Discover the Cloud.

Try Windows Azure and our 5 programming challenges for a chance at spot prizes, Stage prizes and the Grand Prize.

Over $16,000 in prizes total are up for grabs with 65 chances to win. Find your silver lining in the cloud.

How do I enter?

• First,Create a Trial Account on Azure! If you don't register you will not be eligible for the competition. Please ensure you sign up for your trial using this link so we can tell who's signed up.
  
• Second, post an article in the Azure section under Windows Azure Developer Contest that outlines your ideas
  
• Third, complete the challenges at each stage. Update your article, post some code, and keep an eye out for the spot prizes.

Challenge 1 starts April 15^th, 2013.

Note that start days start at 12AM and end dates end at 11:59PM. All times are US Eastern (Daylight Saving Time)

What is the Challenge?

The challenge is actually 5 Challenges, each two weeks long, that when combined will result in an a web application hosted on Azure that uses Azure data services, virtual machines and provides a great mobile experience. Everything a modern cloud based application needs.

As to what the application does - that's up to you. Be creative. Weave a story. Write something interesting, all the while writing about it in an article. You also choose how much or how little you write in your article. If you want to keep your cards close to your chest until the end then that's up to you. However, stage prizes will be judged on the current state of your article so you'll need to keep a balance.

Late Entrants: If you missed out on any one of the challenges then you can jump in at any time as long as you complete the stages you missed.

1.	First Challenge: Getting Started. April 15 - April 28 May 3
		The first challenge is a gimme. You need to setup a free trial Azure account (super easy) and post an article on CodeProject (in the Windows Azure Contest section) outlining your idea on what you'll build for the remaining stages. Most important: in 2 sentences or less explain how Azure might benefit or change the way you do things today. You can keep your article brief if you want to protect your ideas, or you can write up something juicy if you want to win the prize for this challenge. It's your move in this game of chess.
2.	Second Challenge: Build a website. April 29 - May 12
		Again, not really a challenge for any webdev worth their salt. However, what about packaging it up for simple deployment? What about responsive design? What about the other 9 free sites you can setup under your free Azure account? And how will your web app tie into the next challenge? Remember to write up your work in your article on CodeProject to have a chance at the prize for this second challenge.
3.	Third Challenge: Using SQL on Azure. May 13 - May 26
		Now it starts getting interesting. Use SQL on Azure in whatever way you wish. Add a little data to season the mix or use it as a backup.recovery solution. It's not just about data access. Again, write up what you've learned, what you're doing, and how you did it.
4.	Fourth Challenge: Virtual Machines. May 27 - Jun 9
		Never used a VM before? Never spun up a virtual machine from your application? It's time to try. Maybe you want to host a Windows or Linux application, or spin up a test environment, or have your own instance of SQL Express in a VM, or you can just spin up an instance of an existing web application to sit alongside your  application in a VM. We're really going to be digging into your article at this point. Is there code? Are there explanations of how you conquered challenges? Tell us your story.
5.	Fifth Challenge: Mobile access June 10 - June 24
		You're done. You've built a distributed n-tier cloud based data driven web application hosted on multiple virtual machines and you are the Master. But does it work on your Nokia, iPhone or Galaxy? I mean really work. Nicely, intuitively, seamlessly. Offline. It's up to you what you do at this point, but the judges will be testing your final masterpiece on their phones and tablets. Your CodeProject article, at this point, should be mostly complete.

During each challenge spot challenges will be announced and prizes will be awarded. Possible spot announcements could be the 1,000th entry, the first to complete a 5 minute challenge, or the best haiku in an article's sample code. You never know.

Before you race off and complete the challenges in one fell swoop, be warned that your entry for one challenge cannot be used as an entry for a subsequent stage. If you build a data driven website in Challenge 1 then you need to enter something new for the data driven portion of Challenge 2.

What is the reward?

• Each challenge will have 3 winners, with each winner receiving a 64 GB Surface RT with black Touch Cover (in the US only), or cash equivalent (outside of the US). That's $2,100 in prizes every two weeks, $10,500 in total
• Each challenge will also have up to 10 spot prizes of $100 each. That's $1,000 on offer per challenge.
• The Grand Prize winner will receive a cash prize of $2,500 and promotion on CodeProject and Microsoft owned and operated properties. Fame and fortune.

What sorts of applications are acceptable?

Almost anything. In any language. Use C++, use node.js, use PHP with MySQL, or C# on ASP.NET with MVC and SQL Server, Your call, as long as you complete the challenges

This competition is to help you learn about building and hosting applications on Windows Azure, so obviously applications that run on the Azure platform are required. However, not just anything will get you a winner's jersey. Be creative, be daring, over extend and over achieve. The more you show off your understanding of Azure, and the more you focus on explaining what you're doing, the better your chances.

