Amazon Announces Immediate Availability of Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region
On June 27th, Amazon announced the immediate availability of their 6th AWS Region in Asia Pacific. This region is in Mumbai, India and it joins other regions in Asia Pacific including Beijing, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo. With the addition of Mumbai, Amazon is now up to 35 Availability Zones across 13 geographic Regions worldwide.
.NET Core 1.0 Released
Microsoft has formally released version 1.0 of .NET Core, the freely available and open source version of .NET. This provides developers a multiplatform way to target Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X systems with a single codebase.
Codename One Adds Support for Java Apps to Target the Universal Windows Platform
Codename One, a popular app development environment that allows Java to be used for a variety of platforms, can now also target the Universal Windows Platform. This will allow Java developers to target any device where Windows 10 is installed- whether phone, table or desktop- and raises the number of targetable platforms to eight.
Microsoft Announces Better Integration of Docker and Azure at DockerCon 2016
At the recently concluded DockerCon 2016 in Seattle, Microsoft announced some features in Azure showcasing improved support for Docker containers in the enterprise. These include the availability of Docker Datacenter in the Azure Marketplace and Docker Datacenter support for managing hybrid container deployments.
VS2015 Update 3 Focuses on Performance and Stability
The full release of Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 has been made. Update 3 places a great emphasis on improving the stability of the product and reducing the amount of memory used by the IDE for solutions of all sizes. Other changes include better C++ support and better handling of product activation.
FaaS, PaaS, and the Benefits of the Serverless Architecture
This article discusses what serverless is, comparing it with PaaS and SPaaS, the benefits and costs of a serverless architecture and the need for a framework.
C# 7 and Beyond with Mads Torgersen
Mads Torgersen, program manager of C#, presents the upcoming C# 7 at QCon New York 2016. He also explains briefly the evolution of C# and introduces some features being developed for future versions.
Microsoft Introduces Project Bletchley: A Modular Blockchain Fabric
On June 15th, Microsoft announced their vision for an open blockchain platform which will be powered by Azure. Microsoft is calling this initiative Project Bletchley, which focuses on providing the architectural building blocks for constructing an Enterprise Consortium Blockchain Ecosystem.
Taking a Look at Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 RC
The Release Candidate for Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 has been released. This latest update includes several bits of polish and bug fixing.
Writing C++ for Linux on Visual Studio
Visual Studio 2015 users have a new way to write C++ code for non-Windows environments. Thanks to the Visual C++ for Linux extension, VS2015 supports writing C++ code under Windows and then deploying that code to a Linux machine for compilation, execution, and debugging. New features increase the usefulness by adding a Linux Console Window and fixing several bugs.
Systems Programming in C#
Although the definition of system programming is fuzzy, it can be described as having to think at the bit, byte, instruction or CPU cycle level. Systems programming also implies demanding performance and reliability requirements. Joe Duffy, engineering director at Microsoft, presented strategies for system programming in C# at QCon New York. He also discusses pitfalls and how to mitigate them.
May Release of Visual Studio Code
The latest release of Visual Studio Code adds terminal support to the editor, bug fixes to several annoyances, and revised whitespace handling.
Exploring Performance Counters with F# WMI Type Provider
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a primary source of data when monitoring Windows systems. Given that the performance counters available vary from machine to machine, a tool is needed to list all counters available. The WMI type provider is one possible option to explore WMI performance counters.
Macros Return to Visual Studio
Writing macros to automate tasks was a popular feature in older versions of Visual Studio. Since Visual Studio 2012, macros have not been available but now a new extension promises to provide macros to users of Visual Studio 2013 & 2015.
RC2 Available for .NET Core and ASP.NET Core
Microsoft has released the second release candidate (RC2) for .NET Core and ASP.NET Core along with the .NET Core SDK. New commands, and the addition of RyuJIT JIT compiler are among the many changes found in this release.
