Getting started with Windows Azure

Turns out it's very easy!

You need to install the Azure tools for VS. Then you can check out the Code Quick Start guide for Azure, to get up and running quickly. It took me about half an hour to deploy my first application to Azure, including installing the VS tools and eating a pizza.

I'll probably use my Azure subscription to host demo apps in the future. For now, you can check out my first Hello World application in Windows Azure.

This was fun!

Sneaking into Google+ uninvited

After seing reports on Twitter that "everyone" now was on Google+, and not having received an invite e-mail myself, I had an intense feeling of being left out. So yesterday, I started tinkering.

There's been several ways into Google+, just after the launch the reports were that a Google+ user could share something with you, and you were offered to join Google+ to see the shared content. Along came also the possibility for Google+ users to invite people directly (which led to people selling their invites). To get in line for Google+, you could also sign up at the Google+ website. I had signed up, and turns out I had also been invited by two friends (I was in their circles already), but without receiving a notice from Google. I was curious to find out what was behind the signup screen shown below, so I had to do something!