Technique: Using Visual Studio Team Foundation Server To Create A Deployment Package

In one of my projects, we have this requirement that every time we need to deploy the application for QA and User Acceptance testing in a separate server, the developers need to create our individual deployment package containing the codes that changed during the development, either to create new features for the application or to fix some bugs. These packages will then be used by the Build Master who will consolidate them to create the final Visual Studio solution with which to build from.

Boy Scout Rule, Bad Code, and Uncle Bob

I saw a portion of Uncle Bob's presentation here on bad code, and the section on the "Boy Scout rule" (whatever that is) on software development, no matter how funny or crazy it sounds, to me is one of the simplest and better ideas on how we can improve software development. The idea, if I can paraphrase Uncle Bob, is to leave the code better than when we found them. And I realize that the obsessive-compulsive in me have been doing this all along for years without knowing it. Now at least I know how to call it and better yet how to communicate it to my team and those willing (or not) to listen.

See for yourself. I have yet to see the entire video myself.

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Robert-C.-Martin-Bad-Code

Timings using SSD

If you're an ASP.NET developer like myself, you don't want to waste time fiddling with your thumbs while you wait for your compiler to finish its work. We're always on the lookout for things that can help us speed up our work, to give us those extra seconds of performance boost.  And one thing that's been a challenge to us is the fact that our processors may be really fast but the bottleneck kicks in when we are working on a huge project with thousands of files. For additional insight on this, see Scott Guthrie's blog entry ( http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/01/tip-trick-hard-drive-speed-and-visual-studio-performance.aspx )

This is where I thought I would be assisted by that new kid on the block: Solid State Drive.