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• Remember the new URL format for the TFS2010 web services have changed

  Posted: 03 Jul 2009 at 14:25 by Richard

  To have a good look at TFS2010 I have migrated some existing VS2008 projects to VS2010. This has meant they are now being built using a new TFS 2010 build server. Now I wanted to make sure everyone still knew what was building and what was not, so I updated the configuration on our build wallboard to get the status from both the older 2008 and the new 2010 server – and it did not work.

• Visual Studio 2010 project upgrade bug; test assemblies being copied to release folders in error

  Posted: 03 Jul 2009 at 13:08 by Richard

  After I upgraded an ASP.NET Web Application VS2008 solution to VS2010 I found a strange problem. When I build either the whole solution or the test project in the solution the test assembly gets copies to Web Applications bin directory. However if I build the solution from the command line with MSBUILD they are not copied (so MSBUILD behaves as VS2008 used to).

• Re-awarded MVP

  Posted: 02 Jul 2009 at 12:32 by Richard

  I am really happy to say that I have had my MVP for Team System Re-awarded, it is a privilege to get to work with such a great group of people as a have met via the MVP programme.

• Problems with uplink on an 8 port Netgear Gigabit switch

  Posted: 30 Jun 2009 at 09:39 by Richard

  All the ports on the Netgear GS608 I think are meant to be auto speed and uplink sensing, I have found this not to be true. I had the 1Gb uplink to our central switches in Port 8 and a 100Mb Ethernet workstation in port 2 could not get an IP address via DHCP. When I moved the uplink to Port 1 it all leapt into life. Interestingly other 1Gb PCs in other ports had no problem with the uplink in either port 1 or 8.

• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 issue on Windows SharePoint Services v2.0

  Posted: 29 Jun 2009 at 10:02 by Richard

  If you apply the TFS2008 SP1 to a system that has been upgraded from TFS 2005, but the WSS was not upgraded from 2.0 to 3.0 you can get a problem that you cannot access the SharePoint portal sites due to WebPart load errors (you get an Event ID: 1000 error in the Windows event logs). This is because the TFS 2008 SP1 installs .NET framework 3.5 SP1 which causes some problems for WSS 2.0. Note this is not usually a problem for new installs of TFS 2008 as these use WSS 3.

• Places to eat on the South Bank in London

  Posted: 26 Jun 2009 at 19:28 by Rik

  A set of conference posts wouldn’t be complete without a run down of the local culinary delights. We haven’t strayed far from the South Bank Centre for the past few days, but we’ve had a great variety of meals. Wednesday night and Thursday lunchtime was Wagamamas. I love Wagamamas. There’s one in Leeds as well, and whilst Fuji Hero is perhaps more authentic, I just love the deserts at Wagamamas. I also have at least one of their recipe books, so I can try it at home!

• @media Day 2 - Afternoon

  Posted: 26 Jun 2009 at 16:29 by Rik

  I hadn’t really thought about it before, but Andy Budd has a very similar presentation style to my own. He’s incredibly enthusiastic and passionate about what he’s speaking about, and he wanders around waving his arms in an extremely animated way. Snap! The topic of usability testing is an important one. I always try to impress upon our clients the need to see how the systems we build for them are used and tweak and fix accordingly.

• @media Day 2 - Morning

  Posted: 26 Jun 2009 at 16:28 by Rik

  It’s a muggy day today. With thunderstorms expected, the morning air was thick as we walked over to the South Bank Centre. I found Douglas Crockford’s opening session thoughtful. It wasn’t what I was expecting – I had anticipated a focus more on methodologies and approaches to improving quality. instead, it was an interesting and sometimes humorous examination as to why quality in software is such a difficult area, with an informative walk through the history of software thrown in.

• Joining in the background noise: I am now on Twitter

  Posted: 26 Jun 2009 at 07:42 by Rik

  One of the reasons I enjoy conferences like @media is that I can be persuaded to change my mind on things. After a persuasive argument from Nick I’ve decided to alter my stance on twitter and give it a go for a while. A few others recently have suggested that I should sign up to the microblogging system even if I didn’t plan to use it, just to make sure I got the nickname I wanted and nobody else could use it.

• @media 2009 Day 1 - Afternoon

  Posted: 25 Jun 2009 at 16:29 by Rik

  Not providing lunch at the conference was perhaps a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand, Wagamamas is just so close (mmm… chicken katsu curry); on the other hand, lots of people were nodding off in the warmth of the first session. Which is a great shame, because Dan Rubin is a really good speaker (and singer, as it happens). His session was all about reflecting the real world in our user interfaces in order to make them much more usable.

