A mixed bag of stuff...

• Introduction to Reporting Services webcasts
• Microsoft Project solution starter for Scrum
• New Windows error reporting feature (click the title to see the video - very funny)
• Client side code syntax highlighting (dp.SyntaxHighlighter)
• Top ten blog design mistakes (Jakob Nielsen)
• E-mail your blog to your readers (Feedblitz)

A large proportion of the staff at Exony conveniently have birthdays in the same week. A meal followed. Scott has the pictures plus a big thanks to Ez for organising the evening.

I am currently trying to get my head around Javascript, AJAX and Internet Explorer but until something useful comes of it here are some links that caught my eye this week:

• You spend ages setting up an IVR system and someone goes and posts details of how to drop through to an agent
• A near perfect VB <-> C# code translator
• Vikram on a SQL Server replication bug
• Tom, another Exony employee, has started blogging (Tom, where is your feed icon?)

Actually, Tom knows all about the finer points of Javascript so hopefully some useful entries from him will point the way.

Also, it's my birthday next week and just in case anyone reading from my family doesn't know what to get me then a white iPod nano would be very much appreciated. If that is beyond your budget then some DVD's I haven't got are:

[Edit: Added Donnie Darko for Laura.]

[Edit: I now have Star Wars and have seen Hitchhikers and Batman so won't need them.]

If you are having problems installing the CTP with a complaint about "beta components detected", first try the Build Uninstall Wizard located on the tools CD. However if that fails to do anything then try installing the .NET framework directly (it's located in the redist\2.0 folder on the server CD) as the error message is much more explicit and should tell you what components you have forgotten to remove.

If you enjoyed the previous movie of Foamy's tech support call then a new one has just been released - Tech Support II (Foamy talks 24/7 Tech Support).

This blog has been lacking in technical content recently because we are in the "End Game" part of our project and consequently I don't want to jump the gun and talk about something thats not released yet.

This post is a head's up notification that sometime in the next month or so we should be baked enough to start talking. Hopefully I'll then be able to tell you how we pushed Reporting Services beyond it's basic feature set and indeed include features they still haven't got right in the 2005 version.

In the meantime why not sit back, relax and listen to some funky soulful house at Full House Radio.

Now playing: Full House Radio - Live Streaming

I've just got back from a very relaxing week on a farm in Cornwall with friends and am not looking forward to returning to work. I guess it has to happen though... Anyways, I have a large number of photos from the week but as yet no captions.

In addition my camera also takes pretty good web-sized movies so here are a couple of my favourites:

• Cally and Angus showing off one lunchtime
• Angus attempts to blow bubblegum

I just got my latest geek toy this morning... A USB phono/line in adapter for my laptop so I can record direct from a mixer.

To celebrate I had to record something so here is the first mix. It's what I would call lunchtime house - nothing too demanding on the ear. There are a couple of dodgy mixes in the middle that come from trying to mess around too much. Future ones will be more professional, I promise. Tracklisting is as follows:

1. Choo Choo Project - Hazin' + Phazin' (Vocal and Original Mixes)
2. Missy Elliott - Lose Control (Jacques lu Cont dub)
3. Mylo - Drop the Pressure (Club Mix)
4. DJ Gregory - Elle (Copyright Re-edit)
5. Kathy Brown - Never Again (Classic Mix)
6. Milk & Sugar - Let the Sun Shine (Vocal Club Mix)
7. The Knowledge - As (Until the Day) (Solar Mix)
8. Daddy's Favourite - I Feel Good Things for You (Original Mix)
9. David Morales presents The Face - Needin' U (Original Mistake)
10. Audiobullys featuring Nancy Sinatra - Shot You Down (Bang Bang)

Now playing: James Snape - Mix 1

If you live in the UK and need some more memory for your computer then you can't do better than this item that I'm selling on E-Bay. It's brand new and unopened, I just made the mistake of buying it before checking that my motherboard could handle it. It's just about the fastest memory you can buy, specifications are as follows:

• 1GB (2x512 matched pair)
• OCZ Dual Channel EL DDR PC-3200 / Platinum / Revision 2
• 400MHz DDR
• CL 2-2-2-5
• Unbuffered 
• Mirrored Platinum Copper Heatspreader 
• Manufacturers Lifetime Warranty
• 2.75 Volts 
• 184 Pin DIMM

The auction ends on 12th September 2005 10:00 am BST and the full URL for the item is:

• http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6798412786

I have some pictures of Ryan and I DJ'ing at TJ's party. Koan also managed to take a few but none of me playing - was my music that bad?

This animation pretty much sums up a recent conversation I had with the tech support of a well known webcam manufacturer. Warning, it contains extreme language (think Southpark) so don't watch it if you are easily offended.

• http://uploads.ungrounded.net/192000/192820_tech.swf

To that manufacturer: come and talk to Exony and we'll show you how to optimise your calls and avoid annoying your customers with stupid requests.

Whilst browsing the latest FireFox extensions this morning I found one for http://www.stumbleupon.com/. It adds a button to your toolbar which surfs to a random page on the Internet as recommended by someone else. This is a prefect compliment to Google and I've just spent an hour or so clicking the "Stumble" button.

Along the way I found some pictures that made me laugh out loud which doesn't happen often when I'm alone. I've added them to a gallery too but here they are: