Martin Hinshelwood's Blog

Microsoft does indeed listen

When I posted my question "Would anyone be interested in Hosted TFS?" on linked in I was hopping for a response from potential users. I did not think that Jim Lamb would be reading it and blog about Microsoft's internal ambition to have a hosted model for TFS. I have been quite excited about this subjects as I have worked for many companies that would find the cost of running an internal TFS server prohibitive, but for whom a hosted option would be perfect.

To date there is only one hosted option and that is from TFS Now, if you are interested in hearing more about them then you should read their blog.

Now, if you wanted to setup and offer Hosted TFS yourself, well, you can't. The licensing for TFS as the moment does not allow it but Microsoft is currently looking a this and we can probably expect to see something in this space some time in 2008/2009...

If you are wanting space on a TFS server, but not an actual server (usually because you have only one or two projects) you will have to wait until Rosario before these features will be available. It seams that TFS 2005 and 2008 are both impractical for this model, but Microsoft is looking to solve these problems in Rosario to allow multiple companies (clients) to share a single TFS instance.

In the hopes that some one is still listening there are a number of things that TFS requires to be more marketable, and not just for Development projects:

• RAG reporting needs to be built into TFS for management reports
• There needs to be a higher level of reports that can be used cross project
• Some targeted presentations would be good (i.e. targeted at Project Managers, or Test Managers, or program managers, or just plain management.)

I think Paul Slater will be posting a more detailed list, but you get the picture. There is not lacking in features for developers, testers or architects, but the ones that sign are paychecks and the budget for TFS are non technical management with little imagination...

I would like to thank Paul Slater for his incite into the black art of "Marketing TFS" and Jim Lamb for continually answering stupid questions...

posted @ Tuesday, August 28, 2007 3:13 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Visual Studio Team System ]

TFS Handover

I am just writing some handover documentation for our TFS deployment in the office. Thank goodness that I wrote installation and disaster recovery documents when I originally deployed the system, other wise this would have been a very long process.

All I really need to do is reference those documents in a wrapper document that details of all of the servers and any online resources that I use.

TFS 2005 is a pain to install, but it is just fine to manage and over the last 8 months I have only had to log onto the server 3 times with one of them being to configure TFS 2005 to work with Sharepoint 2007.

I would always rather a painfully install than painfully management...

posted @ Tuesday, August 28, 2007 12:47 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Visual Studio Team System Personal ]

Sharepoint planning

I have been asking one of my colleagues for information on Sharepoint and how to deploy it to large organizations. He intoned that he new how not to do it and pointed me towards a particular post that defines a very effective deployment method.

In reading it I came to a much grater realization of not only the power of Sharepoint, but the scale that it can be deployed in. Although you have to take the entire potential architecture into consideration, I really like the MySites part of the deployment.

The idea of being able to effectively give every employee a place to post and collaborate on content is fantastic. I have been playing with my current companies MySite implementation and seeing how it interacts with Office 2003 and coworkers. I find the ability to create meeting spaces directly from outlook inspiring and the attachment sites for email just mouth watering.

I have started reading about the Architecture of the MySites collection and how to Plan for the deployment, but I will start reading the Sharepoint book I bought earlier this month this week end as it is a long one!

I think I am going to enjoy the Sharepoint thing...

posted @ Friday, August 24, 2007 5:04 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Sharepoint ]

Search just got better: Part 2

After my post on the new Tafiti search engine a fellow by the name of Anselm pointed out Search Crystal, another visual search engine that produces some good result. I did not get he same Wow that I did from Tafiti, but the amount of information that is provided through the interface is extensive.

You can change the display of the results from Cluster (the default) to Spiral and list. I did find that the List option is very confusing and difficult to navigate, and the Spiral option seams of limited use to me personally. It was a good idea to use the cluster view as the default and I think they have put the most work into this part of the system.

All in all, it is very good, but I think that from a visual perspective the Tafiti interface works better, al be it with only one search engine.

Below you can see an example of the search results, and you should be able to play with it. This does indeed work on Virtual Workstations, while the tree view from Tafiti has some problems due to the slow refresh.

