Clik here to view.
Useful Web Based UML Drawing Tools
A basic sequence diagram can be a very powerful tool to explain the interactions in a system but drawing them can often be too time consuming to bother for disposable uses. I find that many people draw...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The HTML Agility Pack
For a current project I needed to perform a simple screen scrape action. The resulting solution was functional but a bit rough and ready. Luckily I stumbled upon this open-source HTML library project:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Live Writer Syntax Highlighting Plug-in Minor Update
The recently released Version 1.4 of my Windows Live Writer plug-in for Syntax Highlighting resolved some HTML encoding issues experienced by some users. It seems however that this fix has had a knock...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIN Protect Those Android Purchases
Kids love playing on tablets and smart phones, and I think the excellent Nexus 7 will be a popular choice for Christmas Stockings this year. Apparently though in-app purchases for children’s mobile...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Current Technology Podcast Picks
I previously blogged how I value podcasts as I find them an excellent way to maximise the use of my daily commute time. I thought I’d provide an updated list of the technology related podcasts I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Just Do It !
Now I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions and in fact have the same one each year which I religiously stick to, which is to never make any New Years Resolutions. However whilst we are all in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Renaming your Team Foundation Service Account
If you haven’t checked out TFS Service from Microsoft then I thoroughly recommend trying it out. It is basically a TFS instance in the cloud and at the moment its free for everyone to use and there’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Using Ubuntu via VirtualBox Seamless Mode
I like Ubuntu and I enjoy using it, although I’m still a windows guy at heart (at least for the time being anyhow but we’ll see if Win8 ever grows on me) and I use a lot of Windows only apps. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Estimates: A Necessary Evil
Despite being an age old problem in the IT industry (and presumably a problem in other industries) it still concerns me how we have to rely so much on estimates to manage resources on complex...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Growth Of Business IT
In my popular post on “The Future of the IT Department” I covered how IT is changing rapidly in enterprises and touched on how business aligned IT teams are going to become more relevant. Some of these...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SQL Server Compact Minimum Date Value
Recently I got this error connecting to a SQL Server Compact database from .Net: "An overflow occurred while converting to datetime." So I dug into my data insertion code (I was using the excellent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The End Of TechNet Downloads Raises The Barrier To Entry For MS Techies
Microsoft unfortunately recently announced the demise of the TechNet Subscription. Whilst I appreciate that TechNet download abuse must contribute towards the availability of pirated products, I still...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Setting a Custom Domain Name on an Azure Web Site
I recently decided to add a custom domain name to a free Azure website that I use for development purposes. As the FREE Azure web site model doesn’t support custom domains (a shame but hard to complain...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building A Learning Culture
I’m keen on fostering a learning culture within teams and was drawn to this article on InfoQ “Creating a Culture of Learning and Innovation by Jeff Plummer” which shows what can be achieved through...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Full Screen Remote Desktop Sessions
Sometimes if you are on a new machine or using Remote Desktop for the first time you might find that the display size is not correct when you connect to a remote machine. If the remote machine session...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Host Static HTML or WebForms Page within MVC Site
If you need to host a static HTML page within an ASP.net MVC website or you need to mix ASP.net WebForms with an MVC website then you need to configure your routing configuration in MVC to ignore...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Boot into Safe Mode With Windows 8
My laptop running Windows 8.1 decided not to boot this week but instead gave me a blue screen with the error "System Thread Exception Not Handled". As I’d not installed anything new recently I guessed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Critical Preview Fix For Live Writer Code Plugin
Just a quick note to announce a new version of my Windows Live Writer plug-in, for Source Code Syntax Highlighting in WordPress.com posts, has been released. CaptainKernel posted a comment on this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Backup To USB Drive Only If It’s Connected
A key part of most personal data backup strategies involves backing up data to an external USB drive but I don’t want to leave it constantly connected. In this post I cover how to backup to an external...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Adding a Return Message in an RSA Sequence Diagram
Here’s a quick tip that I found useful last week. If you’re using IBM Rational Software Architect to produce a UML Sequence diagram and you add a new Synchronous Message activity the tool automatically...
View Article
