Four Steps to Building Your First Web App with Azure App Service

One of the best things about Windows Azure, or perhaps one of the most confusing, is that there are many ways to accomplish a task.  In this post I’ve attempted to describe what I believe to be the shortest path to a working Web App using Microsoft’s recently announced App Service.  This version doesn’t require…

Interview with John Petersen

In this interview John Petersen talks to John Robbins about the importance of copyright to software developers, how Visual Studio Online is different from TFS, and how half-baked frameworks are taking their toll on developers. John Petersen has been developing software for over 20 years. It all started when, as a staff accountant, he was…

Microsoft and GitHub Offer Students Free Development Tools and Resources

GitHub is now offering Visual Studio Community 2013 edition, Azure, Visual Studio Online, and Windows and SQL Developer accounts as part of its Developer Student Pack. GitHub’s Student Packs just got a new boost from the Visual Studio team with the inclusion of Visual Studio Community 2013, a full featured version of Visual Studio and…

Microsoft Acquires HockeyApp Mobile Platform

Microsoft has acquired HockyApp which provides  crash analytics and app distribution for developers building mobile apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.  The acquisition of Stuttgart Germany based HockyApp provides Microsoft with yet another developer tool for its ApplicationInsights service on Visual Studio Online.  HockyApp provides several key services for mobile developers building apps for Android, iOS,…

Sneak Peek into DevOps in Visual Studio 2015

There were so many announcements at yesterday’s Connect() virtual conference that several great new features may have gotten lost in the flood of demos. While DevOps and Visual Studio Online played a big part in the demos, there’s a lot more under the covers that are going to make developing with Visual Studio and TFS…