New features in SQL Azure

An amazing set of new features has been announced recently. These features include:

• 50 GB Database SKU, available upon request
• MARS (Multiple Active Result Sets) This is very useful feature, since lots of developers are having issues with connection when using Entity Framework. The EF connection string enables MARS by default and developers are having though times to identify connection errors.
• Alter rename process for symmetry in renaming databases

You can read more details at SQL Azure team blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlazure/archive/2010/04/16/9997517.aspx

IIS Compression in Windows Azure is now possible

As by recent blog post from Steve Marx, the Dynamic Compression module is now enabled in Windows Azure. That change is made is March release of Windows Azure Guest OS 1.2

Imagine Cup local finals judge

I am honored to be a judge at local finals of the Imagine Cup Student Competition 2010. I will be part of the jury for the Software Design category.

Good luck to all teams!

May the technology be with you!

Solution to Silverlight Design Time issues in a Windows Azure Cloud Service

I just want to share a blog post from Azure team, where they reveal how to deal with bunch of irritating issues that one would have if developing Silverlight based application for the cloud. You can read the full story here: http://blogs.msdn.com/jnak/archive/2010/03/23/fixing-the-silverlight-design-time-in-a-windows-azure-cloud-service.aspx

Official Silverlight 4 Tools for VS 2010 RC is out

It was not long ago when VS2010 RC become available. One unfortunate thing with it, was that the SL 4 BETA tools were not supported on VS 2010 RC and there were tons of question when shall we expect version of SL 4 tools that will work with VS 2010 RC. Well, here they are:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc838244(VS.96).aspx

Silverlight 4 RC Developer Runtime + Silverlight 4 Tools for VS 2010 RC + WCF RIA Services RC.

I am not sure whether to be happy or sad for the last one. I was exploring the .NET RIA Services since their early CTP and I do have a project that uses Silverlight 3 RTM + WCF RIA Services Beta all developed on VS 2008. What was my surprise when I saw the installer splash screen of Silverlight 4 RC Tools. It was so kind to tell me that I have earlier version of WCF RIA Services, which will be uninstalled for the sake of new RC version. However, WCF RIA Services RC will only support Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010 RC. So I decided to not make that big upgrade step of my project, because it is bit more complex than just a Silverlight application :). Anyway I know that sooner or later I will have to upgrade everything to 2010 versions because in either way WCF RIA Services will not support Silverlight 3.

The only solution to “touch” Silverlight 4 RC Tools without crashing all my previous work is to use a VM to play around. I just feel I have too many VMs :) I am saving one separate real HDD for all my VMs …