Internet Explorer Extension Development announcements

• Link
  Internet Explorer 11 Preview
  Ryan Bolz Wednesday, June 26, 2013 5:23 PM

  Please be aware that Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 Preview is now available. Please feel free to post questions or discussions related to IE 11 Preview in this forum.

  Thanks,

  Microsoft Community team

Internet Explorer Web Development announcements

• Link
  Welcome!
  Ryan Bolz Wednesday, June 26, 2013 5:24 PM

  Please be aware that Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 Preview is now available. Please feel free to post questions or discussions related to IE 11 Preview in this forum.

  Thanks,

  Microsoft Community team

Kinect for Windows v1 SDK announcements

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  Announcing version 1.8 of Kinect for Windows
  Carmine Si - MSFT Tuesday, September 17, 2013 6:13 PM

  We are pleased to announce that Kinect for Windows v1.8 is now available and released to the public. The full details of the announcement and features are available on our blog:

  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/archive/2013/09/16/updated-sdk-with-html5-kinect-fusion-improvements-and-more.aspx

  Version 1.8 is an in-place update to the previous v1.x versions and are fully compatible. Kinect for Windows SDK 1.8 includes some key features and samples that the community has been asking for, including::

  • New background removal. An API removes the background behind the active user so that it can be replaced with an artificial background. This green-screening effect was one of the top requests we’re heard in recent months. It is especially useful for advertising, augmented reality gaming, training and simulation, and other immersive experiences that place the user in a different virtual environment.
  • Realistic color capture with Kinect Fusion. A new Kinect Fusion API scans the color of the scene along with the depth information so that it can capture the color of the object along with its three-dimensional (3D) model. The API also produces a texture map for the mesh created from the scan. This feature provides a full fidelity 3D model of a scan, including color, which can be used for full color 3D printing or to create accurate 3D assets for games, CAD, and other applications.
  • Improved tracking robustness with Kinect Fusion. This algorithm makes it easier to scan a scene. With this update, Kinect Fusion is better able to maintain its lock on the scene as the camera position moves, yielding a more reliable and consistent scanning.
    HTML interaction sample. This sample demonstrates implementing Kinect-enabled buttons, simple user engagement, and the use of a background removal stream in HTML5. It allows developers to use HTML5 and JavaScript to implement Kinect-enabled user interfaces, which was not possible previously—making it easier for developers to work in whatever programming languages they prefer and integrate Kinect for Windows into their existing solutions.
  • Multiple-sensor Kinect Fusion sample. This sample shows developers how to use two sensors simultaneously to scan a person or object from both sides—making it possible to construct a 3D model without having to move the sensor or the object! It demonstrates the calibration between two Kinect for Windows sensors, and how to use Kinect Fusion APIs with multiple depth snapshots. It is ideal for retail experiences and other public kiosks that do not include having an attendant available to scan by hand.
  • Adaptive UI sample. This sample demonstrates how to build an application that adapts itself depending on the distance between the user and the screen—from gesturing at a distance to touching a touchscreen. The algorithm in this sample uses the physical dimensions and positions of the screen and sensor to determine the best ergonomic position on the screen for touch controls as well as ways the UI can adapt as the user approaches the screen or moves further away from it. As a result, the touch interface and visual display adapt to the user’s position and height, which enables users to interact with large touch screen displays comfortably. The display can also be adapted for more than one user.

  Key links:

  • What's New in version 1.8 of the SDK and the Developer Toolkit
  • Download Kinect for Windows SDK 1.8
  • Download Kinect for Windows Toolkit 1.8
  • Download Kinect for Windows Runtime 1.8
• Link
  Hello and please take a moment to review out Kinect for Windows Forum Guidelines
  Chris Wojahn, Security IR Monday, April 23, 2012 5:41 PM

  Hello and please take a moment to review our Kinect for Windows Forum Guidelines

  Specific K4W Forum Rules of Conduct

  1. Forums are moderated and if you feel that a post is in violation please “Report As Abuse”
  2. Suggest or mark posts as answered so that others know your issue was resolved by the feedback given
  3. Create a new post and don’t pile onto an older thread that may not be applicable.
     • Link to other threads if you want to expand discussion on the topic discussed in the older thread.
  4. Posts must be on-topic for the forum.
     • In the K4W forums’ case, that means posting about K4W.
     • Comparisons to other Kinect libraries are tolerated, but our forums are not the place to discuss other libraries.
  5. No personal attacks allowed. Likewise, no racial, ethnic, national, or other slurs are tolerated.
  6. Constructive criticism of K4W  and the SDK is allowed. Wandering into criticism of Microsoft for other reasons is not. Repeated harping on the same issue is not.
  7. If someone posts incorrect information, post a correction, and link to the docs that show the correct answer.
  8. We will ban people for trolling. Typing “M$” for “Microsoft” is always considered trolling.

