Where in the world is Brandon Kelly?

I can’t believe February 2009 is already here.  Seems like only yesterday I was intently waiting on my flying car like the rest of us, and now I’m living in the future!  In case you’re not up to speed, there’s several great community events coming up – and I’ll be doing my usual code singing, beer slinging routine. February 7 – South Flo... [More]

My “Chalkboard” Visual Studio 2008 Theme

Many people around the office have taken notice of my Visual Studio 2008 theme, which I’ve affectionately called “Chalkboard”.  I put together this theme and then tweaked it over the past few months to make hours in front of Visual Studio 2008 easier on my eyes.  Here’s a screen grab. The high-contrast colors (dark background, light f... [More]

Using Help Filters in Visual Studio

Last night I was at the Tampa SQL Server User’s Group attending a good intro on VSTS Database Edition GDR presented by Catapult Systems.  After the session, one of the attendees asked me if there was any way to get rid of the SQL Server Compact Edition help from his Visual Studio help collection.  One way to do this is to use the provided... [More]

Timeout and Workflow issues when using the Deployment Manager in Dynamics CRM 4.0

I've been trying to re-deploy a CRM 4.0 installation from a client's site into our development domain so that I can work with some of the data in the system.  Using the provided CRM 4.0 Deployment Manager is pretty easy (instructions found here), but wasn't working.  The deployment manager would run for a good 30+ minutes and eventually... [More]

Windows 7 on my Dell Inspiron 6400

I first received Windows 7 at Microsoft PDC this year, but I waited until a little further down the release path (beta 1) to do my first install.  After reading several reviews (all mostly positive) online that don't hesitate mentioning Windows 7's superior performance over both VIsta and XP, I decided to take the plunge and install the new O/... [More]

Troubleshooting guide for TFS installation

Looks like the good folks in Redmond got some time to write up a much-needed troubleshooting guide for TFS server installations.  You can find the guide on MSDN using the following link: Troubleshooting installation of Team Foundation The guide goes over how to interpret the installer log files, as well as diagnosis for many common TFS errors.... [More]

Open XML Format SDK

Last August, Microsoft released the Open XML Format SDK 1.0.  This innocuous-sounding SDK is a full set of managed classes that allow developers to load and manipulate Open XML documents using a managed API.  Not to say you couldn't do this before -- using the Office InterOp assemblies, but now developers get unparalleled performance and ... [More]

10 Developer Resolutions for the New Year

I'm not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions, but I've got some bad habits (like many of us) that I'd like to break, and some new good habits that I'd like to get into. Here's my short list of changes for 2009. [More]