Michelle Flynn
About: Internal Recruitment Manager for Conchango, a Technology Delivery Consultancy.
Blog Posts
Not Guilty (well, not always that is) pt I
--The checkout process is always the prime suspect in the case of the retailer vs. high abandonment rates. A high abandonment rate is an un...
Microsoft to acquire Zoomix
--News just in… Microsoft have purchased Zoomix, a data quality software vendor. From the press release: Zoomix will contribute a critical la...
A method should have only one return statement. Discuss.
--I heard again recently that "A method should have only one return statement" and of "The single-return law", that more than one return was a poor c...
The ALT.NET Community on Alternative .NET Tools
--EVENT DETAILS Who: Gojko Adzic & other members of the ALT.NET Community What: The ALT.NET Community on Alternative .NET Tools Wher...
Designing a Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Skin with Blend - Free download (with source files!)
--Click here to view the Silverlight Skin demo You will need the Beta 2 plugin from here.Since Silverlight 2 Beta 2 came out and trashed my Beta 1 ...
Moving House
--My blog hasn't been updated in a while since I've been sorting out a blog of my very own, which is now up and running. So henceforth my rambling th...
SSIS Nugget: Conditionally email a file containing error rows
--Someone emailed me today asking: I have an SSIS package that outputs data that can’t be inserted into destination tables into flat log files [JT: ...
Sybase PowerDesigner Scripting
--I recently started to use PowerDesigner 12.5 on a project I am involved in at Conchango. Being naturally lazy my hope is that PowerDesign...
How I built a Team Foundation Server custom data warehouse adapter
--As mentioned in a previous blog I would like to explain some of the steps I took to get my custom data warehouse adapter to work. I am going ...
Building a Team Foundation Server custom data warehouse adapter
--I have been investigating a way of adding more metrics about our builds into the Team Foundation Server 2008 warehouse. This would then allow...
Synchronous and Asynchronous Shopping
--A couple of days ago I was asked to explain the difference between synchronous and asynchronous I/O. This was something that I covered last y...
SQL Security Patch Build is CU6+ but not quite CU7
--So as suspected when I installed the new Security patch released by Microsoft for SQL 2005 sp2 that I mentioned this morning my build number has in...
Alt.Net UK Summer Conference Dates Announced
--We are pleased to announce that the Alt.Net UK Conference will be returning in September, and that there will be room for more attendees this time!...
SQL Server and Windows Security patch posted
--And so the great run comes to an end... For the full details of this incident please click here. N.B. This also affects Windows. However this is r...
Query Analyzer or Management Studio?
--Lately I’ve been working on a SQL2000 project and its afforded me the opportunity to get re-aquainted with the granddaddy of SQL Server query tools...
Madman is unleashed, uncensored and LIVE!
--This evening my Diary of a Madman blog took it's tentative first steps out to the big bad world and came out of the shadow of the Conchango blog zo...
Skinning Controls in Silverlight 2 Beta 2 - Introducing the TabControl, TabPanel and TabItem
--With the new release of Silverlight 2 Beta 2 came a new drop of controls that allow the designer and developer to build tabbed content that we have...
VBUG Bracknell: Creating Silverlight apps using Blend & VS'08
--Silverlight developer Tim Hustler and Expressions Blend designer Simon Sturgess plan to do a 2-hour how-to on creating Silverlight apps using Blend...
The next London .Net User Group
--The next London .Net User Group will be hosted by Skills Matter on 24th July @ 6:30pm. Ian Cooper will be talking about Domain Driven Design...
Resources for Spatial Data in SQL Server 2008
--As you may be aware we recently hosted a meeting of the UK SQL Server User Group featuring Michael Rys. For those of you who weren't able to jot d...
VISIO 2007 add-in for SQL Server Infrastructure Diagrams
--Here's a little freebie from Microsoft for those of you who have the job of drawing out infrastructure diagrams of SQL Server farms. Ok that alread...
Hello World
--So, okay, the title’s a bit cheesy (and probably been used a thousand times before) for the blog of a software developer, but after almost a year t...
Interview with NDM - "Non-Digital Man"
--In the second part of our journey with NDM (Non-Digital Man) it was time to track him down and speak to him face to face and see if we can get to t...
Conchango Summer Fun Day
--Last Sunday 6th July Conchango hosted their annual Summer Fun Day at Windsor Race Course. All of the Conchango team, their partners and children we...
A Day In The Life of... NDM - "Non-Digital Man"
--As a digital media guru / evangelist or whatever I may be tagged as, I immerse myself in the benefits, convenience, lifestyle and immediacy that di...
Using a Bitmask - a practical example
--A colleague of mine asked for a simple example to get him up and running with the basics of bitmasking. Since I had gone to the effort to cre...
SQLBits III Session Submissions Deadline Update
--In an earlier post I mentioned that the 4th July had been set as the deadline for submission of session abstracts. This deadline has now been...
T-SQL: Do you use aliases?
--A pet peeve of mine is the lack of alias usage when using T-SQL. I’m not sure why people don’t bother using aliases –I’ve never asked- but I suspec...
Micro-Distribution - The Power Belongs To Us (maybe soon, anyway)
--Hello. First post in these here parts. I only just arrived a couple of weeks ago... Meantime, I might as well leap in with a big idea... We watch ...
Spatial Data Eye Candy
--In an earlier post I mentioned the new visualisation functionality for spatial data. Michael Rys kindly pointed me in the direction of Isaac'...
Want an XBOX 360 for free? Then enter the SQLBits Logo Competition...
