MIT 6.008.1x - Computational Probability and Inference (edX)

After slogging through the AI class, I thought it would be a good idea to level up my probability skills a little bit.  So I poked around on edX and stumbled on to the Computational Probability and Inference class by MIT.  One thing led to another and I, apparently, accidentally signed up.  Whoops.  But it's all good, I'm going to roll with this one and see where it takes me.

Teaching Agile and Scrum with Legos!

I had the opportunity to act as a "guest instructor" at Array, the brand new code school that just started up this October in Cheyenne.  What an amazing experience! I've been following the development of the school since early on in its inception, but to actually get to interact with the students and with Eric (the dynamic headmaster) in an actual classroom setting was a real treat.

Berkeley CS169 - Software Engineering (Homeworks)

Once again into the breach

In the Summer of 2015 I burned though the UC Berkeley "Software Engineering" lectures, and had every intention of doing all the reading and related course work so I could "claim" it on my pseudo-transcript.  Well, here it is over a year later and I'm finally getting around to finishing it properly.  I like to think I've refined my personal process for documenting my MOOC journey (lol christ I sound like a B-school brochure)... so since I already took notes on all the coursework (see my previous post), I'll just cover the homework assignments here.

Intro to Natural Language Processing (Coursera)

While I had held out hope that Stanford or even Columbia would offer their NLP courses on Coursera again (I didn't find anything related to the subject on edX), it was not to be.  So I signed up for the University of Michigan's introductory offering.  The Stanford lectures (Jurafsky and Manning) and the Columbia lectures (Collins) are available on YouTube, and these assignments from Cairo University are based on this material as well, so there are plenty of additional resources available in the space.  For now I'm going to mostly concentrate on the Michigan material, just to save a bit of my sanity lol. An online version of the draft 3rd ed of Jurafsky and Martins book, Speech and Language Processing, is also available.

Symbol Catalog

I got tired of hunting all over the place looking for the text representation of various symbols (mostly set and logic symbols), so I figured I would put them all in one easy to find place.  The Greek alphabet I got from Wikipedia, the rest I found at rapidtables.com.  I didn't bother with anything that was already on the keyboard (like < and >), and I didn't do anything that requires an image (that's what LibreOffice Math is for...)

Agile Development - Bertrand Meyer (edX)

Agile - The Good, The Hype, and the Ugly

This six week edX course covers the concepts, principles, practices, myths and misconceptions of Agile project development.  Lectures are done by Bertrand Meyer, and while not required, the recommended text is Meyer's book Agile - The Good, The Hype, and the Ugly.  According to Meyer, the intent of the class is to look at the Agile approach to software development in an objective way, identifying shortcomings and myths of Agile, as well as its strengths and merits.  The graded portion of the class consists of multiple choice quizzes, so all in all it's a very lightweight course.

Myths of Genius, Fear of... everything

I recently found myself struggling with a great deal of anxiety centered around my career as a software developer.  So much so, in fact, that I began to research what it was I was feeling.  I discovered a great deal about the nature of my fears and doubts, and I hope that sharing my circumstances and introspection here might prove just as valuable to readers as my usual technology related posts.

Microsoft 70-487: Query and manipulate data by using the Entity Framework

Exam Objectives

Query, update, and delete data by using DbContext; build a query that uses deferred execution; implement lazy loading and eager loading; create and run compiled queries; query data by using Entity SQL; perform asynchronous operations using Entity Framework; map a stored procedure

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 2.1
[MSDN] Query Execution
[MSDN] Entity Framework Loading Related Entities
[MSDN] Compiled Queries (LINQ to Entities)
[MSDN] How to: Execute a Parameterized Entity SQL Query Using EntityCommand
[MSDN] Write SQL Queries for Entities
[MSDN] Async Query & Save (EF6 onwards)
[MSDN] Stored Procedures in the Entity Framework (2011), (video)
[MSDN] Code First Insert/Update/Delete Stored Procedures
[StackOverflow] using stored procedure in entity framework
[StackOverflow] How to call Stored Procedure in Entity Framework 6 (Code-First)?

PluralSight Courses:
Getting Started With EF6, EF in the Enterprise

Microsoft 70-487: Query and manipulate data by using ADO.NET

Exam Objectives

Query and manipulate data by using Connection, DataReader, Command, DataAdapter, DataSet; perform synchronous and asynchronous operations; manage transactions (API)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-487 - Chapter 2.4
ADO.NET Architecture (video)
Understanding ADO.NET Disconnected Model (video)
Explain ADO.NET Connection pooling (video)

ADO.NET Step by step (webcast videos): DataViews, DataAdapter, DataSet, DataCommand, DbConnection, Transactions, Editing Data
[MSDN] Typed vs. Untyped DataSets

Pluralsight:
ADO.NET Fundamentals, ADO.NET by Example

Code Samples:
My ADO.NET Examples on GitHub

Note that the QuestPond video (connection pooling) is basically the exact same video as the section from the ADO.NET Fundamentals Pluralsight course, and the Understanding Disconnected Model video is by the author of the ADO.NET by Example Pluralsight course and covers part of the same material.  I'm thinking you can find all of the material from both of these courses on YouTube if you look...

Berkeley CS188 - Artificial Intelligence (edX)

Having passed the 70-486 exam, I decided I wanted to try something different before I tackled the last cert test, so I poked around MIT OpenCourseware, Coursera, and edX looking for something interesting.  I decided that it was about time to try the AI class.  MIT and edX both had similar offerings, and I went with edX since it offered the autograded exercises (and I already owned the recommended book).

Artificial Intelligence on edX (Lectures) (AI Homepage)
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

Supplemental:
Artificial Intelligence on MIT Open Courseware (Course website)
Artificial Intelligence from NPTEL
Machine Learning from University of British Columbia

Java Multithreading in Google AppEngine

I'm currently working on a security app using Google AppScript.  One bit of functionality the product owner wanted implemented was checking ip addresses against a blacklist.  The original idea was for a self generated blacklist, but before I started implementing that, I wanted to see if there were any blacklists out in the wild that I could leverage.  While there are many blacklists out there (a few of the big ones are on this wikipedia page "Comparison of DNS blacklists"), almost without exception they use a specially formatted DNS query to get results.  This is a huge dealbreaker for a JavaScript app, as there is no way to do a DNS query in AppScript (yeah, node.js does it, but alas, not using node, so...).  So I made the decision to stand up my own Java REST endpoint in AppEngine.

Algorithms Case Study: Dynamic Programming in JavaScript

Several days ago, a civil engineer friend of mine asked me if he could pick my brains.  He'd run into a bit of a problem analyzing a bridge design, and wanted to see if I had any thoughts on how to attack the problem.  So we sat down over Jimmy Johns and he explained his problem to me, and my first impression was that is sounded like a textbook dynamic programming problem.  I told him I would have a look at it, which I finally did today.

Setting up a Raspberry Pi 3 (and an Amazon FireTV Stick) as a general purpose media hub

Some months ago, the pc we were using upstairs as a media center took its final, epic dump.  I tried to update Ubuntu from 14.04 to 16.04, and a hard crash midway through made it unbootable.  After struggling for ages with flakey behavior, I decided I'd had enough, so I finally did something I'd been looking for an excuse to do for a while:  I bought a Raspberry Pi.  I got the kit with the case and the cable and the little heat sinks.  I just wanted it to be easy.  And for the most part, it was.

Microsoft Exam 70-486 Study Guide

General Resources

Other study guides:

Barbarian Meets Coding - 70-486 Notes
BloggedByChris


PluralSight learning paths:

Microsoft Exam 70-486
Asp.net MVC5


Books:

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX)

Microsoft 70-486: Configure and apply authorization

Exam Objectives

Create roles, authorize roles by using configuration, authorize roles programmatically, create custom role providers, implement WCF service authorization

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.2
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 9 (§ "Securing an Application")
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 7
Creating and Managing Roles (C#)

Assigning Roles to Users (C#)

Role-Based Authorization (C#)
Setting authorization rules for a particular page or folder in web.config

MSDN - Implementing a Role Provider
MSDN - Authentication and Authorization in WCF Services Part 1, Part 2
MSDN - Authentication, Authorization, and Identities in WCF
PluralSight - Introduction to Identity and Access Control in .NET 4.5 (Paid)
PluralSight - Identity and Access Control in ASP.NET 4.5 (Paid)