  The official guidelines are found here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1034.moderating-microsoft-forums.aspx

  Thank you and please continue to assist us in improving our forums and community.

  Chris   Wojahn

  Microsoft   Kinect / Surface Solutions & Support

  Escalation   Engineer, Critical Problem Resolution

  
  
• Link
  Be part of the movement.
  Ann Paradiso, Microsoft Research Thursday, June 16, 2011 4:31 AM

  Download the Kinect for Windows SDK beta, get more information about the SDK, and more.

  Visit http://research.microsoft.com/kinectsdk

LINQ to SQL announcements

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  Welcome to the LINQ to SQL forums
  Damien Guard Friday, August 14, 2009 4:02 AM

  Welcome to the forum for discussing LINQ to SQL. A few suggestions:

  • Make the subject line specific - "I'm stuck", "HELP" or "This query doesn't work" could easily mean somebody with the answer skipped it.
  • Be polite when asking and responding to questions - we're all here to try and help each other
  • When you have an answer please remember to mark it as such so people can filter down on who's still stuck and find answers to their problems

  There are a few useful resources you also might want to check out:
  

  • MSDN Getting Started & Programming Guide 
  • Cheat sheet for C# and VB.NET (PDF)
  • Customized code-generation templates
  • List of additional LINQ to SQL resources

  Some other forums that might be of help:

  • Data Access and ObjectDataSource Control @ ASP.NET
  • LINQ to DataSets
  • LINQ to Entities
  • LINQ to XML
  • LINQ general (to objects etc.)

Live Connect (Archived) announcements

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  Live SDK v5.5 JWT Consent Changes
  Toan Nguyen-Azure Tuesday, April 22, 2014 9:45 PM

  The Microsoft account team will need to make a change that will affect the way that registered applications process tickets. All you have to do is upgrade to the latest SDK and the ticket handling will automatically be updated. For more information please see this page : http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=242807.

  The change is scheduled to take place on Monday 5^thMay, so please make sure that you update before then – users may experience problems with repeated sign-in when requesting consent for your application if you don’t.
• Link
  Live SDK v5.4 released
  JOshiro Thursday, June 27, 2013 9:29 PM

  Live SDK v5.4 is now available for download. New additions to this version of the SDK include:

  •          Windows Store HTML and XAML applications. Version 5.4 of the Live SDK was updated for compatibility with Windows 8.1 Preview and Visual Studio 2013 Preview, including new behavior specific to Windows 8.1 Preview: For a user not connected with a Microsoft account, invoking WL.login in JavaScript or LiveAuthClient.LoginAsync will trigger the process to connect the user with a Microsoft account. Also specific to 8.1 Preview, for users who are not connected with a Microsoft account, calling methods on LiveConnectClient to access user data will result in a reject response.
    
  •          Windows Phone 8. This update contains several fixes for the new WP8 SDK, including a fix for a login session cache issue that could prevent a user from logging in with a different account after logging out. Additionally resolved in this update is a caching issue in LiveConnectClient.UploadAsync that could lead to additional app memory consumption and less accurate progress event data when uploading large files. As a result, larger files can be uploaded on lower-memory devices than was possible in the past.
    
  •          .NET client and ASP.NET apps. The Live SDK v5.4 Nuget package has been updated with support for .NET 4.
    
  •          Live SDK for iOS apps. Several UI issues related to login in the iOS 6 SDK have been resolved.
• Link
  Support for XMPP ends in October 2013
  Navdeep Bawa Wednesday, March 20, 2013 10:35 PM

  Last year, we announced that support for Messenger will end in 2013. Apps that already use Extensible Messages and Presence Protocol (XMPP) will continue to be supported until October 2013. We strongly discourage any new implementations relying on XMPP. Instead, we encourage you to learn more about our APIs for SkyDrive, Hotmail and Skype at http://dev.live.com.

