Whilst setting up our new TFS 2012 instance I had a problem getting the build box to connect to the TFS server. When I started the build service (on a dedicated VM configured as a controller and single agent, connected to a TPC on the server on another VM). All appears OK, the controller and agents said they were running and state icons went green About 5 seconds later the state icons go red, but message says the controller and agents are still running, from past experience I know this means it is all dead....

I am really happy to say that I have had my Microsoft MVP for Visual Studio ALM Re-awarded, it is a privilege to get to work with such a great group of people as a have met via the MVP programme.

My slides and those of other presenters at last weeks Microsoft cloud day have been published

As Brian Harry announced on his blog there are new 2012 editions of the two main TFS books on the way. I have added links to them from my reading list page but as yet you can only pre-order them as the release dates are not available.

Update 4/Aug/2012: See post on my implementation of a 2012 version of this activity If you are using Typemock Isolator in your unit testing then you be wanting to include then in your automated build process. Unlike other mocking frameworks you have to do a bit of work to achieve this with Isolator, this is because to enable its advanced features of mocking items like sealed private classes you have to start the interceptor that does the magic prior to running the tests and the switch it off afterwards....

The next Leeds Sharp user group meeting on the 28th of June is a Kata session using Conway’s game of life. For more details see their site. Not sure if I can make it yet have to keep an eye on my ever filling diary

Session submission has opened for the next DDDNorth on the 13th October at Bradford University. Why not submit a session?

I have been finding the ‘hit the windows key and type’ means to launch desktop applications in Windows 8 quite nice. It means I get used to the same behaviour in Windows or Ubuntu to launch things, no need to remember menu locations just type a name, all very slickrun . However, I hit a problem today, I hit the windows key, typed Visual and expected to see Visual Studio 2012 and 2010, but I only saw Visual Studio 2012...

I am speaking at NEBytes next week on VS/TFS2012 with Andy Westgarth, check the NEBytes site for details

At TechEd USA 2012 in the keynote and the ALM session it was announced that you no longer need an invite code to access the Azure hosted TFSPreview.com, it is now open to all. There are no final details as yet over the pricing when it goes fully to production but they did say there will be some form of free offering going forward. We will have to wait for more details on that front....