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Showing posts from April, 2014

Travels on the Source Control Highway

Update 10/2016 - This posting is better viewed in my new blog . Whether you love your source control system or it drives you completely mad there's no denying it's one of the most important tools you have as a software developer. Over the years I've used several source control software packages, even going so far as to dabble with writing one of my own. They've all had their pluses and minus but I've finally arrived at one I'm satisfied with. My source control software experience began when I took my first job as a software developer in 1999. That system was PVCS Version Manager. I don't remember exactly what version of PVCS we used then but my first impressions were not positive. It was written in Java and the UI was horrific. Every task was painful and files would sporadically appear locked forcing the need to contact the administrator (which eventually became me). In short, I hated it. Our company eventually moved to a newer version of PVCS which im

Microsoft Build 2014 (#bldwin)

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Pre-Build I left home for Build 2014 on the morning of April Fool's Day after only a couple hours of sleep. I arrived at PDX around 09:00 with my flight to San Francisco scheduled to leave at 11:40. I got through security and settled in at the gate ready to read wile away the remaining time. Around 10:30 they announced my flight was delayed until 12:50. About an hour later they announced the flight had been delayed until 14:10. We finally stared boarding at around 14:30. I kept waiting for someone to say "April Fools" but no such luck. Not a great start to my trip. The flight was uneventfully except for the final descent into San Francisco where we encountered quite a lot of turbulence passing through the lowest clouds. I got off the plane and went outside to catch my shuttle into town. It'd been years since I'd last been to San Francisco but this time my first thought was "this is just like home". The temperature was somewhere around 50-60 degrees