Kevin Hoffman

Kindle Session at Cloud Expo Barnes and Noble just recently unveiled their upcoming eReader, the Nook. On the blog of my non-techy alter-ego I've posted a comparison of the two readers that is entirely based on my own personal feelings of what is cool and what isn't, so take it as opinion and certainly not as a technical review. So far I've remained relatively aloof from the whole "eBook" craze. Ordinarily, given my geeky background and borderline insane craving for technology, one would think that I'd be all over these things. The problem is, my love for the written word also extends to a love for the experience of reading a book. Click here to check out the blog post. Call me crazy, but I love the smudged thumbs I get from a 3-hour reading session where the real wor... (more)

LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework on top of SQL Azure

As mentioned in my previous blog post, you don't get full designer support on SQL Azure within SQL Server Management Studio. In addition, you don't get designer support for LINQ to SQL or Entity Framework, either. So what do you do if you want to take advantage of these awesome object mapping tools but the designers don't work directly against the cloud? Conveniently enough, if you follow... (more)

Creating and Manipulating Your SQL Azure Database

So after the long and torturous wait, you're now in the SQL Azure CTP and you are ready to get the ball rolling with your fabulous, shiny new cloud-based SQL database server. Now what? Well, the first thing you're going to need to do is create a database. To do that, you'll go to sql.azure.com and follow the directions to sign in - if you haven't already supplied the invite key you'll nee... (more)

Want to Learn How to Write iPhone Applications?

If you're like me, you've probably been spending every waking moment you have eating, living, and breathing the iPhone SDK. Since March 6th, that's pretty much all I can think about once I get home. So, what do you do if you want to learn how to write iPhone apps, but you want to become a pro at iPhone SDK programming? Its one thing to read the SDK, page-by-page until your eyes bleed (wh... (more)

How Win7's "Boot to VHD" Feature has Changed the Way I Work

Recently I was reading the Hanselblog when I discovered these two articles here and here. Before I get to what I've been doing, I want to recap my usual machine (virtual and physical) usage scenarios: A clean host, this is what I do my day-to-day stuff on : writing, browsing, e-mail, gaming virtual machines all over the damn place: every beta, CTP, limited new ultra-shiny thing gets put i... (more)