Microsoft released an hotfix rollup which solves a lot of performance and usability issues. you can find the link along with the rest of my Visual Studio 2008 master links list here b. Technorati tags: Visual Studio 2008, Hotfix

I felt it was time for a new banner image, my triathlon photo had been up a while. So I have used one of the new cartoons our designer Lauren has done for all the staff at Black Marble. Commemorative limited edition collectors plate will soon be available.

At the Alt.NET UK conference there was a good deal of discussion about tactics to test declarative languages such as XAML in WPF applications. Well it seems we have another one coming out of the Oslo project - 'D'. Looks like there is no escape, testing of declarative languages is going to be a ripe area to develop …

Whilst at the Alt.net conference it was pointed out that I have a different view of the role of a tester in a software development team to many other people. It seems a tester, to many people, is viewed as a person who follows manual test scripts and/or monitors automated systems, they are really part of the QA process …

I am sitting on the train heading north. After deciding trying to stream the England/Wales match from iPlayer on the train WiFi was probably not a good idea, especially after just reading the score, I though I should write about the Alt.Net UK Conference; a very interesting experience. It is great to meet so many …

It seems there are still some places left for SQLBits II in Birmingham on the 1st of March. If you want to go I suggest you register fast as these community events do fill up fast.

I enjoyed presenting on TFS at the inaugural meeting of the Peterborough VBug group last night. Thanks to Jyoti Majithia (VBug regional administrator) and Andy Westgarth (VBug chairman) for organising it. Hopefully this will be the start of another thriving user group community. If anyone wants a copy of the slide …

One of the most important toys of our time has turned 50 , I am a huge fan of learning and development tools and Lego is one of the greatest out there. There isn't a Christmas or Birthday that I don't provide the mandatory educational ;) set of Lego to some random child/niece/nephew or developer. GizModo has a cool …

It looks like the Black Marble Web Site is a bit of a disaster today, I am sure it will be fine by tomorrow. I guess this is what the web is all about, but there are limits ;) b. Technorati tags: Web Site, Disaster, Netdisaster

A while ago I made the classic mistake of installing the Beta2 of TFS on our live servers after seeing posts that it was reliable enough for production use. I had stupidly assumed that there would be an upgrade path to the RTM; there usually is from the last beta, but not this time. TIP: Don't ever do this yourself, …