CodeStock 2012

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Anatomy of a Buffer Overflow Attack

You've heard of "buffer overflows" and maybe you've even been the cause of a few, but do you understand why they are bad? Maybe you're a ".NET developer" and you've never really thought about them. In this session we'll discuss how attackers discover buffer overflows, how they interrogate them, and, finally, how they are exploited. We'll walk through a live demonstration from fuzzing through obtaining a remote shell. You'll leave with a better understanding of how they work, and why you should ensure your code is protected from them.

• Session Slides
• Session Video

WiFu - so you think your wireless connection is safe?

In this session we'll discuss various wireless security techniques including common misconceptions and mis-configurations. We will demonstrate how easy it is to compromise even "secured" connections and what the implications are for you as an IT professional. Using free software and inexpensive hardware (~$30), we'll demonstrate a number of attacks and highlight the vulnerabilities that are present in the behavior of many wireless devices.

• Session Slides
• Session Video

CodeMash 2012

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Moving to the Cloud? (Migrating to Azure)

PreCompiler, half-day

You can hardly pick up a computer industry trade magazine without there being an article about cloud computing. Lots of people are talking about the cloud and it is likely your boss is thinking about it (whether you know it or not). However, many questions arise as soon as you begin to talk about the cloud. How do you get there? Does it even make sense for you? Should you move all of your applications to the cloud? If not, which ones? How do you even begin? This half-day session will address these questions by giving a brief introduction to Windows Azure - the Platform as a Service offering from Microsoft - and then, using hands-on-labs and real-world samples, dig into a practical approach to migrating your applications. The session will end with a discussion on scalability and practices you should consider as you look to make your move.

Devlink 2011

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A Comparison of Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services

Often when you talk with someone about cloud computing, or when you are evaluating the cloud for your application, the advice you get is slanted to one platform or the other. Generally, this is due to the fact that most cloud experts know a lot about their particular platform of choice and aren't overly familiar with other offerings. Join us as we take a side-by-side walk through the features of both the Amazon and Microsoft offerings, and discuss various strengths and weaknesses of the platforms as well as their similarities and distinctives.

• Session Slides

Introduction to GPGPU Development using CUDA

Much has been made in recent years about the multi-core explosion and the paradigm shift that developers are facing. In concert with this change, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the use of hybrid architectures (combination of traditional CPU and specialized processing boards). The most common combination of hybrid architecture is the CPU and GPU. In this session we'll provide an introduction to writing code to run on the GPU, we'll look at developer tools in Visual Studio to assist in this process, and we'll discuss various applications and approaches to consider when looking to leverage the GPU in your applications.

• Session Slides

CodeStock 2011

Conference Homepage

A Comparison of Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services

Often when you talk with someone about cloud computing, or when you are evaluating the cloud for your application, the advice you get is slanted to one platform or the other. Generally, this is due to the fact that most cloud experts know a lot about their particular platform of choice and aren't overly familiar with other offerings. Join us as we take a side-by-side walk through the features of both the Amazon and Microsoft offerings, and discuss various strengths and weaknesses of the platforms as well as their similarities and distinctives.

• Session Slides and Part 2
• Session Video and Part 2

Introduction to GPGPU Development using CUDA

Much has been made in recent years about the multi-core explosion and the paradigm shift that developers are facing. In concert with this change, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the use of hybrid architectures (combination of traditional CPU and specialized processing boards). The most common combination of hybrid architecture is the CPU and GPU. In this session we'll provide an introduction to writing code to run on the GPU, we'll look at developer tools in Visual Studio to assist in this process, and we'll discuss various applications and approaches to consider when looking to leverage the GPU in your applications.

• Session Slides
• Session Video

Cloud futures 2011 – Microsoft Research

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Scaling Document Clustering in the Cloud

Cloud computing has gained significant popularity over the past few years and introduces a number of new and compelling capabilities as a computational platform. Beyond the well-established benefits such as the massive scalability of both compute on demand and storage on demand, cloud computing offers the ability to think differently about the problems we are trying to solve. Rather than facing constraints of fixed limitations of a target computational platform, we are able to develop codes and algorithms that can make intelligent use of the resources available. A particular code may begin to solve a problem on a modest set of hardware and then, as the incoming data set grows or solution evolves, issue calls to the underlying cloud infrastructure to allocate the appropriate increase in hardware. The software can then reconfigure its control structures to accommodate the newly acquired hardware and resume the task of solving the problem at hand.

