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Microsoft Announces Draft .NET Architecture Guidance
Four application architecture guidance drafts are available from Microsoft. These drafts cover four areas: Microservices and Docker, ASP.NET Web Applications, Azure Cloud Deployment, and Xamarin Mobile Applications. Each guidance consists of a set of documents appropriate for the topic. Microsoft wants feedback from the general community on these draft documents.
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Microsoft Releases APIs for Face Recognition, Computer Vision, and Content Moderation
Microsoft Cognitive Services released its Face, Computer Vision, and Content Moderator APIs to its users in late April. Cognitive Services comprises many APIs and services that enable developers to add image recognition, speech, translation and other functionality to their own applications, without having to develop these capabilities themselves.
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Google Invests in Cognitive: Cloud Speech API Reaches General Availability
In a recent blog post, Google announced their Cloud Speech API has reached General Availability. The Cloud Speech API allows developers to include pre-trained machine learning models for cognitive tasks such as video, image and text analysis in addition to dynamic translation. The Cloud Speech API was launched, in open beta, last summer.
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Microsoft Releases Feature Pack 1 for BizTalk Server 2016
On April 26th 2017, Microsoft released Feature Pack 1 for BizTalk Server 2016. This is the first time Microsoft has provided a Feature Pack for BizTalk Server and it provides customers with new capabilities in the areas of Deployment, Analytics and the BizTalk Runtime.
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Microsoft Releases Dialogue Dataset to Make Chatbots Smarter
Maluuba, a Microsoft company working towards general artificial intelligence, recently released a new open dialogue dataset based on booking a vacation. With this dataset, they help researchers and developers make their chatbots smarter.
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Hyperledger Steering Committee Approves First Ethereum Project
In a recent blog post on the Hyperledger project website, Brian Behlendorf, executive director of the Hyperledger project, announced that the Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee has approved a proposal, submitted by Monax and Intel, to incubate the first Ethereum derived project called Burrow, a permissionable smart contract machine.
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Microsoft Releases Azure Functions Proxies Public Preview
In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced a public preview for Azure Functions Proxies. This feature provides reverse proxy functionality targeted at organizations that expose many Azure Function Apps and want to have a common public endpoint, regardless of where and how many Function Apps have been provisioned.
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CodePlex Shuts Down; Migration to GitHub Recommended
Microsoft has decided to stop providing free hosting services for open source projects via CodePlex. Instead they have recommend moving to GitHub or other hosting providers.
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Developing for the Microsoft Surface Hub
Microsoft has released a series of nine videos to explain how to design and develop applications for the Microsoft Surface Hub. These videos are intended for both developers and designers who are using the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
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Building the Hyperconnected Future on Blockchains Paper Released at World Government Summit
At the recent World Government Summit, Hexayurt Capital and ConsenSys released a paper called “Building the Hyperconnected Future on Blockchains.” The purpose of the paper was to provide an Internet of Agreements (IoA) strategy and roadmap for the next wave of innovation in order to drive Globalization 2.0.
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Microsoft AirSim, a Simulator for Drones and Robots
Microsoft has developed and open sourced AirSim, a tool that can be used to simulate the flight of drones around the world. The simulator is built on the Unreal Engine and Microsoft will soon add support for robots and other types of vehicles.
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MindMeld’s Guide to Building Conversational Apps
MindMeld, a conversational AI company, has published The Conversational AI Playbook, a guide outlining the challenges and the steps to be made to create conversational applications.
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Microsoft Open Sources Visual Studio Test
Microsoft has open sourced their Visual Studio Test Platform (VS Test) used to run tests in many languages, collect diagnostic data and report the results.
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Microsoft Edge Updates Support for WebVR, Makes Flash Click-to-Run
Microsoft has started 2017 by rolling out Windows 10 build 15002 to end users, giving developers a new UWP architecture for Microsoft Edge’s multi-process model and click-to-run Flash content.
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Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla Urge Site Operators to Replace SHA–1 Certificates
Following their SHA–1 deprecation plans announced last year, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla detailed recently their timelines to remove support for SHA–1 certificates from their flagship browsers. Researchers at security firm Venafi found however, that 35% of analyzed websites are still using SHA–1 certificates.