Read the Windows Azure Developer overview for more info on what you can do on Azure then sign up for your free trial.

FAQ

What if I missed a challenge?

Contestants who missed the deadline for one of the challenges can still go back and complete the challenges they missed, but they will not be eligible for that challenge's prizes. They will still be eligible for the grand prize and any spot prizes that occur while they are participating.

Do I write one article per challenge, or 1 article overall?

Please just write 1 article. At each challenge state you should go back and update your article.

Can you throw me some links on getting started?

Sure

• Sign up for a free Azure Trial
• Introduction to Windows Azure
• Windows Azure 101
• How to Create & Deploy a Website on Windows Azure
• How to Create a Custom Virtual Machine in Windows Azure
• Load Balancing Virtual Machines with Windows Azure
• Deploying an ASP.NET Web Application to a Windows Azure Web Site and SQL Database
• Building a SQL Server 2012 Lab in the Cloud with Windows Azure
• Get started with push notifications in Azure Mobile Services [ C# - JavaScript - Windows Phone 8 - iOS - Android]
• Windows Azure Mobile Services Code Samples

Can anyone enter?

As with any competition of this nature there are some restrictions. Employees at Microsoft, and CodeProject cannot enter, and laws in certain jurisdictions also restrict entrants. Please see the Terms and Conditions for a full list. 

Do I have to write a full article with source code?

Yes, an article is an important component of the challenge since it is the place where you describe what you are doing and how you solved problems that you ran into. This contest is designed to teach contestants and the audience, so the better your article, the more code you show and the more you explain how you completed each challenge, the better.

Stage Winners

Grand Prize Winner

Congratulations to our Grand Prize Winner Phil Lee NZ for his entry YouConf - Your Live Online Conferencing Tool in the CodeProject Windows Azure Developer Challenge.

A big thank you also goes out to everyone that took part in the challenge and winners in all stages of the competition! We hope you learned something new about Windows Azure and had some fun along the way. Please feel free to pass on any feedback you have on the competition in the comment section below.

Also, be sure to check some of the other great competitions we have going on right now like the CodeProject Ten Million Members Celebration Giveaway and the D&B Developer Challenge.

Deadlines are fast approaching!

Contest Judges:

• Pete O’Hanlon
• Terrence Dorsey
• Chris Maunder

These rules (and CodeProject® Terms of Use and CodeProject Contributors Agreement) govern the Windows Azure Developer Contest (the "Contest") and set out the terms and conditions between CodeProject and its affiliates ("CodeProject" or "us/we") and each participant ("participant", "contestant", or "you"). A submission to this Contest constitutes your acceptance of these Official Contest Rules (the "Rules").

1. How to Enter: CodeProject, with sponsorship by Microsoft Corporation, is offering the Contest and will award prizes based on the results of judging all valid entries against the criteria established in these Rules.

   Between April 15, 2013 and Jun 30, 2013 11:59:59 PM US Eastern Standard Time , use whatever tools you have available to start creating an application hosted on Windows Azure that completes each challenge stage outlined in the Contest description. Post an article in our Azure section under "Windows Azure Developer Contest", describing the application you are building. During each state update your article and your hosted application to reflect the stage challenge for that particular stage. There are a total of five (5) challenges in this Contest, as described on the CodeProject website.

2. Eligibility: This Contest is open to software development professionals & enthusiasts who are of the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence. Residents of Quebec and of the following countries are ineligible to participate due to legal constraints: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. All national and local laws and regulations of the contestant’s country of residence apply. Residents of countries under U.S. embargo are not eligible to enter. Employees, officers and representatives (and members of their immediate families and those living in the same household of each) of both CodeProject and Microsoft, its parents, subsidiaries and affiliated companies, advertising and promotion agencies and any company involved in the design, execution, production or judging of this promotion ("contest entities") are ineligible. Void where prohibited.
   
   
3. Entry Requirements: Participants must follow the article format provided by CodeProject on its website. Article submission must be in the English language. Participants must have registered a Windows Azure 90-day Free Trial (or a paid Windows Azure account).
    
   
4. Judging: Entries will be judged by CodeProject judges at the end of each stage and at the end of the Contest as a whole. Prizes will be awarded based on how closely an entry adheres to the conditions of entry, including:
    
   • how effectively the application demonstrates the features available on Windows Azure ;
   • how effectively the application demonstrates creativity, user experience value and cloud based usage models;
   • how effectively the  article describes the final hosted application, and how the article encourages feedback or additional competitive submissions, and
   • the execution and presentation of the hosted application itself

   In addition, the votes and comments each submission receives on the CodeProject website will be taken into account. Judges decisions are final. You may withdraw your submission at any time by notifying CodeProject. If a submission is withdrawn your right to win a prize is terminated.

