• Gravatar HtmlHelper for ASP.Net MVC

    by  • January 8, 2012 • 0 Comments

    Inspired by a recent project at work, here’s a complete implementation of the Gravatar image request API, as an ASP.Net MVC 3 / MCV4 HtmlHelper. It includes the help and documentation from the Gravatar API page, and automatically does HTTPS/SSL requests if included on a page that is served securely (secure requests can be forced [...]

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    Announcing MyLetts.com – Online Accounts and Lettings Management for Private Landlords

    by  • May 25, 2011 • 0 Comments

    “No man acquires property without acquiring with it a little arithmetic also.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)   In 2003 I placed offers on two almost identical semi-detached houses in adjoining estates, at the same time, thinking that if one offer wasn’t accepted, the other one would be. Both offers were accepted. And [...]

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    SSD, Visual Studio and improving developer productivity

    by  • February 27, 2010 • 1 Comment

    After reading lots of reviews, articles and watching a few youtube videos comparing Solid State Drives to Hard Disk Drives, I was unsure that’d see a beneficial improvement in my day-to-day developer tools of Visual Studio, such as building and spinning up desktop and web applications. I was unsure because there is a consensus of [...]

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    On StackOverflow.com.. the founders dilemma

    by  • May 31, 2009 • 0 Comments

    StackOverflow.com is a the programming Question and Answer resource. It combines elements of a forum where anyone can ask a Question or Answer one, elements of Digg and Reddit where anyone can vote on anything (thereby creating credibility), elements of a blog where anything can be commented on, and elements of a wiki because the [...]

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    Why are software developers so bad at estimating time?

    by  • January 11, 2009 • 1 Comment

    In order to answer this question, we need to understand the term “flow”. From Peopleware: During single-minded work time, people are ideally in a state that psychologists call flow. Flow is a condition of deep, nearly meditative involvement. In this state, there is a gentle sense of euphoria, and one is largely unaware of the [...]

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    Automatic SVN Revision Numbering in ASP.Net MVC

    by  • December 14, 2008 • 3 Comments

    Update: I’ve written an open source .Net build tool that can also put the highest SVN revision into a file automatically on build – check it out! While working on an internal ASP.Net MVC project at work, I wondered if it was possible to get the SubVersion (SVN) repository number to be automatically updated on [...]

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    Andrew’s Toblerone Cheesecake

    by  • October 18, 2008 • 11 Comments

    I don’t have a sweet tooth as such, but I have discovered a talent for making desserts – that or my friends are very complimentary ;o) I think I’d heard of The Cheesecake Factory before my first trip to the States, so when our hotel taxi took us past the one on Camelback Road in [...]

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