  The documentation for XMPP and messaging has been removed from the Windows Dev Center and archived. This info will not be updated and might contain links to content that no longer exists. But you can still find the XMPP topics here if you need them:

  •          Messenger API (Live Connect)
  •          Getting started using Messenger with XMPP (Live Connect)
  •          XMPP code examples (Live Connect) 
  •          Messenger XMPP reference (Live Connect)
  •          Sharing a user's status (Live Connect)
  •          Sharing badge (Live Connect)

• Link
  Live SDK v5.3 released
  Shelly Guo Thursday, December 20, 2012 6:03 AM

  Live SDK v5.3 is now available for download here. New additions to this version of the SDK include:

  • New .NET SDKs for client and server.  Since we first introduced the Live SDK, we have seen a lot of developers ask for a .NET library that would work for classic desktop apps and ASP.NET applications. With this release you can now create applications that target traditional desktop scenarios and as well as server side scenarios.  With the client .NET SDK, you can create WPF, Windows Form or console applications that let your users use their SkyDrive data.  With the ASP.NET SDK, you can create websites and web server components that talk to the Live Connect API service. Using the SDK also makes it easy for you to incorporate Microsoft account into your identity system or even just use Microsoft account as your primary identity system. Be sure to check out our Build talk “Powering your apps with Microsoft accounts” below to learn more about it.
  • Windows Phone 8 SDK.  The WP 8 SDK takes advantage of some of the new features that Windows Phone 8 has to offer and provided you with an easy to use programming model by supporting the new Task<T> async pattern and dynamic keyword. With this you can easily move your code between your Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 application.
  • Open source projects for Windows and Windows Phone SDKs. Starting from v5.3, all Live SDK client components written in C#, Objective C and Java are released as open source projects.  This makes it much easier for developers to resolve problems quickly and build solutions that are tailored to their scenarios.  Be sure to check out our gibhub depot for new additions of the Windows and Windows Phone SDK source code.
  • New samples and starter guides.  New samples for Windows and Windows Phone are added as part of the open source Windows SDK projects.  We also have an updated starter guide for Windows Phone 8 and a new one for Windows 8 and Asp.Net.

  SkyDrive REST API enhancements - we have added the ability to search for files in a user’s SkyDrive by using a partial file name. You can do this by simply making an HTTP GET call with the search parameter 'q'. Here is an example:

  GET http://apis.live.net/V5.0/me/skydrive/search?q=expenses

  The response contains the list of files that have “expenses” in the file name.

  Windows 8 Sign-in control deprecation - Starting with Live SDK v5.3, the sign-in control is deprecated from the Windows 8 C# and Windows 8 JavaScript SDKs.  Instead, apps should follow our guidelines for implementing the sign in experience for Windows Store apps using HTML/Javascript and Windows Store apps using XAML.
  

• Link
  Application provisioning API will be deprecated in March 2013.
  Shelly Guo Tuesday, December 11, 2012 5:40 AM

  When we shipped the Live Connect API service 5.0 April last year, we included the functionality to allow an app to provision applications on behaves of other developers.  This functionality is enabled if the app has permission to use the wl.application and the wl.application_create scope.  Application information can be access through the https://apis.live.net/v5.0/me/applications path. After observing the usage pattern of this API for more than a year, we have concluded that this API does not fit into the user model and the design goals of the Live Connect API, whose primary objective is to provide developer access to user’s data stored in Windows services, not a platform to auto provision applications.  With that, we’re now announcing the plan to decommission any APIs that are related to application provisioning through the Live Connect API service, which include all calls to the https://apis.live.net/v5.0/me/applications path and its sub-paths. These APIs will stop working in March 2013.

• Link
  Changes in OAuth Endpoints
  Navdeep Bawa-MSFT Tuesday, April 17, 2012 5:32 PM

  We would like to inform you of about the changes to the OAuth 2.0 SDK.  We have transitioned the OAuth endpoints to https://login.live.com. This change is to move our OAuth 2.0 authentication service to be on the same backend as our primary login infrastructure. It will give increased scalability and reliability to our OAuth interface and also add some security features like invalidating refresh tokens if the users are detected as compromised or has changed their password.   