Microsoft 70-486: Configure authentication

Exam Objectives

Authenticate users; enforce authentication settings; choose between Windows, Forms, and custom authentication; manage user session by using cookies; configure membership providers; create custom membership providers; configure ASP.NET Identity

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.1
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 9 (§ "Securing an Application")
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 7

How to configure IIS client certificate mapping authentication for IIS7

Configuring Authentication in IIS 7

How To Implement Forms-Based Authentication
Forms Authentication Configuration and Advanced Topics

Understanding the Forms Auth Ticket and Cookie
Understanding OWIN Forms Authentication in MVC 5
Don't be That Guy when it comes to Forms Authentication

MSDN - Implementing a Membership Provider

MSDN - How to: Implement a Custom Membership User

Custom Membership Providers
SimpleMembership, Membership Providers, Universal Providers

ASP.NET Identity
MSDN - Cutting Edge: A First Look at ASP.NET Identity

Adding ASP.NET Identity to an Empty or Existing Web Forms Project
Overview of Custom Storage Providers for ASP.NET Identity

PluralSight - ASP.NET MVC 5 Fundamentals: Identity and Security (Free)
PluralSight - Introduction to Identity and Access Control in .NET 4.5 (Paid)
PluralSight - Identity and Access Control in ASP.NET 4.5 (Paid)

Microsoft 70-486: Design and implement claims-based authentication across federated identity stores

Exam Objectives

Implement federated authentication by using Azure Access Control Service; create a custom security token by using Windows Identity Foundation; handle token formats (for example, oAuth, OpenID, Microsoft Account, Google, Twitter, and Facebook) for SAML and SWT tokens

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 5.3
MSDN - A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control (2e)
MSDN - Windows Identity Foundation
MSDN - How to Authenticate with Azure Active Directory Access Control
MSDN - ACS How To's
MSDN - WIF Code Sample Index
Google Identity Platform - OpenID Connect
Federate with Windows Live using OAuth and SAML
Facebook Developer Console
Google Developer Console
Using Windows Azure ACS in MVC 5 Application Using VS 2013
Write a custom security token and handler in WIF
PluralSight - Windows Azure Access Control Service (a bit dated, but not bad)
PluralSight - Claims-based Identity for Windows: The Big Picture (Paid)
PluralSight - Identity and Access Control in ASP.NET 4.5 (Paid)
PluralSight - Introduction to Identity and Access Control in .NET 4.5 (Paid)
Dominik Baier - Claims and Tokens become the standard Model (Video)

Consolidated Code Samples on GitHub

Where to learn Ruby on Rails

For our developer book club, we chose "Engineering Software as a Service", and are working through the associated MOOC through EdX.  The book focuses on using Agile and TDD to build apps using Ruby on Rails.  Because I'm the book clubs facilitator, I thought it would be a good idea if I knew what the hell I was doing when we met every week, so I set out to learn Ruby and Rails.  These are some of the resources I found and my thoughts on them...

Microsoft 70-486: Prevent and troubleshoot runtime issues

Exam Objectives

Troubleshoot performance, security, and errors; implement tracing, logging (including using attributes for logging), and debugging (including IntelliTrace); enforce conditions by using code contracts; enable and configure health monitoring (including Performance Monitor)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.1
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 16 (Logging, tracing)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 17 (ELMAH, Profiling)
Debugging, Tracing and Instrumentation in .NET and ASP.NET
MSDN - Debugging, Tracing, and Profiling
MSDN - Code Contracts
MSDN - ASP.NET Health Monitoring Overview
MSDN - MVC Music Store Application logging feature
MSDN - ASP.NET Performance Monitoring, and When to Alert Administrators
MSDN - Beginners Guild to Performance Profiling
MSDN - Tracing and Instrumenting Applications
MSDN - Using IntelliTrace
Code Contracts in C#

My post on Debug an Azure Application overlaps with this one somewhat.
My demo code for this objective on Github.

