offerings

What are the third-party solution offerings?

..."

Check out Mary Jo's post for some more information and details;

Microsoft confirms it is dropping Public Website feature from SharePoint Online

As rumors suggested, Microsoft is deprecating Public Websites from SharePoint Online and Office 365 in January 2015. Here's more on why and what happens next.

..."

Packt's 5 Buck eBook Bonanza is back!

$5 eBook Bonanza – Every title, every topic

Treat yourself to the eBook or Video of your choice for just $5 and get as many as you like until January 6th 2015. To get you started, we've put together the Top 20 Titles of 2014 for you to pick up here. But don’t forget, you can get ANY eBook or Video for $5 in this offer.

...

With all $5 products available in a range of formats and DRM-free, customers will find great value content delivered exactly how they want it across Packt’s website this Xmas and New Year. From Thursday 18th December, every eBook and video will be available on the publisher’s website for just $5 until 6th January.

You guys know how much I dig Packt and their catalog. So when they do their $5 deals I always jump in and empty my wish list... :)

 

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.

Bruce Clay (go local biz!) provides a free SEO Power Tools and SEO Tutorial

PR Newswire - Free SEO Power Tools Now Available In the Most Complete SEO Tutorial on the Web

Bruce Clay, Inc. brings free, online SEO tutorial completely up to date with five critical search engine optimization concepts absent from other popular SEO guides. No email, login or download required to view and use the step-by-step tutorial and free integrated tools.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Dec. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In today's digital world everyone is a marketer to some extent. Bruce Clay, Inc. has published an SEO tutorial that publishers of all technical levels may find bookmark-worthy due to free, embedded tools. Online marketing and public relations professionals, website and blog owners and content marketers can use the hands-on resource to check the SEO efforts on their own pages and their competitors'.

The Bruce Clay, Inc. SEO Tutorial, spanning 20 webpages, stands out among other online SEO educational resources available. It's the only SEO tutorial that includes free tools anyone can use, no sign-up, login, download or trial required.

And it includes vital SEO concepts not covered in any other popular SEO tutorial, not even Google's:

• Tools to monitor backlinks and the process for pruning backlinks
• Mobile SEO and user experience optimization by device
• Competitive analysis and tools to do competitive research
• SEO for video, audio and podcasts
• Tools to do on-page optimization analysis

The free SEO tools integrated throughout the tutorial include:

...

I don't usually blog about SEO stuff, but this is a local company, one I walk by every so often, and they are giving away free stuff! So it's a win-win in my book :)

Predictive Models? Machine Learning? .NET App? Free Redist? Syncfusion has something you might like...

Deploy predictive models inside .NET applications

Dear customer,

We are excited to announce that we have shipped a breakthrough product that allows you to deploy predictive analytics solutions inside .NET applications.

Predictive modeling

What if you could use existing information to make predictions? Predictive modeling is truly one of the best-kept secrets. It has been used for decades by the largest firms in the world, enabling them to make smart, data-driven decisions. However, in spite of such tremendous benefits, few organizations have been able to justify the costs associated with modeling and deployment.

Times have changed. There are now a variety of modeling environments available to suit every budget. R is completely free and can produce excellent models. SPSS and SAS are leading commercial options.

Once you build and validate a model that works for your needs, you will need to deploy it within your .NET application. This task is often challenging and one in which the most fees lurk. You have to invoke the modeling environment’s runtime in most cases, and this often presents expensive commercial licensing costs and significant technical hurdles.

Essential Predictive Analytics changes everything

Essential Predictive Analytics from Syncfusion changes all this. You can now build models using any environment including R, SAS and SPSS, and then deploy with no dependency on these environments. The developed model are serialized in the open Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML) format. Essential Predictive Analytics includes a .NET execution engine that can execute the PMML model and provide real-time results from within your .NET applications without any third party dependencies.

Essential Predictive Analytics is included with Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise Edition (ESEE). As with the rest of ESEE, there are absolutely no runtime fees or royalties whether you deliver to a small group of users or to millions around the world....

