How To|Sep 28, 2017

Understanding Microsoft Power BI – Whitepaper

In this whitepaper you will learn how to transform your data into rich visuals and create stunning interactive reports without writing any code – and do it in any browser or on any device. More specifically: How can you collect data from multiple disparate sources into a single logical “view of the world”? How do…
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Mixed Reality|Sep 21, 2017

Getting Started with the New Acer Mixed Reality Headset

Introduction At Wintellect, we’ve been doing more and more work recently with Microsoft’s HoloLens device. But the HoloLens, at several thousand dollars, is an expensive proposition. Now Microsoft has broadened it’s strategy, rebranded it as “Windows Mixed Reality,” and has worked with hardware partners to come to market with an array of lower-priced headset options.…
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How To|Aug 24, 2017

Creating a Temporary Visual Studio Environment

Sometimes you will find that you need a cloud environment for working on a project. In some cases, you need the environment to perform a task that would take too long when you run it locally (for example, downloading a large file to transfer to Azure Blob Storage). Perhaps you need a mobile environment to…
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DevOps|Aug 11, 2017

DevOps: Connecting VSTS to Azure

DevOps is about increasing efficiency and eliminating barriers. There’s a lot of convenience in deploying directly from Visual Studio Team Services into the Azure cloud. With plugin based build and release pipelines, it’s very easy to quickly configure a release and see the results online. You can quickly configure a release to deploy to Azure;…
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Tutorials|Jun 14, 2017

How to Avoid a Docker Database Disaster

Containers are cool – and everyone and their mother is trying to get on board with them. While many applications are natural fit for containers in many cases, it feels like some applications are forced into containers so vendors can say, “Hey look at me! I do containers too!” This is particularly true of database…
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Tutorials|May 19, 2017

Multi-Stage Builds with Docker

One of the most anticipated announcements in the Docker space when it comes to building images is Multi-Stage builds because of the huge benefits it gives to CI/CD pipelines in DevOps. Before this announcement, building software in a container usually involved creating a container with all the SDK’s and compilers in the container, uploading code…
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Tutorials|May 15, 2017

Migrating Legacy ASP.NET apps to Docker

Many organizations, not wanting to rewrite applications, are figuring out how to take apps and containerize them for the cloud. Older operating systems are either end-of-life or approaching the end-of-life. Likewise, applications are increasingly being migrated to cloud hosts. The need to do this is as pressing as ever and containers offer a simple, viable…
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Tutorials|May 3, 2017

Xamarin Forms for Windows Developers: Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learned, Part 1

The Confession Okay, right off the bat, I’m going to admit I’m a Microsoft “bigot” or in less unfriendly terms, a Microsoft “super-enthusiast” with severe “Microsoft is actually better at everything” leanings. I’ve spent most of the last 30 years writing Microsoft-based solutions with Microsoft tools and technologies for clients who are Microsoft “shops.” Still,…
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Tutorials|Apr 12, 2017

Building JavaScript Applications with Angular and Redux

Introduction The web application world has been disrupted by the plethora of JavaScript technologies which has transformed the development of web applications from being a primarily server-side effort, to primarily a client-side one. Ever since jQuery made cross-browser web applications easy for everyone to create, a steady stream of JavaScript libraries and frameworks have been…
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Tutorials|Oct 11, 2016

How to Use Microsoft’s Project Rome for a Seamless Cross-Device Experience

Taking the ‘universal’ part of the Universal Windows Platform to the next level, Microsoft’s Project Rome focuses on having apps function continuously and harmoniously across devices. A new Microsoft tutorial shows how that might work for your app. Microsoft is highlighting two key features of its Remote Systems API for the Windows Anniversary Update: 1)…
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windows-10|Jul 6, 2016

FamilyNotes App Demos Windows 10’s Speech, Facial Recognition Capabilities

Microsoft wants to lead its customers into a bold future where interacting with computers and other devices is less reliant on keyboards and typing and more like conversing with an actual human. Or, as a recent post on the company’s Windows developer blog puts it, “Speech rules, text drools.” To demonstrate Windows 10’s speech, facial…
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