Christopher Myhill

I am a self titled Geek and I know it, I find nothing better at the end of a hard day coding than sitting down with a good book and reading it, I am sure your now thinking ‘Harry Potter’ or some similar. Well you are wrong I sit in bed before I sleep and read ‘Code Complete by Steve McConnel’ or ‘Writing Secure Code By M. Howard’ two of the most influential books I have ever read. The first tells me how to be the best programmer I can, the second makes sure I do not write code which cannot be easily hacked, I call them my ‘Coding Bibles’.

I recently head about a new book released by Microsoft not one which you can buy from Amazon a free one, this one is titled ‘SOA in the Real World’, it is a 196 pages of in depth discussion on what SOA actually means and the theories around the term. The author has drawn on knowledge taken from the industry and Microsoft experts to present what SOA is and how it can be implemented in its many forms. To some, not me, this may not be the most interesting book but if you are still unsure what SOA and the methodologies that should be implemented with it, then this may be work a look.

To download the book go here http://www.microsoft.com/

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I try to keep this blog purely dedicated to technical content but if I may, I would like to tell you about an e-petition which opposes bringing in congestion charging to Bristol without a referendum. I believe that with Bristol’s poor public transport infrastructure a congestion charge would be no more than an extra tax, and if you think the same then please use the link to add your name to the list.

For those of you who think that something like this cannot do any good, 1.8 million people signed the ‘Travel Tax’ petition earlier this year which prompted a response from the PM and a re-think of their ‘pay-as-you-drive scheme’

Stop Bristol Congestion Charge here : http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NoBristolTolls/ DIV>

At the last '.NET Developer Network' meeting I heard some more news about the UK version of MIX 07 but like all pre-release information nothing is yet confirmed. However the guys from the NxtGenUG are planning to attend and hold their own game show in family fortunes style event. The rest of the line up is subject to change so I will not discuss it any more.

There is currently an estimated cost for the two day event which currently sits at £150 to £200, so get saving those pennies.

To register your interest in the event go here http://www.microsoft.com/uk/mix07/

Also at the last .NET Developer Network meeting, Guy Smith-Ferrier (organiser of the group), mentioned that there will be another DeveloperDay event in November. It is so good to hear that we have another great community day not to far in the future.

I cannot help thinking that the committee which organises these events is relentless in offering us great community events, something which I am very grateful to them for.

Add the feed from this site onto your RSS aggregator to hear the latest news : http://www.developerday.co.uk/ddd/default.asp

To find out about the .NET Developer Network events in Bristol (UK) go here http://www.dotnetdevnet.com/

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The team responsible for developing Hotmail have just released their case study of testing the Hotmail web site using Visual Studio Team System. For anyone (like me) who is using Team System, you will find it an interesting read to see what they found and how they used it in their environment.

It’s a 10 page word document so set yourself some time to read it.

To get the document go here http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies