Month: November 2009

I’m updating our Windows Azure projects to the new version (November 2009 PDC) of the SDK. These are the highlights on the process:

• New namespaces: from Microsoft.ServiceRuntime to Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime plus the new .StorageClient and .Diagnostics (see below, on logging). Also note that you have to update the References.
• The RoleManager class changed to RoleEnviroment so:
  • RoleManager.GetLocalResource is now RoleEnvironment.GetLocalResource
  • RoleManager.GetConfigurationSetting is now RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue
  • RoleManager.WriteToLog disappeared, check the new Diagnostics API
• RoleEntryPoint.GetHealthStatus() is gone
• RoleEntryPoint changed its execution model from Start->Stop (with the main loop on the Start) to a OnStart()->Run->OnStop() event-like model. Previously I used the class constructor to make the initialization which now goes on the OnStart()

The biggest change for me is the new .Diagnostics namespace. Check this video from the PDC09 to check the new diagnostics and monitoring capabilities.

As for the new .StorageClient, I will not migrate all of our code for now since both C# and Ruby versions runs pretty well. Maybe later.

Yesterday our case study with Microsoft went live here.

It basically explains how we developed our MapReduce implementation on top of Windows Azure to scale the processing of our OCCMatch algorithm. It runs in 200 parallel Azure instances to calculate the best matches for jobs and resumés on OCC, which we send as suggestions via e-mail and are available on My OCC.

I’ve found that some people are using a technique I haven’t seen before (which I’ve called “twitter traffic hijacking”) to divert traffic from a known source to their unknown low-traffic site: post a message with the Twitter @user of the known source and invite to follow you with an attractive message.

In this case, user @unlimitedideas is posting a message: “@OCCMundial Tenemos Vacantes, siguenos !!!” (We have job offers, follow us!!!), referencing us OCCMundial (@OCCMundial on Twitter), which is top-of-mind for jobseekers in Mexico, and hoping to appear next to us on Twitter searches. Then they publish messages with their own job offers.

It’s certainly ingenious and shows off the way SM is changing the game.

Eventualmente mensajes así van a ser un problema: