I have been meaning to watch back the video taken of my recent presentation for a while. This weekend I have had the chance to sample the highlights! In the past I have always found it hard to watch myself on recordings, though after the initial cringe this time it was not too bad. I must be getting used to the …

SQL Azure Labs have released Project Houston a lightweight web based Database management tool for SQL Azure. Houston allows you to develop, deploy, and manage SQL Azure and includes support for basic database management tasks like authoring and executing queries, designing and editing a database schema, and editing …

The Software Craftsmanship 2010 conference has been announced and is open for registration. The last Software Craftsmanship conference was one of the most useful events I have ever attended, so this years should be well worth attending, even though it has gone from being a free event to having a small charge. As a …

I came back form holiday to find a Netgear GS108 switch with all it leds flashing and it passing no data. This is exactly the same symptoms as this post. My fix did not involve the use of a soldering iron as detailed in the post, I just swapped the PSU and it started working fine. I have seen this before, the PSU shows …

It must be said that Microsoft has provided me with some of the most memorable and sometimes surreal opportunities in my life. Today was most certainly one of those occasions. I was privileged to see former President Bill Clinton deliver a powerful and passionate speech about the world in which we live and the work …

SPDisposeCheck is a great tool for SharePoint developers to make sure that they are disposing of resources correctly. The problem is it is a bit slow to run, a problem as this will mean developers will tend not to run it as often as they should. A good solution to the problem is to run it as part of the continuous …

Do you use the Visual Studio web site? If you do or you don’t Microsoft are interested to find the reasons why via a quick survey.

The BCS has had its EGM today and the results are out. Basically the vote is about 75% in support of the status quo, which I am not surprised by. What I am really pleased to see is that the Trustees withdrew the special resolution the change the number of people to required to call an EGM from 50 people to 2% of the …

I have just found out I have been re-awarded as a Visual Studio ALM MVP for the third year (though it was called Team System the first two times). It is a privilege to get to work with such a great group of people as a have met via the MVP programme.

[Also see http://blogs.blackmarble.co.uk/blogs/rfennell/archive/2010/08/13/how-to-edit-a-tfs-2010-build-template-when-it-contains-custom-activities.aspx ] A couple of months ago I wrote and published a custom activity for Team Build 2010 to allow Typemock tests to be run within the build process. Whilst setting up a …