Debate Azure vs. Amazon Web Services

This morning I was pointed to an interesting article that goes over some interesting arguments both for and against using Azure vs. AWS: http://gigaom.com/cloud/the-great-debate-windows-azure-vs-amazon-web-services/. Ultimately what this looks like it will come down to is a question of the right fit for your organization. Do you employ primarily .NET developers or Java developers? Is most of your investment in Microsoft or do you have a mix (Oracle/Java/IBM)?

      

Developers: Exercise Your Problem Solving Skills

A friend at work showed me this. Facebook has some good software engineering puzzles they are using to screen potential software development employees. The puzzles are arranged from easy ("snacks") to hard ("meals") to advanced ("buffet"). All of them are challenging.

Caveat Emptor: Excellent Article About Flash Memory

http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918

Mint Now Available for Android

A Mint client is now available for Android in the Marketplace.

How to Upgrade Your Verizon Droid to 2.1

You don't have to wait for Verizon. Here's a great how-to article on MobileCrunch.com.

The Evolution of C#

This is a work in progress. Primer for .NET Developer technical interview?

C# 2.0

• Generics: Jon Skeet, Microsoft
• Iterators: O'Reilly (Apr 2004), Microsoft
• Partial Classes: O'Reilly (Apr 2004), Microsoft
• Nullable types: Jon Skeet, Microsoft
• Anonymous Methods: O'Reilly (Apr 2004), Microsoft
• Static classes: Jon Skeet, Microsoft
• Partial types: Jon Skeet
• Indexers: Microsoft
• Aliases: Jon Skeet
• Property access modifiers: Jon Skeet
• Delegate changes: Jon Skeet, Microsoft (Covariance & Contravariance)
• Implementing iterators with yield statements: Jon Skeet
• Comprehensive: CodeProject, Microsoft

C# 3.0

• Implicitly Typed Local Variables: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Implicitly Typed Arrays: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Object & Collection Initializers: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Extension Methods: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Anonymous Types: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Lambda Expressions: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Query Expressions: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Expression Trees: Microsoft (Mar 2007)
• Auto-Implemented Properties: Microsoft (Mar 2007)

C# 4.0

• Dynamic Lookup: CodeProject (Jul 2009)
• Named and Optional parameters: CodeProject (Jul 2009)
• COM Interop: CodeProject (Jul 2009)
• Variance: CodeProject (Jul 2009)

Keeping Your Home PC Up To Date

Keeping your PC current with Operating System and software patches, Virus Protection, and Spyware Protection has never been easy but it's getting there. In addition backups are a concern as well. Lately I've been using a four-pronged approach, all of which are currently free...

1. Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware. Microsoft Security Essentials is an effective tool based on what of seen and read, as well as my own experience. I was a subscriber to Windows Live OneCare which handled Virus Protection, Spyware, Operating System patches and backups in one easy to use application. Unfortunately Microsoft discontinued this little gem and offered Security Essentials in its place for free.
   
   
2. Backups. The simplest and easiest backup application is built right into your Microsoft operating system. I'm running Windows 7 Backup & Restore but the Windows XP OS has a similar feature. I use an external drive to store the backups. The great thing about these backups is how easy it is to restore multiple user profiles when rebuilding my PC from scratch (i.e., reinstalling the Operating System).
   
   
3. Application Update Notifications. I've been using this great free product for several weeks now, FileHippo Update Checker. It's free and it has been working well without any problems. In the four weeks or so since we've installed it I've been notified of at least six different software application updates including the Sun Java Runtime, Apple iTunes, Apple QuickTime, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, and more.
   
   
4. Operating System Patches. Once again, built right into the Windows operating system is Windows Update. I've been using this for years now without a problem. In addition to Operating system updates, Microsoft Office updates are included as well.
   

Another great tool I've come across is Secunia Software's Personal Software Inspector (PSI). I've been using this without any problems for a several weeks now as well. It is also free and purports to "detect vulnerable and out-dated programs and plug-ins which expose your PC to attacks".

Popular Anti-Spyware options include Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware (free version), and Windows Defender.

LifeHacker.com has an excellent guide to keeping your PC up to date...

Good Motorola Android Guide

Master Google Android: 40 Tips and Tricks 

How to Copy All Email From MS Outlook to Gmail

I have been hosting my own Microsoft Exchange Server from my home for the past five years. Recently the hard drive went south on the only Domain Controller I had in my network. As luck would have it this occurred on the day before a two week family vacation. After several failures attempting to restore Active Directory I quickly decided to host our email on Gmail. I pointed DynDNS to Gmail's servers and voila! After returning from vacation I got around to bringing the Exchange Server back up. For now I decided I would stick with Gmail (yes I drank the Kool-Aid).

So Google has a neat tool  Google Email Uploader that does the trick (Contacts & Email). The only thing now is my calendar (I have lot's of birthdays, anniversaries, and other recurring appointments)...

One major downside for me with the whole process was having to go through and fix many of the tags. Google doesn't use folders; instead the concept of a "tag" is used. The app converts each folder to a tag but if you have folders inside folders, the entire folder path becomes the tag. For example: "Employment\Benefits\401K\" was one tag. I flattened this structure by creating three tags, "Employment", "Benefits", and "401K", and then assigned all three tags to the emails in the folder. The process led me to simpliify my filing structure as well.

Correction: Android Does Have Multitouch

I stand corrected. There is an applicaton called PicSay that allows "pinch and zoom", similar to the iPhone.