Comments

@Gerald - FYI, I published a new post in the series that covers persistent logins with Azure Mobile Services: http://bit.ly/10U0698 and we also just finished recording the next episode of DevRadio based on that post. We walk through how to enable persistent logins using Twitter (the process is essentially the same for the other identity providers as well), and how to leverage the server-side support for making HTTP requests to retrieve additional user information, such as the Twitter screen name for the logged in user. Should be out in the next couple weeks.

@Gerald

For persistent login or single sign-on with Microsoft Accounts, I'd have a look at using Live Connect for login, as discussed here:

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/tutorials/single-sign-on-windows-8-dotnet/

For other account types, check out this post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/carlosfigueira/archive/2013/02/05/enabling-single-sign-on-for-windows-8-azure-mobile-apps.aspx

Hope that helps!

vkdev,

Actually, with the exception of Azure Compute, most of the services I discuss in the series are either free or charged on a monthly basis.

I do use the Azure SQL Database, which is charged monthly, for data storage. The same SQL Database, however, can be used across multiple services.

Windows Azure Mobile Services and Windows Azure Web Sites (the latter is what I use for the ASP.NET Web API version of my back-end service) are both available as free offerings in shared mode, so assuming you used the Azure SQL Database offering for the data storage, your cost would only be $10/mo.

You can find pricing details for Mobile Services and Web Sites at:

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/details/#data-management/
Hope that helps!

Pete,

Thanks for showing off the Meeblipiator! Nice job on the demos.

For folks who would like to see a full demo of the Meeblipiator, you can check it out here:

Meet the Meeblipiator

Includes a link to the source code, and a blog post talking about the project.

@dentaku

Thanks for the pointer on OSC. Had not heard of that, so I'll check it out.

Funny you should mention programmers not understanding MIDI, as just about anyone using a modern DAW or synthesizer may be using MIDI and not even realize it, since many newer keyboards connect via USB, but still use MIDI for communication, albeit over USB.

I was talking on Saturday with a neighbor who works for a major musical instrument retailer, and who was once a touring keyboard player, about how robust MIDI has been as a communication protocol. It's nearly 30 years old now, and still going strong.

I'm not a deep expert in MIDI, and truth be told, most of the hard MIDI work in this project is done for me by Pete's MIDI module driver, but I agree with you that touch screens can be a useful addition to enhance musical expression, and I'd like to see what I could do with a Windows Phone app and MIDI...will have to see what's possible there.

One of my other favorite musical toys, though it doesn't talk MIDI, is my Korg Kaossilator. It's primary interface is a touchpad, so it's very expressive. I used it to record a track called Devhammer's Kaos from my Music page. The entire track was played in one take on the Kaossilator.

BasementHacker, go for it! It's pretty easy to get started, and there's a definite visceral thrill associated with controlling your program with your hands and/or voice.

I believe that there will be modules coming down the road that will enable the Gadgeteer platform with robotics. Pete Brown's Gadgeteer intro post details what's available now, and I'm sure there's more to come.

BTW - thanks to Greg for featuring my unboxing post. And for folks in the DC Metro area, Pete Brown and I will be doing a session on .NET Gadgeteer and the .NET Micro Framework at CMAP Code Camp on November 12th. Come on out and see what you can do with .NET Gadgeteer, and why this is so cool!

@SteveRichter:

The new Razor syntax works across both Web Pages and MVC 3 (in fact, Razor is the default view engine in MVC3), so the compatibility is quite strong.

MVC itself does not have a deployment story, per se. Visual Studio 2010, however, does support the WebDeploy protocol, so you can certainly use WebDeploy from VS2010 to deploy an MVC application.

Last, but not least, yes, once ASP.NET Web Pages and MVC 3 are fully released, you should be able to add ASP.NET Web Pages to an MVC project...you may be able to do that today if you have the MVC3 RC installed, but I have not tested that personally.

Thanks to one of the kind folks on the Channel 9 team, we were able to isolate the issue and correct it. The video should work properly now.

Andrew