If you are looking for training on MCMS 2002, then we have put a new outline up on the bbits site: http://www.bbits.co.uk/Services/training/default.aspx?mcms

Check out this article on Unit Testing - more than others I have seen (or even the docs for nunit!) this goes into some real depth and provides some good examples. It also introduced me to VSNUnit which I wasn't aware of before, I previously just used the plain old NUnit, but I am going to give this a go.

Following on from my blog on Search Engine Fun, I saw this blog pointing to this article from ResearchBuzz, which in turn links to http://labs.google.com/ - which, according to Google "showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time." - Some Interesting stuff there, it's worth a look.  

Nikhil Kithari (development lead on ASP.NET team) had an interesting blog about developer persona's.  It seems that they break developers into three primary persona's, as he says: Mort, the opportunistic developer, likes to create quick-working solutions for immediate problems and focuses on productivity and learn as needed. Elvis, the pragmatic programmer, likes to create long-lasting solutions addressing the problem domain, and learn while working on the solution. Einstein, the paranoid programmer, likes to create the most efficient solution to a given problem, and typically learn in advance before working on the solution It seems to me that this is more a...

Details here: www.bbits.co.uk/tvr You know you want to...

Check out the story here - made me laugh... http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34865.html

For the last 3 years or so I've been having a blast driving a TVR Chimaera - 4 litres of raw power, 260bhp, 0-60mph in 4.7 seconds, no namby-pamby traction control or the like.  It's a bit of a beast!  But now it's time for a change.  I wanted a little more comfort, and two extra seats would be handy now we have 3 children, it means my wife and I don't have to take out the MPV when we just have our baby (while the other two are at school).  So I have ordered an RX-8 - no pillars (something called suicide doors instead...

I recently recieved an email from a reader of one of my Wrox books, saying that they could not find the code download.  As you may or may not be aware, Wrox went into liquidation last year, and the rights to the books have been sold to various publishers, so the situation seems a little blurred regarding where people will get code downloads.  If you are experiencing similar problems, please let me know - if there are enough requests then I may be able to invest some time in make the downloads easier to get. Looking forward to hearing from you.

If you use the standard validation controls at all, it's worth having a scan through this MSDN article.  It covers them all in an easy to read fashion, and has a few tips that I had missed before (for example using an Image for the error message). Validating ASP.NET Server Controls (http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/using/building/web/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/ASPNet-ValidateASPNetServerControls.asp)

Recently, I was looking for a simple way to control the TITLE and META tags on aspx pages. I needed to use standard aspx pages as created by Visual Studio derived from the standard System.Web.UI.Page.  At first I tried changing the Title tag to a server HTML control, by adding <Title id=PageTitle runat=server></Title> But it seems that the VS IDE doesn't like this and it occasionally removed those attributes without asking, though I couldn't work out when.  So instead I decided to use a UserControl, with an asp:Literal control in it, and place it in the Head section of each page. instead...

I've been using this phone for over a month now and generally I am pretty happy with it.  In fact it has replaced my Pocket PC for a lot of stuff, like the diary, email, and mobile browsing.  Actually the browsing was a real suprise - it such a good experience now that there is a "Single Column" view for Pocket IE in 2003.  This means any site is viewable on the phone, without horizontal scrolling, and that's great.  Also having .net compact framework pre-installed is very encouraging.  I have had a little play with creating Smartphone apps in VS 2003,...

For the second year on the trot, my hosting company (www.interland.com) decided to perform some clean up of their servers just before xmas, and in doing so they killed my sites (nice xmas pressie Interland!).  Last year they took the server off-line completely and it took a week to get it back up, this year they somehow removed .net so that none of my asp.net sites worked.  After speaking to them, I was assured that my issue was "in the queue" but they had no idea how long it would take.  A week later after still nothing was done, I...

If you are looking for some info on the next version of Visual Studio (codenamed Whidbey), currently in alpha release check these out: Programmers Intro to Whidbey ASP.NET Whidbey Microsoft Developer Tools RoadMap Microsoft Whidbey Site What's New in Whidbey Data Access in Whidbey Whidbey Forums on asp.net The alpha release is only currently available to MSDN subscribers and those who visited the PDC

Alright, Google do seem to be taking over the world and that's not a good thing. Probably.  But have you tried the neat tricks that they provide in the search box?  For example you can prefix your search with define: then a word and it gets the dictionary definitions for you. Try define: Blackburnian Warbler for example.  It can also do conversions and calcuations for you.  Try typing something like 8 feet in metres or 6 * 12 + 39.  That's pretty clever.  Take a look at http://www.google.co.uk/help/features.html for a full list including things like who links to your site, travel conditons (US only I'm...