Author Archives

Louis S. Bermanhttps://louisberman.wordpress.comLouis Berman is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded four different technology firms and was employed as a CTO at GiftCertificates.com and Kideo.com. He presently serves as a Cloud Solutions Architect (CSA) at Microsoft. Mr. Berman developed the very first global-scale CDN deployed on Azure (predating Microsoft’s own offering by some 19 months!), plus three different automated trading platforms, a 3,200-core HPC cluster that delved into crop genomics—the largest RDMA-style cluster ever fielded in Azure up until that point, in late 2016—and countless other projects both on and off the cloud. Mr. Berman currently serves as CSA for the largest Azure customer (both by monthly spend and breadth of usage) in Microsoft Northeast. As a speaker, Mr. Berman has presented on a variety of technical and scientific topics. Recent presentations include “WebJobs (My Next SuperPower!)” for Philly Code Camp, “Batch Processing in Azure” for Microsoft’s TechReady and “ScopeSeeing: A Lifelong Quest to Visit The World’s Greatest Telescopes” for the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF); the world’s largest astronomy event. An avid astronomer, Mr. Berman led the very first visual observation of Eris—the largest dwarf planet in our solar system—and is the president of the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers.

Episode 7 – “Gaming” March Madness with Azure AI

by

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-czhbn-adfe43

Doyenne of Data Science Laura Edell visits the pod with new-word-crafter / AI-expert Anthony Franklin to talk about how to use Azure AI to “game” March Madness.  Can you say Bwwaaahhh ha ha HA HA?

—-more—-

Laura EdellLaura Edell is a Doyenne of Data Science by day who’s recent multi-year success at fantasy football play/bench models have spurred her on to attack other sports leagues like March Madness bracket predictions, PGA Player Fedex Points predictions and more. Laura is an avid lover of all things analytical and will respond to the moniker “Annielytics” in lieu of her name anytime. When it’s time to turn her brain off, she loves to travel off-the-beaten-track, especially to known “wind” rich destinations to appease her inner kite-boarding child.  When not traveling, Laura enjoys being with her family, gaming together & teaching her 8 year old how to spin EDM tracks into mashup magic.

Anthony FranklinAnthony Franklin is an accomplished analytics expert, consultant and trainer who has trained hundreds of students and professionals for various statistical and analytics concepts.  He worked as a student instructor for the Institute of Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University teaching R programming, SAS programming and advanced modeling techniques, while he finished his doctoral studies.  He spent 5 years as an employee at SAS Institute, training and enabling enterprise companies on major data intensive solutions.  He serves as a board member and partnered with Matrix TRC for over 5 years leading multiple big data, machine learning, and programming courses.  Anthony currently works at Microsoft as a Big Data and AI Architect. He is a cofounder of Fanalytical Inc., a data and analytics platform aimed at college athletic departments in the USA.  Anthony is an experienced public speaker and a former Division 1 college football player.  Most notably, Anthony coined his own genuine word on our show: incomprehensive.

During the episode we talk about all sorts of things related to Machine Learning and AI, including:

PLEASE VISIT http://azureability.com for show notes and additional episodes.  Also, if you like (or even hate!) what we’re doing, please take the time to share your comments and suggestions either by the Podbean App (see links, below), email (lberman@microsoft.com) or Twitter (@azureability). 

CREDITS: Louis Berman (Host); Laura Edell and Anthony Franklin (Guests); Gretchen Huebner (Kodable PSA), Simon Hillvo (MakeCode PSA); Megan Hochstatter (Code.org PSA); Vincent Tone / PremiumBeat (Music); Heather Walsh (Intro/Outro); Louis Berman (Engineer); East Coast Studio (Editing)

TRANSCRIPT: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/1c5a0342-11e8-4e1d-b656-d0bf35b80614/videos/bce483e708. 

PODCAST CLIENTS: You can find AzureABILITY on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify, or simply use our RSS Feed (http://www.azureability.com/feed.xml) and plug it into your podcast client of choice.

Episode 6 – AI Forensics and Pharaoh Hounds

by

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-t73d8-ac0f38

AI / Machine Learning pioneer Andre Magni visits the pod to talk computer intelligence; from Microsoft’s AI mission (to amplify human ingenuity with intelligent technology) to data-curation gotchas and modelling pitfalls to identifying dead bodies using AI.  We even talks about our “AI Moms” and Andre’s world-champion lure-coursing Pharaoh dogs. 

—-more—-

Andre has been around Machine Learning and AI since 1994, on the early days of Artificial Neural Networks. He has developed and deployed an array of ML/AI solutions over the years, that range from cranio-facial identification to more normal ones as, speech and pattern recognition, anomaly detection, failure prediction and forecasts. Today, Andre leads a highly skilled team of Cloud Solutions Architect at Microsoft enabling customers to be successful on Azure.

The episode also features a pair of PSAs from two of our favorite kid-focused technology organizations MakeCode and Kodable.  Give ’em some love (they do a great job!)

PLEASE VISIT http://azureability.com for show notes and additional episodes.  Also, if you like (or even hate!) what we’re doing, please take the time to share your comments and suggestions either by the Podbean App (see links, below), email (lberman@microsoft.com) or Twitter (@azureability). 

CREDITS: Louis Berman (Host); Andre Magni (Guest); Gretchen Huebner (Kodable PSA), Simon Hillvo (MakeCode PSA); Vincent Tone / PremiumBeat (Music); Heather Walsh (Intro/Outro); Louis Berman (Engineer); East Coast Studio (Editing)

TRANSCRIPT: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/1c5a0342-11e8-4e1d-b656-d0bf35b80614/videos/f26d8e3451.

PODCAST CLIENTS: You can find AzureABILITY on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify, or simply use our RSS Feed (http://www.azureability.com/feed.xml) and plug it into your podcast client of choice.

Episode 5 – CodeCamping with Philly.NET Founder Bill Wolff

by

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-q9fhy-ad2064

Philly.NET founder and coding-legend Bill Wolff visits the podcast to talk about both the forthcoming Philly Code Camp 2019.1 and the user-group experience in general.

Bill is an independent consultant, trainer, and architect specializing in Microsoft development technologies under the name Agility Systems. He served as the SharePoint Practice Director at Capax Global, Solutions Architect in the Microsoft Practice at Unisys Corporation, and ran the Microsoft Alliance at LiquidHub. He ran the consulting firm Wolff Data Systems for 15 years and directed armies of consultants in the dot com world. Bill is founder and President of the Philly.NET user group, a previous INETA board member where he served as Vice President of the Speaker Bureau, and involved in several other user communities. Bill was a contributing author on several books. His certifications include trainer, systems engineer, developer, and Microsoft MVP. 

PLEASE VISIT http://azureability.com for show notes and additional episodes.  Also, if you like (or even hate!) what we’re doing, please take the time to share your comments and suggestions, or you can reach out to Louis directly  by email (lberman@microsoft.com) or twitter (@azureability). 

CREDITS: Louis Berman (Host); Bill Wolff (Guest); Gretchen Huebner (Kodable PSA), Simon Hillvo (MakeCode PSA); Megan Hochstatter (Code.org PSA); Vincent Tone / PremiumBeat (Music); Heather Walsh (Intro/Outro); Louis Berman (Engineer); East Coast Studio (Editing)

TRANSCRIPT: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/1c5a0342-11e8-4e1d-b656-d0bf35b80614/videos/9e7b44f29c/ 

PODCAST CLIENTS: You can find AzureABILITY on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify, or simply use our RSS Feed (http://www.azureability.com/feed.xml) and plug it into your podcast client of choice.

Episode 4 – Azure Enthusiast: Kevin Boland

by

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-dh33z-aac044

AzureABILITY host Louis Berman talks Azure with Bentley Systems‘ Kevin Boland—an Enterprise Cloud Architect who manages one of the largest and most complex set of Azure deployments on the planet.  The pair of friends talk a good deal of tech, but along the way they also ruminate on the joys of raising Boxers (no, not the underwear!) as well as the pleasures and perils of being a robotics dweeb. 

