In the past, if you were a SQL Server shop and wanted to use the Amazon AWS cloud, your only option was to bring up Windows Virtual Machine instances and run those machines just like your on premises machines. With the new Amazon RDS SQL Server options, developers and IT shops can now spin up standalone SQL Server databases without having to worry about the machines that are hosting those databases.…

Today I was made aware that in my series on Amazon SimpleDB for Windows Phone, I had mentioned that part 4 would contain some code samples and talk about encryption. I was confused for a second because I knew there was no part 4 and I thought the series was done. The series is not done. This is part 4 where we’ll show how to decrypt the credentials sent from the TVM.…

In response to a question in the comments on how to do a PutAttribute on SimpleDB, I’ve put together this post. These are fragments of code and not a complete source file. Hopefully if someone is looking for information, this can help as a guide. This code was written for Windows Phone 7 (i.e. Silverlight). To implement this fully, you’ll need to fill in the methods named CalculateStringToSignV2 and HmacSign. It is done via a GET method so all of the data is sent in the query string.…

One important aspect of accessing SimpleDB on a Windows Phone directly is that it isn’t going through another service that can handle securing the credentials needed to access SimpleDB. SimpleDB, like most (if not all) AWS services, requires two pieces of information to secure a request of the service: AWS Access Key ID and Secret Key. These are two pieces of data that I would rather not put on a device that people carry around with them.…

The first thing to know about the SDK provided by Amazon for .NET (AWSSDK) is that it does not work on Windows Phone. You can’t reference the DLL because it hasn’t been compiled as a phone class library. If you try to put the source code in and compile it yourself, it won’t compile. This is because the SDK contains a lot of code that just doesn’t exist in the subset of .…

In preparation for the Kindle Fire, I uploaded what MP3s I do have to the Kindle Cloud Player. Playing these on IE9 in Windows Phone Mango does work. The UI is a little slow and for some reason the volume on mine was crazy quiet. External amplification was needed. It’s a good example of the background audio features of Windows Phone Mango. So who do I have to talk to in order to get that volume issue solved?…

I registered with the Amazon app store this morning. The release of the kindle fire coming in the next two months will put a huge number of android “tablets” in the hands of the people with the amazon app store mere touches away. Amazon is waiving the $99 fee for the first year. I can get on board with that.…