brianjo

If you’re looking to check out Azure development without a commitment, this program will give you access to Azure without a credit card for a month.

Windows Azure One Month Pass
Windows Azure One Month Pass
•Learn about the Windows Azure platform with no steep learning curve
•With Windows Azure you pay only for what you use, scale up when you need capacity and pull back when you don’t. We’re offering a Windows Azure One Month Pass*, so you can put Windows Azure and SQL Azure through their paces. No Credit Card Required.

Lots of resources on the page also. I’ve added them below for convenience.

Use the pass with the online training below to learn more about Windows Azure:

• Learn why Azure is a great cloud computing platform with these fun videos
• Learn how to put up a simple application on to Windows Azure
• Learn about SQL Azure Database video
• Learn about PHP on Windows Azure
• Take the Windows Azure virtual lab
• Read about Developing a Windows Azure Application
• View the series of Web seminars designed to quickly
  immerse you in the world of the Windows Azure Platform

Get the Tools

• Download Microsoft Web Platform Installer
• Download Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

Dig Deeper into Windows Azure

• Download the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit
• Visit the Windows Azure Platform partner HUB
• Visit the Windows Azure Platform partner page

Joe Healy has a great post up with some instructions for getting started with Windows Phone 7 development. Well worth a bookmark:

7 Steps to Get You Going on Windows Phone 7 Dev
Posted on 8/9/2010 2:34:05 PM

Windows Phone 7 is hot right now, and I’m getting a ton of Qs on how to get started. Many different ways you could approach present themselves, but what’s the best? Actually, I don’t know but here’s DevFish’s Top 7 Steps to Windows Phone 7 Development …

1. INSTALL THE DEVTOOLS – easy enough. Click once on the installer and down come all the goodies, including Expression Blend for WP7 and VS2010 Express for WP7. Click on "Download the Developer Tools" here , and while you’re at it, explore some of the other links
2. WORK THROUGH THE TRAINING KIT – The WP7 Training Kit is a fine piece of work (if you’re like me and love Hands On Labs to plod through at your own pace). Seven Hands-On-Labs covering basics, navigation, controls, push notifications, game dev with XNA, launchers, tombstoning, and more.  Download from here .
3. READ PETZOLDs FREE EBOOK – Over 11 Chapters (and growing) of top notch "petzold-level-content" with source code even – Charles, I promise I’m buying a copy when it comes out – well worth downloading and printing (pine trees are a renewable resource) – find it here .

Read the rest on devfish.net.

The Microsoft in the Cloud events are coming to cities in the US East Coast in February and March. Stops include Washington DC, Atlanta, New York, Charlotte, and Boston. Check out the link below for details.

Microsoft in the Cloud

…For Today, Tomorrow and Beyond.

Are you evaluating cloud technologies and wondering where Microsoft fits in? Did you know that Microsoft has over 15 years of experience delivering services like Hotmail and more recently Xbox Live through the cloud to millions of users? Do you want to know more about what Microsoft’s annual investment in the cloud – a significant portion of its $9.5B R&D budget means to you and your company?

Companies everywhere are looking to leverage cloud technology to:

• Drive greater efficiency in IT systems and cut costs out of IT infrastructure

• Increase the scalability and agility of IT infrastructure

• Reduce IT carbon footprints

• Help developers respond more quickly to business requirements

• Address lost productivity and user frustration with disconnected IT experiences

Join us to discover how Microsoft Cloud Computing enables organizations like yours:

• Have the Flexibility of choosing whether your applications will run locally, in the cloud, or a combination of the two based on your business needs

• Remain confident in the Security and availability of your data and services as you harness the efficiency, cost, and environmental benefits of the cloud

• Maintain Control while increasing end-user satisfaction and productivity via the enablement of seamless experiences across the PC, Web, and phone.

I spent a really good winter vacation doing nothing. And by nothing, I mean nothing. I played games with the kids, went to some theme parks, and watched some movies, but for the most part I didn’t do any Twittering, Facebook posting, or anything in the social networking space. I did post pictures to my Flickr account, but that takes no effort and it’s stuff I want to look at in the future.

So now that I’m back this week, I’m thinking I want to get back into doing more blogging and social networking stuff.

To kick this off, I just want to list some of the stuff I’m going to blog about in the coming year.

• Startups in the East. It’s my job, but it’s also my passion. I love finding companies that are building cool products. I’m going to find as many of these this year as I can and try to let as many people as I can know about the work they’re doing.
• Web design firms in the East. That’s another work related topic, but I’m looking for WebsiteSpark companies that are building kick ass sites. If you know about some, let me know.
• Motorcycles. Yeah, I need to make myself ride sometimes, but it changes my perspective on life. Some day I want to rewrite Moby Dick as a biker book. I think this is the passage that hits me. Replace sea with “get on a bike”, and my perspective changes.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

• Photography. I just need to do more. I love to take pictures of animals and my kids. I’ll post those to Flickr.
• Gadgets. It’s been a while since I was an alpha gadget geek, but I may get back into it this year. We’ll see. I may go a little retro and just use software to resurrect some older tech for the fun of it. If I do that, I’ll write about it.
• Writing. I need to write some more. It’s time I put a new book together. 2010 sounds like a nice round year for that. As I plan it, I may blog it. We’ll see.

That’s the short list, but it’s what I want to do and I want to get it out there. I didn’t really list my family stuff, simply because that’s just a given and I don’t need a list to tell me what I need to do there.

When I don’t feel like posting anything, I just don’t post. We used to apologize for not posting, but I don’t think that’s really necessary, because, as my good friend Kent says, “Nobody cares.” 🙂 

Have a great 2010!

Brian

This is really something. I think it will be interesting to see how the community reacts.

Microsoft Contributes Code to the Linux Kernel | NicFill | Channel 9