Blockchain
Blogs|Apr 4, 2018

Chip Off The Ol’ Blockchain: What is a Blockchain? Part 1

Blockchain – just the word seems to stir up confusion.  Because there is so much confusion surrounding blockchain, it’s often hard to get clarity about what it really is and how it works. Blockchain is not that complicated, rather it’s remarkably simple. And moreover it has the potential to fundamentally change the way that businesses…
Read More→
Blogs|Apr 2, 2018

Pre-processing Text Data with NLTK and Azure Machine Learning

Data comes in all forms. Lately, we’ve been going over mostly numerical and categorical data. Even though the categorical data contains words, we transform it into numerical data for our algorithms. However, what if your data is only words? That’s where natural language processing comes in, and in this post, we’ll go over the basics…
Read More→
Blogs|Mar 29, 2018

Using the Cognitive Services Text Analytics API: Detecting Languages

Microsoft has a lot of fascinating APIs available to build intelligent applications with using their Cognitive Services. Among those services is the Text Analytics API. This API offers a wide range of valuable text-based functionality such as sentiment analysis and key phrase extraction. With these useful APIs available, what could be a better means of…
Read More→
Blogs|Mar 22, 2018

Using FontAwesome 5 in Xamarin Forms

There are several examples of using custom fonts in your Xamarin floating around the internet.  But like time, technology marches on and some recent changes have made it a bit more difficult so I thought I’d take a few minutes to show you how to integrate the latest FontAwesome fonts into Xamarin Forms 2.5. FontAwesome…
Read More→
How To|Mar 15, 2018

Developing a Routine for Performing Data Analysis with Pandas Webinar

Although there is no universally accepted approach to beginning a data analysis effort, it is typically a good idea to develop a formal process for yourself when first examining a dataset. This routine can manifest itself as a dynamic checklist of tasks that evolves as your data exploration skills progress. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is…
Read More→
Blogs|Mar 12, 2018

Implement a CAPTCHA with Azure Functions

CAPTCHA’s are those things that site administrators love because they stop comment and form spam but user hate because they are impossible to read. Regardless though, they have become a mainstay in Internet usage, particularly on websites that allow for unauthenticated feedback. CAPTCHA’s are intended to prevent automated responses from computers by generating a test that…
Read More→
Blogs|Mar 7, 2018

Host a Website with Azure Functions and Node.JS, Part 2 — Logging

In part 1 of this series, we looked at how you could use Azure Functions to host a static website. The function basically served up static files it read off the file system and delivered them as HTTP responses. Websites though are not complete without logging! Logging is already supported in functions when one calls…
Read More→
Blogs|Mar 5, 2018

Beginning Statistics for Data Science: Analyzing Data

In our last post we discussed different types your data can have. Now let’s focus on how to analyze on those types of data. Python code will be used to demonstrate a few of these concepts. To get things start in regards to the Python code, let’s go ahead and import our packages and review…
Read More→
Blogs|Mar 2, 2018

Host a Website with Azure Functions and Node.JS, Part 1

Azure Functions are Microsoft’s answer to “serverless” computing. Functions enable applications developers to write event-driven code (ie. “functions”) than can be triggered by timers, manual integration, HTTP requests, service buses, message queues and many other integration points. These functions can be written in a number of different languages including C#, NodeJS (which this example uses),…
Read More→
How To|Feb 19, 2018

Getting Started with Kubernetes Webinar

In this intro to Kubernetes webinar, we’ll give you a primer on Kubernetes and show you how to get started using Kubernetes for container orchestration. We’ll talk about the pieces of Kubernetes, show you how they work together, and finally show you how you can get your containers running on Kubernetes locally and in a…
Read More→
Blogs|Feb 18, 2018

Building on App Center

In my previous (and first) blog post on App Center I talked about getting started, adding the SDK to your code, and looking at Analytics and Crash reporting.  In this post I’d like to discuss building your app on App Center; which allows you to distribute your app to Beta testers and others. There are…
Read More→