Installing Windows 7
Installing Windows 7 is so similar to the Vista install it almost does not deserve a post on it, but as I did not do a Vista install post, and I am waiting for the install to complete, I though you should see, erm…. the nice new colours…
Installing Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite on Windows 7
I am installing VS2008 in a virtual environment, so this may not be exactly what you would get, but the purpose is to identify if VS2008 does indeed work on Windows 7 and what the experience is like.
Windows 7 Beta is Live!
If you have an MSDN account you will be able to download Windows 7 Beta today, but it should be available for anyone by the end of next week.
Learning more about Visual Studio 2008
Well, that’s me well and truly back from my holidays, a nice relaxing couple of weeks spent at home with my family. As a kind of New Years present, Microsoft has released a free learning initiative for those of you that are or will be using Visual Studio 2008. I am taking it myself as a way to make sure that I have not missed anything :)
Microsoft Answer for the end-user
Up until now the only avenue for your average Vista user for support was to trawl the MSDN Forums, Technet Forums and the Support site for some elusive piece of information that is buried among all that technical BS that we teckies like to call help.
Managing the “VSTS Developers” LinkedIn group.
After making sending a “Call to Action” to my fellow Team System MVP’s I have added two managers to the VSTS Developers group I started on LinkedIn.
Does test-driven development speed up development?
If only I could be as eloquent as Scott. His recent post on “ Does test-driven development speed up development? ” really gets to the crux of an endemic problem in the Software Development industry, especially in companies for whom Software Development is not their core business.
Removing a dead Solution Deployment from MOSS 2007
If, like me, you tried to deploy a solution to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and it ether failed or hung you will need to remove it somehow. But once the status has moved to “deploying”, if you receive an error like this:
Merry Christmas
With many people skipping off early for their holly bags, me included.. I thought I should send this out now… Send your own ElfYourself eCards
SkyDrive: 25 GB of free online storage
Some of the new Windows Live Wave 3 services have gone live over the last couple of days. One of the best IMO is the SkyDrive services , updated to 25GB and with complete integration with other services like Photo Share , Connect to people …
Live Framework
I have been getting very interested in the new Azure Services Platform and how I can use it to facilitate WPF development.
TFS Event Handler v1.3 released
Updated and improved for Team System 2008. http://www.codeplex.com/TFSEventHandler The TFS Event Handler makes it easier to notify users of changes to Work Items in Team Foundation Server. You will no longer need to add individual alerts to users.
Retrieving an identity from Team Foundation Server using only the display name
This is a lot harder than it sounds. At first you think there will be a built in option with the Read Identities method on the IGroupSecurityService Interface, but you would be wrong!
TFS Event Handler v1.1 released
Updated and improved for Team System 2008. http://www.codeplex.com/TFSEventHandler The TFS Event Handler makes it easier to notify users of changes to Work Items in Team Foundation Server. You will no longer need to add individual alerts to users.
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR Installation
First, download the new Data Dude. Download page http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en Setup http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/setup.exe Read Me http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/Readme.mht Documentation: http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/Documentation.zip Once you get it going the install is pretty easy. Things to watch out for are:
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR has been released!
What a mouthful! Has there ever been any products with names as long as the Team System toolset ;), Maybe thats why it is just called Data Dude .
Least opportune time.
Here I am slogging my guts out, trying to get TFS Sticky Buddy v2.0 out the door and bang goes the TFS server :(
Windows Live ID and OpenID
It seams that Microsoft is making an attempt to integrate with OpenID. With the announcement that “ Windows Live ID commits to support of OpenID ” I thought a little investigation would be in order.
Advice on using XamRibbon with Composite WPF
If, like me, you are interested in using all the new fangled controls produced by every man and his dog, you will probably have come across the Infragistics WPF control. My mission, that I stupidly accepted, was to update the TFS Sticky Buddy application with their XamRibbon and XamDockManager controls, and anything else I can stuff in there.
The great Xbox update
I hope everyone is looking forward to the new Xbox live experience that will be going Live tomorrow! Hopefully we are passed the days of the ring of death from the update, unless you have a hacked box :)
Team Suite on the cheap
Ok, so I lied a little. It is not that cheap, but 30% off an upgrade from a team edition to full Team Suit is nothing to be sniffed at, it could be as much as £1000 off!
100,000 Visits
Well, that’s me got passed the 100,000 Visits milestone . I guess it is seams bigger than it is, but as the next big one would be a million I am chuffed to get this far :)
DDD Scotland v2.0: 2nd of May 2009
It seams that the event of the year is back! Developer Day Scotland returns for a second year as posted by Barry Dorrans in Glaswegien :)
Composite WPF and Merged Dictionaries
If, like me, you like to have changeable resource files in your application. Wither it is for changing the Theme, or interchanging templates you will need to take special care when using the
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Power Tools
There is a new release of the Power Tools for team system. As an MVP I was involved in the trial that started early this month, and I can tell you that a LOT of work has gone into these :)
TFS Data Manager
This looks like a fantastic product that will let you do pretty much everything that has been missing from TFS. You can cop / clone projects across servers. you get disaster recovery capabilities that surpass anything that has before been available!
TFS Sticky Buddy 2.0 development started…
Lets just say that it will be a while in development. I am trying to implement the Composite Application blocks for WPF from Microsoft in an attempt to make the application more modular. I will be updating and releasing under the v2.0 CTP version and I have uploaded the installation files. This is a ClickOnce application , so you will always have the latest version of the CTP.
TFS Sticky Buddy v2.0
I will be working on some new features to the Sticky Buddy application. Improvements in the interface, along with a more modular structure and more diagram offering are in the mix. I have been working on some of the enhancements and their implementation in my other lesser known project TFS Heat ITSM …
Interview with my favourite author
My favourite author, David Webber, has an interview on you tube. I have read every one of his books, and I just love the Military Sci-Fi genre… Technorati Tags: Personal
Mozy Backup providing extra space this month
Until the 30th of November 2008 Mozy are increasing the amount of space you get for referring a friend from 256mb to 512mb! This is excellent and everyone should have some sort of backup :) as long as you click my referral link and use Mozy …
