Microsoft are releasing a new operating system on July 29th called Windows 10. If you have questions about Windows 10 watch this video by Scott Hansleman . He explains how to upgrade from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 and what to expect after you upgrade. My advice to everyone is that you backup your devices before...
On my way home from the office I spotted this little chap. In my expert opinion it is a “bug”. This particular “bug” is harmlessly sitting outside, but have you ever wondered why computer problems are often named after this little chap (and his friends)? The first recorded bug report was in 1947 when Grace Hopper found...
I have heard the term Agile Software Development quite a bit, but lets see if we can define it and see if I do any of the processes involved with it. The dictionary defines ‘Agile’ as mentally quick, or nimble, or quick in movement. In 2001 The Manifesto for Agile Software Development first introduced the term agile....
I was sent a link to a developer personality test earlier. The test aims to give you a look at your developer personality similar to the famous Myers-Briggs personality test. A shorter version of this test can be found here . Myers-Briggs tells you if you are Introvert (I) or Extrovert (E), Feeling (F) or Thinking (T),...
Last night I went to a Code Dojo at Leeds Sharp (the coding user group I have started going to). A Code Dojo is a programming challenge that people work on usually in pairs. The challenge that we worked on was to code a solution to the puzzle game Sudoku. The code we worked with can be found on github. I don’t know...
In the UK today is Fathers Day. Happy Fathers Day Dad! I thought I might talk about how he encouraged my interest in technology, especially as in about 8 weeks I will become a parent and will have someone to encourage and inspire. I am going to sound really old but when I was born there was no internet, no mobile...
WOW! I have reached the milestone of 50 blog posts. I have tried to blog at least every week and I have learnt a lot. I have talked about my work, technology, things I have learnt, things I want to do and many more things. It is too soon to tell if my blog is going to be a success, but I think I am starting to find my...
Why is it so hard to find out exactly what is needed when designing changes to a system? When adding functionality to databases I always like to dive in and start adding extra columns and new tables. But at some point you need to find out what is needed. The process of gathering requirements that I have followed goes...
Today is my day off, but I wake up and have a quick look at nagios to see if there is anything I need to worry about. Yes there is, SQL Server has run out of disk space on its data disk. I race downstairs and VPN onto the server to find out what has happened. One of my monitoring databases has had runaway log growth...
Last night I started reading The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas . One practical tip that immediately jumped out at me as useful in my quest to be a better programmer: Don’t live with broken windows. The theory goes like this: an abandoned building with a single broken window attracts additional...