Syncfusion - Essential Predictive Analytics

Make data-driven decisions

In today’s data-driven world, the most successful companies will be those that utilize available data to make timely data-driven decisions. A common example would be to analyze the purchasing habits of shoppers and providing relevant coupons to get them to buy related products. Another example – what if you could build a model that could accurately predict which of your customers are likely to stop using your product or service? You already have information on customers who stopped using your service in the past. What if you could build a model that learns from past data and can then be put to work to stop churn before it happens? With Essential Predictive Analytics, you can.

 

Model using R, SAS, and SPSS and deploy using .NET

Easily develop powerful models to predict the future based on past data using R, SAS, or SPSS. The developed model can then be serialized in Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML) format. Essential Predictive Analytics includes a .NET execution engine that can execute the PMML model and provide real-time results from within your .NET applications without any third-party dependencies.

 

Absolutely no deployment fees

Essential Predictive Analytics is included with Syncfusion Essential Studio. As with the rest of Essential Studio there are absolutely no runtime fees or royalties whether you deliver to a small group of users or to millions around the planet. Also, because there is no third-party dependency once the modeling is done, you pay no runtime fees to any other vendors. You simply produce the model using the environment of your choice and Essential Predictive Analytics will take it from there.

Truly useful models

Predictive modeling is truly one of the best kept secrets around.Companies that use predictive modeling are smarter than those that don’t. They know the right answers based on data. They make smarter decisions. In spite of such tremendous benefits, predictive modeling has long been the preserve of a select few organizations that were able to afford modeling and deployment solutions. Today, there is no reason to wait. R is completely free and can produce excellent models that can be deployed with ease using Essential Predictive Analytics.

...

..."

Now that's different and could be very, very awesome. While there are open source like solutions, I don't know if there's anything like this. It's part of their $1995 Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise Edition, which isn't cheap, but it IS a free redist, which is huge AND compared to other commercial solutions, pretty cheap (and plus you get everything else that's in that suite too!

To get a nice feel for this, check out their demo;

I'm hoping to take a much closer look at this in the coming weeks... :)

Navy Ship, Laser, Drone, Gamepad, Explosion, Check!

Defense Tech - Video: Navy Brand New Laser Protects Ponce in Persian Gulf

Navy admirals showed off the laser mounted to the USS Ponce Wednesday to the Pentagon press corps as the Navy announced it was confident the laser could protect the sailors aboard the Ponce, which is deployed to the Persian Gulf.

As part of the media blitz, the Navy released this video showing the litany of testing the 30-kilowatt laser executed before Navy leaders felt comfortable make the declaration. The video shows sailors shooting down small drones and hitting targets on fast attack boats — two of the major threats Navy surface ships face.

...

The video is below or you can click here to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REHt44BuASk

I want one...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
The USS Ponce gets some Laser punch! As in a drone killing laser...

Visual Studio Online Gets Cheaper...

Brian Harry’s blog - More pricing and licensing changes coming

Earlier this year, we started a process of reviewing our pricing and licensing for Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online.  Our intent was to review all of the customer feedback we’ve received to look for changes that would simplify purchasing and make it more affordable for teams to include everyone in the broader organization who needs to interact with the development team.

...

Let’s look at the changes:

Release Management

...

So, we are changing it.  As of January 1^st, 2015, you will no longer have to pay any per-processor (or any other per deployment environment) charge for Release Management.  ...

Test Execution

...

In response, we’re making two licensing changes that I believe will help with this greatly: ...

Cloud Load Testing

It didn’t take long after we released our cloud load test pricing for me to realize that we had gotten it wrong.  We originally priced it by...

...

So, we decided we needed a tiered model that would give good price breaks as load test usage got higher.

Our new pricing model for VS Online Cloud Load Testing is as follows: ...

So, in the scenario above, the customer would pay 20,000 * $0.00 + 1,980,000 * $0.0004 + 8,000,000 * $0.0002 + 71,000,000 * $0.0001 = $9,492 per month.  That’s $162,000/$9,492 = 17 times smaller.  ...

VS Online Build Service

We’ve gotten feedback on our build service pricing that it has a similar “scaling” problem as our load test pricing, though not nearly as big.  To make the build service more affordable for teams running many builds, we are introducing a tiered pricing model there as well.

The VS Online build service pricing will be: ...

Visual Studio Online Professional

One of the offerings for Visual Studio Online is Visual Studio Online Professional which combines a VS Online basic license with a monthly license to Visual Studio Professional.  Since its inception, we’ve had a 10 user limit on this product because it’s really designed for small teams (whereas MSDN subscriptions are the solution for larger teams).  However, after we got enough people asking for the 11th user, we realized that the complexity just wasn’t worth it and that 10 seemed pretty arbitrary.  As a result, we are eliminating the 10 user limit – though...

...

We are not done looking at pricing and licensing, of course.  We are continuing to look at feedback and look for opportunities to remove friction and simplify.  We always want to hear what you think and will do our best to make you happy.

..."

When this was announced at MVP Summit and it was greeted with applause (and getting applause from the VS ALM MVP's is not an easy thing)...

Visual Studio 2013 Community, Azure VM style...

Just Monday I blogged about playing with Windows 10 on an Azure VM, Want to play with Windows 10? Have Azure? One quick VM Gallery Visit and you're in..., now here's an example of how you can play with the new Visual Studio 2013 Community edition on a Azure VM too...

Microsoft UK Faculty Connection - Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition Azure Virtual Machines

We recently announced a new version of Visual Studio.What was interesting in the announcement of Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition which would replace the existing Visual Studio Express and Professional and that it would be a free development

...

Well we ended up hosting Visual Images in the Azure Image Gallery so now you can spin up an image in the Microsoft Azure VM portal which has Windows Server 2012 R2 and Visual Studio Community Edition 2013 so even if you don't have a Windows 8 desktop you can us your MacBook or even a iPad or Android Tablet to build and deploy apps across all platforms using Visual Studio

Getting Started

So its really easy to provision a Windows Server 2012 R2 with Visual Studio Community Edition already installed what neat is that the VM has all the Windows 8 and Azure SDK installed.

Windows Server 2012 R2 is pretty close to Windows 8 So you get a very modern development environment so you can build apps for Windows phone, Windows 8, Android and iOS.

So is it difficult to setup as I don't use Windows 8?

To set this up it takes around 9 clicks and a short wait of between 5 and 8 minutes…."

BTW, as you can see in the above snap, you can play with the latest beta of Visual Studio 2015 on a VM too... :)

"SQL Server Execution Plans" free eBook from Red Gate

Red Gate - SQL Server Execution Plans

Improve the performance of your .NET code – even if SQL Server is slowing you down

Download your free copy of SQL Server Execution Plans, the only in-depth look at how to improve your query performance through careful design of execution plans.

Then, isolate the problem that's causing pain in your own application, with a 14-day free trial of new ANTS Performance Profiler 9, which now includes a detailed view of SQL Server execution plans.

Narrow down the problem to your .NET code or SQL Server database in a single profiling session. Get line-level timings for slow code, and full execution plans for your queries, with expensive or slow operations highlighted for you automatically.

1. Free eBook: SQL Server Execution Plans

• Free 321 page eBook that covers execution plan basics, how to interpret plans, complex queries, and how to optimize execution plans.
• Includes 169 SQL code samples & 173 illustrations.
• Written by SQL Server MVP Grant Fritchey, the SQL Server community's leading authority on execution plans.
• Yours free – normally $29.99

2. Free trial: root out .NET & SQL Server performance problems with ANTS Performance Profiler

...

..."

NOTE: This is dated September 2012, but was also modified June 2014...

I thought I had blogged about this, but didn't so I might as well now! I mean, who doesn't need 322 pages on SQL Server Execution Plans?

Liked how the eBook download already included the example files...

Word to XAML, the next generation... "Xaml Generator" App for Office

Synergist - Xaml Generator – a New App for Office

A few years ago I build and shared the source code for a Word to Xaml Converter, a Word 2007 add-in that developers could use to convert Microsoft Office Word documents to Xaml for WPF and Silverlight applications.  Since it was originally published, the solution has been downloaded more than 3,000 times and I’ve received lots of feedback on it, progressively enhancing it to handle more Word features in the Xaml conversion.  I built the converter as a .NET library and a Word COM add-in, both built in C#. 

