All Things Microsoft AI

API World 2023 (Oct 24-26, Santa Clara, CA) + (Oct 31- Nov 2, Live Online) is the world’s largest API & microservices event where 4,500+ engineers, architects, IT leaders, integration partners, API & technical professionals and executives converge to discover the latest API developer & engineering innovations. Learn from leaders at Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Netflix, IBM, Adobe, Volkswagen AG, Airbnb, Realtor.com, US Bank, and many more! The API World team has offered our group 25 free OPEN Passes and discounted PRO Passes, so our members can attend for free. Register now to get your free OPEN Pass or to SAVE $100 on your PRO Pass. To register, go to: https://www.devnetwork.com/registration/?event=API%20World%202023&utm_source=meetup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MU21543&discount=MU21543    

Problem : While doing a demo on a client’s PC that didn’t have SQL Server Developer Edition installed, I needed a quick way to demonstrate querying a SQL Server DB without installing SQL Server.   Solution : LocalDB to the rescue!  The client’s PC did have SQL Server Management Studio installed, along with SQL Server Express.  This gave me enough capability to create a sample DB and demonstrate how to query it.   To create a DB instance: Open a Command Prompt window Enter “ sqllocaldb create “Ch1Demo” “, where Ch1Demo was the specific name of my DB instance.  This short command quickly created an instance using the default version of the SQL Server DB Engine installed (see below).  This process was nearly instant (see below).     Since my username is “Sam”, The DB was created in the path C:\Users\Sam\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Local DB\Instances\Ch1D...

User Groups Oct 11: Azure Cleveland Oct 18: Akron WIT Oct 19: Great er Lansing User Group for .Net (GLUG.Net) Oct 26: Cleveland C#   Conferences Oct 24-26: https://apiworld.co/ (Santa Clara) Oct 27: https://CyberSecuritySummit.com/Summit/Columbus23/ ( AITP23AKRON) Oct 31-Nov 2: https://apiworld.co/ (online) Nov 7-10: https://www.techbash.com/ Nov 14-16: https://www.dotnetconf.net/  

Recently David Giard (Microsoft) delivered a presentation on using ChatGPT.  Aside from answering basic questions, he demonstrated some key business and professional cases: Create a LinkedIn Profile Write a Professional email “How do I increase my followers on Twitter?” “How do I increase customer base?” “How to organize a conference or event?” Get ideas for writing, to prevent writers block   The full presentation can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noXxynTEEhg              

User Groups Sep 14: Memphis Technology User Group Sep 21: Great Lakes User Group for .Net (GLUG.Net) Sep 26: Ohio North Database Training Sep 28: Cleveland C #   Conferences Nov 7-10: https://www.techbash.com/ Nov 14-16: https://www.dotnetconf.net/  

User Groups Aug 1: Cookout for Data Professionals Aug 2: Akron Women in Tech Aug 3: Great Lakes User Group for .Net (GLUG.Net) Aug 24: Cleveland C#  

User Groups Jul 11: DBA Fundamentals Group Jul 12: Azure Cleveland Jul 19: Akron Women in Tec h Jul 20: Great Lakes User Group for .Net (GLUG.Net) Jul 27: Cleveland C#   Conferences Jul 15: SQL Saturday Columbu s  

While attending a Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Training session today, some interesting questions were posted.  Listed below is the Q&A from the forum:   1.       How does private cloud differ from on-prem? A private cloud may be hosted from your onsite datacenter, which would be on-premises. It may also be hosted in a dedicated datacenter offsite, potentially even by a third party that has dedicated that datacenter to your company. You can find more information here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/describe-cloud-compute/5-define-cloud-models   2.       Which is cheaper, public or hybrid cloud? This depends on how your organization is structured, the size, and the services you need. You can compare on-premises and cloud costs using the Total Cost of Ownership Calculator here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/tco/   3.       W...

User Groups May 2: Ohio North Database Training May 10: Azure Cleveland May 18: Great Lakes User Group for .Net (GLUG.Net) May 25: Cleveland C#   Conferences May 5: StirTrek May 11-13: Global Azure 2023 May 20: Ohio North SQL Saturday  

User Groups Mar 7: Ohio North Database Training Mar 8: Azure Cleveland Mar 16: Great Lakes User Group for .Net (GLUG.Net) Mar 16: Chicago .Net Mar 23: Cleveland C #   Conferences Mar 10: Global AI Bootcamp NYC May 11-13: Global Azure 2023  

User Groups Jan 31: CapArea.Net ( https://www.meetup.com/caparea-net / )  Feb 2: Twin Cities .Net ( https://www.meetup.com/tcdnug/ ) Feb 7: ONDT ( https://www.meetup.com/ohio-north-database-training/ ) Feb 8: Azure Cleveland ( https://www.meetup.com/azure-cleveland-meetup/ ) Feb 23: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group ( https://www.meetup.com/Cleveland-C-VB-Net-User-Group )   Conferences Jan 28: Data Toboggan ( www.datatoboggan.co.uk/ )  

Listed below are 7 ways to reduce your Azure monthly cost. 1. Shut down unused resources Use Azure Advisor to identify idle virtual machines (VMs), ExpressRoute circuits, and other unused resources. 2. Right-size underused resources Find resources not fully utilized with Azure Advisor.  It will also provide recommendations on reconfiguring resources to reduce cost. 3. Reserve instances for consistent workloads Use reservation pricing to pre-pay for resources for a 1 or 3 year term.  This could result in a discount of up to 72% over pay-as-you-go pricing on Azure services. 4. Take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit Have existing on-premises software licenses?  Use them with Azure for no additional cost and select Azure services for free. 5. Configure autoscaling Avoid the high cost of hardware investment used only during peak times of the year.  Instead, dynamically allocate and de-allocate resources to match your b...

Overview Speech services is one of the main categories of Azure Cognitive Services.  Using this service, developers can utilize one of the four API’s to perform the following: Speech-to-Text Text-to-Speech Text Translation Speaker Recognition   In a previous post , I wrote a tutorial on converting Speech-to-Text.  For this post, I will go in the opposite direction and provide step-by-step directions to covert text-to-speech.     How to Use Text-to-Speech First, we need to setup the Speech resource in Azure.  Simply specify “speech services” in the search bar, and all speech resources in Azure marketplace will be displayed.  For this project, we will use Microsoft’s Speech Azure Service.     After clicking create and providing the fundamental parameters for the setup, subscription keys will be provided.       Obtain the subscription key for the above resourc...