• @media 2009 Day 1 - Morning

  Posted: 25 Jun 2009 at 12:45 by Rik

  It’s good to see familiar faces once again here at @media. This year’s conference is around the same size as the first one in 2005 and it has a strangely familial feeling. Nick’s here as a volunteer ‘@mediator’ so he was manning the desk as we registered. A note at this point about the conference swag: aside from the very nice T-shirt, which strangely matches my normal style (Andy often refers to me as ‘Mister Taupe’), the conference bag is excellent!

• See you at @media09? Tickets are still available

  Posted: 24 Jun 2009 at 08:28 by Rik

  Lauren and I set off for London later to today. It’s @media time again and I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. As usual Patrick Griffiths has lined up a fantastic group of really inspirational speakers and, whilst smaller in the light of the current climate, I have no doubts that it will be useful. I’ve been to every @media since it started and I’ve always had a great time. If you have the time, I’d urge you to make this year the sell-out it’s been in the past!

• Logging everything that is going on when an assembly loads using CThru

  Posted: 22 Jun 2009 at 11:33 by Richard

  Whist trying to work out if there is any way to get around the problem I am suffering with Sharepoint workflows idling inside a Typemock Isolator test harness I have been having a good look at CThru; a set if libraries for Typemock that, and I quote Codeplex here, ‘… allows creating interception and isolation frameworks for logging, testing and many other things very simply’. This is the framework is used to create the Silverlight mocking frame work on the same Codeplex site.

• 0x800106ba Windows Defender error in Windows Vista

  Posted: 21 Jun 2009 at 12:24 by Richard

  I was installing a new PC for a friend yesterday; after using the Easy Transfer Wizard (first time I used this and I can heartily recommend) to move their settings from their old XP system to their new Vista one I got the 0x800106ba Windows Defender error on start-up. Now there is a lot of frankly useless comments on this error on various forums, strange as the solution is simple.

• Speaking at VBUG Newcastle in July

  Posted: 16 Jun 2009 at 14:53 by Rik

  Andy Westgarth and the guys at VBUG Newcastle very kindly invited me to speak about and demo some of what I consider to be key features in Windows 7 and Server 2008. If you read the blog and would like to see what I really look like, are interested in the topic of the talk or interested in VBUG in general, come along! The venue is Newcastle University (a campus I’ve never visited before so I’m quite looking forward to that). For more information Andy has details on the VBUG site.

• 29109 error when installing the quiescence GDR patch for TFS 2005

  Posted: 12 Jun 2009 at 11:03 by Richard

  Whilst upgrading a single server TFS 2005 to a dual server 2008 install I hit a problem. I had installed the new 2005 Data Tier (DT) and patched it without issue. However then I tried to apply the patch VS80-KB19156-v2-x86, the Quiescence GDR patch, on the Application Tier (AT) I got the 29109 error: SQL Reporting Services configuration encountered an unknown problem. A search on the web found this is a common issue usually fixed by repeated retries! This did not work for me.

• TFS Sharepoint Extensions on a Load Balanced Sharepoint farm

  Posted: 10 Jun 2009 at 12:51 by Richard

  I posted yesterday about problem creating a new team project if you had missing templates on your Sharepoint server. This problem could of course be avoided if you had installed the TFS Sharepoint Extensions onto your Sharepoint server as your are meant to. However, as I have discovered it is not that easy to do if your chosen  Sharepoint system has network load balanced front ends. The problem is that Sharepoint will replicate your MSFAGILE30.

• TF30227 error when creating team projects on TFS 2008

  Posted: 09 Jun 2009 at 21:25 by Richard

  Historically we have used the eScrum process template for our TFS team projects. However, with a view to the TFS 2010 future we have decided to moved back to the MSF Agile template. We used eScrum to provide an easy to use web based project dashboard; we now think that we can achieve the same or better in TFS 2010 using Excel’s enhanced links to TFS and Excel Services in Sharepoint.

• Two great places to eat

  Posted: 08 Jun 2009 at 22:58 by Linda

  Want to know where to eat if you happen to be in the Reading area?  A recent Black Marble visit to Microsoft at Thames Valley Park led us to try out two great restaurants.  The first, the London Street Brasserie came recommended by a couple of ‘Softies and provided wonderful food right in the heart of Reading.  Pleasant atmosphere, friendly staff, good location.

• Things to do in Seattle: Gameworks

  Posted: 08 Jun 2009 at 08:08 by Rik

  As you probably guess, Richard and myself were in Seattle for a short conference last week. The evening entertainment on one night was a trip to Gameworks. If you like playing video games with your mates, going head-to-head at things like Sega Rally, then you’ll have a good time in Gameworks. I’m not the worlds greatest gamer, and I tend to struggle when it’s games that don’t use keyboard and mouse.