Apps for Office

Now with Office 2013 and Office 365, there is a new development model where developers can build “Apps for Office” using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build apps that can be added to Microsoft Office.  With this, Microsoft also launched an Apps for Office store where these apps can be listed and sold.  I was able to take what I built earlier as a Word add-in and move it to the cloud with Microsoft Azure Websites and listed it in the Apps for Office store.  This enables users of Office 2013 and Office 365 to now use the Xaml Generator in Microsoft Office Word wherever they are seeing it.

Xaml Generator

With this new App for Office, you select the text that you want to convert in Microsoft Word and then press the [Generate Xaml] button.  The generated text is then put in the task pane which you can then copy to Visual Studio to use in an app.  With this new release, I added Windows Xaml which can be used for Windows Universal Apps released for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.

To use the Xaml Generator in Word 2013

..."

If you are creating complex XAML text runs, this looks like a tool you should really have in your tool belt. That said, the coolest thing is how this app shows off the new power behind the new Office app building API. No stinking DLL's or add-ins here and works in the native and web Office. Now that's cool... :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Word to XAML Converter Updated to support WPF 4,Silverlight 4 and Word 2010 (Think “File/Save As XAML…”)

Microsoft Flight Simulator X takes flight on December 18th

DOVETAIL GAMES CLEARS MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR X: STEAM EDITION FOR TAKEOFF ON DECEMBER 18

CHATHAM, KENT – December 9th, 2014 – Dovetail Games, the multi award-winning developer and publisher of the Train Simulator series and Dovetail Games Fishing, today gave flight sim fans a lift for the holiday season with the announcement that Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition will launch on December 18 at a spectacular introductory price.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition delivers an authentically accurate aerial experience for simulation enthusiasts and those with a passion for all things flight.  Pilots can climb into the cockpits of over twenty aircraft, from commercial and fighter jets to single-engine private planes and helicopters. More than 80 missions will test players in a variety of ways, including search and rescue challenges, test pilot scenarios, races and more. The game features updated multiplayer functionality, Windows 8.1 support and over 24,000 airports, delivering a beautiful, connected world and vast horizon begging to be explored.

First released in 2006...

Okay, so I'm old! There, I said it, you happy? [insert old guy, "I remember playing Microsoft Flight Simulator on my IBM PC..." note here] Still, it's good to see this franchise alive and well, no matter who's coding it...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
A nose dive for Microsoft Flight
Coolest Download of the Day, no not Win8 CP, not VS11, but Microsoft Flight! (Free to play)
Fly like a [beta test] Eagle... Microsoft is looking for Microsoft Flight Beta testers...
Microsoft Flight, coming as a free game in Spring 2012

FlightGear takes flight with v3.0
Jump!!! FlightGear lets you get out of the cockpit, literally!
FlightGear takes you into space...
FlightGear, the open source flight simulator, releases version 2.4

Lucian Wischik highlights the new features in Visual Basic 14

The Visual Basic Team - New Language Features in Visual Basic 14

"Visual Basic 14" is the version of Visual Basic that will ship with Visual Studio 2015. In this blog post I'll talk specifically about the VB language improvements in this release. (Separately, there are a whole host of IDE and project-system improvements as well). There are two overall themes to the language improvements:

(1) Make common coding patterns a little cleaner, with easy-to-grasp syntax

(2) Fix up some irritating corners of the language that you probably already expected to work.

This release will be easier to digest than was Visual Basic 12, with its introduction of async! (The version number of Visual Basic has gone straight from 12 to 14, skipping 13. We did this to keep in line with the version numbering of Visual Studio itself.)

I'll only talk here about the most important new language features. For a full exhaustive list, look at roslyn.codeplex.com > Documentation > Language Features.

(Note: I've used animated gifs in this blog-post because the language features shine the best when you see them in action. The longest gif is only 8 seconds so if you miss the start, keep watching! If you don't like the animation, please see the version of this post with still before/after pictures.

The ?. operator

The new ?. operator is an easier way to check whether something is null before dotting into it. ...