--That's right! The prize for coming up with the winning logo for SQLBits is an XBOX 360! Not only do you get the console but also the satisfaction o...
T-SQL IDENTITY : Fun and Games with DBCC CHECKIDENT
--This issue caught me out today whilst putting together some build scripts for reference data. So I thought I’d share it. USE [tempdb...
Probing your Customer Service Proposition
--The report on the top 50 UK retailers customer services proposition is still in progress. By progress I mean that all the criteria for evalua...
The Physical Attraction
--Summary: The difference between a physical and a logical data model. I am guilty. I am a repeat offender. In my own defen...
Conchango hosts UK SQL Server User Group with Michael Rys
--Monday 30th June 2008. On Monday evening we were very fortunate to have Michael Rys present to the UK SQL Server User Group hosted at Conchango's ...
Awarded MVP for SharePoint
--This morning, Microsoft emailed to tell me I have given the Microsoft MVP award for SharePoint! It's a lot to take in all at once. When...
Hacking a webcam for Computer-Vision
--In the previous post I mentioned how critical is to have the clearest images as possible to analyze and for this reason is important to know all th...
Introduction to Computer-Vision
--You might ask: “how on Earth computer-vision is related to RIA?”, my answer is “as Microsoft Surface is”.Computer-vision is the technique used to m...
Oslo and the future of BizTalk
--So how far has Microsoft reached with its Oslo vision and what is the future of BizTalk? This was a common question amongst various people I met d...
SSDS: I'm gonna get 500 results and then I'll get 500 more...
--I recently got accepted onto the SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) beta program and have been getting to grips with the how, what and why of the...
Setting an alternative home page of portal in place of the default.aspx portal home page
--Over time I've heard this request coming in several times, so this is the time to share my idea on how to make it happen. so far I've found this th...
London .Net User Group tonight
--Conchango again have the pleasure of hosting the London .Net User Group with Ian Cooper. It is in our Southwark Bridge Office. See you here at...
London SQL Server User Group event next Monday
--[For those that didn't see this posted by Simon: http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/simons/archive/2008/06/24/Meet-Michael-Rys-next-week---XML-and-other...
Where do I start?
--Summary: Explanation of the domain modelling technique Blah. It's the beginning of a project and you think to yourself what do ...
Skinning Controls in Silverlight 2 Beta 2
--With the new release of Beta 2 and Blend skinning of Silverlight controls has improved dramatically. Rather than hand cranking these due to no supp...
SQLBits III Session submission is open
--Not a lot more to say about this other than... HURRY. You only have till the 4th July to get those abstracts written and your sessions submit...
Adding to the Lore: SSRS Tells Me "rsAccessDenied", But ... I Really DO Have Access
--A few weeks back, I was working with my developer colleague on a project involving SQL Server Reporting Services plug-in for MOSS. He was dev...
Someone to talk to – pt I
--Momentum is building for self-service technologies in the real world. Consumers are adopting these self-service interactions and interacting ...
Insert tracepoint in Visual Studio for Debug.WriteLine alternative
--For those who like me didn’t know about this hidden gem: You can now set Tracepoints instead of just Breakpoints in VS2008. Here’s the...
Free Event for Designers
--Tricky (Director of Tricky Business) is hosting an event on the 10th July in association with screenedit.com and encourage you to register&nbs...
SharePoint portal implementation approach
--I was very excited to have an opportunity to write an article on the SharePoint implementation approach best practice topic for TechTarget. Unfortu...
WebDav interface within the SharePoint library
--Technorati Tags: SharePoint,webDav,Web Folders,windows explorer,desktop While the WebDav interface within SharePoint libraries provides a very use...
Restoring PORTAL site collection from one farm to another
--When you backup portal site collection from Farm1 and try to restore it not as a portal site collection on Farm2, but as a site...
Resharper and Source Analysis, not playing together
--I've had Microsoft Source Analysis (AKA StyleCop) installed for a couple of weeks. Yesterday I have very belatedly taken the plunge into Resharper....
Sleepless in Seattle
--Well after 5 months with Conchango I thought it was about time to write my first blog, I guessed now was a better time than any considering that I ...
All the stats you want and more? You got it....
--Woopra is the new kid on the block when it comes to web analytics.It provides a similar service to Google analytics, except it does it in real-time...
UPA Careers Event
--Conchango are one of the event sponsors for the UPA Careers Events on Thursday 3rd July. The event aims to bring together User Experience companies...
T-SQL: Multiple ALTER COLUMN clauses in an ALTER TABLE statement
--Quick one. Do you think it would be useful to be able to do this: ALTER TABLE t ALTER COLUMN c1 int null ALTER COLUMN c2 i...
At the time, did you know it was the last time?
--As a parent you watch your kids go through phases, just you aren't always aware that you are entering a phase or leaving one. For example, when is ...
When "Teenage Kicks" turn to "Middle-aged Hypocrisy"
--Sometimes I think that the music business today could'nt shock or surprise me anymore - then I realise that while we go through this defining phase...
Can queue theory help manage queues ?
--Well you'd be forgiven for thinking so given the name, but the queues I'm referring to are those at the supermarket checkouts rather than network t...
Rename Outlook 2007 folders
--I recently had a strange issue with my Outlook inbox being renamed to that of a document I had just emailed from Word. I wasn't able to rename the ...
BI: What do users care about?
--In July 2007 I wrote a blog entry called Business Intelligence, what is it and what is it not? which turned into a bit of a rant about how Business...
