Social and Business Networking
In the modern era networking is not just the preview of business men. There have been many sites created over the last few years but they only seam to implement one or maybe two if the strategies for providing either a community or business networking site. A list of social networking sites can be found on Wikipedia.
Why do we care about software factories?
I have just read a good post by Erik Gunvaldson from Microsoft. In it he explains why we want to use software factories and he provides a nifty storyboard to get across the ideas.
What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is many thing to many people, but it always involves reading. Some people are heavily dyslexic to the point where the are unable to function at all in normal schooling. Many people think of Dyslexia as a disability, but the only time I think of it that way is if I can get something:
SharePoint Content Request | What would you like to see?
what-would-you-like-to-see- /blog/sharepoint-content-request—what-would-you-like-to-see- /resources/pyKCdDNWdPB what-would-you-like-to-see- /blog/sharepoint-content-request—what-would-you-like-to-see- preview: nakedalm-logo-128-link-1-1.png Jeff Julian who kindly provides my blog has been blogging about what features would be good in Sharepoint. I would like to see all of the capabilities of TeamPlain for Team Foundation Server built into Sharepoint. With versions for both technical and non technical people. This would allow a much more versatile integration of TFS into ones own intranet and allow the use of TFS for other things than just development…
Deployment documentation
Over the past week I have been working on creating and documenting a deployment process for our new main business application. This application is very complicated and requires twenty servers per four environments. We need to track and control deployment to UAT, pre-production, production and C&R (disaster recovery site), but my company as a larger organization only requires control of production.
Memories of a multi-dimensional free thinking software developer
I thought I should blog about my gift and how it has impacted my skills as a software developer. I want to do this for a number of reasons: To help other so gifted developers To help employers of so gifted developers To help me get a better understanding of how it affects me I will add more, but for now here are a couple of resources to get you started in understanding:
How to become a Multi-Dimensional Free Thinker
All you have to do to become a multi-dimensional free thinker is to change the way you think of your dyslexia. The benefits of having dyslexia far outweigh the negatives: The concepts of multi-dimensional thinking are incredibly difficult to learn if you have not been born with the ability, and if you are dyslexic, you have.
Access to Team Foundation Server
With my lack of time to work with TFS at work in anything but a server maintenance and user assistance role, or even any sort of Visual Studio work, I will need to find a way to continue to access and work with Team System.
Loosing the battle, but the war goes on
Well in my current war to get my company to use TFS , I am loosing the battle for Visual Studio Team System adoption. I have fought many battles, against Jira, Confluence and Subversion, but they are currently wining. I cant seam to get the Architecture & Strategy guys to get behind the project. They are sitting on the sidelines encouraging me, but with no active participation.
TFS Event Handler Prototype Feedback
I would be interested in finding out if anyone is using the TFS Event Handler I created on CodePlex . The main reason for this is to solicit feedback for the process and integration capabilities.
Its that time again
With a new baby, new mortgage rate and declining job satisfaction I am getting that itchy feeling in my feet. There was a time that I was allowed to Code for a living and not just support applications and document deployment strategies. I have ended up filling my free time with my love of Coding and now, with the new baby, I find that my free time is drying up.
How 'e' are you?
Will Pritchard posted an interesting blog entry about this and I though I would give it a go… Here is how “e” I am: my e-score: 87 my e-group: e-expert my e-ranking: 413/9654
The future of software development
I have been thinking a lot recently about the future of software development and where I see it going. I have worked for seven companies since leaving university (two design studios, two software studios, one community startup, one Internet bank and one investment bank), and my conclusion is that all of the SSADM (Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodologies), or Development Lifecycle, that I learned in university does not work in the real world. Yes, if you can charge your customers two million for an intranet that you will deliver over two years you can do what you like, but these days your customers business moves too quickly for this to work. A solution that was started last year, or the year before in my current company, is obsolete and has to be binned and started again. Or if the business has had its fingers in your specification from the get-go and if they have no idea what “signed-off” means you will get only one result; you will never finish and what you do finish will not meet the business need (80% syndrome).
Simplify
Well I just got through simplifying my blog categories! I just though they were, well… rubbish, and there were too many of them. I have toned them down and added a full description for them all with links to the relevant Wikipedia pages…
Back to the grind
Well that’s my paternity leave over, I cant believe that it has been two weeks! Well I got a gorgeous baby girl out of it:
The Delivery
Well, this being my hundredth post I thought I should mention something special… Something that will change my world forever… Something that will keep me up at night… My daughter, Evangelina Jade Hinshelwood was born yesterday (24th June 2007) at the Southern General Hospital. Her due date was the 23rd June 2007.