  The https://oauth.live.com endpoints will continue to function but with slightly increased latency so we recommend you begin using the new URL’s.

  The new endpoints are:

  • authorization: https://login.live.com/oauth20_authorize.srf
  • token: https://login.live.com/oauth20_token.srf
  • desktop: https://login.live.com/oauth20_desktop.srf

  The old end points are:

  • authorization: https://oauth.live.com/authorize     
  • token: https://oauth.live.com/token
  • desktop: https://oauth.live.com/desktop

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  Support Operation Hours for Live Connect Forum
  Navdeep Bawa-MSFT Monday, April 9, 2012 11:03 PM

  This forum is monitored by Live Connect Support and Product Group team.

  Hours of Operation: 8:00AM – 5:00PM US Pacific Time (Monday – Friday)

  We do not provide any support over the weekend (Saturday-Sunday).

  Thanks!!!

  Live Connect Support Team

• Link
  Live Connect open source projects and samples on github
  Steve Gordon - MSFT Tuesday, August 2, 2011 8:54 PM

  Check out our open source depot on github: https://github.com/liveservices/
  
• Link
  Messenger Connect v4.1 is now deprecated
  Dare Obasanjo - MSFT Saturday, June 25, 2011 12:25 AM

  With the release of v5.0 of the Messenger Connect API, the previous version is now deprecated. As mentioned in the v5.0 announcement blog post, the latest version of the Messenger Connect API is the result of taking into account a lot of the input from developers about how to simplify the API and address key limitations we had in the previous version. 

  The v4.1 API will continue to function and will be supported for one year after the release of the v5.0 API. New applications are strongly encouraged to use the v5.0 Messenger Connect instead of the deprecated v4.1 API. It is also recommended that when you upgrade or modify existing applications avoid using and remove usage of the v4.1 APIs. 

  Below is a list of v4.1 features that will no longer be supported in new applications with the release of v5.0 of the Messenger Connect API 

   

  • The v4.1 API provides the ability to publish activities using activity streams to a user’s Messenger Social feed. We received significant feedback from developers and end users that this functionality is not complete because it doesn’t set the Messenger status field and is thus not visible in the user contact list nor in mobile or previous versions of the Messenger client. In addition, we’ve gotten complaints about the complexity of the data formats required to publish status updates. For this reason, we have updated the activity object available in v5.0   to address these shortcomings. For this reason we are not supporting any new applications using the v4.1 activity publishing APIs although this will continue to function in existing applications. Any new applications that try to use this functionality from the v4.1 APIs will receive a 1073 error. 

   

  In summary, the v4.1 Messenger Connect APIs are deprecated and ceased working on August 14, 2012. 

   

  
  
• Link
  Live Connect v5.2 released
  Dare Obasanjo - MSFT Wednesday, June 15, 2011 5:11 PM

  
  The final version of the Live SDK v5.2 for Windows 8 and Windows Phone is now available for download here. There are several versions of the Live SDK, depending on your target development platform:

  • Live SDK for Windows and Windows Phone: use this edition if you're developing apps for Windows 8 or apps for Windows Phone 7.0 or 7.5. Download here.
  • Live SDK for Android: use this edition if you're developing apps for Google Android mobile technology platform devices, like those running Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and Ice Cream Sandwich. Download here.
  • Live SDK for iOS: use this edition if you're developing apps for the iOS operating system for Apple devices, like iPad, iTouch, and iPod. Download here.

   

  We’ve also added the following new features in the REST API as highlighted in this SkyDrive blog post.

  1.

  If you're developing apps for other platforms, you don't need to download the Live SDK; you can reference our updated Representational State Transfer (REST) API directly, as follows:

  • For websites that use JavaScript, learn more.
  • For Windows desktop apps, and for mobile apps for other than Windows Phone, Android, and iOS, learn more.

  If you have any questions about these downloads or about the Live SDKs in general, post them in this forum. We have team members here that are ready to help you.

  If you're new to Live Connect, learn how to get started; configure your app; work with our code examples; do cool things with Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger; play with our APIs without writing any code; and explore our end-to-end code samples.

Machine Learning announcements

• Link
  New forum for Azure Cognitive Services!
  James Lee - MSFT Monday, October 15, 2018 9:11 PM

  We have a new dedicated forum for Azure Cognitive Services.