5. Ownership and Publicity: Neither CodeProject nor Microsoft claim ownership of your submission to the contest (please see the "Ownership" item in CodeProject Contributors Agreement); but by submitting an entry, you grant CodeProject, its affiliated companies and necessary sub-licensees a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, non-exclusive, fully assignable and transferable right and license, to edit, adapt, translate, reformat your Work, to post your Work (eg. publish, display, perform, digitally perform) anywhere on our Site, to do what CodeProject feels it needs to do to manage and update the Site, to make and maintain back-up and archival copies, and to make your Work available to End Users in accordance with this Agreement and the specific EULA that you specify.
   
   
6. Participant Warrants: By submitting an entry you warrant that your submission:
   
   • is a new application or a new version of an application and has not published previously.
   • does not contain any content that infringes on any third party Intellectual Property (IP) rights, and that you own or otherwise have all rights necessary for the submission including any and all IP rights.
   • does not disclose any information which would constitute a violation of a confidentiality obligation;
   • does not contain any viruses, worms, spyware, or other components or instructions that are malicious, deceptive, or designed to limit or harm the functionality of a computer.
     
     
7. Prizes:
   
   • One Grand Prize: A cash prize of $2,500 and promotion on CodeProject and Microsoft owned and operated websites and properties
   • Fifteen (15) Challenge Prizes: Each of the five Challenges will have three (3) Challenge Prizes of one (1) 64 GB Surface RT with black Touch cover (in the US only), or cash equivalent (outside of the US). Approximate Retail Value of each Challenge Prize: US$700.
   • Fifty (50) Spot Prizes: US $100 Cash to be awarded randomly or for participating in Spot Challenges that may be issued throughout the contest. Each of the five Challenges will have ten (10) spot prizes.
   • Prize Value of Surface tablets is based on estimated average retail price at the time the Contest starts. Since prices may fluctuate in the marketplace, CodeProject will determine the value of the prize, or cash equivalent, at the time of the prizes are awarded.

   All winners will be notified via email. If after seven (7) days of the second notification to the winner no acknowledgement or response is received the prize is forfeited, and CodeProject will select another winner.

   Substitution or transfer of Prizes is not allowed, and Prizes may not be redeemed for cash. If a Prize becomes unavailable or is prohibited by law CodeProject may at its sole discretion award a substitute prize of equal or greater value. The winner accepts responsibility for all federal, state and local taxes and fees in connection with the prizes. If you are a potential winner, we may require you to sign an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability/Publicity Release and a W-9 tax form or W-8 BEN tax form within 10 days of notification.

   Apart from prizes offered as part of the contest, no monetary compensation will be paid for any of your contest submissions. Microsoft and CodeProject are not responsible for contest entries not received due to lost, failed, delayed or interrupted connections or miscommunications, or other electronic malfunctions. Microsoft and CodeProject are not responsible for incorrect or inaccurate entry information, whether caused by you or any other persons or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the contest.

8. Warranties and Disclaimers: Surface devices come with the standard manufacture warranty only . To the fullest extent allowable by law, CodeProject specifically disclaims any representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the contest or the prizes including any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose and implied warranties arising from course of dealing or course of performance.
    
   
9. Release of Liability and Issues of Law: By participating, all entrants release CodeProject and Microsoft, their affiliates, partners, subsidiaries, officers, directors, agents, employees and all entities associated with the development and execution of this promotion from any and all liability with respect to and in any way arising from participating in this promotion, acceptance or use of prizes. Neither CodeProject nor Microsoft assume any responsibility for incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry information, technical malfunctions, human or technical error, lost, delayed or garbled data or transmissions, omission, interruption, deletion, defect or failures of any telephone or computer line or network, computer equipment, software or any combination thereof. Entry materials/data that have been tampered with or altered are void. If for any reason, in the opinion of CodeProject in its sole discretion, the contest is not capable of running as originally planned, or if the administration, security, fairness, integrity or the proper conduct of the contest is corrupted or adversely affected, including by reason of infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond its control, CodeProject reserves its right to cancel, terminate, modify, amend, extend or suspend the contest including cancelling any method of entry, and select a winner from previously received eligible entries. CodeProject reserves its right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the contest or to be acting in violation of the Rules or otherwise in a disruptive manner. CodeProject reserves its right to seek remedies and damages to the fullest extent of the law for any attempts to deliberately damage the contest web site or to undermine the legitimate operation of this contest. CodeProject shall not be held responsible for any errors or negligence that may arise or occur in connection with the contest including any damage to an entrant's computer equipment, system, software or any combination thereof, as a result of their participation in this contest or from downloading any material from the contest website where applicable.
    