—-more—-

Kevin is a Dad, Dog Rescuer, Technology Evangelist, Leader, Thinker, Mountain Biker, Security Nerd, Tinkerer, Maker, Enterprise Architect, DevOps Devotee, Azure Enthusiast, Mad Roboticist and more.  To learn more more about Kevin, be sure to visit his LinkedIn page or follow him on Twitter (@kmboland). 

During the course of the podcast, Kevin and Louis touch on a bunch of different topics, including:

The episode also features a pair of PSAs from two of our favorite kid-focused technology organizations Kodable and MakeCode.  Give ’em some love (they do a great job!)

PLEASE VISIT http://azureability.com for show notes and additional episodes.  Also, if you like (or even hate!) what we’re doing, please take the time to share your comments and suggestions (see Podbean App links, below), or you can email Louis directly at lberman@microsoft.com. 

CREDITS: Louis Berman (Host); Kevin Boland (Guest); Gretchen Huebner (Kodable PSA), Simon Hillvo (MakeCode PSA); Vincent Tone / PremiumBeat (Music); Heather Walsh (Intro/Outro); Louis Berman (Engineer); East Coast Studio (Editing)

TRANSCRIPT: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/1c5a0342-11e8-4e1d-b656-d0bf35b80614/videos/7548a4be2a/;  automatically generated by Microsoft’s Video Indexer service (http://videoindexer.ai).

PODCAST CLIENTS: You can find AzureABILITY on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify, or simply use our RSS Feed (http://www.azureability.com/feed.xml) and plug it into your podcast client of choice.

Episode 2 – WTF Azure (How Do I Get Started?)

by

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-srzes-aa4137

In this episode, Louis Berman discusses how to get started in Azure with his fellow Cloud Solutions Architect, Srini Ambati. Listen in as Louis and Srini give you a leg up into the cloud.

To learn more about getting started with Azure, be sure to check out the following links, or simply use your favorite search engine to access an absurd amount of Azure content; more than any one human could ever consume in a single lifetime:

Quick Heads Up: If you have kids, know kids, want to help kids–maybe even like kids!– then be sure to check out http://code.org. Code.org provides the leading curriculum for K-12 computer science in the largest school districts in the United States.  They also recognize the annual hour of code campaign which has engaged 10% of all the students in the world.  10 friggin percent!!

Be sure to visit http://azureability.com for show notes and additional episodes.  Also, if you like (or even hate!) what we’re doing, please take the time to share your comments and suggestions.

CREDITS: Louis Berman (Host); Srini Ambati (Guest); Megan Hochstatter (PSA); Heather Walsh (Intro/Outro); Vincent Tone / PremiumBeat (Music); East Coast Studio (Editing)

TRANSCRIPT: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/1c5a0342-11e8-4e1d-b656-d0bf35b80614/videos/3ac26600ce/; automatically generated by Microsoft’s Video Indexer service (http://videoindexer.ai).

Let Me Serve[rless] You

by

I’m less than pleased with the verbalism “Serverless,” a bit of marketing-sprecht pitch to selling consumption-based functionality to the feckless.  Not that Amazon’s “Lamda” is all that better a mouthful, but whatever the case I’d feel like less of a shill when talking about Microsoft’s lovely tech if it only had a better name.

The rub, of course is that Serverless—itself!—is great; an obvious yet revolutionary idea that is turning programming very much on it’s head.

As it turns out Serverless has been very much in the air, as of late.  Indeed, I’ve lost count of the number of presentations and meetings I’ve had on the subject in the preceding month alone but it must be in the low dozens.

On Friday, December 7th—tomorrow, as of this writing—I’ll be presenting on the subject again; this time to a bunch of data professionals at Philly DataFest.  I’d invite you to attend but the event has been sold out for weeks so you’ll have to wait for the next go-round.

Anyway, if you’d like to see what all the fuss is about, do check out my deck and demo.

Keep coding…