  Please update your bookmarks to point to: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=AzureCognitiveService

  Thank you.

• Link
  New forum for Azure Machine Learning service
  James Lee - MSFT Wednesday, October 3, 2018 6:37 PM

  We have opened a new forum (https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=AzureMachineLearningService) dedicated to Azure Machine Learning service.

  Please direct all Azure Machine Learning service (and the retiring Azure Machine Learning workbench) related questions to the new forum.

  Thank you.

  Azure Machine Learning team

• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure DocumentDB as a data source in Import Data module
  GokhanU Monday, November 28, 2016 6:28 PM

  We have released support for Azure Document DB as a data source in Azure Machine Learning. You can use the existing "Azure DocumentDB" connection option in the Import Data module to read data from Azure DocumentDB for your experiment.
  For more information, please see the DocumentDB section of the Import Data module.
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  Updates to Text Analytics Modules in Azure Machine Learning Studio
  Roope Astala - MSFT Thursday, October 20, 2016 1:39 PM

  New Module: Extract Key Phrases from Text

  You can use this module to extract key talking points from text. As an input, the module takes a dataset that must have a text string column from which the key-phrases are extracted.

  The module takes the language of the text records as input parameter. Supported languages include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. You can also use a language column that specifies the language of each record, as produced by Detect Languages module.  

  The output consists of comma-separated lists of key phrases for each record in input. The key phrases can be used to summarize a corpus of documents, or as features for a machine learning model.

  Updated Module: Preprocess Text

  • You can specify a language through a language column, as produced by Detect Languages module.
  • Following three preprocessing options have been added: Expand verb contractions, Normalize backslashes to slashes, and Split tokens on special characters. Previously, these transformations were done automatically.
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  Azure Machine Learning Workspace and Web Service Pricing Plans now available in the Azure Portal
  Chhavi Bhasin Wednesday, August 24, 2016 10:02 PM

  We are pleased to announce the availability of Azure Machine Learning Workspaces and Web Service Plans for all our Azure Machine Learning users through the Azure Portal. Azure Machine Learning users can now create and manage Standard workspaces through the Azure Portal. In addition, users will also be able to create Web Service Pricing Plans. These plans are used when deploying web services and provide included quantities of operationalized compute at a single, predictable monthly cost.

  Create your Standard Azure Machine Learning workspace now by going to https://portal.azure.com. Log in with the credentials that you use for accessing your Azure Subscription(s). Click on +New | Data + Analytics | Machine Learning Workspace.

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  New Text Analytics Modules in Azure ML Studio
  Roope Astala - MSFT Thursday, August 11, 2016 7:47 PM

  We are pleased to announce significant new capabilities for text analytics in Azure Machine Learning Studio.

  The new features include following modules:

  • Detect Languages
    • Identify language of each record in input file from large number of languages.
  • Preprocess Text
    • Clean and simplify text to make it more easy to featurize.
  • Extract N-Gram Features from Text
    • Create N-gram feature vectors from long text strings, and select only the most important features.
  • Latent Dirichlet Allocation
    • Group text into categories using topic modeling.

  These modules allow you to build models to solve text classification problems, such as support ticket routing or sentiment analysis. You can pre-process text in multiple languages, and then create features from your text data. Operationalization of models is fully supported.

  The modules complement the existing capabilities for Feature Hashing, Vowpal Wabbit based high-dimensional models, and text analytics through R and Python scripting.

  For more details, visit MSDN documentation and Cortana Intelligence Gallery.

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  Web services created using the "New" option
  raymondl_msft Friday, July 22, 2016 7:59 PM

  There is an issue impacting the "New" web service option for deploying web services from Predictive Experiments in Azure ML. We are working on resolving the issue, and a result have disabled the feature until the feature is fully functional. To access web services created the new process, please browse to https://services.azureml.net and sign in to view your web services. Sorry for any inconvenience this issue may cause.

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  Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure SQL Data Warehouse as a data source and a destination
  GokhanU Thursday, March 24, 2016 2:24 PM

  We have released support for Azure SQL Data Warehouse as a data source and a destination in Azure Machine Learning. You can use the existing "Azure SQL Database" connection options in the Reader and Writer modules to read from and write to Azure SQL Data Warehouse. When using the Writer module, the destination tables must already exist in the SQL Data Warehouse.