Have you seen any other search visualization website's? Let me know...

posted @ Wednesday, August 22, 2007 9:36 AM | Feedback (3) | Filed Under [ Dyslexia ]

Search just got better

I just had to pick my jaw up off the floor. What made me gawk! Tafiti that's what.

Tafiti is a new search front end from Microsoft, it is still in beta, but what a beta. I think you would need a reasonably good computer to run it, but from a dyslexic persons point of view it is revolutionary. Although it does not give you the complete ability to search visually, it goes a long way to achieving it. Hopefully many other people will find it as equally usefully as I do...

What do I like so much about it you may ask... Well...

I love the way you can select what type of data to view from the search, there is a little spinning widget at the bottom left of the screen that you can use to view only feeds or web among other things. It is easy to use and extremely obvious what each button does (I think some hallway usability testing went on here).

I love the way you can pile up search terms on top of each other and then get back to your previous search with ease.  Although it could do with a way to flip between them...There is a way to filter your searches even further to tweak the results.

I love the way that you can save searches in your never ending search for what you are looking for. You can even add labels, although I have not worked out what they are for yet, but I am sure that it will be cool.

All that in itself would be good, but the best is yet to come. This is the bit that makes this a must use for all dyslexic people all over the world (well in English speaking countries so far).

The screen shot does not really do it justice, but this is an fantastic way to search the web. I have been doing some searching and, so far, I have been able to find exactly what I was looking for very quickly. Even obscure things we easy to find. This gets the thumbs up from a Scottish dyslexic software developer, and I can't wait to email the link to everyone. I have to thank Larry Larsen for pointing this out to me, and I hope the Tafiti team have even more cool search help up their sleeves.

I will be keeping my eye on this and I hope that even after continued use I am still using it as my main search engine: Oh, I just thought, we have Virtual Workstations in the office and I will need to see if it even works on them: I know that video, flash and big Powerpoint presentations do not.

posted @ Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:57 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Microsoft Windows Windows Live Dyslexia ]

Visual Studio 2008 Team Edition for Architects

Something I have noticed in writing an article is that the "Application diagram" in VS2008 does not support Windows Communication Foundation. This I think is an oversight even for Beta 2. Is this going to be in the RTM, I hope so as it would be virtually useless without it!

posted @ Tuesday, August 21, 2007 2:43 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Visual Studio Team System ]

TFS Event Handler in .NET 3.5

I have decided to have a little go at creating a Team Foundation Server Event Handler in .NET 3.5 that is resilient and scaleable. I will be using as many of the features of Team Suit as I can, but bear with me as there are a few things that are new to me.

TFS Event Handler in .NET 3.5 Articles

1. TFS Event Handler in .NET 3.5 Part 1 - The Architecture
2. TFS Event Handler in .NET 3.5 Part 2 - Handling Team Foundation Server Events
3. TFS Event Handler in .NET 3.5 Part 3 - Passing the events over a Windows Communication Foundation MSMQ (Coming soon)
4. TFS Event Handler in .NET 3.5 Part 4 - Workflow (Coming soon) 

posted @ Tuesday, August 21, 2007 2:26 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Microsoft .NET Framework Service orientation Software Industrial Revolution Visual Studio Team System TFS Event Handler ]

Creating a custom proxy class

Instead of using the proxy generation features of Visual Studio you can create a custom proxy in .NET 3.0 to handle all of your needs in a more maintainable manor and with less code. This method works best when you have access to the interfaces that created the service.

Here is an example:

Namespace TeamFoundation.Proxies

    Public Class TeamServersClient
        Inherits System.ServiceModel.DuplexClientBase(Of Services.Contracts.ITeamServers)
        Implements RDdotNet.Proxies.IClientProxy
        Implements Services.Contracts.ITeamServers

        Public Sub New(ByVal callbackInstance As System.ServiceModel.InstanceContext, ByVal binding As System.ServiceModel.Channels.Binding, ByVal remoteAddress As System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress)
            MyBase.New(callbackInstance, binding, remoteAddress)
        End Sub

        Public Sub AddServer(ByVal TeamServerName As String, ByVal TeamServerUri As String) Implements Services.Contracts.ITeamServers.AddServer
            MyBase.Channel.AddServer(TeamServerName, TeamServerUri)
        End Sub

