Getting Started with Windows Azure (Free Trial)
This is the second in a series of posts I’m doing on Windows Azure – which is Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Platform.
In today’s post I’m going to cover how to sign-up and get started with Windows Azure using a no-obligation 3 month free trial offer. This free trial costs nothing and doesn’t obligate you to buy anything at the end of it. It provides an easy way to try out and get started with Windows Azure.
Monday Jan 23rd
Erm, what? ‘Space Monkey’ craze: Texan students ‘get high’ by choking each other’
Source: The Register
Accirding to Kercher the practice of “manually choking oneself or others, applying a ligature around the neck or a plastic bag over the head, placing heavy objects on the chest, or hyperventilating to attain a euphoric feeling” is variously known among the young hipsters of Texas as “the Fainting Game, Pass Out, or Space Monkey”. The survey reveals that:
- 16 percent of students reported having played the game
- 72 percent of these reportedly played the game more than once
- Males were more likely to have played than females
- The average age when students first played the game was 14
- 90 percent of those who played the game first heard about it from peers
- Most students reported that others were present when they first played the game
Read more…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/19/the_choking_game/
Friday Jan 20th
101 LINQ Samples
Learn how to use LINQ in your applications with these code samples, covering the entire range of LINQ functionality and demonstrating LINQ with SQL, DataSets, and XML.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/101-LINQ-Samples-3fb9811b
Thursday Jan 19th
The EU and how the bailout works
It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmers’ Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna.
The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him “services” on credit.
The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.
The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works.
Wednesday Jan 11th
