Sam Gentile's Blog (if (DeveloperTask == Communication && OS == Windows)

Windows Azure/WCF

• Windows Azure and Cloud Computing Posts for 9/24/2009+ – The usual great list of Azure links from Roger Jennings
• First CTP of SQL Azure and Updated Training Kit Now Available! – The first CTP of SQL Azure is available for testing and the Azure training kit for August has been updated to contain SQL Azure material
• Binary Encoding Part 4 and Binary Encoding Part 5 – Dr. Nick, from the Indigo team, continues his through examination of binary encoding in WCF

Web Programming

• Announcing the WebsiteSpark and Announcing the WebSiteSpark Program – Pair of posts from Soma and ScottGu announcing the launch of this new program that builds on the success of BizSpark and DreamSpark. WebsiteSpark is designed for independent web developers and web development companies that build web applications and web sites on behalf of others.  It enables you to get software, support and business resources from Microsoft at no cost for three years, and enables you to expand your business and build great web solutions using ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint and PHP, and the open source applications built on top of them.

Software Tools

• IronPython 2.6 Release Candidate - Harry Pierson announces the Release Candidate release of IronPython 2.6, with the plan being that this will become the RTW official release in about a month. This release includes a number of great new features, bringing in Python 2.6 functionality, adaptive compilation and lightweight debugging, and 417 bug fixes.
• MvcContrib 1.0.0.987 released - Jeffrey Palermo announces the release of MvcContrib 1.0.0.987, which brings in all the patches released since March 2009 along with the work done by Eric Hexer on Opinionated Input Builders
• PowerCommands for Reflector 1.1 – Jason Haley has added 5 new commands to the PowerCommands for Reflector project today and have updated the code and releases in Codeplex for the 1.1 version
•  xUnit 1.5 Shipped – Brad Wilson announces the release of xUnit.net 1.5 a couple weeks ago, with the major new feature being the new GUI runner.

ALT.NET/TDD/Agile

• Orlando .NET User Group Talk – 12 Practices to be a Better Developer – Scott gives a  practical talk that focuses on things he has learned in his years as a developer, which include a number of Agile practices
• A Pragmatic Team TDD Covenant – My friend Rick Garibay comes up with  a Covenant on how they will favor unit tests over Integration tests over no tests at all.