   
10. Generally: CodeProject may make changes to these rules at any time without notice to you. Contributing to the contest or accepting prizes will constitute acceptance of the revised rules. These rules prevail in the event of any conflict or inconsistency with any other communications, including advertising or promotional materials.

    If, for reasons beyond CodeProject’s control (including, but not limited to, tampering or computer virus infection), the contest is not capable of running as originally planned, CodeProject, at its sole discretion but in consultation with Microsoft, reserves the right to cancel or modify the Contest, without liability. CodeProject will not be responsible for lost, late, misdirected, damaged, or illicit submissions, or for Internet, computer hardware and software, phone, and other technical errors, omissions malfunctions, and delays. Entries are void if they contain material typographical or other errors. All entrants agree to comply fully with each provision in these Rules. Any person attempting to defraud or in any way tamper with this contest and any person who does not comply with these Rules, will be ineligible for any prize(s) and may be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

    For any feedback or questions regarding the contest or the prizes you can participate in the contest discussion forum.

11. Winners' List: Names of winners will be posted on the CodeProject website, here.
12. Sponsor: Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft WA, Redmond, WA 98052.

First PrevNext

Spot Challenge - Stage 4 - Extended! Chris Maunder2-Jun-13 18:13 Chris Maunder 2-Jun-13 18:13  **Update 9 July, 2013** The $20 bonus offer for signing up to the Windows Azure Trial is now over. To be eligible for the bonus you had to send us your confirmation emails and screenshots before the contest ended on June 30, 2013 at 11:59:59 PM US Eastern Standard Time. Any confirmations received after this date are invalid and no $20 bonus will be awarded. Thank you for your participation. This stage revolves around VMs, and so we've been toying around with ideas on load testing - a favourite bugbear of mine when it comes to VMs. Our ideas seemed a little complicated when we suddenly got an unexpected extra lump of prize money - over $40,000 extra prize money . We looked at each other and realised that there's a great way to give away that cash quickly to lots of people while also stress testing an Azure service. Microsoft's service, to be exact. The challenge: Sign up for an Azure trial [^]and get $20. The Details: So yes, pretty easy, but: a) We want you to sign up as close as possible to 12PM US Eastern Daylight time each day of this week (ends Jun 9th when the Azure challenge ends!) b) We want you to bring your friends. Lots of them. They get $20 too, and the more you bring the more you get - Bring in 10 friends and get a bonus of $100 - Bring in 20 friends and get a bonus of $250 - bring in 50 friends and get a bonus of $750 You can only win one bonus (ie bringing in 40 doesn't give you 2 x 20 friend bonuses) c) The first person who gets a server error or server busy screen wins a Surface RT, same as the stage prize Surface's. You'll need to send clear proof that your signup caused a server issue. We will confer with Microsoft to corroborate your claims. Send your confirmation emails to contest@codeproject.com The Fine Print 1. You need to email us proof that you signed up. A screen grab of the signup screen with your email address, or the confirmation email you received. 2. If you can't hit signup at midday exactly, or you get timezones wrong or it's just bad timing for you we'll still honour the $20 spot prize no matter what time you actually sign up. Hitting the servers at the same time as everyone else increases your chances of the Server Fault Spot Prize (ie the Surface). 3. To get the flash mob friend bonuses, your friends need to include your email address in their confirmation email so we know they are part of your group. A person can only be in one group. 4. You need a credit card to sign up, but that card won't be charged if you cancel. Even better: Microsoft have set the default spending limit on new accounts to $0, so even if you forget to cancel your free trial your card will not be charged. 5. We will be awarding a maximum of 1850 $20 sign-up prizes. As soon as we hit signup #1850 the challenge ends. 6. All winners are on a first come, first served basis. Get your confirmation emails in quickly. Any of your friends who send in their confirmations after the challenge ends (or the 1850 prizes are won) will not count towards your bonus pool. Get your friends organised! 7. Payment is via PayPal, so include your PayPal account email in your confirmation email so we can award prizes, please. 8. We reserve the right to update the rules in order to clarify and enforce the spirit of this challenge. A warning Don't try and create lots of accounts using the same credit card. This may get you kicked from Azure and goes against the spirit of this spot challenge. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP modified 9-Jul-13 13:43pm. How to make the judges happy and get a great score Chris Maunder17-May-13 1:53 Chris Maunder 17-May-13 1:53  There are a lot of entrants in this competition so can I please ask two things: 1. Your application is important. Please place a link to your Azure app at the very top of your article. If the judges can't find your application we can't score it. 2. Break up your article into clear sections (Starting up, the website, Data etc) and in each section explain what you have done, how it ties to your application, and then (and only then) dive into the how-to's You entries will be scored according to (among other things) 1. How well you complete the challenges 2. The quality and cohesiveness of your final creation 3. How useful and readable was your write up. 4. The technical aspects of your code 5. The X-factor. Innovation, craziness, surprises, or something as simple as how much of a joy it was to use your app and read your write up. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP If you already have an Azure account Chris Maunder28-Apr-13 9:50 Chris Maunder 28-Apr-13 9:50  As has already been mentioned, you can use your existing Azure account from your MSDN or BizSpark benefits. If, however, you have signed up for a free trial and that's expired, you need to either sign up for a paid account, or better yet (from a payment point of view), create a new Microsoft ID for this contest and use that to create a new free Azure trial. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP And the Grand Prize Winner is... Kevin Priddle5-Jul-13 14:16 Kevin Priddle 5-Jul-13 14:16  Congratulations to our Grand Prize Winner Phil Lee NZ for his entry YouConf - Your Live Online Conferencing Tool[^]. Big thanks to everyone who took part in the challenge. We hope you'll join us again soon in one of our many other developer competitions and contests![^] Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Re: And the Grand Prize Winner is... AspDotNetDev5-Jul-13 14:29 AspDotNetDev 5-Jul-13 14:29  That is one epic Azure article. I hope I can find time to read the whole thing... I have no idea how Phil managed to write it all in under a year. Congrats to him. Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut! Re: And the Grand Prize Winner is... roscler5-Jul-13 14:47 roscler 5-Jul-13 14:47  Congratulations Phil! You deserve it. A huge thank you to Chris, Natasha, and the newly arrived Kevin for such an amazing contest. Please hold more. -- roschler Re: And the Grand Prize Winner is... Phil Lee NZ5-Jul-13 19:12 Phil Lee NZ 5-Jul-13 19:12  Thanks Kevin, the rest of the CodeProject team, and Microsoft for putting on such a fun competition. Thanks also to all of the other entrants, who both amazed and inspired me to push on right to the end As a first-time article writer it was a bit of a learning curve, but definitely worth it. To all the other competitors - time to brush off the old CVs and add Azure to the toolbelt yeah?! Re: And the Grand Prize Winner is... AspDotNetDev8-Jul-13 6:51 AspDotNetDev 8-Jul-13 6:51  Phil Lee NZ wrote: time to brush off the old CVs and add Azure to the toolbelt yeah?! I hadn't even thought of that! I suppose I can say that I "know" Azure now. Though I bet if I were to go on a job hunt right now and show that on my resume, I'd get the ol' "but have you actually used it on the job?" Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut! Re: And the Grand Prize Winner is... Patrick McCurley5-Jul-13 22:18 Patrick McCurley 5-Jul-13 22:18  Great Job Phil, well done! Re: And the Grand Prize Winner is... Ranjan.D6-Jul-13 0:49 Ranjan.D 6-Jul-13 0:49  Well done Phil Lee, I'm proud of you since from the beginning I came to know about you through your contribution. You were truly are deserved person. There are lot of things one can learn from your article , clean code with unit testing etc. Thanks, Ranjan.D Re: And the Grand Prize Winner is... Abhishek Nandy6-Jul-13 9:37 Abhishek Nandy 6-Jul-13 9:37  Congrats Phil!! That's a gem of an article...Well Done.. Congrats Stage 5 Winners! Kevin Priddle3-Jul-13 3:27 Kevin Priddle 3-Jul-13 3:27  Congrats to all the Stage 5 winners! Enrique Albert - LiteDispatch - Logistic solution on the cloud[^] Phil Lee - YouConf - Your Live Online Conferencing Tool[^] Ranjan.D - HealthReunion - A Windows Azure based healthcare product[^] Congrats also go out to Roscler for winning a bonus for 10 Windows Azure trial referrals in the Stage 4 Spot Challenge and to Nick Fera for winning the Server Fault Spot Prize and being the first person to get a server error or server busy screen on the Windows Azure sign-up page. If you took part in the Stage 4 Spot Challenge (which we extended into Stage 5) you can expect your $20 bonus to be credited to your PayPal account within the next 1-2 weeks. Lastly, a big thanks to everyone that has taken part in the Windows Azure Developer Challenge. Stay tuned, we'll be announcing the grand prize winner later week! Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Re: Congrats Stage 5 Winners! roscler3-Jul-13 3:58 roscler 3-Jul-13 3:58  Thanks Kevin and congratulations to the stage prize winners. -- roschler Got my Third Round Spot Prize but didnot get the First round one Abhishek Nandy27-Jun-13 4:08 Abhishek Nandy 27-Jun-13 4:08  Hi, I got my third spot challenge prize cheque yesterday,Thanks for that .But still now I haven't got my first round spot prize cheque? anybody same case?I mailed Natasha about just awaiting response.I could not complete my particle just updating my work as my trial of Windows Azure expired.Thanks again for people associated with the Windows Azure Challenge it was amazing and best of luck to all Re: Got my Third Round Spot Prize but didnot get the First round one Kevin Priddle27-Jun-13 12:26 Kevin Priddle 27-Jun-13 12:26  Hi Abhishek. Glad you enjoyed the challenge and won some prizes in process! I'll look into what happened with the First Round prize and get back to you as soon as I find out more. Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Judging has commenced! Kevin Priddle25-Jun-13 10:01 Kevin Priddle 25-Jun-13 10:01  Big thanks to everyone who took part in the Windows Azure Developer Challenge! Judging has now commenced! I'm not sure exactly when we'll be done all the judging, but we'll keep you updated and hope to have something posted by next week with all the winners. In the mean time, the Stage 4 Spot Challenge to sign up for the Azure trial and to get your friends to sign up has been extended and is still ongoing until June 30. I'm sure you've all taken advantage of the $20 bonus for signing up yourself, but there are still bonuses to be won for getting your friends to sign up too. If you bring in 10 friends get a $100 bonus, bring in 20 friends get a $250 bonus, or bring in 50 friends and get a $750 bonus. Just make sure you read for the fine print and rules[^] to make sure you're doing the trial sign-ups and referrals properly. Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Re: Judging has commenced! AspDotNetDev25-Jun-13 11:21 AspDotNetDev 25-Jun-13 11:21  It's definitely been a great experience. I probably would have never had the motivation to write the article I did without this competition, so thanks for that. I won't be winning the contest, but I'm sure I'll improve my article at some point so that people actually want to read it and can get some use from it. Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut! Re: Judging has commenced! Kevin Priddle26-Jun-13 7:18 Kevin Priddle 26-Jun-13 7:18  Never say never ! Thanks for participating! Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Re: Judging has commenced! ambilykk25-Jun-13 18:02 ambilykk 25-Jun-13 18:02  Thanks a lot of organizing this contest. It enabled me to understand that I am still a newie in Azure and there is lot more to learn. Moreover, I have learned a lot about LightSwitch HTML5 client based applications. Thanks a lot for the great learning and great articles. Ambily Re: Judging has commenced! Kevin Priddle26-Jun-13 7:19 Kevin Priddle 26-Jun-13 7:19  Thanks for taking part in the challenges Ambily! Glad to hear you had a great time and learned some new things in the process. Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Re: Judging has commenced! ambilykk2-Jul-13 18:51 ambilykk 2-Jul-13 18:51  Congratulations to all 5th Stage Winners. Please refer the winning articles along with Winners names, which will help us to refer the articles and gain more knowledge. Thanks Ambily Re: Judging has commenced! Kevin Priddle3-Jul-13 3:27 Kevin Priddle 3-Jul-13 3:27  Good idea! I just posted them in a comment above Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Fourth and Fifth Stage Spot Winners? GrapecityIndia24-Jun-13 22:19 GrapecityIndia 24-Jun-13 22:19  Who all are Fourth and Fifth Stage Spot Winners ? Re: Fourth and Fifth Stage Spot Winners? Tim Corey25-Jun-13 2:09 Tim Corey 25-Jun-13 2:09  Chris posted above that the fourth stage spot prize is still going on (through the 30th I believe). Since the prize amounts for referrals cannot be known until the end of the stage, there isn't really anything they can post yet. If you turned in your Azure registration, you definitely won the $20. As for the fifth stage spot prize, I don't believe there was one (if there was, I missed it entirely). Re: Fourth and Fifth Stage Spot Winners? Kevin Priddle25-Jun-13 10:07 Kevin Priddle 25-Jun-13 10:07  Hey guys sorry for any confusion. There wasn't a new "Fifth Stage Spot Challenge" so you didn't miss anything Tim. We just extended the Fourth Stage Challenge until June 30 and that's why it's listed as "Fourth and Fifth Stage Spot Winners". The prize for getting a "server error" or "server busy" message has been completed and we've had at least one person become eligible for the $100 bonus for signing up 10 friends (and they're getting close to 20). Once the final winners from Stage 5 have been picked and the $20 trial sign-up bonus/challenge ends on June 30 we'll update the page with all the proper winners. Hope that clears things up! Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Clarification over the competition end date Patrick McCurley24-Jun-13 1:54 Patrick McCurley 24-Jun-13 1:54  Hi there, When does the overall competition close? I know Stage 5 end is tonight, is that also when the final article snapshots are taken? Thanks, Re: Clarification over the competition end date Kevin Priddle24-Jun-13 6:07 Kevin Priddle 24-Jun-13 6:07  Hi Patrick, The overall competition closes tonight (June 24) at 11:59pm US Eastern (Daylight Savings Time) and your final article is due at the same time. We have, however, extended the fourth stage spot challenge until June 30. New contestants can get a $20 bonus for signing up for the free Windows Azure trial here[^] and emailing their confirmation to contest@codeproject.com. Previous contestants or new contestants also have until June 30 to take advantage of the bonuses for signing up a group of friends to the Azure trial. Remember... 10 friends = $100 bonus 20 friends = $250 bonus 50 friends = $750 bonus Thanks and let me know if you have any more questions! Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Projects Manager | Developer Media Re: Clarification over the competition end date Patrick McCurley24-Jun-13 7:00 Patrick McCurley 24-Jun-13 7:00  Great, Thanks for your response Kevin. Patrick. Giving a warm welcome to myself... Kevin Priddle19-Jun-13 9:37 Kevin Priddle 19-Jun-13 9:37  Hi everyone! My name is Kevin and today is my first day on the job as the newest member of the CodeProject/Developer Media team. Moving forward, I'll be taking over a lot of the management/admin around the contests and some other projects we have on the go here. I know we're nearing the end of the challenge, but I look forward to getting to know you all and seeing what everyone has been busy building over the last two months. Now a little bit about me... Full disclosure: I am by no means a programming wizard (like all of you!) I come from a communications and journalism background and before starting here at CodeProject I spent my time as a writer/editor/journalist for an IT news magazine/website based out of Toronto. I am, however, super excited to be diving head first into the world of coding and plan to spend the next few months as a living sponge -- sucking up as much about programming, coding, and developer culture as I can . If you've got any questions or want to say hello please don't hesitate to drop me a line on here or at my fancy new email address: kevin.priddle@developermedia.com. I'll stop writing now before it turns into a novel, but would just like to point out that we're now giving you a chance to earn some of the easiest cash of your life -- all you have to do is get your friends to sign up for the contest! If you haven't joined the contest yet all you have to do is enter and sign up for a Windows Azure Trial. Just for doing that we'll give you $20. If you get a friend to sign up they'll earn $20 too. If you really want to earn some cash though... - Bring in 10 friends and get a bonus of $100 - Bring in 20 friends and get a bonus of $250 - Bring in 50 friends and get a bonus of $750 Also, the first person who gets a server error or server busy screen wins a Surface RT, just send clear proof that your signup caused a server issue at contest@codeproject.com. **Details and fine print here. modified 20-Jun-13 9:44am. Re: Giving a warm welcome to myself... Phil Lee NZ19-Jun-13 16:18 Phil Lee NZ 19-Jun-13 16:18  .... and a warm welcome to you! Good luck with this and the other competitions. I hope you're able to get through all of the articles over the next couple of weeks - they're getting pretty long now Re: Giving a warm welcome to myself... Kevin Priddle20-Jun-13 7:44 Kevin Priddle 20-Jun-13 7:44  Thanks Phil! Some of the articles are definitely getting long, but that's okay they're filled with lots of great stuff Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Project Manager| Developer Media Re: Giving a warm welcome to myself... Enrique Albert20-Jun-13 1:17 Enrique Albert 20-Jun-13 1:17  Hi Kevin, all the best luck on the new job. Re: Giving a warm welcome to myself... Kevin Priddle20-Jun-13 7:44 Kevin Priddle 20-Jun-13 7:44  Cheers! Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Project Manager| Developer Media Re: Giving a warm welcome to myself... roscler21-Jun-13 2:06 roscler 21-Jun-13 2:06  Welcome aboard Kevin! -- roschler Re: Giving a warm welcome to myself... Kevin Priddle21-Jun-13 4:47 Kevin Priddle 21-Jun-13 4:47  Thanks roschler! Kevin Priddle Editor and Special Project Manager | Developer Media Fourth Stage Winners Natasha Surovy17-Jun-13 10:50 Natasha Surovy 17-Jun-13 10:50  The Fourth Stage is now complete. Thank you to all who participated. The Winners of the Fourth Stage are: Ranjan.D Phil Lee NZ Enrique Albert Congrats winners! Re: Fourth Stage Winners roscler17-Jun-13 11:04 roscler 17-Jun-13 11:04  Congratulations guys! Fantastic 4th segments. -- roschler Re: Fourth Stage Winners Ranjan.D17-Jun-13 11:36 Ranjan.D 17-Jun-13 11:36  Thanks Natasha and Chris. It was a great challenge and I personally enjoyed all of them . Thanks for providing this opportunity. Ranjan.D Re: Fourth Stage Winners Enrique Albert18-Jun-13 2:27 Enrique Albert 18-Jun-13 2:27  Fantastic news, it is a huge surprise after seeing some of the great work that some of the lads put into this phase. I really appreciate it. Thanks to the Code Project team for supporting the context. Switched from Free Trail to Paid K2DaC213-Jun-13 22:46 K2DaC2 13-Jun-13 22:46  