        Public Function GetServers() As String() Implements Services.Contracts.ITeamServers.GetServers
            Return MyBase.Channel.GetServers
        End Function

        Public Sub RemoveServer(ByVal TeamServerName As String) Implements Services.Contracts.ITeamServers.RemoveServer
            MyBase.Channel.RemoveServer(TeamServerName)
        End Sub

        Public Function ServceUrl() As System.Uri Implements Services.Contracts.ITeamServers.ServceUrl
            Return MyBase.Channel.ServceUrl()
        End Function

    End Class

End Namespace

Because your classes implements the service's interface when that interface changes you will be notified in Visual Studio that this has happened. This is a boon during development as changes can happen often.

This particular class is a duplex proxy, so communication can go both ways. You can download the source code for this from here.

posted @ Monday, August 20, 2007 5:20 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Microsoft .NET Framework Service orientation ]

Team Foundation Server Error TF30177: Team Project Creation Failed - Part 2

If you are trying to get team server to talk to another Sharepoint farm this is something to watch out for. I fell into this one myself, and now my American colleagues have hot the same problem (I have changed things like server, account and company names to protect the, erm, servers?). The key things to look for in the log file are the creation details:

2007-08-17 13:06:33Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Language id: 1033
2007-08-17 13:06:36Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Verifying site template exists on the server using http://rddotnettech.amrs.win.rddotnet.com:21617/_vti_bin/Sites.asmx
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Creating site with the following parameters
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Admin Url: http://rddotnettech.amrs.win.rddotnet.com:21617/_vti_adm/admin.asmx
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Site Url: http://rddotnettech.amrs.win.rddotnet.com/sites/SDLC-QA/Test RD 08-17-2007 1305
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Site Title: Test RD 08-17-2007 1305
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Site Description: This team project was created based on the 'RD SDLC Process Template for CMMI Process Improvement - v2.0' process template.
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Lcid: 1033
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Template: _GLOBAL_#2
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Owner Login: AMRS\aperson
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Owner Name: Person, Any(CT)
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Owner Email: Any_Person@rddotnet.com
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Portal Url:
2007-08-17 13:06:45Z | Module: WSS | Thread: 7 | Portal Name:

These details will help you debug the error. As you can see above there are details for the Sharepoint portal to be created and the location of the Sharepoint sites. Check the actual error message which is always buried  in the log file:

'Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.SoapServerException' was thrown.
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Proxy.Portal.Admin.CreateSite(String Url, String Title, String Description, Int32 Lcid, String WebTemplate, String OwnerLogin, String OwnerName, String OwnerEmail, String PortalUrl, String PortalName)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.WssSiteCreator.CreateSite(WssSiteData siteCreationData, ProjectCreationContext context)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.WssSiteCreator.Execute(ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNode taskXml)
---begin Exception entry---
Time: 2007-08-17 13:06:46Z
Module: Engine
Event Description: TF30162: Task "SharePointPortal" from Group "Portal" failed
Exception Type: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.PcwException
Exception Message: The Project Creation Wizard encountered an error while uploading documents to the Windows SharePoint Services server on uswmapsdlcq01.amrs.win.ml.com.
Exception Details: The Project Creation Wizard encountered a problem while uploading
documents to the Windows SharePoint Services server on teamq01.amrs.win.rddotnet.com.
The reason for the failure cannot be determined at this time.
Because the operation failed, the wizard was not able to finish
creating the Windows SharePoint Services site.
Stack Trace:
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.WssSiteCreator.Execute(ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNode taskXml)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.ProjectCreationEngine.TaskExecutor.PerformTask(IProjectComponentCreator componentCreator, ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNode taskXml)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.ProjectCreationEngine.RunTask(Object taskObj)
--   Inner Exception   --
Exception Type: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException
Exception Message: Exception of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.SoapServerException' was thrown.
SoapException Details: <detail><errorstring xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/">Another site already exists at http://rddotnettech.amrs.win.rddotnet.com. Delete this site before attempting to create a new site with the same URL, choose a new URL, or create a new inclusion at the path you originally specified.</errorstring></detail>

From this message I have highlighted the meaningfully parts in bold. These are the things that will help you identify the problem and rectify it. In this case the Team Foundation Server Project Creation Wizard is trying to create a sub site under what it thinks is a managed path of http://rddotnettech.amrs.win.rddotnet.com/sites/.

