MSDN Flash - Volume 20, Number 2: January 25, 2016

Top News Worldwide

Learn how your Universal apps can benefit from the open-source XAML Behaviors platform

Conquer the tech topic of your choice in the February Know it. Prove it. challenge

Give your apps more visibility – 6 recommendations
 

9 new Windows 10 courses for developers: 8 short ones and 1 long one

February 4: Gain agility, reliability, and profitability by automating with Chef
Using DevOps can give your company an advantage over companies that use traditional processes, such as any manual provisioning and configuring of resources. See how you can move from manual to fully automated by implementing infrastructure as code with Chef and Microsoft Azure.

Explore IoT analysis in the cloud with R
Learn how to do an exploratory analysis on a water flow data set that came from a water pump, valve, and flow meter. We will use R and R Studio to perform and plot the analysis from an Azure virtual machine.

On demand: Microsoft + Chef: Compliance <3s DevOps
Watch Microsoft and Chef share how and why DevOps enables organizations to improve the security and compliance of applications and infrastructure.

Release software more quickly and with fewer bugs
Learn the fundamentals of release management, how it relates to DevOps, and the benefits that release management and continuous delivery practices bring to any organization. Plus, get links to courses, assessment, and hands-on labs.

DevOps Basics: Introduction to GitHub
GitHub extensions for Visual Studio 2015 enable integration with the source-code repository, and its adoption on Azure continues to grow. Learn why Git and GitHub have become a popular programmer choice for collaborating on open-source projects with other team members, including those in IT.

“Quick Tips” – Start developing apps with Xamarin - Hello World
Learn how to create a Xamarin Forms project in Visual Studio, run the app out of the box on Windows Phone, make changes, and see the same UI on Android. Plus, hear about your options for sharing code as shared projects or portable class libraries.

Getting started with Emscripten – Transpiling C / C++ to JavaScript / HTML5
Learn about Emscripten, an LLVM-based project that compiles C and C++ into highly performant JavaScript in the asm.js format. In short: near native speeds, using C and C++, inside the browser. Even better, Emscripten converts OpenGL into WebGL.

Startup Stories: An Interview with Oisin Kim, CEO of Webdoctor
David Giard welcomes Oisin Kim, CEO and co-founder of Webdoctor, an online doctor service based in Dublin, Ireland that delivers prescriptions to your door. Tune in as they discuss his startup and how they use Microsoft Azure and the BizSpark program.

Price reductions up to 17% on Dv2 Virtual Machines
We are announcing price reductions up to 17% on the latest version of the popular Azure D-series virtual machines, Dv2 Virtual Machines. The Dv2 price reductions will take effect early February, when we will share full details.

Start with one thing: Microsoft partner ICONICS shares their secret to success in IoT
The CityNext blog has some sage advice from guest blogger Melissa Topp of Microsoft partner ICONICS: Don’t try to do it all at once. Instead, pick one thing and spend time getting it right before expanding your program.

Vorlon.JS blog series: A journey to DevOps
Vorlon.JS improves the mobile and embedded debugging experience, using a remote dashboard. Technical Evangelist Julien Corioland introduces a new series to share the work he and his DevOps hackathon team did on Vorlon.JS to improve the way teams develop, test, and release applications.

Support for Android CMake projects in Visual Studio
We made a change to CMake to support our Android toolchain in Visual Studio . With this change, you can take your existing CMake project targeting Android, and with minimal modifications, have it open in Visual Studio, and benefit from our rich IDE experience for Android.

Microsoft loves Linux: Deep dive blog series
We’ve recently completed a 12-part series of blog posts about running and managing Linux and FreeBSD in an on-premises datacenter. Click here to view all 12 posts.

The Basics of Background Audio
Background audio in a Universal Windows Platform app is a powerful way to provide a more seamless audio experience. This post will walk you through setting up background audio, reacting to device media controls, communicating with the background media player, and managing playlists.

Visual Studio Code Sweepstakes
Harness the power of Visual Studio Code to build and debug modern web and cloud apps on your favorite platform – Linux, Mac OSX, or Windows. Dive into the new IDE and enter @MSdev for a chance to win prizes along the way.

Events

Let’s dev this. | Cloud Tour
Through February 23, 2016, nationwide
Please join us to learn how the newest services of Microsoft Azure and the latest release of Visual Studio 2015 come together to help you build, move, and manage a variety of apps in the cloud.

DEVintersection – questions answered, strategies defined
April 17–22, Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, Lake Buena Vista, FL
Microsoft execs Scott Guthrie and Steve Guggenheimer kick off this post-BUILD event, diving into Microsoft Azure, ASP.NET 5, Visual Studio 15, data science, DevOps, IoT, Angular 2, and open web technologies. Attendees taking workshops choose a Surface 3, Xbox One, or a Microsoft Band 2.

Microsoft Azure Tour
Through March 1, 2016, worldwide
This one-day technical training event is designed to help you be more successful in the cloud. Choose between traditional sessions or a unique hands-on experience that will get you closer to the cloud. You’ll end the day with a working Azure web and mobile application.

Microsoft Cloud Roadshow – build your cloud skills
Through March 10, 2016, worldwide
At this free technical training event, learn best practices and gain insight directly from the experts who build and run cloud services across Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Windows 10, and more. You’ll learn something new and walk away ready to apply your new skills.

Student News

Microsoft Tools for Beginner Web Developers
Learn how to publish files from Visual Studio Code to your Azure website by using Github. Tune in to learn what Github is, how to create repositories, and how to connect your Azure Website to a Github repo.

Become a skilled mobile app developer
Student devs - add “mobile developer” to your résumé. Learn to code cross-platform apps and games in C# for iOS, Android, and Windows with Xamarin. Get Xamarin today.

Resources

Free offers and discounts from Microsoft partners
 

Downloads and tools for Windows 10

Get started with app development

Try Microsoft Azure for 1 month free

Microsoft Virtual Academy – new training

Testing tools for web developers

Free Microsoft Press eBooks

TechNet Flash

Get the latest information from Channel 9

Free software and training for startups from Microsoft BizSpark

Code editing tools for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications
 

 
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