Microsoft 70-486: Plan and implement globalization and localization

Exam Objectives

Plan a localization strategy; create and apply resources to UI, including JavaScript resources; set cultures; create satellite resource assemblies

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.2
MSDN - Creating Satellite Assemblies for Desktop Apps
Globalization, I18n and L10n in ASP.NET MVC 3, JavaScript and jQuery

Beginner's Tutorial on Globalization and Localization in ASP.NET MVC

Resource Files and ASP.NET MVC Projects

ASP.NET MVC 5 Internationalization
MSDN - Globalization Step-by-Step

Wikipedia - Internationalization and localization
Simple ASP.Net MVC Globalization with Graceful Fallback

My example project on Github

Microsoft 70-486: Design an exception handling strategy

Exam Objectives

Handle exceptions across multiple layers, display custom error pages using global.asax or creating your own HTTPHandler or set web.config attributes, handle first chance exceptions

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.2
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 16 (Logging)
StackOverflow - Exception handling in n-tier applications?
MSDN - How to: Receive First-Chance Exception Notifications
MSDN - AppDomain.FirstChanceException Event
MSDN Social - Handling Errors in Multi-Tier Application - Advice
Exceptions in the rainforest

How to dismantle a poorly designed registration wall

Mr. SiteOwner... tear down this wall!

Sorry, couldn't resist.  Let's ignore the fact that I was five years old when Ronald Reagan spoke those words.  I hate forced registration.  If your content is free, make it free.  If I want to get your shitty emails, then I'll sign up, but this whole passive-aggressive "you can look if you give me your email address" bullshit just gets on my nerves.

Microsoft 70-486: Reduce network bandwidth

Exam Objectives

Bundle and minify scripts (CSS and JavaScript), compress and decompress data (using gzip/deflate; storage), plan a content delivery network (CDN) strategy (for example, Azure CDN)

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 3.6
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapter 13
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 8 (§ on Improving Ajax Performance).
(MSDN) How to: Compress and Extract Files
Using CDN for Azure
How to Enable Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Azure

Microsoft 70-486: Debug an Azure application

Exam Objectives

Collect diagnostic information by using Azure Diagnostics API and appropriately implement on demand versus scheduled; choose log types (for example, event logs, performance counters, and crash dumps); debug an Azure application by using IntelliTrace, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), and remote debugging; interact directly with remote Azure websites using Server Explorer.

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.4
Enabling Diagnostics in Azure Cloud Services and Virtual Machines
Microsoft Azure Diagnostics: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Create and use performance counters in an Azure application
Initialize or Change Azure Diagnostics Configuration
Store and view diagnostic data in Azure Storage

Cloud Diagnostics - Take Control of Logging and Tracing in Windows Azure

Enable diagnostics logging for web apps in Azure App Service

Azure SDK 2.6 Diagnostics Improvements for Cloud Services
MSDN - Using Dump Files
Debugging an Azure cloud service or virtual machine in Visual Studio

This post has about 4 billion screenshots, so I apologize in advance...

Using Maven and Google Plugin for Eclipse together in harmony

So, this post is mostly about documenting, for myself, how to get Eclipse and Maven set up correctly for my current project, but I think there might also be some bits of useful wisdom for other devs who might be working with similar circumstances.  The basic, 30k foot look at my problem is something like this:


   I have a Google Web Toolkit (GWT) project that is to run on Google App Engine (GAE).  How do I use Maven to manage dependencies, while still maintaining the functionality that the Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE) gives me?

Microsoft 70-486: Test a web application

Exam Objectives

Create and run unit tests (for example, use the Assert class), create mocks; create and run web tests, including using Browser Link; debug a web application in multiple browsers and mobile emulators

Quick Overview of Training Materials

Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications - Objective 4.3
Programming ASP.NET MVC 4 (OReilly) - Chapters 17 (Automated Testing)
Professional ASP.NET MVC 5 (WROX) - Chapter 14 (Unit Testing)
The Art of Unit Testing
Using Browser Link in Visual Studio 2013

Isolating Code Under Test with Microsoft Fakes
MSDN - Understanding Web Tests
YouTube - Creating Web Test and Load Test using Microsoft Visual Studio

YouTube - Load Testing SharePoint 2013 using Visual Studio 2013

My four part post on unit testing: Setup, Fake Database, Fake Context, Writing Tests

PluralSight - Automated ASP.NET MVC Testing: End to End