Now the default setup for Sharepoint is that there is a managed path called "Sites" that sits under the main directory and this is the default for creating sub sites using TFS. But in this case there is already a site created in Sharepoint called "Sites" that is a portal to the other sites in Sharepoint including site maps and the like. (try your equivalent of http://rddotnettech.amrs.win.rddotnet.com/sites/ to see what is there. You will also need to check the Sharepoint Administration site for the settings. To do this you need to go to the Sharepoint Administraion site:

And click on "Application Management" and then on "Define managed paths".

You should then see a list of the defined managed paths for the particular application (1) and you can change the application that you are looking at (2).

What needs to be done is to choose a new managed path as this one is taken and to add it to the Sharepoint server. Make sure that you check the server for sites of the same name, you could use "TFSProjects" so as not to get an overlap.

Once you have added this Managed Path you will need to modify TFS to create sites under that path. To do this please refer to my previous post "Team Foundation Server Error TF30177 : Team Project Creation Failed" which tells you how to update the project references.

Well that's it, debugging team server errors is fun, but not for the faint hearted...

posted @ Monday, August 20, 2007 4:23 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Visual Studio Team System Sharepoint ]

Using Visual Studio 2008

I have been tinkering with VS2008 for a week now, but I had not had time to really look at it.

They have made the interface slicker, and faster making the whole experience a little nicer.

When you go to create new projects you get a number of nice options that allow you to target multiple versions of the .NET Framework with a single IDE. This will be of real advantage to those companies that still want to use .NET 2.0 while still evaluating 3.0 and 3.5.

It should come as no surprise though that you will need to upgrade any existing projects to the new solution and project specifications in VS2008 so unfortunately you will no longer be able to open your projects in VS2005 after the upgrade has completed.

If you use Team System, you should baseline your projects first as the upgrade process disconnects you from source control and you can't reconnect it. Hopefully this will be fixed for the RTM, but it could well be something we will need to live with for the change over.

As you switch between the framework options the list of possible projects changes and you can see what has been added, but not the updates to functionality.

The screen shots above gives you an idea of what will be available for the different frameworks for Windows.

In the Windows Communication Foundation section though I got a pleasant surprise as they have added some workflow options to the list of services you can have. I assume that these are nice shortcuts to have, but that you could produce the same thing manually.

The addition of the Syndication Service Library is a nice touch though.

One of the things to watch is that even if you cerate an application that targets .NET 2.0 and add a Setup project to the mix, you will need to manually change the prerequisites from .NET 3.5 to .NET 2.0 yourself as .NET 3.5 is the default.

This is only mildly annoying as the .NET Framework 3.5 installer will automatically install .NET 2.0 if it is not there already. Once VS2008 is in RTM I think I would leave it set to the default, that was there is only one big install and you know that when you start using .NET 3.5 features you will only have a small install to go.

If you are connecting to a Team Foundation Server you will still need to install the "Team Explorer" client as it is not included. Personally I think it should be included in all versions of Visual Studio as standard, but I think it is likely that we will continue to be required to install it separately.

One of the really nice features in VS2008 the the ability to debug and step through JavaScript! I think I just heard your jaw hitting the floor! That's right, you can debug JavaScript. Oh for this feature 5 years ago...

posted @ Monday, August 20, 2007 3:22 PM | Feedback (2) | Filed Under [ Microsoft .NET Framework Visual Studio Team System ]

About Me

I thought I should take a leaf out of Scott Dorman's book and post some information about me:

• About Martin John Hinshelwood
• Martin Hinshelwood's Resume
• Martin Hinshelwood's LinkedIn Profile
• Martin Hinshelwood's Community Credit

I have tried to be concise, but I am sure that knowing some of the people that read my blog, I will get complaints. One of the reasons that I am posting this is that there is another Martin Hinshelwood who is the manager of Albion football club, and he gets a higher search engine ranking than me: My mission in life is to relegate football (Soccer for you Americans [What is with American football anyway? Why all the pads? We play a similar game called Rugby without all padding! Much more satisfying.]) in relation to my name a distant second to technology.

