Category Archives: Microsoft

TechDays 2010: Real-World Patterns for Cloud Computing

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Rob Burke

'Real World Patterns for Cloud Computing' Demo Path

If it’s Autumn, it must be time for TechDays again here in Canada. This year I was Microsoft Canada’s Content Lead for the “Real-World Patterns for Cloud Computing” session. The Toronto flavour of the event has been taking place yesterday and … Continue reading →

Posted in Development, Microsoft | Tagged Tech Events, TechDays, TechDays 2010, Toronto | Leave a comment

Legend of the Greasepole gets the Silverlight 4 + Analytics treatment

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Rob Burke

Legend of the Greasepole has been ported to Silverlight 4 and reincarnated on http://greasepole.net. Greasepole is the long-suffering game about multimedia tribute to the inexplicable Engineering traditions at Queen’s University in Canada. Over 50 students contributed to the project back in … Continue reading →

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Development, Games and XBox, Microsoft | Tagged Achievements, Analytics, feedback, Greasepole, Legend of the Greasepole, Silverlight, Silverlight 4, Visual Studio 2010 | Leave a comment

Windows Azure’s Pricing Model Discourages Small-Scale Apps (for now?)

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Rob Burke

The death of Silverlight Streaming (a free hosting service provided by Microsoft) made me finally think through the cost of hosting small apps and sites on Windows Azure.

Although Azure’s pricing model might make sense for Enterprise scenarios, the math doesn’t seem to add up for smaller-scale applications, or for developers who wish to evaluate the Azure platform.

Let’s work through the TCO of a simple site I considered moving to Windows Azure. Continue reading →