The NameOf operator ...

String Interpolation

String interpolation is my favourite feature this release. I know that ?. is more powerful, and nameof() will make my code more robust, but every time I type an interpolated string it gives me a little shiver of excitement! Here's how it looks: ...

Multiline Strings

You used to have to use cumbersome workarounds to get multiline strings in VB. Thankfully VB14 now supports multiline strings literals directly: ...

Readonly Auto-properties

We've made it considerably easier to write readonly auto-properties. Here's how you do it:...

Comments

Comments are now handled better in statements that split over multiple lines. This is particularly nice for LINQ expressions. Look at these "before" and "after" videos... previously it was simply an error to include these comments: ...

..."

Love to see VB continue to get some love... :)

Two Tasty NuGets - "Create and Push NuGet Package in Visual Studio 2013" & "NuGet 101 – A Bootcamp"

Visual Studio Gallery - Create and Push NuGet Package in Visual Studio 2013

Introduction

In this article we will see how we can create NuGet Package after each build and push the package to NuGet in Visual Studio 2013.

Description

NuGet: NuGet is a Visual Studio extension that makes it easy to pull in libraries, components, and most importantly their configuration into your visual studio project. This is a tool that is installed with MVC 3 and it is used to bring in various components to make developing on MVC easier. These components are called NuGet Packages and they can include .NET assemblies, JavaScript files, HTML/Razor files, CSS files, images, and even files that can add configuration to your projects web.config. The goal of NuGet is to make is super easy to bring in or update a component in your existing projects.

More info- http://www.developerfusion.com/article/131917/using-nuget-packages/

First of all let’s make an mvc project –

Getting Started

...

..."

David Whitney - NuGet 101 – A Bootcamp

I’ve been running and recording a lot of workshops over the last couple of months – here is one on NuGet packaging for beginners – starting out as a slide deck then moving into a practical demo.

Slide deck 

• History
• What’s a package
• So it’s a zip file right?
• Why should I use them?
• An open source mentality
• Disadvantages
• Realities

Demo

• Directory topologies of a library package
• Adding packages to your solutions
• Pairing nuspec files with csproj’s
• Replacement tokens for metadata
• The NuGet docs
• Package dependencies
• Dependency discovery and bundling
• Versioning and SemVer
• Package sources
• NuGet.config

Mentions

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Yes, there are still dev's out there that don't know about, use or get NuGet. If you know of one, here are two posts you can use to help them help themselves...

Your one stop web designer cheat sheet stop? (If not, it's close...)

Designer Daily - The best cheatsheets web designers will need

Despite of years of practice and coding, it’s impossible for any designers to remember and know absolutely everything required for their work. The technology and trend is never constant. Whether it’s a programming language, CMS or any other framework, they need to refer the official document and a handy cheatsheet for best outcome in any design and development work.

In this today’s post, here we have collected the best cheatsheets that any web designers will need. Have a look at it below and enjoy your work!

1. CSS – Cascading Style Sheets

2. Popular CSS Frameworks

3. HTML – HyperText Markup Language

4. JavaScript & jQuery

5. PHP

6. WordPress

7. Joomla!

8. Drupal 7

9. SEO

10. Adobe Photoshop

11. Adobe Illustrator

[Insert my usual, "One of these days, I'm might have to play web, so am going to cache this for future reference" statements here]

(via Infragistics - D-Coding - Developer News - What's IN with the Infragistics Community? (12/1-12/7))

EA, via Origin, giving away (as in $0) SimCity 2000

PCWorld - Free game alert: EA's giving away SimCity 2000 (a.k.a. The Best SimCity)

EA's unveiled the latest game in its "On the House" promotion, and it's SimCity 2000 a.k.a. The Best SimCity Ever Made and I Will Brook No Argument On That Point. The On the House program lets you pick up games to pad out your Origin library for free, the catch being that you have to own an Origin account in order to take advantage.

...

I've not used Origin since they gave away Sims 2 (nor for other games) so was surprised how well they wrapped up DOSBox with this SimCity distort... Now, if only it worked a little better in a window on a high DPI screen. But hey, I can't complain about the price! :)