  For more information, please see How to Use Azure ML with Azure SQL Data Warehouse 

  Please refer to SQL Data Warehouse Reference to learn more about the product and the Transact-SQL language details.

   

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  Announcing Availablility of Tree Model Visualizations in Azure Machine Learning
  Roope Astala - MSFT Monday, November 23, 2015 9:32 PM

  Visualization of tree models such as Boosted Decision Trees is now available in Azure Machine Learning Studio. To view the trees, train the model, and click Visualize on the output of Train Model module.
• Link
  Announcing the Availability of an Azure Virtual Machine Image with Popular Data Science Tools
  Larry Koch (MSFT) Thursday, November 19, 2015 12:59 PM

  Announcing the Availability of an Azure Virtual Machine Image with Popular Data Science Tools

  Microsoft Data Group is happy to announce the immediate availability of a Windows Server 2012 based custom virtual machine image on the Azure marketplace containing several tools that can be used by data scientists and developers for advanced analytics. Through Azure’s world-wide cloud infrastructure, customers now have on-demand access to a data science development environment they can use to derive insights from their data, build predictive models and intelligent applications.  The virtual machine saves developers’ time from having to discover and install the tools individually.  Hosting the data science machine on Azure gains you high availability and a consistent set of tools used across your data science team.

  The data science VM comes with several popular tools pre-installed like Revolution R Open, Anaconda Python distribution including Jupyter notebook server, Visual Studio Community Edition, Power BI Desktop, SQL Server Express edition and Azure SDK. Once you provision your virtual machine from this image you can get started with data exploration and modeling right away. The data on the virtual machine is stored on the cloud and highly available. You have full administrative access to the virtual machine and can install additional software as needed. There is no separate software fee to use the VM image. You only pay for actual hardware compute usage of the virtual machine depending on the size of the virtual machine you are provisioning this VM on. You  can turn off the machine from Azure portal when it is not in use to avoid being billed. When you restart the virtual machine from the Azure portal you can continue your development with all your data and files intact. Further augment your analytics on your data science virtual machine by leveraging solutions in Microsoft’s Cortana Analytics Suite.

  The data science virtual machine helps you create an analytics environment where you can rapidly build advanced analytics solutions for deployment to the cloud, on-premises or in a hybrid environment.

  You can find the data science virtual machine and the Azure hardware compute pricing  at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/partners/microsoft-ads/standard-data-science-vm/

  More information about the virtual machine can be found at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/machine-learning-data-science-provision-vm/

  If you are new to Azure, you can try the data science virtual machine for free via a 30-day Azure free trial by visitinghttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/

  We encourage you to try the data science virtual machine to jumpstart your analytics project and provide us feedback on how we can better serve your analytics needs.

• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now available in Western Europe
  Dan Manrique Wednesday, September 9, 2015 9:10 PM

  We are happy to announce that we have released Azure ML in our Western Europe datacenter (Amsterdam). Now you can create workspaces in this datacenter. For more information, click here: http://aka.ms/mlwelaunch.

• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now available in Southeast Asia
  Dan Manrique Wednesday, September 9, 2015 9:09 PM

  We are happy to announce that we have released Azure ML in our SouthEast Asia datacenter (Singapore). Now you can create workspaces in this datacenter. For more information, click here: http://aka.ms/mlasialaunch.
• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure Active Directory
  Dan Manrique Wednesday, September 9, 2015 9:09 PM

  We are happy to announce that we have released Azure Active Directory (AAD) support in Azure ML. Now you can log in with any arbitrary Azure AD account (work or school account), in addition to, Microsoft accounts (LiveID), and invite other Azure AD users to your workspace. For more information, click here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2015/09/02/logging-on-to-azure-ml-with-your-work-or-school-account.aspx.

• Link
  Free Excel add-in to connect to Azure ML web services
  Ted Way Wednesday, September 2, 2015 6:52 PM

  A free Excel add-in that you can use with web services published from Azure Machine Learning is now available. You can use this add-in for request/response predictions or batch predictions, work in Windows or the browser, share workbooks with your co-workers, and call multiple web services all within a single spreadsheet.  Go to http://aka.ms/amlexcelhelp for help or ask a question here.

