Scott Densmore

Creating a SSL Certificate for the Cloud Ready Packages for the iOS Windows Azure Toolkit

With the iOS Windows Azure Toolkit, you can use the ready made Windows Azure Packages that use ACS or Membership to manage users to Windows Azure Storage. These packages require you to have a SSL certificate. More than likely you are running on a Mac.

This is pretty straight forward. You will need to create a certificate and then create a PKCS12 (.pfx) file for it.  You can generate the certificate from terminal using openssl with the following steps:

• open a terminal window
• enter the command: openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout iOSWAToolkit.pem -out iOSWAToolkit.pem  
  • iOSWAToolkit is the name of the file you want and can be anything you like.
  • This will create a certificate that you can use to create the PKCS12 certificate. This command will ask for all the information for your cert that you enter.
• enter the command:  openssl pkcs12 -export -out iOSWAToolkit.pfx -in iOSWAToolkit.pem -name "iOSWAToolkit"
  • iOSWAToolkit is the name of the file you want and can be anything you like.
  • This will ask you for a password that you need to remember so you can enter it when uploading to Windows Azure.
• enter the command: openssl x509 -outform der -in iOSWAToolkit.pem -out iOSWAToolkit.cer
  • This will export a certificate with the public key which is what you will need for the service config file.

You will have two certificates that you will need to get the Cloud Ready Package(s) deployed.  This is really easy when you use the Cloud Configuration Utility.

Fluent API for Windows Azure ACS Management

The guys at SouthWorks have been hard at work again.  We have been using the same setup program for our Windows Azure Projects to configure ACS for a while now.  It is a bit rough around the edges but we have not had time to invest a little upgrade. Well, leave it to these guys to go above and beyond: Jorge Rowies has create a fluent API for setting things up. Looks great. Check it out and start forking in GitHub.

Unified Logging for Windows Azure

If you have a Windows Azure deployment, you owe it to yourself to check out Unified Logging for Windows Azure.  If you worry about how you can monitor your application and what is going on in the cloud, go check it out.

Sucker Punched

My daughter was sucker punched on the bus after school.

This is an unofficial account of the event as told to me by my daughter.  I am pretty sure it is correct after the call from the principle.

Anna got on the bus. She was walking back to take a seat when a kindergarden student started to sit next to a 3rd grade boy. The boy told the kindergarden girl not to sit down, went to punch her before Anna grabbed his hand and said "Don't you dare!". The little girl went towards the back of the bus and sat down. Anna sat down next to her friend and started to chat for the way home. She turned around to check on the little girl and "BAM", the 3rd grader sucker punched her.

She stood up as the boy threatened to hit her again, yet she stood strong and said if he hit her, she would hit him back. Every kid scattered and the bus driver came back and broke things up and took both kids off the bus. The principle took the 3rd grader, called his parents and let Anna come home on the bus.

Needless to say, I was livid. I couldn't believe someone hit my baby. I was not allowed to get in the car to drive down to the school or call a lawyer. (I know Anna did not get her patience from me.)

After I calmed, I was proud papa. Two things happened all at once: she stood up for someone who needed it; she took a punch and didn't fight back. I talked to her and told her how proud I was that she could control her emotions. I could not believe it.

I am still amazed about this. I guess the wife and I have not done to bad so far (although I give her all the credit).