21 Sep – [From Express to Ultimate: Improving Productivity with Visual Studio 2010](http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=From Express to Ultimate: Improving Productivity with Visual Studio 2010 - 21 Sept) (Black Marble Bradford) 29 Sep – Microsoft ALM day (Microsoft Reading) [Cancelled] 5 Oct – Microsoft ALM day (ICCI London) [Cancelled] 7 Oct - Software Craftsmanship Conference (not speaking but attending and it is workshop based so I doubt I will be silent all day!) 9 Oct - DDD Dublin – The vote is still open so not sure I am presenting here yet or just attending [Did not get though the vote so decided not to attend] 13 Oct - [Mix in the North](http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=Mix in the North) (Holiday Inn, Tong) 14 Oct – Integrating Java Developers into TFS with Team explorer Everywhere (Black Marble Bradford) 20 Oct - [The Developers Group Meeting](http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=The Developers Group Meeting “The Developers Group Meeting”) Using Typemock Isolator (EMC Office London) 28 Oct - [VBug Autumn Conference – The Step Up to ALM](http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=VBug Autumn Conference – The Step Up to ALM) (Loughborough) Postponed to the spring 16 Nov - [From Express to Ultimate: Improving Productivity with Visual Studio 2010](http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=From Express to Ultimate: Improving Productivity with Visual Studio 2010 - 16 Nov) (Black Marble Bradford) 17 Nov - Provisionally booked for a session on using Typemock Isolator (NEBtyes Newcastle) 8 Dec 2010 - [Architecture Forum in the North 2010](http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=Architecture Forum in the North 2010) (Holiday Inn, Tong) and that is just this year ...

The vote has opened for DDD Ireland, get in there an vote for the sessions you would like to see, there is a nice selection. May I draw your attention to the two I have submitted How can I add my own custom step to a TFS 2010 build, or do I even need to try? (Oooh a new one!) Developing Testable Web Parts for SharePoint (Could also be called Using Typemock with SharePoint) No pressure……. ...

I think my biggest issue with TFS2010 is the problem that a build controller is tied to a single Team Project Collection (TPC). For a company like mine where we run a TPC for each client this means we have had to start to generate a good number of virtualised build controller/agents. It is especially irritating as I know that the volume of builds on any given controller is low. ...

On the 20th October I will be speaking at an afternoon event hosted by The Developer Group at EMC offices in London. My subject will be using Typemock Isolator to address testing problems in both well designed code (nice IoC patterns etc) and in nasty legacy code where you have to use all the trick Isolator allows. Hope to see you there

I have been using the Google Maps JavaScript API today. I lost too much time over a really stupid error. I was trying to set the zoom level on a map using the call map.setZoom(); I had set my initial zoom level to 5 (the scale is 1-17 I think) in the map load, when I called setZoom to 11 all was fine, but if I set it to any other number is reverted to 5. This different effect for different numbers was a real red herring. The problem was down to how I was handling the variable containing the zoom level prior to passing it to setZoom method. When it was set to 11 it was set explicitly e.g. ...

I have found a problem with repeated calls to indexed SharePoint Lists with Typemock Isolator 6.0.3. This what I am trying to do… The Problem I am using Typemock Isolator to allow me to develop a SharePoint Webpart outside of the SharePoint environment (there is a video about this on the Typemock site). My SharePoint Webpart uses data drawn from a pair of SharePoint lists to draw a map using Google maps API; so in my test harness web site page I have the following code in the constructor that fakes out the two SPLists and populates them with test content. ...

I have a couple of new video’s on on the Typepmock Experts site, why not take a look, the titles are Using Typemock Isolator to enable rapid development Using Typemock Isolator and Ivonna for unit testing the UI

The VBug Autumn Conference is on the Wed 27th & Thurs 28th October at Holywell Park, Loughborough. The published agenda this far is **Day One (Wed 27th Oct):**Top of the Pops with Sharepoint 2010 – Dave McMahon Cache Out with Windows Server AppFabric – Phil Pursglove Mapping the Cloud – How far can we stretch it? Johannes Kebeck Silverlight Development on Windows Phone 7 – Andy Wigley **Day Two (Thurs 28th Oct): **TFS (actual title TBC) – Richard Fennell Silverlight 4 (actual title TBC) – Richard Costall Others to be confirmed…including Azure, Expression Blend & BI ...

I have posted in the past that I am not a huge fan of my phone, so I read Martin Hinshelwood’s experiences with putting Android on his HTC HD with interest. I have tended to leave my phone as a consumer device i.e. it does what it does, I tend to not fiddle too much as long as it will make calls, sync email and allow me to get the cricket scores on the BBC website, the essentials of life. However, I had a spare SD card and a bit of time. So it was off to the Diamond2(Topaz) XDADevelopers forums to see what I needed. ...

There is a noticeable omission form the tooling for StyleCop that you cannot integrate it into a TFS 2010 Build directly. There is a custom task to do it as part of MSBuild Extension pack, but this is designed for TFS 2008. So when I had to wire in StyleCop to our 2010 build process I hit a problem, I could Edit the .csproj files for each project to wire in StyleCop Use an MSBuild activity in my 2010 build Write my own custom activity. I decided to follow the final option, it did not look too bad as the source needed is provided in the StyleCop SDK. Well after a good deal of fiddling I have it basically working. Again I found the process of developing a custom activity a little irritating. ...