14 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in Tools
Microsoft have released a large number of free ebooks across a number of subjects via a MDSN Blog.
The subjects covered in the books are:
08 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Architecture, Cloud, Development, DevOps/OpsDev, Programming, Tools
Docker have released some of the session videos from the recent Dockercon 2015 conference.
Session Links
Keynotes
Docker, Docker Docker
Day 1
http://blog.docker.com/2015/06/dockercon-2015-videos-day-1-of-docker-docker-docker-2/
Day 2
http://blog.docker.com/2015/06/dockercon-2015-videos-day-2-docker-docker-docker/
Advanced Tech
Day 1
http://blog.docker.com/2015/06/dockercon-2015-videos-day-1-advanced-tech/
Day 2
http://blog.docker.com/2015/07/dockercon-2015-videos-day-2-of-advanced-tech/
Docker Use Cases
Day 1
http://blog.docker.com/2015/07/dockercon-2015-videos-day-1-use-case/
Day 2
http://blog.docker.com/2015/07/dockercon-2015-videos-day-2-use-case/
Further videos to be released on the Docker Blog.
20 Saturday Jun 2015
Posted in Development, Open Source, Tools
Tags
The UK Environment Agency have been providing free access to their mapping tools for non-commercial means for some time now. This is their LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) data. However the non-commercial bit is about to change with the addition of commercial use also becoming free to use in the near future.
The release of data will be through the OGL (Open Government Licence) which itself will see an update in September 2015
The main driver behind this change is to assist with risk modelling and to open up innovation around the environment.
We hope that by removing any cost barriers, our data will improve the quality of flood risk modelling used by businesses and local communities and allow for the development of innovative tools and techniques to further benefit the environment.
Dr Alison Matthew,Geomatics Manager at the Environment Agency
12 Friday Jun 2015
Posted in Productivity, Tools
Tags
If you have been using The Chronodex (I blogged about this back in January) you will soon be coming to the end of the 6 months in the tool. Patrick Ng has now released the next part for the second half of the year.
The format of the Chronodex is meant for the Midori Traveller Notebook style of (http://www.midori-japan.co.jp/tr/english/) but you don’t need one of these to use it.
Upon first glance it looks a bit quirky and hard to use, but once you get used to the format of the Chronodex it does become an interesting tool to use. A bit different from a normal day to a page diary with times down the side.
Using shading, colours or other types of marking you can block out parts of the Chronodex for tasks/appointments and add keys or words alongside the areas filled out.
Source: http://scription.typepad.com/
05 Tuesday May 2015
Posted in Architecture, Tools
Tags
Hot on the Heels of the Microsoft Build Conference, the Microsoft Ignite Conference is under way.
Once again the conference is being streamed with sessions online for those who cant get to the conference.
You can follow the conference at http://ignite.microsoft.com/
Replays available here http://ignite.microsoft.com/Sessions
30 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in Development, Programming, Tools
Tags
The Microsoft Build conference is in fully swing with Day 2 coming up. Although I am not there in person, its good to see that the sessions are being streamed and recorded.
You can follow the conference at http://www.buildwindows.com/
There is already a lot of news stories coming out on the latest Microsoft developments from the conference. Some of the highlights are:
13 Monday Apr 2015
Posted in Productivity, Social Media, Tools
Tags
Having just had a few days off I have come back to the usual full mailbox and a quota that’s blown so need to clear items out before I can send anything.
This is a very common place occurrence for people now, but how do we actually behave with and use email?
A recent study “Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload” carried out by Yahoo and Cornell University studied more than 2 million users exchanging 16 billion emails over several months.
The study itself shows some interesting results, but is based between pairs of people who send more than 5 replies to each other and have opted in to surveys which provides a level of bias into the survey.
Youngest email users, teens, have the fastest reply times; as users get older they become slower to reply to emails.
The survey provides details on the response times (medians of results)
These figures for me show how the Younger Generations are more reliant on technology and interact with social media at a more frequent rate than their peers. It would be interesting to see the results on a wider distribution of users and email interactions though and if that has a skew on the results, also what device the users have access to which may dictate the speed of the reply.
Source : http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.00704
07 Tuesday Apr 2015
Posted in Big Data, Data Science, Tools
Tags
Whilst looking into some suitable questions to ask about Big Data, I can across an excellent poster titled “Do you know Big Data?” produced by Altamira.
The poster covers a set of questions that help you question Big Data and a Big Data project.
A useful tool as a starting place to research further elements of Big Data.
02 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in Architecture, Cloud, Tools
Tags
Microsoft have added a couple of new titles to their collection of e-books on MVA (Microsoft Virtual Academy) this month. These titles add to a good collection of information on Microsoft products.
There are lots of other titles available and it is worth checking out the collection.
Microsoft System Center Deploying Hyper-V with Software-Defined Storage & Networking
24 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, Governance, Productivity, Tools
Tags
An Architecture Thought Tool I use when looking to identify any Risks in a projects or assignment is to use the STORMCLOUD method.
This involves identifying the risks by going through the following areas:
Once identified its then a case of mitigating the risks that can be and calling out those that cannot.
Using this method is just one of many, but helps focus on the important areas to consider.
Max Hemingway 