TFS Server Manager Power Tool

I was just catching up on my blog reading...man, am I behind.  Anyway, I came across a posting from Brian Harry discussing the internal tool that he uses to manage his TFS dogfooding servers and get those fantastic statistics that he keeps coming out with month after month. 

He gives a nice overview of the app with screenshots.  I'm fairly impressed with the breadth of data the tool provides.  He finished up by asking for comments as to whether anyone felt that the tool should be published as a Power Tool.  I would highly recommend,if you are interested in this data, that you go read the article and leave him a comment leting him know that it would be great for him to release it....I already have :)

- Steve

Code Camp 7 Announced

Chris Bowen has announced CodeCamp 7: Deer in the Headlights

"I'm happy to announce we've finalized the dates for the next round of the Code Camp that started it all!

New England's Code Camp 7 - "Deer In Headlights" will be held the weekend of March 31st and April 1st at Microsoft's Waltham, MA office. Look for some changes to "the usual" this time around!

Haven't been to a Code Camp before? They're free events, held outside of work hours, that are a chance for regional .NET communities to gather and to learn from each other. High signal, low marketing. Code aplenty, slides afew. Check out the Code Camp Manifesto for the brief list of the Code Camp guiding principles.

The relaxed atmosphere of Code Camps is also a great way to break into practice of public speaking. If you've been considering giving it a try, this will be the perfect opportunity. "

This is a great opportunity to get some in depth information in a "low marketing" environment.

Hope to see you there!

- Steve

Discussions about Business Intelligence???

That isn't a very good name for a post, but it will server as a segue to allow me to introduce a new blogger, Scott Abrants.  Scott is a database/business intelligence (bi) developer.  His areas of expertise are around data cubes, spheres and other data containing geometric shapes.  I'd like to give a warm blogospheric welcome to him and I look forward to reading what he has to say.

Hello, Goodbye

It's been a while since I've posted anything and I'll remedy that soon, but first I wanted to post a bit of news.

I am happy to announce that as of January 15th I will be working with the most excellent folks at Magenic Technologies.  As you can tell I'm extremely stoked about this move and the opportunities it will afford me. 

On the sad side, I was extremely fortunate to work with a very strong and smart group of people at FM Global Insurance.  I can confidently declare that they are the smartest group of developers that I have ever had the pleasure of working with.  I'm going to miss the discussions and gripe sessions.  I'll also miss Dave bellowing "[insert dev name here] broke the build!!" and slamming them in the noggin' with an large, inflatable Stewie hammer.

Click picture for larger version

David letting Igor know that he broke the CI build

Five Things?!?!? - or - Tagged by the Meme Monster (a.k.a. Mike Ruminer)

I was reading MiniMicrosoft's blog this afternoon and noted that he had been FiveThings-tagged by Mary Jo Foley.  I was amused to read that he declined to take the bait at this juncture.  He also linked to a really funny Five Things post that is really in line with how I generally feel about these kinds of things.

For those of you that are unaware of this whole "Meme" (rhymes with theme) thing, here's the link to the Wikipedia article.  Pariah S. Burke, maintainer of the MemeList,  states;

"In Blogspeak, a meme is an idea that is shared and passed from blog to blog, like a question posted in one blog and answered in many other blogs." 

I, like you was fully unaware of this until a few days ago when, it seems, everyone with a blog started getting pummeled with "tags" to post "Five Things You Don't Know About Me."  Now it seems everyone is jumping on the Bandwagon.   So I was blogging along, minding my own business reading Mike Ruminer's current blog posting when WHAM, he TAGs me full on without even a warning!!!

<Tongue location="InCheek">
Now anyone that know me well will tell you that I am a sucker for "peer pressure", I have no actual spine of my own and simply turn with the tides.
</Tongue> 

So with that said, here's my list...

1.  I was a full-time, Professional Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician for 10 years.

2.  I do not have a college degree, not a one, not from any college or university or even one of those Internet sites that you just send some cash and they give you a Doctorate.

3.  My favorite Dr. Seuss book is "Green Eggs and Ham" although "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" runs a close second.

4.  My favorite Rock band is RUSH.  One of the reasons is that they are the only musicians to ever use the word "parralax" in a rap (Roll the Bones 1992).

5.  I find toilet humor really, really funny.  You have to admit that there's nothing better than a good fart joke.

 

I'm only going to tag David Boss, because I was tagged so late in the process that everyone else has already done this and he really needs to post something since his last post was December 19th.   TAG...you're it!

 

P.S.  As an aside, I was trying to include as many links to other pages as possible in this post to see if random, needless linking improves EgoSurf score.  I'm just under 4000 ego points as of this posting but I'm planning on making a surge in the near future.  :-)

A New MVP Has Been "Crowned"

I'd like to congratulate Michael Ruminer on being awarded the Microsoft MVP for Visual Studio - Team System.  It is well deserved!

Congratulations Michael!!