Windows Mobile 6 Black Shadow (4.0)
I know that you are not supposed to do it, but I updated my phone to Windows Mobile 6 Black , specifically Black 4 (Shadow). This is a fantastic ROM and, if you are not that technical, much better than trying to cook your own! It is described as a Hybrid OEM of HTC Hermes and Touch designed specifically for the Hermes. This is good as the current HTC Touch phone does not have 3G or a keyboard, it looks fantastic though. I knew the iPhone would be good for something, pushing HTC to advance the interface!
Solution to sub sites in Sharepoint 3.0 with Team Foundation Server
This subject goes back over a number of posts: Team Foundation Server & SharePoint 3.0 Setting up TFS to create project portals as child sites of an existing SharePoint 3.0 site (or sub site) SharePoint 3.0 TFS Sub-Site creation error. Sharepoint 3.0 TFS Sub-Site creation investigation result I will try not to reiterate all that has gone before, but I was trying to get the Project Creation Wizard for Team Foundation server to create project portals as sub sites to an existing Sharepoint 3.0 site, and not as top level sites under a “managed path”.
Creating a managed service factory
I had a plan. I wanted to create a way of accessing services in multiple locations from any location. Each location could have one or more services which may be duplications or different. That is a really abstract way of thing about it, but I eventually came up with a solution.
TFS Event Handler: Prototype Released
As promised I have released the application and code for my prototype TFS Event Handler . I am currently working on the documentation, but I though I would give the bravest of you advanced notice of the release. You should be able to figure out how to configure it and extend it without much help (who reads documentation anyway), but for those of you who need that extra hand I will hopefully, time permitting, be releasing some sort of rudimentary documentation today!
TFS Event Handler prototype Configuration Demystified
There are a number of config options for the TFS Event Handler Prototype . I will describe all of them in depth here. The first step is to set the Windows Communication Foundation service options, which really only requires you to change one value.
Creating your own Event Handler
Creating an event handler with the Team Foundation Server Event Handlers is very easy. You will need to inherit from the AEventHandler class which is part of RDdotNet .TeamFoundation.dll located in the install directory (I will make an SDK later).
TFS Event Handler: CTP 1 Delayed
Due to a number of reasons: My wife is due to give birth this week some time I only have access to TFS at work, and my development time has been cut down. I’m lazy… The first CTP of the Team Foundation Server Event Handler has been delayed. I have, however made a number of enhancements of the surrounding framework that will allow the smother function of this and other releases.
Sharepoint 3.0 TFS Sub-Site creation investigation result
Well my sub site investigation did not go too well! After consulting with blogs, forums and Microsoft the end result is that it will not work in an automated way. You can’t create a sub site to and existing site with Sharepoint without customizing the Sharepoint site creation process, which I am not going to get into at the moment. Maybe later. The best I can hope for at this time is to disable the creation of the Sharepoint site during the project creation process and to create the site manually after the project has been created. Although this adds a manual step to the process this is not a problem for us as there are only 2 users allowed to create new projects in our environment.
Programmer personality type
Get yours here . My programmer personality type is: DLTB You’re a Doer. You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money. You like coding at a Low level. You’re from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don’t mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm. You work best in a Team. A good group is better than the sum of it’s parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers. You are a liBeral programmer. Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We’re not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.
NetIDme
I have just been made aware of a new (‘ish) service. It allows you to verify the identity of those users you interact with online. This is a very usefully service for any online site or community where users are under 18, but is there any value for those of us that are not?
TFS Process Templates
I have been working with Team Foundation Server for around a year now and I am still finding features and I am still amazed at the extensibility of the system. The core of this extensibility is the aggressively configurable process templates. You can see a list of commercial templates on the Microsoft site, not all of them cost money though.
SharePoint 3.0 TFS Sub-Site creation error.
As you will know from my previous post I have been trying to get TFS to create sub sites in SharePoint 3.0. I now have the hotfix specified by Brian Keller for my Team Explorer client that allows me to communicate with WSS3.0, but I am still having a problem with my sub site attempts!
Microsoft Surface: Wow
I have just looked at the Surface first look site and I am truly amazed! I want one, really badly… I have been envisioning something like this for years and I am delighted that Microsoft is the one that has brought this vision to reality. If you have ever seen Minority Report you will be drooling over this new technology. If it works as presented this will be the biggest thing in entertainment since, well, the TV…
HTC Touch
If, like me you are a fan of Pocked PC mobile phones you will have something like the Orange SPV 3100 . Like me you will probably not really rate these devices as phones, but it beats carrying multiple technobits in your pocket. You can use it for pictures, email, mp3 (until the Zune is released in the UK), reading books (using MS Reader), browsing the web (its not a bad as you would think), and many other things that you require extra software for. What many users of these devices do not know is that Orange does not actually make these phones, it is a company called HTC and they make around 90% of the Smartphones and Pocket PC mobiles. Everyone will have seen the new iPhone that Mac are producing, and although nice to look at, it has a horrendous price tag and you cant get any software for it. Does that remind you of anything, hmmm, any Mac product maybe?
