The Microsoft Azure Cloud is looking pretty solid compared to just a few months ago.  The storage mechanisms in the cloud now are blobs, drives, tables, and queues.  Also, not to forget, is SQL Azure.  I won't dive too much into that, as most will know what SQL Server is, and SQL Azure is pretty much just a hosted SQL Server instance.

The blobs are generally geared toward holding binary type data, images and those types of things.  The tables are huge key value type stores.  The drives are VHD, which are virtual hard drives.  The queues are just queues used for workflow and also to store messages back and forth in a queue.

These methods are accessible via REST, which makes application development against the storage services extremely easy.  This is a big plus point as REST services are a preferred way to connect and interact with data storage.  It also sets up Silverlight as a prime framework to utilize services.

Day 4 I pretty much dedicated to reviewing these cloud services and finishing up work related development.  With that, I'm wrapping up my MIX 2010 blog coverage.  Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I rolled over to the Mandalay for breakfast.  There I met a couple guys that were really excited about the new Windows 7 Phone.  They, as I, are also hopeful that the phone really gets a big push and some penetration into the market.  Not because we don?t like any other of the phones, but because this phone is so much better in many ways.  From a developer’s perspective creating applications in Windows 7 Mobile will be vastly superior in ease, capabilities, and other aspects.  The architectural, existing code base, examples, and provisions to create things on the 7 Mobile Device are already existing as of RIGHT NOW.  There is no reason, except for fickle market conditions, for this phone to not just explode onto the market.  But alas, I won’t hold my breath.

Day three keynote had a whole new slew of things provided.  It also seemed that things got a lot more technical on this second keynote.  The oData was one of the very technical bits, yet it included almost no code.  Starting with a Netflix example and all the way to the Codename "Dallas" effort the oData Services provide some expansive possibilities.

A mash up going 4 ways was then shown for finding a movie, finding local places to have a viewing, and information about the movie and were to prospectively find and buy additional movie bits.  The display was of course, in a Windows 7 Mobile device with literally a click to view each set of data.  The backend and the front end of this was beautifully smooth.

The Dallas Project has a lot of potential for analytics in dashboard and scorecard creation also.  If there is a need or reason to provide data to a vast and wide range of clients, Dallas is a prime example of how to do that.

Azure Clouds

After the main keynote I checked out (while developing a working WPF & Silverlight Application for work) the session on deploying ASP.NET Applications, services, etc, into the cloud.  The session was pretty good, but I’ll admit I got a little unfocused from it a few times.  It is after all hard to do two things at one time.

I did take note that the cloud still is a multiple step process for deploying to.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  There needs to be more checks and verifications when deploying something into the cloud just for technical reasons.  However, I feel that there should be some streamlining to the process.  Going back and forth between web and Visual Studio as the interface also seems kind of clunky.  Deployment should be able to be completed from within Visual Studio in my perspective.  Overall, the cloud is getting more and more impressive in function as well as theory.

That’s it from me so far on the third day of MIX.  I’ll be note taking and studying hard to have more good tidbits to provide.

I went to the session on Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework (MSAF) today while here at MIX 2010.  It was a great walk through the features, ideas, and what the end goal is.  Michael Scherotter did a great job of lining up the ideas, intentions, and the functional ideas behind the framework.

The framework is built around the Silverlight Behaviors.  If you aren’t sure what behaviors are, check out these entries from Nikhilk.net Silverlight Behaviors, Silverlight 3 Drag Behavior, An Introduction to Behaviors, Triggers, and Actions, and of course the MSDN Documentation on the matter.

Some of the key features of the framework is to support out-of-browser scenarios, which works perfectly with out Webtrends DX Web Services.  Offline scenarios, which again, we have worked toward supporting at Webtrends DC Web Services via caching and other criteria as needed.  Another feature that I was really stoked about is the Microsoft Expression Blend integration that removes the need for coding, thus simplifying the addition of analytics components based on events or other actions within a Silverlight Application.  This framework also easily supports A/B Testing (again, something we do quit a bit of at Webtrends with Webtrends Optimize.

The last thing I really wanted to point out was the control support that this framework has support in already from Telerik RadControls, Smooth Streaming Media Element, and Microsoft Silverlight Media Framework Player 1.0.  These are implemented with behaviors and handlers exposed via MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework).

All in all, great second day, great analytics framework for Silverlight, and great presentation.  Until tomorrow, adieu.

Left the Circus Circus and headed to the geek circus at Mandalay Bay.  Got in, got some breakfast, met a few more people and headed to the keynote.

Upon arriving the crew I was hanging with at the event; Erik Mork, Beth Murray, and Brian Henderson and I were entertained with several other thousand geeks by the wicked yo-yoing.

The first video demo of something was of Bing Maps and various aspects of Microsoft Research integrated together.  Namely the pictures, put in place, on real 3d element maps of various environments.

Silverlight

Scott Guthrie, as one would guess, kicked off the keynote.  His first point was that user experience has become a priority at Microsoft.  This can be seen by any observant soul with the release and push of Expression, Silverlight, and the other tools.  This is even more apparent when one takes note of Microsoft bringing in people that can actually do good design and putting them at the forefront.

The next thing Scott brought up was a few key points about Silverlight.  Currently Silverlight is a little over 2 years old and has achieved a pretty solid 60% penetration.  Silverlight has all sorts of capabilities that have been developed and are now provided as open source including;  ad injection, smoothing, playback editing, and more.  Another thing he showed, which really struck me as awesome being in the analytics space, was the Olympics and a quick glimpse of the ad statistics, viewer experience, video playback performance, audience trends, and overall viewer participation.  All of it rendered in Silverlight in beautiful detail.