Hacking visual studio to use greater than 2GB of memory
--See here http://stevenharman.net/blog/archive/2008/04/29/hacking-visual-studio-to-use-more-than-2gigabytes-of-memory.aspx
Code coverage in Visual Studio 2008 using Test driven .NET and Team Coverage
--A colleague of mine this week showed me his code coverage as being over 94% for his production code, which impressed me so much, it spurred me on t...
Upgrading from Silverlight Beta 1 to Beta 2
--Felix and I have been presenting around Europe at the Remix Essentials events giving away a white labelled Silverlight mashup. Being on the Silverl...
Podcasting Kit for SharePoint
--I had been searching for blog platforms that could accommodate both podcasts and video and have the ability to download them to a mobile device. &...
Size matters
--Few days ago, during the community day, I introduced myself to a new colleague, of a very different department. Since my main focus at the present ...
Conchango hosts the next London .Net User Group
--Alongside Ian Cooper, Conchango will be hosting the next London .Net User Group on Wednesday 25th June. Full details of speakers and times to follo...
Outlook 2007 indexing issue
--A user here at Conchango was having a problem of his outlook 2007 not indexing all his emails correctly and therefore when he went into search it c...
First: Blog
--I have been with Conchango for a while and have been toying with the idea of putting my ideas and thoughts on the blog site, and have finally got a...
Bag Of Tools
--Summary: Brief description of my commonly used tools for functional specification. MacGyver was my idol back in circa 1990. The secret...
Task Board Report
--One of our new reports within the Scrum for Team System template is the Task Board report. This report will show the current status of the wo...
Could HTTP Soap / T-SQL endpoint be replaced by Reporting Services XML Reports?
--I have been working on a POC using SQL Server 2008 and Google Maps. The POC was to use Geo Spatial technology to illustrate our Geo Spatial d...
Invoking SSRS Web Services From WSS / MOSS in FBA Environment
--We needed to invoke the "CreateSubscription" method on an SSRS web service that is hosted in an FBA managed MOSS environment from a custom web part...
ReSharper 4.0 from JetBrains is released
--The JetBrains team have been working hard at getting functionality and bug fixes into version 4.0 of ReSharper. I'm very excited to see that ...
Part Two - User Centred Design and Business Intelligence
--I've blogged on the benefits of bringing together BI and UCD before (User Centred Design and Business Intelligence), and how this can be used to di...
Update on T-SQL MERGE
--The MERGE syntax I used here has changed. In 2008 RC0 the "WHEN SOURCE NOT MATCHED" clause is replaced with "WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE" ...
SQL Server 2008 RC0
--SQL Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 (build 10.0.1442.32) was released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on Friday. It should be available to everyo...
Event handler on a document library with custom editform
--Technorati Tags: SharePoint,event handler,Document library,custom edit form,multiple value lookup field Even though this is probably a known iss...
SSIS: Using @[System::SourceParentGUID] for custom logging
--In my blog entry Custom Logging Using Event Handlers from June 2005 I described an easy technique for using SSIS eventhandlers to get more useful l...
One small step for the SSIS team, one giant leap for SSIS developers
--That’s what I twittered recently upon first opening up Release Candidate 0 of SQL Server 2008. You may remember that back in March of this y...
Silverlight 2 Beta2 now public!
--It's out! The Microsoft team have been incredibly busy but they've managed to make Silverlight 2 Beta2 public today! Get your old versions of Silv...
Google thinks I'm a virus?
--anyone noticed a LOT of error returns from Google recently, stating that "...your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus o...
PDF Saga continues
--Technorati Tags: PDF support,SharePoint library,document management,Workflows,Adobe Redaction tool Adobe, adobe... One of our clients had asked ...
Web Cache - What to consider for content caching
--I never thought selecting a content web caching framework can get as complicated until I was involved in the process recently. Some of the questi...
SSDS: Will we get a cloud-based aggregation engine?
--I have been keeping a close eye on machinations in the SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) arena and whilst the product hasn't reached the masses yet (...
A-Z Guide to being an Architect
--While reading the Architecture Journal I came across this excellent thought of skills from A-Z which really depicts that "architecture is as much...
NUDA
--With plenty of people anticipating the massively multiple core CPU era, NUMA architectures in regular workstations, and all the wonderful developme...
Invoke-RemoteCommand - PowerShell CmdLet to tide me over until PowerShell V2
--To tide me over until PowerShell V2 ships and we can perform remote PowerShell out of the box, I have created a simple WMI based CmdLet that will ...
Partition, Federate, Aggregate and Synchronise
--It is common practice to use a partitioning function to scale out a solution. For example, you may divide a database among four equal geographical ...
Getting Started With Scrum for Team System Version 2
--Getting started with Scrum for Team SystemI’ve written the below blog post to help people new to scrum get started with the Scrum for Team System p...
File Sharers Beware!!
--Anyone who partakes in file sharing music files on P2P services be aware of what's recently been happening out in the world of illegal music sharin...
Using Linked Files with Web Application Projects
--A customer recently contacted me saying that they had upgraded to Visual Studio 2008 and had also taken the opportunity to switch from a Web Site P...
Source Analysis for T-SQL perchance?
--My learned colleague Howard van Rooijen recently blogged about the new release of Microsoft Source Analysis for C# (aka StyleCop) and his ent...
BBC (a follow up..)
--Some of you may recall my blog a few weeks ago - with me ranting on about the BBC and how it doesn't really fit into todays digital media world - a...