This talk will discuss early progress in the application of the above techniques to a document clustering algorithm developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The original codes used to solve this problem utilize a memory resident non-binary tree, which causes the problem size to be limited by the amount of physical ram in the machine. The application of the cloud and the techniques described in this talk are allowing the algorithm to span multiple machines in a self-scaling, fault tolerant manner.  This talk will provide initial results, lessons learned, future work, as well as a brief comments on utilizing various cloud vendors for the same code base.

• Session Slides
• Session video

StirTREK 2011

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HANDS ON WITH AMAZON WEB SERVICES

Is the cloud real? Has the promise been realized? Join us as we dive into Amazon Web Services and walk through few real-world applications and discuss the issues faced, lessons learned, and ways you can avoid spilling your own blood while dancing on the bleeding edge of technology.

• Session Video
• Session Slides

CodeMash 2011

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PreCompiler: An Introduction to Azure

Steve Ballmer has made it very clear that Microsoft is “all in” when it comes to the cloud and by now most have heard about Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform… but what does that mean for you? Whether you are an experienced .NET developer who is wondering what all this cloud stuff means for how you write code, or maybe you are a traditional *nix developer looking to understand how to integrate your existing code with the Microsoft version of the cloud, join us for an in-depth discussion on what Platform as a Service is, how Microsoft has implemented it, what scenarios it best addresses, and a collection of hands-on-labs to get you started.

PreCompiler: An Introduction to Amazon Web Services

AWS has been in the cloud computing space longer than most anyone, and they are the de facto standard when it comes to Infrastructure as a Service. While most developers are comfortable with the notion of virtual machines, reviewing the AWS offering can sometimes look like alphabet soup (EC2, S3, SNS, SDB, SQS). Join us to learn the power behind these acronyms and the tools that they can provide your next project. We’ll discuss the major components, some of the trade-offs between different implementation choices (i.e. boot from S3/boot from EBS, etc.) and provide you with the opportunity to work through some labs, deploy some code, and begin to experience the Amazon cloud for yourself. Examples are in .NET, but fundamental concepts apply to all platforms.

Fed Scoop

Guest Blog Post

Digital Forensics and the Cloud

(Excerpt) I work with a research group that generally focuses on text analysis/mining and Bayesian networks, but recently applied their strengths to the area of digital forensics. Specifically, they developed tools that are used by local police departments to aid in the prosecution of child pornographers. In one of our more recent meetings, we began discussing the role that cloud computing can play in this problem domain – how can it help, how can it hurt, what work needs to be done to address the resultant issues. While our collaboration effort is still in the nascent stages, we’ve established a handful of “knowns” that are worthy of broader conversation. As with most technologies, there is both a good and a dark side to the use of cloud computing. My goal in this article is not to paint the cloud with a black brush, but rather to highlight some unique issues and call to mind challenges that exist and must be dealt with. (more…)

NASA Goddard: IT Matters – Panel on Cloud Computing

Evaluation of Cloud Computing for Scientific Discovery

This talk was similar to some of the others I’ve given on the topic of using cloud computing for science but was specifically targeted to the audience at hand. This was one of four talks presented to a group of roughly 115 IT staff and researchers at the NASA’s Goddard Space Center.

Fed Scoop

Guest Blog Post

Cloud Computing: Beyond the Buzz

(Excerpt) Everyone (or so it seems) is talking about the cloud…

I have the privilege of being on the ground, working every day with these technologies and I’m seeing the actual transformation – the people who are beginning to embrace it, the scientists who are interested in using it, and some of the problems it has actually solved. Rather than hyping an idea or pushing a particular technology, I thought I’d take this opportunity to discuss some examples of the work we’ve been involved with and where we think it is headed. (more…)

DevLink 2010

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Amazon Web Services for the .NET Developer

We’ve all heard about Amazon’s S3 and EC2 platforms and we know that they are leaders in the cloud computing movement, but how accessible are they to the .NET developer? Come learn about the various SDKs, samples, and tools available to Microsoft Developer targeting the Amazon Cloud as well as tips and tricks for getting the most out of the platform.