The key piece of Scott’s various points were all punctuated with the fact that all of this code is available as open source.  Not only is Microsoft really delving into this design element of things, they’re getting involved in the right ways.

One of the last points I’ll bring up about Silverlight 4 is the ability to have HD video on a monitor, and an entirely different activity being done on the other monitor, effectively making Silverlight the only RIA framework that supports multi-monitor support.  Overall, Silverlight is continuing to impress ? providing superior capabilities tit-for-tat with the competition.

Windows 7 Phone

The Windows 7 Phone has 3 primary buttons (yes, more than the iPhone, don’t let your mind explode!!).  Start, Search, and Back control all of the needed functionality of the phone.  At the same time, of course, there is the multi-touch, touch, and other interactive abilities of the interface.  The intent, once start is pressed is to have all the information that a phone owner wants displayed immediately.  Avoiding the scrolling through pages of apps or rolling a ball to get through multitudes of other non-interactive phone interfaces.  The Windows 7 Phone simply has the data right in front of you, basically a phone dashboard.  From there it is easy to dive into the interactive areas of the phone.

Each area of the interface of the phone is broken into hubs.  These hubs include applications, data, and other things based on a relative basis.  This basis being determined by the user.  These applications interact on many other levels, and form a kind of relationship between each other adding more and more meta-data to the phone user, their interactions between the applications, and of course the social element of their interactions on the phone.  This makes this phone a practical must have for a marketer involved in social media.  The level of wired together interaction is massive, and of course, if you’ve seen Office Outlook 2010 you know that the power that is pulled into the phone by being tied to Outlook is massive.

Joe Belfiore also showed several UI & specifically UX elements of the phone interface that allows paging to be instinctual by simple clipped items, flipping page to page, and other excellent user experience advances for phone devices.  Belfiore’s also showed how his people hub had a massive list of people, with pictures, all from various different social networks and other associated relations.  The rendering, speed, and viewing of these people’s, their pictures, their social network information, and other characteristics was smooth and in some situations unbelievably rendered.  This demo showed some of the great power of the beta phone, which isn’t even as powerful as the planned end device.

Joe finished up by jumping into the music, videos, and other media with the Zune Component of the Windows 7 Mobile Phone.  This was all good stuff, but I’ll get to what really sold me on the media element in a moment.

When Joe was done, Scott Guthrie stepped back up to walk through building a Windows 7 Mobile Phone.  This is were I have to give serious props.  He built this application, in Visual Studio 2010, in front of 2000+ people.  That was cool, but what really was amazing that he build the application in about 2 minutes.  The IDE, side by side design that is standard in Visual Studio is light years ahead of x-Code or any of the iPhone IDEs.  The Windows 7 Mobile System, if it can get market penetration, poses a technologically superior development and phone platform over anything on the market right now.  The biggest problem with the phone, is it just isn’t available yet.  I personally can’t wait for a chance to build some apps for the new Windows Phone.

Netflix, I May Start Up an Account Again!

When I get my Windows 7 Phone device, I am absolutely getting a Netflix account again.  The Vertigo crew, as I wrote on Twitter "#MIX10 Props @seesharp on @netflix demo", displayed an application on the phone for Netflix that actually ran HD Video of Rescue Me (with Dennis Leary).  The video played back smooth as it would on a dedicated computer, I was instantly sold.  So this didn’t actually sell me on the phone, because I’m already sold, but it did sell me whole heartedly on the media capabilities of the pending phone.

Anyway, I try not to do this but I may double post today.  Lunch is over and I’m off to another session very near and dear to the heart of my occupation, Analytics Tracking.  Stay tuned and I should have that post up by the end of the day.

Portland Departure – Farewell Stumptown

Off I go on a plane from Portland, Oregon to Las Vegas, Nevada for the MIX 2010 Conference.  Before I even boarded the plane I met Paul Gomes a Senior Software Engineer and Andrew Saylor the Director of Business Development.  Both of these SoftSource Employees were en route to MIX themselves.  Being stoked to already be bumping into some top tier people, I bid them adieu and headed for my seat on the plane.

I boarded, and had before the boarding opted for an upgrade.  I have to advise that if you get a chance on Alaska to upgrade at the last minute, take it.  It is usually only about $50 bucks or so and the additional space makes working on the ole’ laptop actually possible (even on my monstrous 17" laptop).  So take it from me, click that upgrade button and fork over that $50 bucks for anything over an hour flight, the comfort and ability to work is usually worth it!

Las Vegas Arrival – Welcome to Sin City

Got into Las Vegas and swung out of the airport.  I then, with my comrade Beth attempted to get Internet Access for the next 3 hours.  Las Vegas, is not the most friendly Internet Access town.  I will just say it, I am not sure why any Internet related company (ala Microsoft) would hold a conference here.  There are more than a dozen other cities that would be better.

But I digress, I did manage to get Internet Access after checking into the Circus Circus.  Don’t ask why I ended up staying here, if you run into me in person, ask then because there is a whole story to it.

At this point I started checking out each session further on the MIX10 Site.  There are a number I deemed necessary to check out.  However, you’ll have to read my pending entries to see which session I jumped into.

With this juncture in time reached, I got a ton of work to wrap up, some code to write and some sleep to get.  Until tomorrow, adieu.