Currently, there are two ways we can construct our skill. You can use the Amazon developer portal, or you can use the Alexa Skills Kit Command Line Interface (ASK CLI). Unfortunately, the CLI option is based in Node.js. I’m not a fan, thus the reason I started writing my skills in C# instead. Alexa Skills Kit…
Author: slowder
Alexa Design Process
Let’s start designing our Receptionist skill. The purpose of this skill will be to help visitors who come in for meetings alert the employee they’re meeting that they’ve arrived. We want to make this interaction as natural as possible, so we don’t have to have someone walk a new visitor through the process each time. …
Alexa Solutions Infrastructure
With an understanding of the Alexa ecosystem and some of the terminology I’ll be using, let’s look under the hood a bit today. All Alexa devices depend on the cloud to do the heavy lifting. In the most simplified case, this is what’s under the hood of a simple Alexa skill. You speak to your…
Alexa Terminology and Documentation
n my last article, I introduced the hardware, the differences between the Alexa Voice Service (speech recognition and language understanding) and the Alexa Skills Kit (new and interesting abilities you can create for the Alexa ecosystem). I also covered four current skills categories. Today let’s cover some key terms you’ll want to understand before beginning your…
Introduction to Alexa
When I received the first pre-order email for an Amazon Echo in late 2014, I was excited by this new technology. I pre-ordered right away. The Echo became the first of many devices that tied into the Alexa Voice Service (AVS). This voice service encapsulates both speech recognition as well as Natural Language Understanding features. …
U-SQL: Automating Schema on Read
Moving to U-SQL for your ETL can feel like a step back from the drag and drop functionality we have in SSIS. But there is one great thing about your ETL being defined in text rather than a UI: you can automate it! Today I’m going to show you how you can automate the part…
U-SQL and ETL Processing–Part 2
We’ve been going through a simple U-SQL script to perform some ETL processing in Azure Data Lake. Last time, we started by covering some basic syntax like variables and expressions. Now, we’ll pick up with some transformations. SSIS v U-SQL In traditional data warehouse ETL, we’ve been spoiled by the ease of drag and drop…
U-SQL and ETL Processing
When you get started with Azure Data Lake Analytics and U-SQL specifically, you may get a little confused. It looks like a mash-up of T-SQL and C#. Turns out, That’s exactly what it is! You can find lots of information on MSDN, or GitHub, or StackOverflow. Let’s get started with some basics. Variables, DataTypes, and Case…
Azure Data Lake Storage ACL Automation
In my last blog entry, we covered how to layout folders in your Data Lake Storage account based on a logical design. That’s only half the battle. You also need to set up Access Control Lists (ACLs). Setting up controls via the Azure portal is easy, but not something you can automate. Today, we’ll jump…
Azure Data Lake Storage Zone Layout Automation
After laying out the structure for our zones, my client quickly asked, is there a way we can automatically stand up this structure each time we bring a new Tenant into our solution. With a smile, I replied it was possible! In the short term, we would use PowerShell to stand up these folders every…