Update 21 Aug 2015 - This post contains all the basic information, but there is an improved PowerShell script discussed in Using Release Management vNext templates when you don’t want to use DSC scripts – A better script Many web sites are basically forms over data, so you need to deploy some DB schema and something …

With the help of the Release Management team at Microsoft I now have a working REST based automated TFS Build to Release Management pipeline. Previously we were using a TFS automated build and then manually triggering our agent based Release Management pipeline. When we moved to a vNext PS/DSC based RM pipeline I took …

Whilst setting up Application Insights on one of our web sites I hit a problem. The target site appeared to be working OK, but if I setup a ping test it failed. Digging into the failure, as with much of Application Insights just keep clicking to go deeper, I found the issue was that a CSS file was failing to load. …

Today was my day for semi annual Media Center (MCE) problems. As usual they seemed to start with an unexpected power issue, a local power cut, maybe the answer is a UPS for the TV setup? Once the PC was rebooted it had forgotten it had any tuners. If I tried to view live TV or re-setup the TV signal it just hung with a …

Had a strange issue today while editing our standard TFS 2013 XAML build process template to add an optional post drop script block to allow a Release Management pipeline to be triggered via REST. Our standard template includes a block for enabling and disabling Typemock, after editing our template to add the new …

If you came to our re:Build and re:Ignite events last week and want more information on the subjects we covered, remember that all the sessions from both the Microsoft Build and Ignite events are available at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2015 and http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015. On these sites you …

Whilst Niamh and I were setting up our interviews with the important people at Build, we were invited to take part in our own Channel 9 interview!! This was an amazing highlight of the conference, and totally unexpected. We got to speak to Seth Juarez, in the Channel 9 studio in the foyer of the Moscone centre – in the …

Scott was talking about programming as a real useful skill, like when he was young and his father taught him practical skills with actual tools. It was great to see so many people say how much they think programming is a proper skill that everyone should learn. Find out what Scott had to say. …

Jason was another interviewee who started programming when he was young, and brought a different angle on how to engage children with programming – such as working with a Logic Gate, and working with actual boards. Find out what Jason had to say. 

Martin was keen to talk about the importance of how we need to encourage the next generation of programmers – he started at 6 – lots of the people we spoke to started young, not just in school but in the home too. And was keen to talk about the level of satisfaction you get from programming. Plus he talked about …