Scrum for Team System - Work Item Migration Utility
--Scrum for Team System – Work Item Migration Utility During the creation of the Scrum for Team System (SfTS) version 2 template, the development te...
Getting started on J2EE 5 (or shall we say Java EE 5 now)
--Well, you guessed it right. The first change in J2EE 5 is there is no 2 anymore. It is now simply, Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE). The first tho...
Saving Older MS Office Files to SharePoint Using WebDAV -- Problems and Fixes
--During the past week, my colleague and I were doing some work for a client in NYC. We were testing a different aspects of a MOSS implementati...
Versions.aspx Unknown Error
--Technorati Tags: Sharepoint,sharepoint designer,editform,version history Latest findings :-) Did you ever receive "Unknown Error" (love these des...
Microsoft Source Analysis for C# + ReSharper = Real-time Source Analysis
--I've worked on a couple of projects for Microsoft UK - one of the many great aspects of those projects was being able to use some very cool interna...
Passing binary data to Flash
--Flash applications have always been, thanks to classes like XMLSocket, a good client for push http services. On the web you can find many chat appl...
SSIS: What does DTSER_SUCCESS (0) mean?
--Whenever you run a SSIS package from the command-line you will see some output that looks similar to the following in your console window: Or pre...
SSIS: New blogger from the SSIS team
--Quick note. Doug Laudenschlager (I've checked and rechecked the spelling - I think that's right :) from the SSIS team has begun a SSIS related blog...
Taking the right tone
--My years spent working at Oddbins have left me with a long-standing interest in wine, as I'm sure some of you know, and having just been talked up ...
Failure is not an option !
--I've been frustrated recently by being surrounded by some 'Old Skool' supplier management techniques. I've always worked in Retail so I'm use...
Native support for PDF and ODF by Microsoft
--Finally, this has been some great announcement from Microsoft When using SP2, customers will be able to open, edit and save documents usin...
Fuzzyness
--SQL Server 2008 is introducing some interesting querying and storage enhancements such as the introduction of spatial data and the FILESTREAM attri...
RIA developers wanted!
--If you are willing to use the latest RIA technologies to create tomorrow's user experiences, it could be your lucky day!The team is growing and we ...
People and Process over Technology
--As technology and engineering zealots there is nothing we can't build. Seriously. It is all a question of time, resource and budget. And there's th...
Free SharePoint online training resources
--Technorati Tags: Sharepoint,free online training,sharepoint training Recently I felt compelled to set up a list of free online training resources, ...
Filesystem access from Flash Player 10
--I was very surprised when I heard this. During these years Adobe (formerly Macromedia) tried their best to keep the Flash Player sendbox well sep...
Flash Player 10 first test
--On the weekend I managed to test the performance of the new player from Adobe. It's still in beta and because the new support for hardware accelera...
Code Stats as AIR app
--First of all I’d like to say that I developed this application, on my spare time at home, not because particularly useful but to have an opportunit...
Seth's blog: The new standard for meetings and conferences
--Another nail on head moment from Seth Godin in his post 'The new standard for meetings and conferences' I particularly like the following wake up c...
Welcome to Filthy RIA
--As first post here on Conchango’s blogs, is my intention to introduce myself and the topics that are likely to appear on this stream, that will mak...
SSIS Nugget: Ensure your root folder is valid
--In the past I have advocated (and still do advocate) the use of a user variable in SSIS packages to store the path to a folder on the hard drive; I...
ASP.Net features of Web Development Helper
--Introduction I've used Nikhil's Web Developer Helper a number of times in the past for looking at what is sent back and forth across the wire, but...
Logging Workflow Activity in SharePoint Designer
--Last week, I was working out how to loop and implement a state machine using SharePoint Designer and mentioned, as an aside, that I would probably ...
The Trouble With Tribbles ... err .. KPIs
--This past week I finished off a proof of concept project for a client in Manhattan. While implementing the solution, I ran into another short...
"Fashion...turn to the left, Fashion...turn to the right..."
--It's been almost a year since a crack team of Conchango experts went up to Bradford and delivered a little flash application that a year on is stil...
Microsoft turn their back on WMDRM and their customers (again!!)
--I read with some dismay and anger that MSN Music UK - is to stop supporting the WMDRM from 31st August 2008. Which means that after this time users...
Welcome to the Free World (Blog version)
--A little while ago along with my usual ranting and ramblings I actually was strapped down and forced to write in a cohesive and structured manner. ...
WinFS lives!
--I listen to a lot of podcast series these days (a great way of filling up my one hour train commute) and I've recently subscribed to Perspectives w...
Alt.Net UK Summer Conference
--Many of you will have either heard of or attended our inaugural Conference in February, hosted in the Conchango London offices by Ian Cooper, Alan ...
MOSS Small Farm Installation and Configuration War Story
--This week, I've struggled a bit with my team to get MOSS installed in a simple two-server farm. Having gone through it, I have a greater appr...
Asimo being shipped off to Disneyland
--You have to hand it to Honda. Their cuddly little robot, Asimo, is back in the news. This time he's been out there conducting the Detroit Symphony ...
Mea Culpa -- SharePoint Designer *CAN* Create State Machine Workflows
--I've recently learned that it's possible and even fairly easy to create a state machine workflow using SharePoint Designer. Necessity is the ...
Open-Edit-Save PDF document into SharePoint library
--Technorati Tags: Workflow,PDF,WebDav,Sharepoint library,adobe,sharepoint Recently one of our clients had decided not to just preview PDF documents...
We are (still) hiring!