  To try it out, open and download sample Excel worksheets that already contain web services:

  http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-1

  http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-2

  You may use the add-in directly in the browser using Excel Online or opening the file in Excel 2013 or later on Windows.  Copy the file to your own OneDrive account if you want to edit it.

  Feature highlights

  • Connect to multiple web services in one Excel workbook
  • Choose from RRS or BES
  • Supports single or no input, and single, multiple, or no outputs

  For sample 1 (text sentiment analysis): http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-1

  1.)    Highlight cells A1 to A12

  2.)    Click the range selector button (the selection Sheet1!$A$1:$A:$12 should automatically be populated)

  3.)    Click OK in the Select Data dialog box

  4.)    Type “B1” in the output1 text box

  5.)    Click the Predict button

  6.)    This web service takes some time to process the text, so please be patient and wait for a minute.  When it’s done, you should see the sentiment predictions and scores in columns B and C.

  For sample 2 (Titanic survivor predictor): http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-2

  1.)    Highlight cells A1 to G11

  2.)    Click the range selector button (the selection Sheet1!$A$1:$G:$11 should automatically be populated)

  3.)    Click OK in the Select Data dialog box

  4.)    Type “H1” in the output1 text box

  5.)    Click the Predict button

  6.)    When it’s done, you should see the predictions and scores in columns H and I

  To add your own web service:

  1.)    In the Excel add-in, go to the Web Services section (if you are in the Predict section, click the back arrow to go to the list of web services)

  2.)    Click Add Web Service

  3.)    In Azure ML Studio, click the WEB SERVICES section in the left pane, and then select the web service

  4.)    Copy the API key for the web service

  5.)    Paste the API key into the Excel add-in text box labeled API key

  6.)    On the DASHBOARD tab for the web service, click the REQUEST/RESPONSE link

  7.)    Look for the OData Endpoint Address section. Copy the URL and paste that into the text box labeled URL in the Excel add-in\

  8.)    Click Add

• Link
  Release Announcement: Preview availability of Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Machine Learning Studio
  Dan Manrique Friday, July 24, 2015 4:19 PM

  On July 24th, 2015, Microsoft announced the Preview Availability release of Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Machine Learning Studio. 
   
  Azure Machine Learning Studio is a powerful canvas for the composition of Machine Learning Experiments and subsequent operationalization and consumption.   It provides an easy to use, yet powerful, drag-drop style of creating Experiments.  But sometimes you need a good old “REPL” that allows you to have a tight loop where you enter some script code and get a response.  We are delighted to announce that we’ve now integrated this functionality into ML Studio through Jupyter Notebooks.
   
  Jupyter enables the concept of “executable documents” with support for mixed code, markdown and inline graphics.   It’s  one of the most important innovations in the Data Science and Technical Computing space in recent years.  You now have full access to its power from any OS, from any modern browser directly from inside the Azure Machine Learning Studio. 
   
  In addition to authoring capabilities above, we are also enabling publishing AzureML web services directly from the Jupyter Notebook. We are also extending this capability to the Jupyter Notebooks running locally outside of AzureML Studio. This allows you to publish any function, including those creating ML models, to be published as a web service directly from the Jupyter Notebook running on your machine. The result is an AzureML web service API that can be called to perform functions or predictions from client applications in real time and over the internet.
• Link
  Annoucing the availability of Azure Machine Learning BES SDK
  raymondl_msft Monday, June 29, 2015 5:24 PM

  Announcing the availability of the SDK for AzureML Batch Execution Service (BES)

  The AzureML BES SDK is now available for download and installation as a NuGet package on NuGet.org (http://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Azure.MachineLearning/).

  The SDK wraps the BES sample code with additional functions to simplify the consumption of BES APIs.

  Documentation is available after installing the SDK package in Visual Studio. The BES documentation has also been updated with sample code and guidance on using the SDK.

  We are looking forward to hearing your feedback and comments on the SDK to help improve it.

  Thanks,

  AzureML Team

  
  
• Link
  AzureML Retraining API demo available on Codeplex
  raymondl_msft Tuesday, March 24, 2015 6:18 PM

  We have posted a demo of the Retraining APIs on Codeplex.com. The demo uses the new APIs to programmatically retrain a trained model. Here is the link to the Demo.

  Please take a look and let us know if you have questions or comments.