Tag: .NET

PDX & SEA Code Camp, OS Bridge, OSCON, Iron Foundry, Robotech and Action! Stage II

I usually don’t post two blog entries in one day, but I had so much to rattle on about it seemed like a rule to break.

DeployCon, Cloud Expo and Cloud Bootcamp

I’ll be speaking at the Cloud Bootcamp at the Cloud Expo in New York City. So if you’re coming to the conference, swing by and let’s talk PaaS and the future of software development and cloud computing. I’m looking forward to the event, it’ll be a good time and has a lot of educational content.

Also during Cloud Expo, be sure to check out the DeployCon. The DeployCon Conference is a PaaS Conference put together by Rishidot Research. Check out more information here.

Iron Foundry

Over on the Iron Foundry Project we’re going to be putting together some new material on what’s next, where we are on the project and where we are headed. The effort will be pushing forward with some possible hackathons or installathons for those interested. So if anyone is keen on checking out the latest and greatest of .NET PaaS options available, send me an e-mail and we’ll start coordinating some efforts.

Robotech

Yeah? Do you know the designation of the fighter type?
Yeah? Do you know the designation of the fighter type?

So why am I bringing up animated Anime from the 80s? Well, I was a pretty huge fan of the series, played the RPG, and own a few of the toys. Which yes, puts me in the nerd realm all that much more.

Know what this is?
Know what this is?

For the next few months I’ve decided that we’re going with Robotech for code names of our projects. Who is “we”? I mean that in the sense that any and all projects I’m working on are going to be prototype names from Robotech. So if you notice a Robotech theme going on, that’s the reason.

Action Shots

As promised, action shots…

…the Destroids stand guard over Portland and the Zentraedi onslaught. Just my creative dorky side.

Destroids standing ready...
Destroids standing ready…
Tomahawk
Tomahawk

Cheers!

Going Hard Core: Vmware’s Cloud Foundry Forks Uhuru & Iron Foundry Review

Back in December Uhuru Software and Tier 3 released two different forks of Cloud Foundry that enabled .NET Support. I wasn’t sure which I wanted to use, since I had some serious Cloud Foundry work I was about to dive into, so I’ve picked them apart to determine how each works. This is what I’ve found so far.

Uhuru

Iron Foundry

That covers the basic links to the downloads, community, and other points of presence, now it is time to dig into some of the differences I’ve found. First though, I got a good environment setup to test each of the forks, from within the same Cloud Foundry Environment! So this is how I’ve set this up… Setting up the Virtual Machines w/ VMware Fusion I suspect, you could tangibly do this with some other virtualization software, but VMware is probably the easiest to use and setup on OS-X & Windows. I haven’t tried this on Linux so there’s another space I’d have to give it a go. Using ESX I also suspect this would also be extremely easy to setup. It’s up to you, but I’m doing all of this with VMware Fusion. The environment I’m using for this comparison consists of the following virtual images:

Micro Cloud Foundry Instances

These instances were easy, I just downloaded them from the Cloud Foundry Site on the Micro Cloud Foundry Download Page. The simple configuration is outlined in “Micro Cloud Foundry Installation & Setup“.

Iron Foundry Instances

For this, I downloaded the available VM on the Iron Foundry Site here.

Uhuru Instances

I setup the Uhuru Instances using the instructions available from Uhuru Software here.

Setting up Some Controllers

So the first thing I did was dive into setting up a controller, or actually two, because I wanted to have an Iron Foundry Environment and a Uhuru Software Environment. After that I’d then try to mix and match them and figure out differences or conflicts. The instructions listed under the “Uhuru Instances” has information regarding setup of a controller for the Uhuru Software Environment, which is what I followed. It is also a good idea to get setup with Putty or ready with SSH for usage of Cloud Foundry, Uhuru Software, and Iron Foundry.

AppFog, Fort of Awesome & Node PDX Updated!

Time for the secret to be out of the bag. I’m currently working on contract with the awesome company of AppFog in the Fort of Awesome. Let me tell you, it is indeed awesome too! You might ask why I am working with them? How do I align with them? What is it they do?

Well you’re in luck, I’ll tell you all about it.

A few months ago, I started really digging into PaaS more. Not that I needed a reason, because I’m one of those “PaaS is the future” guys. I see this as a huge shift, kind of like when the developer world moved on from Assembly and punch cards to C & C++. It’s a big deal, and it is shifting the way companies build apps, the way they stay competitive, and stand out and above the herd with better process, better capabilities, and more efficient operations. PaaS, is the path to tomorrow.

What is AppFog building? Currently if you’re fortunate enough to have beta access, you may be able to play with the amazing PaaS offering that they’re putting together, and I’ve stepped forward to help put even more awesome into it with their kick ass team! So what will AppFog be aiming for? Well, it is an impressive list, check it out!

Help us out, take the poll and get your favorite technology added to the list! There’s a whole list of other things that will be coming too, this is just the basic big hitters list.  🙂

In other news, Node PDX has just finished the list of speakers, we’re finalizing the rest of the sponsors and related things, and just waiting (ok, we’re really busting our butts over here running around to make sure this is a cool event for all you node coders!)

Some of the cool things you’ll be able to look forward to is…

…and awesome Saturday “open drinks” party w/ New Relic! So be sure to be there for that…

We’ve aimed to get everyone a Node PDX t-shirt…

…and more. So go get RSVPed already, time is running out.

South Sound .NET Users Group + AWS, Visual Studio, Toolkits, and Explosions!

If you live in or around the south sound region near Olympia, would like to hear about the AWS Toolkit and SDK for Visual Studio, come and check out the South Sound .NET Users Group on at Olympia Center, 222 Columbia NW, Olympia, Washington.  The meeting will be on January 12th at 7:00pm.

Slides & Links to Code are already available!

Overview:  During this presentation I will provide an overview of what is needed to get started using Visual Studio 2010 with the AWS Toolkit & SDK. We’ll also cover the basic design ideas behind the do’s and don’ts of cloud architecture and development. There will be some hands on coding (if you’d like to bring a laptop to follow along) and we will deploy code (pending a wireless/cat5 connection) into AWS Cloud Services & get EC2 instances up and running live!

ALT.NET Portland

There is an upcoming ALT.NET Portland Meetup happening at e-Discovery in downtown Portland. The meetup is happening on the 13th of October. There are several ideas behind this meetup, but I’m going to lay out my personal reasons here.

I’m working diligently to distribute my skills in multiple development stacks. I use Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, node.js, EngineYard, Heroku, and other platforms aside from my current “getting paid” technology stack of ASP.NET MVC & associated tech. The reason is simple; .NET slowly but steadily appears to be dying a slow death everywhere except the Enterprise. Rails, Ruby, node.js, and JavaScript are the primary skills of more than 95% of startups. I’m determined to not get stuck holding the “Delphi” card. I like the bleeding edge of tech, the excitement behind the efforts to keep things moving forward. ALT.NET, has always represented that. In Seattle and Portland that effort seems to be faltering, even losing steam in some regards. I want to help change that. No matter how much I dive into Ruby on Rails and the other tech stacks, I doubt I’ll ever not be working with .NET in some way, form, or manner. So I’d like to work on keeping that enthusiasm going in addition to my other platforms that I work with.

…and thus, ALT.NET Portland Meetup on the 13th. Come have a conversation, a discussion, and maybe even a beer or three afterwards.

…and if you’re in Seattle, don’t forget we meetup every month on Saturday, which for some is a problem. If it is, check out Beer && Code or one of the other great meetups where technologies mix and coexist.

Cheers, and hope to see you at one of these great meetups sometime in the future.