Ahh well, Scott is a much better writer than me, or he just has more patience...

I am sure that I will adapt it over time to better reflect my experience.

posted @ Monday, August 20, 2007 10:54 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Personal ]

Studying for the new job

I will be starting a new job in around a month and I wanted to get up-to-speed with the technologies that the new company want to be using. To start with I have had a look at a number of certifications:

• Technology Specialist: BizTalk Server 2006
• Technology Specialist: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Application Development
• Technology Specialist: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuration

These will be on top of the MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer exams (all 5 of them) that I have already started studying for. Although this is a tall order, I will be buying these books as an added encouragement to myself to get off my lazy arse and read them:

For BizTalk I bought:

The reason for the WF book is that, with the impending release of BizTalk 2006 R2, support for WF and Windows Communication Foundation will be part of the application.

For Sharepoint 2007:

I know that this is not a MOSS book, but you need to start somewhere and there are no exams for MOSS yet, too new. Although I have asked to be put on the beta list for Sharepoint 2007, MOSS 2007 and .NET 3.0 exams...

posted @ Sunday, August 19, 2007 1:35 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Sharepoint BizTalk Work ]

A change for the better

Well, that's me in my last month at Merrill Lynch after a nice run as a developer. My reasons for moving I have stated before, but I have decided that the contractor business is just too risky for me at the moment.

So I have accepted an offer from Aggreko! They have managed to woo me with their culture of embracing new technology that even the highest echelons of the company promotes with their insatiable appetite for new things.

I think that this will be a pivotal move for me that will allow me to expand my expertise in the areas that I am interested in (Sharepoint, TFS, .NET 3.x, and others) as well as work with many like minded technofiles.

I will let you know how I get on, but for now I have a months notice to work and many handover documents to write!

posted @ Thursday, August 16, 2007 4:57 PM | Feedback (4) | Filed Under [ Personal Work ]

Team Foundation Server Error TF30177 : Team Project Creation Failed

When you create your first project, you may get an error during the creation process. When you look at the log file and see a "proxy error" message detail it may be to do with the way that TFS installs.

I  many large networks you can't connect to the server in the browser if you use the server name. This is because the proxy server is checking DNS for the name and unless you get every server in your company added to the proxy PAC file, you will get an error. To see if this is the issue try putting the server name into the browser:

http://myServerName.

If you get the error then you should try the FQDN:

http://myServerName.myInternalDomain.com

If this work then you need to change the URL's within TFS that it uses to define these calls. You can check what the current settings are by:

1. Open http://tfs01.uk.company.com:8080/Services/v1.0/Registration.asmx in your browser.
2. Click on GetRegistrationEntries.
3. Then click on Invoke.

Save (or just view) the resultant XML so you can have a look at it. There are two section of importance here. One is the Reports section which will look like:

<RegistrationEntry>
  <Type>Reports</Type>
  <ServiceInterfaces>
    <ServiceInterface>
      <Name>BaseReportsUrl</Name>
      <Url>http://[serverName]/Reports</Url>
    </ServiceInterface>
    <ServiceInterface>
      <Name>DataSourceServer</Name>
      <Url>[serverName]</Url>
    </ServiceInterface>
    <ServiceInterface>
      <Name>ReportsService</Name>
      <Url>http://[serverName]/ReportServer/ReportService.asmx</Url>
    </ServiceInterface>
  </ServiceInterfaces>
  <Databases />
  <EventTypes />
  <ArtifactTypes />
  <RegistrationExtendedAttributes />
</RegistrationEntry>

The second is the is the WSS section that is in the same format.

Now, we have established that [serverName] will not work so we will have to update TFS with the new details. To do this you need to:

1. Create an XML file called RSRegister.xml with just the xml above.
2. Modify the server name from [serverName] to the FQDN of the server and save it.
3. on the TFS server you need to open a command prompt and execute the following:
   1. iisreset /stop
   2. cd "%programfiles% \Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\Tools"
   3. TFSReg.exe RSRegister.xml [yourDataTierServerName]
   4. iisreset /start
4. Then call the web service above to make sure that the settings are correct.