CodeStock 2010

Conference Homepage

Amazon Web Services for the .NET Developer

We’ve all heard about Amazon’s S3 and EC2 platforms and we know that they are leaders in the cloud computing movement, but how accessible are they to the .NET developer? Come learn about the various SDKs, samples, and tools available to Microsoft Developer targeting the Amazon Cloud as well as tips and tricks for getting the most out of the platform.

Azure: Lessons From the Field

Come learn about Microsoft’s Azure platform (and cloud computing in general) as we look at an application built to assist in the processing and publishing of large-scale scientific data. We will discuss architecture choices, benchmarking results, issues faced as well as the workarounds implemented. While your application may not be dealing with 35TB of numbers, this session will give you insight into the process of developing for the cloud, as well as tips and tricks to help you avoid some common pitfalls.

Cloud Futures 2010 – Microsoft Research

Workshop Homepage

Panel on Cloud Applications – New Experiences and Expectations

We’re rushing towards pervasive, always-connected lives and augmented reality at breakneck speed, and the technology landscape is changing so fast we seldom take stock of how different our lives are – and how dependent we are on technology. Cloud computing is in its early days but holds the promise of powering the next step in the progression of human to computer interaction through the introduction of new applications and new interaction models. In this panel we’ll take a provocative look at some of the ways cloud application are changing our lives today and what the future of client plus cloud applications might hold.

• Session Video

Data and the Cloud: A Call for Improved Formats and Consistency in Data Services Supporting Scientific Research

A variety of cloud computing platforms are emerging and there exist increasing calls for research to be performed utilizing these platforms. While the computational paradigms are improving and the platforms are, in fact, becoming increasingly viable for such research, significant issues remain surrounding the usage and movement of data (specifically large data) within these environments. If cloud computing as a paradigm is to deliver on its promise of democratizing large-scale compute by serving as a natural extension of the scientific workstation, significant effort must be applied towards the issues of data locality, presentation, and interaction. This talk assumes a layman’s perspective as work is reviewed illustrating challenges encountered while attempting to move and interact with large-scale data (subsets of the CMIP3 archive) within the cloud as well as from workstations outside of the cloud. Also discussed are issues surrounding the schism that exists between data formats that would be considered “Internet friendly” and those used in a variety of scientific research and how these formats exacerbate the problems surrounding data movement.

• Session Video

CodeMash 2010

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Windows Azure: Lessons from the field

Come learn about Microsoft’s Azure platform (and cloud computing in general) as we look at an application built to assist in the processing and publishing of large-scale scientific data. We will discuss architecture choices, benchmarking results, issues faced as well as the workarounds implemented. This session will give you insight into the process of developing for the cloud, as well as tips and tricks to help you avoid some common pitfalls.

• Session Slides

Public Sector/Healthcare & Life Sciences Dinner and Cloud Computing Showcase (@PDC)

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Azure for Climate Analysis

A demonstration of how Windows Azure is being used to post-process climate data generated on the largest super computers in the world. We will also demonstrate data visualization tools that consume the post-processed data from Azure as a data service.

• Session Slides

Huntsville New Technology Users Group (HUNTUG)

User Group Homepage

Windows Azure: Lessons from the field (September, 2009 meeting)

Come learn about Microsoft’s Azure platform (and cloud computing in general) as we look at an application built to assist in the processing and publishing of large-scale scientific data. We will discuss architecture choices, benchmarking results, issues faced as well as the workarounds implemented. This session will give you insight into the process of developing for the cloud, as well as tips and tricks to help you avoid some common pitfalls.

• Session Slides

CodeStock 2009

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Deployment and Packaging SharePoint solutions using TFS

Have you been using the VS Extensions for SharePoint to create SharePoint packages and found yourself wondering how best to integrate with your source control platform and build system? Consistent packaging of SharePoint solutions can be a challenge and is not for the faint of heart. Come to this session and learn how our team utilizes TFS, Team Build, SandCastle, SharePoint Installer, and STSDev in concert to produce consistent installation packages for our SharePoint/MOSS environment.

• Session Slides