--Periodically I put a call out on this blog asking for people to send us their CVs and in the past its proved to be a good avenue for getting t...
Please sponsor me
--So I (somewhat foolishly, I suspect given my overall fitness) decided to sign up to do the London to Brighton cycle ride. It's Europe's biggest and...
Carbon footprint labelling comes to a supermarket near you...
--Tesco opens up another front on the green supermarket war today, by announcing that products will now be labelled with their individual car...
Using linq in your C# code
--Just came across a nasty gotcha today, where by we were trying to use the new C# 3.5 syntax var x = from item in items select new Item { ItemName =...
The Requirements Bullwhip Diagram
--As a Business Analyst I spend a significant proportion of my time working with both business and IT stakeholders to understand, document and then m...
MDX: Getting the current quarter
--I've been wrestling with MDX in PerformancePoint today and was attempting to do something that I thought would be pretty simple. Work out what is t...
Altnet London Social
--There have been beers arranged following the Altnet conference Conchango hosted ealier in the year. It is on Thursday 15th May @ 8:30 in: The Crown...
M&S start charging for food carrier bags
--5p for Carrier bags, good for the environment and good for business... Today, Marks & Spencer begin charging 5p for food carrier bags. T...
The technology's not working. Quick! more Technology!
--According to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, quoted today in this article from the Guardian, CCTV ain't working.The problem appears to be t...
SSIS: Absolute and relative paths
--SSIS uses absolute paths to point to objects on the file system. What does that mean? In short it means that in order to point to a file I would ha...
USB vs FTP... For DeepZoom collections?
--If you're creating a DeepZoom collection in Silverlight 2, you will at some point have to get a massive amount of files into a web server's filesys...
Dear old Ethel
--When a retailer's business hits the rocks, everyone and his dog has an opinion. It's a rare industry whose dirty laundry is so publicly aired as th...
SSDS and Mesh
--SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) and Live Mesh are the two technologies that are uppermost in my mind at the moment. [My thoughts on SSDS are here a...
Joseph Pelrine's Blend of Science, Process & Teamwork
--InfoQ recently featured an interview with Joseph Pelrine. Joseph has done a good deal to facilitate my journey into Agile and Scrum and for this I ...
Data securita italia
--After many stories of laptops going missing with sensitive Government information, it is mildly amusing to hear that in Italy the outgoing Governme...
Racing Results - My first cycling blog
--Last night I managed to get my first top ten placing this year in a National Road Race. As many of you have seen me riding in and out of our Notcut...
Fast Installation of Fabulous 40 templates
--Over some period of time I’ve got tired of installing Fab. 40 templates solutions over and over again. The time had come to write a script ...
Janet from Kansas knows a thing or two about user experience
--It's not often that I get a newsletter from Janet in Kansas, but when I do, she never fails to lift my spirits. I don't know her per...
What's wrong with this picture?
--Sitting in traffic the other week, staring aimlessly out of the window I took in the following scene... It made me chuckle and reach for my pho...
My new favourite browser
--"As the Web evolves from its one-way, 'search and retrieve' paradigm into a medium that's more like an unending conversation, browser software will...
God is in the detail
--I just love this kind of attention and dedication to detail, and the likelihood that 99.9% of people won't even notice it: "Spiritualized's J...
SharePoint fix for Scrum for Team System 2.1 Upgrades
--As some of our users have been aware there are some issues when doing an in-place upgrade to Team Foundation Server 2008 and Windows SharePo...
Green credentials - altruism or commercial interest?
--Conchango recently hosted a Retail Business Intelligence Seminar, which was attended by many of the UK's leading retailers. The format of the...
My first blog
--OK, so here it is, my first blog entry. My first bold steps into committing my random musings to the vast annals of cyberspace forever. So w...
John Maeda on Simplicity
--I know it's been around for a while now, and I have turned up late to the party, but what a cracking little book John Maeda's 'The Laws of Simplici...
Eveybody's blogging nowadays
--Ok, a promise is a promise so here goes...Seems there is a big push to get those of us who are not blogging doing so, and those already blogging do...
Scrum as Codified Common Sense
--It seems to me that over the years, organisations have responded to both the increasing complexity of projects and their dismal success rate by hea...
Quick and Simple: Make an InfoPath Form Read Only (InfoPath Forms Services in MOSS)
--There's a common business scenario like this: User fills out an InfoPath form. Submits form. Long-running workflow process kicks off. While the...
The Crystal Goblet of User Experince
--Is this the first ever text on user experience?..................................The Crystal GobletBy Beatrice Warde Imagine that...
Microsoft Vista SP1 automatic distribution announced
--I received the mail today that Microsoft have begun automatic distribution of windows vista SP1 in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese a...
History is our greatest teacher
--IT is old enough now to see itself repeating itself. It is also old enough for a lot of us not to remember a lot of it and benefit from the history...
Use Semaphores in SharePoint Designer Workflow to Prevent Endless Loops
--It's possible to cause an endless loop in a SharePoint Designer workflow. A common implementation pattern like this causes the problem: Crea...
User interface usablity with spoken numbers
--Just a quick note on something that was on my mind. I knew someone who lived on a "Seven Sisters road", at number 20. She knew that "Seven Sisters"...
Live Mesh - gone public now
--Live mesh is a new technology and platform that enables synchronization and storage "to the cloud." A Software + Services platform an...
Project needs versus blame
--Hi It's been a while since my last post and this has been sitting on my laptop for months. One of the things which has troubled me in...
Developers: How Do I Learn SharePoint?
--In the last several months, a dozen or more folks from across the planet have been emailing me and asking the general question, "How do I learn Sha...
I’ll have a shot of ugc with my latte
--Struggling US coffee giant, Starbucks, has turned to an interesting source for inspiration – its customers. The brand has recently laun...
Do you friendfeed?
--Is anyone out there using friendfeed? I got switched onto it about a month ago and have been "using" it ever since to publish my various blog, phot...
Configuring Windows Live Writer
--I just started using 'Windows Live Writer' (in fact I am using it right now for this post) and thought it would be good to share, how to...
Abstractions and Facades vs Fundamentals
--Abstractions are a beautiful thing, and it is said that any problem in technology can be solved with another level of abstraction or indirection. T...
Hello World
--Well it now almost three months since I joined Conchango and well and truly time to get this blog on the road. By way of introduction, you may like...
Time to forget the user?
--Users live in the digital world, customers in the digital and physical. But acustomer is always a customer and only a user when they interact with ...
The face must fit
--From user research and other customer insight I create the primary persona, Siobhan, a fictional portrait of a customer for a high street retailer ...
IPTV Advertising
--What is pre-roll blindness?It's just like the trailers at the start of your DVD you can't fast forward. You ignore them. Only paying enough attenti...
SSIS: Deleting a group of files
--A question I quite often see on the SSIS forum is: Is there a way to delete a group of files within a directory? ie: I want to delete all files in...
Data Protection Manager: Seems Like a Great SharePoint Backup/Restore Solution
--At the New Jersey SharePoint User Group meeting last night, Microsoft Sr. product specialist DuWayne Harrison presented Microsoft Data Protection M...
Where's my Virtual PC console disappeared to?
--I run various Virtual PC systems from my laptop but recently, for some reason I lost the VPC 2007 console off screen. I thought that a new addition...
Walk-through: Fix Employee Training Template Available Seats Unregister Bug
--As many people know, the Employee Training template provided by Microsoft here has a bug that we can reproduce following these steps: Create a cla...
BBC in the 21st Century - Time for a change?
--The BBC - a British institution, a corporation that has been funded for almost 80 years by the public by an antiquated licence fee that goes to fun...
Nationwide have introduced Card Reader Security will other banks follow the trend?
--A few days ago I received a brand new Nationwide Debit card. This was to replace my old card which was working fine. Being a bore I realised tha...
PORN - is it really a dirty 4 letter word?
--** Warning ** Just to point out and to mention - that the site(s) and topic that is being discussed below - if anyone does decide to review any of ...
Immersive interfaces and affordable interactive services
--Over on TED right now (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/245) is a video by a young man named Johnny Lee. He has been using a hacked Ninte...
SSIS: Data Profiling Task: Part 10 - Parsing the output
--Back in February and March I wrote a series of blog entries explaining how to use the various profile requests in the new Data Profiling Task that ...
SSIS: Package parts
--As SQL Server 2008 is practically now a done deal my thoughts have turned to what will come in future versions. One feature I would like is somethi...
I am not a writer. I fear words.
--Last week, a creative called Paul Arden lost his battle with a long-term illness. While you might not realise it, you probably know the man’s work ...
The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers
--(Quote from Richard Hamming an American Mathematician and the founder and president of the Association for Computing Machinery) As an Experience...
Dear hilaryfortnum.co.uk
--Dear Hilary, As a comedy blog, I think you’ve got a lot going for you. Big persona – bit Colonel Merryweather/silver surfer, bit Yorkshire [...
Team 5 make it to Brighton
--This Saturday 5 members of the Conchango team got on their bikes and headed for Brighton. Martin "This is the last hill...." Philpott Ray "Honest ...
One more video for you from Silverlight UG
--Ian Smith has kindly sorted out Video 5 for us: If you have not seen the others yet check out my last blog.
Sitecore Xpress
--Sitecore a .NET content management system I have spoken about on several occasions, have released a light weight version of their content managemen...
Ignorance was bliss
--Over the past fifteen years the globe has been privy to the wildest uncontrolled burst of communication technology growth ever seen. From glo...
TEST EXPO London!
--So today I was at Test Expo in London. I went to Test Expo 6 months ago in Manchester, lots of freebies and no presentations on agile. Freeb...
Content Query Web Part: Speaking at New York SharePoint Users Group
--I will be speaking with my colleague, Natalya Voskresenskaya, at the New York SharePoint Users Group meeting Wednesday May 7th. Thanks to Bob Fox f...
SSIS: MVP Summit 2008
--Next Monday (14th April) brings with it the start of the Microsoft MVP Summit 2008. This is an opportunity for all of the (give or take a few) 4000...
Retailers: Get ready for Easter...
--...TO LATE!!! As most (hopefully ALL) retailers know Easter is the second most important trading time after Christmas! However - how many retailers...
Why oh why?
--Was I on the phone 13 minutes and 27 seconds to cancel a doctors appointment? I would have cancelled online but it would appear I nee...
Disposable Heroes
--In my quest and mission to inform and of course to put my tuppence worth in in regard to the state of the music industry - I think you have got to ...
FAST SharePoint Integration: Execute a Simple Query
--This is a continuation in my FAST coding mini-series for SharePoint folk. The bit of code below executes a search for the term "test" in FAST...
FAST SharePoint Integration: Sample Code to Display All Available FAST Views
--Here is some code that shows all available views from a FAST server based on the named QRServer (the server process with which we communicat...
Silverlight User Group - Recording of the event & Mailing list for you to join
--Ian Smith kindly recorded the event for us, see below: Video 1: Introduction (Paul Dawson, Michelle Flynn, Mark Mann) Video 2: Silver...
FAST and SharePoint Integration First Look
--I've been lucky to have an opportunity to work on a FAST <--> SharePoint integration project and thought I'd continue to share my limited exp...
TestExpo - Thursday 10th April
--Conchango are exhibiting at TestExpo on Thursday 10th April. It is being held at: Congress Centre 23-28 Great Russell Street London WC1B 3LS...
Windows Server 2008 MCITP Exams finally released
--Firstly I have to say that I'm very impressed that this is posting number four for me , as my "public speaking/speech writing" skills aren't the st...
Feedback on the UK's 1st Silverlight User Group
--"It was the best user group I have ever been to!" "Can I bring my colleagues to the next one?" "Conchango know how to host a user group" "What a pl...
Silverlight UK User Group Kickoff
--What better a subject for my first blog post here than the kickoff of the Silverlight UK User Group?Well, I helped facilitate the inaugural event h...
Daylight savings issue with MOSS 2007 deployments pre SP1
--Daylight savings time. http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/10/09/important-security-hotfix-ms07-059.aspx When the clocks went forward o...
EMC to acquire Conchango
--News announced yesterday that EMC are to acquire Conchango.
Keeping it short and tweet
--After news that a US journalist was following the nomination race over the pond via Twitter (http://twitter.com/anamariecox), it seems that UK poli...
"New" company or "New" employer!!!
--Very interesting day... Something that I thought would be a company-wide meeting turned into a BIG announcement.... I guess, I work for EMC now :-)...
London SQL Server User Group: April 17
--Hi. Tony and Simon will be away hobnobbing at an MVP do in Seattle and so have asked me to fill in for them at the next London SQL Server Use...
Determine FAST QRServer Port
--In order to communicate with FAST Search via its API, we need to know the port on which the QRServer is running. I followed these steps to locate i...
Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) - Groups, Roles & User management API’s
--Last week I worked on a pretty basic Sharepoint requirement but while developing the solution I came across few interesting things wh...
Selling houses with fuzzy logic
--Isn't searching for a house online addictive? You spend hours and hours at the computer, changing sites, varying search parameters, taking virtua...
T5 Revisited
--Following my recent post prior to T5 launch, it was interesting to see how the other airlines reacted to the chaos and disruption at BA, seizing th...
Cannot open virtual machine in VMware Workstation
--You will receive this error when your virtual machine was not properly shut down "Could not open virtual machine: C:\.......\machinename.vmx. This ...
Onions, and the importance of knowing them
--As a relatively recent convert to the agency world, having worked on the client side in retail all my professional life, I sometimes find myself se...
UK Silverlight User Group - Agenda
--UK Silverlight User Group hosted by Conchango in their London Bridge office. Inaugural meeting - Agenda 6.30pm-9pm - 2nd April 2007 K...
The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war is over, will Digital Downloads be the real winner?
--As most people know Blu-Ray won the HD disc war, effectively when Warner Bros. jumped ship from the Toshiba led HD-DVD format to the Sony-Matsushit...
Living the digital lifestyle and all the spam that entails...
--As more of us get 'hooked up' and start settling into our digital communications lifestyle, more people I know are going through a learning curve t...
Why would anyone want to work in Application Support?
--To explain my situation, I must say that I do work in application support. And no, it is not because I am not good enough at my job to write soft...
I must post to my blog, I must post to my blog...
--Curse you Tayler Cresswell, you have forced me to confront my responsibilities. No more skulking in the shadows. Unfortunately, like Flash Gordon, ...
User Centred Design and Business Intelligence
--Traditional BI was all about numbers, charts and reports and it's been replaced by super whizzy dashboards that promise the earth but may or may no...
BI Dashboards - Are they all they're cracked up to be? Yes and No...!
--Traditional BI is about numbers, charts and reports right? Big mainframe reporting systems using Focus or SAS, or even COBOL (those were the ...
What's in a name?
--I read two articles over the long weekend that made me choke on my cornflakes (not very lady-like I know, but what’s a girl to do). The Guardian r...
Three Peak Challenge Briefing
--I went to a 3 Peaks briefing session yesterday evening. In brief, it consisted of 2 presentations.The first was one Care International, the work th...
Windows Live Writer
--I'm trying out Windows Live writer to post content to my blog. I was wondering if anyone here has used it before and how popular it's becomin...
Starfishes live on
--So how did the Apaches resist the same Spanish who had wiped out the Aztecs and the Incas? By not having pyramids and leaders and being decentralis...
How tall is a Smurf?
--I bet we've all got a little drunk and texted the textperts to see if we can stump them with a stupid question. Well, I thought I had until I woke ...
Towards SharePoint Technical Design Patterns: SharePoint Designer Workflow + Event Receiver = High Potency Cocktail
--One of the emerging patterns I find in crafting SharePoint solutions leverages SharePoint Designer workflow and an event receiver. Here is a busine...
Date for the diary: Soap box meets pub crawl
--Put April 17th in your diaries now folks - there's a happening on our doorstep. From 2pm, five Borough Market pubs will be host to 20 speakers (non...
silverlight streaming test!
--My first attempt at 3D animation using Maya, hosted with silverlight streaming
Deep, and even deeper
--When you get a new technology like Seadragon, you first work out how to get it out there in the hands of people who can use it in anger, and...
UK Silverlight User Group - More Info
--More info on Silverlight UG for you:We have a starter presentation from Microsoft updating us on Silverlight developments and adoption, showcase ap...
Test your web design in different browsers - for free
--Whilst surfing this morning I found this website: http://browsershots.org "Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different br...
Follow Up: Training Classes Scheduling Solution (Full Version)
--Technorati Tags: SharePoint Solutions,Sharepoint,SharePoint Designer,Training,Workflows,DataView Web Part Even though the goal for the Beagle Arti...
MSBuild Project Template v2.0
--Last year I created an MSBuild Project Template that lets you work with Source Control (e.g. Team Foundation Server) and decent syntax highlighting...
SSDS: Amazon SimpleDB's "Eventual consistency" model will not be inherent in SSDS
--From Amazon SimpleDB documentation: Eventual Consistency Amazon SimpleDB keeps multiple copies of each domain. When data is written or upd...
SSIS: Some new small features for katmai
--In the past few days I have twice received some good news about small enhancements that are making it into katmai. Here's the first one: O...
More on colour
--Or should I say "color"? Seems colour war has broken out among the twitterari! Not content with the sky-ish blue default background, there's a rash...
Internet Explorer 8 - Protect your sites
--It's old news by now, but in case you hadn't heard: IE8 beta has been released.A new version of Internet Explorer normally causes us Interface Deve...
Colour me Secure
--Hi All, My third blog post, I am on a roll. I was at a cleint recently where a "Creative" was having a debate about what colour signifie...
UK Silverlight User Group set for 2nd April
--The arrangements for the UK Silverlight User Group that we are hosting on 2nd April in our London Bridge office are going well. Thanks t...
Stimulating experience? Not in this instance...
--A few days ago I accidentally hit the advert on the bottom of my msn and up popped an add for Rimmel. They were offering a sample of their new ma...
Installing SQL 2008 (CTP6) on Windows Server 2008
--To all of you who are used to building your own VM images for SharePoint and want to try “the latest and the greatest” such as building...
Now I have the list!
--Stuart Preston runs all of our infrastructure at Conchango, keeping our business running and our people talking to each other and clients - ...
Observed Behavior: Moving SPD Workflows Within a Site Collection
--I'm giving this post a slightly oddball "Observed Behavior" lead since I'm a little leery of drawing conclusions from it. SPD workflows are ....
*** is an English word for cigarette - but my blog doesn't seem to know this!
--I was writing a blog post recently, and was describing some approximate and rough calculations. The way we might describe this in the UK is ...
Deep, deep, deeper deep down
--My good pal Steve Clayton posted tonight about my session at MIX and referenced an audience member, who was indeed from Otto, the company wh...
Free the West Memphis Three - WM3
--Now I normally rant and rave about the state of the Entertainment Industry or how Traditional retailers need to pull their finger out and review th...
My First Blog – Coaching
--I have been working for Conchango now for 2 whole months in the Retail Business Team. Was straight onto a client site with all the associated joys,...
Card Readers - Good, Bad, Ugly? (or all three)
--As mentioned in the press recently, credit card fraud has soared, with APACs reporting an increase in card fraud for the first time since 2004! Wha...
Data at the speed of Formula One
--The 2008 Formula One season began yesterday with a pretty dramatic Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. One of the innovations of this year's champi...
Quick and Simple: Workflow-only Update Field
--It's often useful to store status information in a custom list such as an approval code which should never be directly manipulated by end users.&nb...
Institutionalising the Conchango Experience
--Following up from Andrew Shillaber's recent post: Organisational Experience - it's fair to say that I've been thinking more and more recentl...
SQL2K5 Enterprise Edition Mini Feature 2 : Ramp up
--This one is a bit surprising. Assume you have a cold SQL Server which you have just re-booted. The buffer cache is empty and lots of I/O req...
SQL2K5 Enterprise Edition Mini Feature 1 : -E Startup Option
--Are you using multiple files? Are you set up for proportional fill? Is it a warehouse? Are you concerned about extent fragmentation? You shou...
SQL2K5 Enterprise Edition Mini Features
--I thought it might be fun to do series of posts on features that are exclusive to enterprise edition but that aren't significant enough in their ow...
CGO Organisational Experience
--Sometimes it is the little stuff that makes for a memorable user experience beyond the accepted view of what constitutes a ‘user journey’ or a ‘tra...
REST from WCF 3.5
--WFC is well known to be brilliant at SOAP, and fans of WCF may be aware that in version 3.5 may be aware of the cool new features. But the rest of ...
Conchango blogging on the upturn
--An email from Paul Dawson went around one of Conchango's internal distribution lists a few weeks ago with a call to action for people to contribute...
Inaugural UK Silverlight User Group
--A few of you have been asking when we're going to organise the inaugural Silverlight User Group we said we would organise in the UK. Conchan...
Another T5 Blog...
--Inspired by James Saull and Andrew Shillaber... it's my turn! There are some beautiful and original works of art in London Heathrow's new Terminal ...
Gorillas in our midst
--Steve Clayton sent this around a little earlier in his 'Friday Thing' - always a joy! If you haven't seen this viral video and TV advert put out by...
SSIS: Connecting to Oracle just got a whole lot better
--There was some great news this week for SSIS developers that are building solutions involving databases other than SQL Server; Microsoft will, late...
LINQ as a DSL
--What kind of thing is Language Integrated Query, exactly? You can draw the line in a number of places, but I am going to cut it down to the core, w...
LHR T5
--Inspired by James Saul's recent post, I thought I'd blog about London Heathrow LHR - Late, Hectic and Rushed like its passengers or Long...