I am currently working on source code that is over 5Gb in size. This is mostly due to a poorly thought out folder structure, there are code files, images and Excel files all jumbled together. I think a clear distinction should be made between source code and data. Source Code I will define source code as anything that...

So recently I started working on a new codebase. I will be honest when I first saw it, it was a mess. Here are a few of the things I did to try and regain control. I was given access to the source code on Visual Studio Team Services. However this consisted of a single commit 3 months ago. When I looked at what was...

What is LINQ? LINQ is an acronym for Language Integrated Query, which describes where it’s used and what it does. The Language Integrated part means that LINQ is part of programming language syntax. In particular, both C# and VB are languages that ship with .NET and have LINQ capabilities. How do I use LINQ in my C#...

Next month I will celebrate ten years working at my current job, two weeks after that I will start a new chapter of my life at a new company. Lets take this opportunity to look back ten years at some of the great stuff I have achieved. 2006 In 2006 I had no IT experience. If you were to ask me where Event Logs could...

So after five and a bit years of being an IT Manager here is some advice I have learned along the way in no particular order. On the whole I have enjoyed myself but it has been a real challenge at times. 1. Figure out what plates are still spinning Being an IT Manager is all about keeping everything running all of the...

This week I handed in my notice at a job I have had for almost ten years. In a few weeks time I will start a brand new job as a web applications developer. This is a great achievement for me and a great chance to learn and expand my development skills. However moments after I handed my notice in, a huge wave of...

For a while now I have been sharing some of my blog posts on the Dzone website. The Dzone website allows users to submit links to content and I have been submitting the content I have created on this website. This is how Dzone describes themselves: With over 1 Million members, DZone.com is one of the web’s largest...

Last time I started looking at Amazon Web Services and how it differed from Azure. I am going to continue looking at what it can do. Virtual Machines Lets look at what you can do with Virtual Machines. I selected to create a new Virtual Machine (or as AWS calls them an EC2 Instance) First you choose a name for your VM...

I am a big fan of Azure but I know zero about its biggest rival – Amazon Web Services or AWS. So lets sign up for a free trial and see what it can do. The AWS free trial is available from https://aws.amazon.com/free/ and lasts for 12 months. From memory I think the Azure free trial lasted only one month. To start you...

I hate MS Access and especially developing with it as you can’t do any thing clever with it. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! There are a few clever things I have been able to script to make developing with it passable. I still would rather use Visual Studio but this improves the experience a fair bit. Source Control Access files...