Hi, once again, i had the problem that my free subscription hit the limit. This time it was not the VM usage, but i've reached a storage limit (>75GB). I don't know how and why, but i've switch to paid mode (9 ct until now ...) It's a little bit unclear for me, where this came from. and i have the problem to find out where and how this happens. Maybe some one else can show it to me? (My VM for the 4th challange it also "down", i have to re-configure it :/ ) Re: Switched from Free Trail to Paid roscler13-Jun-13 22:58 roscler 13-Jun-13 22:58  Wow. Sorry to hear that K2DaC2. Please do let us know where the storage charges came from so we can learn from your experience. I wonder if it's simply the size of your VM images on disk? -- roschler Re: Switched from Free Trail to Paid K2DaC214-Jun-13 0:51 K2DaC2 14-Jun-13 0:51  Hi, i think i know what happened. I've played around a lot last month. I ended up with 4 VMs. I was over the limit after some days and all of the VM's were shut down. To prepare my article, i started from scratch. (5th VM, since the "old" VMs are not deleted, you just don't see them anymore in the VM Tab) Microsoft already changed something on the pricing : One of the major ones is that there's no longer a charge for a suspended virtual machine (VM). Previously, if a dev stopped a VM on Azure, but didn't delete it, they were charged for the entire time the VM remained on the cluster. Starting today, there's no charge if the VM is stopped, and the reserved space on the cluster is maintained, along with the deployment state and configuration. "This makes it incredibly easy to stop VMs when you aren't actively using them to avoid billing charges, and then restart them when you want to use them again," Guthrie said. But maybe it does not affect older / free subscriptions. Re: Switched from Free Trail to Paid Ranjan.D14-Jun-13 4:43 Ranjan.D 14-Jun-13 4:43  Quote: But maybe it does not affect older / free subscriptions. Even I did played with multiple VM's, Stopping one didn't help (My account was bit older). Yes, It applies only for new customers since when the changes were effected. Thanks, Ranjan.D Re: Switched from Free Trail to Paid Phil Lee NZ14-Jun-13 0:02 Phil Lee NZ 14-Jun-13 0:02  Hi there, If you already know this then please forgive me, but are you able to see your usage data? You can get to it by going to the management portal, clicking on your username in the top right-hand corner, then clicking 'View my bill'. It will take you to the billing page for your subscription where you can keep track of your usage. Hopefully that will at least give you some visibility as to when you went over your cap, as you can view daily metrics for things like cpu time and data usage. Maybe if you see it suddenly going crazy on a certain day you might be able to isolate the cause? Good luck anyhow! Thanks, Phil Re: Switched from Free Trail to Paid K2DaC214-Jun-13 0:38 K2DaC2 14-Jun-13 0:38  Yes i've seen that.I f you are over the free limit, nearly every link will redirect you there =) But thanks for the hint Intended audience? Patrick McCurley13-Jun-13 9:07 Patrick McCurley 13-Jun-13 9:07  Hi there! I joined the competition late, am new to authoring on codeproject and had a question regarding intended audience. There are some great reads here and I have been enjoying reading through them! I have noticed some of the articles are very detailed, and usually include step-by-step instructions on what was achieved in each stage. Whilst I can see that is very useful for beginners I have opted to keep my article at a higher level for anything that can be easily researched online. This is so I can focus the article on the unique challenges I have faced and to keep the article from becoming convoluted as the scope of my project is quite large. Is this an appropriate approach to the article writing, or is it preferable to write the article for beginners? (my article is here for reference) Thank you. modified 13-Jun-13 17:43pm. Re: Intended audience? Tim Corey13-Jun-13 12:42 Tim Corey 13-Jun-13 12:42  Personally, I try to write my articles (in the contest and in the rest of the site) with as little in the way of assumptions as possible. I'm always concerned that my readers won't be at the level I am at. I try to look at the subject from fresh eyes, as if I don't know anything. I then try to get the readers to the level I am at. That's just my take on it, though. Re: Intended audience? Patrick McCurley15-Jun-13 1:35 Patrick McCurley 15-Jun-13 1:35  Thanks for the reply Tim, good to know other peoples approaches. Re: Intended audience? Chris Maunder14-Jun-13 16:40 Chris Maunder 14-Jun-13 16:40  Patrick McCurley wrote: Is this an appropriate approach to the article writing Absolutely. Some prefer step by step, and this is fantastic for beginners. Some, such as yourself, prefer to stick to the meat and push the reader to learn new stuff. This is equally important and very much needed. So: Thank you. cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP Re: Intended audience? Patrick McCurley15-Jun-13 1:32 Patrick McCurley 15-Jun-13 1:32  Great - thanks for the clarification

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