Windows Azure SDK 2.0 Features (4) – Even More Things You May be Interested

This is the third part of the blog series of introducing some of the exciting new features of Windows Azure SDK 2.0. In this series I’ll take you on a tour of new Windows Azure SDK 2.0 features and experience them firsthand. You can find the SDK 2.0 announcement here. You can acquire SDK 2.0 through Web PI, or you can download it Windows Azure .NET Developer Center.

Previous parts:

Windows Azure SDK 2.0 Features (1) – A Even Better Server Explorer

Windows Azure SDK 2.0 Features (2) – A Even Better Web Sites Experience

Windows Azure SDK 2.0 Features (3) – Even Bigger Machines

PowerShell Improvements

While it is packaged separately, PowerShell cmdlets have gone through some changes in the past few months as well. You can find full list of changes here. Here are some of the new features worth mentioning (many thanks to Guang Yang for providing the list):

Moved to PowerShell 3.0.
Service bus namespace management cmdlets.
Cloud services scaffolding improvements: new role cmdlets and role template support.
Azure Store cmdlets. Create add-on right from PowerShell console.
Storage Blob CRUD cmdlets.
Website diagnostic log streaming.
PS remoting.
High memory VM images.
IaaS support improvements.

Storage Client 2.0

Now New Projects uses Storage Client 2.0. You can find out what’s new in Storage Client 2.0 here.

Windows Azure Active Directory

In case if you have missed, Windows Azure Active Directory has gone in GA as well. See the announcement here and here.

ASP.NET 2012.2 and Web Tools 2012.2

NOTE: This is NOT part of SDK 2.0 release, however worth mentioning here as it’s also include tones of improvements in terms of features and tooling. Here are couple of quick links:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2013/02/18/announcing-release-of-asp-net-and-web-tools-2012-2-update.aspx

http://sedodream.com/2013/02/19/VideosOnWebPublishUpdatesInASPNET20122.aspx

Service Bus New Features

I’ve written a 4-part series on Service Bus new features while the features were in preview. Now you can use these features in production:

New features in Service Bus Preview Library (January 2013) - 1: Message Pump

New features in Service Bus Preview Library (January 2013) – 2: Auto-expiration

New features in Service Bus Preview Library (January 2013) – 3: Queue/Subscription Shared Access Authorization

New features in Service Bus Preview Library (January 2013) – Epilogue: Message Browse

When we learn classic compute algorithms, we don't start with learning how a computer is built. We don't start with how a transistor works or how to build integrated circuits. Instead, we go straight with the abstraction - bits, commands, programs and such. I think we should take the same approach when we learn quantum computing. Instead of trying to understand the bizarre quantum world, we should take some quantum behaviors granted and go straight with higher-level abstracts such as qubits and quantum gates. And once we grasp these basic concepts, we should go even a level higher to use a high-level language like Q# and focus on how quantum algorithms work, and how we can apply quantum algorithms on practical problems.

Bono is an open source quantum algorithm visualizer I'm building in the open. This project is inspired by a few existing systems such as Quirk, IBM Q Experience, and the Programming Quantum Computers book. Bono is a Javascript-based visualizer that features:

Drag-and-drop quantum circuit editing.
Dynamic circuit evaluation.
Works offline in a browser. No server is needed.
Generates Q# code.

I've also created a YouTube channel dedicated to quantum algorithms. My goal is to create an easily digestable course for regular software developers to learn about quantum computing without needing to understand any underlying quantum physics.

Bono is at its infancy. And I'm still a new student in the quantum world. I intentionally develop both Bono and the video series in the open. I hope the early results can inspire collaborations so that we can explore the quantum computing world together.

Last but not least, you can find more Q# related contents at the Q# Advent Calendar 2019.