You can repeat this for the WSS (Windows Sharepoint Services) section.

All done and TFS should work. Although it is worth noting that in my company environment I could then no longer create projects from the TFS App server itself as [serverName] works but the FQDN did not. Typical...

posted @ Tuesday, August 14, 2007 12:14 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Visual Studio Team System ]

A new day, a new week, a new Team Server

I have just finished upgrading out TFS Development environment to TFS2008 and I have to say it was a totally painless procedure...

The installation handles the upgrade perfectly (hopefully the RTM will work just as well) and I even created a new project with Visual Studio 2005, nice...

I now need to look at the Sharepoint integration and I will probably need to write a custom web service for Sharepoint to get the integration to work how I want.

Ah, well. At least I get to play with 2008!

posted @ Monday, August 13, 2007 2:31 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Visual Studio Team System ]

Blogging about...

Well I have had both a busy and a quiet week. My team has been busy doing the application deployment and we finally got it deployed on Friday. It does not work, but it is deployed. I even managed to have time to assist some of my colleagues from the US with a TFS deployment into the companies QA environment. They have been having numerous errors, but ultimately suffered from the old "TFS install failed too many time" syndrome and will require to reinstall both the App and Data tiers from scratch, though as they have now worked out all of the problems, it should go smoothly.

I've started an argument about the merits of VB and released a version of the Managed Service Factory that I blogged about previously. Over the last week I have managed to:

• Become a better developer, or at least start.
• test drive Windows Live SkyDrive
• play with VS2008
• research some more on dyslexia

I do have some other things going on, but I am not ready to blog about them yet :)

Well, that's it for this week...

posted @ Sunday, August 12, 2007 1:01 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Personal ]

The cause of dyslexia

Rather than confuse the issue with my verbal dexterity (or excrement from my brain is more likely) I will quote from a source on the web:

Dyslexia is an inherited condition. Researchers have determined that a gene on the short arm of chromosome #6 is responsible for Dyslexia. That gene is dominant, making Dyslexia highly heritable. It definitely runs in families.

Dyslexia results from a neurological difference; that is, a brain difference. People with Dyslexia have a larger right-hemisphere in their brains than those of normal readers. That may be one reason people with Dyslexia often have significant strengths in areas controlled by the right-side of the brain, such as artistic, athletic, and mechanical gifts; 3-D visualization ability; musical talent; creative problem solving skills; and intuitive people skills.

In addition to unique brain architecture, people with Dyslexia have unusual "wiring". Neurons are found in unusual places in the brain, and are not as neatly ordered as in non-dyslexic brains.

In addition to unique brain architecture and unusual wiring, f/MRI studies have shown that people with Dyslexia do not use the same part of their brain when reading as other people. Regular readers consistently use the same part of their brain when they read. People with Dyslexia do not use that part of their brain, and there appears to be no consistent part used among dyslexic readers.

It is therefore assumed that people with Dyslexia are not using the most efficient part of their brain when they read. A different part of their brain has taken over that function.

As a result of this dyslexic children often start with a lack of  phonetic awareness that impairs their ability to learn in school. Teachers assume that this phonetic awareness exists and thus the child is at a disadvantage before they even start learning.

I hope from this you can see that although dyslexic people start with a disadvantage caused by the way we are taught in school, if they manage to get past that hurdle then the tend to end up with an advantage in the long run...

posted @ Saturday, August 11, 2007 10:09 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Dyslexia ]

Service Manager Factory

I have upgraded and release some code for the managed service factory that I wrote about earlier in the year. I have started the internal documentation process and the installer will install it to the GAC so you can use it in any of your applications... More to follow.

You can download from:

http://www.rddotnet.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=6366

posted @ Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:34 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Microsoft .NET Framework Visual Studio Team System Software Factories ]

Windows Live SkyDrive Beta

I was reading Mike Tautly's post on SkyDrive so I thought I should have a look.

I found it extremely easy to use and solves the problem of my blog not supporting file uploads.

I have a link to my SkyDrive on the left of my blog and I have uploaded my first public file, my CV. I will add more files in the future...

What I would like to see on the SkyDrive is more Sharepoint style interaction so I can edit my files directly on the online drive.