Reducing the size of an Azure Web Role deployment package

If you’ve been working with Azure Web Roles and deployed them to an Azure subscription, you likely have noticed the substantial size of a simple web role deployment package. Even with the vanilla ASP.NET sample website the deployment package seems to be quite bloated. This is not such a problem if you have decent upload bandwidth, but in Australia bandwidth is scarce like water in the desert so let’s see if we can compress this deployment package a little bit.… [Keep reading] “Reducing the size of an Azure Web Role deployment package”

The Internet of Things with Arduino, Azure Event Hubs and the Azure Python SDK

In the emerging world of Internet of Things (IoT) we see more and more hardware manufacturers releasing development platforms to connect devices and sensors to the internet. Traditionally these kind of platforms are created around microcontrollers, and the Arduino platform can be considered as the standard in (consumer) physical computing, home automation, DIY and the ‘makers community’.

Most Arduinos come with an 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller running at 16 MHz with the modest amount of 2 kilobytes of memory.… [Keep reading] “The Internet of Things with Arduino, Azure Event Hubs and the Azure Python SDK”