Category Archives: Misc

There will be a DDD (Developer! Developer! Developer!) style event in Scotland some time soon. In other words it would be on a Saturday. It would last the whole day. There would be different tracks so you could pick and choose what you wanted to see. The atmosphere would be great!

There have now been 4 very successful developer days held in Reading and a fifth one on the way. I can’t wait to get down there, but the travel is a bit of a hassle. It is over 400 miles. If it was closer to home it would be much better.

So, the call is out! If you are interested in a Developer Day Scotland then respond to this thread on the Scottish Developers website: http://www.scottishdevelopers.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&topic_id=848&forum=1100

Alternatively, drop us an email at dds AT scottishdevelopers DOT com

The current ideas floating around would be to do this three months out of phase with the Developer Day held at TVP in Reading so they didn’t clash. It would also give people the opportunity to attend both if they wanted – There are a fair few people from Scotland travelling down to Reading for the existing DDD, so why not have some folk from the south of England travelling north to Scotland too?

At the moment we are looking out for sponsors to help pay for it all. We would like to keep it free if we can.

So, get the message out. There will be a Developer Day in Scotland! And you’re all invited.

Tags: ddd developer day developer day scotland scotland software development event conference seminar Developer Developer Developer Scottish Developers

NOTE: This blog entry was rescued from the Google Cache. The original entry was dated Friday, 8th June 2007

My old blog fell off the internet about a week ago. I’m not sure what happened. The server seems to be dead. Oh well…

What will follow is a dump of some of my old blog entries that I managed to rescue from the Google Cache. Then normal service will resume.

 

WARNING: Incoming rant.

As you know, I help out on forums from time-to-time… Well, a lot actually. But sometimes people just don’t seem to want to give up the most basic of information which might help diagnose the problem.

I’ve blogged about this in the past and this example, especially the response to my initial question, shows the utter uselessness of the information given.

Eejit: My stored procedure doesn’t work. It has an error.
(A stored procedure was listed with no obvious point of failure)
Me: What is the error?
Eejit: The error code is not zero but another number.
(Note: Zero = success, an other number indicates various types of error)
Me: What is the error code given?

At this point I just want to give up in dispair. Do these people go to their doctor and say simply: “I feel unwell. It hurts.” And then where the doctor asks where they respond: “Somewhere on my body.” Do they expect their doctor to diagnose them with that level of information. Maybe they should have seen a vet – at least then they could have been put out of their misery!

NOTE: This was rescued from the Google Cache. The original was posted on Sunday, 18th March 2007

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Original Comments:

It doesn’t matter when you see the doctor as you’ll be going away with a prescription for Asprin or Paracetomol!

At some point you just need to say, sorry I can’t help you if you’re not able to help me to understand your problem. Perhaps you’d like to try another forum!

3/28/2007 9:57 PM | John A Thomson

 

It usually comes down to that. I do have to bite my tongue (or fingers in this case) as I try not to sound too irritated. Which is why I occasionally have to vent on my blog.

3/28/2007 10:14 PM | Colin Angus Mackay

 

When I was active in the newsgroups/forums I got this kind of frustration so often that in the end I created a set of rules and posted them to my blog. Next time someone broke a rule, I would reply with just the URL to the rules and nothing else. Soon other MVP and MSFT support people started doing the same: http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/2005/03/please-read-before-posting-to-ng.html

4/19/2007 10:08 AM | Daniel Moth

Last night I did a presentation to the Edinburgh Branch of the Institution of Civil Engineers on how to give a presentation. The slide deck is now available on my website.

Tags: presentation slide deck toastmasters

NOTE: This was rescued from the Google Cache. The original date was Wednesday, 24th March, 2007

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Original Comments:

Ya kept that quiet!

3/28/2007 9:55 PM | John A Thomson

 

I wasn’t aware you were interested. The purpose of the evening was to help prepare those who have applied to be chartered. I was the first speaker and I covered the basics of giving a presentation. The second speaker was a “reviewer” (One of the people that will review the presentation) that talked about what they were looking for with regard to actual content.

3/28/2007 10:12 PM | Colin Angus Mackay

I’ve finally got around to finishing an article. I’ve got a stack of half finished articles just waiting to be completed so I hope to get more articles finished in the near future. Mock Objects next I think (but don’t hold your breath – I’ve got regular expressions, LINQ and a whole bunch of other topics waiting too)

There are two versions of the article. The full article is available on my website: Test Driven / First Development by Example (full edition). The shorter version is available on Code Project: Test Driven / First Development by Example (abridged edition).

Tags: tdd test driven development test first development agile

using System;
using System.Drawing;

namespace Love
{

    class Flower
    {
        private Color color;
        public Color Color
        {
            get { return this.color; }
            set { this.color = value; }
        }
    }

    class Rose : Flower
    {
        public Rose(Color color)
        {
            this.Color = color;
        }
    }

    class Violet : Flower
    {
        public Violet(Color color)
        {
            this.Color = color;
        }
    }

    interface ICharactaristic
    {
        bool IsSweet { get; set;}
    }

    class Sugar : ICharactaristic
    {
        bool isSweet;

        #region ICharactaristic Members
        public bool IsSweet
        {
            get { return this.isSweet; }
            set { this.isSweet = value; }
        }
        #endregion

    }

    class You : ICharactaristic
    {
        bool isSweet;

        #region ICharactaristic Members
        public bool IsSweet
        {
            get { return this.isSweet; }
            set { this.isSweet = value; }
        }
        #endregion
    }

    class Valentine
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Rose[] roses = new Rose[12];
            Violet[] violets = new Violet[12];

            for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++)
            {
                roses[i] = new Rose(Color.Red);
                violets[i] = new Violet(Color.Blue);
            }

            Sugar sugar = new Sugar();
            sugar.IsSweet = true;

            You you = new You();
            you.IsSweet = true;
        }
    }
}